Weekly Update 8.22.14

This article can also be found at Bungie.net [divider] This week at Bungie, we entered the home stretch. Have we said that before? Feels like it. The development of Destiny has been a race with many milestones. All along the way, there was always a feeling that this team was sprinting from one finish line to the next. Another new build. A live fire exercise with friends and family. A mass public showcase. Now, we’re very close to launch – the final weeks. This next milestone carries a heavier weight of finality. Destiny is Gold. Discs are being pressed and packed

Subclass & Locking-In FAQ

DattoDoesDestiny goes over how subclasses, the lock in (amplify) mechanic, and the fabled ‘third subclass’ slot works. “Destiny will launch with two focuses per class for a total of six, but you’ll have to play through your Guardian’s progression to unlock them all.” It’s assumed that the third slot is where your locked subclass will go. “Destiny allows you to freely swap your ability choices, but according to Green there comes a point when you can lock them in. This gives your Guardian benefits, such as a stat boost. At this point you get a copy of the same focus, but

Why Raid’s Aren’t for Everyone

Destiny’s raids aren’t for everyone, and VG247 has an article that accurately outlines the reasons why, and expands on the intentional decisions by Bungie to make them less accessible. [divider] By limiting raids to the super hardcore, Bungie’s not limiting its audience. It’s just one manifestation of how it’s opening the audience for gaming up. Despite their incredible reach, online multiplayer shooters are inaccessible to new audiences, because of the dauntingly steep learning curves. If you’re already a veteran shooter you probably don’t care. But game developers do. They want their audiences to grow much faster than barriers to entry allow.

Dragon Slayer

Published on: Aug 21, 2014 @ 15:54 In the recent gameplay trailer, after the narrator says that “there are enemies out here you would not believe,” we got to see a new (killable?) monster. We’ve seen something that looks similar to this in the Beta, in the Shores of Time map on Venus. Could either of these be the “champion” that the Dragon Slayer achievement alludes to? Update: We now know at least one of the “champions” that this achievement is referring to. [toggle title=”Achievement Spoiler” state=”close” ][/toggle] If you’re skeptical, you better be careful! This weapon gives us some insight: [divider] In other news, gamereactorTV talked with community manager David

Bungie on Raids, Changes, & More

Eurogamer had the pleasure of speaking to Bungie’s director of production Jonty Barnes and lead concept artist Jesse van Dijk, and they had a lot of good answers. It’s an amazing interview! [divider] What was the most useful feedback you got from the beta? Jonty Barnes: Let’s start with the most important thing, which is, it was a test. Having all of those players at once, we didn’t fall on our face. We were able to scale to the demands on the servers of all of the players. In fact we exceeded some of our targets, which was great. So we’re