Destiny: Cryptarch changes coming this week

Bungie will patch the Cryptarch in Destiny on Tuesday so that engrams will only decode at their level or higher. For example, blue/rare engrams will only decode to blue or purple/legendary, and purple engrams will never decode to blue. Rare engrams will also have a higher chance of decoding to legendary. However, Bungie warns in their dev notes that any legendary engrams you find now but wait to decode until after the update will automatically decode into rare, so get them decoded now and look for your legendaries later. 

Daily and weekly challenges will also include more chances for rare and legendary rewards, and ascendant materials now have legendary status. 

Destiny: Farming Russia for fun and profit!

If you're playing Destiny, you may be nearing or have already reached the level cap of 20. But where are you going to get some nice loot for the raids that opened last week? Russia. That's right, low-level, introductory Old Russia. Before you begin your farming adventure, you'll need to take care of a few things first.

Make sure your rank with the Cryptarch is at 2 or higher. This will cause more Engrams to drop, the lower level ones automatically decrypted. Next, find someplace like the Moon to kill a bunch of Hive Ultras so that you will get a Black Wax Idol. Idols make dead Hive drop more Glimmer for 10 minutes. Now you're ready to patrol the Cosmodrome!

You're going to Skywatch, near the Hive Seeder. When you arrive in Old Russia, head toward the left, across the Mothyards, where all those rusted airplanes areThrallstunnels in the building on top of the hill will open out at Skywatch, and just on the other side of the short cliffs is the seeder. You will probably see a few people already farming.

If you stand any closer to the cave than these people are, then only Acolytes will come out, but you want Thralls as well for maximum profit. If other people are standing too close, you can try to stand in front of them and do the pointing gesture to get them to back up. If that doesn't work, try melee-ing them in the face a bit.

I can see my engrams from here!

Now comes the fun part! Consume one of your Black Wax Idols. From your vantage point, kill the Hive that come out of that cave and watch your Glimmer count skyrocket. If any Hive make it out of the cave without dying, you have to hunt them down and kill them, or no more will respawn from there.

Eventually, everyone will run out of ammo, resorting to shooting rockets into the cave, at which point, everyone will run into the cave together. Nothing will spawn while someone is in or near the cave.

No shortage of ammo, Glimmer, or Engrams! 

As you can see, there are lots of treasures to be found in the cave. Two people found Legendary Engrams in the ten minutes I farmed this cave. You can farm this cave all day if you want to, and maybe you'll experience the roughly once-per-day surge of ten times as many Hive at one time. You might have to clear out your inventory periodically when you get too much stuff (that's where having Engrams decrypt automatically becomes helpful).

Some additional notes: The public event of "Defend the Warsat" occurs every thirty minutes in this area. You'll know if it's about to happen if the sky turns a weird blue color. I suggest running into the cave at this point, or the Warsat may drop right on top of you and kill every one in the area. It's happened before.

If you're near a group of people that doesn't seem to get how to farm the ideal way, and you can't get them to do it right, you can always return to orbit and try landing in a Russia on another server. Good luck!

Warning from Bungie about poor early reviews for "Destiny"

If you see a bad review for "Destiny" in the next couple of days, Bungie says it might be because the reviewer didn't play it enough. 

Developer Bungie is not allowing reviewers to play the first-person shooter until it has been released to the public so that the reviewers experience the world fully populated with other players. For their most recent and final weekly update before the launch on September 9,  Bungie expressed that reviews for the game would be incomplete if they were written before playing for a few days. The developer has said that you can play through missions on your own without running into too many people, but their vision for the game's full experience involves working with others and teaming up for missions and raids. 

Microsoft's Xbox One Reveal

This article was originally posted on CharmingOrangutan. 

It's big, it's black, and it's sexy! Ladies and gentlemen, Xbox One, the new console from Microsoft, has been revealed.

Photo credit: Microsoft

It's powerful, and it does a lot of things. You can read all about the tech specs on IGN, cnet, Gizmodo, Forbes, NBC, you name it. You can read the Microsoft release (though as of 1:30 MST, the server is waffling between slow and broke).

Photo credit: Turn 10 Studios

But just look at it. That beautiful box may not read "sleek" to everyone, but its prismatic and sharply angled design brings to mind high-horsepower muscle cars, a fitting comparison considering that Forza 5 was the first game announced for the console.

 It's not all about the console by itself either: the new Kinect, which will be included, has a 1080p camera that can supposedly measure a heartbeat and works in tandem with the controller. Speaking of the controller, it will have better sensitivity and is designed to be more ergonomic.

 Xbox One is definitely not just for gaming: it will be seamlessly integrated with television and apps. The demo on-stage during the reveal shows that you will be able to control everything from the guide to fantasy sports teams with your voice. The console is "always ready," meaning you simply say "Xbox on" and it turns itself and the TV on. I'm no technophobe, but I am wary of how many aspects of my life and living room that the Xbox may take over.

 Now, I've never been one to feel the need to buy a console as soon as it comes out, but I am already pretty giddy about this. It is one fine and impressive piece of machinery so far. I can't wait to see how Xbox One does at E3 in just a few weeks.

 What are your impressions of Xbox One so far? Love it, hate it, still unsure? Let me know in the comments!