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Destiny 2’s Best Gun Is Getting Nerfed–Again

It’s finally happening: Bungie is about to severely weaken one of the best, most tried-and-true guns of Destiny 2. An upcoming update will cut the legs out from under The Recluse, a pinnacle SMG from Year Two that remains one of the most versatile and sought-after guns in the game. It’s about to become a lot less useful, thanks to rebalancing that will also effect the Titan Exotic helmet One-Eyed Mask, and the Xenophage Exotic machine gun.

In its latest This Week at Bungie blog post, the developer shared details for a few upcoming balancing changes, with a nerf to The Recluse headlining the list. Currently, the gun carries a perk called Master of Arms, which is activated when you get a kill with any gun in your arsenal. When the perk is running, The Recluse deals significantly more damage, making it a beastly addition to your arsenal in just about all situations, both in the PvE and PvP sides of the game.

Nerfs To The Recluse

Right now, when Master of Arms is activated, The Recluse does precision-level damage no matter where you hit your target–basically, it’s like the gun lands nothing but headshots. In Destiny 2’s next content season, the Season of the Dawn, the game will get a change that removes that bonus, which will knock down the damage The Recluse deals significantly. It’s part of Bungie’s continued focus on trying to bring Legendary guns (of which The Recluse is one) down a peg in strength, in order to make rarer Exotic guns stand out from the crowd more.

As Bungie details in the TWAB, The Recluse will still get a damage bonus from Master of Arms, but it won’t be as powerful as the current bonus.

“Many doubted The Recluse when it was first announced, but it has since proved to be resilient to being squashed,” Bungie writes. “Although the precision damage modifier did not actually improve the efficacy of the weapon at its best, it did allow for fairly mindless spraying to be just as good as concentrated aiming. After considering various options on what to do with it, the decision was made to remove that part of the functionality and preserve its activation methods. The alternative was leaving in an effect we believe to be too strong for a Legendary weapon.”

Nerfs To One-Eyed Mask

Also getting pared down is a favorite Titan helmet from Year Two called One-Eyed Mask, which has become a regular adornment for many players in PvP. One-Eyed Mask marks the person who damages you when you take fire, activating a perk called “Marked for Vengeance.” If you then kill the person who did damage to you, you get immediate health regeneration as well as an overshield, making you even more powerful for taking down the next person you encounter.

The update that nerfs The Recluse will also alter One-Eyed Mask to do away with the overshield.

“In a previous sandbox update, One-Eyed Mask received some tuning in how Vengeance was applied to Titans,” the blog states. “Next Season, this perk will continue to provide health regeneration when defeating an opponent that has inflicted damage upon your Guardian, but it will no longer grant an overshield.”

Boosts To Xenophage

The TWAB wasn’t all bad news, though. The recently released Xenophage, is getting its power amped up to make it more effective. Xenophage fires explosive rounds that explode somewhat like grenades, but it doesn’t deal extra damage for critical hits. That made it somewhat less powerful than Bungie intended it to be at release, and coupled with its small magazine size, made the gun fairly forgettable. Next season, Xenophage will get a couple more rounds when you pick up Heavy ammo in PvP, and will do more 50% more damage in PvE.

“Xenophage unintentionally shipped a little weak, so it’s getting a bump up in raw damage,” Bungie writes. “Machine Guns have a higher ammunition capacity than other Heavy weapons, trading raw DPS for ease of use. Xenophage slides further towards other Heavy weapons such as Grenade Launchers in that aspect but didn’t get enough power back. This will correct that.”

There’s only one month left in the Season of the Undying, so now’s the time to get out there and enjoy your Recluse and One-Eyed Mask before Bungie’s changes come through. On the bright side, Xenophage could be a very useful gun with these new changes, which will be nice considering how difficult it was to unlock in the first place.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2s-best-gun-is-getting-nerfed-again/1100-6471470/

Xbox Scarlett Won’t Be “Out Of Position” On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss

Microsoft and Sony are both gearing up to introduce their next generation of consoles, and so far both companies are broadly explaining their visions for the next-gen of hardware. For Microsoft, that means committing to not repeating the mistakes of the Xbox One launch.

“I would say a learning from the Xbox One generation is we will not be out of position on power or price,” Xbox head Phil Spencer told The Verge. “If you remember the beginning of this generation we were a hundred dollars more expensive and, yes, we were less powerful. And we started Project Scarlett with this leadership team in place with a goal of having market success.”

Spencer went on to say that the company had discussions about whether to do another console generation “years ago,” and added that he personally thinks there will be more generations after that. Because of that calculus, he said, “We’re all-in on Project Scarlett and I want to compete, and I want to compete in the right ways which is why we’re focused on cross-play and backward compatibility.”

Microsoft has provided some information on the specifications of its next console and the Scarlett certainly shaping up to be on equal footing with its competitors. We’ve created a comparison between the Scarlett and PS5 to breakdown what we know about each piece of hardware thus far and how they compare to each other.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-scarlett-wont-be-out-of-position-on-power-or-/1100-6471466/

Final Fantasy XIV Will Come To Xbox One, Phil Spencer Says

With X019 happening, plenty of big announcement have been made for Microsoft’s gaming platforms, including several Japanese games making their way to Xbox. A total of 10 Final Fantasy games will hit Xbox Game Pass, while Sega revealed three Yakuza games will debut on the platform as well. But what wasn’t part of the stage show was Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirming that Square Enix’s MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, will be coming to Xbox One.

In addressing the press at X019, Spencer said, “I wanted you to know, rest assured that we will be bringing that game [Final Fantasy XIV] to Xbox. We have a great relationship with Yoshida-san [FFXIV director] and we’re working through what it means to bring [to Xbox] a cross-platform MMO that they’ve run for years.”

While it may not come as too much of a surprise, since FFXIV director/producer Naoki Yoshida has continually said he hopes to eventually bring the game to other platforms, Spencer’s statement makes it clear that things are actually moving along. No potential release date or launch window was suggested, however.

In a previous interview with Yoshida-san, he told us, “My direction has never changed from the beginning when we started with A Realm Reborn: strive to have as many people play FFXIV on multiple platforms. Secondly, I want to allow people to play with their friends without any cross-platform limitations. I am still in discussion with Microsoft and Nintendo to make this a reality.”

FFXIV and all three of its expansions are playable now on PC and PS4; for more on why the MMORPG is important, be sure to read our FFXIV Shadowbringers review, post-mortem interview with Yoshida-san, and feature on how the latest expansion became one of the best stories told in franchise history. And for more on X019, check out our stories below:

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-xiv-will-come-to-xbox-one-phil-spenc/1100-6471467/

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