DESTINY 2 (Bungie/Activision – PS4, Xbox One, PC – September 9, 2017) – As the lone Advocate for Destiny — and the last remaining GHG’er who still plays the game on the daily — what else can be said about the game, other than the previous article? Oh, I know: all the stuff I had to edit out. Being one part FPS and another part MMORPG, there was an overall split on the reaction; and people found it poor, due to the lackluster/nonexistant story, terrible matchmaking issues on the online side, and a very slow drip of new content. Bungie was listening and, finally, after a year, they’ve come home–or so we hope.
- With “Homecoming”, subclasses have transitioned; Sunsinger is now Dawncaller, Arcblade is now Arcstrider, Defender is now Sentinel. Bungie also showed off how they redid the subclasses; now, Gunslinger has shadestep and fires six shots instead of three. Strikers are a roaming super now, tow fist of havoks with a shoulder charge for added flavor. Sunsingers can now heal an entire team or buff weapons (your choice), which leads into a third ability.
- Also shown at the reveal: a Dawncaller healing himself near the end of defending the Tower. It was later confirmed that you can also heal your team too, as long as you stand in that rift.
- Crucible is now 4v4 and Trials is returning, rumored to be called Trials of the Nine. Eagle-eyed viewers caught that Patrols have been increased from 16 to 28, and you can jump from one planet’s activity to the next without going to Orbit. Why and how? It was later revealed in the “This Week At Bungie” newsletter that dedicated and cloud servers, with a mixture of Peer to Peer, will do the work.
- The cloud will handle the calculation and graphics end, and your console/PC will handle what you do. So, dudes running around on screen? Bungie. The actual graphics and hitpoints? Cloud. What you do? Your PC/Console. The hope is it will reduce the lag and not force them to do strictly Dedicated Servers.
I know for a fact Blizzard helped them with this (since WoW used a similar structure) — along with the game engine. So, the hope is high with a lot riding on Destiny 2. Eyes Up, Guardian.
Check out our other E3 2017 previews:
***-E3 2017 [Preview Show] – 6/8***
–Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite – 6/9
–The Evil Within 2 / Vampyr – 6/9
–South Park: The Fractured But Whole – 6/9
–Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – 6/8
–Super Mario Odyssey – 6/8
–Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – 6/8
–Days Gone / Evangelion VR – 6/7
–Far Cry 5 – 6/7
–Detroit: Become Human – 6/6
–WWE 2K18 – 6/6
–FIFA 18 – 6/6
–Need For Speed: Payback / F1 2017 – 6/5
–Sea of Thieves – 6/5
–The Last of Us, Part II – 6/5
–Assassin’s Creed Origins – 6/4
–Star Wars Battlefront II – 6/3
–Madden NFL 2018 – 6/1
–Extinction – 6/1
–Death Stranding – 5/31 [6/7 Update: Confirmed NOT to appear]
–Red Dead Redemption 2 – 5/31
–God of War – 5/31
–Splatoon 2 – 5/30
–Battlefield: In the Name of the Tsar – 5/30
–Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – 5/30 [6/8 Update: New Story Trailer included]
–Spider-Man – 5/29
–Crackdown 3 – 5/29