Were Destiny and Titanfall ever going to be that good?

Going back to the start of this year both of these games were supposed to be "the thing" for next gen consoles. You had the creators of Halo and essentially the creators of Call of duty making these new amazing shooters that were supposed to take advantage of super powerful always connected consoles and in the case of Titanfall the power of "the cloud" as Microsoft put it.

I'm just wondering now did anyone ever expect them to be as good as we were all told by activision and EA? Titanfall seems pretty much dead now on xbox, never mind the pc version. I don't know if Titanfall 2 can do something different with what is just a multiplayer shooter with big robot suits and wall jumping. Destiny by most accounts doesn't seem that much of a game with very little actual content for your money plus i don't see much of Bungie coming out and saying that dlc will add tons of new features or content, but they still want you to splash out for that season pass.

Have these games damaged the names of the studios that made them or do you think people will still wait with baited breath to hear about Titanfall 2 and the rest of Destiny's 10 year plan?

What does this mean for publishers trying to push new games into being large franchises. Perhaps EA will stick to the same old nfs, madden and fifa sequels that print money instead of spending millions to fund an online shooter that no one really cares about less than a year after launch

I guess Titanfall was never anything more than interesting, but I don't think even the worst cynics expected Destiny to deliver so little in content.

@fisk0: Yeh whetever corporate shenanigans happend with Destiny we will never know but its a mess.

I lost interest in Titanfall after they nerfed the starting rifle and everyone started using the smart pistol. It was a lot of fun before that but I just got tired of being killed by people who aren't even aiming.

Destiny, though... man, we weren't even sure what that game was for a long time and that generated a lot of excitement.

Massive marketing budgets will do that. The games were also rare big budget new IPs with competent developer pedigree behind it so I think a lot of people very much wanted to believe they were going to be the next big thing.

In any case they sure sold well so I'm pretty confident both of these games will get sequels (completely sure in Destiny's case) so the developers will have the opportunity to improve.

As for new big budget IPs in general, Ubisoft has a few of them coming as well. Watch_dogs was a dud but there might be a Tom Clancy revival in the near future. Other than that there aren't a lot of developers or publishers who have the money to pump out big budget franchises so it's mostly going to be Actiblizzard/EA and Ubisoft anyway. For the others it will probably depend on (surprise) hits which are then converted into franchises.

Destiny is good, and could've been great maybe, before Actvision stripped the game of its story and removed content from the planned launch game, for the subsequent DLC/money grab. Some day Joe Staten will enlighten us I hope. Everyone knew Titanfall would be pretty short lived without any sort of sp story or campaign. Maybe they should expand their universe in T2.

Personally I didn't expect these first games to light the world on fire. It was possible. I expect the sequels to have a shot though. I think both of these games have a chance to make a very good sequel with feedback they've gotten and the basics out of the way.

With both games I think the biggest complaint was lack of content.

Problems on both (and lots of games this year) can be attributed to cross-generation development sucking time and resources (and lowered the quality of the current-gen versions). Titanfall 2 and Destiny 2 will likely be current-gen exclusive, and will be developed on the likely more user-friendly current SDKS. Therefore, Titantfall 2 and Destiny 2 will be those "console sellers" you're looking for.

I seem to be the only person on the planet that wasn't disappointed with either game, they both lived up to expectations for me.

I think Destiny is good, I just hated how Bungie reacted to the criticism. Basically saying anyone who criticized it isn't being taken seriously, because they've paid for the game and played it a certain number of hours. It's a good move though, because gamers are too weak willed to let their money do the talking, even though Bungie has shown money is the only language they understand. They can keep putting out disappointing games with disappointing DLC and can keep shrugging off negative criticism by saying: 'We have data that shows you actually loved it. You paid X number of dollars for Y number of hours. So there aren't any problems according to you'.

They're moving up to one of the worst developers of this time.

Why should Bungie bury their own game? Seems counterproductive. They'll bury Destiny 1 6 feet under when they start talking about the sequel.

Destiny by the talks around it could have been better and had actual memorable missions, had other things that were great than the raw gameplay and gunplay.

Titanfall was apparently forever and always meant to be nothing but a $60 multiplayer-only pile of wasted opportunity that cried out loud about having seven million unique players, then we remembered it was players and not sales, players from free weekends and give-aways and loans and rentals. If they don't jam a singleplayer campaign into the sequel, heavily scripted or not, and continue to ask $60, f that franchise because it will be dead.

Acknowledging your game is disappointing and actively saying your customers are full of shit are two totally different things. I can completely understand them not admitting it isn't the game they wanted to make, but saying the criticism isn't to be taken seriously because look at all this money and these numbers, is not something I have to respect.

I think part of the letdown is that they largely just made 2 games that are a lot like the games they made before this. "Were leaving because we dont want to make another halo" = Halmmo. And adding Titans to Modern warfare doesn't change enough for those of us that were done with MW.

While there still popular the least interesting thing that Bungie and Respawn could of made as a new ip was a shooter.

Their conceited approach isn't great, but they're still correct. Great sales means that the faceless masses are enjoying it. Considering that Destiny's a new IP, Bungie are probably happy that it sold well.

Specifically with Titanfall, the guys at respawn never "lied" to us about any features. The marketing of that game made it out to be more than it was. I've put over 100 hours in Titanfall and it is one of my favorite multiplayer shhoters.

Destiny is a total mess. The way Bungie was talking about it during pre-release period hurt the game. The game did not live up to what they were saying.

@mcfart: That's not the response I'm talking about though. I'm talking about them coming out and saying: 'We have read some players' critique on our game, but when we see they have over 60 hours of game time in Destiny, we tend not to take that seriously'.

That's just fucked. The type of game that Destiny is should have me playing for months. I had 500+ hours in Borderlands 2 on 360 and I later bought it on PC and played it there a bunch as well. I already stopped playing Destiny 2 weeks ago more or less. That's not a good sign for this type of game. And no matter how you spin it, shrugging off criticism is never a good thing.

Titanfall was exactly what I expected, no more no less. Which is disappointing because it really didn't bring much to the table apart from it's initial premise.

Destiny is a hot mess, complete garbage, pile of steaming turd. A tentpole multi million dollar investment of a game from one of THE top shooter devs, is completely based around 1 SINGLE MISSION, the "story" can be "finished" in about 10 hours and then locks it's "best content" behind a boring slog of a grindfest, that can take up to 100 hours of repeating the same content which is essentially one mission type over and over, and levelling is totally dependent on drops after the cap (which is a ridiculously low 20 levels). Jesus Shoemaker Christ.

I had high hopes for Destiny, mostly because of the pedigree of the developer however I started to have my doubts back around March and April of this year. I was given early access to Destiny's "alpha" client (back when the app was called "Music Player") and it felt cool and like it had potential, but the level design had me worried. I chalked it up to it being such a small slice. Then when I downloaded the public "alpha" and I realized it was almost the exact same version I played it made me feel that feeling again. I felt the "beta" confirmed these worries when I saw exactly how the mechanics were implemented into the game proper.

This doesn't feel like a Bungie game to me, in terms of quality. I don't enjoy the multiplayer anywhere near as much as I did/do Halo, there literally is no story whatsoever, the content (if played "point to point") is minuscule, and it seems as if their endgame is just going to be overcharging users for tiny increments in content. NOPE.

So, yeah I think Destiny could have been great. The hype had nothing to do with why that game's a big disappointment; its because of over promises, deception, and something clearly going wrong in development so late they had to do what they did. I have to admit it really sucks, but Bungie went from being one of the developers I fully trusted and assumed their games would be great to being just another game dev.

Titanfall was interesting, but after just a few short hours I realized I didn't like the game. Sure, it was mobile, but the shooting felt bad and the damage models were garbage. Playing in Titans wasn't really all that fun either. This game was a victim over-expectation and that marketing zeitgeist Microsoft gave it. The game isn't bad...its just...meh.

I didn't ever expect Destiny to be what it is, I thought it would be much more open world and have a lot more planets going on. I didn't really follow the game's development, though, since I never owned an XBox nor enjoyed Halo when I tried it at friends. So I will also say that I'm surprised just how much I enjoy it how many hours I've put into it, and how willing I am to drop $20 on a small slice of new content very shortly.

I liked Titanfall, my most played multiplayer game this year easily. The fact it was a xbox one exclusive in consoles was a big negative, it came out when the bone was not rocking the popularity charts.

i didnt think titanfall would be great,but i expected destiny too be great.destiny was amazing for the first week,then they ruined the game with horrible patches and bad post launch content support.destiny still has potential,but it needs alot of things fixed or changed,like way more content and more rewards for doing said content.i honestly dont see them fixing it though,because they have already had plenty of time to do what people wanted and havent.destiny will end up being something that could have been great but failed and i expect someone to take the idea of destiny and make a game thats amazing out of it.

@hassun:

Lets not forget that all outlets were touting the fuck out of titanfall as well. All I heard from conventions was that they had played titanfall and it was amazing.

I very much enjoyed titanfall, and the amount of post launch support for the game respawn has done is extremely commendable. Was it great? No, but I think it could be the genesis of something great.

Destiny? The equivalent of warm air blowing over garbage. Nothing more than a $60 platform to sell overpriced DLC. I played it for a wekk and never went back, probably never will over the next 10 years.

I think Titanfall came closest to living up to its image, but it was really strongly divided between the people who only cared about infantry combat (and to a lesser extent, movement/weapon balancing) and another group there for the mechs - which turned out to be more novelty than a really deep implementation. Not sure how it can be reconciled in a sequel but I truly believe they're onto something with that franchise.

Destiny, though, always seemed like hubris

I think most of the game this year were good titanfall, destiny, sunset overdrive, and even watch_dogs.... I think people let the hype train get them, then took the angry gamer cab ride back to reality.... honestly I'm not sure what people really were expecting this titles to be, its not like they were reinventing the Dig-Dug or Jade Empire........

Titanfall was excellent. What killed it was it's lack of content.

Perhaps if it launched at $40 like PvZ did, it would've done better. I don't think full priced MP-only games have caught on.

It actually makes me a bit worried for Evolve...

Titanfall was everything I expected it to be. I've put around 400 hours into it and it has been a lot of fun. While I was expecting it to set the shooter scene on fire and dethrone Call Of Duty(a lofty expectation in hindsight), I was not disappointed in the actual game. It delivered everything it promised in terms of gameplay and a little more. The lack of a single player did hurt the games sales though. Titanfall is legitimately great, it's just not what a lot of people wanted.

I was looking forward to Destiny, didn't end up buying it. But these games both sold well didn't they?

There's no reason to believe in AAA games.

Once it became known that Titanfall really didn't have much of a single player I think I had it in the correct perspective. Titanfall had less variety in it's modes than people expected but it largely delivered on what it promised. I can see how if someone wasn't paying attention to the details the general hype and early convention accolades may have miscast the game into the role of a next-gen leading part.

Destiny is definitely disappointing. There was no way to know until reviewers starting going through it, how much there was to the whole package. Bungie ended up making a shooter that feels as good as it always does but almost everything else is not only less than one would expect of a game purported to be head-and-shoulders above it's peers but less than what one of expect of even the average game of it's budget and scope.

I didn't expect either of them to something I'd enjoy from the beginning, and I didn't enjoy them, so I guess I have to answer with a nope?

It's not even just sales. Their entire approach to all the criticism has been really bewildering. The PR guys are really working overtime on all their press releases making sure Bungie is never "at fault" for anything or even admitting that there are any problems to begin with. Everything is worded in this sort of cocky, half joking manner. For instance they won't say drops are bad (and everyone that plays can attest to the fact that the bad drop rates remain a huge problem) they'll write some clever little line like "we had a talk with the cryptarch and he might be more generous but he'll still be a bastard." Man say what you will about Ubisoft, but when Unity got all that bad press they put up that patch progress blog and very candidly detailed what they're working on in addition to apologizing for the technical shortcomings. Now that doesn't excuse them for releasing a game in that state, but at least they opened an honest and open dialog with their customers and proceeded to release 2-3 patches in the span of 2 weeks. Bungie kind of ignored all the criticism and took on a "my way or the highway" approach to the entire situation.

Just incredible arrogance all around.

Titanfall was totally fine. The mobility in that game was downright great and the armored suits weren't bad either. Personally, I'd chalk its low adoption more up to the competition it faced in that space and the low adoption of the console at that time than the game itself. The story mode was awful, but it wasn't advertised as anything good.

@pweidman: Don't fool yourself. Bungie is the one to blame. They're the ones who didn't have enough of 4 years+ to get their act together in time to deliver on the date specified on the contract. DLC was planned years ago. No need to explain things with conspiracy when it's much more easy to explain them with incompetence.

Well to be fair Halo and Call of Duty are almost impossible acts to follow. You'd be very very lucky to even equal the impact/acclaim those games had, and the best odds to do that would have been using the same IP. So I figured if Bungie and Respawn just made decent games they'd be doing pretty well for themselves.

I thought Titanfall was Ok, not bad but nothing amazing. Very adequate, competent if unremarkable shooter.

Destiny on the other hand...feels like it should stayed in the oven for another year or so.

I feel there is a lot of conflation in this topic. Need to separate all the below:

- press expectations

- press reactions

- analyst expectations

- analyst reactions

- your expectations

- your reactions

- what you think people think

- what people actually think

All that said, I never, ever am hype for any game that doesn't start with the words Metal and Gear. I always thought Titanfall and Destiny would be good, not great, for me, because that is always what I have experienced from those teams.

Realize however that both products are extremely succesful sales wise. Realize as well that all the forum thoughts in the world lumped together does not equal a fraction of either game's playerbase. As well, their metacritics are respectable. So, I dunno. Maybe they were exactly as good as people wanted, just not for us, the 1%.

I still try to figure out what people didn't like about Titanfall. Everything worked fantastically in that game. The movement was some of the best maneuverability I've ever seen in a shooter. It's one of the only games to actually get mech combat right in any sense, most games its just a mess. The only thing I was disappointed by was the lack of guns. I had some expectation that it would have a ton of guns a la Call of Duty with numerous customization. Instead you only have a handful, but even with that handful they're all pretty well balanced against each other.

Destiny I could see how you would be disappointed with it if you never played the multiplayer. The PvE content in that game gets pretty boring. Then again I always thought Bungie single player content is boring. I played through a lot of the Halos but I came to them primarily for the multiplayer content. I thought it was pretty great in Destiny, and spent quite a few hours playing it.

I think the main issue with Destiny is how Bungie presented it, not the game itself. It was billed as, and thus most people expected it to be, something very similar to borderlands. As a borderlands type game Destiny is pretty bad, lacking in content and loot variety. However if the game was presented as more of a Halo MMO I think the public would have received it much more warmly. There wouldn't have been as much of a expectation for story and single player content as there was, and the multiplayer aspects of the game would have been highlighted.

I think disappointing is the best word for Destiny, not in that it is bad but it did not deliver what buyers were expecting. Is Destiny a great game? I think that is up to the player but I think most would have a hard time arguing it is a bad game.

@somejerk: battlefield does fine and i guarantee no one plays that for the campaign. Titanfall was great but its main problem was lack of content and some design/balance issues, not that it was multiplayer focused.

The Titanfall campaign didn't live up to the lowest of expectations, but beyond that I think the game largely lived up to what they promised. Meanwhile Destiny didn't seem to match what the marketing was trying to push.

For Titanfall, you either liked the gameplay hook or you didn't. If you want to discuss whether or not it is worth $60 for that amount of content is a fair argument to have, but the game itself didn't disappoint me. This is similar to Shadowrun on 360. It was basically destroyed by reviewers because of the price point vs. content, and by Shadowrun RPG fans who didn't feel a FPS lived up to their expectations (duh), so it did not see more widespread support. But IMO it was an incredibly fun and deep competitive shooter.

It is interesting that both Titanfall and Destiny had essentially full demo 'betas.' Titanfall just reinforced that it was a game I needed to get (to be sure, the content didn't keep me interested that long and I only picked up the DLC during a very good recent sale), whereas Destiny made me question whether I wanted it or not. It felt like, and by all accounts ended up being, a shallow, lifeless MMO grind. I never ended up getting Destiny, choosing to get my loot grind on via Diablo 3 instead. I still want to get it at a lower price point eventually...But, at the end of the day, I feel like Titanfall was what I expected whereas Destiny was not.

My question to you duders is - what does it mean to be disappointing? Is it the content vs. price (Titanfall)? Is it the lack of a story or interesting world (Destiny)? Or is it when a major release doesn't work at all (Halo MCC)?

To me, in a year with the complete dumpster fire that is the Halo: MCC (makes ACU's problems look like some slight clipping), if a game even functions it's not that disappointing. Shame that Jeff has locked up the Disappointment of the Year category for Destiny. I hope Drew at least campaigns for the MCC during the discussion podcasts.

I mean I would say they were that good. Both were a ton of fun. People just get too wrapped up in hype and let that cloud their judgement.

I think Titanfall is actually a fantastic game. The gunplay and movement are, in my opinion, some of the best ever in an FPS. The game is frenetic yet controllable and very well balanced. That said, without there being a full single player campaign and limited customization for your character, it just never had the staying power of Call of Duty.

Destiny is just a mess. A disappointment that I, like many others, love and play a lot of. The core of the game is so solid but like everyone has said, holy crap, they took out way too much from the initial release. Within seven days of getting a Destiny PS4 bundle, I was at level 20. It doesn't feel like a challenge or an accomplishment. That said, I believe that unlike Titanfall, Destiny can still redeem itself with more quality content.

If you believe the teams made 95% of what they intended to make...then NOPE. I believe these two teams were misguided from the start and where planning products that were just not 100% fully conceived to be complete from the start.