Tag Archive

Major Changes For Destiny 2 As Bungie Prepares To Go Free To Play

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Rae Michelle Richards

It’s been a couple months now since Bungie and Activision parted ways with the conclusion of the publishers involvement with the Destiny franchise. In a live stream held yesterday Bungie announced what the future has in store for the two year old shooter, the announcement of a new distribution platform for the game, cross-save functionality and even the next expansion. There is a lot to take in!

Destiny 2 will be jumping ship from the Battle.net launcher and making a home for itself on Valve’s Steam service starting this September. A process will presumably be in place by then to allow existing owners who currently use the Battle.net launcher to play the game to transition to Steam. It’s not clear at this point in time whether or not the Steam version will be mandatory or if the Battle.net version will continue to be updated.

Alongside this shift to Steam will be the release of Destiny: New Light, a free to play version of Destiny 2 which includes the 2017 base game, both the Warmind and Curse of Osiris DLC add-ons. This will give new guardians access to all of the Year One content that previously cost $$. Last year’s Destiny 2: Forsaken expansion will not be included on the free offerings but will instead be a separate purchase.

Cross-save functionality (not to be confused with Cross Play functionality) will also be coming to Destiny 2 in the September update. This means that if you play on multiple platforms (Xbox, PC or PS4) you’ll be able to carry up to 3 characters forward into this new system and will be able to logon to any supported platform and continue to play. This also means that previously PlayStation Exclusive gear and strikes will be available on all platforms. It is not yet known if you’ll need to buy separate expansion licenses per platform at this time.

Lastly, and perhaps most exciting for existing players is the announcement of the next Destiny 2 expansion, Shadowkeep. In breaking what has been a Destiny tradition for the entire entire life of the franchise – Shadowkeep will not require the purchase of all previous DLCs. Players will be able to jump right into this latest adventure on the moon without the Forsaken or Forsaken annual pass. Speaking of the annual passes – there doesn’t seem to be one for Year 3 of Destiny 2

Source: PC Gamer

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With The Next Destiny 2 Expansion Bungie Must Win Back Player Trust

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

We’re now six months post launch for Destiny 2 and it is quite clear that the game doesn’t have the same staying power that the original possessed. With Curse of Osiris firmly in the rearview mirror and the next expansion, Warmind, on the horizon – Bungie has to make good on their previous promises of listening to player feedback if they hope to keep guardians engaged beyond the initial content offering.

Destiny 2’s “Go Fast” update is also now behind us and while player feedback on the crucible changes -specifically the 6 Vs. 6 rumble mode in crucible has been strong –  Bungie will have to really deliver future updates that are also in line with what the community wants if their goal is to retain hardcore players.

In the opposite direction – if the developers chose to implement a crafting material grind for end game weapons, like in D1, then they’re going to have to easily explain to more casual players how they can still stay relevant without in terms of gear level without investing hundreds of hours. “Casual vs Hardcore” gear balance isn’t something that Destiny 2 has particularly excelled at.

Here is a point by point breakdown of everything that Bungie has promised on their latest developer roadmap:

May 6th Update (Warmind Launch)

  • Seasonal Crucible Rankings
  • Private Match Support
  • Vault Space Increase
  • Multi-Emote
  • Exotic Weapon Masterwork
  • Seasonal Vender Progression
  • Exotic Weapon Sandbox Changes
  • Heroic Strike Modifiers
  • Nightfall Challenge Cards

Summer Update

  • New Seasonal Event
  • Faction Rally Improvements
  • PC Clan Chat
  • Bounties
  • Exotic Armor Sandbox Changes

September Release

  • Gear Collections
  • Weapon Slot Changes
  • Weapon Randomization

Certainly Heroic Strike Modifiers, Exotic Weapon Masterworks and most importantly whatever the Weapon Slot Changes entail will bring some new reasons to log back in to Destiny 2 for even mid-core players. Honestly stuff like Seasonal Rankings and Vendor progression probably should have been in the game at launch and the same goes with Clan Chat Support on PC – these feel like obvious must haves and adding them almost a full year into the game’s lifecycle is still kind of baffling. Also of concern is how little detail we have on what could be some of the more major changes to the game. Bungie says they want to make Weapon Slots more flexible to allow Guardians to use weapon types that aren’t very popular at this moment. How that will be achieved has yet to be revealed and that is something that worries me – what if Bungie’s goals align with what their players want but the execution ends up being way off the mark?

To close this post off I’d like to post a small list compiled by the folks over at r/DestinyTheGame of features that have appeared on previous Bungie development roadmaps but do not appear on this current one.

They include:

  • Improvements to Lost Sectors
  • Scoring for Strike missions
  • Improvements to the Shader System (last seen in the January update roadmap)
  • Any possible changes to the Sandbox experience before the September update. Sandboxes have seen little in the way of updates compared with the PVP experience.

Will Bungie be able to turn Destiny 2 around from the Cash Shop focused micro-transaction festival that the game was a launch? Will all of these Quality of Life improvements like the introduction of Heroic modifiers and Master Worked Exotics be enough to satisfy the hardcore who want to see complete random perks come from Destiny 1? Will all of these QOL improvements lead to a better experience for casual players like myself?

Time will tell… Destiny 2: Warmind launches on May 8th.

[Source]

 

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Bungie Bringing Huge Changes To Destiny 2’s ‘Sandbox’ With March Update

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Today Bungie outlined exactly how they’ll be improving Destiny 2 over the next couple of months. In a brand new roadmap and feature breakdown the Destiny 2 outlined plans for update 1.1.3 (Feb), 1.1.4 (March) and 1.2.0 (May). Some additions are small but should have been present from the launch in my opinion – namely PC Public Chat, tweaks to the shader system and Heroic Strike Modifiers. Others like unique Nightfall Rewards, Quit penalties in the crucible and Iron Banner 6 v 6 will have a larger impact on Destiny 2’s playability.

Perhaps the largest of all of these planned changes (and the most complex from a player standpoint) is the “sandbox” changes. This might just sound like adjustments to the large open PVE sandbox that Bungie spent so many years creating but in reality it is a bunch of smaller adjustments to weapon damage, player movement, player health, respawn time and other factors that will provide players with more “hero moments”, especially in Crucible matches.

Their blog  post does note that not all of these changes may make their way in to the final 1.1.4 Patch at the end of March but overall when combined these changes should make crucible and P.V.E a lot more interesting.

Some of the individual changes that compose the “Sandbox” adjustments include:

–          Faster attack animations.

–          Increased Super ability re-charge time.

–          Higher overall maximum speed cap.

–          Buffs to underutilized weapon types like Shotguns, Fusion Rifles, Hand Canons and Sniper Rifles.

–          Major changes to the Arcstrider.

More of the changes involved in the Sandbox adjustments are available in the blog post. Alongside this three month roadmap Bungie also revealed that virtually no new P.V.E content will be making its way into the game until the new Raid tier drops with 1.2.0 at the end of May. Below you will find the full roadmap as posted on the Bungie blog.

[Source]

 

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Best Games We Played 2017 Runner-Up: Destiny 2

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Destiny 2 was one of the most hyped games of this past fall, and with the amount of online advertisements and cross promotion it was must have been hard to not get caught up in the waves of hype (I got so excited for D2 I ended up playing it on both PlayStation 4 and PC). Now that the dust has settled and the hype surrounding Bungie’s follow-up online FPS effort has disapated – it is time to have a discussion about why Destiny 2 didn’t make it among our “Best Games We Played” finalists.

The experience of levelling a brand new Guardian from 1 through 20 is an exhilarating ride, especially if you have the entire campaign ahead of you for the first time. Bungie took all of the feedback players gave them through the years of D1 and that game’s particular shotgun approach to narrative and used it wisely. While certainly not award winning material in the writing department, Destiny 2’s narrative introduces all of the core gameplay mechanics and worlds to the player in under 15 hours. Providing players with an enjoyable introduction to the world of Destiny, even if they happened to skip the first game.

It is after level 20 that the lack of “post-campaign” content becomes apparent. Instead of levelling up past 20, each successive level will award players with a “bright engram”, which can be traded in at the Ever Verse for an assortment of random items. Forcing players into your RNG based cash shop in the hopes of catching a few whales, who might drop a few hundred dollars in the hopes of securing an entire set of matching shaders, is pure averse at best and certainly praying on the psychological vulnerabiltiies of those who are prone to addictive behavior. “Ignoring the cash shop” is certainly possible if you wish to horde all of the bright engrams D2 throws at you but you’ll still be faced with another problem – tripping over legendaries left and right.

Remember how in Destiny 1 legendary weapons were a point of pride for players who spent the hours grinding out the RNG drop on heroic strikes and the like? I’m all for the game giving casual (and less skilled) players the same gear as the “hardcore” who are going to run the Leviathan raid 50 times. But with the abundance of vendor tokens to be found within the game’s many open worlds, there is no challenge or even pacing to the legendary gear. Instead of say tying them to weekly quests or daily activities, it is entirely possible to horde EDZ tokens until you have so many that legendary turn ins that can max out area NPC’s legendary rewards in a couple of hours. If Bungie’s intention was to make D2 a game that players were supposed to play for a number of weeks or even months, they’ve failed in that regard.

All of this discussion of Destiny 2’s end-game doesn’t even begin to discuss how they locked paying customers out of content that was readily available to them before the first expansion dropped in December. How they accidentally turned PVP into laser tag by releasing a broken Exotic Weapon and instead of pulling the weapon or nerfing it, they decided to just give it to everyone until a further patch in January.

Destiny 2 is a fun game with very pretty graphics and satisfying gun-play. Unfortunately Bungie has mismanaged the game spectacularly and after all of the shiny guns and flashy animations have worn off – at its core, it just isn’t very appealing. D2 has been haemorrhaging players for months now and with each misstep Bungie is reducing the chances that existing players will want to come back.

This is why Destiny 2 is only a runner-up for one of the best games we played in 2017.

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Bungie Addresses Destiny 2 Community Concerns Before New DLC Launches

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Destiny 2 developer Bungie canceled today’s promotional live stream for the upcoming Curse of Osiris DLC and instead addressed several of the concerns that the community has had. There’s been a lot of activity both within the Destiny 2 subreddit /r/DestinyTheGame and within the gaming enthusiast press surrounding the tacit XP throttling that Bungie was doing under the hood; as well as the subsequent doubling of XP required to level up once throttling was removed. 

Regarding Experience Points 

The devs admit that the newly introduced 160,000 XP requirement per level is too high to grind some activities and that Bungie are collecting data so that they can make further adjustments faster. More communication with the community about the inner workings of experience point in the future was also promised towards the end of the XP Points section of today’s blog post. 

“We were able to disable the system with a server-side change, but a new solution is now needed to rebalance XP in Destiny 2. We have begun that work, and will continue to provide updates to you about timelines and specifics…We already see that the newly adjusted 160K XP per level value means that leveling is too slow for some activities, and we have begun the process of collecting data and recalibrating XP earn rates to improve them as quickly as possible.” 

New Rarity For Weapons: Masterwork 

A brand-new tier of rarity for weapons beyond Legendary and Exotic is being added to Destiny 2 with the December patches, called Masterwork. This new class of rarity will have kill tracking as a baseline feature and will generate orbs for allies and the player upon scoring kills. Destiny 1 veterans asking for the return of randomized bonuses will be happy to learn that re-rollable Masterwork Traits are part of this new rarity. Unlike the traits in Destiny 1, Guardians won’t be fully healed or receive massive amounts of sniping damage like some D1 weapons provided but they should help differentiate the Masterwork weapons from regular legendaries. 

Here are some of the features of Masterwork weapons as provided by Bungie’s blog: 

  • Masterworks will have a few advantages over the baseline Legendary weapon: 
  • Track and display the number of kills with that weapon (with choice between total count or Crucible-only count) 
  • Generate orbs for you and your allies on multi-kills 
  • Add weapon stat bonuses that are selected randomly from a small pool and are re-rollable 
  • Masterworks drop from any source of Legendary weapons for characters above 250 Power 
  • Unwanted Masterworks can be dismantled into materials that can upgrade an existing Legendary Weapon into a Masterwork 
  • Raid and Trials of the Nine Weapons will have a very high chance to be Masterworks 
  • We have future plans to extend Masterworks to other gear and expose your kill counts in more places (e.g. Crucible kill screen) 

Vendor Changes 

Quality of life updates for Destiny 2’s various vendors is another big focus with the December 5 and December 12th patches. Once completing the game Guardians will be able to purchase exotic quality engrams for legendary shards. Common tokens that drop in all of the major hub worlds are having their drop rates increased by 100%. Also of note are changes to Xur – he will now decrypt exotic level engrams and once per week players can purchase a single Fated Engram that guarantees them an exotic weapon or piece of gear they don’t already own. Also returning from Destiny 1 is the “Three of Coins”, which has been simplified from its initial incarnation. The three of coins will boost the chances of finding an exotic for 4 hours and can be purchased from Xur during weekends. 

  • For players chasing a world Legendary or looking for Masterworks, Master Rahool will sell some of his rumored hoard of Legendary Engrams for Legendary Shards 
  • Common quality Destination Resource Tokens will have their drop rates increased to 100%, and values per Token increased as well (by 50% for common quality Tokens and 250% for rare quality Tokens) 
  • For players wanting to clear some Mod inventory space, Rare quality Mods will dismantle into Gunsmith Materials and have a chance to produce Legendary quality Mod Components 
  • Every week, you’ll be able to acquire one of the new Fated Engrams using Legendary Shards from Xur that will decrypt as Exotics that aren’t already in your collection 
  • A simpler Three of Coins that boosts Exotic drop rates from any source for 4 hours 

So Much More 

I highly recommend that any interested guardians (or potential guardians) head on over to Bungie’s recently released blog post and read all of the changes coming to the game themselves. Some of them are minor, like being able to dismantle mods at the gunsmith. Other changes, like the introduction of Masterwork weapons and changes to tokens, are going to have a much larger impact on Destiny 2’s end game. 

Is all of this enough to sate the hardcore fans who want D2 to be their forever game? I’m not sure. What I do know is that aside from the December 5th and 12th quality of life updates, Destiny 2 is also going to get a whole lot of new content with the release of Curse of Osiris on 5th alongside the first patch. 

News & Some Images Soured Froom Bungie.net

 

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Activision Outlines Activities Coming In Destiny 2: The Curse of Osiris

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

In less than two weeks guardians from all around the solar system will be able to partake in the brand new content contained in Destiny 2‘s first expansion Curse of Osiris. Publisher Activision held a live stream a few days ago that outlined all of the new activities that await protectors of earth’s last city who are looking for something new to do. 

The largest public event ever within the Destiny franchise will call Mercury home, the stream revealed. Unlike other public events, Mercury’s will have multiple stages and players will need to progress through a series of objectives before receiving their loot. First up is the task of killing all of the gate-keepers who drop the keys needed to progress through the various islands of Mercury’s public event. From there, guardians will hop from island to island in order to achieve their objective. Activision was very clear that this isn’t solo content. If you don’t have someone to play with, the game will help match you with another guardian. 

Players from Destiny 1 might remember The Lighthouse, since its last appearance some changes have occurred. At The Lighthouse, Brother Vance will dispatch players on new activities that will help them solve the mysteries that await them on the surface of Mercury. End-game weapons will be available from within The Lighthouse as well, thanks to the assistance of a Vex “weapon wall”. 

Strike Missions will once again be woven into the overall narrative experience found in Curse of Osiris. Rather than simply receiving authorization to begin strikes, as happens in the vanilla D2 campaign, Strike Missions will have their own story components that will expand and service the larger narrative.  

Last up was the Infinite Forrest, a complicated Vex structure that is able to mimic the state of Mercy in the present, past and possibly even predict its future. Providing guardians with procedurally generated content, the Infinite Forrest will be different every time that they set foot within it.  Enemies from all of the combat factions can be recreated within the Infinite Forrest and each segment of Infinite Forrest encounters have been handcrafted so that they live up to Bungie’s level of polish. 

Want to watch the Curse of Osiris Livestream for yourself? Check it out below. 

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Destiny 2 Update 1.06 Now Live On All Platforms

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The latest patch for Destiny 2, bringing the game up to version 1.06 is now live across all platforms – PS4, Xbox One and PC. One of the big changes included in this update is an increase in a number of Faction Points that Guardians can earn per activity completed. Strikes and Nightfalls will now dole out more Faction Tokens while Heroic Events have had their amount of Faction Tokens nerfed. Destroying enemy resources also no longer rewards Faction Tokens at all. 

Crucible matches have had their win conditions adjusted, with a number of modes having the total # of points required for victory reduced. 

What do you think of this patch? Full notes are included below: 

Destiny 2 Update 1.0.6 Patch Notes

General

  • Fixed an issue with collision detection on the Bureaucratic Walk Emote
  • Fixed an issue causing players to encounter empty public spaces too often in free roam
  • Fixed an issue causing players to be kicked to Orbit

Faction Rallies

  • Strikes now reward Faction Tokens at a range of 5 to 9 Faction Tokens per completion (up from 3 to 7)
    • Nightfall now rewards 10 to 18 Faction Tokens on first completion per character
  • Completing Heroic Public Events now rewards 5 Faction Tokens (down from 8)
  • Destroying enemy resources no longer rewards Faction Tokens
    • Opening Lost Sector chests now rewards 3 Faction Tokens for each fireteam member

Crucible

  • Updated Mercy Rule settings to allow Mercy to activate slightly later in the match, allowing a wider range of scores to trigger it

Clash

  • Reduced score limit to 50 (was 75)

Control

  • Reduced score limit to 90 (was 100)
  • Reduced influence that enemy-controlled zones exert over the spawning system

Survival

  • Reduced round time limit to 2 mins (down from 3)
  • Reduced life count to 6 (down from 8)

Supremacy

  • Increased score-to-win to 70 (up from 50)
  • We now grant one point for defeating an enemy Guardian
  • Adjusted the influence enemy crests have on the spawning system

Companion

Android

  • Improved performance across the app and particularly on the Gear and Progress sections
  • Improved screen state preservation after rotation
  • Added the ability to look up Clans by name (exact matches only)
  • Added suggested Clans to the ‘Browse Clans’ screen

iOS

  • Added suggested Clans to the ‘Browse Clans’ screen

Destiny 2 Update 1.0.6.1 (PC Hotfix) Patch Notes

  • Fixed an issue where Clan rosters were not showing properly
  • Fixed an issue causing gradual performance degradation over time

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Report: Players Being Banned From Destiny 2 On PC For Running Common Apps Like MSI Afterburner, Discord and OBS

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

User reports from launch day suggest that PC players of Bungie’s Destiny 2 may find themselves with a permanent ban if they are using common PC benchmarking tools like FRAPS and MSI AfterBurner or chat programs like Discord with the overlay functionality enabled. 

Over on /r/DestinyTheGame several users have reported that their accounts or friends accounts have been banned without explanation for running common PC programs in the background while playing Destiny 2.  

Here is a short (and at all definitive) list of programs that MAY cause interference with Destiny 2. This list is based upon user reports and has not been confirmed by the game’s publisher or developer as of press time: 

  • Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) in “Game Capture” mode. 
  • Windows 10 Game DVR (with background recording enabled). 
  • MSI Afterburner’s Performance Overlay 
  • FRAPS 
  • Discord’s Chat Overlay 
  • Running either the Battle.net or Destiny 2 as a “Non-Steam Game” through Steam. Doing this enables the Steam Overlay by default. 

Destiny 2’s official support page lists several cases where streaming software such as XSplit or OBS is “not supported” when using “Game Capture Mode”. Similarly, performance tools with overlays such as FRAPS and MSI Afterburner are also listed as not supported.  

Here is what Bungie’s support page has to say in regards to recording programs:

“OBS and XSplit 

The Game Capture mode of applications such as OBS and XSplit is not supported. The following methods are supported for capturing video of Destiny 2 on PC:  

To capture while playing in Exclusive Fullscreen: 

  • Hardware capture through methods such as Elgato, AVerMedia, or a dedicated streaming PC is supported. 
  • NVIDIA Shadowplay and AMD ReLive are supported. 
  • To capture while playing in Windowed Mode (including Borderless Fullscreen): 
  • OBS and XSplit Screen Capture mode is supported. 
  • OBS and XSplit Window Capture mode is supported.  

PLEASE NOTE: Other recording applications, such as Dxtory, Razer Cortex, Fraps have similar restrictions to those outlined above. “

In regards to Hardware Monitoring and Overlays this is what Destiny 2’s support page recommends:

“Overlays
Some features from third-party applications which rely on the use of screen overlays are generally not compatible with Destiny 2. The following are examples of features which may not be compatible with Destiny 2 on PC. 

Voice Communications

“Who’s talking” and visual notification features, such as those provided by Discord or Mumble, are not compatible with Destiny 2. Notification features may still be provided through the third-party application. 

Hardware Monitoring

Framerate and statistics overlays, such as those provided by EVGA Precision XOC, MSi Afterburner, and Fraps, are not compatible with Destiny 2.”

I’ve reached out to Activision Publishing for an official response to this story as well as clarification on whether or not apps like Windows Game DVR which are built into the OS and enabled by default can cause an issue with Destiny 2’s anti-code injection system. I’ve also asked if Destiny 2’s anti-code injection system doesn’t play nice with apps like Discord which detect games running on your system. This whole thing could be the result of a launch day hiccup or bug in the game’s code. We won’t know for sure until we hear back. 

Activision Publishing previously provided Broken Joysticks with a review code for a single copy of Destiny 2 for consideration. We have not personally experienced issues with third-party applications & Destiny 2. 

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Reminder: Be Prepared For Tomorrow’s Launch By Pre-Loading Destiny 2 On PC

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

As of the writing of this post, there’s TECHNICALLY only one hour left of October 23rd in the MDT time zone, but hey it’s technically accurate. 

If you’ve pre-purchased Destiny 2 on PC and want to make sure your game is available for when servers go live at 10 am PDT tomorrow, here is your final reminder to pre-load the game in time for launch. Sitting at staggering 60+ GBs the final install size of Destiny 2 is going to eat up a good chunk of your hard drive.

So far pre-loading seems to be working fine on our end. I finished the 30+ GB download in just under 4 and a half hours. If you’ve got a slower internet connection you may want to let Destiny 2 download overnight. 

 

Here is a list of Destiny 2 launch times adjusted for local time zones: 

  • Pacific Time Zone: 10 AM 
  • Eastern Time Zone: 1PM 
  • British Standard Time: 6PM 
  • Moscow Time: 10PM 

It’s a little late to upgrade a rig before launch but here are the minimum specs for Destiny 2 on PC: 

  MINIMUM  RECOMMENDED 
CPU: Intel  Intel Core i3-3250 3.5 GHz or
Intel Pentium G4560 3.5 GHz 		 Intel Core i5-2400 3.4 GHz or
i5 7400 3.5 GHz 
CPU: AMD  AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz  AMD Ryzen R5 1600X 3.6 GHz 
GPU: NVidia  Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB or
GTX 1050 2GB 		 Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB or
GTX 1060 6GB 
GPU: AMD  AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB  AMD R9 390 8GB 
RAM:  6GB  8GB 

Activision Publishing sent us a digital deluxe edition of Destiny 2 for PC on Battle.net for editorial and video content production consideration. We will be following up this post with Launch Day coverage when servers go live tomorrow as well as coverage of any major community events or happenings. 

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Destiny 2 | Review

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Version Reviewed: PlayStation 4

Three years after the release of the original Destiny Bungie sends us into a far future version of our own solar system with the release of Destiny 2 on Xbox One and PS4. While the development of the original Destiny has become somewhat of a cautionary tale about the perils of AAA development – Bungie, Activision and new partner Vicarious Visions have had quite a bit of extra time to polish and improve the loot focused FPS formula that made the first Destiny should a standout title. Can Destiny 2 live up to the expectations & hype for this franchise’s sophomore effort?  

Stepping foot into the boots of a Guardian will be familiar to anyone who played Destiny or any of its expansions. Moment to moment gameplay is, for the most part, almost identical in D2 to its predecessor. As an armor-clad un-killable warrior of The Tower, Guardians control very similar to the protagonist from Bungie’s entries in the Halo franchise – if not just a bit faster. Overall movement speed will feel slower when compared to a Call of Duty, Quake title but this de-emphasis on fast-paced action leaves room for strategy, planning, and careful aim.  

Speaking of strategically using weapons: each Guardian has three weapon slots, just like the first game –Kinetic (formally primary), Elemental (formally named Secondary) and Power (formally heavy). Elemental weapons will have a given element assigned to them – for example, void, arc etc. – and their damage is aligned with this specific element. Primary weapon damage is un-aspected meaning it has no strengths or weakness when compared to elemental weapons. Just like in the first Destiny ammunition for the Elemental and Power slots is much rarer than primary ammo. The game still does provide you with enough ammunition to shoot enemies in the face – this a series all about killing aliens after all.  

Interestingly I went back and read my review of Destiny 1 from three years ago to see how my thoughts on the series have changed since then. I described the gear progression as: “Gear progression exists [in Destiny] but the repetition of the story mission or strikes makes gear hunting much less appealing.” This is actually the opposite of how I feel about D2’s gear progression. Finding a Scout Rifle that does more damage than my currently equipped Auto Rifle made me consider a different playstyle than the all guns blazing route that I went with at the beginning of my journey. Destiny 2 tosses brand new gear at you so often that it becomes an adventure just to see what you’ll find next. By the end of my 20-level journey I was favoring scoped Scout Rifles over louder firearms simply because their accuracy lead to some pretty epic headshots. One of the core tenants for any Destiny 2 player should be “don’t get too attached to your gear” because even when you reach the level cap and finish the story you’ll still be chasing slightly more powerful versions of your favorite weapon type. 

Another contrast to the original Destiny is just how alive Destiny 2’s open worlds feel in comparison. I can remember roaming around the worlds of the first title and they felt very baron and lifeless places with a few enemies and bases placed about. Perhaps it is the removal of last generation consoles that gave Bungie the technical freedom to make their worlds much larger or perhaps it was the extra development time but one thing is for sure – there is a lot more to do in Destiny 2’s sandbox when compared to the first. Public events – self-contained 3 to 5-minute objectives – return from the first game now with hidden Heroic variants. Each zone now also has its own Faction leader who will trade hidden tokens found throughout each world in exchange for legendary engrams (post level 20) – giving experienced Guardians a reason to return to the first worlds. In addition to these activities each zone also has a system of hidden passages and spaces that the campaign won’t show you and they are greyed out in the overworld map. Destiny 2’s revamped open worlds feel refreshing and compelling. 

Destiny 2‘s single player story is what the original game should have offered: a narrative driven experience that tours the game’s four large worlds, introduces the core activities and mechanics that will keep you coming back after the campaign ends and manages to earn quite a few chuckles as well due to some creative writing. Destiny 2’s campaign (probably) won’t win many awards on its own – if this was all the game had to offer there’d be some issues – but when added with the amount of content already present, the campaign provides an excellent gateway to the larger Destiny experience. Characters that were merely reputation vendors or representatives in the first game are more fleshed out in the sequel – with the witty banter between Peter Dinklage’s Ghost and Nathan Fillion’s Cayade-6 providing the most levity & humor. What narrative is present is told in broad strokes and would have benefited from a bit more characterization, especially for the new menacing villains who feel rather two dimensional and since the player doesn’t know much about them other than “they are the bad guys with a super weapon” – taking down Ghoul’s lieutenants for example doesn’t carry as much weight as it probably should. 

Bungie has done a commendable job fleshing out the parts of the Destiny formula that felt under developed when the IP debuted three years ago – especially when it comes to the presentation & coherence of the campaign and the re-designed open world segments. Destiny 2 offers so much for players to do, even solo minded Guardians like myself that it is easy to recommend at full price. If you have friends to run the strikes & public events with, then you are bound to have an even more enjoyable time taking down the baddies found within IO, Titan, Earth and Nessus. Multiplayer PVP or the Leviathan Raid haven’t been mentioned in this review because, in all honesty, the removal of larger teams / streamlining of playlists has removed any drive I had to play it beyond the required 2 matches for an in-game mission. In regards to the Raid – I simply did not have an organized fireteam to try it out before reviewing Destiny 2. 

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Destiny 2 Goes Live Tonight At Midnight

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Hot off the heels of the Windows PC beta for Destiny 2, Activision & Bungie are set to flip the switches on the game’s servers at midnight tonight for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Over three years in the making – Destiny 2 acts as a direct sequel to the 2014 title with a larger focus on narrative during single-player content.

Players return to the role of a Guardian – one of the last bastions of a special kind of energy known as “light”, which was brought to earth several hundred years prior thanks to an interstellar being known as “the traveler”. As explained in Destiny 1’s Grimoire Cards, the traveler’s light allowed humanity to leapfrog several centuries of technological advancement all at once. Technologies previously thought to be purely science fiction like interstellar Colony Ships, Energy Weapons, multi planet-spanning Artificial Intelligence and Faster Than Light travel all became possible thanks to the traveler.

Destiny Cabal Rumors

As we saw in the events of “Homecoming” during the Destiny 2 Open Beta – the Guardian central command located within The Tower is assaulted by a faction of the Mars based Cabal known as the Red Legion. With Destiny 1’s home base a smoldering wreck, the Speaker missing in action and Zavala & Co left fleeing – things are not looking up for Guardians as we enter the world of Destiny 2.

Destiny 2 brings a cinematic single player campaign alongside the familiar small group Strike activities featured in the first game. New to the cataclysmic solar system are Quests, hidden public space treasure chests, and Adventures which will provide dynamic content within Destiny 2’s connected / open space explorable planets. A 6 player Raid is set to go live one week from the game’s launch on September 13th.

CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg had this to say about the impending Destiny 2 launch:

“A great story. Awesome characters. A menacing villain. A clear mission. A gorgeous, expansive world to explore. And of course, great, innovative gameplay that is fun to play solo or with friends. Destiny 2 has it all,” 

 

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Destiny 2 Won’t Feature Recoil On PC Because It Won’t ‘Feel Good’

Posted on June 22, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Gunplay and the overall feel of the variety of weapons in the original Destiny was one of the highlights of an addictive if otherwise flawed title. Perhaps then it is a little perplexing that Destiny 2 PC Project Lead, Mark Noseworthy, spoke with Finder.com.au about the joint decision between Bungie and Vicarious Vision to remove recoil from the upcoming PC port of Destiny 2.  His reasoning included that aiming a weapon with recoil just wouldn’t feel right if the player’s mouse was moving without physical input.

Here’s the full quote from Noseworthy:

“Yeah, we’ve thought about that quite a bit. Ultimately, we have one design for the game. And so, if you’re playing the Raid on PC or you’re playing it on PlayStation [4], it’s the same Raid. It’s the same experience. And we’re going to try and keep them as similar as possible because hopefully, we want this to be the best experience. We may look in a few places where weapons need to be handled differently, and we’ll treat them slightly differently.

For instance, there’s no recoil on guns on PC because recoil on the controller feels really good. ‘I’m firing, I’m firing, I’m firing, oh, I’m losing control of my gun a little bit.’ That feels great, especially with magnetism and all the magic in the controller that makes you feel it. With a mouse and keyboard, you don’t want the mouse moving without you moving it, so recoil doesn’t feel good, so there is no recoil on PC.

There are a couple of key ways we’re going to try and change it, make it so it feels native to that platform because we want people to feel like Destiny 2 is built for PC”

All of this seems a little odd considering PC first person shooters have featured recoil on weapons for decades. Half-Life 2’s shotgun would firmly jutter into the air after taking a shot at the Combine and DoomGuy’s iconic BFG 9000 could recoil back with enough strength to take someone’s arm off after unleashing one of its’ megaton blasts on hell spawn. Even games like the more recent Call of Duty titles have taken recoil in an RPG direction – giving players the ability to reduce and control precise amounts of recoil depending on the modifications equipped to the weapon or perks that they have active.

From Noseworthy’s comment, it seems that the console and PC versions of Destiny 2 – in terms of content – will be as alike as possible, if not downright identical. Using a keyboard & mouse is widely seen as more precise than even the most sensitive controller, so I have to wonder if the removal of recoil in the PC version (if this does indeed stay as it is currently is when the game ships this October) will make Destiny 2 PC feel like a different game when compared to the console versions.

 

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How Was Destiny 2’s Showing At E3 2017?

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

With the 2017 entry of E3 coming to a close tomorrow let’s take a quick look at how Destiny 2 fared in terms of publicly available coverage coming out of the show. An in-engine “PlayStation Exclusive Content” trailer debuted at Sony’s press conference this past Monday, the PC version was delayed and Bungie devs took questions on PlayStation’s live stream but very little tangible video content came from the expo floor. It is likely that while anyone attending E3 can try out Destiny 2, video capture is probably not permitted.

Major Announcements Surrounding Destiny 2:

  • Player Vs. Player Combat will be divided into a more “casual” and “hardcore” set of playlists. Exact specifics were not announced.
  • Guided Games will allow clans to help prepare new Guardians for the trials ahead of them by learning from series veterans who are in the same clan.
  • In-game clans will be limited to 100 members.
  • Destiny players who invested 100s of hours in the original Destiny will receive some kind of flair or a small reward. Devs described these as “certain identifiers” but did not elaborate.
  • The PC version of Destiny 2 has been delayed until October 24th with the console version coming earlier than expected – September 6th.
  • Beta dates were announced with all platforms: PS4 July 18th | Xbox One July 19th | PC: TBA August 2017.

Exclusive PS4 Content:

  • “Lake of Shaows” Co-op Strike
  • Exclusive armor for all main classes
  • Exclusive Ship – “City Apex”
  • Exclusive Exotic Weapon with three different damage modes
  • Exclusive PVP Map

Overall Conference Rating: Poor

Unfortunate to see a game with such strong marketing muscle behind it falter when it comes to available media and coverage after a huge event like E3 –  but Destiny 2 did just that. After an absolutely explosive gameplay reveal last month – with dozens of journalists, streamers and influencers going hands-on with the game – this was Activision’s chance to really let people know exactly how Destiny 2 plays by allowing attendees to capture media. Sadly, most impression pieces – including IGNs – are vague at best: describing access to the opening mission of the game and one unnamed strike, without giving any in-depth details about what exactly happened within the Strike. Also, Destiny 2 didn’t get an on-stage demo during either Sony or Microsoft’s press conferences. Nor was a live streamed demo on used on the PlayStations channel when developers were releasing new information – all of the footage used was taken from last month’s “homecoming” mission reveal.

Guardians all around the world will get their chance over the summer to see exactly how Destiny 2 plays during the closed & open beta on all three platforms. Is it worth your $60? Hang on for a couple of weeks and decide for yourself during the open beta test.

 

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New Destiny 2 Screenshots Released Ahead of Livestream

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Activision has released several HD screenshots promoting the Destiny 2 Livestream which takes place tomorrow at 9AM EST over at http://www.destinythegame.com.

This will mark the first time that the public will get a look at gameplay from Bungie’s long awaited MMOFPS sequel.  The exact specifics as to what will be revealed is not known but perhaps we will learn the identities and classes for the three main Guardians that have been featured so prominently in the promotional materials.

Destiny 2 has a release date of September 8th 2017 for Windows PC, PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbox One. Players of the original Destiny will be able to move their character over from the first game but armor and weapons from the original and its’ three expansions will not carry over.

A special Keynote will be streamed on their official website tomorrow morning followed by private gameplay sessions for several prominent Youtube and Media personalities with no capture restrictions. Expect to see a lot of raw Destiny 2 gameplay footage hit the web when the embargo drops from the media event. BrokenJoysticks was not invited to the GamePlay reveal by Activision.

Click on the screenshots below for higher resolution versions.

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Destiny 2 Leaks Point To A Likely PC Release

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

It is no secret that Bungie & Activision are hard at work on a sequel to 2014’s Destiny, the loot-based shooter that launched 3 additional content heavy expansions that when combined with the base game have kept guardians busy for years. A set of new leaks, one comprised of promotional materials from an Italian retailer, and another from a shop listed from a German retailer point to Destiny 2 coming to Windows PC for the first time.

Originally appearing on the Italian website Leganetwork.it, the now removed poster showcases three helmet humanoid guardians – each brandishing a different type of weapon.  Featured prominently on the poster in that familiar Destiny typeface is “Destiny 2 – September 8th“, adding further credence to speculation that the Destiny sequel will launch in the early Fall.

Via PCGamer here is a look at the Italian Destiny 2 Poster:

Yesterday according to this Reddit post on r/PCGaming Destiny 2 briefly appeared on GameStop Germany’s public facing website listed for Windows PC. The listing has since been taken down and clicking the provided GameStop.de will simply redirect you to the store’s homepage. The thread is still an interesting read, not for new information on the unannounced sequel, but rather to see just how polarizing a game like Destiny can be. Some in the thread enjoyed the original despite its’ lack of story content, some see the potential of an MMOFPS but feel Destiny 1.0’s approach got it all wrong and others deridde the genre hybrid all together.  

None of this information is exactly new as industry veteran reporter Jason Schreier reported almost six months ago that Destiny 2 would indeed appear on PC. In his initial report, he stated that Bungie had decided that they wanted to shift the games’ multi-platform strategy to include PC in the full sequel even if that meant leaving behind all of the characters & content created for the first title.

In part his report said:

“Earlier this year, I’d also heard from a person familiar with Bungie’s plans that Destiny 2, which is currently slated for a late 2017 release, will be on PC…. Bungie’s leadership wants Destiny 2 to feel like a proper sequel, even if that means leaving old planets, characters, and activities behind. “

At the end of the day while we don’t have a lot of concrete details on the Destiny sequel these latest retail promotional material & listing leaks could point to an imminent reveal. Huge publishers do have a habit of sending promotional materials to specialty stores like GameStop ahead of product reveals, but these reveals are usually only days or at most a week separated from the shipment of said posters & promotional items. Remember how badly Ubisoft got burned a couple of years back when they shipped Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag posters early? 

 

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