Destiny

Ohdang said:

The PS4 came with a headset? I must have disregarded it when unboxed mine. Will have to dig the box out and see if it's still in there until I find one that works with the PS4 and has good surround sound.

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Don't even bother, the headset is painful in your ears for more than 10 minutes. They are legit horrible, cheap, earphones. I haven't had any issue plugging in both Apple earbuds and BOSE headsets. I'm sure the PS4 supports pretty much anything, at least in my experience.

Jack Brickman said:

Yeah, but the Xbone comes with a headset too that is actually pretty nice for a bundled accessory.

It's basically just a slightly nicer re-design of the headset that came with the 360, but it does what you need it to do without having to readjust it every five minutes so it doesn't fall out of your ear. No idea why Sony didn't just make something more like this to package in with the PS4. I can't imagine it would cost that much more.

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Yeah those aren't bad in my experience. I used to love my wired one, until it died.

I meant more or less if you wanted the sound from headphones too. I gotta say when I changed from chat headset to surround headset my eyes were opened to a whole new world so to speak.

It's amazing the things you can't hear through the tv compared to the headset. The directional sound of enemies closing in is a game changer imo.

But if you are fine with the headset you've got by all means. It's just too bad it wouldn't work for PS4 too, then you wouldnt have a problem. The one for PS4 is a waste of everyone's money. I much would have preferred the 50 cents off the console that it cost them to include it.

Mdog1 said:

Yeah those aren't bad in my experience. I used to love my wired one, until it died.

I meant more or less if you wanted the sound from headphones too. I gotta say when I changed from chat headset to surround headset my eyes were opened to a whole new world so to speak.

It's amazing the things you can't hear through the tv compared to the headset. The directional sound of enemies closing in is a game changer imo.

But if you are fine with the headset you've got by all means. It's just too bad it wouldn't work for PS4 too, then you wouldnt have a problem. The one for PS4 is a waste of everyone's money. I much would have preferred the 50 cents off the console that it cost them to include it.

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I get what you're saying, but I have a very nice 7.1 Onkyo surround sound system in my living room, so it makes no sense for me to buy a console headset. The only people who would appreciate it are the people who live above me.

I have the 7.1 surround sound headset for my PC and I absolutely love it, but having the actual speakers in my living room is even better. Games/movies with good sound design blow me away.

So I have to say...I've read a couple of reviews that summed up Destiny perfectly. It's a pretty game, and the shooting is well-crafted, but the world is just so empty and soulless. You've got huge maps to explore, but almost nothing in them worth exploring. There's no one to talk to, no real way to interact with other players, almost no hidden loot caches to find...there is literally almost zero point to doing anything other than the mission you are currently on. This might be acceptable if the game had a story, but it doesn't. The dialogue is boring and nonsensical, and Dinklage (who is mailing in the fuck out of his role) spouts childish fantasy terms and weird technobabble that you just don't give a shit about. The game is just a series of fetch-quests, only they're never clverly disguised as anything but like better games can.

The core gameplay here is good, but the shell they wrapped it in really isn't. Bungie should have just stuck with what they were good at and made another single-player sci-fi shooter with separate multi-player, not a half-cocked MMO that contains all the bad features of an MMO while removing most of the good features of a single-player shooter.

I paid sixty bucks for this game and intend to finish it, but I don't see myself coming back to it much after I'm finished.

Perhaps the best description of Destiny was this comment I saw: "It's like Borderlands without the fun." That about sums it up.

I did play the Crucible for the first time last night and had a good time. It's not incredible, and it certainly won't pry me away from Team Fortress 2, but it was better than I thought it would be. No one on my team had a mic, but I found we still worked together (we were playing the control point mode), mostly sticking with other teammates, covering them from above, etc. It's ironic that Bungie build this huge, expansive single-player world, but I found more pulse in one round of multi-player than in five hours of trekking around Old Russia.

Jack Brickman said:

So I have to say...I've read a couple of reviews that summed up Destiny perfectly. It's a pretty game, and the shooting is well-crafted, but the world is just so empty and soulless. You've got huge maps to explore, but almost nothing in them worth exploring. There's no one to talk to, no real way to interact with other players, almost no hidden loot caches to find...there is literally almost zero point to doing anything other than the mission you are currently on. This might be acceptable if the game had a story, but it doesn't. The dialogue is boring and nonsensical, and Dinklage (who is mailing in the fuck out of his role) spouts childish fantasy terms and weird technobabble that you just don't give a shit about. The game is just a series of fetch-quests, only they're never clverly disguised as anything but like better games can.

The core gameplay here is good, but the shell they wrapped it in really isn't. Bungie should have just stuck with what they were good at and made another single-player sci-fi shooter with separate multi-player, not a half-cocked MMO that contains all the bad features of an MMO while removing most of the good features of a single-player shooter.

I paid sixty bucks for this game and intend to finish it, but I don't see myself coming back to it much after I'm finished.

Perhaps the best description of Destiny was this comment I saw: "It's like Borderlands without the fun." That about sums it up.

I did play the Crucible for the first time last night and had a good time. It's not incredible, and it certainly won't pry me away from Team Fortress 2, but it was better than I thought it would be. No one on my team had a mic, but I found we still worked together (we were playing the control point mode), mostly sticking with other teammates, covering them from above, etc. It's ironic that Bungie build this huge, expansive single-player world, but I found more pulse in one round of multi-player than in five hours of trekking around Old Russia.

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Sorry I have to disagree here. Like most MMO's the game truly starts at Max level. There's a great amount to do, and it really wasn't built as a story based game. It's all about playing with other players and having fun with your friends really. Currently I'm level 24 and just unlocked some of the strikes on the strike playlist. Soon enough I'll be able to do the raids (which I really can't wait for). The strikes are where I'm finding all my best gear right now, finally got a couple legendary items. Making your guy look cool is fun because you really have to earn the gear you get.

The best part is the fact that BUNGIE has an insane line up of things they're releasing coming up if you check the app or website. Iron Banner comes in October, the Vault of Glass opens on the 16th, they're actually expanding on the story and adding missions already, the one on the app says "settle your bets" which refers to the Awoken queen but I'm not going to get into that because if you haven't beaten the game yet you wouldn't understand what it's about. They plan on releasing a shit load of stuff just over the course of time, and that doesn't even include the expansions that are 20 bucks each so I'm sure they include a good amount of content.

This game is going to always have something to come back to with the way BUNGIE set it up constantly adding new content to play.

Well Jack, I agree about a lot of things. There are times that the world felt super empty. The Moon felt that way to me. Venus is better. The story is incomplete and dry to boot. The mission structure basically boils down to as you said fetch quests (or download quests), but the strikes is where this game shines. Not to mention the gunplay is pretty good compared to most shooters out there.

I like the game, but that doesn't mean I can't see any faults. I can't wait to see more of the Awoken Queen, and hopefully more of the Android "little light" chick. Those were parts of the story that actually feel good to me, maybe because they got the most build up of all the missions.

As a PC gamer and MMO lover, im loving this game. Im level 22 and i am having the most fun grinding trying to get good item drops. Its obvious more fun with friends but I dont agree that there is no fun to be had without friends. I went through the whole story by myself and enjoyed every second of it. Its really set up like a console MMO which I find exciting. The expansions will only add more to the world and therebis a bit to do already as is.

So Bungie released the lvl. 26 Raid.

And in an effort, I believe solely to fuck with me, they have locked it behind arbitrary rules.

You need 5 friends, they have to be your friends for god knows what reason to do the Raid. They decided no matchmaking was a good call.

Seriously, that just pisses me off. I don't have a single friend with a 4, so even if I was level 26 (I'm 23), I couldn't do the Raid. I bought the game digitally, or I would be trading it in today.

Updated Destiny impressions...

Started doing moon missions last night at around level eight. I know I'm behind on the main story, but in my defense, it's really shitty. Just terrible writing all around and acting that leaves much to be desired. Peter Dinklage continues to mail in the fuck out of his performance, although given the lines they've written for him, I can't say I blame him.

Started encountering the Flood regularly on the moon. Oh, they're called the Hive in this game? Same thing.

On that note, is it just me or does literally everything in this game have the most generic name ever? The Traveler. The Speaker. The Hive. The Fallen. The Guardians. The Darkness. It's like someone at Bungie read Bad Sci-Fi Naming Conventions for Dummies.

The guy who decided to not put the Grimoire in the game is literally the worst. It would have been nice to have something to browse during all the five minute long loading scenes. Also, I pretty much hate any game that expects me to read something outside of the game in order to understand what the fuck is going on. If you can't explain a game's story within the context of the game itself, you're a shitty writer.

Right now the story appears to be: aliens bad, kill aliens. I'm not entirely sure why the aliens are called Ogres and Wizards and shit, but whatevs.

Thus far, Patrol Mode is more fun than missions because I can do pretty much whatever I want. I went on patrol with two of my buddies and we had a good time biking across the moon, doing various patrol tasks, killing aliens, and talking about how Destiny was disappointing to us.

Story missions are basically all identical. Peter Dinklage tells you where to go. You go there. You deploy him. Aliens show up. You kill them. Sometimes you do this several times in one mission. The fact that the game doesn't even try to disguise these missions as something more interesting is a little disappointing. The best games find ways to make repetition feel like it's not repetitive. Destiny really doesn't even try to do that.

Multi-player remains better than single-player, if occasionally frustrating because almost everyone seems to have class powers that dwarf my own. I don't really understand why Bungie balanced the multi-player game for weapons but not for powers. It's not game breaking, just annoying.

There should really be more multi-player modes. Five modes is just not enough, especially when three of them are just deathmatch or team deathmatch. I'm also not sure how many multi-player maps there are. I've seen the same four or five over and over again at this point. Are there more? I feel like there should be more.

Control is the best mode by far. I wish there were more modes that required some actual teamwork and tactics.

Events during patrol are also a lot of fun. It's cool when the screen darkens and you know some shit is about to go down right before a giant spider tank gets dropped right in front of you. I've fought two variations on that tank now, along with some crazy wizard thing that was blasting everything in its path that we had to stop before he got to the final checkpoint (I think...I'm not really 100% sure what we were supposed to be doing outside of murdering him).

I finished up last night at level 12. Going to do the Old Russia strike tonight and try to finish up the moon missions if I have time.

Mdog1 said:

So Bungie released the lvl. 26 Raid.

And in an effort, I believe solely to fuck with me, they have locked it behind arbitrary rules.

You need 5 friends, they have to be your friends for god knows what reason to do the Raid. They decided no matchmaking was a good call.

Seriously, that just pisses me off. I don't have a single friend with a 4, so even if I was level 26 (I'm 23), I couldn't do the Raid. I bought the game digitally, or I would be trading it in today.

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I agree that the lack of matchmaking was really stupid on Bungie's part. You should just add everyone from this thread, though. Should be able to cobble together six people a few times.

Mdog1 said:

So Bungie released the lvl. 26 Raid.

And in an effort, I believe solely to fuck with me, they have locked it behind arbitrary rules.

You need 5 friends, they have to be your friends for god knows what reason to do the Raid. They decided no matchmaking was a good call.

Seriously, that just pisses me off. I don't have a single friend with a 4, so even if I was level 26 (I'm 23), I couldn't do the Raid. I bought the game digitally, or I would be trading it in today.

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They've alienated a large portion of their gamer base by doing this, but I heard you don't actually have to be level 26 to access it, just that it's impossibly difficult if you're not. Their rationale in not allowing random matchmaking is that communication is key, and not all randoms talk to each other. I agree to a certain extent, but I still think the exclusion of matchmaking is bogus.

The leveling is pretty stupid once you hit 20. You only level up based on gear, which is entirely luck of the draw based on loot and drops. You can get Crucible or Vanguard gear, but only if you have enough Crucible/Vanguard marks, which are capped at only being able to earn 100 per week.

It's a shame because I really do enjoy the gameplay. I thought there were some parts that were refreshingly difficult, and despite it somewhat lacking in variety, I think the multiplayer is a lot of fun, too. But Bungie has dropped the ball in trying to reinvent the wheel here. There are definitely things that need to be fixed, starting with the endgame leveling and the cap on currency to acquire the best gear.

Also, I haven't even bothered to follow the storyline on this game, much like I didn't bother to follow the storyline in either Borderlands game. I think it just distracts from the gameplay in a game like this, anyway.

Marcus said:

Also, I haven't even bothered to follow the storyline on this game, much like I didn't bother to follow the storyline in either Borderlands game. I think it just distracts from the gameplay in a game like this, anyway.

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Even if you had bothered to follow it you wouldn't know what the hell is going on.

The Traveler is something that exists for some reason and has given advanced technology to humanity because whatever.

The Darkness is a bad guy because of course it is. It hates the Traveler because why not. It's trying to wipe out humanity for who knows why.

The Hive are on the moon because sure they are. They're basically the Flood because Bungie is totally unoriginal. They want to invade Earth because you need something to kill for four hours.

That's what I've gotten out of it so far. Just read all that in Peter Dinklage's "collecting dem checks" voice and you'll pretty much be up to speed through the moon stuff.

By the way, does anyone think it's dumb that fire teams in "single-player" are limited to three people? I was in a party chat with three friends last night and the guy who joined last was basically forced to go off and do his own thing while the rest of us patrolled together. It just seems like such an artificial limitation when the servers obviously support more than three people.

Is it safe to say that most of you would not buy this game if you had a do over? Seems like everyone is trudging along just to get through it. Pretty happy that I didn't impulse buy it because it sounds pretty miserable.

Jack Brickman said:

Even if you had bothered to follow it you wouldn't know what the hell is going on.

The Traveler is something that exists for some reason and has given advanced technology to humanity because whatever.

The Darkness is a bad guy because of course it is. It hates the Traveler because why not. It's trying to wipe out humanity for who knows why.

The Hive are on the moon because sure they are. They're basically the Flood because Bungie is totally unoriginal. They want to invade Earth because you need something to kill for four hours.

That's what I've gotten out of it so far. Just read all that in Peter Dinklage's "collecting dem checks" voice and you'll pretty much be up to speed through the moon stuff.

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Basically all of the enemies are Halo: Redux. I've been saying that since I played the beta.

To whoever asked if I would still buy this knowing what I know now, yes. The gameplay and the multiplayer are still fun enough in my eyes to keep this game interesting, although there are several limitations that I hope Bungie addresses (especially the size of fireteams when you aren't playing competitive multiplayer, a limit of 3 is bullshit).

kosis said:

Is it safe to say that most of you would not buy this game if you had a do over? Seems like everyone is trudging along just to get through it. Pretty happy that I didn't impulse buy it because it sounds pretty miserable.

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Eh...I'm enjoying it for what it is, which is a sort of Borderlands rip-off that is much stingier with loot and that lacks the personality of Borderlands. It was definitely over-hyped, though, and promised a lot of things that it had no intention of delivering. The fact that this game promised an "epic sci-fi story" is laughable after you actually play it and realize that there is almost no story at all in the game, and that you literally cannot access the lore without either a phone app or by going to Bungie's website (which is about the dumbest shit I've ever heard).

Would I buy it again if I had a do over? Honestly, I don't know. Several of my friends have it, so I have some people to play with, which makes any game more interesting. I've stuck with TF2 for as long as I have because I have a fun, large group of friends from my competitive days that still play the game regularly, which means there are almost always people online to join up with if I want to play a few rounds. Having a group in Destiny will probably add to the shelf life, at least a bit.

The game has a lot of issues, but it can be fun.