Month: April 2015

Release date set for fall 2015 or early 2016?

Bungie confirmed back in November, as cited by Cinema Blend, that they were already producing the next game in the “Destiny” franchise. Many fans have speculated that the company was referring to “Destiny 2” and not a spin-off title or a DLC.

According to the website, Bungie is moving with a 10-year plan for “Destiny.” It is not clear if this 10-year plan would revolve around just one game or if several titles would fit together to tell one large story.

IBTimes reported that “Destiny 2” will allow players to move their characters and progression, including their gear, from the first game to the next. If the report is accurate, then this would make the transition more transparent and seamless while staying true to the 10-year plan for the game’s evolving storyline.

There is no official announcement regarding the release of “Destiny 2,” but the popular rumor spreading across the Internet is that the second game will come out in 2016 since “The House of Wolves,” the latest DLC for the first title, will be released in the middle of 2015.

However, Venture Capital Post surmises that “Destiny 2” may come out earlier than expected. According to the report, game publisher Activision has announced that players can look forward to another “Destiny”-related title coming out this fall. With no official word on a spin-off title or DLC after “The House of Wolves,” it very well may be “Destiny 2.”

Launching “Destiny 2” just a year after the first game may not be an entirely bad move for the company (the original “Destiny” was released in September last year). Annual/ bi-annual releases have worked for the “Halo” and “Call of Duty” franchises, and it may be the same model that Bungie is looking forward to with “Destiny 2.”

Neither Bungie nor Activision have confirmed the rumored release dates for “Destiny 2.”

Patch 1.1.2 Removes Blades of Crota from Destiny

Bungie recently updated Destiny with a hefty patch, weighing in at roughly 4.3 GB or so for current gen users. While the new options have been greatly appreciated, there seem to have been some unfortunate side-effects – like the removal of the Blades of Crota.

After The Dark Below launched, a new event of sorts was added to Patrol missions wherein a Hive Knight wielding the Sword of Crota would be available to murder. Killing the Knight would allow you to use the Sword and wreck havoc. Along with offering sword practice for the Crota’s End raid, it could also help users in completing bounties from Eris Morn, the new NPC introduced with The Dark Below.

However, Reddit users are now reporting a complete lack of Blades in maps like the Cosmodrome. You can still find a Blade of Crota in the Fist of Crota mission in The Dark Below. The problem is players who don’t own the expansion will miss out on fighting these enemies on Patrol missions and completing Eris’s bounties without necessarily buying the expansion.

Whether it’s a glitch or not remains to be seen so stay tuned for more information.

House of Wolves Info Revealed in Data-Mining Leak From Destiny

Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC finally has a release date, nearly six months after the game’s last major expansion went live, and a series of weekly dispatches from the folks at Bungie will help count down the final month separating the Destiny community from a new wave of post-launch content.

Earlier this week, Activision published the prologue video for Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC. The video dropped alongside news that we’re just over one month removed from the expansion’s release date and we’re already starting to get some idea of what to expect when House of Wolves goes live.

According to a follow-up post on Bungie.net, the studio behind Destiny will gradually unveil some of the new content from House of Wolves, beginning with a tour of The Reef on April 22. The road to Destiny’s second expansion also includes  some live gameplay previews of the new Trials of Osiris and Prison of Elders endgame content. Relatively little is known about the former, which was revealed this week, but Bungie has already confirmed the latter will be a “cooperative multiplayer arena.”

In addition to the upcoming House of Wolves reveals, Bungie published Destiny Update 1.1.2 this week, along with patch notes for the game’s latest update. The biggest change in this week’s patch is also the one that received the most publicity in recent weeks — the expansion of Destiny players’ vaults — but there’s plenty of other changes in the latest Destiny update.

Those interested in the complete patch notes for Destiny Update 1.1.2 can find them on Bungie.net.

If you haven’t yet, take a couple of minutes to check out the House of Wolves prologue video that debuted on Monday. Then head down to the comments section and let us know if the new expansion and/or Destiny Update 1.1.2 is enough to get you playing the game again with any regularity.

Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC is being developed for PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The expansion is currently scheduled to hit PSN and Xbox Live on May 19.

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Destiny coverage throughout the remainder of 2015 and for however long Activision and Bungie continue to publish new Destiny content in the years to come.

Update 1.1.2 is available to download today

After Bungie teased it for the last few weeks, Destiny update 1.1.2 is available to download today on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. As Bungie added, “Update 1.1.2 will make its way to all platforms gradually over the next few hours. Thank you for your patience.”

As a result, “Players will be returned to the title screen from their activities and then be required to log in to Destiny again after installing the patch.”

With update 1.1.2, you’ll see a Vault Capacity increase, colorblind support, audio controls, item lock, suspend/resume optimizations on PS4, and much more.

Here’s the full list of patch notes, as detailed by Bungie:

Spotlight Improvements & Additions

  • Vault Capacity increased to 24 Armor Slots, 36 Weapon Slots, and 24 General Slots
  • Disabled gear comparison in Vault on Xbox 360 & PS3 platforms to account for additional slot memory
  • Colorblind support (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia) added for highly color-driven gameplay elements: Motion tracker, Loot drops, Shield energy, Item categories
  • Audio Controls are now available in the Settings menu: Volume control, Music toggling
  • Item Lock now allows players to prevent gear and weapon items from being accidentally dismantled
  • The purple ball has been reborn in the tower as an interactive sphere with a parallaxed energy core that grows with object velocity and tints based off time of day

Weapons

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused a player to lose ammo when switching weapons while dead
  • Fixed a bug where ammo consumables did not reliably replenish ammo
  • Pocket Infinity behavior is less likely to fail during edge case conditions
  • 4th Horseman weapon stats restored to original intended values

Perks

  • Updated Thorn’s first-person player feedback poison effect
  • White Nail perk no longer triggers on immune targets
  • Defensive Reflex (Don’t Touch Me) perk no longer triggers on throwing knives
  • Performance Bonus ammo on Fusion Rifles reduced to match Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
  • Fixed an issue introduced in 1.1.1 that allowed Ice Breaker to persist ammo after respawn

World

  • Players can now choose to wear their helmets in social spaces
  • Quest loot pyramid baubles are now easier to spot
  • Added Quest indicator badges to the Tower when a Quest is either completed and ready to turn in
  • Increased Crota’s Bane Reputation rewards on Eris Morn’s bounties
  • Fixed a bug where Major Thralls had two jaws and two left hands
  • Fixed a bug where player’s equipped items did not receive experience from completing missions
  • Fixed a bug where the Black Garden Level 30 Featured Story was incorrectly listed at Level 28
  • Fixed a bug where Heavy Ammo consumables were not available for purchase from Xûr

Strikes

Cereberus Vae III

  • Valus Ta’Aruc’s strength has been reduced by 33%
  • Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Valus Ta’Aurc fight

Dust Palace

  • Dust Palace: Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Psion Flayer fight
  • Dust Palace: Lowered the strength on the Psion Flayers’shields

Raids

Vault of Glass

  • Vault of Glass will no longer display a highlighted activity notification despite players best efforts to remove it
  • Fixed a bug where splash damage could penetrate the Aegis bubble
  • Shield Relic melee attacks now land Minotaurs more consistently
  • Improved issues associated with walking through the teleport

Crota’s End

  • Crota will now wait until fully standing before a sword attack
  • Fixed a bug where the sword immediately despawned after killing a swordbearer
  • Swords will now last a full 30 seconds after being picked up

PvP

General

  • Greatly reduced the weighting of Blind Watch and Firebase Delphi in Control, Iron Banner, and Inferno Control playlists
  • Fixed a bug where a player that was killed by an enemy could commit suicide and be revived for points
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving points for neutralizing a control zone
  • Fixed a bug where capture points were not properly disabled after the game ends
  • Added incremental revive timers to Skirmish and Salvage: Each time a teammate revives you, it takes longer before you can be revived again (currently +5s each revive)
  • Stopping Power now requires Shotgun kills instead of sprees
  • Target Practice now requires Hand-Cannon kills instead of sprees
  • Electrocutioner now requires Fusion Rifle kills instead of sprees

Maps

  • Anomaly: Added invisible physics over the pool table to keep people from hiding
  • Shores of Time: Added kill volume to the open edge of “A” cave in to keep players from hiding
  • The Burning Shrine: Moved the spawn point to fix camera view

Ammunition

  • Crates are now visible for all players long before they are available to pick up, with a countdown timer added to show when they will arrive
  • Guardians no longer drop Special ammo on death
  • Lowered the amount of Special ammo picked up from crates (from 50% to 25%)
  • Special Ammo crate respawn time raised (from 45 seconds to 120 seconds)
  • Increased drop radius when a friendly picks up a Special crate (from 20 meters to 100 meters)
  • Slightly increased interaction time on Special Ammo crate (from 0.1 seconds to 0.8 seconds)
  • Reduced the number of Special crates on the maps and relocated them (from 6-8 crates to 3-5 crates)
  • Special and Heavy ammo bricks now despawn when a player dies or on a timer (20 seconds for Special, 30 seconds for Heavy)
  • Heavy ammo now lets everyone know which player or Faction picked up ammo
  • Increased warning time on Heavy ammo (from 10 seconds to 15 seconds)

UI

  • New visual treatment to Quest nodes and nodes that involve Quest activities or steps
  • Players can now click the left stick to hide the UI when inspecting items, for screenshotting/sharing purposes
  • Fixed a bug where precision kills did not appear correctly in the PGCR
  • UI flyouts are now easier to navigate (i.e. “Amazon Flyout Menu”)

Audio

  • Fixed an issue where Stealth Vandal audio was being suppressed by gunfire or other loud sounds
  • Titan Ward of Dawn now has audio indicators at low energy so players can more easily read when it will time out
  • Players walking into enemy Wards of Dawn now hear a sound when blindness is applied

Companion

  • Fixed issue where Combined Arms Grimoire card was pointing to the wrong unlock conditions
  • Fixed issue where Grimoire cards were awarding the incorrect number of Grimoire points

Technical

  • Fixed a rare soft-lock when a player’s internet connection drops
  • Clarified error that displays when user has insufficient hard drive space
  • Better handling of rest mode/resume on PS4

As we learned yesterday, the House of Wolves expansion launches this May, but it won’t include a new Raid.

Destiny Share Can Benefit From ‘House of Wolves’ Ditching Its Raid

Yesterday, Bungie announced something we were all expecting, a May release date for Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC, and something no one was, that the new expansion would not contain another Raid.

 

Rather than introducing another complex, six-man activity, Bungie instead revealed a few details about another type of mission called the “Prison of Elders.” They describe it as “a new cooperative end game activity focused on variety, replayability, and skill.”

They refer to it as a “battle arena,” which many fans have taken to mean that Prison of Elders is some sort of co-operative Horde Mode type activity where players (in groups of three, not six) will work together to survive waves of enemies. Though Bungie says in the statement they are working on a new Raid to be released later this year (which jives with a timeline anticipating a big new content drop in the fall), House of Wolves will not have one.

 

The community seems pretty stunned by the decision, given that the Raid has always been the ultimate endgame of Destiny content, both in the original game, and now recently in the first DLC, Crota’s End. Without more details about what the Prison of Elders will contain, it can be hard to tell if the decision is a wise one, but obviously many fans are making up their minds already that this is a very bad thing.

I’m not so sure, and I think once again the most engaged, vocal fans about an issue like this are forgetting the true make-up of the Destiny playerbase.

New Patch Offers New Feature That Could Help Prevent Accidental Item Deletion From Destiny

Bungie announced earlier this week that the studio has already “completed” their work on the next update for their hit first-person shooter video game, “Destiny.”

As indicated in the official Bungie blog post update, Patch 1.1.2 will see the new feature that could help prevent accidental item deletion. Meanwhile, there’s also the improvement of weapons and ammo features for Crucible.

User Interface Engineer Daniel Hanson speaks about the item deletion issue:

“One recurring story we keep seeing involves Legendary and Exotic gear getting accidentally dismantled by errant pets and over-enthusiastic children. We decided to empower players to protect their precious gear with Item Locking,” Hanson said (via Bungie).

The Item Locking feature requires players to highlight their favorite item and then click down on the right thumb-stick to secure the item.

“It’ll be safe until you unlock it,” Hanson went on to explain.

Then there’s also the improvement for the weapon and ammo features in Crucible.

Kevin Yanes, who works as Crucible Designer, pointed out a few improvements which include:

  • Making Special Ammo “a more precious resource”
  • Putting further emphasis on the Heavy Ammo’s role
  • Limiting the high-damage weapons

“The recent update to sandbox balance was the first step. Creating a new system to manage ammo drops will enable us to adjust the Crucible experience without altering other activities in your Director. We believe that making ammo more scarce and important will provide players with more choices and more memorable encounters in Crucible,” Yanes said.

As further explained by Yanes, Special Ammos will “spawn less frequently” in Patch 1.1.2.

“…it will take longer to pick up, there will be less crates located on the map, and the bricks you find will provide you with less ammo,” he said.

Further details about the Destiny Update 1.1.2 will be provided for in the upcoming Patch Notes.

Destiny Share ‘House of Wolves’ DLC Gets A Release Date And A Trailer

But now Bungie is starting to dole out actual information about House of Wolves, namely when we’ll actually see it released. The expansion will be out May 19th, and the announcement debuted alongside a new “Prologue Trailer” which can be seen below.

The 100-second spot is a prerendered, not-in-engine cutscene, which is a relative rarity for Destiny. It’s narrated by the Awoken Queen of the Reef (voice actress Kirsten Potter) who explains that after showing the Fallen mercy, the Awoken were betrayed by them. She’s “offering the riches of the realm” as bounty for Guardians to come into the Reef and exact vengeance on the Fallen.

The clip confirms what most have known for a while about House of Wolves, that we’ll be working for the Queen and the Reef will be a new, playable area, at least in part. I suspect that it won’t be the size of a full-on planet like the zones we see in Earth, Mars , Venus and the Moon, but a genuine new area is something to celebrate nonetheless, as the first DLC, Crota’s End, only unlocked a few nooks and crannies of existing maps.

Also promising is the idea that there might actually be some semblance of story attached to this DLC, including hopefully new cutscenes which expand on the lore of the game. The Queen and her brother are characters we’ve already encountered in the game to date, and already this would seem to be more involved story-wise than Crota’s End, which introduced its story through the addition of a new Tower vendor alone whose exposition was limited to a handful of mission voiceovers.

It seems likely that Bungie has worked to rectify many of the problems of Crota’s End, hence the delay between the last DLC and this one. Crota’s End came out just three months after the release of the original game, but now House of Wolves won’t arrive until the end of May, meaning it’s going to be about five and a half months in between the last two pieces of content. The delay means more fans have probably lost interest in the game, but if the content itself is good enough, it could bring them back.

I think it’s great Bungie took some extra time with House of Wolves, and I have to imagine they’ll have learned a lot from Crota’s End. They’ll have had to, given that the most common sentiment I heard among fans after the release of the first DLC was “if House of Wolves is just like this I’m done.

The super-rare gear sale this weekend from Destiny

Xur deals in Destiny’s so-called “exotic” gear. In a game ruled by random loot drops from virtually any scenario, exotics are the most sought-after of them all. They’re also the only class of gear in the game with usage restrictions; namely, you can only have one exotic armor piece and one exotic weapon equipped at any given moment.

Every Friday is a holiday when you’re a Destiny fan. That’s when Xur, Agent of the Nine, appears in a random part of the game’s Tower social hub to peddle his rare weapons and armor. As long as you have enough Strange Coins, a rare currency that can be earned by completing Weekly Heroic Strikes, Xur has the goods for you.

Xur’s in the Tower from 4 a.m. ET on Friday to 4 a.m. ET on Sunday. To find him, hook a right on your way to the Tower hangar. Let’s take a look at what he’s got in stock for the weekend of April 10 to 12.

The Armamentarium (Titan chestpiece): This Titan chestpiece is for players that like to bring massive firepower to bear on anything standing in their way. In addition to boosting both special and heavy weapon ammo capacities, The Armamentarium — once upgraded — also gives Titans a second grenade to toss. Cost: 13 Strange Coins

ATS/8 ARACHNID (Hunter helmet): This helmet is mostly of interest to Hunters that like to run the Gunslinger sub-class. Its Arachnid Sensorium upgrade increases the range of the Gunslinger’s Golden Gun “super ability,” while its Ashes to Asset upgrade refills the super’s meter faster with every grenade kill. There’s also a third upgrade, Light the Blade, that reduces the cooldown of the Hunter’s melee ability — for Gunslingers, that’s a throwing knife — when dealing damage with a grenade. Cost: 13 Strange Coins

Starfire Protocol (Warlock chestpiece): Starfire Protocol is basically the Warlock’s version of The Armamentarium, but it’s only of interest to the Sunsinger sub-class. Boosts to heavy weapon ammo and fusion rifle ammo are handy, but the marquee upgrade for Starfire gives Sunsinger Warlocks a second fusion grenade to toss. Cost: 13 Strange Coins

SUROS Regime (auto rifle): Long one of Destiny’s most sought-after exotic weapons, SUROS Regime is available to buy from Xur this week. This auto rifle has a number of features that make it unique, starting with the Focused Fire upgrade. Once unlocked, SUROS switches from a high rate-of-fire bullet hose to a slower firing, higher damage headshot beast as the user moves between hip fire and sighted aiming, respectively. Then there’s the upgrade that the weapon is named for, which causes the bottom half of each magazine to deal bonus damage and potentially restore some health to the user. As with any Destiny gear that has healing capabilities, this is most useful during the final phase of the Crota’s End raid, when healing is limited. Cost: 23 Strange Coins

Exotic Chestpiece engram: Destiny’s engrams are unidentified gear that spit out a random item when “decoded” by the Cryptarch vendor in the Tower. Xur occasionally sells exotic engrams in exchange for another rare currency, “Motes of Light.” It’s always a roll of the dice when you buy an exotic engram. Given that Destiny’s next expansion, House of Wolves, is likely just a few weeks away, it’s probably a good idea to hang onto your Motes and wait to see what the DLC brings. Cost: 23 Motes of Light

Exotic Shard: This crafting material was introduced alongside Destiny’s first expansion pack, The Dark Below. One is required to fully upgrade any exotic gear, weapon and armor both. You can always get a “free” exotic shard when you dismantling an exotic, but Xur sells them every week.

In addition to the gear, Xur also peddles a rotating stock of consumables every week. For this week, he’s got Pulse Rifle Telemetry, Hand Cannon Telemetry and Machine Gun Telemetry (temporarily increases the XP gains on the designated weapon class) in bundles of five, for 1 Strange Coin apiece; a Plasma Drive that boosts the speed and durability of rare Sparrows (Destiny’s speeder bikes), for 23 Strange Coins; an Emerald Coil, which works the same as a Plasma Drive but also adds a green contrail to the Sparrow, also for 23 Strange Coins; and bundles of five Heavy Ammo Synthesis (ammo packs, y’all), for 1 Strange Coin.

If you want to dive even deeper on the relative value of Xur’s offering this week, head over to the Destiny subreddit. User aWrySharK provides weekly analysis that breaks down the stat rolls on each armor piece, complete with recommendations covering what’s worth it and what’s not. Check out this week’s rundown right here.

House Of Wolves DLC Will Be ‘Intense’ And Dark Days Ahead For Guardians

Some news for you Guardians still amongst us that are surely beginning to feel a little bit bored waiting on the House of Wolves to drop. Kirsten Potter, Voice Over Actress that worked on Destiny power leveling, has taken to Twitter to both inform and disappoint. She said, “Just recorded some cool stuff with Team Bungie. House of Wolves shaping up to be pretty intense. There are dark days ahead, Guardian!”

This of course points towards the DLC still not being quite complete. Which is a bit of a kick in the teeth especially given the fact that the release date is right around the corner. However, it will surely be interesting to see what these “dark days” will be, especially if the Queen of the Reef is warning you about them.

 

Now might be a good time to grind out some better armour, just to be on the safe side. Destiny is now available on the PS3, Ps4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and hopefully one day on the PC. For more on Destiny check out our hub page here.

Bungie weekly update detailing the fate of PVP changes from Destiny

While Bungie still is not ready to reveal a release date for the next major Destiny update, the studio has shed light on yet another noteworthy change coming to the game’s competitive mode. If you have upgrade trouble, you can find destiny power leveling.

According to the developer’s weekly update, ammo within the Crucible is getting a few modifications in order to change the the general flow of PVP matches. As such, Special ammunition will be a “more precious resource,” as Bungie seeks to create a more balanced landscape for those playing against one another online.

Limiting high-damage weapons and clearly defining the role of Heavy ammo within the shared-world shooter’s PVP is a major goal of the studio as well, undoubtedly altering the way gamers will have to approach online battles.

For more on Destiny, you can read all about the forthcoming changes that were revealed last week.