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
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.
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.
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.
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.
You might have already heard the news yesterday: Ubisoft mentioned on their Investor’s Call that “Player Recurring Investments” (read: microtransactions) have outpaced the sale of full price and discounted digital copies of their games for the first time ever. In terms of raw numbers of the 343 million euros the company made from their digital businesses 175 million Euros were the result of “Player Recurrent Investments” (which include microtransactions, add-on DLCs, Rainbow Six Siege Season Passes, subscriptions and those sorts of things). The 83% rise in microtransaction purchases over the past year for Ubisoft could signal the tipping point where small recurring payments within the AAA games we play outpaces traditional complete products for the foreseeable future.
I’m certainly not calling this the “death of the $60 game” or “the decline of games as a complete product” but there is no denying that over the past year major game studios have tried to forcefully inject smaller purchases into franchises that have not been known to use the previously mobile only lootboxes / battle crates / whatever you’d like to call them. What started with cosmetic item crates in Overwatchhas quickly morphed into Warner Bros Interactive selling Legendary Orcs for real money in Shadow of War, players being able to purchase level-ups and weapon power in Fortnite‘s PVE mode and most recently random lootbox exclusive mount skins in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2.
A slide outlining the “digital revenue split” between Digital Distribution and Player Recurring Investments.
Tempting players with the chance of highly coveted items, exclusive skins and other valuables for only a small amount of cash does sound an awful lot like gambling. Yes, there is no chance of getting “nothing” when you purchase an Overwatch loot box but the disappoint that comes when you open a box that contains nothing but duplicates, sprays and the occasional voice lines became such a meme within the community that the Overwatch team found it necessary to fiddle with the odds found within loot boxes so that duplicates are less prevalent.
While I’m on the topic of odds – popular public contests like Mcdonald’s Monopoly, Casino tables and slot machines in British Columbia and other games of chance have to clearly outline the odds that a player faces before they make their decision. The gaming industry has not faced threats of regulation when it comes to disclosing odds to players in North America yet but the Chinese government is well ahead of us and passed a law requiring game makers to disclose the odds of “random drops” within their titles. In the Chinese version of Overwatch you have the probability of one “legendary item” (the highest rarity) for every 13.5 loot boxes. If you try to roughly convert that to $USD or time spent depending on the calculations used you’re either spending $7.99 USD (for 14 lootboxes) or roughly 20 hours of gameplay time FOR THE CHANCE of unlocking a legendary item, not necessarily the one you want.
Are we at a turning point? Only time will tell but here’s hoping that the discussions around microtransactions, gacha style loot boxes and random chances for real world money within gaming face some kind of regulations in the near future. I know personally I’ve spent a good chunk of spare change on loot boxes and microtransactions over the past year and I don’t feel any happier or better off since I did. It would have been nice to know that to get that Soldier 76 Grillmaster Skins during the first summer games would have cost me 20 hours of my life just for the chance…
Pictured in the header: Overwatch’s loot boxes, Fortnite’s Llamas, Shadow of War’s crates, Tess’ Eververse in Destiny 2, Heroes of the Storm’s loot boxes and Guild Wars 2’s Mount Adoption Certificate. Embedded in this post is an amazing video by Jim “Fucking” Sterling, Son!
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
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:
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.
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.
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.
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,”
We’re twelve hours away Guardians! In no time The Tower will fall to the might of the Cabal and everyone will turn to us to protect the last bastion of humanity. Torn from the light of The Traveler and forced to struggle back to regain our power, we need to stand united! What better way to feel that strength that with an 80’s cartoon parody intro!
The theme from Thundercats gets remade for Destiny 2 in this sweet animation created by pandamusk!
Get ready everyone! The Speaker needs us. Earth needs us. Obsessive Engram collecting and discovering new loot caves needs us!
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.
Another E3 has come and gone and now all of the developers and publishers have packed up from the LA Convention Centre for another year. After a week of impressions, live streaming videos and major announcements – what games & announcements can we can put in the ‘win’ column and which left a sour taste in viewers’ mouths? Here are three of the biggest wins and fails of E3 2017. Let us know your pick the for win and fail of E3 in the comments section!
Win
Michel Ancel Finally Gets To Debut Beyond Good & Evil 2
BG&2 has become somewhat of a running vaporware joke at this point, with 13 years separating us from the original’s release it is no surprise fans have let this one go. Ubisoft shocked everyone when Michel Ancel took the stage after a CG trailer that introduced us to a brand new rag-tag group of bounty hunters. Instead of the sequel, starring Jade, that everyone was expecting – we’re getting an expansive game with a diverse cast of characters like Knox the chimpanzee. In the most tear jerking moment of E3 2017 – Ancel was joined by the entire BG&E 2 team who were at E3 after the trailer rolled, for an on-stage embrace that will be remembered for some time to come.
Samus Returns, Not Once But Twice
Metroid fans have waited a long time for their heroin to return to her space bounty hunting ways on a Nintendo platform. After missing the Wii U generation entirely, Samas Aran is coming back to Nintendo’s consoles in two big ways: The unexpected announcement of a Metroid II: The Return of Samus remake for 3DS due out this Fall and the news that development of Metroid Prime 4 has begun with the help of an unnamed development studio that is not Retro Studios. Here’s hoping that Prime 4 brings the excellent atmospheric First Person Adventuring that we’ve come to expect from the series. With more than a decade of anticipation behind it, Prime 4 is going to have some big boots to fill when it arrives sometime in the future.
The Force Is Strong With Battlefront II
A gameplay reveal for Star Wars Battlefront II could have been a by the numbers amalgamation of pre-recorded gameplay footage combined with fake e-sports commentators but EA went all on one of this Fall’s biggest shooters. By bringing together 32 of e-sports most talented players and live commentators EA created a sense of authenticity and excitement for Star Wars Battlefront II’s first time in the spotlight. Sure there were some cheesy moments like a commentator announcing “this is why people play Star Wars games” as two ships circle each other in a dogfight that contained absolutely zeros shooting but the smiles on player’s faces and the on-screen action told a different story: that Star Wars BattleFront 2 is a blast to play and even as a pre-alpha early E3 build.
Fail
We’ve Seen Sony’s E3 2017 Line-up Before
Sony’s E3 2017 press conference almost felt like the greatest hits of games they’ve already revealed in years past. Sure the Shadow of the Colossus complete remake is pretty cool, but that game has been available on two generations of Sony hardware already. God of War and Detroit both got new gameplay demos, but those titles won’t be out until at least the 1st quarter of next year if not later. The only true surprise was the extended gameplay demo of Spider-Man but that doesn’t have a release date except for a vague ‘2018’. It wasn’t so much that Sony put on a bad show, it’s just that outside of a few smaller reveals and the wow of Spider-Man we’ve seen these titles before in extended on-stage demos. They do get a number of points from me for putting PlayStation VR up and center in a concise and easy to understand way. Shame they didn’t speak the word, PS Vita, even once, perhaps the time has passed for the 5-year-old handheld.
Destiny 2 Was Missing In Action
I’ve already shared most of my thoughts on Bungie’s next FPS being absent from major coverage despite being playable on the show floor. It seems that the content that Bungie brought to E3 this year was the same sing-player mission and strike that we saw raw gameplay of during last month’s reveal. The only new pieces of Destiny 2 information we got through the course of this year’s show was a month and a half delay for the PC version and the expected reveal of PlayStation exclusive content. Sony and Bungie could have done so much more here.
X Doesn’t Mark The Spot For The Xbox One X
Microsoft’s job at their E3 2017 press conference was to convince both existing Xbox One owners and those of us who haven’t picked one up that the Xbox One X (formerly Project Scorpio) would be worth the cash. Thankfully they spent a good amount of time prior to E3 2017 detailing the hardware specs and capabilities of Xbox One X with Digital Foundry. Rather than dedicate a good chunk of time going over numbers that didn’t mean anything (6 tera-flops anyone?) – Microsoft had to focus on games that would convince viewers that Xbox One was worth the wait. What they delivered was… well… I doubt Forza 7 and the promise of Bioware’s Anthem in 2018 are going to convince people that they should pick up an Xbox one right now. Microsoft showed a lot of games, but nothing really screamed “you MUST play this in 4K” – and considering the Xbox One X is $100 USD more than the comparable PS4 Pro without demonstrable difference between the two – it feels like Microsoft kinda blew it with the Xbox One X reveal.
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.
Destiny 2 had its big reveal at a media event in Los Angeles yesterday with a live streamed keynote presentation that included brand new details for the game, our first look at the game’s single player mission and a few small teases at what to expect from what will surely be one of this Falls’ most anticipated first person shooters. Media who attended the event were also able to capture raw gameplay footage from the PC build of the game, which will be released after an unspecified embargo date.
Watch The First In-Game Campaign Missions:
Known In-Game Locations:
European Dead Zone which is the new settlement of the Guardians after the first campaign mission ‘Welcome Home’.
One of the moons of Saturn, Titan will be featured in the campaign. After the collapse of earth’s colonies, this once bustling metropolis now exists among the sea of methane.
The robotic Vex from the first title return, now occupying PlanetoidNessus where players will encounter Cayde-6.
Sacred to the Warlocks is a moon of Jupiter which was one of the last places the technologically advanced traveler visited before the great collapse. Players will encounter Ikora within this location in the campaign.
Each of the four planets that are included in Destiny 2 won’t just be destinations to do patrols or other open world missions. All four of them will include towns, quests, NPCS and pieces of lore that will give guardians even more reasons to explore.
Weapons
Two new weapon types: Grenade Launchers and Chainguns.
Kinetic, Energy and Power weapon slots replace the first title’s Primary, Secondary and Heavy weapon system.
There will be overlap between these different weapon types, for example, Some weapons are both Kinetic and Power weapons all in one package.
The Weapons Menu will be instantly recognizable to existing Destiny players. Here are a few examples from GameSpots coverage of the game:
Things Destiny 1 Players Should Know
Your gear, weapons, items and currency will not carry over to Destiny 2.
Race, Class and Appearance choices will carry over from the 2014 original.
Destiny 1 veterans will receive other in-game rewards and acknowledgment for the time spent in Bungie’s world over the years.
Modes:
Player Vs Player (PVP) combat returns in Destiny 2 however the team sizes have been scaled down to 4 Vs 4. The original Destiny featured modes that were 3 VS 3, 6 player free for alls, 6 Vs 6 and other team compositions depending on the mode selected.
PVP Crucible mode will feature improvements to the HUD so that you can easily tell your teammates positions, objective position, objective status and team health.
One Raid has been confirmed for Destiny 2 but little is known about it at this time. Expect it to be similar to the other raids that we have had in previous iterations.
Single player returns with a stronger narrative focus.
Strikes and the more challenging Nightfalls will return for all of us who enjoy repeating the same missions over and over for experience.
Matchmaking is coming for Raids (in addition to the previously available matchmaking services for Strikes & Crucible) in the form of ‘Guided Games’. This new feature will work in conjunction with the new Clans system which will allow a single player to find a pre-formed party who might need an extra player or two to round out their roster.
Exclusive Content
There will be an open beta for Destiny 2 that will be available to all, just like the first game. There will also be a period of exclusivity for pre-order customers who put down $5 at Gamestop or other retailers.
Destiny 2 will support 4K resolution but as of right now it is currently exclusive to the PC.
An ‘Expansion Pass’ will allow Guardians to access the first two expansions for Destiny 2 Year One. A bundle with the Destiny 2 base game and the ‘Expansion Pass’ is priced at $89.99 USD.
The PC version of Destiny 2 will be exclusive to the Battle.net launcher – sorry no Steam integration or Windows Store version for Destiny’s debut on PC.
PlayStation 4 players once again receive exclusive content for one full year over other platforms. Details on what exactly this exclusivity entails will be announced at a later time.
PS4 Pro features & Xbox Scorpio features are expected to be revealed at E3.
Destiny 2 will be released worldwide for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox Scoprio on September 8th 2017.
We will have more Destiny 2 coverage as information, media and impressions become available. When the embargo time drops and raw gameplay footage begins to hit YouTube and other providers we will be sure to bring you a rundown.
