Ahead of its release next week, racing game Forza Horizon 3 is now available to pre-load on PC, Microsoft has announced. In a tweet, the Forza account also confirmed that “game-ready” drivers from Nvidia and AMD will be available today, September 21.
Here’s the tweet:
Pre-load is now available for #ForzaHorizon3 on Windows 10! Also, look for game-ready drivers coming from @NVIDIA and @AMDGaming tomorrow!
Forza Horizon 3 comes out on September 27 for PC and Xbox One. The Xbox One itself supports pre-loading, but it’s not immediately clear if this will be available for Forza Horizon 3.
“With Forza Horizon 3, Turn 10 and Playground Games affirm the series’ status as the driving game for everyone,” reviewer Miguel Concepcion said. “The new emphasis on off-road options isn’t at the expense of traditional races, thanks to the sheer volume of activities.”
Microsoft’s Albert Penello has again spoken up to compare the Xbox Scorpio and PS4 Pro. In an interview with Eurogamer, Penello said the PS4 Pro’s 4.2 teraflops of performance is “not enough to do true 4K,” while he overall stated that Sony’s 4K claims comes with a number of asterisks.
“I think there are a lot of caveats they’re giving customers right now around 4K,” he said. “They’re talking about checkerboard rendering and up-scaling and things like that. There are just a lot of asterisks in their marketing around 4K, which is interesting because when we thought about what spec we wanted for Scorpio, we were very clear we wanted developers to take their Xbox One engines and render them in native, true 4K. That was why we picked the number, that’s why we have the memory bandwidth we have, that’s why we have the teraflops we have, because it’s what we heard from game developers was required to achieve native 4K.”
In the Eurogamer interview, Penello went on to say that, as Sony is doing, it won’t require developers to render their games in native 4K.
“They’re going to be able to decide to take that six teraflops of power and do what they think is best for their game,” he said. “But I know that 4.2 teraflops is not enough to do true 4K. So, I feel like our product aspired a little bit higher, and we will have fewer asterisks around the 4K experiences we deliver on our box.”
Asked by Eurogamer if Sony’s marketing for PS4 Pro is misleading, Penello said, “I’m not accusing them of anything,” adding, “They’ve been very open about the compromises around 4K.”
Regarding what differences there may be between Xbox Scorpio and PS4 Pro games, whether that’s frame rate or resolution, Penello said it’s too soon to say.
“You and I both know there will be people who claim with absolute certainty that the difference between 1080p and 900p is the most significant thing, and anybody who claims otherwise is blind,” he said. “And there will be people who say they can’t see a difference. Both people are right in their own minds. So, predicting how developers will use the power and how different the games are going to look, it’s hard for me to say right now. So it’s probably worth us waiting to see.”
“We’re building a great platform. We’re building the most powerful console ever made. We’re doing a lot of work with developers to allow them to harness that power,” he added. “I feel really good about our plans. Now we just have to see it play out.”
“There’s definitely a certain amount of like, we’ve got a product to sell, they’ve got a product to sell, so we’re going to highlight the things we think make our product advantaged over their product,” Penello explained. “But that to me feels different to the historical Sega does what Nintendon’t kind of head-on jabs that have happened in the past. Clearly, you and I are going to talk about Sony and us and why I think our product is better than their product. But it doesn’t came with a disrespect for what they’re doing.”
The full interview is in-depth and fascinating; read it here.
PS4 Pro goes on sale in November, priced at $400, while Xbox Scorpio is due to arrive in holiday 2017. A price point for Xbox Scorpio has not been announced, but Microsoft has referred to it as a “premium” product, so it likely won’t be cheap.
The fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD has arrived. Picking up where Season 3 ended, the show jumped forward six months after the agents fought Grant Ward/Hive. If you missed the last season or need a refresher, you can check out our series recap here. SHIELD has gone through some big changes, and Daisy Johnson is on the run. The appearance of Ghost Rider won’t make life any easier for the agents.
Warning: Spoilers for season 4, episode 1 of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD,”The Ghost,” will be discussed below.
Daisy Johnson’s Gone Rogue
When we last saw Daisy, she was no longer with SHIELD but instead, a fugitive being pursued by Coulson and Mack. It turns out she’s destroying banks and other institutions funding the Watchdogs’ attack against Inhumans. She’s feeling guilt over falling under Hive’s control and the death of Lincoln. As a result, she’s pushing herself, her powers are increasing, but they’re also taking a toll on her body. She doesn’t want to have any attachments anymore and is focused on stopping the Watchdogs.
Big Changes at SHIELD
SHIELD has returned to being an officially sanctioned group. One of the big changes is a new director. Coulson is believed to be dead and can no longer perform the role. During the past six months, Coulson has been partnered with Mack in the pursuit of Daisy. Since she’s been able to elude them, it’s believed Coulson may be purposely allowing her to remain on the run.
Simmons has been given a promotion. She is now the Special Advisor to the Director in Science and Technology. Some of the others don’t fully trust the new director (who remains unseen in this episode). Simmons is required to take daily lie detector tests to prove her loyalty and this has put her on the outs with her former teammates. Simmons now has a higher clearance level than May, who is training agents to kick butt the way she does. Simmons does confess to May that she doesn’t trust the Director either, but she’s trying to keep them together and take advantage of the fact he trusts her.
Fitz Discovers Radcliffe’s LMD Project
Fitz goes to Radcliffe’s to watch a game. Simmons couldn’t make it due to being so busy. While Fitz is there, Aida, the Life Model Decoy seen in last season’s final episode, reveals herself. Fitz is freaking out over Radcliffe’s project because his pardon from working for Hive requires him to obtain approval before conducting any experiments. Radcliffe explains his idea for the LMDs is to use them to protect agents. He points out the deaths of Lincoln, Andrew, and Trip. He understands the dangers that could happen, as with Ultron. His LMDs aren’t meant to be weapons and don’t deal with artificial intelligence. They will be used as decoys when agents are out in the field. Fitz feels they shouldn’t tell the Director just yet because there’s no telling what he’d do. He wants to wait until Aida is perfect.
Ghost Rider Unleashes His Vengeance
Ghost Rider has been killing people. Daisy first sees the carnage when she was in pursuit of some men supplying weapons to the Watchdogs. She’s later able to talk to one of the survivors in the hospitals who tells her, “When the Rider burns you, he burns your soul.” She tries tracking down Ghost Rider to find out what his connection might be to the Watchdogs.
Daisy Fights Ghost Rider
Daisy asks around town, looking for parts for a Dodge Charger, the same car Ghost Rider drives. Her search takes her to Robbie Reyes. Reyes figures out her cover story doesn’t hold up and moves to attack her. When Daisy uses her quake powers, he assume there’s something dark about her as well. As they fight, he explains he only kills those that deserve it. When Daisy asks Reyes what makes him think he has the right to decide, he tells her, “I’m not the one who decides” and transforms into Ghost Rider.
Towards the end of their fight, Daisy tells Ghost Rider to go ahead and put an end to her. Ghost Rider looks at her and then leaves. This could be because there wasn’t any evil inside her.
Daisy later tracks down Reyes again and sees he has a younger brother in a wheelchair.
Thoughts
The season premiere delivers a pretty strong episode. Last season’s six month jump forward gives the show a bit of mystery. We get to catch up on what’s been going on while the story continues to move forward. With a new Director, the team has to adjust to the changes and figure out if he can be trusted.
Agents of SHIELD has a record of shaking things up each season. A new direction is taken, and this season is no different. There are some minor hints of the show taking a slightly darker or mature approach with the move to a new time slot. It’ll be interesting to see if this is something that continues further as the season continues.
The team may have their hands full trying to find Daisy and adjust to the changes made by the new director, but there’s more problems coming. It appears May may be infected by the weapon the Watchdogs were after. Fitz is forced to keep the LMD a secret from Simmons since she has to report everything to the Director. Coulson may be in hot water for making a trip to Los Angeles with Mack where Daisy once again evaded capture. With so much up in the air, the show is holding our attention and breaking new ground rather than simply giving us more of what we’ve already seen for the last three seasons.
In its third year, Destiny is finally trying to explore the myths that have pervaded its world since launch. The Rise of Iron expansion brings a new storyline with fantasy elements, more cooperative strikes, additional public events, an assortment of player vs. player offerings, and a new upcoming multiplayer raid. In short, Rise of Iron attempts to dig beneath the surface of Bungie’s post-apocalyptic world. As of this writing, though the expansion has yet to go very deep.
Rise of Iron explores the tale of the Iron Lords, the order of warriors that fought before the post-apocalyptic world devolved into Destiny as we know it now. The expansion draws heavy influences from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings: wolves lie sprawled across the stone floors of Felwinter Peak, characters don pelts to cross snowy mountainsides, and ancient evils return from the past to wreak havoc on the present.
As a portmanteau of fantasy and science fiction, this setup is promising. But the writing doesn’t lend the premise any momentum. Characters are one-dimensional and the plot whisks by without conveying the weight of your missions. The Taken King, Destiny’s previous expansion, showed promise in the way it depicted the nuanced personalities of its lone warriors. After finishing Rise of Iron’s storyline, I feel as if Destiny has taken a narrative step back.
The actual questlines show a little more promise. Although missions frequently retread locales from Destiny’s first two years, and firefights can become repetitive, there are a few standouts–most notably, a skirmish that plays out in the shadows of massive anti-aircraft guns, and a boss fight that encourages melee combat throughout. Rise of Iron may exhibit the same signs of combat fatigue that have permeated Destiny since launch, but as of this writing, it has a few shining moments of stellar design.
The new cooperative strikes show the same paralysis between the past and future: one of the strikes is a rehashed version of one of Destiny’s earliest boss fights, and makes few attempts to hide it. The actual new strike, on the other hand, pits you against an ogre impervious to damage, forcing you to dodge his pummelling attacks while you eliminate his handler. The ogre is a constant threat that disrupts the objective, creating tension without becoming overly invasive. With its second major expansion, Destiny still knows how to craft a thrilling boss fight.
I have yet to spend more than two hours with Destiny’s new Supremacy mode and multiplayer maps, but from what I’ve played, there’s nothing novel here. The maps mostly comprise close-quarters hallways and catwalks of varying elevations. Supremacy also lacks inspiration: after killing an opponent, you don’t get full credit for the elimination until you collect the orb it leave behind–this mode has been done before in numerous other shooters, and while it rewards risky maneuvers and daring sprints into the open, it quickly feels rote.
As of now, the prevailing feeling is that I’m playing Rise of Iron just for the feeling of progress, and few genuine thrills. But my final opinion all hinges on the expansion’s late-game questlines and, of course, its six-person raid. I’ll be further increasing my light level over the next few days, completing more quests in the Rise of Iron lineup, and preparing for the raid–time will tell if the cooperative battle can mitigate my lukewarm response.
This package comes with the Destiny base game and all expansions, including The Dark Below, House of Wolves, The Taken King, and the just-released Rise of Iron. The bundle also includes one character boost, which you can use to catch up to friends who might be further along in the game.
Rise of Iron costs $30 on its own and, like The Collection, is only available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. By comparison, Destiny’s three previous expansions were also offered on last-generation consoles.
If you’re playing Destiny on PS3 or Xbox 360 and own The Taken King, you can upgrade to The Collection for $40. This offer is only available for digital copies of Destiny and runs until January 31, 2017. For more on the upgrade offer, go to Bungie’s website.
For lots more on Rise of Iron, check out the full patch notes here. You can also watch GameSpot’s Rise of Iron livestream through the video above. If you’re having trouble accessing Destiny right now, it’s not your fault, as the game’s servers are struggling, though things are apparently improving now.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Ishihara not only commented on the console but also pledged that his company will make games for it. “The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device,” he said. “We will make games for the NX.”
“One of the things that we have to do better when we launch the NX–we have to do a better job communicating the positioning for the product,” he said. “We have to do a better job helping people to understand its uniqueness and what that means for the game playing experience.”
Also in the WSJ interview, Ishihara talked about the wild success of Pokemon Go. He stated that the reaction to the game was “10 times or even 100 times bigger than we expected.” He also commented on future features for the game, suggesting a battle mode is on the way, but maybe not soon.
“Battling is a category that we do best at Pokemon, after all,” he said. “It’s important to really carefully consider any feature that may increase the difficulty and raise the barrier to entry for more casual users.”
Ishihara also spoke about how the publicity generated from Pokemon Go–which has been downloaded 500 million times–has helped The Pokemon Company’s sales overall. He said games and trading card sales are up 30 percent to 50 percent in some cases. The uptick in sales was particularly pronounced in the United States, Ishihara said.
Rocket League developer Psyonix is currently evaluating the possibility of releasing a PS4 Pro patch for its hit soccer-with-cars game. VP Jeremy Dunham told GameSpot that nothing has been decided at this stage, but it has not shut the door as other developers have done.
“We don’t have anything to announce at the moment,” he said. “We are still evaluating community interest, technical requirements, and other factors that influence our ultimate decision.”
Rocket League already looks good, but it’s exciting to think about what the game’s colorful stages and rocket trails specifically might look like with better visuals. Would you like to see Rocket League get a PS4 Pro patch? Let us know in the comments below.
EA’s Star Wars Battlefront welcomes its newest expansion, Death Star, today. Similar to Destiny, Battlefront also received a big patch for all players, even if they didn’t buy the new content.
The Battlefront patch unlocks the Death Star DLC (season pass owners get it today; everyone else has to wait two weeks), which includes five new maps, the Battle Station mode, and more weapons and Star Cards. Death Star owners can also now play with new hero characters, Chewbacca and Bossk.
As for changes for all players, everyone benefits from a series of bug fixes, including some audio problems and issues with the spectator camera, among many other things. Additionally, the player health bar has been updated to better highlight the health gained from the Bacta Bomb.
There are also a number of changes for weapons, Star Cards, and traits, including the ability to equip a trait card on each hand, allowing you to bring two different traits onto the battlefield. Additionally, the cooldown on scout binoculars has been reduced to 10 seconds.
Hero changes are included as well, beginning with the fact that regular soldiers under the effect of Darth Vader’s Force Choke can no longer use melee attacks. Additionally, Leia’s Trooper Bane cooldown period has been increased from 14 to 15 seconds. Palpatine’s block time has been increased by 60 percent while his base lightning damage has also gone up, rising from 15 to 18.
Death Star is Battlefront’s third paid expansion, following Outer Rim and Bespin. The fourth and final one, Rogue One: Scarif, comes out this holiday; it is based on the upcoming movie.
Star Wars Battlefront September 20 Patch Notes:
New content for DLC owners:
New levels: Five new maps set around or on the Death Star.
New game mode: Battle Station A new three-phased mode in which Rebels attempt to destroy an Imperial Star Destroyer in order to clear space for a GR-75 and its brave Rebel boarding party. Then, these Rebels participating in an assault on the Death Star in hopes of rescuing R2-D2 before, finally, attempting to destroy the Death Star itself with the help of Luke Skywalker.
New Weapons:
TL-50 Heavy Repeater: A heavy blaster with a secondary fire mode which launches an explosive round.
K-16 Bryar Pistol: A powerful blaster pistol with a secondary fire ability which allows the player to charge up a powerful shot.
New Star Cards:
Laser Trip mine: Can be attached on any surface and will explode when an enemy passes it. It will also scramble the radar of any enemy that gets too close.
Medical Droid: A stationary droid that is placed by the player. The droid will send out a “healing pulse” every 3 seconds and reduce the cooldown for the players star cards.
New Heroes:
Bossk:
Micro Grenades – The primary weapon fires “micro grenades” which are tiny grenades that deal explosive damage.
Predatory Instincts – It changes the visuals so you see characters’ heat signatures. Bossk is also enhanced while the power is active, increasing his damage, his sprint speed, and the cooldown speed of his abilities. This ability doesn’t have a cooldown and can be turned on/off at anytime.
Toxic Escape – Bossk throws a Dioxis Grenade and leaps away from the explosion in the direction in which he was moving.
Trait: Trandoshan Regeneration – Bossk regenerates part of his lost health when killing enemy soldiers or doing high damage to heroes.
Chewbacca
Multi-Bolts – Doubles the amount of bolts fired from his weapon
Mighty Roar – Chewbacca roars and empowers himself and his allies. It will do the following: • Rebel soldiers receive the Berserker level 3 effect and increased armor for a limited time. • Friendly Heroes receive increased armor for a limited time • Chewbacca receives increased damage and armor for a limited time.
Ground Slam – Chewbacca slams the ground, damaging and pushing back enemies in an area around the point of impact. This ability can be used while in the air.
Trait: Furious Firing : Increases the amount of bolts fired from Chewbacca’s Bowcaster by 1 per rank in the trait.
Vehicles
New Hero vehicles: Red Five (Luke Skywalker) and Tie Advanced x1 (Darth Vader) will be introduced as new playable hero vehicles on both Battle Station and Fighter Squadron. In addition to this, users will be able to spawn in as “wingmen” whenever Red Five or TIE Advanced x1 are active on the level. Red Five has the following abilities:
• Shields – that prevent the vehicle from taking damage for a short duration or until shields are depleted.
• Proton Torpedoes – that are missiles that track down enemy targets.
• R2-D2 Repair – which will heal a set amount of health.
TIE Advanced x1 has the following abilities:
• Shields – that prevent the vehicle from taking damage for a short duration or until shields are depleted.
• Speed Boost – which will allow the vehicle to briefly fly faster.
• Relentless Assault – which will allow the player to fire the main weapon more rapidly, deal bonus damage and not overheat.
Hut Contracts:
New Hutt contracts: Six new Hutt Contracts have been added to the game.
General:
Soft lock [Vehicles]: An overheat mechanic has been added to the softlock system.
Vehicles: Improved vehicle collision handling, meaning that whenever two vehicles collide they will only deal a small amount of damage to each other and not instantly explode.
TIE interceptor: Missiles have been removed as an ability and replaced with a new ability called Laser Barrage. When active, the player fires without overheating for a short duration of time and deals more damage per shot.
A-wing: The Shield ability has been replaced with a Speed Boost ability.
Skirmish: Resolved a bug in which players could spawn as a soldier with hero abilities if they were playing co-op.
Skirmish: Resolved an issue in which players in co-op could spawn in as the same hero if they both activated the hero token at the same time.
Skirmish: Resolved a graphical glitch that occurred in co-op when one player would spawn in as a AT-AT.
Appearance: With the arrival of the Imperial Officers, the certification for Stormtroopers to remove their helmets in combat has been withdrawn.
Skirmish: The multiplayer hand can now be used in Skirmish.
General: Fixed various minor issues with Skirmish.
General: Various minor UI issues.
General: Resolved various spectator issues.
General: Updated the localization.
General: Various minor audio fixes in the UI.
UI:
Soft lock [Vehicles]: Introduced new visuals for the new soft lock system.
Appearance: Updated the appearance system and now allows the user to switch heads to the various body types.
Unlocks: Now allows the player to filter options to the unlock & Hutt Contract screen. These options are: Active, Unlocked, Locked and All.
HuD: updated the player health visual to better illustrate the boosted health that can be gained from the Bacta Bomb.
Fighter Squadron: Removed an on screen prompt for the player to be able to exit the cloud car.
Hero Hunt: Resolved a bug which caused some hero defeat messages to not appear in the kill log.
Chat [PC]: Resolved a bug in which the in-game partner chat was limited to your friends and didn’t work with automatically assigned partners.
Weapons & Star Cards:
Scout Binoculars: Reduced cooldown with 10 seconds.
Bacta Bomb: Reduced the cooldown with 10 seconds
Bacta Bomb: Added a 4 second healing immunity from the Bacta Bomb.
Bacta Bomb: Resolved a bug in which users wouldn’t get healed if their health wasn’t at 100%.
Bacta Bomb: Updated the logic for triggering the healing effect. Players hit by the Bacta Bomb will get 5 health periodically over 3 seconds (max 30 health). If players take damage during this time, all future health ticks are cancelled.
Traits: Players can now equip a trait card on each of their hands. Meaning you can bring two different traits in to the battle.
Traits:
Traits: All traits have been updated and most levels have new abilities. The changes are:
Bodyguard:
Level 1: “Explosive damage reduction 30%“ has been changed to “Damage reduction with 10%”
Level 2: “Explosive damage reduction 50% has been changed to “Damage reduction with 25%”
Level 3: “Explosive damage reduction 50 & Blaster damage reduction 30%“ has been changed to “Damage reduction with 50%”
Bounty Hunter:
Level 1: “25% power up chance on kill” has been changed to “10% Faster card cooldowns”
Level 2: “50% power up chance on kill” has been changed to “25% Faster card cooldowns”
Level 3: “50% power up chance on kill & Kills shave off 80% of cooldown” has been changed to “50% Faster card cooldowns”
Berserker:
Level 1: “25% damage increase when hurt” has been changed to “15% bonus to hip fire damage“
Level 2: “50% damage increase when hurt” has been changed to “ 30% bonus to hip fire damage”
Level 3: “50% damage increase when hurt & 50% armor value when hurt” has been changed to “50% bonus to hip fire damage”
Escape Artist:
Level 1: “10% bonus to sprint speed” has been changed to “5% bonus to sprint speed”
Level 2: “25% bonus to sprint speed” has been changed to “15% bonus to sprint speed”
Level 3: “25 bonus to sprint speed & lethal melee strikes” has been changed to “30% bonus to sprint speed”
Scout:
Level 1: “Sprinting doesn’t trigger enemy scanners” has been changed to “Firing blasters doesn’t trigger enemy scanners”
Level 2: “Firing blasters doesn’t trigger enemy scanners” has been changed to “Sprinting doesn’t trigger scanner”
Level 3: “Killing an enemy resets primary blaster heat” has been changed to “scramble enemy scanners”.
Sharpshooter:
Level 1: “Headshots shaves of 25% of card cooldown” has been changed to “15% bonus damage while zooming”
Level 2: “Headshots shaves of 50% of card cooldown” has been changed to “30% bonus damage while zooming”
Level 3: “Headshots shaves of 100% of card cooldown” has been changed to “50% bonus damage while zooming”
Survivalist:
Level 1: “Health regen starts 25% faster” has been changed to “6 seconds to health regenerates”
Level 2: “Health regen starts 50% faster” has been changed to ”4 seconds to health regenerates”
Level 3: “Health regen starts 50% faster & Kills regenerates 50 health” has been changed to ”2 seconds to health regenerate”.
Heroes:
Vader: Regular soldiers that are under the effect of Force Choke will not be able to use melee attacks.
Leia: Increased the Trooper Bane cooldown from 14 to 15 seconds.
Leia: Increased the start damage from 50 to 53 for her E-11.
Leia: Increased the end damage from 25 to 35 for her E-11.
Leia: Increased the damage fall off distance from 25 to 30 for her E-11.
Palpatine: Increased the base lightning damage from 15 to 18.
Palpatine: Increased the block time by 60%.
Game Modes:
Fighter Squadron & Battle Station: New power-ups have been added for both the Rebel and Imperial sides. Once activated a group of AI vehicles will spawn in next to the player and engage the enemy in dog fighting for a duration of 60 seconds. The vehicles are: • Y-wings and B-wings for the Rebels • TIE Bomber and TIE Defender for Imperials
Fighter Squadron: AI A-wings and TIE interceptors have been added to the game mode
Fighter Squadron: Added Red 5 and TIE Advanced x1 as hero vehicles on all levels.
Turning point: Resolved a bug in which players sometimes would spawn outside the map when playing turning point on Clouds_01.
Heroes Vs Villains: All players are now immortal during the EoR screen and can’t be killed by turrets or droids anymore.
Drop zone [Private matches]: The player count has been changed to 12 players
.
Stats & Progression:
Diorama: Bossk and Chewbacca have been added to the Diorama.
Ranks: Increased from 70 to 90.
Appearances: New visual unlocks have been added: • Stormtrooper with pauldrons • X-wing Pilot • Death Star Trooper
Hutt Contracts: Resolved a bug in which the Scout Pistol and Scatter Gun wouldn’t track towards various contracts.
Achievements: Resolved a bug in which the “A New Hope” achievement would not trigger when playing Walker Assault.
Destiny‘s newest expansion, Rise of Iron, launches today. Alongside this is a new patch that makes a series of changes to multiple areas, and now Bungie has posted the full patch notes.
As published on Bungie’s website, the patch notes cover things like the Rise of Iron content itself, which requires your character to be level 40 or above. Additionally, the max Light has been increased to 385. There are also new Vanguard and Crucible bounties available now, while private matches are unlocked.
Another thing to note is that Destiny’s Year 2 Moments of Triumph campaign ends at 10 AM PT today, September 20, so now is your last chance.
There are also changes to Destiny’s in-game economy, faction packages, and engrams. You can see the full patch notes below, as written by Bungie.
Rise of Iron is Destiny’s fourth expansion, following The Dark Below, House of Wolves, and The Taken King. It’s available now on PS4 and Xbox One for $30. Also out today is the $60 Destiny: The Collection, which features the base game and all expansions, including Rise of Iron.
Destiny: Rise of Iron Patch Notes:
General
Rise of Iron campaign unlocked
Requires Destiny: Rise of Iron and minimum Character Level 40
Max Light increased to 385
New Vanguard & Crucible Bounties are now available
Will now include selections from Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3
Increase Light to 350
Vanguard Strike Playlists
Vanguard Playlist is now called The Taken War Strike Playlist but is otherwise unchanged
The SIVA Crisis Playlist consists of Taken King and Rise of Iron Strikes at 320 Light
The Taken War Heroic Strike Playlist is available for players who have not purchased Rise of Iron and is accessible in the Vanguard Strike Playlist page
No longer rewards Vanguard Marks
The SIVA Crisis Heroic Strike Playlist is now available to players who have purchased Rise of Iron
This Playlist replaces the Taken War Heroic Playlist in the Vanguard Strike Playlist
This Playlist is also the Weekly Heroic Strike featured Playlist
Recommended 350 Light
Nightfall
Requires Rise of Iron
Recommended 360 Light
Economy
Activities
Normal Strikes will now grant rewards up to 340 Light
Heroic Strikes will now grant rewards up to 365 Light
Strike-specific Skeleton Keys now drop in the Nightfall Strike and the SIVA Crisis Heroic and Taken War Strike Playlists
Skeleton Keys allow you to open Strike Hoards to guarantee a Strike-unique reward
Strike unique rewards will now drop up to 385 Light
Nightfall will now reward the player with Ghosts less often so other rewards will drop more often
Players can receive one free Radiant Treasure per account through their first Heroic Strike Playlist completion per week
Variks will now grant Weapons and Armor for Challenge of the Elders scorecard completions up to 365 Light
Engrams
Fixed an issue where, after enough kills were accumulated, players would never see Uncommon item drops again
This resulted in players being starved of weapon and armor materials
Uncommon drops will be in addition to, not in place of, Rare and Legendary drops
Rare and Legendary Engrams will now attempt to give you rewards equal to or higher than your current Light
Rare Engrams can now decode up to 340 Light
Legendary Engrams can now decode up to 365 Light
Legendary Engram Light value will slow from their fast progress at 350, up to 365
Within that range, Engrams will grant the player something with higher Light about half the time
Exotic Engrams can now decode up to 385 Light
Faction Packages
Faction Packages now drop items up to 385 Light
Fixed an issue where vanity items (Ships, Sparrows, Shaders) were dropping less frequently than intended
Queen’s Wrath faction packages now contain Queen’s Guard armor and Chasing Infinity
Previews have been added for the Queen’s Wrath and Crota’s Bane Factions
House of Judgment Faction Packages now grant a Weapon each time
House of Judgment Class Items now drop in addition to Weapons rather than in place of
Dead Orbit, New Monarchy, Future War Cult, Vanguard, and Crucible Packages now allow the player to choose one of three options: Weapons, Armor, or Chroma Armor
New Faction Ghosts and Sparrows have been added to these Packages
They can be found in all three Package selections (Weapons, Armor, and Chroma Armor)
TTK Armor and Weapons have been removed from the Faction Packages and are replaced with new ROI Weapons and Armor
The following Weapons will remain in their respective Faction Packages (Crucible and Vanguard):
Shadow Price
Badger CCL
Lord High Fixer
Grim Citizen III
The Saterienne Rapier
The Devil You Know
The Swarm
Zombie Apocalypse WF47
LDR 5001
Y-09 Longbow Synthesis
Two to the Morgue
The Comedian
Armsday/Gunsmith
Removed the SUROS TSR-10 Rocket Launcher Test Weapon that required Crucible kills
Removed the Häkke Test-A Shotgun Test weapon that required Crucible kills
Vendors
Vendor items purchased for Legendary Marks have been increased to 350 Light
Xur’s exotics for sale have been increased to 350 Light
Xur now sells two Exotic Weapon Ornaments per week for Silver Dust
Xur can now carry Legacy Boot Engrams
Items
Year 1 Class Items are now available as new Rise of Iron Legendary Class Items. This does not include Year 1 Raid Class items. The new Class Items are found in the following locations:
Strike Hoards
Crucible End of Match Rewards
Legendary Engrams
Iron Banner
Trials of Osiris
Faction Packages
Rise of Iron Vendors
22 Exotic Weapon Ornaments have been added
Applying an Exotic Weapon Ornament has a cost of the Exotic Weapon Ornament and 1 Silver Dust
Players who have obtained Laurels can apply them to their corresponding Armor set to unlock Armor Ornaments
Armor Ornaments cost 1-2 Laurels plus 5 Silver Dust to apply
Trials of Osiris Laurels can be obtained from Trials Flawless Chests, 1 per character per week
Raid Laurels can be obtained from the Heroic Raid challenge modes, 1 per character per week
Iron Lord Laurels can be obtained from Radiant Treasures. Additionally, players will obtain one Iron Lord Laurel from the Rise of Iron Record Book
Record Books now appear in their own section on the character progress UI screen
Eververse
Silver Dust is now available
Obtained from Radiant Treasures and by sharding Exotic Weapon Ornaments
Used to purchase unique Eververse items, purchase Chroma from Eva Levante, purchase Iron Engrams from Lord Saladin, and apply Ornaments to Armor and Weapons
New Emotes have been added to the Eververse Store
April Update Emotes have been removed from the store and added to the new “Spring 2016 Emotes” bag
Radiant Treasures can now be purchased from the Eververse store
Radiant Treasures contain Exotic Weapon Ornaments and Vanity Items
Reputation Boosters are now available for direct purchase on the store
Crucible
Private Matches
Rise of Iron Maps and Modes are now available (Requires Destiny: Rise of Iron)
Playlists
Supremacy, Clash, Control, Rift, Skirmish, Rumble are now core Playlists
Elimination will be available every day of the week until Trials of Osiris returns on 9/30
Rise of Iron Crucible Maps Floating Gardens, Last Exit, Skyline, Icarus (PS Exclusive) added to core playlists with strong weightings to feature them (these will normalize over the course of a few weeks)
The Taken King Crucible maps added to Classic playlists (These are now free for anyone who owns the base game)
Rotating featured playlists updated to include Rumble Supremacy, Inferno Supremacy, Salvage, and Combined Arms
Rewards
Core playlists now reward a new collection of Crucible Legendary Weapons:
Hex Caster ARC
77 Wizard
Ill Will
Unending Deluge III
Hopscotch Pilgrim
Steel Oracle Z-11
Cryptic Dragon
Matador 64
20/20 AMR7
Classic playlists now reward the Year 2 collection of Crucible Legendary Weapons
Red Spectre
Eyasluna
In Times of Need
Split Shifter Pro
The Revelator
The Ash Factory
Party Crasher +1
Spare Change.25
NL Shadow 701X
Crucible Class Items added to the Crucible Legendary loot pool
Crucible Legendary drop rates slightly increased
Quests and Bounties
New Supremacy Quest is available from Lord Shaxx
New Supremacy Bounties are now available when Supremacy is the daily featured playlist
Shaxx Weekly Bounty design has changed and now features a single multi-objective Bounty for a specific featured 6v6 mode
Daily Crucible Bounty availability updated for Rise of Iron
Rise of Iron, Destiny‘s newest expansion, is available now, but you might have some trouble actually playing it as the game is currently experiencing network issues due to the number of players trying to connect to servers.
In a Twitter post, developer Bungie acknowledged the ongoing issues and said it is looking into addressing them.
“We are actively investigating issues preventing players from connecting to Destiny on all platforms,” it said.
In the mean time, players have reported that the game now displays a message saying servers are “temporarily at capacity.” Those trying to connect are also being placed in queues to join the game.
Rise of Iron is Destiny’s fourth expansion, following The Dark Below (December 2014), House of Wolves (May 2015), and The Taken King (September 2015). It introduces a new snow-covered region called The Plaguelands, as well as fresh campaign and multiplayer content.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available exclusively for PS4 and Xbox One; it can be downloaded either standalone for $30 or purchased as a part of a $60 collection containing the expansion and all previous expansions that came before it.
If you’d like to see some of the content from the expansion, you can watch GameSpot’s Destiny: Rise of Iron launch stream above.
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