Destiny 2 - Akimbo Sidearms?

Will Guardians Be Dual Wielding Sidearms?

We got the strongest hint at Akimbo weapons from the Bungie Podcast released 9th June 2017.

Here's a direct link to the latest Bungie podcast on iTunes featuring @thislukesmith @sharkeatsman @UrkMcGurk https://t.co/V07PIqRCqc

— Mark Noseworthy (@knowsworthy) June 9, 2017

Here is a snippet from the podcast (starting from 35:22)

JON:
It's interesting because one of those hard questions we asked ourselves when we were putting this out there was like: "well there's sidearms... is there any reason to run sidearm, sidearm?"
That sounds really dumb. That sounds like a bad game *chuckles*

LUKE:
It's not. It's really fun! *more laughter*

JON:
And yeah! It's pretty cool.

LUKE:
And we won't... We won't talk about why...

What's interesting here is that:

• Simply having two sidearms which you switch between is deemed dumb
• There is some reason why that combination is really fun
• This reason is being kept secret from us

So what is the big surprise in store for us? Well let's take a look at what Mark Noseworthy said on an interview on Gamertag Radio (starts 1:07:22):

MARK: The first two slots, Kinetic and Energy, they can have the same weapon types. So, you can have a Handcannon in your Kinetic slot, and then like a solar Handcannon, if you want to rock two Handcannon, in the second slot. The reason we've done this is because it gives players more choice, right, you can play the way you want to play, and really change things up. You know, we might even have some interesting interactions between weapons sometimes.

Put this all together and it strongly implies that something "outside of the norm" happens with certain weapon pairings. My best guess is Destiny 2 is going to introduce dual wielding! Sidearms are an excellent candidate for this but there are things to consider though...

BattleStrats Vs Aksis - A Strategy Refined

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

As per the BattleStrats mantra, we have been honing our Aksis Phase 2 strategy. Collectively we have now got a very firm grasp of the fight and we can knock the Normal mode fight in one go!

BattleStrats Aksis Phase 2 - Strategy Overview & Kill

The most important points to consider here are:

• Jordy had NEVER even attempted this fight before
• We made a handful of mistakes but still succeeded
• Explaining the strategy and killing Aksis took us less than 20 minutes

Practice (or rather deliberate/perfect practice) has been the secret to our success. Let's look at how exactly we practiced...

Aksis vs. BattleStrats - A Retrospective

Introduction

BattleStrats has conquered Aksis. He tested the abilities of each of our players and the effectiveness of our team's communication. We passed this test but there is still much to learn. Our three main areas of focus are:

1. What did we do well?
2. Where did we stumble?
3. How can we improve for the future?

The Plus Points

The biggest takeaway is that the clan is improving. We managed to kill Aksis on our first try with 5 players in the team had never killed Aksis before!

BattleStrats Aksis Kill - Black Spindle FTW! 

The main takeaways from that final successful run are:

• We communicated empowerment really well
• Everyone had the right gear/abilities to take down Captains
• We had consistent slams on Aksis (which maybe a function of us not being tired)
• Team DPS was solid enough for us to clutch us through missing a damage phase
• People stayed alive

Trimming Videos On YouTube

This is a really quick and simple method of cutting/cropping videos that you have uploaded to YouTube (from your PS4 or any source).

Trimming/Splitting Videos On YouTube - Uploaded From Your PS4  

I prefer editing videos this way rather than faffing around with other tools such as the SHAREfactory on PS4. By doing this directly you can always quickly share whole clips from your PS4 without getting completely dragged out of the game :)

Destiny: Nostalgia - Becoming Legend

The Taken King is just over a week away and the Destiny 2.0 patch is tomorrow!

One of the things I am really interested in experiencing is the entire "Nolandroid" version of the game. Bungie's decision to recast the Ghost from Peter Dinklage to Nolan North is great news for the story and I'm hoping that we are given more of a character to bond with.

Unfortunately, some of the original story content will most likely require creating a new character for you to be able to replay it (like the very first mission). Rather than delete an existing character (all three of which I have grown to love), I opted for rolling a new account! This has the added bonus of starting me off completely anew and returning the excitement of loot drops :D

So that the original Destiny experience was fresh in my mind, I decided to create a brand new Hunter. Whilst this was fun, all the uglier parts of Destiny niggled at me here and there. This game is very shallow as a solo experience, you really have to enjoy it socially to get the most of the limited content.

Even then, if you rely on matchmaking, there are the "AFKers" you need to worry about. When playing strikes, you will more often than not come across players who are actively doing nothing to contribute. There is little you can do about this, either you carry them or you leave.

Aside from the challenge of being matched with decent human beings to play with, I grabbed the Walking Tall bounty which tasked you with finishing a strike without dying. Being only level 8 at the time with basic gear, this was no easy feat.

When I finally found my first solid group, we blitzed through the The Devil's Lair strike on Earth. The final boss was a long battle of attrition but eventually we had this false deity: "Sepiks Prime", within an inch of it's life. My Hunter was weary from many non-quite lethal wounds but still had something saved for this exact moment...

Sepiks Prime Golden Gun Kill 

I'll treasure all these little miniature "Moments Of Triumph" as part of an ensemble of "Becoming Legend". Little things have held this game back but nevertheless this first year has been a blast. Hopefully The Taken King can live up to the hype this time around and find out what it really is to Become Legend.

Destiny - A Story Of Good Karma

I love it when a good deed pays off instantly, even if it is only by the blessing of the RNG :P One cold Saturday afternoon I helped my Level 29 brother and a friend through their first Crota's End Raid. We wiped a few times but eventually we made it through. At the very end, a member of the fireteam mentioned someone appeared to have been rewarded Gjallarhorn (the most sort after prize in Destiny). We went to orbit to see who it was...

Destiny - I Wonder Who Got Gjallarhorn? (Reaction - Crota's End Normal) 

Destiny - Awesomeness

3 months on from the full release of Destiny and despite all of its flaws, I am still very much enjoying this game. There is definitely fun to be had but it is very much dependent on how you approach the game. Finding a bunch of people that you can have a laugh with is invaluable, if you play alone you are missing out on some of the best content!

Moments of "awesomeness" await you, so long as you now how to find it. As I've mentioned before, there is a special move you can unlock that gives you the ability to soar through the air like Superman. This opens up the opportunity to play a hero that is fighting giant aliens to save the world, all the while pretending to be Kal-El... saucesome :D

Check out my channel for more Destiny awesomeness! https://www.youtube.com/user/arkangelofkaos

Destiny - The Titan Superman Move

The IGN First series have continued their coverage of Destiny and I am super excited about the high level Titan moves!

The aptly named "Death From Above" supercharge upgrade is simply bananas. You literally fly through the air like Superman, it is so great! :D The shoulder charge move looks like a lot of fun to use as well. I particularly enjoy the jumping version where you knee the poor victim in the face :)

Screenshots of all this along with the sweet gear/weapon Kinslayer was using can be found below (see full post) :)

Playing as a Titan during the Beta was incredibly fun (find all my PS4 Gameplay videos here), can't wait to try out all of this for myself!

Football In Destiny

Above is a recording of Celark messing around on my PS4, kicking a ball around during the Destiny Beta. Silly as it may sound, it was absolutely hilarious! :D

Whilst exploring the Tower in between all the shooting, we came across a large purple ball. After playing around with it for a while we started an impromptu kick about! At 1m6s we start playing goalkeeper between the Vault posts. Another guardian cottoned onto this immediately and his sudden cautious behaviour whilst he lined up a shot was great :)

Everyone finding out how to perform "slide tackles" lead to more mayhem (2m6s). After a while we decided the ball had to be destroyed. As we knocked the ball off the edge, another guardian jumped to his doom trying to save it (2m34s) :D

After this we were all doubled over laughing our heads off. Moments like these really capture the excitement you can have with great games. This small feature has already inspired a cult following and it is just one of the many fantastic activities this playground we call Destiny is rammed full of. Simply cannot wait to play the full game in September!

Being able to share all of this fun so seamlessly is a surprisingly satisfying feature of the PS4. Although the Beta is over, you can find more of my gameplay videos on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/arkangelofkaos