Every year, the Writers Guild of America selects what it thinks are the most outstanding feats of writing in movie, television, and new media. What makes this year's nominations particularly special is that our very own Ed 'BongoBoy' Stern is among them, joining an illustrious group of people that includes Woody Allen, Adam Sorkin and fellow London developer Rocksteady Studios.

Ed is up in the Best Videogame Writing category for his efforts on Brink, which not only featured a staggering 26,000 lines of dialogue, but was also supported by a copious amount of backstory, timelines, biographies, and all manner of other supporting Writer's Produce. On top of that, Ed is the only person on the entire list that somehow managed to get their nickname on there.

The winners will be announced at the 64th Annual Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles on February 19. Many big huge congratulations, Ed!

One of our artists, Laurens Corijn, enjoys taking ordinary Nerf guns and turning them into something entirely more special. For this latest project, he decided to transform a Stampede ECS18 into the Resistance’s Gerund assault rifle from Brink. The end result is utterly stunning, to say the least. Luckily for us, Laurens has documented the entire creation process, so we can follow it along step by step. There are more photos of the finished article at the end of this post.

Take it away, Laurens:

Hot on the heels of the Clans & Tournaments update, we're excited to announce that the PC version of Brink is currently completely free to play on Steam. You'll be able to enjoy the full game including all of the new clan features until this Sunday at 9 PM UK time. Better yet, Brink, the Agents of Change add-on pack, and the character customisation packs are all 75% off on Steam during this time, so this is a great time to pick it up if you want to keep playing or are looking to extend your Brink collection.

Head on over to the Steam to kick off your free Brink download!

Clan support has officially arrived in all versions of Brink with the launch of the Clans & Tournaments Beta Site. There's a whole bunch of new features online as of right now, including the following:

• Create your own Brink clan, allowing you to manage everything from your name and logo to recruitment status, and your members
• If running your own clan isn't your thing, join an existing squad that's currently recruiting
• Fight for position on Brink's Global Clan Ladder by challenging other clans and defeating them in exciting clan matches
• Enter your clan into tournaments with unique rule sets and map rotations

For a full walkthrough of all of these features, check out our recent Clans & Tournaments Sneak Peek blog post.

To get started with Brink's clans, head on over to the Brink Clans & Tournaments Beta Site. You'll need to have an account to be able to dive into the site's full offering, including seeing your stats and all of the clan features, take advantage of its many features, so if you don't have one yet, now's the time to register!

Finally, if you've already created a clan and are looking for members, hit our Clan Recruitment forum.

We've just released a small update for the PC version of Brink as well as the dedicated server. This update fixes an issue where dedicated servers would not report stats correctly to the statistics website and ensures that your player profile will now accurately reflect your multiplayer performance. Steam will automatically download and install this update the next time you log into your Steam client.

As this update includes a server fix, there's a new version of the Brink Windows Dedicated Server, as well. If you've got a dedicated server for Brink and haven't grabbed this update yet, you can find it in Steam's Tools menu.

A new game update is now available for all versions of Brink, containing a bunch of fixes and improvements, and paving the way for the soon-to-be-released clan support. Highlights include improved spectator mode and host migration on the consoles, as well as demo recording and weapon tweaks on the PC. To grab the updates, simply fire up Brink while connected to the internet (consoles) or log into your Steam client (PC). We've got the full changelog for each platform at the end of this post, so keep on reading for those.

Please note that if you're running a dedicated server for the PC version of Brink, you'll need to update it to this new version, as well. The dedicated server download can be found in Steam's Tools menu.

With the new clan features now just around the corner, we've also got a separate clan blog update for you, going over the new functionality it'll be bringing to the game. To read all about it, check out our Brink Clans & Tournaments Sneak Peek.

We're close to releasing a comprehensive update for Brink, bringing full clan support, ladders and tournaments to all versions of the game. This update is currently in the final stages of testing and will be pushed out to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC version of Brink as soon as that is complete.

Since there's a whole bunch of new stuff headed your way, we thought we'd give you a sneak peek of the goodness that awaits you:

This year's Golden Joystick awards are on the home stretch and we're thrilled to see that Brink is among the finalists in the Best Shooter category. We'd like to extend a huge Thank You to everyone who took the time to vote for Brink - without you, this would not have been possible.

On a related note, now's your very last chance to cast your vote in this year's Golden Joysticks if you haven't done so already. Voting is set to close late tomorrow, and there's some great hardware and games up for grabs, so you might even walk away with some cool swag. The winners will be announced in a champagne-laden ceremony on 21 October.

Following the success the Electronic Sports League's massive Brink tournament this summer, Europe's largest e-sports organisation has just announced a brand-new tournament for the PC version of Brink. Dubbed the Autumn Cup, it'll take the form of a 5 on 5 double elimination tournament, with the action kicking off on 28 September - that's exactly one week from today. Prizes include €1500 in cash as well as access to the ESL's Premium service.

Sign-ups are open right now - head over to the ESL's Brink section to enlist!

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain has just announced the shortlist for this year's Guild Awards and we couldn't be more delighted to see Brink among the nominees. The awards are given out annually and seek to honour achievement in writing across all major mediums, including TV, radio, and video games. The winners will be announced on November 16 - in the meantime, let's all throw confetti at Lead Writer Ed 'Bongoboy' Stern!