I CAN'T BELIEVE Destiny 2 is being considered for best looks, are you kidding me? What about it looks impressive?
Again, I'm not defending the game of Destiny 2, because as I said I think it should have been a real contender for Most Disappointing, but the game is consistently visually stunning. Especially in the story-only and raid areas. I took a picture of one scene with my phone and sent it to one of my gaming friends because I thought it looked that cool, which I have never even thought of doing before.
I'm glad Destiny 2 got a nod for best looking. To be fair, I've never been a PC gamer, but my jaw literally dropped multiple times while playing that game. Also, this discussion occurred before the first DLC dropped, but the crazy fucking exploding world-eating black hole in the raid lair is maybe the best of those moments and even cooler than the sun level in the main campaign.
That said, the disappointing end game, shifting of loot into Eververse instead of end-game rewards, and overall poor communication from Bungie should have made it eligible for Most Disappointing Game all the same. And I say that as a huge Destiny/Bungie fan. I was really surprised to not hear the game even mentioned during that segment. The first month was great -- everything since, not so much.
I'm not going to say this is a great expansion but in the game's defense they did literally play through the single least interesting story mission during this quick look. There are new story missions in this with pretty cool new assets/visuals. The raid laid is also very good, probably about a third of the length of a full raid but everything in it is very cool.
@ericsmith: This is definitely not the easiest part of the raid. That would almost certainly be the "bathhouse"/Royal Pools. The gauntlet is arguably the least combat-centric though.
@three0nefive: Again, see the first part of my post. That experience isn't lessened by having a general idea of what to do in each encounter. It's a unique challenge that by its very nature, a single-player or even loosely-coordinated cooperative experience can't offer. (The loot doesn't hurt either, of course.)
Edit: Skip to the two hour mark, for an example. That's when Dan has a revelation that lets them figure out the general flow of the first encounter. It still takes them a while to figure out how to learn their parts and finish the challenge. So it's still a meaningful accomplishment to finish it, and the game rewards you for that with sick loot. You might not be into that sort of thing, but some people are.
For those that haven't done a Destiny raid before, part of the appeal is the satisfaction that comes from working tightly with a group of people to accomplish a tough challenge. Once a team has mastered the raid mechanics and understands their roles, the team feels like a well-oiled machine. And in the good parts of the raid (like the gauntlet), once everyone understands what to do and executes their role, the game will let you progress. Glitches aside, it generally feels like a fair challenge.
Also most people don't approach the raid like this. Either a couple will have done it before and will explain the mechanics as the group goes, or people will look up the general mechanics to each part.
tds418's comments