Bungie's hugely ambitious open world shooter Destiny has landed the coveted cover spot on the January issue of Game Informer magazine, and a stack of new details have emerged from the accompanying 14 pages of coverage found within.

As per usual, the Internet has done a fantastic job of summarising all the pertinent bits. Reddit user USplendid has compiled an exhaustive list of bullet points from the coverage, which include more in-depth lore details, a bunch of new information on gameplay specifics, and more new bits and pieces on both competitive and cooperative multiplayer. Here are but a select few:

• Choosing a class sets a tone by establishing style of abilities: What really determines how you play is how you develop your "focus". Each class (Hunter, Warlock, and Titan) have a class-specific focus.
  
  
• "Focuses" are the primary way we level and improve characters. Each focus advances from level 1 - 20. Within each focus their are tiers for different abilities (passive bonuses, weapon specialty bonuses, grenade types, unique movements like double jump and teleport, melee bonuses).
  
  
• Each focus has a "super ability" associated with it that can also be upgraded.
  
  
• We can switch between focuses: i.e. pick a more competitive focus for pvp and the switch to a more support focus for cooperative.
  
  
• Warlocks: start with a focus called Circle of Night - damage dealing but little protections and the super ability in the nova bomb. Heart of Fusion - a support build that's super ability is called Radiance and call revive and buff allies.
  
  
• Titans: start with a close-quarters focus that has Fist of Havoc. In later upgrades the shockwave can be amplified, adding electric damage over time that remains in place.
  
  
• Hunters: Bounty-Hunter archetype. Stealthiness. You start off with a gunslinger Focus. Special ability is the "Golden Gun" one-shot-kill and the special movement is teleport.
  
  
• There are multiple character slots. So you can try out and play in other roles without having to delete your current character or screw up progression.
  
  
• Guns are not class-specific (weapon perks are dependent on the focus and abilities you invest in).
  
  
• Armor, weapons, and focuses are meant to be synergistic. The Focus you choose should be accented with the appropriate weapons and armor to maximize effectiveness... but that's up to the player.
  
  
• Primary, Secondary, and Heavy weapons use three different color-coded ammo types.
  
  
• Armor is class-specific.
  
  
• Everyone gets a ghost, as well as a customize-able personal vehicle (Sparrow) to travel in open-world environments, and a space ship that will be visible to people when you drop in and out of activities.

There are some new screenshots and art included in the Game Informer article, but those have not yet been made publicly available by Bungie or publisher Activision.

Destiny is due in 2014 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Sadly, still no love for PC.