Adler noted that the studio looked at games like Destiny, and even got advice from the developers of Halo to try and make shooting guns in The Outer Worlds 2 feel good. He noted that the studio was also aware that the shooting in The Outer Worlds could have used some improvement even when the game first came out.

He said, “even before The Outer Worlds 1 shipped, that was one of the things that we knew we had wanted to improve when we were going to target a sequel.” This ultimately led the studio to doing analysis of Bungie’s multiplayer shooter Destiny to further examine how things could be improved.

When it comes to getting advice from Halo Studios, Adler said that Obsidian Entertainment sought them out to ask them questions like “What do you guys do? What are we doing wrong? How can we improve this?”

“And so they gave us a huge list of stuff, and they said, like, ‘Hey, you guys should target these types of things. You guys should add this to your weapon configurations.’ We did all of that,” said Adler.

Generally speaking, Adler noted that the studio paying extra attention to the core combat of the game ultimately led to better overall gameplay. “So overall, it was just making that an actual thing that we decided to put a lot of effort and resources towards,” he explained. “But yeah, it was, it was something pretty important to us early on.”

Adler has also previously spoken about the overall tone of The Outer Worlds 2, especially when compared to the first game, which he had noted “could sometimes be one note,” especially when it came to the tonal dissonance in its style of comedy.

“I want to give players something new from that, so they don’t feel like ‘Oh, we’re just running through the same types of jokes, the same type of content, the same type of ideas and themes over and over again,’” he said.

To address this, Adler said that Obsidian Entertainment decided to take some of the silliness out for The Outer Worlds 2, instead focusing on making it a bit darker than the original.

“You’ll notice that there’s a little bit of a less silly, darker tone that comes out. That’s mainly because of Leonard,” Adler said. “That’s his kind of vibe, and so he has more of a push on that stuff. And so I think even the overall story feels a little bit like a darker take on what’s going on there.”

The Outer Worlds 2 is slated for release on October 29, and will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is also noteworthy as being the first one released by Xbox Game Studios to sport a price tag of $79.99. Adler has said that the price tag wasn’t the studio’s decision.

In the interview, Spencer talked about not quite “getting” the gameplay of the first Destiny game, and things only really clicking for him with the release of the first Destiny expansion, House of Wolves.

“I’ve passed on some of the worst… Like, made some of the worst game-choice decisions,” Spencer went on to explain. “An interesting one is when this team came down to Redmond and Alex Rigopulos, he pitches a game where they’re actually going to make plastic guitars, and they’re going to plug into consoles, and they’re going to sell tracks where you’re going to play Simon on this guitar and I’m like, really? Do we really think that’s going to work?”

Referring to Guitar Hero in the story, Spencer then laughed about the title being quite successful back when it was released on PS2. He then spoke about how he doesn’t dwell on his mistakes and doesn’t regret these decisions.

“I’m not a regrets-type person,” he said. “Maybe that’s a fault of mine, but I passed on so many games. I could look back and say […] but no, I try to look forward and be positive about the things that we are doing..”

Earlier this year, Spencer spoke about how shutting down some of Microsoft’s first-party studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were “hard decisions” that were made for “sustainable business”. The studios were known for developing games like Prey, Hi-Fi Rush, and The Evil Within series.

Back in June, Spencer also expressed an interest in bringing more of Xbox’s games to other platforms in light of the success seen by the multiplatform release of Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush.

Like Vault of Glass and King’s Fall, this raid will have Contest Mode for 48 hours after it goes live. Clearing it will unlock Challenge Mode, and the first team to complete the challenges necessary for the secret Triumph will receive the World First title. Any time a team fails to meet the conditions for a challenge, they’ll automatically wipe.

It’s rumored that the next reprised raid will be Wrath of the Machine from the Rise of Iron expansion. How SIVA will play a role in upcoming seasons en route to The Final Shape remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more details on the August 22nd showcase, where Bungie will likely officially announce the raid while providing details for its next major expansion.

As spotted by The Game Post, multiple job listings published by Bungie for an unannounced multiplayer action title suggest that the game might be using Unreal Engine for its development. Job listings for contract roles in the positions of level designer and environment artist both mention “experience in Unreal Engine” under requirements.

Which game in particular the job ads might be referring to is anyone’s best guess, given that Bungie has a number of unannounced projects in development. Multiple past job ads have mentioned a new multiplayer action IP that could potentially be played from a third person perspective and feature “lighthearted and whimsical” characters. Going by a trademark filing by Bungie back in 2018, it could be called Matter.

Meanwhile, leaks have also claimed that Bungie is reviving Marathon as a PvPvE extraction shooter, while further job ads have suggested that a new competitive multiplayer game in the Destiny universe could also be in the works.

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said back in 2019 that the developer intended to release a non-Destiny IP by 2025. Meanwhile, even though the studio is now owned by Sony, it has previously confirmed that all of its future games will continue to be multiplatform.

Known for his roles in The Wire TV series and the John Wick films, Reddick was also famous for playing Commander Zavala in Destiny, Martin Hatch in Quantum Break, and Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. He was busy with a press tour for John Wick: Chapter 4 when news broke of his passing.

His final roles will be as Zeus in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premieres next year, and as Hellboy in Hellboy: Web of Wyrd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Bungie and Guerrilla Games have released statements mourning Reddick’s passing. The Destiny community has also gathered around Zavala in-game to pay respects.

pic.twitter.com/csXjKcMOJy

— Bungie (@Bungie) March 17, 2023

pic.twitter.com/22jzfB93iq

— Guerrilla (@Guerrilla) March 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/DestinyBulletn/status/1636823570461659136

Star Wars Battlefront 2

DICE’s first Star Wars Battlefront wasn’t awful but it was a far cry from what made the original games so endearing. Even on its own, the amount of content and features just felt lackluster. So when Star Wars Battlefront 2 was announced, it seemed like Electronic Arts was ticking all of the boxes. More extensive maps and modes. A single-player campaign. Free post-launch updates. It all seemed like a dream come true for Star Wars fans.

Then Star Cards happened.

Star Cards were equipable items that provided significant boosts to one’s combat abilities. And of course, the best way to get them was through RNG loot boxes. It was like the pay-to-win pot had finally boiled over, that too in a franchise that was popular among kids. The fact that it cost so much to unlock Star Wars heroes and villains for use in multiplayer – leading to the infamous “pride and accomplishment” comment from EA on Reddit – didn’t help things either.

To say the backlash was immense would be an understatement. Star Cards were pulled from purchase and moved to Class Level unlocks; microtransactions were now limited to cosmetics; more multiplayer content, both online and offline was introduced; and numerous fixes were deployed. It was quite the turnaround for the maligned title. By the time support began winding down in 2020, fans began a petition for more DLC, even willing to pay for the same. That didn’t happen but at least Battlefront 2’s life cycle ended on a happy note.

Bungie recently published a job listing for the position of senior concept artist (discovered by TheGamePost) for “an exciting new title”. The ad mentions “push[ing] aesthetics of the Destiny universe” as one of the position’s responsibilities, suggesting that the game will be set in the same universe, while there’s also mention of work on “elements like guns, characters, armors, vehicles, environments, and other seasonal art needs”. Interestingly, “experience with and love of competitive games” is also mentioned as one of the position’s “nice-to-have skills”.

Destiny games have, of course, always had a strong competitive edge to them, so the latter doesn’t come as much of a surprise. While there might be some speculation about this being a new standalone Destiny spinoff (since a full-fledged sequel seems highly unlikely right now, given how active Destiny 2 continues to be and will be for the foreseeable future), it’s much likelier that the game in question here is the rumoured mobile Destiny title that’s allegedly being made in collaboration with NetEase.

Bungie is, of course, currently in the process of being acquired by Sony, with the deal set to be completed by the end of this year. Regardless, as the developer has stressed a number of times, any future games it publishes will continue to be multiplatform, in spite of Bungie’s future status as a PlayStation studio.

Ignoring the Objective

Oftentimes when playing an objective-based game mode, you’ll find some players – perhaps even yourself – ignoring the objective in question. Pushing the payload in Overwatch? Capturing zones in Destiny 2? Collecting tags in Search and Destroy? Actually capturing the flag? No, you’re a natural born killer and it’s all about those kills. Granted, some games force this with challenges and whatnot but sometimes, the desire to just fight and hope that someone else deals with the objectives is always there.

A job listing at Bungie for the position of Senior Producer – Linear Media mentions that the company is looking to produce projects that will “extend the franchise into new categories including TV, films, books, comics and audio formats.” Interestingly, one of the requirements listed in the ad mentions “experience with licensed products, and/or animation”, suggesting that an animated TV series of Destiny might be in the works- or at least something Bungie is presently planning on making.

Earlier this year, Sony announced that it’ll be acquiring Bungie, and at the time Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said that the deal would help the developer become “a global multimedia entertainment company”, saying, “game worlds are only the beginning of what our IP will become.”

The one with the shields

While it would make total sense for every enemy to take a guarding shield into battle, most starting-level enemies in games don’t carry them which opens up a ton of opportunities to defeat them. But when certain games do it right from the beginning, it becomes a rather annoying issue. These enemies will  block most frontal attacks, you get extremely restricted in your move set which in turn makes such enemy encounters highly repetitive.