Destiny 2 is enhanced for the Xbox One X – and gets its first expansion pack
Destiny 2 has become the latest game to be enhanced for the Xbox One X, on the same day its first expansion pack was released.
The popular first-person shooter now supports 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) and high-dynamic-range imaging (HDR) if gamers play it on Xbox’s new console – the most powerful ever made.
The enhancements come on the same day Destiny 2 receives its first expansion, entitled Curse of Osiris. The new instalment features new story missions and adventures set in a new location – Mercury. Players must journey through time and space to learn the secrets of Osiris, avert a dark future and rebuild the ties between the legendary Warlock and his greatest student – Ikora Rey.
Destiny 2 joins a list of more than 160 titles that either have been or will be enhanced for the Xbox One X, which was released amid high demand last month. Those games take advantage of the six teraflops of power produced by the console to offer gamers a range of benefits such as 2160p frame buffer output, including Native 4K, Checkerboarding and Dynamic Resolution, and HDR10 standard. More are expected to be added in the near future.
Other big-name games to have been enhanced include Assassin’s Creed Origins, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Call of Duty: World War 2 and Star Wars Battlefront II.
Harvey Eagle, head of Xbox in the UK and Ireland, said gamers would immediately notice the improved picture quality when they played those games on the Xbox One X, even if they don’t own a 4K TV.
“Xbox One X Enhanced is a signal to people that extra work has been done in the development of a game to make it better on Xbox One X,” he said.
“Think of the new Xbox in two ways – enhanced visuals and enhanced performance. From an enhanced visuals point of view, it means true 4K gaming and high dynamic range support, which means more vibrant, luminous colours on screen; more detailed textures, so you will be able to see more objects in detail further into the distance. When we talk about enhanced performance, we mean faster load times, and it means either higher or steadier frame rates, so smoother gaming.
“This is a console that has been designed with 4K televisions in mind. However, even if you have a standard high-definition television, you are still going to see improvements with Xbox One X. That’s through a technique we call super-sampling: taking an image that is in true 4K and right-sizing that down to a high-definition standard HD TV. You’re taking a superior image and moving it down rather than the other way around, when you’re trying to upscale from an inferior image, so you will see improvements even on a standard HD screen.”
Middle-earth: Shadow of War now boasts more texture detail, increased draw distances, improved shadow and lighting quality, increased vegetation, improved ambient occlusion, higher polygon counts (keeping higher quality levels of detail on screen for longer) and texture filtering improvements.
Eagle pointed to Assassin’s Creed Origins as another game that perfectly showed off the power of the Xbox One X.
“It’s a game that runs in true 4K, and there’s a level of detail and texture that is very noticeable. It’s set in ancient Egypt and when you see the sunsets they are really incredible to look at. The shadows in the game are far sharper and far more detailed; when you’re playing a stealth game, that’s really important for the gameplay.”