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

How Destiny DLC and Exclusives Work Cross-gen

Gamescom brought a substantial amount of new info about Destiny, including new trailers and interviews. Still, with the all of the new boundaries that Destiny is pushing, Bungie has many questions left to answer. One of the subjects they have been talking more about are their earliest expansions, which are already available for pre-order and bundled with some editions of the game. The Dark Below The Dark Below is the first of the two DLCs announced for Destiny, the other being The House of Wolves. They are $19.99 individually or found together in the expansion pass, available for $34.99 or

PvE Class Comparisons

If you aren’t familiar with each class, check out this article. What’s best depending on the situation? What can certain subclasses bring that other can’t? DattoDoesDestiny answers these questions and a whole lot more, giving us some helpful PvE perspectives. [divider] In other news, as reported by VentureBeat, an arbitrator ordered Bungie to restore Marty’s stock in the company. Bungie’s lawyers “objected that if O’Donnell’s shares were restored, he would be a bothersome presence at board meetings and in the company.” The arbitrator, retired Judge Sharon Armstrong, overruled them.

Destiny is our “entire focus”

PlayStation Access talks to DeeJ from Bungie about the studio’s epic shooter Destiny, asking what they learned from the game’s beta and how big it will eventually be. [divider] TotalXbox interviewed Bungie’s director of production Jonty Barnes, which you can read below. Activision, you might recall, was obliged to publish a version of its contract with Bungie to develop the Destiny franchise back in May 2012, as part of a legal clash with former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. Some aspects of the contract have been shown to be thoroughly obsolete, such as the mention of a timed exclusivity deal

Custom Games, Customization, & More

Jonty Barnes, Director of Production at Bungie, talks with TSA about Destiny. [divider] TSA: What kinds of things have you learnt from the beta? Is there anything that you’re thinking you might try and patch in? Jonty: Well there were hundreds of little changes that we actually made. The most notable one that we’ve actually talked about was the Interceptor in competitive multiplayer that was too powerful, but we also had the Hand Cannon that was not powerful enough. We had lots of optimisations to do about making sure the best people are matched together and making sure they’re given the best

Venus Trailer Analysis

A new Destiny trailer for Venus was premiered yesterday that showed off some exotic armor and Vanguard weapons, as well as a sneak peak of a high level enemy called a Vex Oracle! My name is Byf has an analysis of this trailer and points out some info you may have missed. [divider] In other news, you’ll be able to chat with a few of the developers on 8/21. It’ll take place on Best Buy’s Google+ page and last approximately 30 minutes.

Destiny Writer Quits Bungie

Veteran industry writer Joshua Rubin leaves ahead of the game’s release next month, to work on Game of Thrones at TellTale. Read the full article here. [divider] Joshua Rubin, who spent two years at Bungie writing the story for the upcoming shooter Destiny, has quit the studio to take a job at Telltale Games where he will work on the developer’s Game of Thrones episodic series. Rubin announced the news on Twitter, saying he’s excited by the challenge of writing a Game of Thrones story that is on par–or better–than what fans found in the HBO TV show. Benioff and Weiss

The Vex

Sun Tzu once said ‘If you know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”. A kind of modified terminator-alien hybrid, The vex are definitely the race that is most influenced by Sci-Fi and they’re made from a material like hammered, burnished bronze. Community member DBMgamer0722 has a great video revealing all of the Vex classes and a few of their mysteries. Hailing from the Citadel, their home base on the lush planet of Venus, the Vex are a time-traveling race of robotic enemies who overwhelm their enemies with what feels like an infinite army. Devoid