I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve invested 200-plus hours into Destiny. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. For all of its faults, the tight mechanics and social aspect of the game kept bringing me back week after week. Part of it was definitely a pathological need to acquire the best gear, better known as the carrot at the end of the stick. Don’t misunderstand me — I wasn’t and still am not one to vehemently defended the title. I understand it’s shortcomings, but I also chose to focus on the fun factor. It became a ritual to spend hours in the Vault of Glass with 5 of my friends every Tuesday once the weekly reset occurred. Alas, I stopped playing because the second raid disappointed me quite a bit. But, it looks like it may be time to return once The Taken King expansion drops. Which brings us to the day’s news. In today’s Gaming Daily: Bungie reveals details for Destiny: The Taken King’s Court of Oryx, somebody gave The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time  a surreal Unreal Engine 4 makeover, Sony released details for the upcoming PS4 update, Star Wars-themed mods came to Grand Theft Auto V, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 6 is headed to the West.

Destiny: The Taken King, Court of Oryx details revealed.

On Wednesday, Bungie hosted a livestream showing us a closer look at the Court of Oryx, a new arena-based combat activity set aboard the Hive Dreadnaught from the upcoming Destiny: The Taken King expansion. Traveling deeper into the bowels of the ship will bring you to the Court of Oryx, where you can present a rune to a statue in the area which launches a challenge arena where you’ll be tasked with taking down various bosses in a certain amount of time.

Each statue and rune will yield different bosses, so it won’t get repetitive. There are three tiers that get progressively more difficult, and as the difficulty increases, the loot gets better. Tier one bosses will be around level 36, whereas tier two bosses will be at the level of weekly Knightfall missions with 2 bosses. Lastly, tier three will supposedly be at raid-level difficulty. Respawn times are also quickened in this mode so the action continues with very little down time.

It seems like runes will be an important form of currency for players to gain access to better gear. Bungie also took the opportunity to announce that you can expect the fall raid on September 18.

Things definitely sound like they are getting more interesting in Destiny. Considering the fact that this is only one part of the upcoming expansion, I am excited to explore all of the different events. I’m still not behind the price point — starting at $39.99 — but it should provide plenty of hours of fun for those Guardians still fighting the good fight.

HT: Game Informer

Zora’s Domain from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time gets Unreal Engine 4 treatment.

Visual effects artist Michael Eurek has recreated Zora’s Domain from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time using Unreal Engine 4 technology. Not surprisingly, it looks gorgeous and reminiscent of something straight out of a vacation pamphlet. Michael used assets from Epic’s demos, and foliage from the “Tropical Forest” asset pack from the Unreal Marketplace to create this setting. This type of video has surfaced before, but they usually throw an iconic character like Mario and Sonic into the kite demo. Peep the pristine scenery above.

HT: Nerdist

PS4 Massive 3.0 update detailed, brings new features & massive cloud storage space.

The massive PS4 3.0 system update, codenamed Kenshin, is coming, and with it a plethora of improved social integration. This update has been rumored for some time, but Sony has finally released all the details. According to the PlayStation Blog, those that were chosen to be part of the beta will get access to this update “very soon”.  Also, not all of these features are promised to make it into the final update, which is why they’re beta testing it first.

Here’s all the deets. brought to you courtesy of the PlayStation Blog:

• Online storage capacity increase — PS4 online storage capacity has increased from 1GB to 10GB for all PS Plus members. In 3.00 system software, you’ll see that we added a handy usage meter to monitor your available storage capacity, and a new Auto-Upload menu has been added to Application Saved Data Management.
• YouTube live — PS4 owners will be able to livestream gameplay to YouTube. Livestreams will be viewable across YouTube, including on the new YouTube Gaming mobile app and website.
• Events — A new hub for events has been added, giving an overview of activities taking place in the games you play most, as well as official broadcasts. For instance, you may see an update for a Double XP weekend, a special enemy appearing at a scheduled time, or seasonal events like in-game towns being decorated for the winter. You’ll also receive notifications when the event starts, or if the timing changes.
• Favorite Groups — Favorite Groups has been added to the Friends app, letting you quickly access groups of people you like to play games with frequently. This will make the process of getting a game session up and running even easier.
• Communities —PS4 users will have the ability to create communities based around shared interests, like games, genres, and more. Communities include a message board with general discussion, screenshots shared by players, and the ability to join parties/ games. If you want to tackle a big multiplayer raid, but don’t have enough friends available, this could be a great way to connect with other players who are looking for the same thing.
• Sharing video clips to Twitter — Users will have the ability to share video clips directly to Twitter. Maximum video length is 10 seconds, though you’ll have the ability to trim longer clips.
• Stickers — Tired of typing out messages? With this update, you’ll be able to send stickers to friends through your messages.
• Now Playing / What’s New — The Now Playing screen will display even more information about what your friends are doing, and you’ll be able to quickly jump into a game, party, request a screen share, or get sent to the PS Store to buy the game your friend is playing – further enhancing the social relationship with your friends online.
• Live from PlayStation — We’ve improved the Live From PlayStation app, making it easier to view popular trending broadcasts in real time.
• Request to watch gameplay — Want to view a friend’s gameplay session? Now you can send a ‘Request to Watch’ notification to a player, which will start a live broadcast or Share Play invitation to the person playing.

Increasing the online cloud storage for PS Plus user by 10 times is incredible, it will alleviate some of the storage pains to some degree. Broadcasting to YouTube is also pretty sweet, and allowing you to share game video clips to Twitter will be a time saver for those bird lovers. Bunching friends into groups will also make it less of a hassle to search for those you constantly play with. Finally, I have to point out that the communities will be great addition to the online experience.

The only things missing is the ability to use an external hard drive and an ability to change PSN gamer tag.

What’s most impressive about the PS4 and Xbox One is their ability to quickly evolve. Both consoles are constantly changing in meaningful ways and adding useful features every so often. It’s only been two years since they both launched, and they are already better compared to when they were originally released.

HT: Playstation Blog 

Grand Theft Auto V mods introduce Star Wars vehicles to Los Santos.

YouTube user TwoDynamic uploaded a video showing off some Grand Theft Auto V PC mods that introduce Los Santos to an Imperial Star Destroyer and Land Speeder from the Star Wars universe. Though the first of the two vehicles is not to scale, it’s still huge when compared to the world over which it ominously hovers. Land Speeders also become a common choice of transportation using one of the mods. I don’t think too many would mind mixing more Star Wars into GTA V. Give us more! Take a gander at the additions from a galaxy far, far away above.

HT: Nerdist 

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 6 is headed to the West.

Slick-haired Phoenix Wright fans rejoice! After this week’s confirmation that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 6 was indeed in the works, more information has been released, clarifying that the newest installment will be heading west. Objection! Actually, no, I take that back. That’s great news. Here’s the glorious tweet:

You heard Wright! Ace Attorney 6 (working title), announced in Japan today, is also in development for the west!

— Ace Attorney (@aceattorneygame) September 1, 2015

Hopefully there won’t be too large of a gap between the Japanese release and the Western launch. In all fairness, we should be satisfied with the news that it is being localized in the first place. Not every game makes the transition. More information was revealed to Famitsu. When talking to producer Eshiro Motohide about what the theme of this installment will be, he had the following to say:

“It’s tough to develop within the Japanese courtroom, since an exhilarating part of the game is how situations can change from from desperate to complete turnabouts. The theme is ‘courtroom revolution.’ Phoenix Wright changing the system of the court is a major theme.”

It sounds like the team working on this title has been trying new ways of spicing up the encounters. I am stoked to see what will come of these changes.

HT: Nintendolife, Famitsu

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That’s it for today, folks. It’s quite a bit of news to consume, but I’m most excited for the PS4’s 3.0 system update. So many new features are being added, all we need now is the ability to change our PSN gamer tag.  Will you be purchasing Destiny: The Taken King? Do all the details of Court of Oryx persuade you in any way? Let us know in the comments below.