Author: Trafficblast

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.

Ahead of Fortnite Season 11, which kicks off in just a few days, developer Epic Games is tweaking the way matchmaking works in the hit battle royale game–although not all of these changes have been warmly received. In particular, many in the community have expressed concerns over the fact the game now pairs players from different platforms together, potentially giving those on certain platforms an advantage.

In a new post on the official Fortnite website, Epic addresses these concerns, although it appears the developer is holding firm on its changes. “With the rollout, we’ve seen a lot of discussion about potentially unfair competitive advantages from pooling players together across platforms and input devices,” Epic wrote. “The new matchmaking system, however, accounts for various skill levels across different platforms and control inputs, and groups players of similar skill levels together.”

The developer continues: “Our goal with the new matchmaking system is to create fairer matches for all of our players, which includes special considerations for each platform. This means that where similar skill exists, players may be paired against opponents from ALL platforms–whether they’re using mouse + keyboard, a controller, or touch input. We are closely monitoring match analytics and your feedback, and we’ll make adjustments to ensure everyone is playing a fair match.”

As part of these matchmaking changes, Epic is also introducing AI bots to the mix beginning in Season 11. According to the studio, these will “behave similarly to normal players” and are intended to help players hone their skills. The better players become, the fewer bots will appear in a match, Epic says.

Season 10 of Fortnite is being extended an extra week; the season will now end on October 13, with a set of Overtime challenges slated to go live on October 8. In the meantime, you can still complete any of other other weekly challenges from this season. If you need help finishing up any outstanding missions, you can find all of our maps and guides in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges roundup.

The latest game from developer Quantic Dream is a big success. Detroit: Become Human, which was originally released in May 2018, has now passed 3 million copies sold. Quantic Dream announced on Twitter that the game has hit 3.2 million copies on PS4 globally.

This is just the latest sales milestone for Detroit. In December 2019, publisher Sony announced that the game had reached 2 million copies sold.

Sales of Detroit are expected to continue to grow, as the game is scheduled to launch on PC later this year. The game is releasing as a timed-exclusive for the Epic Games Store.

Quantic Dream worked with Sony for a long time on its big games, including Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit, but the company is going multi-platform for its next release. Heavy Rain was released on PC in June, while Beyond: Two Souls came out for PC in July. Like Detroit, both titles are exclusive to the Epic Games Store through a timed-exclusivity deal between Epic and Quantic.

Detroit tells the story of three androids living in the future and grappling with their sentience. In this future, androids are deeply life-like and interwoven with society, and the game overall was generally well-received. For more, check out GameSpot’s Detroit review.

Since Monday, I’ve spent 24 full hours belly-crawling my way across Auroa – the fictional island-chain setting of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on Xbox One X, most of it with a co-op partner by my side. I can confirm that, during nearly all of that time, I have been having fun with Ubisoft’s latest tale of Ghosts and grunts – though I’ve had to stop and ask myself that question and really think about it a couple of times. Part of the lack of undeniably fun moments is due to the fact that I feel like I’ve played this game already, several times over.

Breakpoint is exactly what I’ve come to expect from a Ubisoft open-world game: lots of progression systems that reward your every move; a big and beautiful open world to run, drive or fly across; and a few dozen outpost bases littered with bad dudes you can takedown in a number of ways. That’s a good thing in that Ubisoft’s open-world formula is so often used because it works well – it’s a good time if you like overlapping progression, constant reinforcement, and collectibles – but also that it feels a bit too familiar and is hard to get excited about. In this particular case, it’s also littered with bugs, glitches, and weird design choices that can halt its momentum right when it seems like it’s going to start picking up speed.

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Ahead of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint’s launch on October 4, Ubisoft has addressed its philosophy towards microtransactions and why it chose to remove some Time-Savers items that weren’t supposed to be available quite yet.

As reported by USGamer.net, Ubisoft took to its forums to discuss in-game purchasable content and how it “aimed at offering a fair and rewarding experience to our players however they want to experience our game, in solo, co-op, PvE or PvP.”

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Shortly after the launch of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie released the next trailer showcasing the next raid known as the Garden of Salvation. Bringing players back Destiny 1‘s Black Garden, which closed out the main story of the game, the Vex stronghold that’s between the realms of time and space is home to a new threat that the Guardians will need to take out. This time, Guardians will be bringing with them a full fireteam to face the new menace within.

During the brief glimpse of the raid in the trailer, the enigmatic Guardian Eris Morn offers warnings for the major threat within the Black Garden. Just like in the original game, the Black Garden will focus primarily on the Vex faction, the machine race intent on rewriting history. However, the returning force known as The Darkness will also have a role to play, which was referenced throughout Shadowkeep. Just as with previous raids, your fireteam will encounter several obstacles focusing on combat engagements, puzzles, and even some involved platforming sections.

The raid is expected to go live on October 5, 10 AM PST, and as is tradition, players are currently grinding out loot to acquire more strength for the raid. To participate, you and your fireteam will need to be at least 890 Power. During that launch window, players will go through the new raid blind, and they’ll have to figure out what to do with their comrades. Just like previous launches for Destiny raids, Bungie devs will monitor the various attempts at the raid.

Groups that can finish within the first 24 hours will get a special emblem, others who finish before October 15 will get to purchase a special raid jacket, and of course, the first clan to finish the raid will get all previously mentioned prizes and also a coveted World’s First championship belt. Other Unlike previous raids, Bungie will introduce a limited time modifier for first-time raiders, which will cap Power at 920. This will ensure players aren’t overpowered for the raid. Also, the exotic weapon Jotunn has been banned from the raid for 24 hours, as it’s been proven highly effective against enemies and bosses.

Garden of Salvation Raid Start Time

• 10 AM PST
• 7 AM EST
• 11 AM GMT
• 9PM AET

There’s plenty of new loot to acquire in the raid, but in order to participate, you’ll need to finish the campaign and its following missions, along with getting up to 890 Power. If you’re looking for more info on how to get raid-ready, check out our various guides and features highlighting tips and other details about the important things of note.