If you thought the King's Fall raid in the recently released The Taken King expansion for Destiny was too freaking easy, well Bungie has news for you: Hard mode is coming soon. How soon? Well, it will arrive on Friday, October 23rd next week.

Over on the official Bungie website they announced a couple of new things for Destiny, the popular, sci-fi, first-person shooter. The update on the page talks about a few bug fixes and what they have planned for some of the sub-classes. However, the real meat and potatoes of the discussion is the hard mode difficulty setting for the King's Fall raid for The Taken King.

The King's Fall is a multi-stage raid that ends with a giant battle against the Taken's Oryx. It's no walk in the park and the battle is long, hard, challenging and extremely difficult as it is. It requires a lot of teamwork and a multi-phase process of chipping away the damage of Oryx in order to defeat him. It originally took some players literally all day long to finally take down Oryx in an epic fashion, using a mix of orbs, teamwork, weapons and tactical strategy to beat the boss.

If it took some of the best players more than five hours to defeat him, I can only imagine how long it will take to defeat him on the hard difficulty setting.

Of course, a lot of it will depend on what kind of gear players are equipped with and how they work together to beat Oryx. In the standard raid it's a bit unlike previous Destiny bosses because timing is key. Raiding parties will have limited windows to put in a lot oDPS on Oryx during short spurts when he shows his vulnerability. Bungie doesn't detail exactly what kind of dangers players will encounter with the hard mode, but they do make it known that you will need to prepare and prepare diligently if you want to beat the new difficulty setting.

The only useful hints they give on the update page are as follows...

So there you go. If you don't already have level 310 gear you're likely to get it from the run. If you don't have light level 300 gear, then you're going to need it to fight Oryx. And as mentioned, unlike previous bosses in Destiny, you will need that gear at its highest level because otherwise you won't be able to commit to the level of DPS you need during the very brief window of opportunity afforded to players when Oryx opens his chest. If you don't do enough damage to his exposed heart, then he will proceed to unleash a devastating attack that will instantly wipe the entire party.

You can look for Destiny's new raiding difficulty to go live next week, and you can prep by gathering as much info as possible from over on the official Bungie website.

Destiny’s first year out in the wild, much like the core game itself, was full of ups and downs. But no matter what you think about the game that launched in September of 2014, it’s impossible to deny that Bungie’s phenomenon of a shooter has grown and improved over the past 12 months. It’s fitting, then, that Destiny’s year two kicks off with a massive DLC pack called The Taken King, as it’s easily the game’s crowning achievement to date.

It’s impossible to talk about The Taken King without also bringing up the massive (and free to all) Update 2.0. Released just a week before the latest DLC, this update did a complete overhaul to many of Destiny’s core systems, taking player feedback into account to craft a better game. I’ve already highlighted many of the biggest changes brought about through 2.0, and you’re welcome to dive into a refresher if that catches your fancy.

Put briefly, Destiny is now a far better game in terms of player interaction. Currencies have been cleaned up, as has the confusing leveling systems of old. There are more reasons than ever to visit the Tower, as vendors have been given some new features. The Gunsmith, for instance, now lets you try out new weapons for fun and experience and offers a nifty way to order some useful weapons on a weekly basis.

Player storage has been given a dramatic increase, and the inclusion of helpful kiosks spread throughout the Tower now make it easier than ever to keep track of and access your various pieces of gear.

The biggest improvement to come via 2.0, though, is the inclusion of Quests. Put simply, you can now take on more Bounties and missions than ever before and, even better, you can tell at a glimpse what your objective is, what kind of progress you’ve made and what your reward will be upon completion. You can even track up to four tasks at a time, allowing you to check their status on the fly without having to dive into your menu. And for those of you who don’t mind doing a bit of reading, each step within these missions is given a bit of flavor text that not only builds on the world of Destiny, but also bolsters less interesting missions from year one content by making them feel more relevant.

While none of those improvements listed above were technically part of the Taken King DLC launched on Sept. 15, I think it would be unfair not to include them in an assessment of that content. Update 2.0 was launched to pave the way to The Taken King, and those changes improved Destiny by leaps and bounds a week before Bungie poured on all of that new DLC.

Thankfully, The Taken King maintained that positive momentum, easily establishing itself as being the best thing to happen to Destiny since launch. To be clear, I’ve enjoyed Destiny since day one. I wholeheartedly agree with many of the complaints leveled against the game at launch and even following both The Dark Below and House of Wolves, but a paper-thin plot, arguably lackluster voice acting and repetitive reward loops never really bothered me as much as it seemed to bother others.

For those who had extremely lofty (and possibly unfair) expectations in the beginning, however, I think The Taken King finally completes the package and offers the experience many were expecting from the start. I’ve been playing Destiny for 12 months, so The Taken King’s abundance of content has been a welcome, but not too overwhelming addition to the game. For folks who have waited until now to dive in, I can’t help but wonder what they will think of everything Bungie’s shooter has to offer. I suspect that it’ll be a bit overwhelming at this point.

And what, exactly, does The Taken King add to the mix? A little bit of everything, actually. As with previous DLC, TTK piles on more of the things that players can’t seem to get enough of. There’s loads of new guns and gear for all three Guardian classes, as well as a new sub-class for each to work through. I can’t speak for the Warlock or Titan at this point, but I’ve had an absolute blast playing as a Hunter Nightstalker this past week. The class finally has a support ability that makes them more useful in a team setting, as well as several additional tools and tricks that make them into the crafty warriors they were always meant to be.

On the competitive side of things, The Taken King introduces seven new multiplayer maps and a pair of new modes for folks to dive into. The maps are just as varied and interesting as you would expect from a seasoned shooter developer like Bungie, and the modes help shake things up a bit with Destiny’s take on capture the flag, Rift, and a mode that charges your abilities at a breakneck speed, Mayhem. While one is perfect for folks who enjoy a tug-of-war brand of competition, the other is a nice change of pace that makes your KDR pointless and encourages just having fun as everybody unleashes explosions after explosions.

Alongside all of that is a new campaign that pushes Destiny forward in terms of both narrative and storytelling. In case that’s a little confusing, what I mean is that, yes, you’re getting a nice new chunk of lore that will take you half a dozen hours to work through if you aren’t just sprinting through. On top of that, Bungie seems to have remembered that they’re allowed to spend more time actually telling that story, leading to the best and most well-defined missions the game has to offer.

The plot is pretty simple: You killed Crota and now his daddy, Oryx, wants revenge. To do that, the dude is using space magic to take control of familiar enemies, granting them abilities that will have you completely rethinking the tactics that have gotten you through missions up until this point. A couple of interesting new mechanics are introduced to change up the pace along the way, with the whole shebang capped off by an extremely rewarding final showdown.

That’s all well and good, but what really sets these missions apart are the script and the cutscenes, areas that have been unfortunately neglected through much of Destiny’s first year. Much like the new Quest system, Bungie has taken the time to make sure players know what’s going on, what they’ll be doing and why they’re doing it. That’s all complemented by a cast of characters that finally get to be more than a collection of talking heads, led in no small part by fantastic performances by Nathan Fillion’s Cayde-6 and Nolan North’s Ghost. Fillion gets to go full Browncoat throughout the Taken King quest, injecting the role with a healthy dose of humor and swagger. And while Destiny vets might take some time getting used to North’s take on Ghost, his experience in the field makes for a far more lively and involved version of the companion. All of that combines in a way that makes Destiny feel more like a Sci-Fi Spaghetti Western than a dramatic space opera, which is exactly what Destiny should have been in the first place.

When the credits roll on The Taken King, you’re actually only just now getting into the meat of all of this new content. More and more missions will begin to pop up, each one progressing the story even further, connecting what I originally assumed were dangling threads and, if my suspicions are correct, setting up whatever comes next for the universe. While you’re in the midst of all of that, you’ll also unlock a trio (or a quartet, if you’re gaming on PlayStation) of new Strikes that, like the new campaign missions themselves, are the best and most varied cooperative events to date, with the epic King’s Fall Raid waiting to challenge even the most grizzled of Guardians.

Finally, you can’t talk about The Taken King without talking about the new map, a Hive ship known as the Dreadnaught. Home to Oryx and his Taken minions, the Dreadnaught may not be quite as big as some of Destiny’s other open maps, but it certainly offers the most character. More of a puzzle box crawling with baddies than a location, there are dozens of secrets to uncover here, all of which make exploring the Dreadnaught far more entertaining and rewarding than any other destination in the solar system.

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a bit smitten with The Taken King. It makes an already good shooter even better, and it shows legitimate growth on the part of the developers. I’m sure that the grind will once again resurface as I complete more and more objectives, but I don’t expect that point in time to arrive until I’ve spent another couple dozen hours with the game. There’s just so much new stuff to do, and it’s all rekindled my love of this game.

If you weren’t picking up what Destiny was putting down in year one, nothing here is likely to change your mind. If, however, you felt Destiny was a solid shooter with a handful of problems holding it back from greatness, then The Taken King is a very big step toward reaching that status.

This review based on a PS4 download provided by the publisher.

Players: 1-12

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360

Developer: Bungie

Publisher: Activision

ESRB: Teen

Rating:

Destiny's top players have once again proven that they're equal to any challenge the game can throw at them. A group of gamers beat the new King's Fall raid, part of new expansion The Taken King, just hours after its launch.

Bungie community manager Cozmo announced the world-first kill of King's Fall final boss Oryx over Twitter last night:

Planet Destiny took a screenshot of the total stats for this first clear. Look at how many deaths they racked up in the process:

Shortly after Oryx fell, a second team managed to get the kill:

Gothalion, a streamer who was part of the first team to take down Oryx, said that preparing for their feat was time-consuming. They spent "over 50 hours" since The Taken King's launch getting their characters prepared.

To an outside observer, it might seem disappointing that King's Fall only took hours to learn and complete. Players have been waiting months for the raid and could be waiting just as long for a new raid. However, Gothalion said that he was very impressed by this latest adventure:

King's Fall is set in the Dreadnaught, a massive ship orbiting Saturn. Oryx and his Taken minions have traveled to the solar system to get revenge on Earth. Players confronted and killed his son Crota during the raid included with previous expansion The Dark Below. To tackle King's Fall, players don't need to complete an attunement quest. Instead, they just have to hit level 40, get some solid gear and find teammates.

The Taken King also introduces a bunch of other content. Players can fight Oryx's forces in a new set of story missions and Strikes. In the process, they'll acquire powerful new gear and unlock a new subclass for their character. The Crucible, meanwhile, has added new PvP maps and modes.

The expansion pack costs $40 to download. Bungie is also selling a $60 Legendary edition of Destiny that includes the base game, Taken King, The Dark Below, and House of Wolves. If you don't own a PS4, you can get the game along with a Destiny-themed console.

In case you haven’t noticed from all of the news posts lately, tomorrow is a pretty big day for Destiny players as Bungie finally unleashes The Taken King. To lighten the mood a bit, PlayStation Japan has launched a new live-action trailer that features a very dedicated player who really wants his friends to play Destiny with him.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from recent trailers, it’s that Japan knows how to do live-action advertisements so, so right. We saw it just a few weeks back with the Japanese trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and now we’re seeing it again with this amazing new Destiny trailer.

Unlike the Metal Gear trailer, PlayStation Japan was kind enough to subtitle this latest piece of cinematic brilliance so English-speaking gamers can get the full effect.

In the trailer, a pair of youngsters awaits the arrival of a friend who asked them to meet in a laundromat. When he shows up dressed as a Hunter from Destiny, the true insanity begins. Honestly, there’s some fantastic dramatic acting on display here that would feel right at home in a stone-cold serious Sci-fi action flick. That is of course coupled with a delightfully Japanese sense of humor that boasts a guy making sound effects with his mouth and anime-quality antics.

That’s not to say that the live-action trailers made here in the States for Destiny aren’t dandy in their own way. If you’ve missed out on those, you can do some quick catching up by going here.

What both the US and Japanese live-action trailers for Destiny seem to understand is the dual nature of the game. Sure, the plot gets dramatic since we’re trying to stop all kinds of aliens from destroying humanity and all, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take care of business with a cocky attitude and a knowing grin.

And that’s what quite a few gamers are looking forward to doing all over again starting tomorrow, Sept. 15, as The Taken King finally arrives. Depending on what time zone you live in, you could actually start downloading the expansion and playing the game late this very evening.

Along with a whole bunch of new story missions focused on the Taken King himself, Oryx, this $40 piece of DLC boasts seven new competitive maps, all new cooperative Strikes, a brand new Raid to challenge even the most grizzled of players, a new world map to explore and more gear than you could ever hope to get your hands on.

The Taken King will also raise the level cap up to 40, with the recently released Patch 2.0 already paving the way to a smoother, more user-friendly experience.

Destiny's first major expansion, The Taken King, is set to arrive this Tuesday, Sept. 15, and it promises to offer the toughest fight Guardians have come up against thus far. To celebrate, a new live-action trailer has gone live that introduces a particularly brave Fireteam to the alien deity, Oryx.

I'm fairly certain that the Oryx fight will go down in The Taken King's new Raid, which arrives just three short days after the standard DLC content drops. In other words, you're likely going to want to tackle this particular bad boy with a full team of six, not three. Either way, this Warlock, Titan and Hunter seem eager to tackle the challenge head-on.

I really enjoy what Bungie and Activision are doing with these live action commercials for Destiny. The two that have been released so far inject the fun and humor a good cooperative session in the game tends to offer, rather than making Destiny look like yet another dreary first-person shooter. I still say that the Fireteam from this latest trailer is doomed, but at least they'll go out having a good time.

Along with a Guardians of the Galaxy-esque firefight between a Titan and a bunch of Taken enemies, we get a chance to see big papa Oryx take the stage to challenge his uninvited guests. It's a brief bit of action, but it's definitely a welcome change of pace from the in-game footage we've been bombarded by this past month. Don't get me wrong: It's great seeing a developer excited for their product and actually sharing lots of details before launch, but sometimes a lighthearted detour can be fun, too.

In case you've missed out on all of those earlier updates, Oryx has come to Earth bent on seeking revenge for the death of his son, Crota. To build an army, he's literally taking control of all sorts of standard Destiny baddies, making them meaner and giving them new abilities to boot. With this “taken” army, Oryx has come to humanity's last city with total destruction in mind. Come Sept. 15, you'll be tasked with stopping him.

And because I'm all about bonus content, I thought I'd refresh everyone's memory concerning that first live action trailer for Destiny I alluded to earlier. It's a bit longer than the one for The Taken King and manages to hit all of the same high notes. Enjoy.

The Taken King is about to invade the world of Destiny and, when he arrives, he'll be bringing along some new exclusive goodies just for folks who are gaming on PlayStation consoles.

Just like when Destiny first launched back in 2014 and through the two expansions that followed, The Taken King will be offering a suite of exclusive content just for folks playing on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. It's actually a pretty robust package this time around, featuring an exclusive multiplayer map, an exclusive Strike, as well as an exclusive gun and some Legendary gear for each class of Guardian.

The full details went live today over on the PlayStation Blog, complete with a video rundown of that new content.

First up is the new cooperative strike at Echo Chamber, a mission that will have you fighting back against the Vex invaders. If you're in more of a competitive mood, you'll be able to enjoy an exclusive multiplayer map, too, called Sector 618. According to the description, this map is set within the walls of the Cosmodrome. I've checked out a few quick video features on the map, and it should come as no surprise that this exclusive addition appears to be the smallest map of the bunch. So get your shotguns and hand cannons ready!

As for gear, the PlayStation crowd will gain access to the Jade Rabbit, an Exotic scout rifle that packs a mean kick. Each class will also get their hands on a set of Legendary gear exclusive to PlayStation. Titan's will have a Hesperos suit that kind of looks like a Stormtrooper crossed with a old school Cylon, Wizards will have the Azoth Bend (which I can't really think of a good comparison for) and Hunters will dawn the Neuroghast, which makes them look like a badass shiny blue phantasm.

As you may recall, we're not particularly fond of this type of exclusive content, especially since it's basically a reward for choosing one console over another and a punishment if you happen to be gaming the other way around. Nothing here is game changing, sure, but it still feels kind of crappy for a developer or publisher to show this kind of favoritism. Developing a console exclusive game can often make a lot of sense, but developing console exclusive content for a game that's available across multiple platforms just feels gross.

Even if you're gaming on the Xbox 360 or Xbox One, though, you still have plenty to look forward to in The Taken King. There will be lots of new story content, a huge new map to explore, new enemies, competitive and cooperative maps, loads of new gear and much more. Look for it to hit Destiny this coming Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The long awaited patch for Destiny leading into the official year two content headlined by The Taken King has gone live. The patch brings the much discussed nerf for both Thorn and the Gjallarhorn, as well as a complete overhaul of some of the perks and a pre-launch level cap increase for all players.

The details of the patch are rolled out over on the official Bungie website, where ahead of the Taken King's launch players will get a level cap increase to 34. Additionally, after the launch of the expansion on September 15th, the level cap will increase to 40.

One of the biggest changes is the separation of levels and light. That's right, your character level will now be separate from your character's light level. This should prove to be interesting as to how players balance their leveling with their item stacking.

As it was promised a while back, both Thorn and Gjallarhorn have taken major hits in Bungie's sci-fi title. Their damage have both been collectively reduced by one third. However, in the case of Thorn the weapon can now stack damage over time by up to five times. This DOT will carry over as poison damage against players and NPCs.

It's kind of funny because in one of the activity updates it simply states “The Ghost is now voiced by Nolan North”. I imagine a sigh of relief by some players, rosy-cheeked excitement by others and maybe some fanboy and fangirl gushing from hearing about Nolan North officially joining Destiny. Plus, maybe hearing the iconic voice actor in Destiny will help hold over gamers until Uncharted 4 arrives early next year on the PS4.

The update also brings a number of fixes to many of the game's past expansion packs, including updates for the House of the Wolves and even Crota's raid in the Dark Below.

Bungie has tweaked Destiny's Crucible in a number of ways, balancing out some weapons hear and there, adding damage to some while taking damage from others, as well as fine tuning the game's armor systems.

Some of the more obvious changes include the ability to completely skip the game's cinematics, as well as show and hide helmets in the character option screen. They also fixed some issues with the suspend and resume feature on the Xbox One, along with addressing a crash on the PS3 if you cycled through too many activities.

For gamers who have been putting in a lot of time and dedication in Destiny's Crucible, they also made some modifications to the game's networking efficiency. Lag has been greatly reduced along with an improved damage validation system to “reduce the effectiveness of players with extreme lag”. So you'll no longer have to worry about getting tagged by some laggy player and then attempting to tag them back and they manage to teleport away while you die an ignominious death at the hands of a newb with the power of lag on his side.

This major patch will set the tone for the highly awaited launch of The Taken King expansion, which is due to go live on September 15th. For more information on the patch feel free to visit the official Bungie website.

A fan of Destiny’s Crucible but not sure if you want to drop another $40 on the latest expansion, The Taken King? Well, Bungie has decided to give you a gander at what’s to come in the form of a free week of online play boasting new maps and modes.

Recently announced through the Bungie blog, next week is set to be a pretty big week for fans of Destiny. Not only will a world-changing update be implemented in the lead-up to The Taken King, but the Crucible doors are being kicked open for folks to try out a bunch of new content in competitive modes.

Starting Sept. 8, the Crucible’s head hancho, Lord Shaxx, will be inviting all comers to try out some new maps and modes. The announcement states that whether you pre-order The Taken King or not, you’ll get a week to see what the upcoming battles have to offer. The free preview will end on Sept. 14, so that gives you a nice window to determine whether or not you want to continue the fight against your fellow Guardians.

I had an opportunity to try out the new Rift game mode at E3 2015 as was pleasantly surprised. I’ve always been a fan of capture the flag modes in competitive shooters and Rift is Destiny’s take on that constant tug-of-war. Players battle for a common ball of light and simply need to reach their opponent’s scoring zone to earn a point. And you don’t just drop off that ball of light, either. Your Guardian will leap into the air and slam it down, shaking the screens of anyone standing nearby.

But the Crucible preview event won’t be the only thing worth checking out come Sept. 8, as that’s the date when a massive patch will change the face of Destiny forever. You’ll need around 20 gigabytes of space to install this bad boy, so here’s hoping you’ve got some extra room on your hard drive. We’ve reported on the many changes coming to Destiny via Update 2.0 in the past, and this is the time when all of those alterations will go live.

From the way your character levels to the inclusion of a Quest system, new storage options, additional space for Bounties, changes to currencies and way, way more, this patch will pave the way to year two for Destiny and, one week later on Sept. 15, the arrival of The Taken King itself.

This is actually a super smart move on the part of Bungie. Even if things go wrong for your console or servers on Sept. 8, there’s a full week to get this massive patch downloaded and ready to roll so you can jump straight into the action once the new DLC arrives.

There’s quite a bit to digest, so we suggest you check out that original blog post to make sure you’re ready for all of the changes.

Bungie released the launch trailer for The Taken King and it's chock full of action, a few domineering glimpses of the King himself and it's all stitched together with some awesome Led Zeppelin music. Check it out below.

The trailer has been warmly received by the gaming community, and no matter what your opinion is of the game itself you have to admit that Activision knows how to promote a game.

A few of those space battles actually looked pretty good and see that a giant rectangular spaceship seems to be the cause of a lot of problems, looking like an elongated version of the Borg's Cube.

There's lots of dynamic action throughout the video that seems to be reminiscent of Star Wars: Episode III's opening space battle sequence. That's not to mention that there all sorts of cool action spots littered throughout the video showcasing the game's melee combat, sniping, some of the new armor and a lot of the new weapons.

Speaking of new weapons... Bungie has been working hard to completely overhaul and re-balance the game so that players who have been stuck using the most powerful guns in the game will have to relinquish them and find something new to don in order to take on the bigger and badder baddies littered throughout the Destiny's rapidly expanding game world.

Not everyone is happy that the older, super-powerful weapons are being nerfed to make room for newer weapons, but at the same time Bungie stated that they didn't want gamers playing with the same two guns over and over again for the next decade. They plan on supporting Destiny for 10 years and so far year two seems to be going a lot better than I would have imagined. I can't stay awake playing the game for the life of me.

Even still, millions of gamers love the title. In fact, as recent as this past May Activision had revealed that more than 20 million unique players had stepped foot into Destiny's sci-fi world, according to an estimate from PlayStation Lifestyle.

Not everyone has taken to The Taken King, though. Some people feel the expansion is overpriced, others had problems with the game's exclusive content in the collector's edition that would have otherwise forced longtime players to have to re-buy the whole thing for a hefty price. Eventually Bungie worked things out but not without putting a sour taste in the mouths of some veteran Destiny players.

Regardless, the hype train is in full effect and The Taken King is just three weeks out from release. You can look for the expansion to go live for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 starting September 15th. You can learn more about the game by paying a visit to the official website.

Not that you’ll be lacking for other things to occupy your time when Destiny’s next expansion, The Taken King, launches in a couple of weeks, but it looks like said content will not initially include the game’s newest Raid.

This news comes to us via IGN, who recently hosted a discussion with The Taken King director Luke Smith during PAX East 2015. According to Smith, Guardians will have to do a bit of waiting before they can challenge Oryx to an epic battle:

Now before you grab your pitchforks and torches, I think it’s important to note that Smith discusses a “plan” for when the Raid will be released. In other words, it doesn’t sound like this is an example of the content simply not being ready when The Taken King launches.

From all off the Taken King announcements that have been made over the past few months, as well as the two recent livestreams leading into the Sept. 15 arrival of the DLC, it’s clear that Bungie has big plans for the future of Destiny. They’re tweaking a lot of systems with this next update, as well as packing in all sorts of new content like gear, missions and modes.

One of the other aspects of the new content that the developer is touting is a stronger emphasis on solid storytelling. My guess: The Raid will be unlocked after some in-game event take place that will pave the way. I, for one, would much rather have events lead into the biggest chapter of the Taken King DLC over the course of a few weeks rather than blaze through the new campaign in a day or two and then go directly into a battle with Oryx.

The arrival of Oryx is supposed to be a pretty big deal. You can’t build anticipation for an event like that without laying some groundwork first. If Bungie has these new Taken enemies run amok within Destiny for a few weeks and THEN grant access to the big fight, I think the story will be better served for it.

Then again, that’s just my speculation. Maybe Bungie is holding off for other reasons and my dream of breadcrumbs leading to a satisfying conclusion are just wishful thinking. Either way, it sounds like Smith and Co. plan to make some sort of announcement about why the new Raid is being held for a while, so we’ll keep you posted as new information becomes available.

Destiny's first year will soon draw to a close and, in celebration, Bungie has put together a collection of VIP rewards for Guardians who have been fighting the good fight. Thanks to a recently released trailer, we now know what those rewards look like, as well as how we will receive them.

The Taken King is due to arrive on Sept. 15, meaning Destiny fans have about three weeks to prepare for the arrival of Oryx. In case you haven't been paying attention, that's the father of Crota; You know, that giant space dude you murdered with his own sword? Turns out daddy isn't too pleased by that, so he and his army of altered alien races are going to stop by Earth to have a few words with you.

Thankfully, you'll be dressed for the occasion, as a bunch of year one rewards will be available for grabbing as soon as The Taken King ships.

We've known for a while now that Bungie planned on rewarding folks who have been with Destiny for the long haul. One of those rewards is a special emblem you can get by completing 10 challenges within the game. The guidelines for receiving the VIP awards, though, are a little different. Basically, you need to achieve level 30 with any one Guardian or have purchased the previous two expansions, The Dark Below and House of Wolves, by Aug. 31 of this year. Then, when you buy The Taken King, you'll find all of your new loot spread across the Tower.

Said loot includes everything you need to make the year two crowd feel jealous. There's a Brave Ghost Shell, which will make your robotic companion look spiffy in brown and yellow. A Be Brave Emblem is also up for grabs, which looks an awful lot like a tiger's head. The Old Guard Shader matches the Emblem in both color and design, decking out your Guardian with a black and silver tiger stripes. Finally, there's the S-34 Ravensteel Sparrow which, again, matches the Shader and Emblem in design. Hopefully it can spin like a Tumbler, too.

It doesn't look like you'll simply be handed these VIP rewards, though. As was recently revealed in last week's Destiny livestream, a new quest system is coming to Bungie's FPS. It appears you'll need to accept quests from a handful of vendors and then complete them to grab your rewards. If nothing else, that should actually serve as a nice introduction to the new system.

As you might have noticed, Bungie is ramping up its Destiny content in these final few weeks before The Taken King. Expect to learn even more about the upcoming sequel as the Sept. 15 launch date draws near.

Bungie is making some big changes to the way we play Destiny, showing off new quest structures, currency, exotic gear, vendor abilities, menu systems and more with the first in a series of livestreams leading up to the Sept. 15 launch of The Taken King.

The best thing about yesterday's Destiny livestream is that it made one very important fact clear: The folks at Bungie are listening to player feedback and responding with actual changes to the game.

Destiny was an ambitious game right out of the gate, bolting a smooth first-person shooter onto a light MMO structure made to keep players chasing numerous reward loops while easily teaming up to play with or against one another. It was something of an entirely new beast, and so of course there have been some growing pains along the way.

Many of those issues from the first year of the game are being addressed with the upcoming Taken King DLC. It speaks volumes for the game that yesterday's livestream got such a huge response from the fans, as nothing from the campaign, new raids or multiplayer modes were on display. Instead, folks got an hour-long tour of the rebooted Tower, as well as some much-needed adjustments to Destiny's various systems.

It would be tricky to touch on everything shown off during yesterday's presentation, but we'll touch on some of the big changes here.

Right off the bat Community Manager Deej and Co. showed off some of Destiny's new customization options, where players can choose which of their three weapons their Guardian now has on display. The new leveling system was also given a tour, as players will now be able to go from one to 40 by simply playing the game. In other words, no more hunting down very specific armor and upgrading it simply to level up. You'll still want that sweet gear, though, as your Light Level is now an average of the attack and defense stats from your weapons and guns. Put simply, the higher the number, the higher your damage output and absorption.

As Bungie has hinted at in the past, you'll now be able to take on a bunch of in-game quests, and your Bounty count has been doubled. That's super important because additional vendors now offer their own Bounties, opening up rewards no matter what activities you prefer to pour your time into. Want to play the crucible? There are now a whole bunch of new Bounties specifically for competitive play that will grant access to higher level gear.

And where will you keep that gear? Well, your equipment and firearm Vault space has now been doubled, meaning you should have less trouble holding onto all of that sweet gear you simply can't part with. Even better is the fact that Shaders and Emblems can now be removed from your Vault and cataloged at their own new terminal in the Tower. You'll never have to worry about losing a favorite Shader again, as the terminal stores info on every such item you come across. In the future, you can add any of those Shaders back into your collection again simply by visiting the terminal.

A similar system is in play for Exotic gear. Terminals are set up that will let you know what Exotic gear you've managed to collect and, in case you accidentally scrapped them in the past, you can buy a new copy of the same gun/gear with in-game currency. If you're missing any Exotic gear, some helpful hints will actually point you in the right direction.

That's just scratching the surface, really. You'll want to watch the full video for full details, including info on the new Gunsmith systems, Quest tracking and the like.

More than new multiplayer maps and campaign missions, it looks like The Taken King is aiming to make Destiny a better game, through and through.

Despite all of the news posts, tweets and Facebook updates that ignited the internet last Friday morning, I still felt like some sort of cosmic joke was being played on me. Could Xur really be selling Gjallarhorn, arguably Destiny's rarest and most powerful gun? And if so, how would this unexpected boon affect the game itself?

There's plenty of naysayers out there, and I totally understand why all of this Gjallarhorn talk might seem utterly ridiculous to folks who simply aren't picking up what Destiny is putting down. Speaking of which, we'll be calling it Gjally from here on out because 1) That's an adorable nickname and 2) The full word is ridiculous.

But here's the thing: A huge number of people really enjoy playing Destiny and wasting your time mocking those folks is childish and dumb. Even if you don't enjoy Destiny, any gamer should be able to understand why Gjally being sold by the in-game weekend vendor is so important to those who give a damn about it.

Pick one of your favorite games; one you've poured hundreds of hours into and still enjoy returning to on a regular basis. Now imagine if that game had an extremely rare drop that would make you more powerful than ever, give your team a killer edge or just be a lot of fun to use. And after all of those hours of playing the game and hoping that drop would pop up at some point and being constantly disappointed by its elusive nature, imagine if an NPC suddenly said “You know what? I'm going to give you that thing for an almost laughably small amount of in-game currency.”

Whether you appreciate Destiny's brand of gameplay and reward loops or not, I think we can all understand what it's like to have something you've wanted to stumble upon in your game for a very, very long time (resulting in an unfathomable amount of frustration and envy) suddenly be made available to you out of the blue.

For those unfamiliar with Gjally, it's an Exotic rocket launcher that does tremendous damage, hones in on baddies and, when it explodes, breaks into even more exploding rounds that also hone in on their own. It's a powerful piece of equipment and it looks cool to boot.

The thing about Gjally is that, up until this point, it was an extremely rare drop and, in PvE, it's an arguably overpowered n00b t00b. It's one of the handful of weapons receiving a nerf in an upcoming patch, actually, meaning the team at Bungie openly admit that this bad boy is a bit too bad for its own good.

But that transition is still a few weeks away and, even after The Taken King drops, Gjally will still be an extremely powerful weapon.

Gjally was sold once way back when Destiny first launched but, at the time, nobody knew how powerful the weapon could become. Instead of buying it for the then much more rare Strange Coins, the majority of Guardians saved up their currency to buy an Exotic primary or secondary weapon they'd likely use more often.

Once word got out about how powerful Gjally became, however, more than a few Destiny faithfuls were kicking themselves for passing the thing by. Little did any of us know how rare Gjally would be to stumble across in a drop. If nothing else, we figured Xur would sell the gun again in a month or two. That didn't happen, though. The gun's rarity became such a topic of discussion that there was even a website set up to jokingly inform you if the weekend vendor had the Gjally in stock. Until last week, isxursellinggjallarhorn.com led to a page that simply state “No” in big black letters. They were a little late to the party (You had ONE job, website!) but, in the week following the Great Gjallying, it was switched up to a triumphant “Yes.”

So once I got home last Friday, the first thing I did was boot up Destiny and make a beeline for The Tower. Xur was tucked away in the bar at the time, leading to many jokes being made about “Of course he is. He'd have to be drunk to sell Gjallarhorn.”

As I expected, quite a few Guardians took this event as a cause for celebration. People kept the in-game jukebox blasting tunes while half a dozen folks danced around. Xur himself was surrounded by even more Warlocks, Hunters and Titans eager to pick up their own Gjally, most of whom started jumping up and down once the transaction was complete.

Once I confirmed Gjally was indeed being sold for a mere 17 Strange Coins, I raced off to scrape together the final three I needed to make the purchase and, boom, that white and gold beauty was added to my inventory.

Gjally is going to take a bit of time to level up and get the full benefit of its power, which I'll admit led to a somewhat anticlimactic first few hours with the weapon. At the time, my Gjally behaved like pretty much every other rocket launcher in the game. I pointed it at a bad guy, I pulled the trigger and the bad guy exploded. There wasn't a blast of radiant light nor did an insane guitar solo start playing in the background . I know it'll get better in time but, for now, it's just another gun.

So why, then, was everyone so excited about getting the weapon outside of the fact that it has eluded them for so long? For the same reason Bungie wants to nerf the gun, actually: It had become an unfortunate gatekeeper to some of the game's content.

I'm not going to go on and on about how dumb it is that all modes in Destiny still don't have matchmaking (Though I certainly could). Suffice it to say that in order to do the top level content in the game, many players have to resort to hitting up the forums to beg other players to add them to their Friends list, join up in the game and finally go on the damn Raids. It's a tedious process and, because of it, players have discovered that they can be quite picky about who they do and do not allow into their groups.

As a result, many players stopped inviting Guardians to their group if they did not actually have a fully upgraded Gjally. Most of Destiny's top bosses are ridiculous bullet sponges. Rather than offering creative and challenging gameplay, they instead require you to hit them really, really hard for a really, really long period of time. Again, I could go on forever about what's wrong with that picture, but I don't want to derail things too horribly.

In other words, if you want to take out the biggest baddies in the game, Gjally was just about the only sane way to do it. As a result: No Gjally means nobody wants to play with you. And that, folks, is a terrible shame.

A lot of folks who “earned” Gjally by lucking upon it are still lashing out against Xur's sudden generosity and refusing to play with folks who didn't have the weapon before this past weekend. Those people are sad and they're saving us all a lot of time by letting us know upfront that we don't want to play with them anyway. But one of the strangest questions I've seen pop up all over the internet since last weekend is: Is Gjally worthless now?

Let's be clear: Gjally was never “worth” anything. Breaking it down in-game only nets you a handful of resources and it's not like you could sell the thing to other players. You couldn't even trade it in for a large amount of Glimmer or anything like that. What these people are actually asking is “Can I still feel high and mighty about having been lucky enough to have a Gjally fall into my lap while everyone else longs to have one of their own?”

The only thing Gjally suddenly popping for sale accomplished was leveling the playing field for anyone who had enough Strange Coins to pick one up. We can all dish out the same amount of damage to Raid bosses now, so elitists no longer have a reason to exclude anyone from simply enjoying the damn game.

And in the end, none of this will really matter for Destiny players come Sept. 15. That next expansion is promising a huge injection of weaponry that will give players a whole new batch of goodies to lust after. Destiny is about to once again become the wild west, and I for one welcome the great unknown that awaits us just over the horizon. Here's hoping Bungie has figured out a solid balance, though. It would be a shame to see folks once again excluded from playing portions of the game simply because a random number generator didn't give them access to another overpowered piece of equipment.

Bungie is about ready to completely nerf two of the most powerful guns in Destiny. The game will see one of the strongest weapons in the game, the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher, reduced greatly in its stopping power, so it's probably best to buy it while it's still effective.

Xur is the name of an exotic item peddler in Destiny. He offers gamers some unique wares that can buy for a limited amount of time. He pops in every so often, usually for the weekend, and then he pops out.

Gamers are given a brief amount of time to scope out what Xur has for sale and use their strange coins to purchase goods from Xur while he's there in the world. According to GameSpot, this time around he has the Gjallarhorn available for sale to anyone who can afford it at 17 strange coins.

This will be one of the few times left where gamers will be able to get their hands on the strongest rocket launcher in the game that can be used to solo dungeons and raids in the game, including Crota's End.

Bungie will be diminishing the Gjallarhorn's power in the next big update for Destiny. When the expansion pack The Taken King launches on September 15th the nerfs will kick into play and the lauded rocket launcher will no longer do the damage it once did.

Some gamers are fine with this change while others are a bit peeved that they'll be forced to use different weapons when The Taken King launches.

According to Bungie, the idea behind the change was that they wanted to nerf the Gjallarhorn in order to get gamers playing Destiny to use more weapons and switch up the variety of how they do stages and encounter enemies.

A lot of people right now only rely on the Thorn revolver and the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher because they're the most powerful weapons in the game. Bungie didn't seem keen on people using the same two weapons for the next decade, so they wanted to force gamers to use something different when The Taken King finally launches.

This last hurray for the power of the Gjallarhorn is being celebrated with the Xur sale. This will give gamers an opportunity to experience the legendary rocket launcher before it's brought down in power and permanently neutered in its power.

According to the GameSpot article, more than just the iconic rocket launcher is available for sale. The Light Beyond Nemesis, an Insurmountable Skullfort, and Achlyophage Symbiote are also available for sale from Xur. These items will be available in Destiny over the weekend for 13 strange coins.

Those of you who purchase the Gjallarhorn from Xur will have just one month to get in as much damage as you can before the patch drops for The Taken King, at which point you'll need to go scavenging for whatever the latest and greatest gun is. Before the release of the expansion pack, be sure to check out the five things you need to do before it launches.

Destiny's first major expansion, The Taken King, is set to launch on September 15, meaning Guardians from all over the world have exactly one month to prepare for the next big chapter in Bungie's FPS epic. The good news? That's plenty of time to get in some last-minute preparation before heading into the great unknown.

There's still plenty to do in Destiny before heading off to the Dreadnaught to take on Oryx and his army of Taken. Whether you're relatively new to the series or a veteran Guardian, there are a few ways to occupy your time over the next month to make sure you're prepared for the oncoming war. And no, we're not just talking about committing Dinklebot's quips to memory before the grand Nolan Northaning.

So, without further ado, here are five ways to make sure you're ready to challenge The Taken King.

One last hoo-rah!

Two big changes are coming to Destiny's weaponry, including a nerf to some of the more overpowered Exotic firearms, as well as the addition of new Taken King gear that will outpace the current top dogs in PvE. While many bemoan these inevitable changes, others look forward to having something new to, well, look forward to.

Keep in mind that all of those current Exotics will still be just as useful in most of the current Destiny content and, since PvP gear is normalized to keep things more fair, that Thorn or Ice Breaker you love so much should still be able to go toe to toe with whatever The Taken King has to offer when you're competing in the Crucible.

Sure, some of those current Exotics are getting a mild tweaking to keep them from being too powerful, but all stats are currently exactly as they've always been. In other words, you've got exactly four weeks to enjoy their dominance as much as humanly possible. Whether running Raids or competing in Team Deathmatch, fall back on that current top tier gear as much as possible. Once that new expansion drops you'll have loads of new firearms vying for your love and attention, so you might as well get in some extra hour with current faves while you can.

Moments of Triumph

Last month, Bungie announced that one of the prestige items current Destiny players will be able to acquire heading into The Taken King is the Laurea Prima emblem. In short, you'll need to fulfill 10 requirements to achieve this item before Sept. 9 and, after that, the emblem will be gone forever. In other words, here's your chance to earn some bragging rights.

You can check out our previous coverage for a full breakdown of the requirements for the Laurea Prima, but these Moments of Triumph include feats like besting both current Raids on hard mode, collecting all Golden Chests hidden throughout the universe, completing three major story beats and taking part in 100 Crucible matches. There's even a handy tracker to let you know which Moments of Triumph you still need to complete, so get to work and knock them off of the list before the deadline hits.

Complete your wardrobe

While you certainly earn a large amount of gear from regular play, the best loot in Destiny typically drops in the Raids and through specialized activities like the Prison of Elders, Trials of Osiris and the Iron Banner. If your outfit is missing a component and you're a hopeless completionist, now is the time to put in some overtime and fill up that Vault. This goes for guns, too. Basically, if there's something you've always wanted in Destiny, now is the time to get it. Once The Taken King launches, you'll have more than enough new items to add to your wish list and you don't want to slow down the hunt because you're still on the lookout for older gear.

Fill up that trophy shelf

Similar to making sure you've completed your current gear bucket list, now is the time to make sure you've earned all of the available virtual accolades. There are quite a few Trophies/Achievements available in Destiny, as well as lots of in-game accomplishments tracked by the Grimoire. Check your Trophy or Chievo list and make sure you're not lacking any easy accomplishments that you've simply overlooked up until this point. The same goes for your Grimoire score, which can be checked on the Bungie website or through the Destiny companion app. More accolades will be thrown onto the heap once Oryx begins his onslaught so, again, best to knock out those current honors while you're just twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the war to begin.

Go full Scrooge McDuck

Even if you're more or less caught up with all things Destiny and are staring down the barrel of another four weeks' worth of waiting for The Taken King, there's still plenty of reasons to keep getting in a few hours of play here and there in anticipation. With each new expansion, Destiny's economy has shifted slightly with the introduction of new currencies and more ways to spend said currency. While we don't know what sort of alterations might be implemented in The Taken King, there's no reason to assume some of the more common fundage won't carry over.

Horde Glimmer and Strange Coins as if you're a space-aged Silas Marner in anticipation of what's to come. The same goes for Vanguard and Crucible Marks. Those currencies are in need of a reboot and The Taken King might serve as a perfect opportunity for Bungie to implement one. Depending on what becomes available, you'll want to be able to afford as much as possible once the new wealth of the galaxy becomes available on Sept. 15.

In case you’re the type of Guardian who likes to know a bit more about your foe before unloading a bunch of rounds from Thorn into his face, Bungie has you covered with a pair of new Destiny trailers that give some fresh insight into your new enemy in the upcoming The Taken King Expansion, as well as the folks who will be gunning to take him down.

While the rest of the Bungie team is away at Gamescom this week and giving European gamers a chance to go hands on with PvP modes from the next big expansion, Community Manager Cozmo is holding down the fort in the States, dishing out fresh details in the Bungie Weekly Update and even providing a look at a couple of new trailers from the show floor.

“It’s been another busy week here as we fortify our positions in preparation for the arrival of Oryx,” Cozmo said, referring to the titular “Taken King” and his vendetta against the Guardians who killed his son, Crota, in the first Destiny expansion, The Dark Below. “DeeJ and Urk have journeyed overseas to Gamescom with a full team of Bungie developers and tech ninjas. Their mission: Sound a warning about The Taken King.”

That warning took the form of a pair of trailers, the first of which is a Prologue Cinematic trailer that puts you face to face with Oryx himself.

From a couple sweeping views of Oryx’s ship, The Dreadnaught, and a brief look at the sinister King and his minions, we get the idea that dark days are coming for the Traveler and the folks who fight to restore light to the galaxy.

Speaking of those Hunters, Titans and Warlocks who will serve as humanity’s last line of defense against the invading alien force, Bungie released a second trailer at Gamescom this week called “We Are Guardians.” This one is decidedly more encouraging than the grim look at Oryx, reminding us that a handful of dedicated warriors can work miracles in Destiny.

As we’ve discussed in previous updates, Oryx has the ability to bend other creatures to his will, meaning players will be tackling a brand new selection of baddies that are basically souped-up versions of the Fallen, Hive and Kabal enemies you’ve come to know and love (shooting).

To get the job done, players will have to learn new abilities and break out some fresh weaponry, which will help level the playing field against this new and sinister threat.

Get ready to dive into all of that when The Taken King launches on Sept. 15.

In Destiny’s first major expansion The Taken King, the primary battleground will be a massive ship called the Dreadnaught. And in case you simply can’t wait any longer to get a peek at the new location, the team at Bungie has released quite a few pieces of concept art to help tide you over.

Bungie has become known over the years for keeping their fans in the loop when it comes to the development process, and that certainly rings true for their latest FPS epic, Destiny. The studio produces regular updates for the Bungie blog offering behind the scenes details and, this week, new community manager Cozmo was on hand to introduce players to their next in-game destination: The Dreadnaught.

What’s cool about this week’s post is that it shows off concept art, as well as how those initial visions were then realized within the game. Take this image of a Dreadnaught interior for example, showing a couple of guardians exploring its labyrinthine corridors in The Taken King.

Now give this in-game image a gander. It’s not as wide open or filled with jagged bits of metal as the first image, but it gets the point across. The Dreadnaught is an ancient war vessel that’s traveled the stars and conquered civilizations. It hasn’t come out of the fray unscathed, though, as both the concept and in-game images show how weathered the ship has become. There’s even a massive hole blown into the side of the ship.

According to Cozmo, this makes the Dreadnaught more “daring” than “inviting,” which is exactly the atmosphere you would expect out of a ship housing a tortured army and an insane king who wants nothing more than to wipe you out because, you know, you killed his son and stuff.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was making the Dreadnaught feel unsettling and uninviting while still making it a place people would want to visit and spend a lot of time exploring,” explained lead lighting artist Mike Poe.

That’s certainly the case in these next couple of images, which show off a handful of raised walkways winding between spaceship thingamagigs (technical term).

What’s neat about this comparison is how it shows off those ideas Poe was just talking about. Compare the above image to the one below, and I think you’ll agree that the slightly brighter, green and yellow-tinged environment still nails that “foreboding” quality while simultaneously looking a bit more inviting than the ominous dark blue from the concept.

If you’re still plugging away at Destiny this week’s blog post is definitely worth a gander. From additional images to insight from team members, it should help make that wait until Sept. 15 just a little more bearable.

Destiny will continue to evolve once The Taken King expansion launches on Sept. 15, adding more to the game than just new gear, Strikes and the like. One of the big cosmetic changes will be to the way quests are handed out and managed, which comes as welcome news for folks who like to keep up with their Guardians’ progress on the fly.

At this point, Destiny has had two pretty meaty expansions added to the core game, both offering new content, missions, quest givers and the like. With The Taken King expansion promising even more of those objectives to juggle, it looks like Bungie is taking the opportunity to introduce a new quest tracking system, allowing players to more easily keep track of their various achievements, goals and the like.

We don’t have any super concrete details on how this new system will work at the moment, but a handful of hints were revealed earlier today through the Bungie blog. Creative Director Luke Smith was on hand, dishing details on what players can expect once the latest update drops later this summer.

Smith opens by stating that, in Destiny’s first year, Exotic Bounty chains proved to be content that players really seemed to enjoy. More importantly, Smith demonstrates that the team has dissected why that is, and is promising similar implementation once The Taken King rolls out.

Fault Bungie all you want for air-headed public comments and questionable pricing, but you can’t deny that the developer is listening to its players. Even that DLC debacle that’s gotten so much press was the direct result of Bungie hearing a concern and trying to respond to it. The fact that their response included $20 for cosmetic items is unfortunate (and damned stupid), but at least it was an attempt at addressing an issue.

It sounds like this new quest system is another example of that type of reactive design, only this time likely to be far better received. Players want more unique moments and interesting gameplay types, and it sounds like the new quests will attempt to deliver exactly that.

“The Taken King was built with Quests in mind, but we didn’t want to ignore the Year One content in this global change,” Smith continues. “So as a part of this update, we’ve taken all Destiny content and—for lack of a better term— ‘questified’ it.”

To that end, players’ Quest page will see some big changes. For starters, there will be an increase in the number of Bounties you can carry (One screenshot appears to offer 14 slots now). Can I get an amen? Both Quests and Bounties will now be tracked in the HUD, and completed Bounties will now be turned in from the Quests screen. Finally, your various Reputations will now be moved to the Quests page, instead of their current location in Inventory.

Smith explained that these are just the first details concerning all of the changes coming to mission management, so stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Bungie and Activision are listening. That's the gist of their latest update over on the official Bungie website, where they addressed fan frustration with having to re-buy Destiny just to get a few new trinkets that were made exclusive in the Taken King Collector's Edtion.

David “Deej” Dague wrote at length to address some of the complaints about Destiny: The Taken King and the Collector's Edition, where gamers would have to completely re-buy the entire game in order to gain access to some of the new emotes and certain player trinkets. Dague states...

This follows on a controversial interview that Bungie's creative director Luke Smith had with Eurogamer, where the outlet drilled the creative director about gamer concerns centered around having to pay full price for The Taken King – practically the equivalent of what Destiny cost when it first launched for the Xbox and PlayStation game consoles – and that those who already owned Destiny would have completely re-buy the game in order to get their hands on some of the exclusive new features in the Collector's Edition.

Originally, Smith told Eurogamer...

After people came across the interview and expressed outrage that they would have to pay exorbitant prices for a few new dance moves, the rage spread through the community at a rapid rate.

Bungie later issued a statement to Eurogamer to clarify their stance about the Collector's Edition and gamers being able to gain access to some of the material without having to completely re-buy Destiny in order to do so.

David “Deej” Dague stated...

Fast forward to right now, and we're at the Bungie Weekly Update where they're now capitulating to the desires of the fans. While The Taken King will still carry a heavy price, gamers will be able to get their hands on the Collector's Edition content for a $20 upgrade if they already own Destiny. As for The Taken King, it's still a tough sell as an expansion pack given that it only has one new area and four new PvP maps for the price of what's essentially a brand new game. Bungie and Activision will really have to detail something about this expansion that warrants the justification of the price tag.

Activision, Bungie and Red Bull have teamed up together for a brand new quest for the first-person shooter Destiny. The quest will open the door for gamers to earn extra XP and rewards by purchasing specially marked Red Bull energy drinks and retrieving the code from the can.

All Games Beta posted the full press release of the news, indicating that this marks the first time that video game branded content would be appearing on a Red Bull drink.

Tim Ellis, the executive VP and chief marketing officer for Activision, chimed in with a few brief comments about the cross-branded deal, stating...

Red Bull and Destiny must be this generation's version Mountain Dew and Halo. Back during seventh gen the big media marketing go-to combo was Mountain Dew, Doritos and a big AAA video game. If it wasn't Halo then it was Call of Duty and if it wasn't Call of Duty it was Assassin's Creed.

I do wonder with Red Bull getting very serious about their eSports efforts if they will continue to branch out and make branding deals with more top-tier gaming franchises?

And speaking of eSports... the energy drink company is teaming with eSports organization OpTic Gaming and Destiny expert Michael “Flamesword” Chaves. What role will Chaves play in this whole ordeal? Well, he'll be helping guide players through this cross-branded quest for Destiny.

According to the eSport athlete, Chaves stated...

The whole campaign will get underway this July, with the special Destiny branded cans being made available at 7-Eleven stores. Starting in August the cans will be available at more retail outlets to coincide with the launch of the expansion The Taken King. It should also be noted that the leaks about Red Bull and Activision teaming appears to have been entirely true.

In addition to this, Walmart will get exclusive four-pack Red Bulls with special mega XP accelerators leading up to the launch of The Taken King.

The whole cross-branded thing will likely keep diehard fans of Destiny thrilled and excited leading up to the launch of the new expansion pack. For everyone else it's just another day in the Mountain Dew and Doritos-style marketing camp we've been used to since the early days of Halo. You can learn more about the new campaign by heading on over to the official Destiny website.

Heading by the Activision booth on the third day of E3, I had the opportunity to snag some new details for Destiny’s upcoming mega-expansion, The Taken King. Oh, and I also got to take the new Hunter sub-class for a spin in one of the new competitive modes, Rift, set within one of the new maps.

For starters, Bungie is making a strong argument as to why The Taken King will set you back $40 when it releases on Sept. 15. While the number of new missions weren’t mentioned, it’s clear that the fresh dose of narrative content will be more substantial than what’s on offer in the traditional DLC packs, telling the tale of Crota’s father, Oryx, and his quest for revenge. The behind-closed-doors trailer showed off a bit of this bad boy in action, with Oryx being a massive, winged baddie who carries a sword that appears to be the size of three Guardians standing on each other’s shoulders. I figured the battle with Oryx would be the focus of The Taken King’s new Raid, but it looks like you’ll be squaring off against this pissed off papa in the campaign. A new Raid was mentioned, but no details were provided.

As for the story, you’ve likely heard by now that Oryx is building an army to seek vengeance for the death of his son. Sucking various alien races out of the time stream, Oryx is corrupting familiar foes with a glowing dark energy. This energy grants them new powers, such as one baddie splicing into two in an instant.

Once word of this hits the Tower, the powers that be decide it’s high time the Guardians reeducate themselves in some battle skills that were lost to the ages. This portion of the story will lead each class to their new sub-class, complete with new elemental effects, moves, grenades and Supers. As you’ve probably seen by now, the Hunter boasts a glowing bow that tethers enemies to the spot and causes damage. The Warlock can now blast enemies with a storm of lightning, while the Titan can swing and hurl a massive hammer powered by the sun.

You new adventures will be primarily set on the Dreadnaught, Oryx’s massive spaceship. Similar to, say, Mars or Earth’s Moon, the Dreadnaught will be open for exploration, finding secret areas, looting treasure chests and the like.

The video promises “new everything” when The Taken King launches, including Strikes (plural), that Raid I mentioned earlier, firearms, gear, multiplayer maps and more. Speaking of those Strikes—and you’ll have to forgive me for not catching the name of the speaker during the video presentation—the team at Bungie is apparently well aware that fans are tired of simple bullet sponges lording over these big events and are working on new gameplay features to keep missions and battles more interesting.

Multiplayer

After the video presentation, attendees were invited to try out some of the new content by jumping into one of the two new multiplayer modes. The new map is reminiscent of the Tower, set atop a high-tech skyscraper with a couple of trees, tight rooms and a handful of catwalks. This condensed location looks like a shotgunner’s paradise and served as a good place to show off the Rift game type.

Rift is basically Destiny’s answer to capture the flag. A spark of energy will form at a neutral location and, once it’s ready, you just need to run up to it and claim it. From there, your job is to make a mad dash to the other team’s Rift and score the spark. This happens automatically, with your guardian launching into third person for a pretty epic slam dunk that causes the surrounding area to shake. If you are cocky enough to run those final few steps backwards, you can do a backflip slam dunk for extra style points.

The other new mode launching with The Taken King is called Mayhem, and it sounds like it’s going to live up to its name. Put simply, you’re taking part in standard team deathmatch, only the charge rate on all abilities and Supers has been greatly increased. This mode seems like it’ll be perfect for folks looking to just good off and have a good time, rather than worry about more competitive play and your KDR.

I claimed my favorite class while running through Rift, the Hunter, and took those new abilities for a spin. We didn’t have much time to explore the menu, but all of the weapons, armor and abilities were marked for the expansion, so it was nothing but new content on display. I ended up with a pretty standard assault rifle and a new sidearm kicked like a mule. The Hunter’s new void-focused grenade engulfed an area in purple flames while that bow felt pretty badass to fire, even if I missed my mark more than hit it. Hey, we were put on the spot and playing with a monitor right in front of our faces, so try not to judge me too harshly. I did manage to lead our winning team in spark scores, however, back-flipping my way to three successes.

Bungie has announced The Taken King, the rumored third expansion pack for Destiny. They shared a trailer and loads of details on the biggest add-on yet for the multiplayer shooter.

The Taken King, coming on September 15th as rumored, continues the storyline started in Destiny's first expansion The Dark Below. Players killed the Hive deity Crota in that DLC and now have to contend with his father Oryx, the titular "Taken King." He's supposedly the creator of all Hive.

"Oryx wields the ability to control a twisted army of vile corruptions known as the Taken," Bungie says. "These new enemies have been wholly consumed and possessed by the Darkness, bodies and mind twisted into service of their King. Now, they are bent to a singular purpose - our eradication."

Players will travel to Oryx's giant ship in the rings of Saturn to combat this threat. Players will have several new story missions to tackle along with multiple co-op Strikes. The expansion will culminate in a new Raid, the first to be added to the game since Crota's End.

While fighting Oryx and the Taken, players will earn new armor and weapons for their characters. They'll also get access to three new subclasses. Hunters can become Nightstalkers, allowing them to create and fire a bow made of void energy. The new Warlock subclass, Stormcaller, can call down an electric storm on foes. Sunbreaker Titans are able to summon a flaming hammer that can be used as a ranged or melee weapon.

The Expansion Pass for Destiny only grants access to House of Wolves and Dark Below. As a result, you'll need to buy The Taken King separately. It's priced at $40, or twice as much as past DLC packs. Buying the expansion at launch will earn you a Sparrow, armor shader and Year 1 Emblem.

Bungie is also bundling The Taken King and the other expansions with Destiny for a new "Legendary Edition" of the game. The $59.99 Legendary Edition will debut in stores on The Taken King's launch day.

Really hardcore players, meanwhile, can opt for the $79.99 Destiny: The Taken King Collector's Edition. This bundle comes with everything in the Legendary Edition as well as a SteelBook case. An "Intel Cache" inside the Collector's Edition includes the following physical extras:

• Modified Treasure Island Book with intro Letter from Cayde-6
• Cayde-6's Personal Notes and Illustrations
• Collection of Relics and Artifacts
• Strange Coin Replica

The Collector's Edition also gives you in-game items. You'll get a new emote for each class as well as a class item that provides XP bonuses. Bungie is also throwing in three shaders and early access to three weapons. These weapons can't be earned in the game otherwise until January 1st, 2016.

Not only does Destiny’s latest expansion have a possible name but, if recent rumors are to be believed, we’ve got a release date as well. Guardians may be tackling their next great adventure come Sept. 15.

According to a recent report from Kotaku, it appears the next rumored expansion in the Destiny universe, The Taken King, could be headed our way in just three months. This all falls in line with a massive leak from 2014, which contained most of these “new” details, minus the name. Having them reiterated now, though, certainly makes everything feel a bit more legitimate.

Back when the rumor mill first started spinning, Destiny appeared to be on track to release a major content update this coming fall called “Comet.” Along with the usual dose of new multiplayer maps, strikes, weapons and gear, this particular DLC bundle was said to include 12 new story missions, a new sub-class for each class, as well as a brand new overworld map to explore set on an alien ship. That additional content came with a boost in the price, too, set at $40.

According to Kotaku, recent correspondence with an unnamed source seems to corroborate those original rumors. They’re reporting that the DLC, now said to be called The Taken King, is still set to cost 40 bucks, as well as add in a brand new sub-class for each type of Guardian. Each class currently has two such sub-classes offering a focus on two of the three possible elemental abilities. A third sub-class for each would round that out quite nicely.

Also mentioned in the leak is a new raid that will have Guardians square off against Oryx. For those of you who have kept up to date on your Destiny lore, that’s the father of Crota, the raid boss included in The Dark Below.

At this point the price, the release date, the name, the new sub-classes and the raid are the only content that’s been reiterated for Destiny’s next update. No word yet on that extra world map, the number of new story missions, or what else might be included in the update. Also worth mentioning again is that, at this point, everything here should be considered a rumor until the team at Bungie make some sort of official announcement.

Thankfully, E3 is less than a week away and we know for a fact that the team will be present, so here’s hoping that the developer takes advantage of the opportunity and finally sheds some actual light on all of this speculation.

Until then, I’m sure Destiny’s most recent expansion, The House of Wolves, should keep you plenty busy.

Destiny's newest expansion pack, The House of Wolves, received a heck of a lot of media spotlight leading up to its release. There were all sorts of theories and leaks and rumors circulating around Bungie's next big outing for the sci-fi shooter. Well, prepare to go on that journey all over again as the latest rumors have kicked into high gear after Red Bull boxes surfaced showing that the next expansion for Destiny could be called The Taken King.

Game Informer did some investigating into another photo that has leaked featuring Red Bull boxes that are apparently part of an upcoming marketing campaign in collaboration with Activision for the game. The boxes featured a promo about redeeming codes inside to earn extra experience points and an “Epic Quest” in Destiny: The Taken King.

This isn't the first time we've heard this title. Bungie apparently copyrighted The Taken King last month. The logo accompanying the copyright application suggested the expansion would be centered around The Hive.

There's a lot of anticipation for this possible expansion. That might be because the newest DLC for the game, House of Wolves, lacks an actual raid campaign. The raids help give the game a bit of extra life and some reasons for players to keep leveling up and playing the game. In the previous expansion, The Dark Below, Bungie added Crota's End, a lengthy and difficult multi-part raid into a deep cave that required a lot of skill and teamwork.

There was also a lot of YouTube videos that popped up centered around Crota's End, where players offered advice, leveling tips and even some exploits on how to overcome the entire run solo. Some people even managed to get good enough to run Crota's End not firing weapons or performing all sorts of other ridiculous stipulations to make things more interesting.

In the case of Bungie's latest House of Wolves expansion, there is more of a focus on scheduled events like the Trials of Osiris, a multiplayer PvP showdown where players can earn rewards that go toward unlocking new loot. There are also some challenge missions and whatnot, but nothing to the degree of Crota's End.

With a name like The Taken King, it's not hard to imagine that there might be a lengthy dungeon attached to it and an explosion of YouTube videos to follow. Of course, Activision isn't saying anything right now and Bungie is still keeping mum about the whole thing.

If The Taken King isn't an expansion pack then someone went through an awful lot of trouble to manufacture some fake news. If it is a real expansion pack then Activision and Bungie will likely want to keep this bit of Destiny news under wraps for as long as possible.

The likelihood is that the new expansion will probably arrive some time at the end of summer or early fall to coincide with the huge surge of marketing and sales that occur leading up to the big holiday rush. Of course, that's just speculation. For now The Taken King is just a rumor in the wind.

Destiny's big fall expansion pack seems to have received its official title. Bungie just filed a trademark for the title The Taken King.

The trademark filing for The Taken King applies to "Downloadable video games via the internet and wireless devices; Electronic game software for cellular telephones; Electronic game software for handheld electronic devices; Electronic game software for wireless devices; Game software; Interactive game programs; Interactive video game programs; Video game software." The mobile trademark is probably intended to stop someone from releasing a cheap cash-in game on App Store with the same name.

This filing also reveals the logo for The Taken King: a red V with a criss-cross pattern above it. Check it out:

It's just as cryptic as the logos for Destiny expansion packs The Dark Below and House of Wolves. As one NeoGAF user points out, though, the Taken King logo looks a bit like the Hive's symbol:

If this expansion focuses on the Hive, the titular king could be Oryx. Oryx is believed to be the master of all the Hive. Players haven't encountered him yet but did destroy one of his shrines in the Destiny campaign. They also killed one of his creations, Crota, at the end of The Dark Below's raid.

The first rumors of Destiny's third expansion suggested it would be called Comet: Plague of Darkness, which - let's face it - was a crappy title. This early report said it was a huge piece of DLC, too, with 12 new story missions, four strikes, six Crucible maps and a new raid. Bungie, for their part, has only confirmed that Expansion 3 will be coming this fall.

Oh, and lest you think The Taken King's trademark is just a hoax, take a look at the name of the attorney who filed it. It's Jim Charne, who also handled the trademarks for The Dark Below and House of Wolves.

Destiny players will have a different expansion to occupy their time while they wait for Taken King. House of Wolves will be launching later this month on all platforms. Wolves takes players back to the Reef for new story missions. It also introduces two new end-game activities: the weekend Crucible competition Trials of Osiris and co-op challenge Prison of the Elders. The new expansion won't, however, add a new raid.