The next major Destiny 2 content expansion isn’t scheduled to arrive until this spring, but Bungie is making changes to the game’s current systems in an effort to keep players motivated. The studio’s latest overhaul is to the high-level Nightfall strikes, and the changes seem primed to make the strikes a destination for experienced players again.
“The Nightfall has been the subject of a lot of feedback since launch,” Bungie said in an update post. “Many of you felt that the timer was pretty stressful and preferred being able to slowly work your way through the challenges at your own pace.”
Unlike standard strikes, the Nightfall could be failed if players didn’t make their way through it within the time limit. Certain variables could affect this time on particular strikes, but Nightfall strikes were still much more difficult than much of the other content in the game.
Now, the Nightfall will use a scoring system to help the most-skilled players stand out from the pack. Scores will be generated both by getting kills and generating orbs, and it will be team-based to keep players from getting into conflict during playtime. There will still be a soft time limit, as scores will reduce by half at the 15-minute mark and will stop completely after 18 minutes. Special “challenge cards” will also give you more difficult strikes in exchange for higher score multipliers. You must complete a Nightfall run once in order to acquire the cards.
As far as rewards go, special Nightfall emblems will drop, and these will show off your personal best Nightfall score to other players. If your score is above a certain threshold, you get a special aura.
“Along with the aura, a personal score over the threshold will also unlock a fireteam-wide buff that boosts Vanguard Token drops in that strike by 25 percent,” the post continued. “When your fireteam sees the Nightfall Aura on your head, they know who’s hooking them up.”
Destiny 2 is now available for Buy Now , Buy Now , and Buy Now . Next month will see big changes coming to Crucible mode, including a new six-versus-six option and matchmaking tweaks.
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.