For everyone who enjoyed Destiny 2 over the weekend, Bungie has announced over Twitter that the Destiny 2 beta has been extended another two days. Instead of ending at 6 p.m. PT on Sunday, the beta will now run through the same time on Tuesday, July 25.
The beta began Tuesday, July 18, for anyone who pre-ordered the game on PlayStation 4. Other participants on PS4 and Xbox One had to wait until Friday, July 21. According to Bungie, the Destiny 2 beta extension is “for additional service testing.”
Players who booted up the beta got a taste of the main story campaign and the competitive multiplayer. From the story, players could check out Homecoming, the opening mission, alone or with friends. This offered a glimpse at some of the in-game cinematics. Within competitive multiplayer, players could team up against each other in a variety of modes and maps including the attack and defend Countdown mode.
Additionally, The Inverted Spire offered fans their first look at a new strike mission. Set in a Vex stronghold, players could jump in with two friends or use matchmaking to fill the extra slots.
Despite the beta launching less than a week ago, Bungie has already begun making adjustments to Destiny 2 based on feedback from players enjoying the beta. This past Thursday, Bungie released a statement from Beta Design Lead Rob Engeln.
“We too felt that ammo (especially power ammo) was too scarce in PvE,” said Engeln. “In addition to retuning the drop rates, we built a system that guarantees power ammo drops for you and your Fireteam from certain enemies, giving power weapons a more reliable and predictable role in your arsenal.”
Other adjustments include grenade effectiveness, boss vitality, and weapon damage against NPCs.
We played the Destiny 2 beta alongside many of you this weekend and called it “one of the best game demos you can play.” There was a lot of the final game available to play, but one area that wasn’t supposed to be was called The Lost Sector. That didn’t stop players from figuring out how to gain entry.
Bungie’s Destiny 2 launches September 6 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and October 24 for PC. For players wanting to try out the Destiny 2 Beta for PC, don’t forget about the open beta currently planned for late August.
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.