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Destiny - Review Thread

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KJRS_1993

Member
I'm not bad-mouthing him. This game places psychological addiction over quality game design, and that review is just another piece of evidence of its effectiveness.

We need to get away from this notion of a game being "addictive" as a positive trait. It's not.

Game design which makes players want to keep coming back time and time again is by way and far the most successful kind. That's crazy, what developer doesn't want people hooked on their games?
 

Brashnir

Member
Game design which makes players want to keep coming back time and time again is by way and far the most successful kind. That's crazy, what developer doesn't want people hooked on their games?

What cigarette manufacturer doesn't want people addicted to their products?

Of course they want it. We shouldn't.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Add skins that people would want to have that have no effect on actual gameplay. I really don't understand how devs aren't doing this, its free money.
They added that stuff. Skins and alternate voices. It's all purchasable with in-game currency that you earn from playing the game.

They could flip a switch and make the game free and start charging for that stuff, of course.

But then again, F2P isn't a guarantee of success either. No one plays the various F2P Battlefield games anymore, and something like Super Monday Night Combat just died a slow and painful death.
 

KJRS_1993

Member
What cigarette manufacturer doesn't want people addicted to their products?

Of course they want it. We shouldn't.

If people enjoy it, they can be addicted to whatever they want, and I'm glad for them if they've found a computer game they enjoy? :p

Being addicted to Destiny is at least better for your heart then cigs, ey?
 
yes. after how they pitched and misrepresented the game prior to release, and what it turned out to be? they deserve backlash, sure, to the extent that any bad game sold on lies and hype deserves backlash. game's a bit of a joke.

(my opinion, of course, based on nearly 40 hours of play)

Man, I just don't see it. I'm having a thrilling time with PVP, I love the explore modes where I randomly encounter other players and co-op has been seamless for me.

Some of the vistas and enemies are just awesome. Mars and Venus stand out, but even the Moon has gorgeous scenery. And I think it's amazing how the vehicles control, and the maps flow really well with them in mind.

So yeah, I don't see how it is a joke.. not at all. Not by a long shot.. :/
 

Patroclos

Banned
So what you're effectively whinging about is the fact that developers like to market their product?
Well that's a god damn shock if ever I heard one.
#brokengaming.

Who'd a thunk it, genius.

No. I'm not whinging at all. I understand Marketing and PR. I have a degree in it. The person I was responding to was whinging about Respawn never making promises and how honest they are. Basically it was a Respawn apologist post humanizing them as a corporate entity. Complete and utter bullshit in fact.
 

KJRS_1993

Member
No. I'm not whinging at all. I understand Marketing and PR. I have a degree in it. The person I was responding to was whinging about Respawn never making promises and how honest they are. Basically it was a Respawn apologist post humanizing them as a corporate entity. Complete and utter bullshit in fact.

So you have a degree in marketing and PR, but seem confused that Respawn focus on the positive features that their game has while glossing over the negatives?

I don't think the person you responded to was humanising a corporate entity, unless this goes back further than what I read. They were just saying they never read any misleading statements from Respawn's PR
 

Synth

Member
And the way devs/publishers sell games on Xbox probably isn't going to be the best for PC.

edit: For a MP only title.

I'm not sure how this has become a PC topic. Titanfall was very clearly targeting the console audience in the way that CoD post-MW has. Releasing the PC version is more of a formality (I mean, why not... free money) than anything else. They're not going to alter the game's design based on the trends of their (distant) secondary market. If they were going for that, they probably would have just made a different game. None of this really has anything to do with Titanfall's pricepoint. It probably would have followed a similar trajectory on PC even with a lower price (I mean, they've even allowed PC gamers to play it for free numerous times). CS has never managed to take off on console to the same standard as PC either. It doesn't make the game a failure, or mean they should change it more to be like CoD.

My bad. I agree that I think of it a lot of that hype was media generated, probably that line as well. I consider it to be the same thing however. Respawn wasn't sitting somewhere saying, "Now hang on guys, dial this hype back a bit. We are going to be releasing a game with X number of maps at X resolution with a single player mode that will not even be viable to play 1 month after launch." They NEVER tried to slow the hype, they rolled with it. If you want obfuscation and misleading info just look up anything Respawn ever said about their "single player game".

If you think Respawn are such good guys and heroes then please explain the resolution debacle. It's totally clear that they were less than forthright regarding that and textures and etc. Please. I'm not trying to start shit but come on man, these are businesses. Respawn is not some plucky little posse of do-gooders in white hats and Bungie isn't sitting around a table in robes like Sith-Lords somewhere plotting to shove 10 years of DLC down your throat.

If you consider the dev themselves saying shit and not delivering it, to be the same thing as the media (who have no fucking clue about the product) making claims about the product... then I don't know what to tell you. Respawn DID tell us the resolution before launch, they told the truth about the textures (cboat was simply wrong). The only thing that was oversold was the campaign, which was less about grand claims, and more about it basically just being the same as other modes.

Bungie was promoting a game completely divorced from the game they shipped. It's not a similar situation at all.

Man, I just don't see it. I'm having a thrilling time with PVP, I love the explore modes where I randomly encounter other players and co-op has been seamless for me.

Some of the vistas and enemies are just awesome. Mars and Venus stand out, but even the Moon has gorgeous scenery. And I think it's amazing how the vehicles control, and the maps flow really well with them in mind.

So yeah, I don't see how it is a joke.. not at all. Not by a long shot.. :/

You've said plenty of times in this topic that you went into this with zero expectations, or knowledge of what the game was supposed to be. I don't think you are likely to understand the disconnect between the game many of us were waiting for, and the game we bought for $60.
 
My bad. I agree that I think of it a lot of that hype was media generated, probably that line as well. I consider it to be the same thing however. Respawn wasn't sitting somewhere saying, "Now hang on guys, dial this hype back a bit. We are going to be releasing a game with X number of maps at X resolution with a single player mode that will not even be viable to play 1 month after launch." They NEVER tried to slow the hype, they rolled with it. If you want obfuscation and misleading info just look up anything Respawn ever said about their "single player game".

If you think Respawn are such good guys and heroes then please explain the resolution debacle. It's totally clear that they were less than forthright regarding that and textures and etc. Please. I'm not trying to start shit but come on man, these are businesses. Respawn is not some plucky little posse of do-gooders in white hats and Bungie isn't sitting around a table in robes like Sith-Lords somewhere plotting to shove 10 years of DLC down your throat.

Welp. I guess all roads threads lead to Titanfall.

First of all, Respawn is largely beholden to their publisher when it comes to marketing. There are very carefully laid out plans on when certain info is going to be revealed and they might not have been allowed to divulge that info until EA gave the say so (only speculating here, but I think most devs would love to tell you the details of their game as soon as those details are locked down). Second, no dev in their right mind is going to turn down or temper a hype machine unless it goes wildly off the spectrum (Like expecting a single player linear game to be a huge connected open ended multiplayer game). Most games will never be able to generate that kind of thing without spending 100s of millions of dollars on marketing. Most devs would sell babies to generate that type of word of mouth. I will give you the singleplayer point though. They under delivered there.

As far as the "resolution debacle", I'm not even sure what you're talking about. Are you referring to the fact that they said they would "Look in to increasing the resolution"? Because they never promised it. And the textures? You mean how Cboat was proved wrong and that the textures weren't the same as the Alpha/Beta? I think you need to get your facts straight.

That's all I'll say about Titanfall here as to not shit up the thread further.
 

HariKari

Member
Game design which makes players want to keep coming back time and time again is by way and far the most successful kind. T

It's possible to be compelled to return but to not have fun in the process. That's how a lot of these grind fests are designed.

I'd be interested to hear the experiences of a heavy MMO player playing Destiny vs someone new to the genre. (yes, it's not a traditional MMO)
 
You've said plenty of times in this topic that you went into this with zero expectations, or knowledge of what the game was supposed to be. I don't think you are likely to understand the disconnect between the game many of us were waiting for, and the game we bought for $60.

Isn't it easy to get over that? You guys sound like you're ready to launch a class action lawsuit over this.

That Bungie quote about the story can be taken both ways.. to me it speaks about the general impression and 'scope' that the lore allows, and how they can build on top of this universe in the future with expansions and sequels. That's what I read into it.. I did not expect there to be a super focussed narrative, as this is not a single player game and it has character creation.. so you can't really compare it to Halo in that regard.

I'm a huge fan of passive storytelling though, the Marathon terminals did a lot more to me than the thousands of lines of silly dialogue in Diablo 3 ever did.

In short, I can't see Bungie being so wrong as there was a huge public Alpha and Beta phase where basically anyone had a chance to try it out for themselves.
 
I have less fun with the game as I continue grinding. The daily heroic missions are a pain when the perk of "bullet sponge" is on (who thought that fighting the Cabal with that was fun?)
 
Isn't it easy to get over that? You guys sound like you're ready to launch a class action lawsuit over this.

That Bungie quote about the story can be taken both ways.. to me it speaks about the general impression and 'scope' that the lore allows, and how they can build on top of this universe in the future with expansions and sequels. That's what I read into it.. I did not expect there to be a super focussed narrative, as this is not a single player game and it has character creation.. so you can't really compare it to Halo in that regard.

I'm a huge fan of passive storytelling though, the Marathon terminals did a lot more to me than the thousands of lines of silly dialogue in Diablo 3 ever did.

In short, I can't see Bungie being so wrong as there was a huge public Alpha and Beta phase where basically anyone had a chance to try it out for themselves.

Wanna bet? Halo: Reach didn't just have online coop, it had coop matchmaking. They managed to tell a solid story with that. Skippable cutscenes forgive a multitude of sins.

As for the Alpha and Beta, there was a concerted effort from both Bungie and the community at large to suppress the idea that the Alpha and Beta was all there was. We even got a post here on GAF saying that the beta was "just waterwings," when in fact the rest of the game followed it exactly.

You may be willing to read the quote that way, but that's not the way it was intended, nor was it how most people read it, and saying that that should be easy to get over is both incredibly condescending and, frankly, useless.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
My bad. I agree that I think of it a lot of that hype was media generated, probably that line as well. I consider it to be the same thing however. Respawn wasn't sitting somewhere saying, "Now hang on guys, dial this hype back a bit. We are going to be releasing a game with X number of maps at X resolution with a single player mode that will not even be viable to play 1 month after launch." They NEVER tried to slow the hype, they rolled with it. If you want obfuscation and misleading info just look up anything Respawn ever said about their "single player game".

If you think Respawn are such good guys and heroes then please explain the resolution debacle. It's totally clear that they were less than forthright regarding that and textures and etc. Please. I'm not trying to start shit but come on man, these are businesses. Respawn is not some plucky little posse of do-gooders in white hats and Bungie isn't sitting around a table in robes like Sith-Lords somewhere plotting to shove 10 years of DLC down your throat.

I mean, I never said or defended Respawn about that stuff, I was just saying I don't think it's fair to tie things like this to them when they have zero control over what a site is saying and would look like maniacs to come out and say things like "actually our campaign is pretty dull, I wouldn't get your hopes up". Though even with that, they atleast owned up to not having the titan chassis tied into it and patched it out to just unlock for people without beating campaigns, which is best for the game.

They were very likely beholden to higher ups regarding information regarding the resolution and all the warfare that went down with that around launch made it a touchy subject, though they cleared up false rumors that started circulating(which I think is what you mean by the textures?). And even then, the issues the game had it got docked for. Low on content/the campaign were basically it.

I'm not sitting here saying Bungie are a bunch of evil masterminds, but something extremely weird seemed to go down with the development. There are so many videos with employees talking about the game in a way that is not consistent at all to the end product we've actually received. And even still, post launch, we are being told that the surface is only being scratched, when it looks like the upcoming content are just things like bounties returning to the same ingame areas that have already been run into the game, I cannot even fathom what they can do to flip the perception unless they add some tremendous amount of free content, which seems like a slim chance with 2 paid expansions on the way. I really don't think the two games are even remotely in the same area of comparison.
 
My dislike of the game has continued to grow as well. I'm not sure it's a particularly effective Skinner box, but I did feel compelled to keep at it because I spent $90 on it.

After using the loot cave for about two hours to get my 26 defender on the cusp of 28, I just said screw it.

I'll be back tomorrow for Queen's Wrath and for the DLC I wish I hadn't paid for in advance, but I'm pretty much done with this game at this point. It helps that D4 is here and SoM and FH2 are around the corner.
 

Synth

Member
Isn't it easy to get over that? You guys sound like you're ready to launch a class action lawsuit over this.

That Bungie quote about the story can be taken both ways.. to me it speaks about the general impression and 'scope' that the lore allows, and how they can build on top of this universe in the future with expansions and sequels. That's what I read into it.. I did not expect there to be a super focussed narrative, as this is not a single player game and it has character creation.. so you can't really compare it to Halo in that regard.

I'm a huge fan of passive storytelling though, the Marathon terminals did a lot more to me than the thousands of lines of silly dialogue in Diablo 3 ever did.

In short, I can't see Bungie being so wrong as there was a huge public Alpha and Beta phase where basically anyone had a chance to try it out for themselves.

I'm not even looking to get a refund... However I have no problems stating why I'm unhappy with the product, much like how you want to state that you are happy with it. I'm still interested enough in the game to want to talk about it.. yet have very little positive to say.

It's not about it not being Halo... it's about it not being very good regardless what I choose to compare it to. I think the people looking for a PSO experience are far more unfortunate than those looking for a new Halo. PSO (and Metroid Prime) are some good examples of passive storytelling. Destiny's is awful. It's not in the game, and also lacking context (both PSO and Metroid Prime, will offer bits of the lore in relation to what you're currently experiencing in the game itself).

And yea there was the beta, which I played. I actually complained about the repetition and lacking narrative then too (so yea, I'm somewhat to blame for buying it anyway). It's not as if Bungie was like "yea, this is the game" though. They made an effort to convince us that it was a small slice of the content... that even the demo areas had plenty more to see in the full game. Shit, they even tried to tell us once we got the full game that we ain't seen nothing yet... not until we've logged over 20hrs. Also claiming each planet to be the size of a Halo game is some of the most serious BS I've ever come across.

And NOBODY would have guessed that "defend dinkle" would be every mission on every planet in the full game. It was just too stupid a thought to even entertain.
 

Patroclos

Banned
So you have a degree in marketing and PR, but seem confused that Respawn focus on the positive features that their game has while glossing over the negatives?

I don't think the person you responded to was humanising a corporate entity, unless this goes back further than what I read. They were just saying they never read any misleading statements from Respawn's PR

Again, I am well aware of how marketing works. Here is the post I was responding to.

I really hate it when people talk about Titanfall and Destiny in the same sentence.

Everyone says the game is bad because it doesn’t have "enough content" yet those same people complain about "Bloat" in games and say that they have too many weapons that are the same, to many gimmicks, etc. Titanfall is all about the gameplay just like the Halo, Quake, Doom, Tribes, CS, etc. You don't see people lamenting that CS only has a few weapons now do you? That's because the gameplay is fucking good.


Respawn made the game with 64 employee’s (standard dev team has 200+ people), under constant stress from the Activision lawsuit, and literally ran out out money halfway through development, and still ended up creating a game that sold millions. They had to scrap a lot of things to even get the game shipped. If they'd had more money and less pressure from activision they'd have had a lot more modes and even a single player but they had to scrap it. http://www.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/behind-the-scenes-final-hours-of-titanfall-app-now-available/


Bungie never had any issue with money, at all. They have over 500 employee’s, they didn't have to deal with a lawsuit, they didn't have to convince people that their company could make good games, they didn't have any issue that the Respawn guys had. What’s their excuse for not having custom games and everything else? What' their excuse for empty worlds? Piss poor social features?

And you know what else? There’s not a single thing Respawn ever said that misrepresented their game. They never mislead people about what was in it or what the game was about at any point. It was always a multiplayer game with some game mode that had people talking. They never said their story would be compared to star wars.

So when Titanfall got amazing scores, it got them because it did everything it set out to do. Destiny got average scores because it didn't.

The second bolded part is what I was referring to. If you know anything about marketing yourself you know this is BS. It's all about that spin and Respawn were spinning with the best of them, that was my main point. Basically, the poor guys at Respawn were lucky to even get the game finished according to this account. All the cards were stacked against them.

Look at the first bolded part. You guys choose to attack me and praise the guy who doesn't even know who the fucking publisher of the game he is defending is! It's EA, by the way, not Activision. EA made them cut content, Activision sued them and made their lives miserable. Correct me if I am wrong for some unfathomable reason, I don't feel like paying for the app to get the rest of the heart wrenching story.

Guess my comments don't fit the narrative.
 
I have less fun with the game as I continue grinding. The daily heroic missions are a pain when the perk of "bullet sponge" is on (who thought that fighting the Cabal with that was fun?)

It's just so strange. Once you hit the level cap, there is no incentive to continue playing. What do you play? The strikes for the 3rd time that require a time commitment with a random chance of getting something good?

The unbalanced MP with 4 game modes (1 being a smaller version of another mode) that rewards worse players more often than the good ones ?

Or the mediocre story missions for some arbitrary amount of XP that doesn't matter?

The only logical way to actually progress is the loot cave and that is just a definitive waste of time.

I turn the game on to look at the bounties in the hopes that I have a chance at an exotic one and that's it. Really pisses me off.
 
It's just so strange. Once you hit the level cap, there is no incentive to continue playing. What do you play? The strikes for the 3rd time that require a time commitment with a random chance of getting something good?

The unbalanced MP with 4 game modes (1 being a smaller version of another mode) that rewards worse players more often than the good ones ?

Or the mediocre story missions for some arbitrary amount of XP that doesn't matter?

The only logical way to actually progress is the loot cave and that is just a definitive waste of time.

I turn the game on to look at the bounties in the hopes that I have a chance at an exotic one and that's it. Really pisses me off.

What about PVP? Not having fun with that?
Also, Halo had no EXP incentive for any of the story missions. So why exactly is this an issue? Not having fun?
 

Synth

Member
Look at the first bolded part. You guys choose to attack me and praise the guy who doesn't even know who the fucking publisher of the game he is defending is! It's EA, by the way, not Activision. EA made them cut content, Activision sued them and made their lives miserable. Correct me if I am wrong for some unfathomable reason, I don't feel like paying for the app to get the rest of the heart wrenching story.

"If they had more money [from EA], and less pressure from Activision..."

Does this help at all?

Hay guyz. Gonna go play some TitanFall and Destiny. They're both really fun games. Who's with me?

Not me. This thread has more content than both of them. Combined.
 

Patroclos

Banned
"If they had more money [from EA], and less pressure from Activision..."

Does this help at all?



Not me. This thread has more content than both of them. Combined.

Yes. And that second comment made me laugh my ass off and realize I need to get off here and play something! Thanks for putting things in perspective for me. Sincerely.
 
What about PVP? Not having fun with that?
Also, Halo had no EXP incentive for any of the story missions. So why exactly is this an issue? Not having fun?

PVP is unbalanced and there's no reason to use any primary weapons besides ARs. Supers are like killstreaks that you can get more easily and even without doing anything (albeit slowly). Some supers are clearly better than others.

The story missions are just you going to a corner of the world that you've explored before and killing dude the same way you do in all the PvE. There is no reason to do the daily story mission after 20 because you earn next to no loot and the encounters are rarely distinct from killing mobs in Patrol.

There is a lack of gameplay variety and no incentive to play beyond 20 because of the way it randomly rewards you. You're better off sitting at the loot cave than doing any of the dailies or PVP. It's more boring but not much more than shooting dudes in the same areas in the same ways over and over.
 
edit: misread, sorry. I read "I have less fun with the game as I continue reading" which is a cute remark I've heard a few times and I pounced. XD

I like the gunplay and I like the tibids of lore in the Grimoire cards... But is just not fun to me anymore.

At least I can say that I got a legendary in a blue encagrham.
 

Marcel

Member
Is there anyway to sell back a digital game? I wouldn't mind buying the physical but god damn Bungie tricked me with this one.

You can try to get a refund. Several people have posted success stories in here. My advice is to be calm, polite, but firm with your console helpline's customer service representative.
 
It's just so strange. Once you hit the level cap, there is no incentive to continue playing. What do you play? The strikes for the 3rd time that require a time commitment with a random chance of getting something good?

The unbalanced MP with 4 game modes (1 being a smaller version of another mode) that rewards worse players more often than the good ones ?

Or the mediocre story missions for some arbitrary amount of XP that doesn't matter?

The only logical way to actually progress is the loot cave and that is just a definitive waste of time.

I turn the game on to look at the bounties in the hopes that I have a chance at an exotic one and that's it. Really pisses me off.


Dude, I have a exotic bounty... It involves grinding for 10 rare fusion rifles to make it...
 

oRuin

Member
So I bought a PS4 Destiny Bundle, which here in the UK is the same price as just the PS4 on it's own. I also bought TLOU and MGSV:GZ. Currently playing through TLOU first. Am I doing this the right way round? :p
 

Myggen

Member
This backlash is still crazy to me. It's fine if you don't like the game, but does it seriously deserve this type of response?

I'm very happy with it, by the way. It's quite an amazing experience to me on many levels, even if it could be improved in some. But I don't see any 'game breaking' experiences unless random loot drops really bother you.

The bigger the hype the bigger the backlash if it doesn't live up to the hype. See also GTA IV.

I'm in the "meh" camp on Destiny for now. Played it to level 20, that was enough for me for now.
 

Majine

Banned
I've been thinking about this, and I've come to the conclusion that Destiny to me is a lot like a very odd statue. It's not symmetric, it's not perfect in any way. It's bombastic, but you can tell the artist who made the statue has higher thoughts of it than you do. But despite all this, the effort and its wonderful weirdness makes it so you can't help but like it.
 
Dude, I have a exotic bounty... It involves grinding for 10 rare fusion rifles to make it...

I have one too. The 3rd requirement is something about 500 void kills in Crucible. After 50 hours with the game, I guess I should work out what the fuck a Void kill is. (I am joking, but the game is terrible - nigh on Dark Souls level - at explaining things to the player).

I still really like the game. I have a high tolerance to loot games, and playing the Strikes in co-op is good enough for me since the combat is so enjoyable.

What drives me fucking mad though is the cunty randomness of the loot. I've found Exotic and Legendary drops and they always turn into shit. At the end of a high level Strike I could get the highest kills, precision kills, no deaths and so on, and then be rewarded with the worst gear. And that piece of shit Cryptarch. Mother fucker.
 
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