The Writers Guild of America–the union that represents writers across movies, TV, and video games–has scrapped its video game category for the next edition of the show. WGA has honored video game writing since 2008, so this is a big change–and developers are sounding off about it.

A spokesperson for WGA told The Hollywood Reporter that it will not hand out a Video Game Writing Award in 2020 due to a lack of WGA-covered games. The category may return in the future if the number of video games covered by the WGA reaches a “critical mass,” the group said.

A bigger number of WGA-covered games will lead to a “meaningful award selection process,” WGA said. The five nominees for the Video Game Writing Award for 2018 included Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Batman: The Enemy Within, Episode 5- Same Stitch, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Sony’s God of War ultimately won the award.

Some of the previous winners included Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Last of Us: Left Behind.

To be nominated, a game must feature on-screen writing credits, while credited writers must have already been or applied for membership in the WGA Video Game Writers Caucus. This incurs a $100 fee. WGA said in the past that it also considered games that were not developed “under WGA jurisdiction,” though the new statement specifically called out a lack of WGA-covered titles as one of the reasons the award category is going away.

While the WGA has abandoned its video game writing award, other prestigious awards shows, including BAFTA, still honor video games in multiple categories.

The reaction to this news from video game writers and developers came swiftly and passionately. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, who has won multiple WGA Video Game Writing Awards in the past, said on Twitter that he is “very disappointed” by the WGA’s decision to remove the category.

“A misguided slap in the face for writers in games,” he said.

You can see some of the other responses below, including messages from Patrick Weekes (BioWare), Josh Scherr (Naughty Dog), Chet Faliszek (Portal, Half-Life), and others.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-games-writing-award-canceled-uncharted-dev-c/1100-6470330/

As with every new big content drop for Destiny 2, Shadowkeep has its share of special new Exotic weapons to chase down. So far, the toughest to get and most interesting is the Deathbringer rocket launcher, which requires you to wreck a whole bunch of Hive enemies in order to get it. The Exotic also handles differently from most rocket launchers; it’s a gun you use indirectly, shooting over your targets for the best effect.

The lengthy quest to unlock Deathbringer will take you all over the moon to unlock it, and has some pretty significant grind attached. The good news is, it’s possible to knock out the quest relatively quickly if you know where to go, what to do, and which enemies to concentrate on for the fastest progress. We’ve got a complete list of all the steps below, plus all the tips you’ll need to get Deathbringer quickly and relatively painlessly.

Complete The Story Campaign

Before you can go after Deathbringer, you need to finish up Shadowkeep’s campaign. When you finish the mission called Beyond, head back to Eris Morn on the moon and speak with her. She’ll give you a new quest: Memory of Sai Mota. It’s not a gold Exotic quest, but it’ll put you on the path to getting what you need for Deathbringer. Grab the Lunar Spelunker bounty from Eris, which you’ll need to complete in order to advance the quest.

Clear Out The Lost Sectors

The Memory of Sai Mota quest will send you through all four of the moon’s Lost Sector locations. You’ll need to do three for the first part of the quest: K1 Crew Quarters, K1 Logistics, and K1 Communion. Those are the three southernmost Lost Sectors–the last is in Sorrow’s Harbor, so don’t worry about that one yet.

The Lost Sectors are pretty straightforward, but you’ll need to raise your Power level to a pretty decent height before you can handle them. The story campaign should bring you high enough to handle them, but you’ll want to be at least around 840 before getting started.

Explore K1 Revelation

Once you’ve handled all three Lost Sectors, you’ll get a Firewall Data Fragment item for completing the Lunar Spelunker bounty. Complete the K1 Revelation Lost Sector by clearing out all the Revenant Wizards and destroying the crystals they protect, then finishing off the Nightmare Ogre at the end of the area. Once you’ve done that, climb up into the tunnel on the right side of the arena, where you’ll find a door you can use the Firewall Data Fragment to enter. Activate the console inside to advance the quest, which now requires you find pieces of Sai Mota’s Necklace.

Get The Necklace Pieces

This part’s mostly easy. Head to Sorrow’s Harbor and kill Nightmares there–or jump into a Nightmare Hunt. Either way, you need to use Arc abilities to clear 10 Nightmares (it doesn’t matter how strong they are), with each one dropping two pieces of the necklace. Once you have 20, return to Eris, who’s now waiting inside the portal, to complete the Memory quest and unlock the Exotic quest for Deathbringer.

Head To The Circle Of Bones

You’ll next be prompted to “Explore the Circle of Bones,” where you’ll find a mission that will start the Deathbringer quest proper. To reach the spot, transmat into Sorrow’s Harbor and head south to the Hellmouth. Go toward the opening into the Hive temple and descend downward. Keep going through the Gatehouse area and beyond until you hit a much larger, wide-open area–the Circle of Bones. From here you can find the mission flag that will send you descending further into the Hellmouth. Head toward the Summoning Pits and kill the boss there to get a new item: the Silent Skull. You’ll need it to create Deathbringer.

Gather The Bones

With the mission complete, your next job is to zip around the moon completing a few activities. Two are pretty straightforward: Head to the Hellmouth area and complete a Public Event to get your first bone fragment. For the second, you’ll need to complete the K1 Revelation Lost Sector again, located in Sorrow’s Harbour. They should be easy to handle at this point.

Your last item on the list might require a bit of searching and waiting. From Eris’s transmat location, jump on your Sparrow and head to the right toward Anchor of Light. When you get there, hang out a bit until you see an elite, yellow-bar enemy called the Bone Collector. This is a Hive Acolyte who will wander through the area like a high-value target, and when it spawns in, you’ll see a notification in the bottom-left corner of your screen. He’s usually right out in the middle of things near the big dome building and spawns pretty regularly. Kill him to complete the quest step.

Back To The Scarlet Keep

Next, you’ll need to return to the Scarlet Keep Strike. Load into it from the Director’s moon map and run it as normal. You’re looking for a Hive Wizard called the High Conductor–look for it during the elevator portion when you’re ascending the tower of the Scarlet Keep. The High Conductor shows up on the second floor of the area among the other wizards, and is easy enough to deal with in the regular course of fighting enemies. Once the wizard is dead, you can complete the Strike as normal or head back to orbit–either way, you have your next step.

Another Grind In Sorrow’s Harbor

You’re almost done. In order to charge the skull, you have to gather the screams of your enemies. The step basically just means you have to kill a whole bunch of enemies: around 200 minor enemies, roughly 50 elites, and 10 bosses. That sounds like a lot, but this step goes pretty quickly if you know where to go for the best results.

The short answer is Sorrow’s Harbor. Turns out, the Nightmare Ogres that spawn regularly in Sorrow’s Harbor all count as bosses, which makes what would be the toughest step on the list into one of the easiest. The smaller Nightmares that spawn with the ogres are also very useful–they count as elites, which will give you progress on the middle bar. And of course, any random regular enemies around are good to kill too.

Once you’ve killed the bosses, you’ll probably have made some decent progress on the other two bars, but Sorrow’s Harbor isn’t really the best place to kill a bunch of minor enemies. You can make solid progress on both the other two requirements in either the Scarlet Keep Strike or in the K1 Revelation Lost Sector. The Strike might be the better way to go, since it seems that enemies killed by teammates also count toward your progress. In fact, if you have other activities to complete to earn Powerful gear, this is a good time to do some of it to double-count your progress–although you’ll move faster if you kill enemies on the moon. We found one run of Scarlet Keep and one run through K1 Revelation completed the requirement for killing minor enemies and nearly completed the elites requirement. To shore up the last of the latter, we went back to Sorrow’s Harbor and quickly mopped up a few more Nightmares.

With that out of the way, you’re down to one last mission, located, once again, in the Circle of Bones.

Go Kill Some Deathsingers

Drive back to the Hellmouth and dive down to the Circle of Bones to find another mission flag for “Choir of the Damned.” Your job now is to turn the deadly song of Hive Deathsingers into a gun. Follow the markers down into the Catacombs, which you’ll remember from the story campaign when you found the Cryptoglyph. This is a 920 Power level mission, so you might want to recruit a friend or two as backup. The good news is, despite the numbers attached, this is actually a pretty easy mission. The toughest part is quickly dealing with the Deathsingers without getting overwhelmed by enemies.

As you head into the Catacombs, you’ll start to see glowing green energy appearing around the edges of your screen. That’s the Deathsong–you’ll also notice a timer ticking down when that happens. Once the Deathsong starts, you only have a minute to kill the Deathsinger using the spell, or you’ll be wiped. These are Hive Wizards and they get objective markers, so they’re easy to find. They’ll also stop singing if you break their shields or stagger them, so the situation isn’t quite as dire as it seems.

The tough part about reaching and killing each Deathsinger is the big group of enemies you’ll have to fight through to get there. But in most cases, as it turns out, you can sprint past most of the baddies and just drop the Deathsinger, then advance to the next area when the door beyond each one opens.

You’ll kill three Deathsingers before you reach the boss at the end of the mission. The situation hasn’t changed, except now you’ll have more enemies to deal with, including a couple of ogres. The boss Deathsinger will also try to fly away from you mid-battle and start a Deathsong–but again, doing some damage will stop it, so you don’t really need to worry about it much.

With the boss dead, you’re all done. Return to Eris and she’ll give you your prize: the Deathbringer rocket launcher. It’s a little different from the other launchers you’re used to, firing shells that explode into void orbs that seek enemies. The orbs become more powerful the farther they fall through the air, and you can remotely detonate your Deathbringer shells by letting go of the fire button–so the best way to use the rocket launcher is more like a mortar. Fire it above your target, then release the fire button to remotely detonate the shell and drop void orbs on it.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-shadowkeep-deathbringer-exotic-quest-how/1100-6470329/

At the start of Season 3: Meltdown, Tae Joon “Crypto” Park was added to Apex Legends as the eleventh playable character. Like Season 1’s Octane and Season 2’s Wattson, you’ll need to drop 750 Apex Coins or 12,000 Legend Tokens to unlock him.

In the following guide, we detail all of Crypto’s unique abilities and how to best use them to counter other characters or shore up holes in your own squad’s defenses. If Season 3 is your introduction to Apex Legends, don’t worry–the new character, map, and gameplay changes make the battle royale very welcoming to newcomers. Below, you’ll find the rest of our character guides, giving you all the information you need to get started with the Legend of your choice.

Other Character Guides

• Wraith Guide: Be The Best Interdimensional Skirmisher
• Caustic Guide: Be The Best Toxic Trapper
• Gibraltar Guide: Be The Best Shielded Fortress
• Lifeline Guide: Be The Best Combat Medic
• Mirage Guide: Be The Best Holographic Trickster
• Pathfinder Guide: Be The Best Forward Scout
• Bangalore Guide: Be The Best Professional Soldier
• Bloodhound Guide: Be The Best Technological Tracker
• Octane Guide: Be The Best Adrenaline Junkie
• Wattson Guide: Be The Best Static Defender

Crypto’s General Overview

Crypto is Apex Legends’ second recon character. In this regard, his role on the battlefield is similar to Bloodhound: hunt down and identify enemies. However, unlike Bloodhound, who’s an aggressive tracker that seeks out squads to kill, Crypto places less emphasis on being on the frontline, as he’s better suited at finding enemies while remaining hidden.

Rarely does Crypto excel at spearheading his squad’s offensive. If you want to play as Crypto, you’re typically going to fulfill a support role, aiding your teammates in increasing their kill counts. Unlike most of the other Legends, Crypto does not possess an ability that allows him to easily escape a fight. As such, you need to ensure firefights are already stacked in your squad’s favor before you engage. Once you emerge from hiding and join the fray, you have to commit.

Crypto’s Abilities

Tactical Ability: Surveillance Drone – Deploy an aerial drone that allows you to view the surrounding area from above.

Crypto’s drone has a variety of uses. It can open and close doors, crack open loot bins, and retrieve fallen teammate’s respawn beacons. Point the drone’s camera at any of the Champion Squad banners throughout the arena and it will show you how many squads are in your immediate vicinity. Crypto can only summon one drone at a time, but he’s got an unlimited supply. Once the drone is destroyed, however, there’s a 40-second cooldown before he can summon another one.

Passive Ability: Neurolink – Enemies detected by the Surveillance Drone within 30 meters of your position are marked for you and your teammates to see.

Though you can tag enemies with your drone, marking them with Neurolink is what best helps your squad. Doing so highlights the enemy for your entire team, allowing allies to see targets through walls or smoke.

Ultimate Ability: Drone EMP – Your Surveillance Drone sets off an EMP blast that deals shield damage, slows enemies, and disables traps.

Crypto’s ultimate ability does 50 shield damage–outright destroying white body armor–and slows all enemies with an effect similar to Wattson’s Perimeter Security fences. Like other Legends, Crypto is affected by his own ultimate ability, so make sure you’re not in the blast zone when you activate the Drone EMP. The EMP blast is not limited by terrain, allowing you to use the attack as a bunker buster to hit a team hiding in a building.

Tips To Play As Crypto

Crypto is the only Legend to have his passive and ultimate ability tied to his tactical. This limits what you can do with him–every ability has to be done through your drone. Thus, mastering how to maneuver the drone to dodge enemy shots or weave among obstacles should be your first priority. Once your drone is destroyed you have to wait almost a full minute to use it again, and you won’t have access to any abilities until then. Keep your drone alive, only sacrificing it as a means to distract foes so your squad can retreat.

Though his abilities would suggest a long-range approach, Crypto is actually at his best in mid-range combat. Equipping a mid-range scope on the G7-Scout, R-301, Peacekeeper, or new Charge Rifle gives Crypto the ability to deal damage quickly from a slight distance. When a battle starts, you’re best bet is to find cover and send your drone skyward. Be careful, as Crypto can’t move while using his drone. Put your drone behind the attacking squad so they’re sandwiched between it and you. That way, if they want to destroy it, they’ll have to turn their back on you. Exit the drone, leave your hiding spot, and begin your attack. Even if the enemy hides behind cover, you and your squad will still be able to see them thanks to Neurolink. As you continue to shoot the opposition, your squadmates should rush to overwhelm the enemy.

If Drone EMP is ready to go, all the better. Follow the strategy above but use the ability as you’re exiting drone view and beginning your assault. The enemy team will then have to turn their backs on you to shoot down the drone and stop the EMP, or they’ll have to respond to your attack and take shield damage and be too stunned to run away. Either way, the odds will turn in your favor. You may want to save your EMP if the match is almost over, though. Given its ability to disable traps, Crypto can ruin an entire team’s defense in the final circle–disabling Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps and Wattson’s Perimeter Security and Interception Pylon. Plus the enemy team will take shield damage and be stunned.

When your allies are down, let your drone do the heavy lifting for you–especially if your teammate’s banner is outside the safe zone. The drone takes no damage from being outside the zone, allowing you to safely pick up your teammate’s respawn banner.

How To Mitigate Crypto’s Weaknesses

Because of how dependent Crypto is on his drone, his main weakness is actually just going up against someone who’s a good shot. The drone has one HP, so any attack from any gun, grenade, or ability will destroy it. You can’t really be sneaky with the drone either. Not only does it make a ton of noise, but enemies are alerted to when Neurolink has marked them. However, there are a few things you can do to hide your drone and make it more difficult to destroy.

Bangalore, Caustic, Lifeline, and Gibraltar can all hide the drone with their abilities. Bangalore’s Smoke Launcher and Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps create a smokescreen that hides the drone if you’re in an enclosed space, and positioning your drone behind a Lifeline’s Combat Medic shield gives you just enough time to mark enemies before the forcefield goes down. Even after the drone has been destroyed, Neurolink lasts a few seconds, giving you time to emerge from cover and fire on the enemy. Gibraltar’s Dome Shield provides a longer solution of the same strategy.

The Legend that best counters Crypto is Bloodhound, as the technological tracker can sniff out the hacker’s hiding spot while he’s piloting the drone and unaware of his surroundings. There’s no way to directly counter this yourself. You’ll just have to trust your team to watch your back. If you don’t, we suggest exiting your drone view the second you spot a Bloodhound, unless you’re very confident that you’ll get the drop on them before they get the drop on you.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-crypto-guide-tips-for-season-3s-new-c/1100-6470325/

There is, to put it mildly, a lot of new stuff going on in Destiny 2. The launch of Shadowkeep and Season of the Undying has brought a significant amount of changes and new content. As you advance through the season pass’s premium rewards, you’ll earn a new type of currency called Vex Mind Components. Ikora is said to accept them, but visiting her at the Tower doesn’t offer any option to trade them in. Here’s what we know about these new items so far.

Provided you’ve purchased Shadowkeep (and thus have access to the Season of the Undying’s premium track of battle pass rewards), reaching season rank 12 will earn you 25 Vex Mind Components. These are stored in the Consumables area of your inventory, and they’ll have to sit there for the time being. The description states, “Rare synthoneural components, essential in Vex Gate Network communication and navigation. Offer this to Ikora in exchange for Vex weapon artifacts.”

Chatting with Ikora will yield a familiar sight: She doesn’t have anything in her inventory. But that’s likely to change this coming Saturday, October 5, when the major event of Season of the Undying–the Vex Offensive–begins. (The new raid, Garden of Salvation, also launches that day.)

Once the Vex Offensive begins, you’ll presumably be able to hand in the Vex Mind Components as part of the new activity. We don’t know all the details at this point, but we’ll report back with details on exactly what these items get you and how it all works. Presumably you’ll be able to earn Vex Mind Components in other ways, but you’ll earn more as you work your way up the premium battle pass: It rewards you with 25 components at ranks 12, 32, 52, 72, and 92.

In the meantime, you can scope out some of the spots on the moon where the new activity may take place. In several areas around the map, you can see a diamond icon with a Vex symbol inside of it. These are designated warpgate hot spots known as Vex Invasion Zones, and the description states, “Sol Divisive Vex incursions are targeting this area and could strike at any time. Guardians are advised to remain on high alert while attempting to travel to or through this location.”

While we wait for this to begin, there’s plenty to do in the meantime once you finish Shadowkeep’s relatively short campaign. That includes tracking down dead Ghosts and completing Essence quests.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-what-are-vex-mind-components-in-shadowke/1100-6470321/