Or else

Let's get something straight. I didn't choose to play Destiny. It just showed up at my doorstep one day. One of my fellow editors here at Destructoid, the one and only Darren Nakamura, sent it to me out of the blue. Initially, I was inclined to throw the damned thing away and be done with it. Darren probably knew it was something I wouldn't enjoy. Nothing about it seemed remarkable. In my mind, it was -- at best -- a slick hybrid of a shooter and an MMO that had any rough ??edges polished to the point it no longer possessed a soul. But the numpty quelled my concerns and persuaded me into giving it a go.

Over the course of many moons, Darren dragged me through the main story, and I went kicking and screaming. I complained about everything. I was probably insufferable. Thankfully, Darren is a mild mannered, polo shirt-loving badass. A lesser man might have taken umbrage with some ingrate recounting a litany of beefs with his most generous gift. But not my mate Darren.

As we were finishing whatever the hell the story in Destiny is about, I received a disappointing reward from a character, the aptly named Stranger, who I had just met, knew next to nothing about, and would never see again. I also received another parcel from Darren. It happened to be a copy of The Taken King. Just when I thought I was out, he pulled me back in. With something he promised to be better, I relented and gave Destiny another chance.

At this point in time, Darren walked away. Like a drug dealer who had given some poor sod his first bump, he let me alone with my addiction. Soon after, I booted up Destiny for the first time without having been asked to play first. And, much to my surprise, I was gobsmacked by The Taken King's beginning sequence. From an entertaining opening cinematic to a story mission that actually integrated narrative with gameplay, it was unlike anything I had seen from Destiny before. It was?? what I wanted from the experience all alon??g and had hope it might become.

The Taken King isn't entirely like that. It often falls back on design structure that skews more closely toward the deeply flawed base game. However, there are enough sincerely enjoyable touches and flashes of brilliance that made it some?thing I continued to play solely for my own amusement, rather partly out of a sense of obligation to someone who sunk a lot of time and effort into intimately sharing something he had built up an appreciation for.

The narrative in The Taken King was, for once, comprehensible, and at times even managed to be endearing. Aside from Cayde, a sentient robot (portrayed by Nathan Fillion) who is always a joy to be around, the only other character that seemed to show some humanity was, ironically, the Ghost. Yes, the character so maligned Bungie replaced the voice over of Emmy-winning Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage? with the omniprese??nt vocal talents of Nolan North.

In an excellent line of dialogue, the protagonist's floating mechanical companion notes that Rasputin (a powerful artificial intelligence -- called a Warmind -- whose well-defended bunker the player is traipsing through at ??the time) has a nicer setup than his own, and then complains about living "in your backpack." In another, he facetiously remarks about another one of the more stoic, less deve?loped characters, saying he's probably not much fun at parties.

The Taken King has a few other standout moments that separate it from what came before. There is a stealth mission, which, while abrupt and raw, at least showed the designers tried? to do something different for once. Another section of the game deceives the player, leading them to believe a mission is over and they'll soon be transported back into orbit. But in a moment that breaks the fourth wall, the "mission complete" banner atop the screen is a ruse, and a horde of enemies comes out of the woodwork as the mission unexpectedly begins anew.

The first time I experienced this, I had set the controller down and was stretching my legs, as I expected to be waiting through another one of the game's inordinately long (but gorgeous) loading screens for a good long while. Instead, I was greeted with a quick death, and Darren howling in my ear. Rather than warn me and spoil the surprise, he let me die. That moment, more than any other in the countless hours I've whiled away with Destiny, truly distinguished itself. And not just from all the others spent blasting aliens in the face, but from all video games, save perhaps Eternal Darkness. It left a lasting impression. 

I sincerely hope to see Destiny move further in that direction moving forward. It needs characters who are actually characters, not vessels for poorly fleshed out narrative threads, or thinly-sketched actors that seemingly exist to?? offer transactional relationships and little more. It needs to pull story out of? the app and off the website and insert it back into the actual game. It needs fresh story beats and new ideas to punctuate the experience and break up the tedium.

The Taken King has given me hope for where Destiny might be headed. So, whenever Bungie and Activision get around to releasing that "large, new expansion" later this year, it would be wonderful if the game grew in those areas, where it clearly has budding potential. Otherwise, I might just have to bin Destiny 2 w?hen a copy inevitably shows up in the mail. (Sorry, Darren!)

The post Destiny’s next expansion needs more memorable moments appeared first on Destructoid.

Broken Valentines

When Bungie announced the Crimson Days event for Destiny, my heart sunk a bit. I mean the notion is nice, but really, we a??ll know? that the Tower makeover is basically just an excuse to sell more microtransactions.

"But you can pay for the [insert popular meme h?ere] Drake Dance." Should I just...uninstall it now, or?

Readers have asked when I plan on hanging up Destiny, and I think that time is this week. Nearly all of my raiding group wasn't feeling up to playing, and some, after dabbling in Crimson Days, quit in disgust. Yes, I'm being dramatic -- this is a video game about shooting various aliens with little to no in-game backstories (why didn't they take David Cross' material!)-- but that's just the reality. Destiny is a very good game that's just handled poorly. Let's take a look at what C?rimson Days entail?s.

The Tower is decorated with cute Valentine imagery, which is fun for a few minutes until you realize that it's not nearly as in-depth as the previous Festival of the Lost event, despite twice the hype and buildup. Then there's two free basic-level emot??es, and a handful of limited edition™ premium ones you can net for roughly $5. The cherry on top is a PVP mode called "Crimson Doubles," which pits two Guardians against another team of two, and then powers-up one member if the other dies (which is not actually beneficial if you play Bladedancer because it ruins your invisible effect -- oops!).

Okay, great! So how long does the fun last? Around 30 minutes. That's mostly because Crimson Doubles feels like a repackaged mode that's existed since the game's launch. After 15 or so games I have yet to see a Ghost (much less a 320 Ghost), which is the sole draw of the event for hardcore players. If Doubles were more fun, I'd be inclined to play it a bit to get my elusive Ghost, but since I'd likely have to grind it out for days on end to even see a viable drop,I'm just going to Jerry Seinfeld my way out of the situation now.

Even casual fans have been noting how much of a letdown Crimson Doubles is, because regular old Crucible gear is interspersed with the rewards. It's kind of like spending your afternoon doing Nightfalls at a Light Level of 315 to get a set of 305 Ghosts. This albeit limited survey suggests that getting a 320 ??Ghost is?? subject to a less than 1/500 chance.

The kicker? There's no matchmaking. Wait, what? Yep, due to some technical reason beyond Bungie's control, there is no matchmaking for this two-person, opposite of "massive" event (for those of you who insist the game is an MMO for some reason, despite the largest activity only supporting six players). Because the community is so great, and so passionate, they actually did a lot of Bungie's work for them and created their own fun Tinder-like matchmaking system. Like all of the good matchmaking platforms (DestinyLFG, /r/fireteams), they are unoff??icial.

To add insult to injury, the slightly different Ghosts and the reskinned PVP event is only available for one week. After that, it's back to thinking about how you want to break up w??ith the game. Did Bungie not make enough money to fund real DLC yet? AAA development really isn't sustainable if that's true, and the "1??0-year plan" for the series is looking rather bleak unless big changes happen on top.

It's crazy when you remember how much momentum Taken King had just a few months back.

The post Don’t even bother booting up Destiny for the Crimson Days event appeared first on Destructoid.

New poll floods inboxes

For weeks now, players have been sharing their frustrations with the direction of Destiny. If you just jumped into the game recently -- awesome! You have a ton of fun new stuff to do, including the base game, two previous expansions, and the Taken King add-on, which is a lot. But for those of us who have been playing since vanilla, the well has run d?ry. Which is a shame, as it's one of the best shooters from a te?chnical standpoint currently on the market.

Basically every recent event has been PVP oriented (and re-skinned), from head-to-head Sparrow racing, to Iron Banner, to "Crimson Doubles." Bungie hasn't added any new PVE content to the game in months (whatever happened to that Queen's Wrath event that was going "back in the oven," Bungie? I didn't forget!), and running the same raid is starting to get stale. I don't see nearly as many people from my old crew on anymore, as most of them shifted to the Division&nbs??p;beta last week, and are planning to move there full-time next month.

Bungo has to do something, even if it's providing some sort of roadmap as to what to expect before Destiny 2, because these fleeting tempo??rary events aren't really cutting it. They seem to be indirectly reaching out (probably as to not admit fault), as players have obtained an email asking how to "improve" the game. If you want it to actually im?prove, voice your concerns there.

The post Bungie to Destiny players: Are we having fun y?et?! appeared first on Destructoid.

Hey, get the door

[Update: Bungie has rectified the issue as of this afternoon.]

As if there already wasn't a reason to do the Nightfall (hello useless multiple 290ish Ghost rewards!), Destiny's weekly event is now broken this week. After the reset, tons of folks on reddit jumped in, onl?y to find out that the first half didn't actually have enemies, and then a crucial door wouldn't open.

It seems to be that way for nearly everyone (which the developer is investigating), which would be a rather unique approach for Bungie -- time-gating weekly activities. Enjoy your broken Nightfall and three looping raid challenges until the next fleeting event happens!

Man, Bungie really needs t?o revamp the old raids and add a new one soon.

Nightfall broken this week? [reddit]

The post PSA: Destiny’s Nightfall is broken at the moment appeared first on Destructoid.

Well that was short-lived

Over the course of the past month or so, we've seen the raid challenge mode in Destiny shift to the Warpriest, then Golgoroth, and Oryx. Now i?t's back to the Warpriest with the exact same challenge as the initial week, which is rather disappointing.

I don't know what I expected from Bungie, or why I think it'll actually implement something interesting from time to time. Initially, I thought maybe a few other encounters like the Totems or the Daughters would have chal?lenges, encouraging players to not just skip around or only do the challenge that week. Also, I thought it would possibly mix up the challenges for repeats and either add a new tactic or change things entirely.

Nope. It's the same old stuff, and Golgoroth will likely be up next week again. The reward??s are a 320 Sniper or 320 Heavy, and an Artifact.

The post Destiny’s weekly raid challenge is the Warpriest again appeared first on Destructoid.

December 29

For those of you who enjoy Destiny's Iron Banner PVP event, you won't have to sneak away from whatever? family events you're doing this Christmas week to play it. Bungie has announced that it will start on December 29, running for a week.

This lines up with the end of the SRL Sparrow Racing event, which so far has been a pretty major disappointment. The physics are still wonky, a lot of players just ram others inst?ead of actually racing, and the fact that there are only two courses ensures that it gets boring af??ter a single day of play.

Bungie [Twitter]

The post Iron Banner is coming back to Destiny this month appeared first on Destructoid.

All 16 detonations at once

The seemingly final raid challenge has cycled in for Destiny's King's Fall. The first offering was Warpriest, last week was Golgoroth, and now, skipping Daughters entirely, it's Oryx's turn. I managed to down him three times today with the challenge intact, b?ut it took some patience.

Simply put, 16 (or more) orbs of light need to detonate at once, which instantly brings Oryx down to 0% life. To do this, you'll need to go through four Ogre phases, leaving four orbs for each corner. That? way on the fourth run you can stand in the orb's wake, blow all of them up, and meet in the middle for the last part of the fight.

For most players, this isn't that much different than what they've already been doing if they haven't been using the "No Knight" strategy, it's just more tedious. There are no other qualifiers for this challenge -- anyone can die for example -- but if anything goes wrong on any of the runs, it can spell instant doom and a wipe. Sure, you can go an extra phase if a bomb is accidentally destroyed by a Knight (hence "more" than 12 orbs), but it just creates mor?e room for error.

To sum up the tedium, a full average Oryx run, due to the inherent timers involved that can't be bypassed, takes roughly 12 minutes. If at any point someone screws up, you'll have to start all over. In our runs, Ogres teleported instantly after spawning to the middle of the room no less than four times in different instances, causing an?? untimely end to our attempt. The less common glitch of a party member dying instant?ly after the Shade is killed after the third Ogre phase also was a kick in the teeth, because again, this challenge has very little wiggle room.

In the end though, it's not nearly as taxing as proper raids in real MMOs, and after a decent amount of practice most groups should be able to clear it within a day. Your reward is a 320 helmet or primary weapon, an artifa??ct, an emblem, and the King's Fall ship. Good luck! Someone in my group hit 320 today, but he also runs three Warlocks.

The post Destiny’s Oryx raid challenge is the hardest one to date appeared first on Destructoid.

Out for three weeks

Bungie laid out its plans going forward for Destiny today. Instead of providing full expansion-like experiences, they're going to be focusing on micro-events, like the Festival of the Lost Halloween activity at the Tower a few months back. The newest addition is Sparrow Racing (SRL), which is available today to pla????y for three weeks, until it's shelved again.

It's...fun to p?lay once or twice, that's about it.

Right now, there are two tracks available -- one on Mars, and another on Venus. That right there should clue you in as to the small scale of this hyped up event that was unveiled at PSX last weekend, and after a few hours with i?t, I'm basically done.

Core rewards include Sparrow racing gear (cosmetic) and vehicles. By ranking up with the new SRL faction that debuted in the newest update, you can earn a "chance" at "up to" 320 Light gear (helmets and class items). Anything introduced in the new microtransaction store will have a Light level of "3," so Bungie hasn't stooped to the pay-to-win scheme. You can also buy a book for $10 that keeps track of your stats and earns you more cosmetic gear -- only look at doing this if you really like racing after a few days, and don't grow tired of the pal??try track count.

You'll have to rank up all on your own without the use of microtransactions, by racing or completing SRL bounties (like "complete a race without blowing up once"). By completing five races you'll earn your SRL License, which grants you a free Sparrow. That's essentially the end of the main questline, and it's easy enough for everyone?? to do in under an hour. From there, you can grind out wins for horns, new vehicles, or a chance at said 320 Light gear. But you won't want to.

It's also crudely implemented as a lot of PVP crossover quests work with it, since it's technically a "Crucible" event. If you were expecting some sort of Mario Kart-esque minigame (why would you), prepare to be disappointed. Sparrow Racing features the same wonky physics as the core game, so occurrences such as tripping over random tiny objects like boxes and flipping out 100 feet into the air are still going to happen. The only new bit is boost pads scattered about each course, as hazards generally involve enemies firing at you, with the exception of one fun chasm on Mars that hosts three fan blades??.

I fully expect Bungie to bring this back every other month or so, with two new tracks each time, and the same mediocre rewards. If this is really what we have to look forward to for the next year or so, I'm pretty sure most of the hardcore crowd is just going to quit outright. The Sparrow event sums up Destiny in a nutshell -- a half-measure.

The post Destiny’s SRL Sparrow Racing is a middling and shallow diversion appeared first on Destructoid.

Haha

On the next episode of "as the nerf turns," it looks like Bungie is making pulse rifles and shotguns less effective in its big December update for Destiny. This follows an update in the 2.0 edition that actually made pu???lse rifles not terrible, and a similar update halfway into the 1.0 version's lifecycle that also made shotguns viable.

Additionally, auto rifles are being buffed slightly, as well as hand cannons. Sniper rifles, sidearms, and fusion rifles are roughly staying the same??. It's always interesting to see that Bungie can't alter weapon properties sep?arately for PVP and PVE modes, even though that system is already set up. As soon as they balance something for one mode, it suffers in an other, and the cycle continues. It would make sense to just balance both once and for all, but it's probably easier to switch things up so people keep playing.

Destiny Weapon Tuning – December Update [Bungie.net]

The post Bungie flip-flops, nerfs Pulse Rifles in Destiny right after b?uffing them appeared first on Destructoid.

Awful

So this is a weird one.

Over at the Destiny subreddit, they've uncovered something surprising, straight from Bungie. According to the official help section of the game's site, failing to go to orbit after an activity (read: a raid or Strike) will forfeit all of your postmaster rewards (anything you didn't pick up off the ground, or roll??s off the map).

This sounds obvious, but it's really not. After each raid is complete I typically use?? the "change character" function before I return to orbit, as it's a way faster means of swapping characters. Also, I generally log off immediately after my third raid of the week to do other things. There's really no point in going to orbit anymore with the dawn of the app, which allows you to swap items for your avatars. It's also not obvious at all that items are randomly lost by doing any number of these functions, including putting the PS4 into rest mode.

For all you Destiny players out there, this is a PSA of sorts, and something to be aware of. I've pro??bably missed out? on a ton of Exotic engrams because of this.

Engrams [Bungie.net via reddit]

The post Failing to go to or??bit in Destiny ?after an activity will nullify postmaster rewards appeared first on Destructoid.

Also, a Golgoroth map

To this day I run into people who have issues with the King's Fall jumping puzzle in Destiny's newest raid. It's never a problem having to wait (or if they go to orbit), as you only need a certain amount of players to finish it, but people can get frustrated, which isn't good. Thankfully, an intrepid Destiny player over on reddit created a cool looking 8-bit GIF (at variable speeds) to help people lea??rn the pattern. Give it ??a look below and have it burned into your memory.

Additionally, someone else has crafted a 3D image of the maze before?? Golgoroth, in? case you feel like doing the pressure plate puzzle. Check that out in the gallery.

King's Fall Tomb Ship Jump Puzzle Animated 8-bit [reddit]

The post If you’re having trouble with Destiny’s first King’s Fall jumping puzzle, consult these GIFs appeared first on Destructoid.

Just like the new Exotic weapon quests

While Destiny is still missing a lot of features, and the loot system is never quite right, Bungie has a ton of variables to account for since it's so massive. Most notably, a millions-strong community that will datamine the living shit out of the game, and even go so far as to mathematically map out every single facet of the experience and post their finding??s on reddit. The community is dedicated, to say the least.

Likely as a result of these actions, Bungie has taken to time-gating a lot of high-end content as of this expansion. Most notably many Exotics have been gated behind daily missions, which only pop up once (for a full day) every one or two weeks or so. So far it hasn't been a massive hassle, even if it's a lazier way of i?ntroducing lengthy questlines.

It seems as if Bungie is using this strategy for the raids, too. Some time ago Destiny producer Luke Smith spoke to "challenge modes" for the raid, gifting players with special loot if they met certain requirements on specific fights (presumably Warpriest, Golgoroth, Daughters, and Oryx). Players have been rapidly searching for any hint as to these challenges, along with the last three Calcified Fragments, to no avail.

As it turns out, they're time-gated, as confirmed by Smith today. The challenges are "not active yet," and more info will come in "several weeks." The remaining three fragments are a part of that event. If I had to guess, the 320 Artif??act is gated behind those last fragments. As of right no??w it is physically impossible to max out your character until someone locates that Artifact.

I'm happy enough sitt?ing at 315 as of today on my Warlo?ck.

Luke Smith [Twitter]

The post It turns out that Destiny’s raid challenges are time-gated appeared first on Destructoid.

It was a solid base

When designing the King's Fall raid in Destiny, the developers? n??oted that they created Hard Mode first, then went to Normal.

It makes sense, the??n, that the two would basically b??e the same. I just have mixed feelings about the loot system.

My fireteam was ?ready to go once the Hard Mode clock struck, and we got all the way up to Oryx ?pretty handily, in about an hour.

Starting off, the relic ru??n is the same fight but with slightly stronger adds, and you should be able to easily clear it with a fireteam of 300s. As a note, the first bit doesn't give you any loot if you've completed normal mode. The ship jumping puzzle however has been altered just a bit, as the "rail" checkpoint on the far left has been removed entirely. Now, you'll have to do the entire puzzle in one go, which takes roughly two minutes. I like this change, but it's rather minor as you can get by with a few people quitting and returning if they can't make it.

Totems are mostly the same, as is the Warpriest fight (he shoots a few extra bubbles now after the rune explodes, which are easily avoided). Sure, the adds do more damage, but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that couldn't be done by a normal fireteam. The first real alteration comes at Golgoroth (the suggested Light requirem??ent also jumps from 300 to 310 here), where one party member obtains a debuff once they're stacked in the pit, forcing them to jump out within a 10-second time limit, lest they wipe the raid with an area-of-effect explosion. It's a simple change and very easy to account for.

The Daughters of Oryx fight -- again, they're about the same. There are a tad more adds and they pack a wallop, but our group had no issues clearing out the fight in 10 minutes on our third run. For this encounter, we had five Guardians shooting the first witch with Touch of M??alice from th??e center, and the sixth focusing entirely on adds to clear them out. It worked quite well.

Oryx, on the other hand, is a lot tougher, and the only real stark contrast in terms of a Hard Mod?e. The healthbar for adds is actually red, and you'll need to take down more Knights during the transition relic phase. Also, the Ogres are far stronger now, so your roaming team better be at least Light 310 or above and pack a punch. If you can get through all that, you'll still need the firepower to stagger Oryx and take down the Shade. I have a feeling that once groups upgrade by way of the new items, they'll acclimate just like the rest of the raid, but for now, a group of 300s won't cut it.

In terms of the loot, the Hard Mode difference is a tad disappointing. Items are simply recolored and declared "Harrowed," and the Light ranges all the way from 310 to 320 -- so for people who have been raiding since the first week, you still have a chance to get a 310 non-upgrade in some cases. For the rest, it's infusion fodder and a handful of subpar weapons. The "random Light" system is starting to grate on me despite how well King's Fall holds up in general, as it feels like a mechanic sol?ely designed to keep players grinding out months on end for 320 gear. Since Moldering Shards are also out for Hard, it's possible to get nothing from certain chests -- lame.

There seems to be less of a point to grind out Hard Mode unless you want 320 Light (read: for easier Hard Mode raiding), as well. Bungie's Luke Smith has confirmed that elemental primaries are a thing of the past, so there's no real Hard Mode-specific items outside of the Harrowed 310+ variety (that we know of yet). This is a stark contrast to the Crota raid, where players would have to complete Normal and ?Hard to get every item possible, including the coveted Fang of Ir Yût. As a Vision of Confluence lifer until recently, I'm torn on this news. I get it from a design perspective, but these items could have easily been balanced.

So far I've completed Oryx once and up to him another ru?n, and I've netted a 315 sniper, 310 Ghost, 317 machine gun, 319 Warlock class item, 310 Titan class item, a 320 Harrowed Anguish of Drystan, and a 316 shotgun. All in all that's not bad for roughly two runs. I'll be working on my Hunter over the weekend once I have more time. For now, it's back to other review work!

The post Destiny’s Hard Mode raid is pretty much the same, and that’s mostly okay appeared first on Destructoid.

Par for the course

The Iron Banner (a week-long PVP event) is set to close later today in Destiny?, and like its first? appearance in Year One, it was a complete waste of time. For starters, the rewards weren't all that great, and some of the promises Bungie made in regards to the new and improved loot system didn't actually pan out.

Users all over the web (including my own group of friends I play with) are reporting that even after earning rank five in the Iron Banner faction, very few items dropped, and they were complete garbage. This basically mirrors my experience as well, and I found that vanilla Crucible PVP matches gave better loot. This is exacerbated by the fact that Hunters have a massively buggy and broken infinite super glitch that players have been usi??ng -- a g??litch so bad that the Trials of Osiris PVP event was even delayed for it.

While I do like the changes that The Taken King expansion has brought, along with the fantastic new raid, it's crazy to think that Bungie still hasn't learned how to do events right. I mean, heck, remember how the Queen's Wrath event was supposed ??to be "put back in the oven" for a release eventually, and never came? Yep, Bungie has never had a weekly PVE event since.

The post Destiny fans share their utter disappointment for Year Two’s Iron Banner debut appeared first on Destructoid.

Now you can get your Touch of Malice

Normally a small bug fix wouldn't warrant an update, but I've been talking to a bunch of people who have been affected by a recent glitch in Destiny, myself included. In essence, one of the best weapons in the game (the Touch of Malice, an Exotic scout rifle) is gated behind a quest that requires you to collect 45 Calficied Fragments around the world, among a f??ew other requirements.

Once you reach the 40 mark, Fragments start to become much tougher to get, and like many, I was teetering on the edge this week with 44/45. Unfortunately, a collective of players found a glitch involving the Agornarch Rune, one ??of the sources of a Fragment, and Bungie shut down the entire questline immediately for a little over a week.

Thankfully, it's fixed now, as per a help document on Bungie's own site. I just tried it and can?? confirm it works, so I'm one step closer to my ??Touch of Malice.

Agonarch Rune [Bungie]

The post Destiny’s Agonarch Rune glitch has been fixed appeared first on Destructoid.

That's not a great thing to hear

Have you been playing Destiny's Nightfall Strikes recently and feeling like the rewards earned were not worth the time put in to earn them? Well, you're not alone. According to Destiny creative director Luke Smith, a lo?t of you are very unhappy with the rewards provided.

While d??rops from Nightfall Strikes used to be random, with a guaranteed reputation buff included, those missions now only drop one of a few set items.&nbs?p;

Nightfall Rewards can?? be underwhelming. Runes/low # of coins/no reputation burst/weak legendaries all feel like losing. We're gonna fix it

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) October 14, 2015

So, while it looks like Destiny's rewards for Nightfall Strikes may be updated in the near future to fix the issue, no time frame for the fix was given. Have you been feeling like a loser while playing Destiny?

The post Playing Destiny Nightfall Strikes can ‘feel like losing’ appeared first on Destructoid.

No regrets

The way item rank works in Destiny's Year Two edition is a bit different than it was in the past. Now, you can infuse items with higher rank gear to ascend their Light level, but the whole process can be confusing for casual players. In short, it doesn't actually tell you the outcome, and it's not a 1:1 process. For those of you out there who are hesitant to give up an item for infusion, this calculator should help you out, as it indicates exactly wh??at rank your i?tem will be after the process.

All in all I think the infusion system is a good step, but I wish Bungie would just implement a full-on glamour system. What's the difference? Well, with glamour, you can generally change the appearance of a piece of e?quipment to anything -- and in this case, you wouldn't l??ose the piece of gear, and you could alter it to look like any rank, including blues and greens (which aren't currently eligible for infusion).

[DIM v3.1.12] - NEW - Infusion Calculator [reddit]

The post Check this app the next time you wan??t to infuse something in Destiny appeared first on Destructoid.

No longer a mystery

Yesterday, Destiny's quest to unlock the Sleeper Simulant Exotic weapon was unveiled -- and within 24 hou??rs ??time, the entire mystery has been solved. Here's what you need to do to unlock it.

As previously mentioned, you need to complete the quest The First Firewall on Earth (which may not be available for play on any given day). Then, input the following codes into the transceiver. From there you'll get a quest to complete Cayde's Stash in four minutes, which grants you a Fusion Core for the Sleeper? Stimulant. Just run through the entire mission with speed modifiers equipped and nuke the three witches at the end. Now, you need to complete five more actions.

Right off the bat, you can dismantle a heavy weapon (some are reporting that it needs to be a legendary or above -- I had success with a Year One Exotic), and complete The Archive mission on Venus (which can be done on normal, by the way). Then, you'll need to complete a Defend the Warsat mission on Earth, Mars, and the Moon -- that's one for each planet. Use this site as a resource t?o to check for Warsat events, and tr?y to constantly go back and forth between zones that host them. If a timer is over six minutes late, head to the next zone.

Next, head back to Banshee at the Tower (the Gunsmith), and then complete the Light 280 spec?ific SABER Stri?ke. From there you'll net the frame, and the gun itself. It's a 290 fusion rifle that sits in the heavy slot, and has bullets that bounce off the walls. Note that if you're turning in the Warsat stage of the quest to Banshee today, you may need to wait until tomorrow to get the final Strike quest.

As for its e?fficacy, the sound effects are pretty cool, but I'm stashing it in the vault as there are much better Exotics out there. This entire questline is disappointing actually, as it's 100% a retread through existing areas and fights, just with slightly different waves for the first two bits.

The post Here’s how to get the hidden Sleeper Simulant gun in Destiny appeared first on Destructoid.

There's more dependency on groups now

Destiny has noticeably improved since The Taken King dropped. This is partly because there's a lot more to do than just grind the awful Prison of Elders activity from the last bad expansion, but additionall??y, the game has gotten much more hardcore.

It's great news for me and my group of comrades, but I've been seeing a lot of people cut back on thei?r playtime lately.

People often note that "I haven't given Destiny ??;a chance" when I talk about its shortcomings, and I kind of die on the inside hearing that. I have every Year One Exotic, every piece of raid gear (both armor and weapons, including primaries) for all three classes, and I've completed all of the Year One Moments of Triumph. As of this week, I'm working on my third Exotic sword and fourth Oryx clear.

Let me explain my situation a bit. I have a group of MMO friends that I move from game to game with. When we settle on a title, we go in, and surgically crush its PvE content into oblivion. Sometimes we splinter off and try different games, but after each expansion, people usually move back to Destiny for a while. Destiny isn't an MMO by any stretch of the imagination, but other dungeon crawlers like Diablo fall ??into our p?urview too, so it's fair game.

Yes, it is fun to play with friends, despite its many, many shortcomings. But thankfully, The Taken King, along with the drip feed of Year One quality-of-life updates, has made Destiny much more enjoyable. But I say that with the pers??pective of a hardcore raider. A lot of my casual friends are not having a good time. Let's look at why.

End-game content still doesn't have matchmaking

After taking an impromptu Twitter poll earlier this week, I saw that many players still hadn't partaken in a lot of endgame activities, mostly because they couldn't find anyone to play with. Raids, Nightfalls, and all of the?? post-game quests do not have any matchmaking capabilities. Instead, they're left to try their luck ??on sites like LFG.net or reddit Fireteams. As an outgoing person, I'm completely okay with filling out a team member or two using these tools, but most people want an in-game solution.

Bungie could address this in a ton of different ways. Yes, endgame content is by definition tough, so matchmaking may be hard to do, but what about actually making the game more...social? Open up the Tower to more players, and have the lounge area actually do something. Make it a hangout for players "looking for groups," complete with bi??llboards and a full-on LFG system built in.

Players could look at terminals, post what activities they want to do along with their Light level and class, and it could automatch accordingly. This would alleviate the issue of matchmaking in one fell swoo??p.

Raids are still the only way to max out your character

Certain players don't want to raid because they aren't comfortable, and I don't blame them. Bungie doesn't make anything clear for newer players in terms of what to expect from raids, or how to acclimate to the pressures of a six-man group. Many of those ??issues could be solved by a training session of raid mechanics, on top of a "Sherpa" system that could be built into the Tower groups idea.

Because in the end, players will need to best King's Fall to get the good stuff -- the post-level-300 items, which will be necessary for the presumed Hard Mode version. Some 310 E?xotics can be picked ?up here and there from bonkers questlines (more on that later), but for the most part, players will find themselves stuck teetering below 300 without going to face Oryx.

I definitely think, as a raider myself, that raid gear should be special, but many multiplayer games out there have equivalent gear that can be earned with enough tokens. Right now, the vendor gear only goes up to 280. It ?could stand for an increase.

The new Light system that takes weapons into account encourages dishonesty

With Year One, players had a Light level that was indicative of the armor they wore. It was simple to understand after a few hours of max-level play, and you only needed to manage four pieces of gear to maintain it. Now, Destiny has three more equipment slots with Light on them (Ghosts, class items, and Artifacts) and weapons also play into your Light ranking. Things can get real confusing real fast, ?but I'm noticing a trend where players "fake" their Light and switch back to their weapons of choice.

For instance, some people might have a Light 280 shotgun, but a particular mission almost exclusively calls for sniping. Since players only have a 220 sniper and would "look bad," they equip the shot?gun, pass for 280 Light, and switch back once the mission starts. Now, the old way wasn't perfect either -- armor was limited in that you could only wear pieces that had?? higher Light ratings on them. This has been alleviated by the ascension mechanic, which lets you rank up gear of your choice by sacrificing other items to it.

But tying that same principle to weapons has had mixed? results. Since Light influences how much damage you do and how much you take, even just a few points can make a mission that much tougher. By limiting players who may not be comfortable with certain loadouts, Bungie is forcing people to use specific pieces of gear, and that changes the entire way the game is played. It's the same problem, amplified.

All the new system has done is made the game more elitist by adopting a Gearscore mentality. Having played MMOs since Ultima Online, I'm used to it, but many people are t??urned off by ?it. Allowing more flexibility with the weapon side of things would help.

Some of these new quests are off-the-wall hardcore

Now, this is actually my favorite aspect of The Taken King. There is so much more end-game content now, with hidden tidbits like the Black Spindle quest or the aforementioned Exotic sword questline. But all of those come with a price -- extr??eme amounts of grinding or crazy-high difficulty ceilings, both of which aren't viable options for casual fans.

Take th?e Exotic sword mission. After completing a bunch of busywork, players will eventually come to an impasse -- the grinding step. Here, they'll have to down over 500 ene??mies with abilities in line with the element of their sword of choice, and attain 10 special resources, hidden within drops of Helium Filaments, Spinmetal, or Relic Iron.

Oh, 10 resources, that's not bad, right? Well, it really is. For this particular quest, you'll have to acquire resources within resources, which are said to drop at a roughly 5% rate. For my first sword, it took me over two hours straight of grinding, and I knew the routes from playing so much of Year One. For my second sword, it took five h?ours. Then you have to do a Strike that requires everyone to be roughly 300 Light (20 more than raid-ready). If my group wasn't so hardcore, I wouldn't ?even go for the third.

Bungie has claim??ed in the past that it doesn't want to make players grind, but it has introduced such a boring task here that so many people won't do it out of principle. Which is weird, because the Exotic sword is an essential item for a number of reasons and completely changes the way you approach most content (I highly recommend getting one for the Court of Oryx -- to quote a great 20th century philosop?her, "it is... so choice").

The Black Spindle is??n't easy for casual players to get, either -- the quest nearly requires a full three-person fireteam of raid-ready team members. And forget doing the Court of Oryx's third tier by yourself, or even with a public group.

Destiny is still growing as a game, and it's not quite there yet

It's clear that Bungie still doesn't know what to do with Destiny. On one hand, the developers claim "they don't want to revisit legacy content," but many of the old Strikes have been re-done with a Taken flair. To go ever further, these select Strikes have been hand-picked for a zombification ?of sorts, while others are eliminated entirely lest you play the useless, no-incentive legacy playlist. Bungie also notes that it wants to be welcoming to new players, but gates most of its meaningful content behind a lack of matchmaking services and grindy, exclusive questlines.

The game is much better than it was, but it has a ways to go. In some ways, the entire Destiny experience feels like a beta tes?t for the sequel, which ??is reportedly going to drop next year.

The post Destiny’s Taken King expansion alienates casual fans more than Year One did appeared first on Destructoid.

Wake Up, Guardians

When it comes to Destiny's vast collection of fancy space guns, exotic weapons are the fanciest of them all. Every exotic weapon has unique qualities and is usually designed to bend or break a rule that governs one of the game's mechanics. One of the most elusive exotics in The Taken King so far has been Sleeper Simulant, a spiffy-look??ing Fusion Rifle that, unlike its brethren, actually goes into the Heavy Weapon slot instead of the usual special slot. 

Though the weapon featured in marketing materials leading up to The Taken King's release, particularly as an example of how Bungie planned to make earning Exotics a more involved and interesting process, there were few clues as to how to get it, leading to extensive data-mining and speculation by players, including a dedicated subreddit. Now it looks like the doors are opening on the path to get it. Players can now a?ccess a mission called "The First Firewall" on Earth, where they'll fi?ght a collection of Hive and Taken Knights in the bunker of Rasputin, the AI Warmind.

Finishing the mission awards a special item that requires the entry of four codes (the sequence of which is based on certain elements in the mission), which then unlocks another mission that rewards an item that itself needs to be repaired by completing five tasks. The tasks range from rerunning a specific story mission to participating in a certain type of public event. Repairing the item a?ppears to be the last step available so far, but it's certainly the most involved item-related quest line in the game so far, as the preliminary steps involved a series of random items dropped in the Cosmodrome and lots of flavor text about the character Banshee-44 and his missing memories.

At the moment though, there seems to be a lot of salt being thrown around in various comment threads and forum posts on the topic, accusing Bungie of hiding the weapon (or its quest) behind a simple time-lock rather than an actual mystery to be solved. Some of the folks who spent quite a bit of time scouring the maps for clues and forming elaborate theories as to how to get at "The Sleeper" are particularly miffed, claiming the company deliberately deceived fans by implying it was all a matter of solving the puzzle, rather than waiting for someone to toggle a script on a server. Whatever the case, the doors seem to be open now, and Guardians interested in scoring one of The Taken King's most coveted exotics can take the first steps.

Sleeper Simulant Quest Megathread [reddit]

The post Desti??ny begins the quest ?for Sleeper Simulant today appeared first on Destructoid.

Alright!

I woke up this morning with the very specific goal of writing about something that wasn't Destiny. Then this Backstreet Boys music video happened and changed everything. The Destiny crew Husky Raid uses in-game? dances, abilities, and gun effects to ?choreograph an impressive six-man dance routine to one of the objectively best songs to come out of the '90s.

This fireteam shows more coordination in this video than most players can muster during an actual raid attempt. I'm excited to see what these guys will be able to make when new emotes come to Destiny next week.

[Via The Verge]

The post A Desti?ny and Backstreet Boys crossover music video is exactly what my morning needed appeared first on Destructoid.

Shake what the Traveler gave ya

The Special Order vendor Tess Everis is returning to Destiny, and bringing 18 new emotes with her. The downside? You won't be able to buy the new dances with Glimmer, Destiny's in-game currency.

Instead, players will need to purchase a new premium currency, Silver, with actual cash via the PlayStation Store or Xbox Marketplace to acquire anything Tess and the Eververse Trading Company have for sale. Tess, the new emotes, and detailed pricing information will show up on October 13 during the weekly reset. Current players will receive a small amount of Silver for free at that time, which sh?ould be enough to take one or two of the new emotes for a test ride.

I've never been one for microtransactions, but at least Bungie isn't hiding powerful items behind paywalls. Truth be told, I'll probably throw money at this, but only if the new emotes are better than The Taken King's terrible Warlock dance.

Introducing Eververse Trading Company [Bungie]

The post Mi??crotransactions are coming to Destiny, but so are ?18 new emotes appeared first on Destructoid.

Here's what's new, Guardian

Destiny's latest Hot Fix has nerfed the Thre??e of Coins Exotic Engram exploit.

If you'd been consuming a Thr??????????????????????????ee of Coins consumable and then hopped into the Scourge of Winter mission, only to keep rinse/repeating the final boss for Exotic gear, the jig is up: rapidly killing Ultras will now have a reduced chance to drop an Exotic Engram.

The update also a??ddresses problems with the High Level Targets quest?? (it didn't always give Legendary Marks upon completion), tweaked problems with the Moments of Triumphs chest grinds, and revised an issue where Dreadnought loot chests used to be lootable multiple times per spawn.

Here's the full information, straight from Bungie.net:

The post Latest Destiny hot fix addresses Three of Coins ??exploit appeared first on Destructoid.

The beta period is over

Year One Destiny players got taken for a ride. It's very clear that Bungie shipped an unfinished game, riddled with questionable design decisions, a bare-bones story, and a distinct lack of content. Hell, the developer was even struggling to finish it months later, when it shipped the premium DLC House of Wolves without a raid.

Now we're in the "Year Two" era, which houses its own litany of issues, but has improved upon the flawed platform known as Destiny in many ways.

Destiny: The Taken King (PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision 
Released: September 15, 2015
MSRP: $39.99 (digital) / $59.99 (physical)

Lets start with the multitude of changes Bungie has made to this husk of a game since launch. It took a full year, but now, the vault is finally sufficient for storing a realistic amount of items. The Gunsmith, once a pointless relic a week after launch, now actually does something meaningful, and ?has his own questlines in tow. Ghost shells and class items have defense ratings, you can recreate and upgrade Exotics at will, class quests have been implemented to help players acclimate, and armor materials have been streamlined. This is in addition to a ton of quality of life updates the game has accrued this past year like alternative methods of gathering reagents. It's finally starting to take shape.

Other major shifts include Nolan North completely taking over for Dinklebot as your companion, who has been completely and utterly erased from existence due to the online-only nature of the game. Ghost now sounds a little more enthusiastic, and presumably will have more actual voicework going forward for future DLCs -- great decision, Bungie, as Dinklage's previous DLC work felt like archived, pasted voices. Another big addition is the quest log, which, while barebones, actually provides players with some vague idea of what to do and where to go when choos??ing missions, which is leaps and bounds better than the nonexistent system before.

Nightfalls, the ultimate weekly activity outside of the raid, are now less tedious, as they don't instantly boot you to orbit anymore upon death, all but ensuring that players won't camp out in the same cheese (exploit) spot for fear of having to restart 30 or more minutes of progress. Likewise, Weekly Heroics are now thankfully removed and integrated into a playlist with better rewards, and the daily heroic only needs to be completed by one character for account-wide rewards. Finally, all of the PlayStation exclusive Year One content is now available for Xbox platforms. Every single one of these aforementioned changes is positive, though this is how Destiny should have been at launch.

But even still, Bungie has proven it can't write a story for beans. The narrative this time around is that a new big bad, Oryx, the father of Crota (who you killed in the first DLC), has entered the picture. It's everyone versus him basically, and that's pretty much all you need to know from start to finish. While it has all the makings of a? basic moustache-twirling villain plot, it's actually coherent this time around, which is a massive step up from the awful story of the original. It's a step in the right direction, but coherency doesn't automatically translate into quality -- it's still pretty bad.

It's just that this time, Bungie decided to put Nathan Fillion's character Cayde-6 at the forefront, where he has plenty of time to do Fillion-type things and crack wise at every turn. Your mileage may vary in terms of how much you enjoy the Mal Reynolds character that Firefly fans (and Fillion himself) have been clinging to all these years, but suffice to say I'm kind of tired of the shtick. Not to mention the fact that it's a bit odd that Cayde, who practically said nothing during Year One, is suddenly chatty. Also, all of the meaningful lore still isn't accessible in-game, instead forcing players to go online to Bungie.net to access the Grimoire system. After a full year this is utterly in?defensible.

So how is the actual content that you're paying at least $40 for? Well, somewhere in-between a DLC and another full game's worth. You're getting roughly nine (short) story missions, four Strikes (three for Xbox), a raid, three new subclasses, seven PVP maps, a small number of sidequests (including an arena diversion called the Court of Oryx), and new pieces of gear. Once again though, the story bits are rather disappointing, mostly consisting of missions you can breeze through in 10 minutes or so. That isn't to say that they aren't fun, but most players are likely going to conquer the entire story in a casual afternoon, which isn't the greatest feeling if you already spent $60 to $90 on the previous versions of the game on top of the Taken King. Oh, and roug??hly half of the areas are re-used, too.

Alternatively, the third subclass quests for each class are actually pretty fun and inventive, even if they also only last 10 minutes or so, and take place in the same areas as the campaign (or borrow existing locations from PVP). It also helps that since every class can now control all three elements, dungeons and raids are that much more fun with so many different combinations of loadouts. The saving grace however is the Dreadnaught, an entirely new location to be patrolled, with its own set of missions and Strikes. Billed as Oryx's home base, this Hive ship is actually pretty cool looking, and is the first actually new exploration hub (the tiny Reef was pretty pathetic)? Bungie has implemented since the launch of th??e game. Why the previous DLCs didn't have something like this is beyond me.

The gimmick this time around is the "Taken," enemy type, which are basically souped-up denizens of Oryx. He restructures their bodies to serve him, and as a result, have this shadowy sort of glow going on. They're cool on paper, but once you realize that the Taken are literally just reskinned existing enemies, they lose their luster quite a bit. In my mind, they basically sum up Destiny's constant need to re-use existing content rather than ???actually provide something new.

The Strikes however, l?ike the attempt at a story, are another step in the right direction. Bungie has overhauled them so they're a bit more streamlined, and provide players with more to do than just shoot regular enemies before they face a giant bullet sponge boss. For instance, one tasks party members with grabbing a ball as a key of sorts, and running through the level with it to unlock various doors. Shield Brothers features a fun fight with two bosses, and Sunless Cell hosts a final boss encounter in c?omplete darkness. When you add in the fact that the new Strike playlists actually give good rewards, they're suddenly much more fun to play.

Additionally, the raid, King's Fall, is par for the course. Raids are easily my favorite aspect of the experience, and give us a quick one hour glimpse each week into the game that Destiny could be. The boss fights here are fast, fun, and puzzling, and I had a blast trying to figure it out with my group. Once again though many players won't even see this raid, as it still requires them to manually find a group and meet the e??ntry requirements.

Finally, PVP is getting seven new maps (eight on PSN), as well as a few modes. My personal favorite is The Drifter, which is an abandoned ship in The Reef, sporting a really cool atmosphere and design. PVP is a bit more robust now in general, with three new modes in tow. Mayhem is a hyper-ability based mode, Rift is like a capture the flag/?basketball hybrid, and Zone Control is basically what the original PVP mode should have been -- where only capturing objectives, not kills, obtain points for your team.

This is very close to the same competent but flawed shooter you played last year. Brand new players should probably jump on this opportunity to try the game out with the "Legendary Edition," which provides the base game, both DLCs, and the Taken King expansion, but anyo?ne who hated Year One will only ??find the improvements to be incremental at best. Slowly but surely, Bungie is morphing this chimera of a game into something more presentable.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Destiny: The Taken King appeared first on Destructoid.

Warlock is still the best class

It's almost been one week since Oryx got his claws into Destiny and things couldn't be better. The Taken King expansion, along with the 2.0 patch released earlier on, reworked Destiny's entire leveling system and quest progression. And did you know Destiny has an actual story now? Year two&nbsp?;is off to a promising start.

Our full review of The Taken King is right around the corner, b??ut here are some early impressions of the latest e?xpansion.

Rather than draw background from the original hodgepodge of a story, The Taken King builds off the plot from The Dark Below expansion. After killing Crota in the Crota's End raid, the Hive prince's daddy Oryx is out for revenge. Oryx stomps into the? solar system with a massive spaceship and an army of Taken soldiers. The return of the Hive monarchy also means Eri??s Morn is once again a major player, and she's somehow gone even further off the deep end this time around.

The difficulty of The Taken King spans largely from Oryx's Taken army. The Taken are just that; familiar enemies that have been stolen and corrupted by Oryx to present new abilities and new challenges. Taken Phalnaxes now fire bursts of energy from their shields that send you flying through the air, and sometimes to your death. Taken Psyons spontaneously divide and multiply, and Taken Minotaurs are invisible. And yes, Invisible Minotaurs are just about as terrifying as you'd think. Additionally, Oryx's army has invaded Destiny's year one content. While running strike playlists, the enemies will sometimes be replaced with their Taken variants. You'll be spending a lot of your time running strikes to grind up your light level, and? Taken invasions thankfully keep that from getting dull.

The first few minutes of The Taken King introduce more narrative bliss to Destiny than the game saw in its entire year-one cycle. Characters that once only populated the tower and sold the occasional item now drive the story of Destiny forward. Bungie finally took full advantage of the vocal talent it had on roster by letting Nathan Fillion's character Cayde-6 take point. Cayde's screw-the-rules approach to taking on Oryx often clashes with the more uptight ideas of the Warlock and Titan vanguard. This bit of rebellion propels the story forward and makes the whole experience way more engaging than Destiny's original "select mission, sho??ot aliens, don't ask questions" approach to s??torytelling.

Aside from the overhauled light level system, the best change to come to Destiny year two is how missions are handled. Before, any story mission was just high??lighted on the world map, while multi-part quests were handed out as bounties. Some of the early plot missions are still delivered this way, but the majority of mission?s are instead given as quests. A new quest tab in the menu is home to a variety of quests that range from crucible objectives to extended story missions. Exotic weapon quests now show up here, rather than taking up a precious bounty slot. Quests are usually multi-step experiences that require players to complete an objective and then report back to a character in the Tower or Reef. The system works wonderfully to deliver a steady stream of objectives and direction without being intrusive or demanding.

The new subclasses are also pretty cool. I main a Warlock and the Stormcaller class is almost too much fun. It's hard to resist cackling like an idiot when your Warlock is gliding around chaining lightning bolts between enemi?es. I haven't been able to Stormcall in PvP yet without getting my butt handed to me, but I'm sure someone a bit more skilled could easily dominate with it. The Titan's Sunbreaker class is just as fun. Hurling flaming hammers at enemies, both in P??vE and PvP, can quickly turn the tide of battle in your favor. I still haven't rolled a Hunter, but I've been in fireteams with some using the new Nightstalker class. Their super ability, Shadowshot, allows them to silence, slow, and tether enemies to a fixed point. Used in conjunction with any of the other two new subclasses, Shadowshot is a thing of beauty.

So far, The Taken King has brought a lot of improvements to the overall Destiny experience. If you haven't taken the leap and tried Destiny yet, now might be the time to do it. I know I'm a bit more in love with the game than Chris Carter, but maybe this will be the expansion to change his mind. His review will be coming in the near future, but in the mean time, check out Destructoid's reviews for Destiny and its first two expansions, The Dark Below and House of Wolves.

The post Dest?iny is looking better than ever after one ?week of The Taken King appeared first on Destructoid.

That sure is some pretty music

Those of you who listen to the Destructoid UK podcast will likely already know I'm not a huge fan of Destiny. Don't get me wrong; it's a good game, it's just not for me. That said, the soundtrack in Destiny is something I can't deny the brilliance of.

Knowing how good the music in Destiny is, I'm happy to learn today that The Taken King will be getting a digital soundtrack release on September 15, the same day the expansion launches.

While the price for the soundtrack has not yet been announced, you can take a sneaky early listen to one of the tracks here.

So, who's excited for awesome ambien??t space music?

The post The Take?n King is getting a soundtrack release next week appeared first on Destructoid.

He just wants us to play this with him?

The live-action spot for Destiny's The Taken King is okay, but Japan does it better. Just watch this masterpiece. There's overwhelming enthusiasm (borderline verbal assault) happening in a laundromat. There's yelling into a washing machine.?? There's a cute short-distance galloping before declaration that "We are Guardians!"

Me, Steven, and Chris are going to be in Tokyo next week, and we'll keep an eye out for anyone who is this excited about Destiny. (I just realized that it's going to be Chris who's this excited about Destiny, isn't it? Damnit.)

The post The Japanese version of Destiny’s Taken King trailer is way better appeared first on Destructoid.

Until the big dude shows up

Equipped with a gun, an aloof attitude, and some one-liners, this Guardian dares to wander into the lair of Oryx, The Taken King. This murderous bastard holds a bit of a grudge because yo?u killed his son. It's an understandab?le animosity, if we're being honest.

Destiny's The Taken King add-on releases on September 15, and this is that expansion's launch trailer. It was directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy and Oblivion), and is set to some Led Zeppelin music. It'll get some prime-time exposure tonight ?when a pared-down version of it airs during the NFL opener between the Patriots and Steelers.

In preparation of The Taken King's arrival, Bungie has made big changes to Destiny this week as p??art of its 2.0 update. Although Oryx holds the add-on's namesake, his raid won't actually be included at launch; that will be patched in three days? later on September 18.

The post Everyone plays it cool in Destiny’s Taken King live-action spot appeared first on Destructoid.

Cinematic trailer for upcoming expansion

Or is something else going on at 1:20? Seems like some nice young cats come to wake the old man up and he responds by devouring their very ?life. Rude.

The trailer also shows off the Taken King's massive (space) ship that was revealed in concept art recently. That all I got. I'm mostly taking (taken, haha) this as an excuse to continue the abandoned thread of using Destiny's Child images for Destiny articles, which ?I stopped doing whenever the game actually came out. Last year?

The Taken King's coming to get his daughter back September 15.

The post Destiny’s Taken King is a real soul-sucker appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming September, actually looks nice

I don't like Destiny, but this PS4 bundle for the somewhat controversial The Taken King expansion looks alright as far as skinned consoles go. Plus, white. Wish my PS4 was white. I wouldn't always lose the controller in my black ??entertainment center or on my black coffee table (I don't see well).

Aside from the 500gb PS4, the bundle includes, "a physical copy of Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition, which includes Destiny, Expansions I and II, and The Taken King." Pl??us some extra baubles: "[T]hree exotic Guardian class items with XP bonuses, three classic-specific emotes, three armor shaders, as well as the early access weapons pack." Riveting. 

Limited Edition Destiny: The Taken King PS4 Bundl??e Out This September [PlayStation Blog]

The post L?imited edition Destiny: The Taken King PS4 bundle appeared first on Destructoid.