Tag: Destiny

Destiny 2 PC Beta Date And Requirements Confirmed

Bungie has finally revealed the point at which PC players looking forward to playing Destiny 2 will be able to get their hands on the beta, just as Xbox One and Playstation 4 players did recently, and really go to down ripping the hell out of the servers and general enemies occupying the game. However, Bungie recommends that you have a pretty beefy machine if you’re hoping to play the Destiny 2 beta, so steel yourself for what might be a large portion of your pay packet disappearing to the local computer shop.

First up let’s talk about the good news. PC players will be jumping into the Destiny 2 beta around the time of the weekly update, which occurs every Tuesday at 10AM BST. The PC beta will go live on August 28th for all those who have pre-ordered the game. Again I will stress that you take the time to check where your code is coming from, because it might be down to you to pick it up from the Bungie website or something. The beta will go live for the rest of you PC mortals on August 29th, ending on August 31st. The official launch date for the game on PC has also, apparently, been confirmed as October 24th.

Now let’s talk PC specifications. when it comes to processors Bungie say that you should have at least an Intel core i5-2400 or AMD Ryzen R5 1600X. For GPUs it’s recommended that you have an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390. Bungie also say you need at least 8GB or RAM.

If you’ve already got a bit of a beast of a PC then Bungie has some recommendations for upgrading that beast as well. If you’re upgrading then go for an Intel-Core i5-7400 CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB GPU. However, if you fancy running Destiny 2 like Bungie does at all of their events, then you need an Nvidia GTX 1080Ti 11GB  GPU and Intel i7-7700k processor.

Bungie has released a full list of recommended specs which are below, but they do stress that by the time the game launches these may well have changed. So as someone who doesn’t game on PC, I’m going to advise you to wait until the game comes out and then look at modifying your PC to play it. I say this because in my head Destiny 2 is going to set the bar for how great games can look for at least a little way into the future, so I would build a PC that plays it to the max in order to get the most out of all future PC titles.

Recommended CPU

  • Intel – Core i5-2400
  • AMD – Ryzen R5 1600X

Recommended GPUs

  • Nvidia – GeForce GTX 970
  • AMD – Radeon R9 390

Recommended RAM

  • 8GB

Minimum CPU

  • Intel – Core i3-3250
  • AMD – FX-4350

Minimum GPU

  • Nvidia – GeForce GTX 660 2GB
  • AMD – Radeon HD 7850 2GB

Minimum RAM

  • 6GB

Recommended CPU Upgrading

  • CPU – Intel Core i5-7400
  • GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Minimum CPU Upgrading

  • CPU – Intel Pentium G4560
  • GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB

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Destiny 2 Beta Preloads Begin Now

With the early beta dates for Destiny 2 fast approaching, the codes have gone out for players to begin downloading the beta and save time on July 18th! The ways in which retailers are sending out codes differs depending on where you pre-ordered the game, so it’s worth going out of your way to check if you can find the code because it’s probably been sent out. I, for example, pre-ordered with UK retailer GAME, and so needed to put in a code months ago on the Bungie website to guarantee my access to the beta. Today I’ve needed to login and find my codes list where I requested access to the PS4 beta and finally got my code.

The Destiny 2 beta is slightly different across all consoles. On Playstation 4 there is an early access time period from the 18th of July when only PS4 players will be online in the game. On the 19th of July Xbox One players will be able to get online and join the PS4 crew as they try to absorb as much Destiny 2 content as is humanly possible. Finally, the open beta will begin on July 21st for both PS4 and Xbox One, allowing the rest of the console crowd to get in on the Destiny 2 action. Unfortunately the PC beta doesn’t have a firm date, but we do know it will be available at some point in August.

The Destiny 2 beta is a once in a lifetime experience, relatively speaking. It won’t be as monumental as your first day at school or the day your child is born, but it’s important within the world of Destiny. The community is already established from the moment the Destiny Alpha was first launched for PS4, and since then it’s grown into millions of players. Now there’s a chance for a fresh start for anyone looking to get into the game and the world that’s out there. Clans are always on the lookout for new recruits, but even if you’re not a people person there’s Guided Games to help you progress. Destiny 2 is going to be one of the games that will be remembered forever for bad and for good, and it starts here, so go and get that code.

Image Source: Eurogamer

GuardianCon Raises $1.2 Million For Charity

A fan-created convention for Destiny, GuardianCon, has raised $1.2 million for St Jude Children’s Hospital in the week leading up to the event. GuardianCon officially takes place over the course of today and tomorrow, but thanks to a group of streamers working around the clock to keep the event’s Twitch channel filled with constantly entertaining Destiny streams, it’s already making a difference.

GuardianCon began as a meetup between a group of streamers who all enjoyed Destiny. Now the event is somewhere that players from all around the world can come to in order to play with other Guardians and compete in intensive PVP tournaments.

The highlights of the Twitch stream were when Mr.Fruit came on and the total raised hit $1 million, and when King Gathalion was streaming and the numbers hit $1.2 million. The total is still rising as the event continues, though everyone’s expectations have already been blown out of the water by the money raised so far.

There are very few gaming events that can raise a substantial amount of money for charity and make a real difference. Just last Christmas the Yogscast managed to raise more than $2 million for charity with their Christmas streams that they put on every year. Similarly, Games Done Quick, and Summer Games Done Quick, events that showcase the speedrunning community, raise even more for charity twice a year, making a real difference in the community and to people’s lives.

With Destiny 2 just around the corner GuardianCon won’t be slowing down anytime soon. In fact the even is surely going to get bigger and bigger with the inclusion of streamers who play Destiny 2, and those who continue to play the original game for as long as Bungie support it.

It would be interesting if Bungie makes more of an effort to be involved in GuardianCon in the future. It would make sense because the event only serves to provide more advertising for their game, and positive advertising at that. When it comes to charity events maybe Bungie could put on special playlists in-game that accumulate points which relate to money Bungie will donate to charity.

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Goodbye Destiny Loot Grind

Luke Smith has been talking about the loot grind in Destiny, specifically how it’s going to disappear in Destiny 2 in favour of a much fairer system for both players and developers.

Currently in Destiny we have a situation called the Loot Grind. What this boils down to is hammering away at every single activity until Guardians get Engrams to take back to the Cryptarch and decode. At the moment these Engrams could be anything depending on whether they’re rare or legendary. Most players prefer a legendary Engram for the loot it provides. This legendary loot could then be something that the Guardian already owns, but the grind teaches us that it might have slightly better stats, and that’s what we’re all after.

Of course we also now have infusion, the process through which a player can upgrade gear and weapons with other gear and weapons of a higher Light level by combining them. This means that once players find some gear they really like, they can continually upgrade that gear as they earn other items of higher Light levels. While this is a system that solves the problem of wanting to have those perfect stats on your best gear, it’s problematic for Bungie.

For example, if a particular weapon with a certain set of stats, which can be re-rolled, has a superior edge in the Crucible, Bungie need to correct the advantage in order to keep the game fair for everyone. However, correcting the imbalance requires Bungie to change the stats for all of a certain type of weapon, because no one weapon can be singled out.

In Destiny 2 this is all changing. Each piece of gear, armour, and weapon is handcrafted to have specific stats and work in a certain way. This means that you’re never looking for a better version of Clever Dragon, you’re just looking to up the Light level. For Bungie, this means that if a weapon is overpowered or imbalanced, they can just tweak it in an update, or tweak a few other weapons to match it.

This might not sound like a huge change to the game, but for Bungie it is. Now the updates they push out don’t need to nerf all of a type of weapon, they just need to nerf that one pesky weapon that’s getting in the way. This frees Bungie developers up to focus on important things, such as loot caves, the placement of collectables, and making Raids as awesome as possible.

Image Source: VG247

Destiny 2 Honours Destiny Players With Emblems

Bungie is staying quiet on most of the ways in which they’ll be honouring players of Destiny 1 in Destiny 2, but they have revealed some of the emblems veterans will be receiving.

Emblems are banners that display behind a player’s name badge when playing on their own or as a Fireteam, and act as a way for players to display their achievements as well as a bit of flair or personality. These emblems are usually rewarded for completing activities in the game, but some can be purchased from vendors throughout the social spaces.

In Destiny 2 emblems are being tweaked slightly in that they’ll be shown in the menu screen at all times, as well as when other players view your Guardian. A nice touch from Bungie.

There will be seven emblems that are exclusive to Destiny 1 players in Destiny 2. These will be rewarded based on the achievements these players have accomplished. The first two relate to the Year 1 moments of triumph. The first can be gained by completing any of them, such as killing Skolas, Crota, or Atheon in the Raid level events. The second is only being awarded to those Year 1 players who accomplished every single one of the moments of triumph.

emblem1

emblem 2

The second set of emblems is much the same. The first is awarded to those who completed one of the Year 2 moments of triumph, killing Oryx for example, while the second is exclusive to those who completed all of the Year 2 moments of triumph. In both the case of Year 1 and Year 2 emblem rewards, if players didn’t complete them at the time, they can never get the emblems.

emblem 3

emblem 4

The final three emblems relate to Year 3 moments of triumph. The first is rewarded to those who hit Rank 2 in the Age of Triumph record book, and the second is rewarded for reaching Rank 7. The final emblem is rewarded to those who reached a Grimoire score of 5,000, which is no easy feat.

emblem 5

emblem 6

emblem 7

All of these emblems will show those in Destiny 2 who the veterans are, and who the brand new kinderguardians are. It’s nice to see Bungie already planning how they’ll give a nod to old players of the series, but many players would still like to see more.

Destiny Won’t Receive Any More Balance Updates or Design Passes, At Least For Now

In the latest weekly update from Bungie we were told that Destiny won’t be receiving anymore updates in terms of balance, design passes or tweaks for the foreseeable future. The sold focus for Bungie at this point is Destiny 2, which is entirely understandable given that the release date is sneaking up on us fast.

The update did say that once Destiny 2 is out and the studio is has a bit more time on their hands they have a host of new updates for Destiny. These updates are the product of listening to fan feedback and will, according to bungie, make it the game fans are crying out for.

Since release Destiny has been balanced and re-balanced every week, with new bits and pieces being added to the world, taken out, and weapons have been buffed or nerfed depending on what the Crucible meta is. Part of Destiny’s success is the fact that it has been so carefully looked after since it launched, with everything being constantly changes in order to keep the game fair and fun for everyone.

Some memorable changes Bungie has brought to the game are the huge nerfing that Shotguns suffered, which were all people used in the Crucible for a while, the destruction of the loot cave, which is now part of the Age of Triumph record book, and the nerfing of the Vex Mythoclast, which was the only elemental primary weapon for quite some time.

The Destiny 2 beta will launch later this year, giving everyone a chance to try out the game in some small form before it launches. In Destiny the beta consisted of four main story missions, one of which was a Strike for players to enjoy as a group. Destiny 2 is set to be a much larger game, not just in terms of the number of missions but also the amount of activities to do outside of the core story. The beta for Destiny 2 will most likely include the European Deadzone open world, a small number of missions and a Strike, and some additional open world events such as Lost Sectors. The goal of the beta will be to iron out any glaringly obvious bugs that Bungie have missed, so it will be imperative for as many people as possible to play it.

Iron Banner Tips: 11th April to 17th April

The Iron Banner returns this week! If you missed the last one then head over to our last article where we handed out some tips about competing. Of course we’re going to cover the same ground here, and it’ll be that much more relevant because the game mode has changed, as it does every Iron Banner. This week until April 17th, the next weekly reset, you’ll be able to compete in Iron Banner Control matches, which are no different to normal Control matches other than the fact that you’ll get wrecked if you’re a lower level player.

How do you play Control?

Control is a pretty simple game mode where there are certain points all over the map that can be claimed and controlled by one team. Guardians will be split into two teams and they must gain control of as many points for as long as possible in order to boost the points they get from kills and assists to help them win. In short, the more control points your team has, the faster you’ll win. Many Guardians forget that the point of Control is to claim these points, and you’ll se the rookies running around killing the enemy and ignoring every point around them. Be a team player and claim these control points, because they’ll lead to more success for you and your team than running and gunning will. There is honestly nothing worse than being in a team who just run and kill even when Lord Shaxx is screaming at you about all the control zones being controlled by the enemy.

What’s the loot like?

Iron Banner is brilliant, in that the loot drops seem to be from pretty much everything that has ever happened in Destiny, excluding the promotional content. This means you can claim items like the Crimson and Sugary Shell, from Crimson Days, as rewards from matches. Anyone looking to collect all of these items should definitely consider hunting in the Iron Banner for a while.

With that said, you’re probably concerned about the Light level drop of the loot. I’m very pleased to say that loot drops at and above your Light level, meaning you can easily use the Iron Banner to increase your Light level over the next week. For anyone trying to get to that elusive 390 Light for the challenge mode Raids, this is the place to be. The armour and weapon drops tend to lead towards the Iron Banner loot, but there is every chance that you could even get an exotic drop out of a match.

Will it help with Age of Triumph?

If you’re concerned about spending a week levelling up when you should be completing that Age of Triumph record book, then don’t be. One of the tasks in the book is to reach Rank 5 with the Iron Banner once, and that’s after the update for Age of Triumph so everyone has to do it. You’ll also need to be reaching Rank 25 with all three factions before you finish the book, so this is an opportunity to earn additional reputation with those factions that need some love in order to meet the record book requirement.

Destiny: Age Of Triumph Weekly Rituals, And More Revealed

Bungie held their second reveal livestream for Age of Triumph this week, as part of the three part stream series leading up to the release of the live event.

This week Bungie began by telling fans how they would now be able to receive a Treasure of Ages loot box for each weekly activity, the Nightfall Strike, Story Mission, and Crucible Playlist. These lootboxes can reward Guardians will items from all previous live events, The Dawning, Festival of the Lost, even Crimson Days. This is a great opportunity for players to get their hands on those items that they’ve been after since they first heard about them in the live event reveal. For collectors, these boxes are a Godsend. However, there will also be new items available from these lootboxes, including Emblems of Ages, Legendary Emotes of Ages, Days of Iron Emblem, Orange Chroma, Ornaments for Touch of Malice, Nechrocasm and Vex Mythoclast. The rest we will have to wait until next week to find out about, as they will all relate directly to Age of Triumph.

The Speaker will be stepping into the light as Destiny comes to a close, handing out quests relating to almost all activities, excluding the Raids as far as we know right now.

The Crucible Handler Lord Shaxx will be offering new bounties centred around 6v6 activities such as Control matches. These reward you with Crucible Engrams upon completion.

Weekly rituals were the main focus of this week’s livestream. These rituals will feature playlists of weekly story missions, Crucible match types, Challenge of Elders, and more. These rituals will reward players will Legendary marks, and give them the opportunity to earn up to 20 per week.

A new modifier called Daybreak will be on the Nightfall Strike. This increases the recharge rate which Bungie think will make the times Nightfall bounty more attainable for players who have been struggling. However, community manager Deej admitted that this would only be available once a month to avoid making the Nightfall too easy. With that said, in July there will be a six week period where it is available every week. This is to help players complete their Age of Triumph Record Books before the end of August. The reason for this time-specific Daybreak modifier is because Destiny 2 will probably be releasing in September, just as Destiny did.

Next week Bungie will be talking about the Sandbox update hitting Destiny with Age of Triumph, as well as new and old weapons and armour from raids.

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Destiny Xur Inventory: Should You Buy The 4th Horseman?

It just so happens that Xur is selling the 4th Horseman this week, but is it a viable weapon to purchase at this point for all you Destiny needs?

The 4th Horseman is a shotgun with arc damage, meaning it’s very similar to Invective, though it can’t regenerate ammo over time. It has three perks that make it particularly interesting, the first of which is Thunderer and allows the weapon to be fired in full auto. As you can imagine, for a shotgun this is pretty devastating to both your aim and you enemies. On the one hand you’re almost guaranteed to get a kill by holding down the trigger, but the recoil will be so bad that you’ll be staring at the ceiling by the end of it, leaving you open to pot shots from hidden enemies.

A second perk works in conjunction with Thunderer to help alleviate the stress of wanting to release your entire clip in one go, Final Round. This perk makes the last round in the clip deal additional damage, meaning that if the first three shots didn’t kill your enemy, this last one will. When using the shotgun it never feels great to fire in full auto, except in a pinch, so the rest of the time you need to be running around with the last shot in the barrel ready to go. This shot should kill an enemy, though in PVP it might be a bit trickier, and it won’t blast so hard that you’re staring at the ceiling like you’ve just woken up from a hard night out.

The final perk that works in this weapon’s trio to make it one of the more interesting exotics is Return to Sender, meaning each kill you make has a chance to return ammo to the magazine. Again this is an incentive to not fire the shotgun in full auto, and reserve that use for dire situations. The key to using this perk is to ensure you’re always on one bullet, run around the arena, make a kill, and hope that this perk kicks in and gives you another round to continue running around with. The additional damage will still apply to this cheekily-gained final round, and you’ll be an almost unstoppable killing machine.

Obviously all three of three of these perks are brilliant for PVP, and the shotgun is pretty much made for use in the Crucible. However, in PVE you will find that being able to deal a huge amount of damage at once with that full auto perk is wonderful in the right situations. The real key to using The 4th Horseman in PVE is to keep it in reserve with that one round in the chamber. Special ammo is plentiful enough here that you don’t need to grieve the loss of every missed shot. Keeping the weapon in your special slot with that one round that could kill a sun is going to save you when an Ultra tries to rip your face off after your Primary fire has left it with a quarter of its health. We recommend The 4th Horseman to anyone who ventures into PVP, but even if you’re sole interest is PVE it’s got some charms that could make it invaluable to your loadout.

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Character Bio – The Guardian

Every Destiny player knows that their character is The Guardian, one of many who have been revived by a Ghost. Ghosts were the last, dying effort of the Traveller to protect Earth and The Last City, so we can therefore assume that the Guardians are that protection. Imbued with the Traveller’s Light, Guardians summon amazing abilities to fight back against the Darkness.

Why is each Guardian chosen?

We don’t know anything about the thought process behind reviving a Guardian from whatever stage of decomposition they might have been in when their Ghost found them, but what must be important is character. Each Guardian must be strong willed and be able to accept the gift of Light from the Traveller, which isn’t everyone.

The Guardians are responsible for helping push back against the Darkness, which means fighting oppressive foes such as Crota and Oryx, and exploring the darkest dungeons like the Vault of Glass in order to prevent enemies such as the Vex from bringing back world-ending gods.

Guardian Races

The first race that the Guardians can be is humans. Humanity have always remained on Earth, fleeing into the woods and other rural areas when the Fallen invaded. While humans may have once ruled Earth, it’s safe to say that now they’re only claiming it back thanks to the help of others who have been touched by the Light.

The Exo may look like machines that once served humans in the Golden Age, when the Traveller’s Light brought untold advances in technology and space travel, but they’re so much more. Over time the AI in each Exo degrades, and bugs form in their programming. It’s these bugs, formed by the experiences each Exo has been through, that have created personalities over time. These personalities are what determine whether a Ghost will choose a certain Exo or not.

Finally we have the Awoken, a beautiful and mysterious race. During The Collapse, when the Darkness descended on Human space, many humans tried to flee out of the area. While many perished, some survived and made it to the edge of Human-controlled space, which is where something happened to them. Now these ashen-faced descendants of humans mainly live out in the Reef. Ghosts no doubt choose Awoken as Guardians because they possess the same traits as humans, though with little something else added in there.

Image Source: DestinyWIKI