Morning DLC: Video Game News & Rumors 1/25/2016

"It may help clear things up for players to know this: One of the reasons Bungie has no roadmap is that they may not know exactly what’s coming down the road. Plans for Destiny’s future are constantly in flux. As an example, just last week higher-ups at Bungie delayed “Destiny 2” out of this September, according to people familiar with goings-on at the studio. Although Bungie has not yet announced Destiny 2—which could be called something else to avoid confusion—it was essentially public information that they’d planned to release a new iteration of the game this fall, thanks to a contract leaked in 2012 that revealed the scope of their “ten-year plan” for Destiny."

The great Jason Schreier from Kotaku gives Destiny players some bad(?) news regarding when their Destiny Malaise will end. Anyone who has played Destiny knows the game has two great things going for it:

1. The game has some of the best shooting mechanics and satisfying reactions/animations as a reward for being a good shot.
2. The story took a huge turn for the better in The Taken King expansion leaving a ton of room for the story to actually establish itself as a larger feature of the game.

Anyone who bought The Taken King also knows the game has not seen or even announced any large expansions since the launch of The Taken King. According to Schreier and hinted at from Bungie themselves, there is no plan for the game to have two major expansions like the first year of Destiny saw. This is a shame because those expansions gave players reasons to come back for quite some time. Thus far, the two holdover events were a Halloween event and the short lived Sparrow Racing League, which are both much slimmer pickings compared to many of the updates that were seen in Destiny Year One.

I know people who still play Destiny, but I cannot help but think this is the wrong move by Activision and Bungie to withhold their next major expansion for a fully released title. While I do sense more creative intrigue surrounding what could be added with a full year plus, it is incredibly unamusing to think the rest of the players will be basing most of their experience through that year based on what they can buy with microtransactions. Destiny continues to be a much more interesting story around the game than in it. While not officially announced, the rumor there is already turmoil surrounding Destiny Year Three is certainly not the kind of things Destiny fans want to hear.

"Ubisoft announced in a press release that the PC version of The Division will be getting full mouse and keyboard support and a customizable user interface. The interface, inventory, and map have all been designed to be navigated with a mouse or a controller, and if you’d rather not use voice chat you’ll be able to use text chat to communicate with other players.The press release also reveals that The Division will support multiple graphics cards, up to three screens, and an unlocked frame rate."

Ubisoft has released the full PC Specs and Requirements for their new game coming out this March, The Division. While the game does not come out until March, this does give PC players plenty of time to look to beef up their hardware a bit to see what they can get out of the game. An unlocked frame rate across three screens seems as if it might be the holy grail many shoot for. On top of that, mouse and keyboard support alongside the ability to text chat seems in line with much stronger PC support than Ubisoft titles have shown in the past.

For the full spec list, click on the link but be warned these specs are a bit on the higher side with recommendations of a 3rd gen i7 processor and top of the line graphics cards like the Nvidia GTX 970. It seems this is where PC specs are really going to be with new features/accessories like VR and further pushes into expanding PC audiences, studios seems eager to show they have the chops to make PC the highest end experience to keep that audience coming back to their studios for further games.

"It’s promising a full-size campaign and story, and Gillian Anderson is among the A-list names bringing her talent and creative heft to the project. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video about her role in the game, as Capt. Rachel McLaren.McLaren is the daughter of Adm. Bishop, who is portrayed by Gary Oldman (also seen in this video). Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts notes that this created a specific casting demand — find someone who would be a believably strong presence as Oldman’s daughter, also in command of her own vessel. Anderson fits the bill, even if she does admit to feeling a little goofy with the motion-capture and facial-scanning headgear on."

Gary Oldman and Gillian Anderson are voicing big roles in the forever upcoming Star Citizen game. Here, Polygon takes a longer look behind the scenes with Gillian Anderson as she talks a bit about what it has been like for her as a more traditional actor moving into this new space of voice and motion capture acting. Gillian Anderson has been coming back around a bit more as she returns in the new run of X-Files and will also be headlining the largest crowd funding ever for a video game.  Take a moment and check out the video, it does not include much game footage, but I always find the thoughts of voice/motion capture actors to be among the most interesting in behind the scenes looks at different games.

That is your morning DLC for January 25, 2016. Have a happy Monday folks! (Especially those of you on the east coast of the US, you had a rough weekend.)