Destiny 2 is also getting new armor sets that have been based off the various armor designs from Mass Effect, namely, the armor sets based on Commander Shepard for Titans, Garrus Vakarian for Hunters, and Liara T’Soni for Warlocks. These armor sets will cost players real money as is the tradition with other collaboration armors in Destiny 2, like The Witcher and PlayStation’s first-party titles.

The new collaboration armor comes along leading up to the game’s next major event—the Guardian Games. The event will see all three classes in the game fight it out to declare the winner of this year’s Guardian Games. April will also see the release of “Into the Light”, which will then lead into Destiny 2: The Final Shape in June.

Something began to happen in the lead-up to Halo 3 though. Maybe it was the fact that the Halo games were based on a series of sci-fi novels, which began receiving wider coverage, or the Halo Graphic Novel which featured several artistes like Tsutomu Nihei of Blame! fame. Enthusiasm for the franchise was incredible and Halo 3 was going to be an even bigger success. Surely enough, the game grossed $300 million in the first week. Halo pretty much blew up after that. A movie was planned, Bungie decided to create an off-shoot in Halo 3: ODST, a prequel was in development to explore the Fall of Reach and a strategy title was in development by the now-defunct Ensemble Studios. Halo Waypoint was eventually introduced to cater to the massive community of Halo fans.

"Something else happened when Bungie finally left Microsoft after 10 years of working on Halo. There was a collective thought process on what to do with the franchise."

Something else happened when Bungie finally left Microsoft after 10 years of working on Halo. There was a collective thought process on what to do with the franchise. Obviously the series’ main revenue came from its video games. Another sequel was of course to be expected but now that the series was a cultural icon, perpetrating through both the mainstream and hardcore fan base with Machinima, animated movies, comic books, etc., what else could be done to properly exploit it?

Thus with Halo 4, we had some new hooks. There was a new team now devoted entirely to developing for the franchise. A new mode called Spartan Ops, with its own campaign and episodes, was introduced and multiplayer was now consistent across the entire game. A new app was created to promote on Windows Phones, as SmartGlass promised new ways to interact with your game. But there was a new focus with this latest iteration – Microsoft was aiming for the main stream like never before, reaching out to both console and mobile users.

Of course, as Microsoft announced the Xbox One and its Cloud initiative, we wondered how Halo would tie into it all. The CG-animated teaser from E3 2013 didn’t really indicate much but it came off of a recent announcement for Halo The Television Series. Yes, Microsoft was going in that direction with the franchise. This year began with leaks that said Halo 5 was indeed real but would be out next year. meanwhile, we’d see Halo 2 Anniversary this year, and Ridley Scott was reportedly creating a Halo feature alongside Steven Spielberg’s TV series.

"Now Halo 5: Guardians has been confirmed for the Xbox One and the question arises about whether Microsoft has begun straying away from the essence of what made Halo so popular."

Halo was now a flagship property on Xbox Originals, Microsoft’s original TV content, and the company began to seek a Software Development Engineer for “building the next generation of backend services to power the Halo Universe”. The listing itself indicated that Halo would indeed have Cloud functionality in the future and another listing said that Microsoft is “creating a best in class experience for fans to dive deeper into the Halo games, story, products, and community across the web, Xbox One, and mobile platforms.”

Now Halo 5: Guardians has been confirmed for the Xbox One and the question arises about whether Microsoft has begun straying away from the essence of what made Halo so popular. After all, the first game was a success because it introduced sand-box style gameplay in a first person shooter environment. 343 Industries’ Halo 4 was decidedly more linear in that approach but something about the game just indicated that the trademark Halo atmosphere was diminished. Sure, multiplayer was fun and the story was intriguing but if nothing else, the experience felt disjointed.

The series is trying to branch ever further into the mainstream. Even if you didn’t count Halo: Spartan Assault being available to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 PC users, it feels like the franchise is everywhere at the moment. Everywhere, except the one place that matters most – the games. Even in this respect, if the leaks are true and Halo 2 Anniversary is announced to tide us over until Halo 5: Guardians releases, it would serve as little more than a stop-gap until 2015. The next true sequel could either make or break 343 Industries since it will now test their ability to above and beyond expectations to create a compelling, AAA experience that still does justice to Halo.

"Maybe it will follow the same path as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and introduce a bunch of new features while trying to keep the basic shooting mechanics."

Meanwhile, Bungie is busy creating an epic persistent online shooter based on the hunt for the Holy Grail in a brand new sci-fi universe with a massive scale and loot system. We don’t expect 343 Industries to make that kind of leap between Halo 4 and Halo 5 in terms of revolutionary new features but when the franchise’s original creator is trying new things while still getting the hardcore crowd to care, it makes you wonder what Halo 5: Guardians could possibly do next.

Maybe it will follow the same path as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and introduce a bunch of new features while trying to keep the basic shooting mechanics. Maybe it really will feature a larger sand-box environment than before and channel the old Halo titles. As of now, there’s no solid information on Halo 5: Guardians’ gameplay but the franchise itself is becoming a mish-mash of cultural goings-on to further promote the series. What began as neat little additions now feel like blatant attempts to actually market what was once a hardcore FPS to the mainstream.

Will it work? 343 Industries is working hard to take full advantage of the Xbox One, making Halo 5: Guardians bigger and better than its predecessor. It will feature a new engine, hints at two protagonists – with a female Spartan joining Master Chief – and dedicated servers along with a 60 FPS frame rate. We’ll find out how the game pans out in the coming months but 343 Industries has its work cut out for it.

At a recent GDC panel, Bungie technical art lead Scott Shepherd talked about the amount of effort that’s gone into developing the character creation system for their upcoming online shooter Destiny.

Aside from the usual customization brought about by collecting new equipment – which can be fitted into slots for Head, Chest, Arms and Legs – and the aesthetic differences between the three classes (with each separate look reflecting the class’s overall functionality), Shepherd also showcased Bungie’s Mash Up which continuously rearranges different pieces of armour and gear to create new items for players to discover.

There will also be different colour patterns for each class, and gear will evolve as you level up, even fitting automatically into the female anatomy (which in turn reduces the amount of work for creating unique items for female characters). There will also be decals and you can even adjust the accents, gradient and shininess of items.

Destiny is currently scheduled to release on September 9th for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, and PS4.

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It’s the day after Christmas but Bungie is still very much in the Holiday mood. It recently released a video spoofing “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, the opening line of A Visit From St. Nicholas, but focused on Destiny with Bungie community manager David Dague hyping up the development efforts of its studio. Check it out above and decide if it’s awesome or awkward.

Published by Activision, Destiny is an online MMO FPS in which players will traverse the universe and look to cement their own heroic legacy. You’ll be able to choose from several different classes with perks and customizable equipment, not to mention teaming up with other players on the fly for public events.

Destiny will be releasing on September 9th 2014 for the Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and Xbox 360 with a public beta to start in early 2014. PlayStation users will be getting first access to the beta on pre-ordering the game. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Bungie’s Destiny is one of the more hotly anticipated FPS titles of all time, considering the pedigree of those involved, but there was a time where it used to be third person only as opposed to some elements of the same.

Speaking to Game Informer (transcribed by Shack News), Bungie’s technical art director Ryan Ellis revealed that, “We actually were at one point third-person only. We wanted to make a kick-ass action game, and we decided first-person was the right place to do that.”

So while you won’t be able to switch back and forth between first and third person perspectives, as Ellis stated, “There are some third-person elements in the game still. That’s important for gameplay, and to show off your cool moves and the cool armour you get.”

Destiny is slated to release on September 9th 2014 worldwide for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Bungie Studios’ Destiny will allow you to play the game on your own, but you can join in with friends at any time for certain events. However, in a new interview with Game Informer, Jason Jones has indicated that you may need to team up with some friends during the final missions.

“You absolutely are going to be able to play Destiny by yourself and have the same kind of fun shooter-experience that you could have in a single-player campaign, which is a word that we’ve weeded out of our vocabulary.

“But we’re going to give you this great player-progression on top of that, and we’re going to give you as many opportunities as we possibly can to expose you to other people, so that hopefully you’re drawn into some social experiences, because those are incredibly powerful and interesting, but we’re not going to force those on you.

“We describe it in a lot of ways as sloping the floor towards socialization, without putting a requirement on it. I would say that there’s some sort of – if you wanted to talk about it in MMO terms, you’d say ‘end-game activities’, but some of the most intense non-competitive activities in the game do require cooperation. They require a group of players to tackle at once.

“I guess at some variable, distant endpoint we are going to say, ‘Yeah, if you show up at this door, and you don’t have five friends, you’re not going to be able to succeed,’ but the core experience that solo players have enjoyed in shooters, they’re going to be able to get that, and we’re going to pull many of them into social experiences as well.”

It will be interesting to see how this works out, especially since players aren’t adverse to soloing certain bosses or levels for better loot. Destiny is scheduled to release on September 9th 2014 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4.

Bungie Studios co-Founder and creative director Jason Jones recently revealed some new information to Game Informer on the upcoming online shooter Destiny, which is due to release for both current and next gen platforms, and explained how the main City is a lot like Camelot – King Arthur’s castle and court.

“Our very first metaphor was a candle in darkness, or Camelot in the middle of the untamed frontier. There was a place you could go that you could be safe, put your feet back, and look out over a sunset. I’m being totally metaphorical here. Interact with other players. You can trade stuff. I knew on all sides you were surrounded by the wicked frontier, the adventure, the mystery. We built a bunch of different stories like that, but we were trying to create something big that we can build in.”

The main quest was also revealed, which involved players finding the Traveler, an all-mighty begin, before the universe is swallowed up by darkness. “The guardians’ grail quest is to drive back the Darkness and wake the Traveler. And then in fact, it just got worse than that because this ancient enemy of the Traveler – the Darkness – is returning, and so there’s even more urgency. And another battle is going to be fought, and the Traveler is crippled and silent. Without it, we’ll be defenseless.”

Destiny will be releasing on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, and PS4 on September 9th 2014.

Bungie Studios’ Destiny was present at the on-going Spike VGX Awards, and this meant new gameplay footage. The studio had plenty to show from its online RPG shooter, which you can check out above.

Destiny sees players travel a brand new sci-fi universe wherein they can choose three different classes and fight against several different alien races, ranging from robots to multi-armed being intent on your murder. It will follow the aftermath of the Golden Age during the “Collapse”, as many technologically advanced colonies suddenly saw themselves dissolved almost instantaneously. There’s a lot happening, for sure.

Published by Activision, Destiny will release on PS3, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360 on September 9th 2014. A closed beta will be arriving in Summer 2014 for those who pre-order the game, with PS3 and PS4 players being the first to get their hands on the same. Stay tuned for more updates from the Spike VGX Awards.

Game Informer recently revealed that Bungie Studios’ Destiny will be on the cover of its January issue. OXM took the time to trudge through it to cover any new and important details regarding the upcoming online FPS. So what did they find?

First off, the three classes – Hunter, Titan and Warlock – are capable of equipping the same weapons though armour is specific to each class. You can however customize your class using “Focus”. Focus essentially includes secondary stats from teleport abilities to double jumps and stat bonuses, and even new weapon types such as grenades. There will also be different special moves, including the Titan’s Nova Bomb and Fist of Havoc which can act as an electricity attack along with the, Warlock’s Heart of Fusion and Circle of Night (an attack skill).

Some of the environments have also been revealed including Old Russia on Earth, Vex Citadel on Venus, the Moon and Mars, and you’ll come across plenty of alien races including the Fallen, a band of pirates and the Hive. The Vex are robots while the Exo are a race of machines created by humanity. Other features include campaign co-op, Raid and Strike Modes, player vs. player battles which include deathmatch and zone capture and much more.

Destiny will have a public beta in early 2014 but otherwise, it releases in Spring next year for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360.

If you find yourself on the fence about whether to like Bungie Studio’s Destiny or not (and considering the pedigree of the developer, you most definitely should), then you’ll be pleased to hear that the online shooter will be Game Informer’s cover for January 2014.

The issue will also feature 14 pages of details on the game including sub-groups, locations and weapons along with more than 15 brand new screens. We’ll also find out what Bungie has in mind for leveling up your character. Will we finally find out if the game requires a constant internet connection to play and whether it’s as massively awesome as we hope it is? Hopefully.

A beta for Destiny will begin in early 2014 for those who pre-ordered the game, with PS3 and PS4 users gaining first access. It will also release for Xbox One and Xbox 360. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months on Bungie’s opus.