Destiny 2 players have begun donning gold armor and gear in the game as part of an effort to raise awareness for childhood cancer. After a social media post detailed how a father lost his child to a form of pediatric cancer known as Ewings Sarcoma, the message began to slowly gather steam and eventually gained attention across a number of platforms.

“May 2, 2022 my family and I lost my oldest to Ewings Sarcoma, an aggressive Pediatric Cancer,” reads the original post from Shawn Patrick Lafferty on the Dadstiny page. “The September before losing her, was the first time I started asking those of you who would, to go gold for the month of September as its Childhood Cancer Awareness month and Gold is the color associated with it.”

In the Destiny Fashion subreddit, players began suggesting gold shader recommendations and offering support for Lafferty and his initiative. Big names in the Destiny 2 scene such as Datto have joined the initiative, and if you’re looking to take part, there are over a dozen shaders that you can use to change up the look and colors of your Guardian. You can usually find shaders by opening chests in patrol zones, earning ranks on the season pass, or from Bright Engrams that are periodically awarded to players.

For the Gold Guardian initiative, you can use these shaders to make your Guardian look shiny:

Golden EmpireGold LeafGolden TraceKairos GoldMidnight TalonsOmnichroniaPeat Bog BoogiePrecursor Vex ChromeShadow GiltTestudoVintage Timber

If you already have these particular shaders, they can also apply some gold to your Guardian but for newcomers these particular pieces of armor customization are no longer available:

Calus TreasuredCalus’ ShadowDawning WelcomeIron GoldVerdant Crown

This isn’t the first time that Destiny 2 has been home to a charitable cause, as Bungie previously immortalized a fan’s beloved pet Artemis in the game through an emote called “Loyal Companion,” which showcases the player’s Guardian petting a companion dog. Elsewhere in Destiny 2, Season of Plunder is headed into its third week. You can read up on the pirate puns introduced in this season, PvP upgrades coming soon, and try out a Titan build that will leave other players feeling thunderstruck.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it’s story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what’s going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what’s drawing our attention across the solar system.

Season of Plunder isn’t the first time Bungie has brought some swashbuckling into Destiny 2, and true to form, the pirate-themed season has its hull filled with pirate-themed puns. In the season’s first mission, you recruit a pirate crew from the Forsaken expansion’s crime lord quest-giver, the Spider, who you can call on in missions to help you face the Pirate Lords you’re tasked with sending to Davy Jones’s Interstellar Locker throughout the season.

Early in the season, though, there was something about these alien pirates I couldn’t stop puzzling over, and it turned out to be more irritating than a peg leg covered in splinters. It was my crew’s names, each clearly a riff on some privateer parlance. Each of the pirates you recruit is an Eliksni character, an alien race whose members tend to have names that end with sounds like “siks” or “raaks”. Thus, the crew who joins you on your missions consists of the venerable space sailors Flotsiks, Jetsiks, Ransiks, and Halsiks.

The jokes behind some of these names are pretty obvious. Flotsiks and Jetsiks are a play on the term “flotsam and jetsam,” a ship’s booty lost overboard at sea. My immediate assumption for Ransiks was that it was a play on “ransacks,” although others I consulted suggested “ransom” would keep better with the pattern established by flotsam and jetsam. Both are unwholesome activities buccaneers were known to engage in. It all makes sense.

Halsiks is particularly good with a wire rifle, sniping enemy crews to help your boarding actions.

But then we come to Halsiks, and…nothing. I wracked my brain and consulted pirate-minded friends who spend a lot of their time reading history and/or playing Sea of Thieves, but nothing bobbed to the surface. I checked dictionaries for words starting with “hal,” but there, too, I ran aground. I felt mired in fog as I struggled to solve Bungie’s riddle of the infamous Halsiks.

Finally, I’d had enough. During a recent interview with Destiny 2 director Joe Blackburn and general manager Dan McAuliffe, I seized the opportunity to wrest the answer straight from the source. Joe and Bungie communications director Carlos Ascencio were, unfortunately, just as adrift as I was. They pledged to rally the Destiny 2 writing team and return with the solution to my vexation. In the meantime, we discussed the Lightfall expansion’s tone and mood, and its many venerable inspirations.

Later, a message arrived in the electronic post; Carlos had spoken with Destiny 2’s writers. He knew the truth of Halsiks’ identity.

As it turns out, Halsiks was tough to figure out because the name wasn’t a reference to some seafaring turn of the tongue; it’s a reference to an actual pirate. Halsiks is a play on Halsey, the surname of privateer John Halsey. Bungie’s writers described Halsey as a “good guy pirate” who operated as a privateer during the War of Spanish Succession in the early 1700s.

If you’re not familiar, privateers were pirates who worked for the government–in Halsey’s case, he received what’s called a “Letter of Marque” authorizing him to raid Spanish ships on behalf of the British empire. A lot of famous pirates during this time started the same way, engaging in legal piracy in the Atlantic as part of their governments’ war efforts. And, like many pirates, when Halsey’s letter of marque expired in 1705, it didn’t mean he gave up the life of raiding ships and stealing their cargo. Instead, he continued a life of piracy without the legal sanction. Halsey spent the next few years pirating near Madagascar and in the Indian Ocean, before he died in 1708 after his flotilla was ravaged by a hurricane and he succumbed to a fever.

Like the privateer John Halsey, you too will board enemy ships and steel their booty.

In the 1728 book “A General History of the Pyrates,” author Captain Charles Johnson wrote this of Halsey:

“He was brave in his Person, courteous to all his Prisoners, lived beloved, and died regretted by his own People. His Grave was made in a garden of watermelons, and fenced in with Palisades to prevent his being rooted up by wild Hogs.”

Nice guy, apparently, for a brigand, making him a good candidate for Bungie to draw from when naming its crew. The studio also confirmed another aspect of the riddle: Ransiks is, in fact, meant to be a play on “ransacks,” though Carlos said the writing team also liked the alternative interpretation of “ransom.” And personally, I think we should go with ransom for Ransiks–there is a boss players face during the Ketchcrash missions called Ransaaks, and that’s just a better take on the pun.

These are by no means the only pirate puns in Season of Plunder, although none are nearly as much of a mystery as Halsiks. Along with Ransaaks, there are the Ketchcrash bosses Aye-I (not Aye-1, but Aye-“i”) and Skiffiks, and in addition to Halsiks, you can recruit a servitor called SCUR-V to your crew, along with a handful of melee fighters known as Skiffblades. Halsiks stands apart, however–it seems to be the only name specifically referencing a real pirate, which raises the question of whether Halsiks might have a larger part to play this season than just helping snipe people on the bow of a ketch during our boarding actions.

Though it wasn’t that lengthy a voyage, the adventure of uncovering the truth behind Halsiks, and the brigand flavor of Season of Plunder overall, has me seeking out more pirate history to uncover, specifically about John Halsey. I’m also hoping we’ll find more pirate puns than just those we’ve seen so far throughout the season. Halsiks, Flotsiks, Jetsiks, and Ransiks are pretty fun, but honestly, none is quite so good as Destiny 2’s ultimate pirate pun. It’s one that didn’t appear in Season of Plunder, but much earlier–back in the Goonies-inspired, buried treasure-themed Grasp of Avarice dungeon.

Between Season of Plunder and Grasp of Avarice, players have received a king’s bounty of Destiny 2 pirate puns.

Like the other puns, this one was the name of a Fallen enemy, an unassuming but annoyingly accurate sniper shank who distressed many a treasure-seeker as they neared the X on the map. I’m talking, of course, about R-M80. Read it out loud.

As we’re looking toward the horizon of the rest of Season of Plunder, the Destiny 2 GameSpot crew is also turning our eyes to the past. September marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Destiny 2, and that’s got us thinking about all the ways the game has changed, evolved, and grown over the years. Stay tuned for plenty of content aimed at Destiny 2’s anniversary and the voyage we’ve all taken with it during the past five years.

In the meantime, feel free to drop your best pirate puns in the comments, speculate on the future story of Season of Plunder, rant or rave about King’s Fall, or leave interesting facts about John Halsey and any other buccaneers who capture your fancy.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

The Walking Dead comic series is no stranger to adaptation. The franchise has successfully made the jump to TV shows, plenty of solid console, PC, and VR video games, and probably even a cereal. Walking Dead has already had a handful of mobile game adaptations, as well, but All-Stars is the zombie franchise’s first step into the popular mobile genre of character collecting, and focuses on the larger legacy of the comic book.

We spoke with developer Funflow’s CEO, KyungHyun Son, over e-mail about The Walking Dead: All-Stars, how it looks to the original comic book for inspiration, and how exactly it fits into the larger Walking Dead mythos.

What genre of mobile game is The Walking Dead: All-Stars?

The Walking Dead: All-Stars is a collection RPG. We decided to go with this genre because we wanted to try taking on a new type of challenge. When you think of games based on the zombie apocalypse, you typically picture gameplay that’s defense, hack and slash, or village-building in nature. However, the problem is that too many of those types of games already exist in the market.

Even among zombie-based IPs, The Walking Dead is a franchise that excels in portraying “person versus person” instead of “person versus zombie.” I believe it’s not simply trying to convey that people are scarier than zombies, but that people and communities need to cooperate to survive. That’s why we chose to create a collection RPG, to drive the point home of survivors working together.

Is the larger story canon to the comics?

Since we managed to secure the license for the original comics, the story uses it as a foundation. Many fans recognize The Walking Dead from the TV series, but the realism in it is so well done that it was difficult for us to turn it into a game. On the other hand, we thought the comic series would give us a lot of freedom to incorporate new ideas, which is why we ultimately decided to base our development on the comics.

The website showcases seven familiar characters. Will there be more at launch? How often will new characters be added? If these are the seven launch characters, how did you decide who to include?

There will be about 60 characters on release, including 30 from the original series. The rest are unique to The Walking Dead: All-Stars. We plan to consistently add more characters over time. Characters already in the game can appear as new versions of themselves from different time periods with updated appearances. We aim to satisfy fans of the original series with an even richer story.

Do characters have any special skins or alt versions that make nods to the series, like Carl with one eye or Rick missing a hand?

Although they’re technically the same character, there are cases where two characters could exhibit different tendencies based on how much time has passed for them or their present situation, so we did our best to bring those elements out. In All-Stars, there are two versions of Rick, “Rick Grimes” and “Leader Rick,” who are different alignments. This is representative of Rick and his three-dimensional qualities from the original series. If a character showed various personas in the comics, then there’s a chance they’ll show up in the game with different alignments.

Each of the seven shown off seems to highlight a unique class. Will there be more classes over time? Can you talk about some of their differences?

Many different people and communities exist in the world of The Walking Dead. Based on how the character views the post-apocalyptic world, they are assigned an alignment of Ally, Predator, Neutral, Overseer, Warlord, or Bystander. Not only do alignments play a role in type matchups, but they also naturally blend in with the characters’ stories and increase the game’s overall sense of immersion. The alignment of survivors within a party determines bonuses during a battle. The survivors are also divided into a total of five different classes: Tank, Support, Technician, Warrior, and Ranger. Every class has its own distinctive traits and areas of expertise. Although we have plans to add many characters in the future, we do not have any solid plan to add alignments or classes yet.

Will we ever see characters such as Clementine from Telltale’s Walking Dead game who exist in that universe, but only recently came to the comics via a spinoff?

All-Stars follows the world of the comics, and thanks to Skybound Entertainment’s detailed feedback, we’re confident we’ve created a high-quality product with no factual errors. Therefore, the game only has the characters from the Comics and the original characters. But since it is common in the game industry to see characters from a similar third-party company appear in the form of “collaboration,” we are considering some potential collaboration characters.

About half of the characters in the game are established, recognizable Walking Dead characters.

Is there a period in the story’s canon where All-Stars fits, or is there more of a reimagining perhaps?

There’s a hint in the game’s title, “The Walking Dead: All-Stars,” regarding the time period. This game allows characters of the original series to join up and work together, regardless of the original timeline. The main character of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes, is a three-dimensional figure whose personality and characteristics change as the game progresses. In our game, both the younger version of Rick and the older version known as Leader Rick can be part of the same team during battle. This sort of interaction makes the game feel like an “all-star battle” of sorts, which is why we added “All-Stars” to the title.

However, to establish a sense of common ground in the game, we used Volume 20: All Out War as a reference point. The story of All-Stars takes place in Buffalo, New York, around the same time as when Volume 20 begins. The story of Buffalo wasn’t in the original comics, so we wrote everything from scratch, receiving guidance and feedback from Skybound Entertainment every step of the way. I think players will be able to appreciate a fresh take on the story while still enjoying the familiarity of the original series.

It sounds like the game mainly takes place in Buffalo, New York, but will players explore familiar environments? Does time pass in the game, changing the world around you like in the series?

Players will come across familiar environments while playing chapter stages in the world map, which is the game’s core content. They’ll explore the areas surrounding their town settlement around Buffalo, New York and continue to unravel more of the story. They’ll come across new areas on the map, battle various enemies, and obtain items needed for survival. This portion of the game was designed so players can enjoy exploring the world of The Walking Dead. We also paid particular attention to how we illustrate the environments so players can really experience the changing regions each time they move on to a new chapter.

The Walking Dead: All-Stars is out now on iOS and Android devices.

Can survivors get infected? What happens if they do?

Of course, infection can occur in the All-Star’s worldview setting and infection can also appear as a fatal issue in the storytelling elements. However, infection does not act as a fatal losing factor within the combat rules.

How is the game monetized?

The Walking Dead: All-Stars is designed so that all players can clear content naturally as long as they invest enough time in the game. As such, the game’s business model focuses on growth efficiency, or, in other words, “buying time.”

Resources needed to advance characters are automatically accumulated over time. If players are satisfied with the resources they’re getting, they’ll be able to play the game consistently without making any purchases. However, if they’d like to progress faster than their peers, they’ll have the option of spending money to acquire additional resources.

One aspect of the game that can’t be solved with time alone is “recruiting” characters. Players can earn the resources they need to recruit characters in-game, but those who’d like to get their hands on their favorite characters quickly can opt to purchase resources using cash instead.

Will there be multiplayer?

The answer is no if you are only referring to “real-time” content, but there are various ways for players to play together, either by competing with each other or cooperating with each other.

Some of the game seems grid-based and others aren’t. Can you tell me what’s going on there?

The characteristic of grid-based (hexagonal floor tile-based) content is that players have more choices than non-grid-based content. Currently, grid-based content includes ‘Supply Run’ and ‘Survivor’s Record’. The ‘Supply Run’ is an in-game content where players are given two to three options as they advance to the next tile and their choice accumulates to affect the result. ‘Survivor’s Record’ is a story-based content where players clear each phase as they explore a tile map much larger than the ‘Supply Run.’

The Walking Dead: All-Stars is available starting today on iOS and Android devices.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Though they’re certainly not as exciting as the potential offensive playbooks in Madden 23, defensive playbooks are equally as important. The old saying goes, “Defense wins championships,” and that rings true in Madden as well. If you don’t have a solid defense to stop an opponent, then it likely won’t matter how many points you’re able to put up with your offense. Of course, having the right playbook is only half of the battle, as you also need to understand the different defensive formations and how best to use/control them.

Even so, we’re here to help you win that portion of the battle by offering up our picks for the best defensive playbooks in Madden 23. We will be going over six of the default playbooks in Madden 23, but they will not be in any particular order. It’s also worth noting we’re basing this off of the current state of the game, so if EA decides to patch a certain part of Madden 23, some of these playbooks might lose their viability.

Best Defensive Playbooks in Madden 23

We won’t be categorizing these defenses in any manner, as most playbooks have the same base coverages. However, some stand out from the rest due to having a specific coverage or more plays from a single formation.

Kansas City Chiefs

As of right now, it seems as though the meta defensive playbook in Madden 23 lies with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs boast the terrific 33 defense from the Nickel package, which has been unstoppable in the early going of the game. However, the Chiefs also have Even 61 in the 43 package, which features some solid plays. There’s also Dime Normal, Big Nickel, and other packages that players can utilize to their advantage. Dime Normal specifically has the DB Blitz 1, which has been wreaking havoc so far due to how fast defenders can get to the quarterback.

46

When it comes to defensive playbooks in Madden, non-team playbooks are usually the meta. That hasn’t changed this year in Madden 23, as a playbook like 46 is firmly in contention for the top playbook available. The playbook has slightly changed from previous years, but it still has meta formations such as 33 Nickel, Big Nickel, and 33 Cub Nickel. Once again, Dime Normal is a part of this playbook, but so is 32 Dollar. Dollar has a plethora of formations that are great against the run and pass, as does the rest of the 46 playbook.

Multiple D

We’re going back to another non-team defensive playbook, this time Multiple D. Multiple D is always a favorite among Madden players, especially those who partake in MUT (though non-team playbooks are not available in MUT at the time of writing). This defensive playbook features most of the formations that one would expect to see. The Nickel formations are once again at the forefront, as well as Dime Normal and Dollar. The 34 defenses haven’t been the best this year, but Multiple D has a large array of 34 formations that players can try and make use of.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Moving away from the meta playbooks, the Tampa Bay Bucs come in at the next spot. The Bucs certainly have a unique defensive playbook, as the Nickel formations are different from what you’ve seen previously. The Bucs still get 33 Cub, but there’s also 245 Odd and 24 Double A-Gap, which are terrific defenses for blitzing the quarterback. For players who want to venture outside of Nickel, Tampa Bay has 34 Bear and 44 Split available as well. It should be noted that the Jacksonville Jaguars have this exact same playbook, so the Jags could also be mentioned on this list.

Chicago Bears

A team with a great defensive history, the Chicago Bears find themselves with a solid defensive playbook in Madden 23. An underrated defensive formation the Bears have in their playbook is the 46 Bear, which is one of the best formations for blitzing the quarterback and stopping the run. However, Chicago also features some base Nickel defenses worth running as well as Even 61 in 43, Big Nickel, and an interesting Dollar package in 32 Mug. Big Nickel could be the best formation in this playbook, as it features plays that are equipped to stop most offensive formations.

Baltimore Ravens

Rounding out this list is the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive playbook. The Ravens always have a strong defense, and their Madden 23 playbook backs that up. Baltimore comes equipped with the base meta defenses in 33 Cub and Odd as well as 24 Double A-Gap. However, the Ravens also feature a few different Dime packages that players can mess around with. 1-4-6 is arguably the best formation out of the Dime, with loads of blitz packages that will keep an offense guessing for an entire drive. There’s also 2-3-6, though, which can stimy a mobile quarterback from running with its contain ability, but gets nice pressure with linebacker rushes as well.

And that will do it for our best defensive playbook picks in Madden 23. If you’re looking to learn more about Madden 23, then you can check out our guides on the best offensive playbooks in the game or how to celebrate.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Destiny 2 developer Bungie has revealed that more adjustments will be coming to the PvP portion of the game throughout Season of Plunder. Loose skill-based matchmaking was added to Control after the new season had begun, and Bungie has recorded some interesting stats from the first few days of Crucible action.

Mercy games, in which a match is called off when one team has an overwhelming points lead, are down 4% and the numbers continue to shrink every day as players begin optimizing their builds for SBMM play.

“As far as score and kill differences, we see a similar set of incremental improvements,” principal designer Alan Blaine explained on the Bungie blog. “Games where the best player had 30+ kills more than the worst player went from 9% of games to 2%. Games where the best player had only 10 to 19 more kills than the worst player went from 35% of games to 55%.”

Bungie plans to make SBMM spend more time searching for players of a similar skill-level and decent connection in a future update, so that matches can have even competition on either side without having to sacrifice online connectivity quality. One other aspect of PvP that the developer will be looking at is the increase in the number of players quitting before the end of a match. According to its data, that number has risen from 8% to 12% and the plan is to add quitter protection to Control in a future patch.

In other Destiny 2 news, the latest patch has restored Arc 3.0 Resilience stats to Warlocks and Titans, and you won’t have to worry about having a heart attack in the King’s Fall Raid if Golgoroth defeats your fireteam. You can also tune in later to see where Xur is when the Agent of the Nine returns, see which Adept weapon you’ll be playing for in Trials of Osiris this weekend, and read up on how Bungie wants the Lightfall expansion to feel like Blade Runner meets Independence Day.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News