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'Destiny 2: Forsaken' purchases now include earlier add-ons
Destiny 2: Forsaken is a significant improvement to a game that had a rough start, but it also had a rude surprise for newcomers: it didn't include the two expansions from the original game, making you pay twice just to catch up with people who had been there since the beginning. That won't be an issue for long. As of October 16th, Bungie is including the two paid DLCs from the first year (Curse of Osiris and Warmind) with purchases of Forsaken. The developer wants to "make it less complicated" for players to jump in, according to community lead Cozmo.
Destiny 2: Forsaken's Gambit mode is open to everyone this weekend
With the base Destiny 2 free for PS Plus members through the month of September, Bungie is determined to sell newcomers on Forsaken -- and that means giving players a taste of what they're missing. The developer is making Forsaken's Gambit multiplayer mode available to everyone between September 21st and September 23rd. It might be worth a look, especially if you're not usually fond of human-versus-human combat.
Bungie will offer real-life rewards to ‘Destiny 2’ raid victors
If you're planning on participating in Bungie's Destiny 2: Forsaken Last Wish raid starting this Friday, then you may want to take note of the prizes on offer. The first fireteam to emerge triumphant will receive real-world trophies, not just in-game virtual ones. Each teammate will receive one. The belt pictured above was not cited specifically as one of the possible trophies, but since the image was included, it's fair to say that the champion wrestling-style belt may be given to members of the winning team.
'Destiny 2' brings back rewards for lifetime achievements
If you stuck with the original Destiny right up until the launch of its sequel, you're probably familiar with Moments of Triumph -- an event that rewarded you for lifetime achievements with exclusive items that included access to a real shirt if you were truly accomplished. Thankfully, Bungie isn't waiting that long this time around. The studio has already launched the first batch of Moments of Triumph for Destiny 2, including a roadmap for the perks you can expect at each milestone.
China's NetEase invests $100 million in Bungie to make new games
Bungie, the studio behind hits like Halo, Myth and Destiny, has announced a new deal with Chinese online gaming company NetEase to "build new worlds and invite players, new and old, to join us there." In China NetEase publishes several Blizzard games like Overwatch, Hearthstone and World of Warcraft, among other titles. GamesIndustry reports that NetEase is making a $100 million investment in Bungie that will snag it a minority stake in the developer, but that apparently won't impact Bungie's agreement with Activision, and any decision to bring Destiny to China is still Activision's.
'Destiny 2' puzzle leads to a real-world reward
Bungie is well-known for including cryptic references in its games, but it's not often those references lead to real-world gains. A massive team of gamers investigating an area in Destiny 2's new Warmind expansion decoded an elaborate cipher puzzle that, in the end, produced a message with geographical coordinates in upstate New York (conveniently, near the home of Warmind developer Vicarious Visions). That, in turn, led to a very tangible prize that included not only coins (one for each person who visits), but a life-size replica of the Valkyrie weapon from the game -- the only example you'll find outside of Bungie and Vicarious Visions.
Bungie to release the full 'Destiny' soundtrack, three years late
Music of the Spheres, the much-lauded music from Destiny, will finally be released officially to the public "in the near future," said developer Bungie. The soundtrack, written by acclaimed composer Marty O'Donnell, actually leaked out last year thanks to the work of passionate fans. It was taken down just yesterday by Activision/Bungie, however, as O'Donnell himself noted on Twitter.
'Destiny 2' Warmind add-on puts a horde event on arctic Mars
Bungie had teased that the second DLC for its sci-fi shooter Destiny 2, named Warmind after the game's humanity-defending mega-AI, would come out May 8th. In a livestream today, the company finally released details. In addition to a brand-new area in Helles Basin, Mars, players get a new public event and tweaks to almost every exotic in the game, plus a slew of other changes.
Second 'Destiny 2' expansion, 'Warmind,' lands May 8th
Bungie promised two Destiny 2 expansions in the MMO-like shooter's first year, and we now know when that second add-on will arrive. Warmind is slated to arrive on May 8th, with more details arriving in a Twitch stream on April 24th. There's virtually nothing else to share about the DLC, but the title speaks volumes: it's clearly going to focus on the interplanetary AI systems (such as Rasputin and Charlemagne) humanity counted on for defense in its glory days.
The next big 'Destiny 2' update involves a revamped mobile app
Bungie only just released Destiny 2's "Go Fast" update, but it's already set to talk about its next releases -- and this time, the most important moves are outside the game itself. The studio is readying updates to both the Companion mobile app and its website that will make them decidedly more useful when you're away from home. An April 4th update to Companion for Android and iOS will bring back the 3D models available in the original Destiny era. You can not only see what your Guardian looks like with equipped gear, but explore your weapons, vehicles and ghosts. It's helpful for bragging rights with your friends, of course, but it also gives you a better reason to dig through your equipment when you aren't playing.
‘Destiny 2’ Nightfall raids get an improved scoring system
Just a few days ago, Bungie released its Destiny 2 development road map, full of improvements to counter complaints about diminishing rewards. Now the company has announced a new scoring system for the game's weekly Nightfall raids aimed at rewarding players for more fine-grained achievements instead of a simple time-based pass/fail mechanism.
'Destiny 2' March update brings the thrill back to competitive play
Bungie has spent much of its recent time addressing gripes with Destiny 2's story and cooperative play, but players in the competitive Crucible mode? Not so much -- some have complained that the Crucible just isn't that exciting, and the infamous Prometheus Lens incident arguably wouldn't have happened if Bungie had been paying closer attention to Crucible gameplay. You might not have that complaint for much longer, though. The studio has detailed some of the changes coming with the March 27th update, and a large chunk of them are designed to ratchet up the intensity of player-versus-player fights.
Bungie’s ‘Destiny 2’ roadmap is designed to win back players
Destiny 2 fans haven't given Bungie an easy ride. After rolling out a free trial in November, the team has been besieged with gripes about the game's XP system, the now-infamous Prometheus Lens, and, increasingly, the fact that players are running out of content. As Twitch metrics show, engagement has been on the decline for months. Now, in a bid to reignite fan excitement, Bungie has released a pretty comprehensive development roadmap.
After Math: If I had no loot
It was a week of lost and found fortunes in the tech world. The Feds charged My Big Coin Pay over its $6 million cryptocurrency scam, Netflix is poised to take home as many a four golden statues for Mudbound, Bungie's in hot water again over tweaking its Faction token payouts and Google will be holding onto its $20 million XPrize payout thankyouverymuch. Numbers, because how else would you evenly divvy up the spoils?
'Destiny 2' update will boost rewards for its most loyal players
Bungie is still learning lessons about rewarding Destiny 2 players for their commitment, and that's reflected in its January 30th update. To begin with, it's promising much better loot for raids. You're now guaranteed raid-only equipment when you complete an encounter, and you'll always have a chance of scoring exotic gear you can start using right away. Those who go on Prestige raids get normal drops at the same time. Also, you can buy gear if you'd rather not grind the raid hoping to get that last armor piece you need -- so long as you've completed the raid that week, you can buy hardware from a rotating selection at Benedict. When you throw raid-specific mod perks and a drop-enhancing Ghost into the mix, you might be more inclined to come back to the raid without feeling like you have to repeat it ad nauseam.
'Destiny 2' has another problem with diminishing rewards
Bungie previously promised to both tackle complaints about diminishing rewards in Destiny 2 and to be more transparent going forward, but it's apparent the studio still has some work to do. Players have discovered that the game is throttling the number of tokens it hands out for Faction Rallies (where you pledge allegiance and collect tokens in hopes of scoring a rare weapon at a discount) when you loot Lost Sectors. The company had actually patched this in as of mid-December, but it wasn't clear what had changed until the Rallies resumed weeks later, on January 16th.
Buried ‘Destiny’ soundtrack ‘Music of the Spheres’ leaks
An epic game deserves an epic soundtrack, and Music of the Spheres, an eight-part musical work by Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori and Paul McCartney (yes, of Beatles fame), was exactly that, designed to complement Bungie's ambitious Destiny. But, thanks to quarrels with publisher Activision and various other legal battles, it was never released. Now, nearly five years later, it's been leaked and can be enjoyed by fans of Destiny and sweeping soundscapes alike. Until Activision bursts in with copyright law, that is.
Hard-to-get 'Destiny 2' holiday loot creates another uproar
Bungie has already learned some hard lessons about making content accessible in Destiny 2, but it's clear the studio still has some brushing up to do. Many gamers are complaining that the drop system for engrams (basically loot boxes) for the game's holiday-themed event, The Dawning, appears designed to goad players into spending real money on the in-game Silver currency. It's not that the items are incredibly valuable (they're largely cosmetic) -- it's that it's effectively impossible to get all of them by unlocking them strictly through ordinary gameplay.
Bungie's next 'Destiny 2' update backtracks on DLC 'mistakes'
Bungie's Destiny 2 fixes continue to roll in. Having addressed its communities' gripes with the game's XP system, it's now tackling another hot-button topic: the high-level content locked behind the debut Curse of Osiris DLC. In its latest blog post, the Destiny dev team acknowledges its "mistakes" and details the impending hotfix that (partly) backtracks from the existing system. But, the solution may not be to everyone's liking.
Bungie feeds ‘Destiny 2’ trolls a ridiculously overpowered gun
Bungie responded to Destiny 2 player's complaints by cancelling a planned "Curse of Osiris" DLC livestream to detail new changes. The developers added more endgame rewards, a new weapon class and an improved economy to address those concerns. Recently, a massively overpowered, game breaking laser gun called the Prometheus Lens was available to high-level players as a random drop, making it too easy for those who found it to dominate the PVP maps. Bungie had plans to fix the issue, but maybe it's grown tired of all the whining, since Destiny 2's exotic weapons sales-alien, Xur, has the gun on sale for anyone who wants it.
