Beatriz Slattery

Destiny 2 is laying the groundwork for outstanding storytelling and unforgettable moments. It's setting a solid foundation for the game it always wanted to be, while delivering the things Destiny never could. It’s an exciting time to be a Guardian even if it means the Last City falling only to pick ourselves up one more time. At least this time, there are those worth fighting for.The Forza series has never been my cup of tea, at least not until Forza Horizon. Driving through the beautiful scenery of Colorado in a semi-open world environment really made me appreciate the mechanics behind the series, while at the same time had me lightly touching upon the more hardcore tuning aspects. Turn10 Studios and Playground Games were able to expand upon this, bringing us to the luscious and visually breathtaking Southern Europe. It’s the interconnected world that ties into Xbox Live’s social features that really brings the world to life, as driving through the vast open world will never make you feel alone. If there’s one racing game you need to play, it’s Forza Horizon 2; it’s certainly the closest we’ll get to another Burnout Paradise.Having been mixed on Divinity games in the past, I was hesitant to jump into Larian Studios' latest game. It took only ten minutes before I realized I shouldn’t have worried as Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most hardcore RPGs in a long while. This isn’t something that holds your hand; it’s up to your own memory and thoughts to determine the outcome of specific scenarios. You also have to really enjoy detailed menu systems and walls of numeric values for each character to appreciate what kind of RPG this is. Mix in a turned based combat system similar to that of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, with dice rolls and strategic placing, and Divinity: Original Sins is an RPG of the ages.Placing all the powerful weapons in the same category has good potential for PvP, but it’s also a functional misstep in terms of PvE. Power weapon ammo drops more often in Destiny 2 than heavy weapon ammo in Destiny 1, but still not nearly as often as kinetic or energy weapon ammo. So right away there’s less incentive to use that ammo for any weapon other than a rocket or grenade launcher. Why waste that relatively rare and precious ammo on a sniper rifle when it could instead be spent on something much more powerful? It’s the same issue with abilities in that they’re all restricted by ridiculously-slow cooldowns. Instead of enjoying the ability to toss a grenade into a group of minor enemies, dodge around the battlefield at one’s leisure or even pop a super to take on a mid-boss, the game encourages players to bank them instead. To use one’s abilities in any situation other than the most desperate is to see them go to waste. Nobody wants to be caught staring at a cool-down meter when they’re stuck in a tight spot. These can at least be adjusted a bit with mods, but who wants to waste their mods on anything other than top-tier armor? The net result is gameplay that’s gone from fast-paced, fluid and fun, to something slow, limited and dull with no incentive whatsoever to make use of the game’s most enjoyable weapons and powers. If the developers truly felt that these changes were necessary to achieve a more fun and balanced Crucible, then perhaps it would have been better to just separate the Crucible from the rest of the game.When D4 was first announced, it sounded ridiculous. Swery65, a man who made a name for himself with the over the top and overly charismatic Deadly Premonition, was creating a Kinect game exclusively for Xbox One? It just sounded out of the ordinary, even by his standards. But alas, D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die is one of the most charming, most comical games of the year. While it’s run almost entirely on quick time events though either a controller or hand motions, it’s the loveable cast of characters and intriguing storyline that really make D4 special. If there’s one mission for the gaming community, it’s to ensure that Swery65 and the team at Access Games finishes the episodic adventure, as two chapters and a prologue are just not enough.The most immediate change is the environment. The Tower always seemed like an elusive thing; my Guardian didn’t feel close to those she was supposedly protecting. How is one supposed to feel like a hero when there really isn’t anyone worth saving? Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, whether fighting actual battles or just being that person someone looks up to, heroes aren’t made without those to protect. Although, it could be argued Guardians are more warriors…never mind, no need to go down that path. Needless to say, Guardians are now invested in the people they are protecting; they are going out into the world and fighting back whatever might threaten a community broken. It connects Guardians to something worth fighting for: relationship.Bungie unloaded a full clip of Destiny 2 strategy to the face and the feels are real . Remember when I said to pay attention to Zavala? Destiny 2 immediately proves it has more heart than the first game, even with all the expansions. Using the opening of the showcasing of Destiny 2 as a platform — having Zavala introduce the player base to a more serious tone which immediately sets the stakes higher -- is a strong move. Zavala’s more serious demeanor isn’t all brooding, but a calculus of everything going around him. Which is why the story to Destiny 2 is already immensely important. While there are a number of things in Destiny 2, the PvE aspect of things makes for the skeletal structure that holds up the Destiny universe. In other words, lore matters.

Including all content from Curse of Osiris in the base game might have helped ease some of the end-game pains that the launch brought with it. It’s not too much more to do, but it might have smoothed over a few wrinkles by including that extra content. It would also have made the loot pool larger; maybe Guardians wouldn’t be as frustrated at the limited item sets, lackluster exotics and other cosmetics. Giving more isn’t always the best idea, but in this case, it could have been.The other ill feeling aside from Destiny 2’s launch is knowing we're following a path already taken that doesn't seem totally trustworthy. In fact, it's the same merry-go-round many have already been talking about. We've been here before, we've seen it. Yes, Destiny 2 will drop some Taken King sized expansion and it probably will fix a lot, but it just doesn't feel like enough or that Bungie or Activision are trying. Give us guardians something fresh, show us something shiny and new; not a lackluster experience that continually rides on the coat-tails (hardly any to begin with) of the previous title. The gimmick can work for anyone experiencing Destiny for the first time, but it's not going to work for the players that have been with Destiny since the beginning and the newcomers will pick up on that. When creating a space to play in together, it's creating a social dialogue, which happens inside the game and out.There’s no real choices and trade-offs to be made anymore. The same goes for the rest of the game. The in-depth and often rewarding dialogue trees are gone, replaced with options that boil down to whether or not the player character is going to be either nice or sarcastic nice. There are no karma checks, no skill checks, no special checks, nor even long and interesting conversations to be had. Dialogue might as well just be there because previous Fallout games had it. The list could go on, but is perhaps better saved for another time. As it stands,Fallout 4 has gained massive mainstream success. It just had to become a different game in order to get it; a game that’s much more a shooter with RPG elements than it is an RPG with shooter elements. It became a game one that fans of the old Fallout games have grown to hate and possibly a series that RPG fans in may no longer care about in the future. Taken on it’s own It’s a decent game, but one that has nonetheless been compromised for the sake of short-term sales. The same is true of Dead Space 3.Destiny 2 has finally, truly been revealed. Bungie and Activision finally lifted the curtain on the much-anticipated sequel, showcasing gameplay for the first time. Hardcore Gamer was able to sit down with Bungie's Community Manager, David 'DeeJ' Dauge to discuss what new stuff Destiny 2 brings to the table and what the future holds for the franchise. For more on destiny 2 strikes 2, be sure to check out our in-depth preview of the campaign, Inverted Spire strike and multiplayer.The next week the raid reset and all Destiny 2 players learned something new about the raid: not only did the raid reset, but the order of the rooms was different. This is a smart design, allowing players to take on challenges they are unfamiliar with or maybe were having trouble with the week previous to improve upon them. Dogs were now first; this was fantastic news as the same fireteam could tackle the raid and knock out the part that had been challenging us, first. Unfortunately the same fireteam couldn’t all make it, instead the four that did show (myself included) ended up playing Trials of the Nine. We did try everything in our power to fill the two spots putting out lines throughout our friends list and even Destinylfg.net and other sources, but we gave up after a few hours at this. No raid this week it looked like. This is not a new problem for Destiny, with Destiny 2’s new feature of Guided Games it seemed some of this searching for party members stress could be alleviated.The story campaign has more missions and cinematics than you’ve ever seen in a Destiny game. The player experience has more variety, more types of activities, and more ways for you to enjoy the experience by yourself, or with other players. It is, in terms of the action you’ll enjoy, a more diverse experience than any Bungie game ever.There's a lot going on in this Beta, even though it's relatively small with not a lot to do. The changes so far are mostly positive, showing promise for the real thing. Destiny 2 comes to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6 and then to PC on October 24, so there's not much time left.Taking place on Nessus, one of the two new planets coming to Destiny 2, the strike in the Beta is called The Inverted Spire and focuses on a Vex mind that has been awoken by the Cabal. Nessus is a neat world that kind of combines the aesthetics of the Vex and the Cabal since it was originally a machine world of the Vex's that has been invaded by the Cabal. The planet itself also has a new look to it, with a muted gray landscape, but one with lush red trees everywhere. It's a really cool look that brings a new feel to the game.

Having gotten fed up with trying to find an appropriate group to run with from Destinylfg.net, it was time to turn to the new feature that seemed like it would deliver better results: the new Guided Games. Guided Games makes players jump through some hoops with good reason trying to create the most toxic free environment for play that it can, it sort-of works. First, Guardians will spend a token to get into GG, then players agree to the Guardian Oath stating they will be friendly, helpful and dedicate the time. Then if you’re a seeker, which I was, it gives an extra-long waiting time to make sure that the player is in it to win it. My first group I ended up waiting over an hour for. After some general party chat confusion and actually doing the banner part without talking in the fireteam I had grouped with, we finally figured it out and we could talk. This did not help either.A series of new locations on Earth, Titan, Nessus and Io replace the locales from the Destiny 1 era, and are mostly huge improvements. The open areas may not necessarily be bigger but are filled to the brim with more geometry, exploration, and activities. Returning activities like Public Events have been revamped to offer more engaging encounters, and new activities like Adventures allow players to dig deeper into the lore of the world. New Faction Leaders populate each destination, but they feel lonely and out of place. Exploring the open areas still feels too empty as the player count has not been increased, nor are there any other NPCs to interact with. Faction Leaders are a great start, but it’s disappointing that there isn’t more to the open areas other than to mine Lost Sectors and Public Events, walk up to a flag to initiate an Adventure or kill infinitely respawning enemies.While Destiny might not be your standard MMO because it’s also a shooter, it's nonetheless doing something similar to the likes of the original FFXIV. Destiny is raising itself to the ground and just like a flower that finds a way to bud up through the ashes, just maybe Destiny 2 will deliver on things its parent game couldn’t. By the likes of the new trailer , as flames consume the Last City and the Towers burn with it, it gives cause to rise up and begin the fight anew. This is a time for Guardians new-and-old to band together and join in what is sure to continue a name of legacy, even if Destiny 2 updates didn’t quite get everything right. Before any of that can begin, Destiny is turning it on and by far this is the best time to give it the send off it deserves.The next week the raid reset and all Destiny 2 players learned something new about the raid: not only did the raid reset, but the order of the rooms was different. This is a smart design, allowing players to take on challenges they are unfamiliar with or maybe were having trouble with the week previous to improve upon them. Dogs were now first; this was fantastic news as the same fireteam could tackle the raid and knock out the part that had been challenging us, first. Unfortunately the same fireteam couldn’t all make it, instead the four that did show (myself included) ended up playing Trials of the Nine. We did try everything in our power to fill the two spots putting out lines throughout our friends list and even Destinylfg.net and other sources, but we gave up after a few hours at this. No raid this week it looked like. This is not a new problem for Destiny, with Destiny 2’s new feature of Guided Games it seemed some of this searching for party members stress could be alleviated.The action continues after a short cutscene (yes, there are cutscenes in missions now). We’ve boarded the Cabal capital ship and need to take down the shields. The level ended in the shield generator room where we were introduced to Destiny 2’s main antagonist, Ghaul. Large and menacing, Bungie claims that he’s a more complex villain than, say, Oryx, but he didn’t come across that way in the demo. Hopefully, we’ll see another side of him in the main game.The most exciting thing by far is the fact that all the Raids are back. Updated Raids matching appropriately the light level of Guardians and its fair because it’s not even the max light level of 400, it’s 390. This ensures that more people will get to experience the Raids, instead of just the top tier level players. Besides having free reign on all Raids and smashing in some old baddies' faces, the updated Raids come with something even more worthwhile: the coolest armor to ever come out of Destiny. While I haven’t been the biggest fan of some of the armor choices made by Bungie, whoever thought of this totally revamped package of all armor was a genius. Seeing the new Raid armor was enough to sell me on Age of Triumph — Vault of Glass aside. It just looks so space-magic, and isn’t that what it’s all about?Destiny 2 looks substantially better than the original game. Models and textures are more detailed, the worlds are bigger and more varied and the cinematics are top notch CG. It’s shaping up to be a stunning package on PS4 and PC. While the PS4 build we played was running on PS4 Pro, it wasn’t easy to discern any upgrades due to the size of the screen we played on. PC players, on the other hand, are in for a real treat. On PC, we did notice that pop-in was far less severe and it was nice finally getting to play Destiny at 60 frames-per-second. Unfortunately, the console version still runs at 30 frames-per-second.

On paper, The Infinite Forest sounds like a fascinating concept. Bringing in procedurally-generated dungeons would be an exciting way to invigorate the endgame like with Bloodborne’s Chalice dungeons. Sadly, even this concept is ruined thanks to asinine levels of repetition. All the Infinite Forest is is just a linear set of platforms populated with generic enemies players have been fighting for the past three years. The sad thing is, there’s not much of a challenge here. It’s possible just to skip the enemies and head towards the door. On occasion you do need to kill an enemy to unlock the door, you can accomplish it by just hanging near the last platform and shooting them from afar.What we want to do is make every player in Destiny feel essential. We want every single player to feel like a superhero that gets to save the day at some point during the match. As a support player, I’m guilty on many occasions of hanging back and scoring assists. In Destiny 2, I’m going to be provoked into being a hero and helping my team of four in the competitive landscape.For https://Destiny2Focus.Com example, in the EDZ, one Adventure features the Taken taking up residence deep in the forest. At first, the mission is simply about pushing forward and clearing away all hostiles. Following some speculation by Ghost about why the Taken are here, players face off against a Taken Cabal boss who remains shielded as long as grunts are running about. Take care of them, and the boss becomes vulnerable until more grunts spawn.You talk about the four-people having different and important roles in the Crucible. I’m curious as to why you didn’t add a fourth class. Every match will have at least one duplicate class. Doesn’t that defeat the idea that each player has an important role to play?The campaign kicks off with a bang. Returning home to The Last City, you and your Ghost discover that the city has come under siege by the Cabal Empire’s Red Legion. Led by Dominus Gaul, the Legion successfully captures the Traveler, cutting off all Guardian’s connection to the Light. Without Light, you must become the rallying point for all surviving Guardians, re-unite the Vanguard and retake what Gaul has taken from you.Anyone hoping for more enemy species in Destiny 2 are bound to be disappointed. In addition to the Taken mentioned above, all four of the previous species return. You have the hulking Cabal, four-armed Taken, zombie Hive and time-traveling Vex. It’s disappointing that a named sequel doesn’t have any new species for players to fight, but there are a handful of new things going on within each of the current factions.Bungie has completely overhauled the way guns are classified in Destiny 2. In the original game, you had a primary, a secondary and a heavy weapon. That’s gone, replaced by the new Kinetic, Energy and Power classification system.Destiny nailed its gameplay mechanics perfectly out of the gate and those carry beautifully into Destiny 2. Aiming and shooting feel fantastic, while platforming has been tightened up with Guardians now able to clamber over ledges. Jumping is still a little floaty, but the clambering should help players avoid some unnecessary deaths.Just about everything you love about Destiny is returning. We’ve got a campaign with a series of story missions that tell a grand tale of courage and heroism. We have strikes. Of course, we’ve got a brand-new Raid, which I can say nothing about because it’s the pinnacle activity. We have different ways to explore the world. We’ve all been on Patrols, but now there are Lost Sectors to discover, public events with heroic activities, adventures given to us by MPCS. Finally, of course, there’s the Crucible for when we want to step away from the fight against the enemies.Without a doubt, the best new addition Curse of Osiris brings to Destiny 2 is the Raid Lair. Filled with challenging puzzles and boss fights, Raid Lairs provide the thrill that the rest of the expansion is sorely missing. While it would have been nice to get a new Raid or endgame activity like in previous expansions, the Raid Lairs are interesting enough to keep players hooked momentarily.There’s no real choices and trade-offs to be made anymore. The same goes for the rest of the game. The in-depth and often rewarding dialogue trees are gone, replaced with options that boil down to whether or not the player character is going to be either nice or sarcastic nice. There are no karma checks, no skill checks, no special checks, nor even long and interesting conversations to be had. Dialogue might as well just be there because previous Fallout games had it. The list could go on, but is perhaps better saved for another time. As it stands,Fallout 4 has gained massive mainstream success. It just had to become a different game in order to get it; a game that’s much more a shooter with RPG elements than it is an RPG with shooter elements. It became a game one that fans of the old Fallout games have grown to hate and possibly a series that RPG fans in may no longer care about in the future. Taken on it’s own It’s a decent game, but one that has nonetheless been compromised for the sake of short-term sales. The same is true of Dead Space 3.

"Outside of the Prismatic Matrix, players may continue to earn Bright Engrams each time they level up, and they can still purchase these engrams if they want a chance to get everything from the Season 3 catalog. Additionally, we’re increasing the number of items available from Tess each week with Bright Dust, from 14 to 18 items.The third piece of DLC starts off with the Taken King, and Hive God, Oryx, travelling the stars in his colossal dreadnaught ship to kick off the Taken War. Apparently he wasn’t too thrilled with the Guardians killing his baby boy. The Awoken rally a pre-emptive strike, but it ends up being a massive failure, with their armada destroyed, and their Queen presumed dead. After this, Oryx begins enslaving members of other races, ala the Taken, so it’s up to the Guardians to put a stop to this. The Guardians obtain a new set of powers and are able to land relatively safely on the Dreadnaught where the Cabal are also waging war.Having been mixed on Divinity games in the past, I was hesitant to jump into Larian Studios' latest game. It took only ten minutes before I realized I shouldn’t have worried as Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most hardcore RPGs in a long while. This isn’t something that holds your hand; it’s up to your own memory and thoughts to determine the outcome of specific scenarios. You also have to really enjoy detailed menu systems and walls of numeric values for each character to appreciate what kind of RPG this is. Mix in a turned based combat system similar to that of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, with dice rolls and strategic placing, and Divinity: Original Sins is an RPG of the ages.But anyway, the Inverted Spire is all about putting a stop to Protheon, the Modular Mind. To get to him, you'll have to fight through hoards of Vex and Cabal who are also fighting each other. They take you down into a dig site, where the Cabal have been looking for Protheon. It's pretty straight forward, but there are some cool set pieces, like the dig site itself, which has you dodging huge drills as you descend, and Protheon's temple, which changes as the fight goes on.While not able to pull a fireteam together that initial first day, something I’ve managed to do with all other raids in the past, I was content to watch others attempt this beast of a raid. It was exciting to see the first fireteam complete it in just six hours and reassuring. Then talks began to crop up and not the good kind. Here were the best of the best saying that it would take everything in a fireteam's power to pull off this raid. And why? Apparently because it was the most demanding raid out of all Destiny raids. They aren’t wrong.There you have it. While there is a lot more history and detailed information regarding specific individuals and enemies during the conflicts of Destiny, this is a broad overview of what happened throughout the course of the game. You should now be prepared for Destiny 2 when it hits PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, with the PC version coming October 24.Other (obvious) additions to Destiny 2 are the new subclasses and extra abilities. I'm a Titan main, so most of my time was spent with the new Sentinel class, but I also got to check out the Dawnblade Warlock and the Arcstrider Hunter. All three are similar in a lot of ways to their previous subclass, but with more aggressive tendencies. The Arcstrider is almost identical to Bladedancer, save for the super, which gives you some mad bow staff skills. Dawnblade gives you a flaming sword and the ability to essentially fly around the map as you swing fiery blasts at everyone. That's instead of Sunsinger, which brought you back to life and gave you unrestricted access to all the melees and grenades you wanted. Instead of Defenders and their Wards of Dawn, Sentinels will get a Captain America shield that they're able to throw around and smash into people with. So while I think that the new subclasses are less tactical than the original ones, they grant new and interesting game mechanics to players. The new supers are about taking out as many baddies as you can, and in that case, all three are extremely successful.The most mysterious force anyone has ever discovered, the Vex are a machine race that are beyond ancient. They aren’t even from Destiny’s current universe. Crota, son of Hive God Oryx, accidentally unleashed the Vex into their universe by cutting a hole between dimensions. This unleashed the beings into their universe as they began to understand a method to move between worlds. They are incredibly intelligent and aggressive beings that have ruins within Venus dating back billions of years. They were first found by humans during the Golden Age, and ever since, have been nothing but a thorn in the side of every race.The people running Bungie and Activision aren’t stupid. It takes a great deal of smarts and business acumen to successfully run and grow any kind of company; they know exactly what they're doing. They’re trying to make it sound like they’re doing their fans a favor, but we wouldn’t be seeing this if that were truly the case. If they really wanted to do their consumers a favor, they could do any of the following:visit our website