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Destiny 2: everything you need to know about Bungie's new sci-fi epic

Later this year Bungie will release a sequel to the massively popular online shooter Destiny, and it looks to improve on the original in a number of ways. Destiny 2 will add new gameplay features, more in-depth social options, and a plethora of new weapons, abilities, and locations. It will also feature a greater emphasis on story and, in a first for the series, will be available on PC, in addition to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Destiny 2 will launch on September 8th.

  • Chaim Gartenberg

    May 18, 2017

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Destiny 2 will exclusively be available on PC through Blizzard’s Battle.net

    Battle.net

    In a surprising announcement at today’s Destiny 2 event, Bungie revealed that the PC version of the Destiny sequel will be exclusively available on Blizzard’s Battle.net platform.

    Battle.net will be used to both purchase Destiny 2 as well as for online gameplay, making Destiny 2 the first non-Blizzard developed game to use the system (which also handles the storefront and online components of Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone.) It’s good news for Destiny, given that Battle.net is historically reliable when it comes to online gameplay, and also means that Destiny 2 will be able to take advantage of Battle.net’s robust player community. Bungie however, will still be in charge of maintaining Destiny 2’s servers.

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  • Nick Statt

    May 18, 2017

    Nick Statt

    Destiny 2’s new Guided Games feature will make it far easier to be a solo player

    Photo: Bungie

    Bungie today revealed key details about its upcoming Destiny sequel, including a new feature that will make it easier for solo players to pair up with larger groups to do multi-player activities. The feature, called Guided Games, will make it so players who don’t play in large groups or commit to a dedicated clan can enjoy the more challenging experiences like strikes and raids, as well as the more serious competitive multiplayer modes.

    In the first Destiny, players effectively had to use third-party services to pair up with strangers for group activities. Those have included Destiny subreddits and dedicated services like DestinyLFG, which let you fill out criteria to be find other players for a certain activity. This was a clunky process — it meant waiting for a message through PlayStation or Xbox’s chat system and hoping you were being paired with a promising group of players. For those who didn’t want to go through that process, the game felt half-finished and isolating, given its online-only requirement and its social infrastructure.

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  • Nick Statt

    May 18, 2017

    Nick Statt

    Watch the first gameplay trailer for Destiny 2

    Bungie

    Bungie today revealed the very first gameplay footage of its upcoming Destiny sequel, showing fans at an event in Los Angeles and those watching on its Twitch stream an early glimpse of the revamped online-only shooter. The game, due out on September 8th, 2017, is slightly altering its setting from the initial multi-planetary adventure in the first game. Now, players are fighting to retake Earth’s Last City from a hostile alien force and defend the game’s iconic Traveler, a sentient life form that protects Earth in the far future.

    To the disappointment of many Hawkmoon and Gjallarhorn lovers everywhere, all the old gear is being left behind, canonically destroyed by the invasion of the military Cabal species. In the first CGI trailer released alongside the game’s unveiling back at the end of March, we got the narrative rundown on the upcoming war between humanity’s Guardians and the Red Legion, with its villainous leader Ghaul. (Bungie is calling this the “Red War Campaign.”) In the first gameplay reveal, we get a look at some of the new guns and supernatural abilities — including a flaming Warlock sword — as well as what appears to be an even more cinematic mission layout and structure.

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  • Andrew Webster

    May 18, 2017

    Andrew Webster

    How to watch the Destiny 2 gameplay reveal live stream

    In March developer Bungie finally revealed some details about Destiny 2, providing a glimpse at the story, while also announcing that it would launch on September 8th on PS4, Xbox One, and — in a series first — PC. What we didn’t get to see was the game itself.

    That changes today, as Bungie is hosting a live stream event to officially unveil gameplay from Destiny 2. The stream kicks off today at 10AM PST / 1PM EST, and will come to you live from an airport hangar in California. You can check it out either on Bungie’s site or Twitch channel. The Verge will also be live at the event bringing hands-on impressions and details.

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Mar 30, 2017

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Destiny 2 is coming to PC

    Bungie has officially confirmed that Destiny 2 will be coming to PC, in addition to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

    The first Destiny launched on both the last-gen Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms as well as the current generation of consoles, but fans have been clamoring for a PC version of the game for almost as long as it has been around. It’s also a move that puts the next version of Bungie’s FPS / MMO hybrid on a level playing field with competitors like The Division, which has a PC version.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Mar 30, 2017

    Andrew Webster

    Watch the first trailer for Destiny 2, launching September 8th

    After a few days of teasing, we finally have our first proper look at the sequel to sci-fi shooter Destiny. Developer Bungie officially revealed Destiny 2 on Monday, before releasing a short teaser starring Nathan Fillion the next day. This all culminated with the just-released reveal trailer, which unfortunately doesn’t really show the game itself. However, it does provide a good look at the game’s world and story, but more importantly, we also know the release date: Destiny 2 will be launching on September 8th, and will mark the series’ debut on PC.

    Here’s how developer Bungie describes the setup:

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Mar 28, 2017

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Destiny 2’s teaser trailer brings something new to the franchise — a sense of humor

    Just a day after officially announcing Destiny 2, Bungie is back with a cinematic trailer. And while the trailer doesn’t show off any new gameplay details for the upcoming shooter or any information at all regarding release date or platforms, it does hint that the sequel could finally be bringing something new to the franchise: a sense of humor.

    The teaser features Cayde-6 (voiced by everyone’s favorite ruggedly handsome rogue Nathan Fillion), regaling the audience of adventures that featured, in his own words “a lot of shooting,” while nursing a drink at a bar. The camera then pans out to show that Cayde-6 is actually battling in what appears to be the ruins of the Last City (an important Destiny location) before running back into the fight.

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Mar 27, 2017

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Bungie officially announces Destiny 2

    Destiny 2, the sequel to Bungie’s MMO / first-person shooter hybrid, has been officially announced following rumors last week. Bungie is remaining quiet on further details as to what gameplay might look like in the sequel or when to expect Destiny 2 to release, but we’ll probably find out more about Destiny 2 at E3 in June. Like the final Rise of Iron expansion for Destiny released last year, Destiny 2 will only be available on current-generation consoles, but rumors of PC support have yet to be confirmed or denied either way yet.

    The news comes after Activision confirmed earlier this year that Destiny 2 was still on track for a 2017 release. Bungie also announced recently that while characters themselves will transfer over from the original Destiny to the sequel, none of the items or abilities that players have unlocked over the last three years will be making the jump to the next game.

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  • Nick Statt

    Mar 3, 2017

    Nick Statt

    Destiny 2 will leave all of your gear and the Gjallarhorn behind

    Bungie just confirmed some long-rumored aspects of its upcoming Destiny sequel, including the dreaded but inevitable decision to leave weapons, armor, and all manner of cosmetic items and emotes from the first game behind. You will be able to move your original character designs over to Destiny 2, due out later this year, but those characters will be starting fresh in an entirely new landscape with a different trove of loot to collect. The classes will remain intact it seems, but the subclasses sound like they’re changing as well.

    “We know that, just like us, you have grown fond of the Guardians you’ve created, so we do plan to preserve your character personalization. We are going to recognize the dedication and passion you’ve shown for this world,” Bungie writes in a blog post published this morning. This includes class, race, gender, face, hair, and body marking selections for all characters that have reached level 20 in the game and completed the original final story mission, “Black Garden.”

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  • Tom Warren

    Feb 10, 2017

    Tom Warren

    Activision says Destiny 2 is on course for a fall 2017 release

    Destiny

    Destiny fans have been eagerly anticipating a true sequel to the first-person shooter that originally debuted in 2014. While rumors and speculation hinted that Destiny 2 wouldn’t arrive until early 2018, Activision has officially revealed the successor will debut in fall 2017. "Full Destiny sequel in 2017 to broaden the franchise’s global reach, which along with follow-on content plans, sets the stage for growth,” says a slide as part of Activision’s investor call this week.

    Little is known about Destiny 2, but rumors have suggested Bungie might reset character progress and bring the title to the PC. Destiny struggled during its first year with a fragmented storyline, but recent expansions have shaped the game so that players truly understand why they're defending Earth against hoards of different alien races.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Feb 11, 2016

    Andrew Webster

    Destiny is getting a sequel next year

    The sequel to Destiny is on its way. Today publisher Activision Blizzard announced that it plans to release a "full game sequel" to the sci-fi online shooter at some point in 2017. That release will follow a "large new expansion" for the original game that's scheduled for sometime this year. Destiny launched in September 2014 as the first release from a 10-year contract between Halo creator Bungie and Activision. The game has seen multiple updates and expansions in the time since, including the massive overhaul The Taken King, the biggest expansion to date. According to Activision, more than 25 million people have played a cumulative three billion hours of the game. Unfortunately there are currently no details on what the sequel might look like, nor how it might connect to the original.

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