The latest patch to Bungie's Destiny is probably the largest yet. In addition to a large amount of bug fixes and general tweaks - to nearly all aspects of the game - there's also a handful of new features that have been added.
The new features that the majority of players are likely to be the most excited about are the highly-requested voice chat features. This new feature will allow Guardians to access a voice channel for team-based activities, including match-made Crucible games and Strikes. You can access voice chat by opening up the navigation screen (via your Ghost) and using the arrows on the D-pad.
This feature is entirely optional. It's there when you wish to take your cooperation with match-made teammates to the next level, and available for you to ignore when an annoying player is in the Fireteam.
Also in the update are fixes to the infamous Iron Banner event. This event proved to be popular in the Destiny Beta, but got a bad reputation post-launch for its lack of level-based perks and advantages. This new update is reportedly supposed to remedy that.
Standard PvP will also receive its fair share of changes with this update. The maps First Light, Blind Watch, Firebase Delphi, Rusted Lands, Shores of Time, Exodus Blue and Twilight Gap each received a handful of changes, primarily aimed at eliminating exploits and unfair advantages. Protections, cover objects and various geometry were added on a handful of these maps.
These are of course just a sampling of the changes. There are many more fixes and changes that can be found in the official patch notes.
All of these updates and fixes aim to improve the player experience for Destiny. The Voice Chat implementation will certainly go a long way in making this a more social game - which seems to have been one of Bungie's primary goals from even the earliest stages of development. The numerous technical updates, PvE and PvP fixes are likely to make Destiny a more fair and balanced experience, particularly in the PvP sector which has received more than its fair share of criticism from players.
In the weeks leading up to the Dark Below Expansion, more updates are to come. Now that a couple months have passed since launch, we're beginning to see the fruits of Bungie's labor on the bigger post-launch updates. More will come. If you want to comment and share your opinion about the patch notes, feel free!
