Destiny 2 launched with remarkably positive player feedback in September, but in the subsequent months, the game’s vocal critics have expressed frustration with everything from the experience system to the endgame content. Bungie has been listening to the criticism and the studio announced several major changes coming to the game soon.
“Going forward, Destiny 2‘s post-launch game systems, features, and updates are being designed specifically to focus on and support players who want Destiny [2] to be their hobby — the game they return to, and a game where friendships are made,” Bungie said in a blog post.
In December, Destiny 2 will introduce a “Heroic Strikes” playlist that will give players better rewards for completing the cooperative missions, and better rewards will also be coming to the open-world Adventures and Lost Sectors. Additionally, players will now be able to equip a new tier of weapon dubbed “Masterworks.” These weapons will feature stat tracks, extra re-rollable stat bonuses, and technically fall under the “Legendary” category, so you won’t be limited in the same way as “Exotic” weapons. Legendary weapons can be turned into Masterworks and they can also be found as drops “for any source of Legendary weapons for characters above 250 power.” They also generate orbs on multi-kills, which should help your Guardian earn their super ability more quickly.
Xûr, the mysterious traveling merchant who appears on weekends to offer Exotic equipment, is also being changed. He will sell “Fated Engrams” for Legendary shards, and when taking them to the Cryptarch, they are guaranteed to become an Exotic item you don’t already own.
Bungie also addressed a decision it had made regarding experience points in the post. Previously, the game used a scaling system for earning experience to make both open-world activities and larger missions worth players’ time, but after players discovered the system, they took issue with the studio’s lack of transparency.
“We were able to disable the system with a server-side change, but a new solution is now needed to re-balance the experience in Destiny 2,” Bungie said. “We have begun that work, and will continue to provide updates to you about timelines and specifics.”
Updates for Destiny 2 will be rolling out on December 5 and December 12. The game’s first expansion, Curse of Osiris, also arrives on December 5 for Buy Now , Buy Now , and Buy Now . It features a new playable planet — Mercury — as well as an increased level cap and new story missions.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.