Latest news with #Destiny2
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
What Was In ‘Rise Of Iron,' Supposedly As Big As Destiny 2's ‘Edge Of Fate'
Rise of Iron As we approach the launch of Destiny 2's Edge of Fate expansion and the Frontiers era, we have learned a whole lot about systems changes coming to the wider game, and very little about the expansion itself. What we have heard in the past, however, is that these smaller expansions like The Edge of Fate and the upcoming Renegade are that they're supposed to be around Rise of Iron size from Destiny 1. Here's assistant game director Robbie Stevens on a livestream late last year: Two Rise of Iron expansions a year sounds good in theory, albeit without true 'seasons' in between them now, but is the upcoming Edge of Fate expansion actually the same size as a Rise of Iron? My initial perception is probably not, but it's too early to say that for sure. But what we can do is run down the content of Rise of Iron itself to compare when Edge of Fate does arrive. So, here's the list. Destiny 2 FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder So, The Edge of Fate? What do we know? A new raid. Four weapon exotics (that we know of), three exotic armor pieces. No Crucible maps seems confirmed. What don't we know? We have heard nothing about strikes. We do not know the length of the campaign or the size of Kepler, and it doesn't seem to be a traditional patrol zone with Lost Sectors and such. We don't know if it will have exotic quests (though it's likely). Is this Rise of Iron size? Again, there are things we just don't know, but if some of these items are coming (strikes, Crucible maps), it feels like they already would have been discussed. We will see how it compares to Rise of Iron at launch, though interestingly, we are getting a Rise of Iron-themed 'major update' three months from now. Not that size, but reprising things like the Plaguelands. So, we'll see. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Destiny 2' Players Hate Edge Of Fate's ‘New Gear' Grind Plan
Destiny 2 Yesterday, Bungie had a lengthy livestream about The Edge of Fate, Destiny 2's upcoming expansion that drops in mid-July. But it wasn't really about The Edge of Fate itself outside of a small preview at the top of the stream. Rather, it was going over the upcoming larger systems changes in the game for what has to be the second or third time by now, making for an odd presentation. This was, however, probably the most-watched look at the new changes given how many players tuned in, and in at least one area, they're confused and at least initially seem to hate what they're hearing about a 'New Gear' system the game is getting. There are two pieces to this, but both revolve around the same concept. 'New Gear' (proper noun) will be introduced to the game, similar to the armor and weapons we got every episode/season before this. But it will be used in conjunction with the upcoming gear 'Tier' system. The armor concept seems like the worst of the two. Bungie is instituting a system where you will get a stacking damage-resist bonus over time by using New Gear armor sets and then also getting higher tiers of those new armor sets. In a given stretch of time (I believe six months? Not three months? Not sure if that's official) if you get a full set of Tier 5 armor, that will equal a significant 15% damage reduction. Lower tiers, still of New Gear armor, will offer less than that. Non-New Gear armor gives you nothing. Destiny 2 FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The problem becomes that this will then 'expire.' There will be new, New Gear armor after 6 (3?) months, and you'll have to do it again, not only getting Tier 5 New Gear armor, but also playing Jenga with the new stat system that requires a lot more finagling than before to get a good build. It seems to be an attempt to get players to grind armor in a way they haven't for a while, but it feels more like a penalty than a bonus if you're not doing it. Some players may downplay the damage reduction as not that big of a deal, but it at least feels bad that you're grinding out sets that will be fundamentally worse in a few months. The weapon concept is similar, and while it's perhaps not as bad, it's more complicated. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get some of this wrong below because that's how confusing it is. And if it's confusing to me, 11-year player of the series, this idea that these new systems are supposed to be more accessible to new players is pretty absurd. Here, New Gear weapons will have a stacking damage bonus up to 10% depending on the tier of the gear, with Tier 5 getting that full bonus. Again, this seemingly puts everything that is not New Gear at a flat disadvantage. Destiny 2 Some are saying this is similar to surges in the Artifact now that offer temporary bonus damage throughout a season, but the way damage is calculated with stacking and non-stacking formats, it doesn't seem like it will work out the same. Additionally, surges offer a wider range of options rather than almost exclusively focusing on that season's gear. It also creates the situation, as I saw pointed out by u/wandering_caribou yesterday, that you can get a god roll T1-3 weapon that does less damage than a T5 weapon because of this system, but once you end that New Gear period, the lower tier will be better than the higher tier without that stacked damage bonus. I'm not sure just how impactful all this will feel, but in many ways, perception is reality, and presenting this as a confusing system that mainly seems to be about lengthening a grind with less yearly content now, it's easy to see why it's turning off players. A lot of this seems like fixing problems that don't exist (the recent normal/adept/shiny weapon system has been fine) or poor solutions for problems that do exist (no real reason to ever grind more than a set or two of armor outside of cosmetics). I am concerned about the new Frontiers era of Destiny 2 in a few ways, but I think this New Gear system is something players are predisposed to hate, and I foresee major changes coming to it in the future once it's live. Hell, maybe even before. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
PS Plus Essential July 2025 games reveal time, and when you can download them
Sony has confirmed the PS Plus July 2025 reveal time, which is when we'll be finding out the incoming PS Plus Essential games for the month ahead. Here's everything you need to know. It's nearly time for a fresh batch of complimentary games for PS Plus subscribers, so make sure to download this month's offerings before they revert to their usual price. PS Plus continues to have a lot to prove as it oscillates between stellar lineups and disappointing letdowns. The Days of Play event took gamers by surprise when the service unveiled an impressive array of bonus PS Plus games, including new and classic Destiny 2 expansions. However, since then, the future seems less certain. FBC: Firebreak was a promising addition, but the PS Plus Extra and Premium June 2025 release failed to impress, with Battlefield 2042 landing on the service after being largely abandoned by shooter enthusiasts. The service has plenty in its arsenal for Extra and Premium subscribers either way, so players will be content with their already extensive backlogs, but Essential players could do with more. This unpredictable pattern has made the service feel like a bit of a gamble. It's even more frustrating for players who feel somewhat trapped, given that they're paying for PlayStation 's online service anyway. But there's always hope. The upcoming PS Plus Essential drop could be a game-changer if we're extremely fortunate. Our PS Plus Essential July 2025 predictions suggested that we might see some viral classics and indie treasures that fans of high-speed shooters will love. However, we won't know for sure until Sony reveals the games, and subsequently drops them in the laps of players everywhere. So, when can we expect the PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal? Here's what you need to know about the forthcoming drop. PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal time The PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal time is scheduled for 8.30am PDT / 11.30am EDT / 4.30pm BST on Wednesday, June 25. This is because the PS Plus Essential games are always unveiled on the last Wednesday of the month before being made available to players on the following Tuesday, which in this case is Tuesday, July 1. These new games will replace the current PS Plus Essential games, which include Destiny 2: The Final Shape, NBA 2K25, Alone in the Dark 2024 and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Be sure to download them before they return to their full price, which as we all know, can be a real pain.
Tom's Guide
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
I skipped Fallout 76 at launch — here's why I finally gave it a shot in 2025 (and you should too)
I love Fallout. Exploring a vast, post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with horrible enemies has always brought a smile to my face. I'm also prone to getting addicted to online looter shooter games like Destiny 2 and I even got sucked into The First Descendent. So when Fallout 76 came out, it should have been the game for me. But based on the negativity from Fallout fans when it launched, I passed. Now, it's 2025, and the game has been chugging along since 2018. It's had hours and hours of content added to it, and it's become closer to the Fallout experience I always hoped it could be. It doesn't have as much personality as the numbered Fallout games (and New Vegas), but it has one key factor that keeps me coming back: it's incredibly fun. Is 2025 finally the perfect time to lose yourself in the Appalachian wasteland? I think it just might be, and here's why. For me, one of the biggest reasons to jump back into Fallout 76 is the value. Because the game is a few years old, you can get it for cheap most of the time. Even at full price, the game is $39 on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox. It's on Game Pass and can often be picked up on sale, either from the first-party platform store or from retailers like Amazon. I've been primarily playing through Game Pass, as I have an active subscription. The ridiculous number of quests and vast wilderness available to explore make it feel like a game that should cost a lot more. I've played more than 40 hours of the game in a few weeks, and it feels like there are a million more quests for me to do and powerful items to find. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And then there's the building mechanics... Fallout 76 offers a lot of content for the price. You can spend hundreds of hours exploring the wastelands if you like the game, so you'll certainly get your money's available on: Xbox and PlayStation I was a little worried that Fallout 76 might not be fun without a group of friends to play with. My normal group of looter shooter friends has dispersed between various games, with a few still hanging onto Destiny 2. Getting them to try Fallout 76 was a no-go, so it was just me rolling solo (and playing with randoms). Fortunately, after grinding my way past level 50, I can say that I'm having a blast without friends. Friends or not, the core loop of shooting enemies, looting their corpses and leveling up your character is fun and addictive, which is what you want to see from a game like Fallout 76. Whether you play a V.A.T.S. character or one who sprays all over the place, there's a lot of fun to be had in Bethesda's semi-MMO version of Fallout. While the Bethesda game may not have the official Steam Deck badge, in my experience, the game works just fine. And best of all, you don't need to do anything crazy with the settings to get it working. All I did was install the game and launch it. No startup tweaks and no crazy settings to change. Just run it and go. It's not perfect — the frame rate is lower than a traditional gaming PC or console, but the fact that I can play my current looter-shooter addiction while my family does other stuff with the TV is amazing. Now, if only there were a way to transfer characters between platforms (there isn't and probably never will be). Bethesda offers a quality of life (QOL) subscription for Fallout 76 that provides things like scrap and ammo storage, preventing you from having to deal with the headache of encumbrance as much. It costs $99.99 per year or $12.99 per month. I signed up for a month, and it's great to have if you're playing a ton of the game. However, I played all the way to level 50 without it, and it was fine. Will I keep my subscription after the first month? Probably, because I'm incredibly addicted to the game and I like the QOL changes. But I could also live without it, and I think you can, too. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm late to the Fallout 76 party. Players around the world have already known how good the game was for some time, and I'm just walking in like a beginner trying to tell people the game is good. Are there bugs? Sure. Does it crash occasionally? Of course, it's a Bethesda game. Do any of those things stop me from loving the game and wanting to finish this article to play more of it? Not even close.
Forbes
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Calculating How Many Players ‘Destiny 2: The Edge Of Fate' Will Launch With, Per Math
Destiny 2: Edge of Fate Destiny 2 is entering a much different new era in a month, one which will launch the next few years of the game. It's switching from an annual expansion and four seasons to two smaller expansions and four 'major updates' that are not seasons, and the entire project is called 'Frontiers.' Its first expansion is The Edge of Fate, which will be out on July 15, just under a month from now. One open question is just how many players Edge of Fate will launch with, namely, who will have stuck around since the launch of Destiny 2's The Final Shape a year ago, given the context of how the game will work now. I think we can use math to at least get a pretty good estimate of this, given the difference between the pre-expansion lows of the playerbase and then what they spiked to at actual launch. We will, of course, have to use Steam for this, as we don't have data elsewhere. We only have from Beyond Light forward for Steam, so no Forsaken or Shadowkeep. Pre-Beyond Light Month (Oct 2020) – 94,000 concurrents Beyond Light (Nov 2020) – 242,000 concurrents Increase – 2.57x Pre-Witch Queen Month (Jan 2022) – 78,000 concurrents FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Witch Queen (Feb 2022) – 290,000 concurrents Increase – 3.71x Pre-Lightfall Month (Jan 2023) – 96,000 concurrents Lightfall (Feb 2023) – 316,000 concurrents Increase – 3.29x Pre-Final Shape Month (May 2024) – 116,000 concurrents The Final Shape (June 2024) – 314,000 concurrents Increase – 2.7x increase Destiny 2 So, what I'll do here is average the increases together, which would be a 3.01x increase Then, we take the current playercount figures for this month, the month before Edge of Fate release: 38,000 3.01 x 38,000 = a potential 114,000 peak. That would be below half of Beyond Light and Witch Queen and close to a third of Lightfall and Final Shape. I also think you might be able to say that this could be an over-estimate if the idea is that in the post-Light and Darkness era, a brand new, lower-profile, smaller-scale expansion may prove less attractive. I'm not trying to dunk on the game here, but I do think we have to be realistic about the new normal for Destiny 2 going forward. I've avoided reporting on the 'record lows' the game has hit almost every month since The Final Shape, but now reality is approaching as we try to see what level of surge we're getting for these smaller expansions. Then, of course, we'd have to see how the second expansion did six months later, the Star Wars-themed Renegades. The way this works out on the revenue side is if the cost of making less content with fewer employees works with the new lower, average playercount in a way that doesn't put the game deeply in the red. This is not a short-term experiment, this is the plan for a few more years at least with no Destiny 3 on the horizon. It will have to work at least to some degree, as at this point, I don't think it's a safe bet that Bungie can rely on the upcoming Marathon to be the huge boost the studio needs (we've talked that to death at this point). Maybe Edge of Fate will prove surprising, but it's a smaller expansion, offering less content, outside the long-term Light and Darkness saga. Expectations will have to be adjusted accordingly. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
