Iron Banner is here this week from June 28th - July 4th

Iron Banner is here this week instead of its initial 'supposed' release last week. Iron Banner this week will be running from June 28^th till July 4^th, so basically till the next weekly reset.

Although Iron Banner is here, things aren’t all going as smoothly as they can. Some people, myself included, have received the ‘Contacting Destiny Servers’ message on more than one occasion. There have been complaints about lag and poor matchmaking connections as well.

However if you are lucky enough to find yourself in an Iron Banner Match here are a few things to take a note of:

This week’s Iron Banner game mode is Clash so just straight up Team Deathmatch and the Team with the most kills wins.

The rewards for this Iron Banner are also especially good:

Helmets – Helmets are up for grabs both from Lord Saladin after you reach Rank 3 in Iron Banner as well as from post-match rewards. Helmets can drop up to 335 Light Level depending on your own Light Level. I’ve seen items in Iron Banner drop anywhere from 1-5 levels above your current Light Level. So the Closer you are to being Light Level 335 the higher chances of 335 drops. This is not only for Helmets but ALL Iron Banner post game drops. Obviously the gear sold by Lord Saladin himself will only be 280 Light Level as before. Keep in mind that buying a Helmet from Lord Saladin will cost you 75 Legendary marks.

Class Items – Class items are also up for grabs from Lord Saladin after you reach Rank 3 in Iron Banner as well as from post-match rewards. Just like the helmets Class items can also drop up to 335 Light Level depending on your own Light Level. And again as with the helmets the class items sold by Lord Saladin will only be 280 Light Level as before. As it can sometimes be hard to get 335 Class items in Destiny, Iron Banner is an amazing way to nab a 335 Class item either to finally reach Light level 335 or infuse your other awesome class items to 335 Light Level. Keep in mind that buying a class item from Lord Saladin will cost you 40 Legendary Marks.

Bretomart’s Stand – This is Heavy Weapon(Machine Gun) you can buy from Lord Saladin after reaching Rank 4 in Iron Banner and is also available as a post-game reward but probably only as you reach a higher Iron Banner Rank. As with everything else if you get this from a post-match drop then you can get one up to 335 Light but the one you can buy from Lord Saladin will only be 280. Again keep in mind that buying this from Lord Saladin will set you back 90 Legendary Marks. However, this is one of the better machine guns in the game and will probably be worth it even if you have to buy one using Legendary Marks.

Colovance’s Duty – This is a Primary Weapon (Scout Rifle) you can buy from Lord Saladin after reaching Rank 5 in Iron Banner this week. You can also get this gun as a post-game drop but only if you are higher rank in Iron Banner. As with the everything else if you get this from a post-match drop then you can get one up to 335 Light Level but the one you can buy from Lord Saladin will only be 280. Again keep in mind that buying this from Lord Saladin will set you back 90 Legendary Marks. However, much like with the machine gun this is one of the better Scout Rifles in the game, more so than the machine gun, and will probably be well worth the Legendary Marks if you have to buy one.

If you are a PlayStation user Iron Banner is usually slightly better for you as there are PlayStation Exclusives Iron Banner armor that you can also get both from Lord Saladin himself as well as from post-match drops. Even the PlayStation exclusive gear can drop at Light Level 335. Some of the PlayStation exclusive gear such as Helmets only have minimal changes from its regular counterpart but changes in class items are much more noticeable in the PlayStation exclusive Iron Banner gear so keep your eye out for those as well.

While Iron Banner is one of my favorite game modes to play in Destiny these days, this week’s Iron Banner seems to be riddled with bugs thanks in part to whatever Bungie are trying to fix. The deal was that were supposed to be fixing major match-making issues but that update was supposed to be rolled out over the weekend even before trials started. There seems to be some lingering issues or after effects however making this Iron Banner less that fun to play.

Regardless of the issues if you can get a few games in you definitely should as Iron Banner is one of the methods you can Level up especially quickly to Light Level 335. Most of the times drops between 1-5 Light levels so you can level up especially quickly using this method over the course of the week. The Rank 5 packages from completing Iron Banner also do give you guaranteed 320 Light Level Ghost Shell and potentially anther 335 Light Level item at random. Keep in mind that these rewards are also directly related to you CURRENT Light Level so don’t expect 335 Light Level items while being 320 yourself. 

To maximize your chances of getting a character to 335, you might want to focus playing Iron Banner with one character even after you hit Rank 5 in Iron Banner with that character because that's when the chances of getting better drops is at its highest. 

This might also seem obvious but as you get higher Light Level gear don't forget to infuse your current gear so that the next time you get post-match drops you can get even higher Light Level gear.

Happy Iron Banner to you guys and I hope that Bungie are able to fix these annoying issues as quickly as possible so we truly enjoy the rest of the Iron Banner in peace.

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17 year old gamer girl accused of cheating in Overwatch

So a little while ago there was this 17 year old Korean gamer who goes by Geguri, was being mentioned a lot on reddit as well other news outlets for cheating in Overwatch. Some of you in the Overwatch scene might already know who she is, that’s right I said she. Geguri who mostly plays Zarya in Overwatch was being accused of cheating because she’s just that good.

Why was Geguri really accused of cheating you ask?

Basically her top notch performance enabled her to win the qualifier for the Nexus Cup and in the process eliminating many powerhouse teams along the way. She was dominating so hard in tournaments that some of the players started accusing her of hacking/cheating.

How dominating is Geguri in Overwatch you ask?

Well let’s just go ahead and say she Wrecks peoples shit for fun. She has a ridiculous K/D ratio of 6.31 and an average of around 80% win rate over 500+ games.  

Why did people think Geguri was cheating?

Because of her astounding stats mentioned above, contributed in part by her absolutely amazing accuracy, as well as her huge role of carrying her team to victory in a recent Overwatch tournament compelled people to believe she was cheating. Two notable gamers ETLA and Strobe who were on one of the opposing teams Dizziness were sure Geguri was cheating, as there could be no way she could attain stats that high. They were so sure in fact that Geguri was cheating that they said they would quit their jobs if they turned out to be wrong.

Was Geguri really cheating in Overwatch?

The short answer is NO. After the complaints of Geguri cheating were investigated, she was cleared of all charges by Blizzard Korea. Ironically enough, even that wasn’t enough to convince everyone that she was in fact NOT cheating.

In order to put things to rest she was invited by a Korean gaming site to perform a live demonstration of her awesomeness. The hour long live stream only further shows that she is actually quite a skilled player and is in no way cheating.

Check out the livestream below:

If you watch the video you can tell that it’s her insane accuracy as well as her amazing map awareness that makes her such an amazing player. There is also the way she utilizes her mouse that possibly helps her accuracy. Speaking of mice she is using a $12 mouse. So much for spending loads of money on ‘gaming mice’ to improve your ingame performances.

Anyways a few good things came out of this Geguri is cheating situation. The two players who said they would quit their jobs if Geguri was found innocent ACTUALLY left the Overwatch scene so that’s good news. However one of them was rumored to saying they would visit Geguri’s house with a knife. Butthurt much?

People that threaten others personally with physical harm really shouldn’t belong to the professional gaming scene anyways. On another note being accused of hacking/cheating when you are actually not is one of the highest compliments any gamer can get. Sadly Geguri doesn’t feel that way and she was rather distressed about the whole situation as can be seen when she is answering questions during her livestream.

Geguri is officially ranked among the top 10 players in the world in Overwatch and she really looks at home when playing Overwatch. Thankfully her teammates have also rallied to her cause and she has plans to begin streaming in the near future as well. Game on Geguri and don’t let anyone get in the way of your dominance.

What are your thoughts on this whole situation? Let me know in the comments section below.

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Destiny Weekly Reset June 21st, 2016

Let’s start off with the weekly Nightfall for this week which is the Blighted Chalice

Since the April update the Nightfalls have gotten a bit harder, not in terms of overall enemies or difficulty but more so in terms of Light Level requirement. The NEW recommended Light Level for the weekly Nightfall is 320. This is due to the fact that the new max Light Level was increased to 335 with the April update. If you were already 320 before the April update, the Nightfall should be only be slightly more difficult, barely noticeable if you are 320. The problem arises if you are below 320, then you can still do it, depending on what Light Level you are, you just have to be more cautious and take your time with it.

From my personal experience every 5 Light Levels makes the biggest difference, so if you are 315 you should be able to complete the nightfall with a few struggles. At 310 it becomes MUCH more difficult as you will find yourself dying more often, depending on the special perks of the nightfall. Being 320 doesn’t guarantee that the nightfall will be easier; it just means that you have more of a margin for error. Similarly being ABOVE 320 Light level and closer to the max of 335 gives you an even greater advantage for the nightfall and you should really have no trouble whatsoever doing it at those Light Levels.

With that in mind the nightfall this week isn’t the longest or the toughest Nightfall of the lot. It is however one of the newer Strikes that was added to Destiny Taken King AFTER the April Update. I think this particular Nightfall can still be completed fairly easily with 310-320 Light Levels, however for maximum ease I still suggest being above 320 or as close to the max Light Level of 335 for obviously reasons.

The perks for this week’s Nightfall include:

Epic – As with any Nightfall, Enemies are heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers.

Berserk – Minions of the Darkness won’t flinch, even after massive damage. This one is more annoying than harmful but you do have to keep in mind that weapons that usually stagger enemies back will not work on them now. This means that you can no longer stagger them and stop them from firing at you and they will just continue to do so like nothing happened. This can be dangerous especially when you are surrounded by many adds at once.

Small Arms - Primary Weapon damage is favored. This is also a really good perk as weapons like the Zhalo Supercell can be especially effective. If you don’t have the Zhalo then something like the Hung Jury will also be pretty good.

Chaff – Player Radar is disabled. This one again is more of an annoyance than anything else and won’t really bother you in terms of map layout as many people have done these strikes/nightfalls many times now and will be familiar with where to go. The only real problem with this one is that you also now can’t see enemies on your radar anymore and can potentially get surrounded by adds quite easily.

Airborne – Players deal more damage while in the air. This isn’t all that great of a benefit as small arms but can be useful for those players that like jumping around a lot. Keep in mind that jumping around in the air also makes you somewhat of an easy target, granted it won’t be as bad as in PvP but again still something to keep in mind while you jump around shooting things.

The Blighted Chalice Strike is a new strike that was added to Destiny Taken after the April update as I mentioned before so many people might not be familiar with the Strike.

The first part of the Strike is relatively easy as you just have to beat a wave of Taken right off the bat, for this encounter just remember to kill the Taken Blights as fast as possible to make your life much easier. If you are having trouble with the enemies just retreat to the bottom area at the back of the room where you first spawn. Once here you can easily kill enemies bit by bit one side of the room at a time and go from there.

Once you clear the first wave you will head towards the door and figure out that its locked and requires three keys (orb like items) to open it. This is when the second wave of adds spawns. Just follow what I mentioned above to take care of this wave as well and one of the orbs will spawn. This repeats three times till you get all the orbs. Just be aware that more enemies spawn each wave and you will more than likely get a Taken Captain or two on waves 1 and 2.

The orbs or keys spawn at different locations in the room and only one will spawn at any given time. Once you put in the third orb the door will open. The next part has quite a few enemies you have to watch out for. There will be Taken Captains, Taken snipers and taken grenades that explode when you get near them as well asTaken Blights. Again take out the blights as soon as possible to stop more enemies from spawning.

The next part involves you fighting your way through a lot of Taken enemies much like the last part in order to make your way to the final room where the Boss is located. Again same as above there are a lot of Taken minions, Taken snipers, a few captains and Blights as well. Just take your time and fight them all and as before take out the Blights as quickly as possible. For this particular part, if you are a high enough light level you can just run past a whole slew of enemies to the final room to start the boss encounter. However, if you are a low light level you probably will not be able to run past because of the sheer amount of enemies. In that case just take your time like I mentioned and clear out the sections one by one.

The final part of the Strike takes part in the Shrine of Oryx and the final boss is Malok. He is not a particularly difficult boss to fight but you do have to make sure you take cover when he fires at you as he does quite a bit of damage. Luckily the room the boss encounter takes place in has a few hiding spots that you can take cover behind, there is just something important you have to remember.

Once you enter the final room head on over to the right and there is a little room with two pillars at the back and this is the safe spot. Alternatively you can get her from the other side of the room as well, if you went left instead of right. This is the only real safe zone in the room BUT be warned, and here is the important part, every time adds spawn a blight and 2 taken centurions will spawn here. No I probably don’t need to tell you but if you plan on using this as your hideout for the encounter you need to dispose of the centurions and Blight as soon as possible. Once you do that you can relax as the other enemies rarely come in there and you can always hide from the boss quite effectively in there.

This should be your strategy for the duration of the boss fight. He spawn a wave of adds every quarter of his health I believe, I’m not entirely sure how often, if I had ot guess I would say 3-4 waves. Regardless just remember to clear out the blight and adds in that room FIRST and then proceed to take out the rest of the adds. Also remember to clear the adds BEFORE doing any more damage to the boss to make your life easier. The boss also has three ‘phases’ of attacks. The first is a boomer knight time ranged attacked, the second one is spitting fire much like a Taken knight and the third is he fires a bunch of balls like Taken Centurion captains. The last phase of the boss is probably the hardest as some of his balls WILL follow you into the room and if you are a lower light level it’s a one shot kill, so be mindful of that. Having said that, if you just press up against the left wall of the room, most of the balls will and should hit the walls instead and miss you completely. Good weapons to use for this encounter is a high impact sniper to hit the boss with and possibly a heavy machine gun. I would avoid using rocket launchers if you are going to use the room for cover as things could get crowded and you could end up blowing yourself up and that would be unfortunate.

There are obviously many ways to approach this Strike and boss encounter but I found that using a good high-impact sniper is a MUST, especially for the captains that show up in the middle of the strike as well as for the boss encounter. The Raid machine gun is my heavy of choice or sometimes the Exotic Sword depending on weather I’m using the Black Spindle or not. Either are good choices and the Solar Exotic sword has a devastating upper cut and the Arc exotic sword has a good ranged attack to deal with adds.

Like I mentioned, one of the less challenging Nightfalls, and with a solid game plan it is definitely doable even at lower light levels.

This nightfall also has a Strike specific Legendary Helmet you can get that are for Hunters only and with it being the Nightfall this week the chances of getting the helmet as a drop are drastically increased as compared to doing the regular or heroic version of the Strike.

Weekly PvP: This week was supposed to be Iron Banner and I was greatly looking forward to it as its one of my favorite things to do in Destiny at the moment, but sadly it was canceled. Iron Banner was cancelled due to some matchmaking issues that Bungie are still looking to resolve. I sincerely hope that Lord Saladin at least drops by next week with some awesome IB gear.

This week the weekly PvP mode however is actually Mayhem Rumble, something I despise. Not only is it Rumble but on top of that you have the distinct disadvantage of mayhem. Some people however love PvP and will love this game mode. Regardless of whether or not you like this game mode you should play a few games or at the very least one game, in order to get your weekly Sterling Treasure Chest.

Lord Shaxx and Petra will also have new bounties for the week so remember to pick them up as well.

Since the April update, there is a new weekly activity called Challenge of Elders and the bounties and event Sigil that is handed out by Variks each week. These reset on a weekly basis and will usually be different levels and bosses on a week to week bases. The bounties will also ask you to complete different tasks for each of the three bounties from week to week.

Remember to collect your Sterling Treasure Chest from the postmaster as well as 1 from doing the Prison of Elders Level 41 once this week and then another Treasure Chest for doing the weekly Crucible activity like I mentioned earlier.

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New Chroma Colors added to Sterling Treasure Chests in Destiny after update

Three new Chroma colors were added to the Sterling Treasure Chests today after a short maintenance update on June 14^th, 2016. The Sterling Treasure Chests previously contained only 4 different Chromas you could get and those were the Red Chroma, Blue Chroma, Yellow Chroma and White Chroma.

Now there are total of 7 Chromas to be obtained in the Sterling Treasure Chests.

What are the new Chroma Colors added to Sterling Treasure Chests?

The new Chromas include the all new Orange Chroma, Magenta Chroma and Green Chroma.

That wasn’t the only change made to the Sterling Treasure Chests however. The Desolate (Taken) armor was added to the 'guaranteed items' list of items in the Sterling Treasure Chest. What this means is it’s potentially easier to get a Taken armor piece and complete the full Desolate (Taken) set. I am guessing they did this to compensate for adding three new items to the Sterling Treasure Chests and these items were of course the three new Chromas which were added to the 'Possible items' section of the Sterling Treasure Chests.

I posted a video about these changes so you have have a look at that below.

Feel free to subscribe to my channel for other Destiny/Gaming videod :)

I feel like Bungie might keep adding a few different colored Chromas to the Sterling Treasure Chests over time. This is both a good and bad thing I suppose. It’s good in the sense that you can now probably truly distinguish yourself from other players by creatively combining various Shaders and Chromas in Destiny Taken King. The bad side is that, this might dilute the Treasure Chests somewhat? But I guess as we get closer to the Rise of Iron Expansion that might not matter as much.

Anyways let me know what you think of the new Chroma colors added to Destiny Taken King in the comments below. Which new Chroma was your favorite? Which color are you hoping Bungie add to the Sterling Treasure Chest next?

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How to get Ace of Spades in Destiny Taken King

Ace of Spades Exotic Hand Cannon

First of all WHAT is the Ace of Spades?

The Ace of Spades is an Exotic Hand Cannon that can only be obtained and equipped by Hunters. This Exotic Hand Cannon was made available via The Taken King expansion.

What makes the Ace of Spades special?

It has a perk that is very unique. The perk is called ‘Maverick – Precision kills move one round from your ammo reserves into the magazine’ I know what you are thinking, why couldn’t it be precision kills increase reload speed dramatically? Because we can’t have nice things. Add to that the Third Eye perk that comes unlocked right off the bat, which keeps your radar active even when aiming down the sites, and you have a decent Hand Cannon at your disposal. 

The Ace of Spades also has ANOTHER amazing perk called firefly where precision kills cause the target to explode, which is a beloved perk for PvE among Destiny players. I definitely find that this gun suits the Hunter class more so than the others and with the ammo buff for Hand Cannons after the April Update, this is a solid choice for PvE. Hand Cannons are making somewhat of a comeback after the April update, so the Ace of Spades definitely has a place in PvP as well. Third Eye is a very under rated perk which is extremely useful for PvP, making the Ace of Spades a decent choice for PvP as well.

So, How to get the Ace of Spades in The Taken King?

Step 1 –

In order to get the quest for the Ace of Spades Hand Cannon you will need to rank up with the gunsmith to Rank 3 on your Hunter. You rank up with the gunsmith by ‘testing’ weapons for him each week. You can only test a maximum of 5 weapons a week for 250 experience each weapon. The other way to get gunsmith experience is by finding an ingame item (maximum of 4 items that start with DVALIN) that drops from random kills in the game and handing it into the gunsmith for reputation. This means that to get to Rank 3 could take you at least 3 weeks because of the weekly limit and reset. The gunsmith resets on Wednesdays so plan accordingly.

Step 2 –

Now as soon as you reach Rank 3 with your Hunter you will receive a quest from the gunsmith to obtain the Ace of Spades Hand Cannon. The gunsmith will hand out a quest called ‘Back in the Saddle’ which is a fairly straightforward quest similar to the one you received at Rank 2 for the Legendary Sniper Rifle Stillpiercer. Speaking of the Stillpiercer, you HAVE to complete that quest in order to receive the Ace of Spades quest at Rank 3, so if you reach Rank 3 with the gunsmith with your Hunter and do NOT receive the ‘Back in the Saddle’ quest that may be the reason why. Therefore it is important to do the ‘Back in the Saddle’ quest at Rank 2 for the Stillpiercer FIRST. If you need help on how to get the Stillpiercer Sniper Rifle then click here.

Once you have the ‘Back in the Saddle’ quest for Rank 3 all you need to do is get 100 kills with any Hand Cannon, while having a Primary weapons Telemetry active. You can buy a Primary-weapon telemetry for 250 glimmer from the gunsmith. It is a consumable that increases your Hand Cannon experience gained while active and lasts 30 minutes. Now you don’t actually need to buy a Telemetry if you have a Hunter cloak that has a similar perk which is ‘increase Hand Cannon reputation gains’ and the Hunter cloak perk doesn’t expire after 30 minutes although 30 minutes is more than enough time to get the required number of kills. The easiest way to do this is to load an easy story mission that has lots of enemies running at you OR earth patrol and then make your way around shooting everything in sight. Now I just got this quest on my Hunter and I know for a fact that using a Hunter cloak instead of Telemetry works just fine.

Step 3 –

Once you have the required number of kills with a Telemetry active OR a Hunter cloak with a similar perk, then you have to talk to the gunsmith in the Tower again. Once you talk to him he will give you another task to complete.

Step 4 –

This is the continuation of the ‘Back in the Saddle’ quest and now Banshee-44, the gunsmith, wants you to dismantle weapons in order to gather weapons parts to make the gun. He needs 10 weapon parts in total. **Just a reminder that ONLY dismantling rare or Legendary HAND CANNONS  will count towards the weapon parts Banshee- 44 needs.**

Dismantling a Rare Hand Cannon gives you 2 weapon parts towards the quest and dismantling a Legendary Hand Cannon gives you 5 weapons parts towards the quest. YEAR 1 Hand Cannons also DO count, in case you have some lying around in your vault. This part was a bit tricky for me as I didn’t have many Hand Cannons lying around so if you plan on doing this quest keep a few rare or legendary Hand Cannons that you plan on dismantling anyways, handy for this quest.

But again this part of the quest is relatively easy and straightforward to do and once you have the 10 required parts (check the quest objectives to make sure you have 10/10) then go and talk to Banshee-44, the gunsmith again.

Step 5 –

The final step is to talk to Banshee-44, the gunsmith for one final time where he will finally give you your Exotic Hand Cannon Ace of Spades.

Step 6 –

Enjoy wrecking your opponents with your newly acquired Exotic Hand Cannon.

As a final note I would like to say that this Hand Cannon isn’t the greatest Hand Cannon in The Taken King or anything like that as there are definitely other options out there like the Hawkmoon or MIDA for PvP and the Hung Jury for PvE. I would however recommend that you at least upgrade the gun fully and try it out to see how well you do with it in both PvP and PvE as this might become your new favorite primary exotic weapon. The gun performs extremely well in PvE and if you are skilled at using Hand Cannons then the Ace of Spades is also a decent choice for PvP.

That brings me to my next point you can ONLY use this Hand Cannon as a Hunter regardless of the Hunter subclass, which also means that you can ONLY get the quest for this gun from the gunsmith AS a Hunter. If you reach Rank 3 with the gunsmith as, say a Warlock or Titan, you will receive a similar quest but for different weapons, an Exotic Scout Rifle and an Exotic Auto Rifle respectively, I believe. Just something to keep in mind when trying to Rank up with the gunsmith.

Let me know if you were able to get the Ace of Spades and what your thoughts on this Exotic Hand Cannon are?

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Finally Story Mode called The Journey comes to Fifa 17

Alex Hunter in The Journey Fifa 17

It has been confirmed that there will be a new game mode added to Fifa 17. That’s right, for the first time in the history of Fifa, Fifa 17 will feature a Story Mode. The story mode in Fifa 17 is being called The Journey and is also its own thing separate from the current flimsy ‘be a pro’ game mode in Fifa 16. Not to mention that Fifa 17 will also be switching over to the new Frostbite engine which should enhance this new Story Mode even more.

The new Story Mode showed off in today’s trailer by EA looks promising to say the least. This single player campaign will be featured around a Player named Alex Hunter. While there is no player creation in this Story mode, I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. I personally feel that having a pre-scripted character will make the Story Mode feel more immersive than creating your own character. All the script, cut-scenes and ‘mission’s' if you can call them that, will be focused solely on one character. Often times what happens in character creation games is you can create your own unique character and that’s cool and all but the ‘Story’ sometimes doesn’t really fit your character but is more often than not a basic, bland, generic script. This way the Story Mode can truly just focus on and revolve around one character making the Story Mode in Fifa 17 truly immersive.

This doesn’t mean that the Story Mode in Fifa 17 will be linear and boring by any means, as players still have a choice on which Clubs Alex Hunter will join as well as other in-game decisions. The career of Alex Hunter is also player dependent, as the career will be impacted by each player’s performance in games as well as the decisions the player makes. This is also depicted on EA’s site as you can choose between different responses/answers for a press conference thus affecting your image and interaction with the media as well as your team. This dialogue choice system worked pretty well for games like Mass Effect and I think they can work well in Fifa 17 as well, making each Story Mode unique in its own way.

While I am disappointed that that Alex Hunter’s career in Story Mode can only be played out in the English Premier League, I do appreciate the sheer amount of work involved in just including one of the biggest leagues to start off with. I do hope that future iterations of Story Mode in Fifa 18 and such do include other big leagues such as La Liga and Bundesliga. There are still quite a few top tier teams you can choose to join in the EPL and I hope that the Story Mode in Fifa 17 lives up to its current expectation and Hype.

EA did promise us an updated trailer for Fifa 17 and boy was it something special. Not only did some of the gameplay look pretty good but the graphics looked absolutely stunning, as it should with Fifa 17 utilizing the Frostbite engine.

If you have not seen the new trailer EA released yet then definitely check that out below.

To see a more complete list of things to be featured in The Journey, check out EA's site here.

While the addition of Story mode to Fifa 17 as well as the switch to the very promising Frostbite engine does make Fifa 17 an amazing game to look forward to, I sincerely hope that EA also addresses a number of other key issues. The issues I’m talking about are things such as basic gameplay performance being a lot smoother to polishing up other game modes such as career mode and be a pro mode.  

While I do also realize that adding in a Story Mode to Fifa 17 probably took quite a bit of work in development, it would be saddening to see major issues from previous Fifa’s remaining largely unaddressed, and therefore dragging down what could be one of the greatest Fifa iterations ever.

All in all I am truly excited to see what Fifa 17 brings to the table and will be eagerly waiting for it’s release in September. 

Have you Pre-ordered Fifa 17 yet? Has this new Fifa 17 The Journey changed your mind about pre-ordering Fifa 17?

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Xur is Here! – June 10th, 2016

This week XUR is located in the Tower

Where is XUR location in the Tower?

This week XUR is located in the Tower Hangar. He is on the right side at the bottom of the stairs. When you spawn at the Tower, head right towards the Tower Hangar. Once you are at the first set of stairs, turn right at the bottom and you should see our wonderful/creepy exotics salesman right away.

This week XUR’s inventory contains:

The Glasshouse (13 SC) – Exotic helmet for the Titan where the main perk is ‘Bathed in Light- Blessings of Light and Weapons of Light last longer.’ This is really good helmet for Titan defenders especially for PvE when doing harder content such as raids or Challenge of elders and especially solo’ing things as this makes your Titan defender buffs last longer which incidentally IS one of the Titan defender perks so you can no use something else and have essentially have two perks.

Don’t Touch Me (13 SC) – Exotic Gauntlets for the Hunter where the main perk is ‘Defensive Reflex – Taking damage from a melee attack makes you briefly invisible.’ This is one of the better Exotics for Hunters and can work with any of their subclasses. They are especially usefull in certain situations as well. Loads of thralls melee-ing you in the face? Or even to keep those pesky warlocks away in PvP. If you are missing these Exotic Gauntlets then definitely think about picking them up this week.

The Ram (13 SC) – Exotic Helmet for the Warlock where the main perk is ‘Strength of the Ram – Increased armor. All Voidwalker melees trigger Life Steal on hit.’ This exotic is tailored to the Voidwalker subclass of warlocks and can be quite useful. The increased armor will give you that much of an extra edge in PvP and the Life Steal on all melees increase your survivability.

Xur is also selling:

Red Death (23 SC) – Exotic Pulse Rifle where the main perk is ‘Red Death – Each kill heals you and speeds up reloads.’ This is maybe one of the most useful guns for PvE, especially in tight situations or if you are trying to flawless something. The perk speaks for itself and basically increases your survival rate drastically. Unlike the life support perk where there is only a chance it will trigger when you are on low health, this will trigger after each kill. Definitely one of the Exotics worth buying from Xur this week.

Legacy Engram – Special Weapons Engram (31 SC) – Before the April update I would have told you to save your strange coins unless you were looking to complete your Year 1 collection and you had the coins to spare. However, since the April update a lot of Year 1 specials have also been brought to Year 2 and so it might be worth buying 1 or 2 of these Engrams especially if you have been stocking up on Strange Coins as you could potentially now unlock both a Year 1 AND Year 2 weapon.

This week all the exotics are decent and it is hard to pick a winner but I am going to have to go with the Hunter. Again this week was pretty close to call.

If you already have most of these exotics or nothing really appeals to you, spending your Strange Coins on Three of coins is still probably your best bet.

Below is a video showing you exactly where to go when you first spawn in the Tower if my instructions at the top were a bit unclear. The video also shows the various items XUR is selling this week so you can have a look at those as well

Overall a pretty good week for XUR, for me especially, as he ended up selling a lot of Exotics I don’t yet have. Hopefully next week he can have a repeat performance as well as bring along something like the Jade Rabbit.

Let me know if XUR bought you something you really wanted this week or if you are waiting from him to bring a specific exotic in the comments section below.

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Fifa 17 looks amazing and here's everything we know about it

New Cover – Surprise! Surprise! no more Messi! His contract is finally up with EA and it’s probably for the best anyways since Messi is dealing with this whole tax evasion issue, bad for image purposes. They should have gone with someone like Ronaldo or Neymar, but Ronaldo’s image rights might be too costly? Although I don’t think anything is too costly for EA considering the amount of money they make.

As for Neymar I think he has a contract with PES so EA can’t use his image? I’m a fan of Messi and FC Barcelona but he has been on the cover forever and its not like EA even give you cool steelbox cases like they did a couple years ago for pre-ordering, now it’s just in-game incentives to pre-order the game so I guess the cover REALLY doesn’t matter all that much anymore.

Regardless Fifa 17 will NOT be featuring Messi but instead will be replaced with 4 other players. The cover of Fifa 17 will be graced by James Rodriguez, Eden Hazard, Anthony Martial and Marco Reus.

All pretty good picks in my opinion and they cover three of the largest leagues in the world. It seems reasonable to replace Messi on the cover of Fifa with at least 4 other people. Hazard has been largely invisible this season for Chelsea but then he did get that Title winning goal for Leicester city and I suppose that’s why he deserves a spot on the cover of Fifa 17.

New Engine – Fifa 17 will be letting go of its current Ignite engine and will officially be moving to the Frostbite engine, same one as Battlefield 1. Let me just say that the new engine makes the game look AMAZING! If you have seen the new trailer then you would know that the faces rendered in it look stunning, completely life like and real like no other fifa before it.

If there is one thing that Fifa does well it is presentation and Frostbite will ensure that Fifa 17 does presentation better than ever before. The latest iteration of the engine Frostbite 3 has some cool new features that might help make Fifa 17 an even better sports title that Fifa 16, at least that what I hope anyways.

What Platforms will Fifa 17 be released on?

Fifa 17 will be released for PC, XBOX ONE, PS4 as well as the Xbox 360 and PS3.

What’s the release date for Fifa 17?

Fifa 17 will first be released on September 27^th in the US and then September 29^th everywhere else.

What are the different Pre-order bonuses and Editions available for Fifa 17?

Fifa 17 Pre-Order offers are now available by EA and your local game outlets might have other pr-order deals to check out as well. Before I tell you all the different Editions available, just remember that some of these non-basic game editions are only available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Additionally if you already own Fifa 16 on either Xbox One, PS4 and PC you qualify for a 10% discount on the Super Deluxe Edition if you buy it in-game. Similarly if you have EA Access then you qualify for an additional 10% discount for Fifa 17 Super Deluxe Edition.

Fifa 17 Standard Edition - $79.99 CAD

The Standard Edition of Fifa 17 comes with:

Full game
1 Draft Token per week for 5 weeks
FUT loan item of Hazard, Martial, Reus or Rodriguez for 8 matches
Custom FUT kits created by designers or Fifa soundtrack artists

Fifa 17 Deluxe Edition - $99 CAD

The Deluxe Edition of Fifa 17 comes with:

Full game
20 Fifa Ultimate Team Jumbo Premium Gold Packs – 1 per week for 20 weeks
FUT Team of the Week loan payer for 3 matches – 1 per week for 20 weeks
FUT loan item of Hazard, Martial, Reus or Rodriguez for 8 matches
Custom FUT kits created by designers or Fifa soundtrack artists

Fifa 17 Super Deluxe Edition - $116 CAD

The Super Deluxe Edition of Fifa 17 comes with:

*This offer is digital only*
Full game
40 Fifa Ultimate Team Premium Gold Packs – 2 per week for 20 weeks
FUT Team of the Week loan payer for 3 matches – 1 per week for 20 weeks
FUT loan item of Hazard, Martial, Reus or Rodriguez for 8 matches
Custom FUT kits created by designers or Fifa soundtrack artists

Checkout all the Fifa 17 Pre-Order Editions and bonuses on EA’s site here.

EA also confirmed that you will be able to get a hands on experience with Fifa 17 at EA Play sometime in the next week, so for the lucky people able to make it there, it should be an interesting experience. They will probably reveal more about the game at E3 as well which is being held alongside EA Play.

There are a few key areas that I hope Fifa 17 is seriously able to fix.

What I want Fifa 17 to change?

Random events  - I have no idea if this is game engine related and whether changing to Frostbite will help or if this issue is just bad coding, but there are way too many random events in Fifa. These random events sometimes  cause you to lose a game that you otherwise should have won quite easily. This is both against the AI as well as online.

Career Mode – I wish Fifa 17 made some Career mode improvements and I mean like a serious upgrade. Not everyone is a FUThead, yes I made up that word but I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. There are some people who do enjoy playing other game modes such as Career mode and Pro Clubs, Speaking of Pro Clubs that’s a game mode that could use some work as well especially considering the new game engine and all.

Passing – I have no idea what has been done to the passing in Fifa over the years, but in Fifa 16 it just feels wrong. The passing in Fifa 16 is really sloppy and has some very broken mechanics which were added all in the name of realism. Sometimes more realism equates to less fun.

Fifa could do with a whole host of other changes but for now I’d be more than satisfied if those issues were fixed to the fullest extent making Fifa 17 more fun to play.

Lastly if you have not seen the trailer for Fifa 17 here it is in all its awesomeness:

Let me know what you think about Fifa 17 in the comments section below. Are you planning on getting it? Excited for it? Not so excited for it? Things you hope Fifa 17 will bring and so on.

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New Destiny Rise of Iron Expansion revealed by Bungie today

Image sourced from Bungie

First things first, What is Rise of Iron?

Rise of Iron is a new Expansion for Destiny focused around the Lords of Iron and the story around Lord Saladin. If you remember a few weeks ago there was a ‘Leaked’ image on reddit about the next Destiny expansion which was later confirmed to be valid.

Image sourced from Bungie

Well, today Bungie just did a live stream on Twitch a few hours ago to reveal a bit more about this new Expansion Rise of Iron as well as all the new content we can expect.

Destiny Rise of Iron release date?

The Rise of Iron Expansion for Destiny is set to be released on September 20^th, 2016.

What's the price of the new Rise of Iron Expansion?

The Rise of Iron will go on sale for $30. Keep in mind however, that in order to play the Rise of Iron Expansion you will need Destiny the base game, The Dark Below DLC, House of Wolves DLC AND The Taken King Expansion.

What are the major updates in the Rise of Iron Expansion?

Increased Light Level – Bungie didn’t specify EXACTLY what the new max Light Level will be, instead just said it will be a ‘significant increase in Light Level.’

New Faction – The new enemies in Rise of Iron are not completely new, rather a variant of the existing Fallen enemies now known as Fallen mutants as well as Fallen Devil Splicers. These mutants were originally Fallen but uncovered ancient technology called SIVA and harnessed it to become bio-machines of sorts.

New Location – Apparently the new location in the expansion will be in the Cosmodrome, more specifically the southern wall that has been there for centuries. This wall has been breached by Fallen looking for lost tech from the Golden Age.

New Weapons and Armor – As with any new DLC or Expansion, the Rise of Iron expansion will bring with it new weapons and armor all Iron Lord themed as well as new Exotics. There will also be new armor and weapons for Trials and Iron Banner as well.

Image sourced from Bungie

Just look at how beautiful that new Warlock armor looks. I mean the new armor set from Rise of Iron could look Nothing like this on release but the excitement and Hype is real regardless.

New Raid – This new Raid will be on Earth, more specifically in the Cosmodrome which will have the new enemies called the Fallen Devil Splicers guarding the true source of the SIVA outbreak. Again as all previous Raids in Destiny the new Raid in Rise of Iron will also be a 6 man Raid. The weapon and armor rewards from completing the Raid will all be new editions forged from SIVA.

Next Gen Exclusive – Bugnie announced during the live stream that the Rise of Iron will be exclusive to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 only. So even though all the previous Destiny DLC’s and Expansions were released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 Rise of Iron will NOT be released on the previous gen consoles.

Gjallarhorn is back – YES, you read that correctly, no mistake here. Everyone will have a chance at getting one through a mission but those who pre-order the game will get a special edition Iron Gjallarhorn Black version. SH*T JUST GOT REAL!

New Lore/Story – The new Lore and Story will be featured around what happened to all the Lords of Iron as well as the Story behind Lord Salad King (Saladin), speaking of Lord Saladin, underneath that Iron Lord helmet of his, is a handsome looking black guy. Lord Saladin is Black and so is the new Gjallarhorn.

For those of you who have not seen the new Trailer for the Rise of Iron expansion, here it is in all its glory:

All I can say after watching the trailer is HYPE. Everything about the new Expansion looks awesome. Was it just me or is there a new flaming Axe weapon in Rise of Iron? The premise of the whole Lords of Iron thing also looks VERY enticing. I just hope Bungie have some awesome Lore masters to not ruin this story. I have always been a big fan of Iron Banner and thought that Lord Saladin could potentially have a very awesome backstory, let’s hope I’m right.

Also if some of you, like me, were wondering if Destiny was finally going to have pets. Pets as in a pet wolf, you’ll be disappointed to know that NO, we will NOT be getting pet wolves in Rise of Iron.

With all the excitement and Hype surrounding the new Destiny Expansion Rise of Iron also came comments from disgruntled Destiny players about how the price of the new Destiny expansion seems a bit high.

Is $30 too much for the new Rise of Iron Expansion?

Personally, I don’t think $30 is all that much considering I spend more than that on just a meal when I occasionally leave the house but that’s just me. If we look at the amount of content that is being provided in Rise of Iron compared to the price of the expansion we will get a better idea of if its worth $30 or not. Bungie announced that the Rise of Iron Expansion will have similar amount of content to the House of Wolves and Dark Below expansion combined. If we look at those 2 DLC’s the content wasn't all that great. Yes there were a few more story missions and a new Raid but for the most part the DLC's were somewhat underwhelming for the price anyways.

While the raid was fun, the missions didn’t include any new enemies or variants. I don’t think the 2 DLC’s were worth $30, and so a fairer price tag for the Rise of Iron Expansion would be in the $20 - $25 region.

I would like to point out however that The Taken King cost $40 and with that came the April Update which was free and had a bunch of new content including weapons and armor as well as new cosmetics added to the game. If Bungie could add 1 or 2 ‘updates’ to the Rise of Iron then it very well maybe worth its $30 price tag.

While there were many things revealed in today's live Stream there is still more to be uncovered about the new expansion Rise of Iron. Bungie mentioned that more information about Rise of Iron will be revealed next week at E3.  I am definitely looking forward to anything Rise of Iron related and will be eagerly waiting for September to arrive.

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Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale met is Kickstarter goal but it’s not too late to get in on the Action

What is Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale?

Islands of Nyne is still a work in progress by Define Human Studios. The game is a first person shooter held online and therefore highly competitive as there can only be ONE winner. Think Hunger Games. The very basic idea is you are dropped into an arena with a bunch of other players, specifically 99 others, and fight to the death until there is only ONE person left alive. The game also features other game modes such as doubles and 5-man team variants as well as a casual mode for practice.

The game has already been greenlighted by the Steam community so the interest is definitely there.

What makes Islands of Nyne intersting?

Graphics – Let’s start with the basics, the game is powered by the Unreal Engine and looks absolutely stunning. 

Uniqueness – The game combines FPS with scavenging, as well as ironically, a proximity chat so you can scare other players, form an alliance with them or just troll them to your hearts content.

Player Betting System – Players can use the credits they earn from fighting to place bets on OTHER players or teams. Pretty interesting concept overall, making the game more fun for even spectators.

Timed Shortening of Area – A plasma field released from the edges of the Arena then closes in every so often making the map even smaller, while also killing any player caught in its path. Again really interesting concept and it forces the players to always be alert as well as somewhat prevents camping. This also means that eventually you will have to fight and kill someone and you can’t just hide till the end of the round.

Different Weapons – By this I don’t mean lots of cool weapons although that could very well be the case. What I mean is that there are weapons from different eras ranging from futuristic alien tech all the way through medieval clubs.

Random in game events – Events mean that there is a possibly a weapon, vehicle or other supplies to be acquired but as tempting as that sounds many players will be drawn to the event area, making for a wonderful mini combat zone.

Lore – This is probably the most interesting aspect of the game, is that an FPS shooter has Lore attached to it. The arenas are supposed built by an alien race called the Nyne who force the humans to fight to the death as a sport. Interesting concept, especially for the long term life of the game.

Skill based - What I mostly mean by this is that the developers of the game seem to be completely against Pay to Win and as such the game will most definitely NOT be pay to win. I am in 100% agreeance with them. I think that pay to win ruins most good games and turns great games into just mediocre ones. This is a positive start from the game developers and I hope they stick to their guns long after the game has been released.

How is the game being funded?

Apart from the creators investing much of their own money into developing the game, the game has is also currently featured on Kickstarter.

You can check out their Kickstarter trailer here:

At the time of writing this article the game has already reached its goal of $40,000 with the current amount being a little over $47,000. There are already a total of 873 backers BUT there is still 30 hours to go which is what I meant by it’s not too late to get in on the Action.

You can check out their Kickstarter page here with the full details about the game, and please do consider backing the game or at least spreading the word about this game.

Islands of Nyne is set to be released on December 2016 barring any unforeseen delays by the game developers.

The Islands of Nyne reminds me quite a bit of Crysis, Fary Cry 1 and a little bit of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which is really a good thing as I loved playing all those games on my PC. I am sure the game has some elements from many different games and I hope they blend together well to create a better more successful game.

The Islands of Nyne looks like a pretty amazing game and a fresh take on the FPS genre and I really do hope it gets launched and is a resounding success. This means that I will also need to invest in a new PC to play this game as the game will mainly be released on PC at first on STEAM with eventual plans to be released on Xbox one and PS4. Islands of Nyne also have VR plans in the works and that will be really interesting to see as well.

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How to get the Dreadfang in Destiny Taken King

Ok so with the release of the Taken King expansion Bungie included 6 different swords (3 Legendary and 3 Exotic) that you can obtain and can be equipped in your heavy weapons slot. Aside from being extremely fun to use, these swords are also preferred in certain situations or missions because of the amount of damage they do especially to captains and majors. The sword entices the player to use a high risk high reward strategy, which like I mentioned, is not only extremely fun but also highly practical in some situations.

However a 7^th Legendary Sword was added to Destiny Taken King AFTER the April update.

What is the Dreadfang?

Dreadfang is a Legendary Sword added to Destiny Taken King After the April update. The Dreadfang comes standard with Void burn much like the regular Legendary Void Sword, the only difference is the Dreadfang is the ‘Taken’ variant of the Void Legendary sword with its own taken skin. The Dreadfang is also awarded to you at 320 Light Level, much higher than the previous 280 of the regular Legendary Sword. The Dreadfang also doesn’t just ‘look’ Taken, it also does more damage to Taken enemies, so you can see how this sword would be useful for certain missions or Strikes.

So, How to get the Taken Sword in Destiny Taken King?

Step 1 – If you have spoken to Variks anytime after the April update, he will have given you a quest called ‘At the Gates’ which is the main quest line for getting the Dreadfang.

Step 2 – The first step of the quest ‘At the Gates’ requires you to complete a mission on the Dreadnaught. This mission is called ‘Pretender to the Throne’ and is fairly easy and straightforward to complete. The mission will be on your map in the Mausoleum on the Dreadnaught and it is a Level 36 mission so most people should have little to no trouble completing it. It is an extremely short and easy quest and should only take you 5-10 minutes to complete.

Step 3 – After beating the first mission your quest will automatically update to the next step which is called ‘They can Run’ and all this quest requires you to do is find echoes of Malok – basically just kill a bunch of Taken. If you are in no hurry, then you can just do this as you do missions, Strikes and Nightfalls through the course of the week. BUT there is a much easier way of completing this part as you can just go on patrol on the Dreadnaught and kill Taken there.

You can spawn taken on the Dreadnaught by triggering the Taken grenades you see around there. As you pass through them, they will activate/explode and a few waves of Taken should spawn shortly after. You have probably come across these Taken orbs or grenades many times even in missions and Strikes. 

Taken ORB/Grenade

Once you activate the Taken orb or grenade just proceed to kill off the Taken enemies that spawn shortly after. You are not guaranteed an ECHO for EACH taken enemy that is killed, but it’s usually ½ or 1/3 taken enemies that drop an echo. You need to collect 20 Echoes of Malok by killing any Taken enemies and this should take you again a total of about 5-10 minutes. It took me 3 activations of these Taken orbs on the Dreadnaught to get enough Echoes. These Taken orbs will be around the Hull breach, close to where you spawn and can be found fairly easily, you do not need to go to any other location on the Dreadnaught to find them. After activating one orb, the next one will usually spawn in a slightly different location but not too far away.

Step  4 – Once you have gotten 20 Echoes of Malok just go to the Tower and speak to Eris Morn who is located below the first set of stairs in the middle of the Tower. She will give you the next step in the quest where you have to complete the ‘Blighted Chalice’ Strike.

Step 5 – Complete the ‘Blighted Chalice’ Strike. The Blighted Chalice Strike is one of the new Strikes that was added to Destiny Taken King AFTER the April update so some people might not be familiar with it. This is fine as the normal version of the Strike is fairly easy and the boss Malok himself isn’t too challenging to beat. The only thing to watch out for is when he uses Shadow Touched, which slows you down and makes you more susceptible to damage. If you are doing this in a fireteam of three this Strike should take you 10-15 minutes and be done fairly easily. The strike can also be solo’d pretty easily for players above 310 Light Level but there is matchmaking for the Strike so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Step 6 – Once you have completed the ‘Blighted Chalice’ Strike then head over to the Reef and talk to Variks. He will give you a 320 Light Level Dreadfang and you are done the quest. Easy as pie, LITERALLY. Of all the sword quests this one was probably the shortest and easiest one to complete.

The Dreadfang can also be obtained for free by completing the quest on EACH of your characters so a total of three times if you chose, and considering how easy it is to obtain one, it might be worth it for those Destiny players who have 3 characters. The Dreadfang can ALSO be bought from Variks after you obtain the Sword for the first time, but can only be bought with the character you completed the quest with and as such, you can just do the quest once and then buy 2 Dreadfangs for your other characters. Keep in mind though that the sword from Variks is NOT free and he charges a Legendary Engram as well as 5000 Glimmer for each Sword, so not the cheapest vendor on the block.

Step 7 – Show off your awesome new Taken Sword and use it defeat the vast amount of Taken enemies and push back the darkness. A good place to try out the sword would be in the new Challenge of Elders mode.

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