Content Announced for the Destiny Final Release

The Destiny beta for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 is now finished, but the Bungie Community Manager David “DeeJ” Dague has been answering some questions about what will be included when the 9th September global release comes around. 

On a recent 2old2play livestream, Deej confirmed that each planet will have one location to explore when the game launches - much like the section of Russia we saw during the last couple of weeks.

“We’re calling them destinations. You go to Mars, you go to the moon, you go to Venus, you’ve got Earth,” DeeJ explained.

“We’ve revealed everything that you’ll explore in the first version of the game,” he continued. “You’ll be [going to] Earth. Your story takes you from the wastes of the Cosmodrome, which was essentially our Cape Canaveral of the Golden Age. It’s where we launched off as a global society, where we rushed out into the solar system to colonise and use what the Traveller gave us.”

Even though there’s only one area to explore per location, the beta showed that there is a large amount of area to cover on Earth alone. As most of you are aware parts of Old Russia were blocked off by barriers or by Fallen and Hive enemies that were "immune" to combat or much higher than the level 8 cap of the beta. In the brief 2-hour period that the Moon was made available in the beta on Saturday night we were able to explore deep into the Hellmouth for almost an hour before hitting these same barriers so we're very excited about what is included within these "sandboxes".

In all, there are seven different “destinations” in Destiny for players to explore — the Earth, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and The Reef (a part of the asteroid belt), plus the Crucible multiplayer maps. DeeJ also confirmed that the areas seen in the Crucible maps for Mars and Venus during the beta will be part of the regular destinations for the single/coop section of the game as well.

It's also be found, by Reddit user DestinyDB, through data mining some more information about the missions and destinations. This is by no means everything, or at least we don't believe it is, but even so it's a lot of information and therefore missions to take part in (and remember there are also "harder" versions of most assignments too).

Warning: The below could be considered spoilers so avoid direct eye contact for safety if you're worried....

Earth Story Missions
Old Russia, Earth – The cradle of humanity – a world of ancient glory, waiting to be retaken.
A Guardian Rises (level 1)
Restoration (levels 2, 5)
The Dark Within (levels 3, 6)
The Warmind (levels 4, 7)
The Last Array (levels 5, 8)
Earth Story Challenges
The Queen’s Wrath (Kill Order; level 24)

Earth Strikes
Nightfall: The Devils’ Lair (levels 22, 26, 28)
The Devils’ Lair (levels 6, 8)

Moon Story Missions
Oceans of Storms – An ancient evil stirs beneath the shattered surface of our moon.
The Dark Beyond (levels 6, 9)
The Sword of Crota (levels 7, 10)
The World’s Grave (levels 7, 10)
Shrine of Oryx (levels 8, 11)
Chamber of Night (levels 8, 11)

Moon Strikes
Nightfall: The Summoning Pits (levels 22, 26, 28)
The Summoning Pits (level 12)

The Reef Story Missions
The Reef, Asteroid Belt – Dare to strike a bargain with the ruthless Queen.
The Awoken (level 10)
A Key Awaits (level 12)

Venus Story Missions
Ishtar Sink – The jungles of Venus conceal great treasures – and terrible power.
A Stranger’s Call (levels 10, 12)
Ishtar Collective (levels 10, 12)
The Archive (levels 11, 13)
Scourge of Winter (levels 11, 13)
Eye of a Gate Lord (levels 12, 14)

Venus Strikes
Nightfall: The Nexus (levels 22, 26, 28)
Nightfall: Winter’s Run (levels 22, 26, 28)
The Nexus (level 14)
Winter’s Run (level 14)

Mars Story Missions
Meridian Bay – In the sandswept carcass of a lost city, dark forces gather for war.
Exclusion Zone (levels 15, 17)
The Garden’s Spire (levels 16, 18)
A Rising Tide (levels 17, 19)
The Buried City (levels 17, 19)
The Black Garden (levels 18, 20)

Mars Strikes
Nightfall: Cerberus Vae III (levels 22, 26, 28)
Cerberus Vae III (level 18)
Dust Palace (level 18)

Confirmed Crucible Maps
Earth
Twilight Gap
Rusted Lands
Exodus Blue
Moon
First Light
The Anomaly
Mars
Bastion
Firebase Delphi
Blind Watch
Venus
Asylum
Shores of Time
Mercury
The Burning Shrine

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Game with Gold - August 2014

Microsoft’s free game offerings for Xbox LIVE Gold members as part of the Games with Gold promotion has regularly been criticised when compared to Sony’s PS Plus options. Thankfully, for Xbox owners, it seems like August may be the month which changes that.

Starting 1st August we'll see two new games for 360 gamers and an additional two for Xbox One owners.

The free offerings for the Xbox One will continue the trend of the next-gen consoles solely receiving downloadable titles for now. The library of retail releases for both consoles is not yet large enough to support giving them away yet.

For Xbox One you'll see Strike Force Zero after two weeks of Crimson Dragon. 

The last generation will see Dishonoured first followed by Motocross Madness.

It looks like we're all in for a treat, especially if you never got the Bethesda action game the first time round (because it's great). The entirety of the Rajakaru team loved the Gothic setting and the fantastic combat system - this is definitely the game to download this month. 

What do you think of August’s selection of free games for the Xbox One and Xbox 360? Has Microsoft upped its game? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Destiny Beta Overview

The Destiny Beta is now opened to everyone and the Rajakaru team have been playing through the content over the past few days (none of us own PlayStation consoles so we’re a bit behind). The application gives, in most cases, gamers the first chance to see a generous slice of Bungie’s long awaited sci-fi FPS since they left Halo to 343 Industries.

I’ve now played about 10 hours exploring the Cosmodrome and have taken part in everything the beta has to offer – as such I felt it would be good for you all to see a rundown of what is being offered this week. Which, by the way, is now open to everyone – no codes necessary.

After choosing whether to play as a Titan, Warlock or Hunter (see Fighter, Rogue and Wizard) you’re going to be treated to an introduction session of how to play and what to pay attention to. There are also three options on race but as far as we can tell this is aesthetic only. The opening cinematic is quickly followed by an introduction to your new AI Ghost; voiced by the fantastic Peter Dinklage. Whom, for those that care, is far from the terrible audio many had lead me to believe.

You get to run through a section of the game that, if you’ve seen the video, will be very familiar. After discovering your ‘ride’ for the beta zones you’ve shipped offer to the traveller and it’s hub before being allowed to explore in the PvE sandbox (which fantastically doesn’t include any loading screens despite a substantial offering).

In fact you’ll get 4 full story missions that introduce the different enemies scattered through the lands, a handful of flavoursome weapons and even the Sparrow hover-bike to zip around on. The foes come in various different sizes and the Fallen are the first to be introduced. The Dregs are similar to Halo’s Grunts, easy to take down, while their counterparts the Vandals put up a fight similar to that of Jackels. There are also some tougher foes which can be linked to Elites and Brutes.

After a while you’ll also get treated to the Hive – a bit like the Flood, again from Halo (can you see where I’m going here?). They aren’t nearly as annoying but again come in forms that are easy to take down and go up to Elite standards.  Finally, and for the life of me I can’t remember at what point, you’ll also come up against Shanks that are little floating robots; they only take a few shots to go down but they can be nimble and catch you from a vertical height too.

The Hive and the Fallen aren’t the best of friends and you’ll often see firefights between the two parties. Each race has a specific set of ‘special’ enemies too which you’ll see sporadically through the story missions and also in free-roam (where short missions and bounties are optional).

Between missions you’ll be able to explore The Tower, Destiny’s central hub that acts as a place to buy upgrade, make friends and exchange glimmer – the in game currency – for new armour and emblems.

Probably the most enjoyable section of the beta, for me, was the Devil’s Lair Strike mission. If you’re lucky enough to get up to a suitable level this quest is designed for cooperative gameplay and clocks in at around 20-30 minutes in length. You’ll fight against various enemies in large volumes and a lack of communication will end in failure (grab some like-minded friends). This is, I believe, the only chance you’ll get to face off with a Devil Walker (a Fallen tank).

When that’s all said and done you’ll be able to start again with another character or explore the Cosmodrome some more. Some areas are impossible to traverse (with immune enemies to ensure you don’t get outside the available areas) but you’re almost never stuck for options. If you can see if, generally, you can go there. You’ll see other player, fight in momentary one-off tasks, and find new weapons and armour to try out. The beta peaks at level 8, which took me around 4 hours to reach but that didn’t stop my drive to continue playing one bit.

You’ll also get one PvP section at level five carefully titled, The Crucible. This is a three flag conquest style game-mode with teams of 6 facing off. There is only one mode but the beta does come with four very aesthetically distinct maps.

Unfortunately there isn’t any news yet on whether you can transfer progress into the final game – due for release globally in September – but if you’re playing at 9pm GMT on Saturday night then you can expect something cool to be handed out to you when the final release comes around (no news on what this is though)

The beta closed on 27^th July so you all have a few days to enjoy it.

Let us know what you’ve thought of it, or leave us a question, in the comments section below.


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You can follow Richard on Twitter by clicking here.
You can follow Rajakaru Games on Twitter by clicking here.

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Crysis has a Crisis

Crysis, the first-person shooter series made by Crytek, should be fortunate it doesn’t have a third-person perspective. And we should be forever grateful for that too.

Why? Because this is what happens when you mess with the perspective of video games. It’s a little terrifying and certainly lets us know that we should stop playing around with finished titles. As it’s an FPS, there isn’t any head on show, so you’d never see this mind bending acid trip otherwise.

You're never supposed to see any of this.

 

You can follow Richard on Twitter by clicking here.
You can follow Rajakaru Games on Twitter by clicking here.

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