I wonder if it's only named Europa or if it's actually located on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter

Sorry; I should have been more specific. Here's exactly what the caption says:

Europa was a human colony but we abandoned it when the invaders struck and now our structures are lost beneath the ice. Jupiter fills the skybox in dramatic fashion, one of many such spectacular views designed by skybox artist Mark Goldsworthy. And like every map in the game, Europa is subject to daylight, darkness and the ravages of a persistent weather system.

Which issue is this? Is it worth it to order it online?

Issue #252 (April 2013). It's mostly not new, so only really order it if you're obsessed and need every last detail out there. Or if you want to read Edge magazine, I guess.

I never bought into the billions of guns for borderlands. It just seemed overwhelming, I'm hoping Destiny keeps it manageable.

I quote:

Characters are faceless, defined by their armour and equipment. Every component and weapon can be traded and replaced with discovered loot and crafted gear. There are countless examples of rare loot to be found in Destiny's world, but on Bungie's walls hang A3 print-outs of a single gun chassis that's been reworked multiple times with exotic scopes, stocks and barrels, perhaps evidence of a procedural system for creating variant weapons.

I'm immediately reminded of Isaac Hannaford's various weapon studies for Reach, and the impression I get is less of random weapons so much as infinite weapon combinations. Sort of like Lego for guns. And that is a very appealing concept indeed.

I never bought into the billions of guns for borderlands. It just seemed overwhelming, I'm hoping Destiny keeps it manageable.

*shrug* It's really not that bad in Borderlands, there's a lot of possibility for small variations but there's really only a small number of base weapon types - once you figure out what you like to use you just ignore everything that isn't in your particular preferred categories. Plus it's all irrelevant once you find the couple of legendary weapons you'll actually use for the rest of the game. :P

I'm sure Bungie will make it awesome.

The frozen base that looks like it's been hit by an ice storm is named as Europa.

Jupiter!!??? I sure hope so!

Certainly seems that way. And from what I read on Wiki just now, Europa is quite icy so this would make sense. I am looking forward to an awesome skybox here.

Any idea of being able to play solo is pretty much brushed off; Pete Parsons talks of introducing a ‘slope’ to encourage single players to co-operate with others they encounter, and the article mentions that you'll encounter other players whether you want to or not

Kinda how I've been reading into it. I guess I don't mind, I always have more fun playing with friends. But I can see how it might be off-putting for some. Still, they wouldn't do it unless it was awesome right?

This is how I'm looking at it as well. I'm not going to get in a tizzy because "OMG NO SOLO PLAY!?!?!?! There are plenty of games I can play by myself. If Bungie has a particular vision for what will make Destiny fun, and that vision can only be facilitated by me being online when playing it, then so be it. I look forward to finding out why. And it's not like my XBox is ever offline anyway.

And yes, I get that some people's consoles aren't always online, or maybe are never online. But Bungie doesn't owe you an offline game - if this is what they're making, and it doesn't work for you, you can play something else. I don't mean that to sound like "GTFO if you don't like the way things are." Rather, I'm just stating that no one is forcing you to buy Destiny if your situation is such that you cannot play it.

Ooooo, I need to find out the names of those guns. I'll track down the magazine before/after work, perhaps!

The two examples are ‘an Invective shotgun’, and ‘a pistol named Thorn’. So…

I'm confused by this. Are they speculating about attachments for specific weapons, or are the weapons cobbled together from different items?

Read the actual quote in the reply above, but it sounds like a bit of both — imagine that any given weapon is composed of a barrel, scope, stock, handgrips etc. — you could create your own personal ‘Vera’ by combining rare bits onto the base chassis of a given weapon type.

All speculation, of course, but I think it sounds like a plausible feature for the game.