New stores opening at USA from Destiny

Syracuse, N.Y. — Lots of tenants are shifting spots at Destiny USA and a few new stores are set to open.

Here’s an update:

On the new tenant front, work is coming along on Nordstrom Rack. Rack, Nordstrom’s off-price unit, is set to take up a huge chunk of space on the first level of Destiny’s expansion section.

The barricades for the 33,000-square-foot store extend almost the entire length of one side of the corridor just off the Canyon. The retailer is swallowing up space once occupied by Tod’s, which has closed, and Puma, along with some previously vacant space.

Puma moved and is now located in the spot that was home to Hickey Freeman until it closed earlier this year. Rack will be across from a number of Destiny’s high-end outlets including Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo and Brooks Brothers.

It’s set to open this fall.

Construction barricades are still up for Jared The Galleria too. It’ll be right near Rack’s new store on the expansion’s first level. Also coming soon at Destiny is Threads, a men’s and women’s fashion and accessories store that will be located where Envy U and XSRE were on the second level of the expansion.

Via Roma, a menswear retailer, is set to open on the second level of the mall’s older section where Cortefiel was located before it closed. That’s between Ann Taylor and the Apple store. You know Deb, the mall stalwart, is out of business. But its space at Destiny wasn’t empty long. Lane Bryant is moving in temporarily.

Lane Bryant’s old location just down the hall is getting a facelift, which should wrap up by the end of June. The store will open in the temporary space Wednesday. Also on the move is Cooperstown Connection. It’s moving to the former location of Ecko Unltd. on the expansion’s second level. That’s down the hall from its old spot near Chico’s.

And Guitar Outlet moved from the expansion to the former location of Ruum, the childrenswear store, on the first level of Destiny’s older section. No info from the mall yet on plans for the old Cooperstown and Guitar Outlet locations.

Two more: There’s a new retailer, New York Fashions, open in the second-level connector between the mall’s old and new sections on the Lord & Taylor side. And Toys R Us Express is opening soon on the second level of the older section near Banana Republic.

The latest teaser trailer for the second DLC instalment from Destiny

Rockstar has warned fans to update their password protection on their Social Club accounts to avoid them being hijacked. Fans have been reporting problems with accessing GTA 5 due to being locked out by people who have managed to steal their user details.

However, Rockstar has also stressed that the Rockstar Social Club has not been compromised. Fans have been opening tickets via the Rockstar Support page on Twitter to try to restore full access to their accounts which seem to have been hijacked through another website or database.

Destiny’s latest teaser trailer for the second DLC instalment, House of Wolves, has revealed new details about the level changes set to be implemented. The new content will allow players to reach at least light level 34 after the clip ran through all the new features set to be added and briefly focussed on a character screen who had reached it. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade more quickly.

The video also revealed the new reef social space, characters, and gear upgrades. The level cap was originally raised for the The Dark Below expansion, with the light level system rising from 30 to 32. Fans are still waiting for the official announcement from Bungie but all looks set to be revealed during a live stream demonstration on April 22.

The Bungie team will begin to roll out information for the upcoming Destiny Expansion II: House of Wolves from 19:00, with Deej (Bungie Community Manager) hosting  the livestream straight from the studio with Christopher Barrett (Bungie Creative Director) and community member Gothalion.

They’ll take viewers through a live tour of the brand new social space, The Reef, while discussing the new content, new vendors and more. Wednesday, April 22: Bungie and special community guest Gothalion on Twitch for a tour of the The Reef can be watched below:

Remedy, the makers of Xbox title, Alan Wake, has revealed that a sequel in the series could be available on all platforms. The original title was a console exclusive on the Xbox 360 but things could all be different after production wraps on Quantum Break for Xbox One.

“Ultimately, these things are business decisions,” Remedy Chief Creative Officer Sam Lake told Polygon.  “We are definitely not ruling anything out and looking at different opportunities, but nothing is set in stone at the moment.” “When it comes to sequels it’s our thing, we can do whatever makes sense and what’s best for the franchise overall,”

“But obviously it depends on many different things. I think that regardless of the platform, a good sequel — while it continues the story of the original one — it’s still something that someone who hasn’t played the original one can enjoy and jump on board and dive into the setting and the world and enjoy themselves.”

Destiny: Broadcast To Show New Gear Upgrades And Areas

Now that we know that Destiny’s massively anticipated House of Wolves DLC expansion has an official release date of May 19th 2015, players of the popular multiplayer shooter have been clamouring for some new official information from Bungie. Sitting at just over a month away, the House of Wolves has been a long time coming, or at least it feels that way for Guardians.

To help appease the masses that have been diligently waiting for their next Destiny fix, Bungie have scheduled a Twitch broadcast that will show off a number of the new gear upgrades coming to the game, as well as some of the new areas that until now have only really been seen by glitching your way through certain areas of the game.

The stream will be going live at 11 a.m. Pacific, which is around 2 p.m. Eastern, on Bungie’s official Twitch channel. If you’re interested in the upcoming DLC, then this is a must see stream for sure.

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.

House of Wolves Release Date Coming Soon from Destiny

The latest weekly update on the Bungie blog indicates gamers won’t have to wait much longer for information, with news regarding a release date expected before the end of the month.

Since “The Dark Below” was released in December, “Destiny” gamers have played and replayed content a thousand different ways. The patient wait for the game’s next major DLC pack, “House of Wolves” continues, but at least fans now know when they can expect more news.

As noted by Gamespot, “The House of Wolves” is believed to launch with a new storyline focusing on the Awoken, an exclusive raid, three new Crucible maps, a new Fallen Strike and new weapons, armour and gear. Gamers who purchased the “Destiny” Expansion Pass will be able to access “House of Wolves” without paying anything extra, while the DLC is available to purchase separately for $20.

“The next expansion for Destiny is something we’re really looking forward to talking about. This month, there will come a day when we’ll reveal a release date for the trials that await you, with a whole reef of details soon to follow – but it is not this day,” read the blog post, by Bungie community manager, Deej.

The tease may seem cruel, but at least gamers will still have the weekly Heroic and Nightfall Strikes to keep them busy. Regular “Destiny” data-miner, Megamanexe4 has spilled the beans on Reddit, indicating gamers are set for a level 24 Heroic Strike mission to the Mars Median Bay for a showdown with Cabal Colossus Ultra; Valus Ta’aurc. Heroic and Lightswitch modifiers will be active, meaning hordes of enemies dealing greater damaged with increased aggression will be the order of the day.

The Weekly Nightfall offers up an even sterner challenge, with a level 30 Very Hard mission featuring Nightfall, Lightswitch, Angry and Juggler modifiers. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade more easy. As always, Nighftall means if the entire fireteam dies, players get kicked back to orbit, Angry sees enemies that don’t flinch even in the face of massive damage, while Juggler means enemies don’t drop ammo for currently equipped weapons.

Players looking for a leg up on Valus Ta’aurc can check out a video hosted on the DPJ – Daily Destiny Videos YouTube channel, which shows Guardians of all classes how to cheese the boss. Players will need to make their way up to a hidden spot in the battle arena, from where they can headshot Ta’aurc with ease, whilst staying behind cover.

That said, experienced players may have no need of the cheese. As noted by Polygon, Destiny aim to make some raid bosses, including Valus Ta’aurc a little easier in the near future. Finally, the developer is also planning on temporarily banning a small number of toxic players from matchmaking. Bungie said the offenders are chronic idlers who who sit idle in competitive and cooperative multiplayer, damaging the experience for others.

Destiny Share Update Sees Raid Fixes, Strike Improvements and More

Bungie recently released some important details for the “Destiny” upcoming Patch 1.1.2. Slated to be released alongside the game’s upcoming second expansion, House of Wolves, the said update will see changes on raids, Destiny power leveling make you upgrade easy, strikes and improvements on player usage.

As pointed out in the studio’s official update blog site, the next upgrade will bring in the needed fixes for the Atheon and Crota Raid bugs.

“In 1.1.2, we have an opportunity to make some targeted fixes. We prioritized a list of items based on community feedback and tried to hit the ones that have been the most important to players. In particular, we wanted to improve the Atheon and Crota boss encounters. They’re challenging enough without the game getting in your way,” senior designer Gavin Irby told Bungie.net.

More details about the Raid bug fixes will be provided when the Update Notes for Patch 1.1.2 is released, the site said.

The upgrade will also bring some Strike fixes which is said to improve the strikes gameplay. The blog cited User Research Lead, John Hopson particularly addressing the Cerberus Vae III Strike which, as he said, is “arguably the longest and hardest Strike in the Game.”

To answer the problem, production engineer Brenton Woodrow said that their goal now is to “ease up” on the difficulty of the strike.

“Our goal was to ease the difficulty for the least-completed strikes. In order to do this, we focused on the final boss encounters, which were fairly lengthy on higher tiers. We addressed this by reducing the strength for several of the major combatants,” Woodrow said.

Bungie will also begin handing out punishments to players who idle around during matchmaking activities.

“Sitting idle in Strikes and PvP has been on our radar for a while now, but it’s become clear that a small number of the worst idlers are responsible for damaging the experiences of thousands of other players,” Hopson said.

The site clarified the premise of the punishment by saying that only those “truly dedicated idlers” are to be reprimanded by “temporarily banning” them from the multiplayer activities.

Destiny Share New PVP Battleground Inferno Clash Hits This Week

Detailed on the Bungie blog, Inferno Clash will contain a few characteristics that were present in Inferno Control mode but has a heavier emphasis on scoring kills.

These include the removal of the radar on the HUD, placing only one set of heavy ammo crates per match, and simplified scoring. For the latter, Bungie has removed “as many scoring events as possible” and made it so that assists will no longer be awarded points. The map rotation will also be carried over from Inferno Control, which featured the following maps featured in the line-up:

  • The Anomaly
  • Firebase Delphi
  • Twilight Gap
  • Rusted Lands
  • Shores of Time
  • Blind Watch
  • Asylum
  • The Burning Shrine
  • The Cauldron
  • Pantheon

Destiny’s upcoming patch 1.1.2 update will introduce a few tweaks to the game in preparation for the House of Wolves expansion. This includes increasing the capacity for players’ storage vaults, which are currently capped at 20 slots each. The update will also implement new audio options, a feature for colorblind players, and various gameplay fixes.

Destiny Share New Queen’s Wrath Bounties

The baking of Queen’s Wrath was likely drawn out further as resources were split between updating Destiny and getting The Dark Below expansion ready for release. However, it appears that it could return with The House of Wolves based on these bounties discovered in DestinyDB by a sharp-eyed Redditor.

The first Queen’s Wrath PVE event received mixed reviews from Destiny players when it was first released a couple of weeks after the game’s launch. A mid-event patch was needed once Bungie realized how easy it was for players to rack up Ascendant Shards. The developer then announced the event was “going back into the oven for a while” at the end of October 2014.

New Queen’s Wrath Bounties

  • Moluk, Wormwaker – Defeat Molik, Wormwaker in “The Seeding” mission in the Cosmodrome on Earth.
  • Nycor, Reborn – Defeat Nycor, Reborn in “The Veil Lifted” mission in the Cosmodrome on Earth.
  • Watchers of Crota – Defeat the Watchers of Crota in “The Wakening” mission on the Moon.

The first two listed above are missions that appear to come with The House of Wolves expansions. Meanwhile, the Watchers of Crota bounty refers to a mission from The Dark Below.

These new bounties plus the pre-existing Queen’s Wrath bounties are all classified as “Reef” bounties. I can’t recall if they were classified as such when the original event was released, but it lines up with the new Reef social space outed in a recent Destiny leak.

Those aren’t the only new bounties discovered. There’s also a new Vanguard bounty.

  • Battle Scars – Earn 20000 Experience in story missions with the Epic modifier active.

And, a new Iron Banner bounty.

  • Salvaged Hope – Participate in the capture of 15 Salvage zones while competing in the Iron Banner tournament.

The Iron Banner bounty is interesting, because it is based on the Salvage game type. All six of the Iron Banner events to date have run the Control gametype. Could the PVP special event be due for a shakeup as well?

It’s good to see that Bungie hasn’t forgotten the Queen’s Wrath and there has been work done on it. Hopefully, it can help fill in some of the mid-game content where Destiny hits a lull between when players complete the campaign and when they can start participating in raids.

The House of Wolves is expected to bump up the starting levels for Heroic and Nightfall Strikes plus the Strike Playlist. Mid-game content will become more and more important as Destiny continues to expand.