Unfinished: Destiny 07/18/2014

Part of what I hated about Borderlands 2 was that they turned revolvers from powerful single-shot weapons to nearly worthless "THEY FIRE AS FAST AS YOU PULL THE TRIGGER!" guns. I'm glad to see Destiny is taking the former route.

Not a fan of Dan before he got the job with GB, and with every segment I see him on, my opinion does nothing but strengthen. "Dorks"? Really? Pot meet kettle much?

Need to see this game in it's full state to judge. I think it has promise from a gameplay perspective but these vertical slices are too narrow in scope to truly understand what the game is about.

As a fan of Halo and Borderlands this is looking pretty terrific. Any one know if you can bring your character over to different platforms?

Those Thrall enemies that run straight at you look and move a whole lot like the imps from Doom 3 too.

Now that I have seen actual gameplay of Destiny, I realize that it looks a lot like I thought Halo combined with CoD would look.

A lot of people seem to be upset when someone calls them "dorks" for reading a book based on a video game. I don't remember anyone complaining when the GB Staff made fun of people who read Star Wars novels in the The Old Republic Quick-Look.

In conclusion, I think Halo dorks are the only dorks that still get upset at being called "dorks". Also, "dorks" is just about the least offense epithet that can be used, unless you're living in a 1980s teen-buddy film. ;)

I preferred the more human sounding voice of the AI. The problem with that VO lies elsewhere.

The beta is the tutorial part of the game, im pretty sure you will visit more places....

Careful you don't cut yourself with those edges man.

Bungie was all about AI rampancy back when they were doing the Marathon trilogy.

I'm a cranky old man, get off my lawn you damn kids!

Spot-on about Bungie lore.

Overall nothing about this game really catches my eye but when they talk about going back to areas repeatedly it reminds me of something like Monster Hunter which i'm fine with doing in that game. And standing around farming seems as much fun as the library level in Halo. I'm curious to see how they'll expand this in the next game.

Every fall there's a big hyped blockbuster game that I just do not click with at all, and Destiny's gonna be that game for me this year. Just leaves me cold when I played it and even when I see others play it. But I'm happy lots of people like what they see and will enjoy it. Loot doesn't do it for me but I totally get the draw. Have fun, keep Bungie in business and maybe Destiny 2 will speak to me more and I'll jump aboard.

This is how snarky Internet comments work right?

I think some people are a bit touchy on the whole geek / nerd / dork / weaboo / poindexter (needs to make a comeback) thing, particularly as it rides close to home for 99% of the audience here.

It's more I think that people see Dan Ryckert, a man who writes about and lives Videogames and the homo-erotic pastime of Wrestling (fuck wrestling! I'll take all comers!) who is pretty much what I (and I presume others) envision when thinking of the middle aged nerd would want to avoid nerd infighting but instead he seems to throw out strange comments that alienate those with likeminded interests that make up good chunks of the site audience purely because it's different to wrestling.

Disclaimer; I think it's all dumb

Oh wow, that encrypted weapons stuff is very "Identify Scroll".

The beta kind of left me feeling a tad ambivalent at times. The combat was rock solid and I didn't mind the skill system and loot mechanics (I am a Borderlands fan, though). Melee had a great kick to it too, and my warlock's "force punch" was magnificent to see.

However, the level repeating and reliance on wave-based challenges kind of started to make me worry. When I first saw the center of the Cosmodrome level and the now-abandoned colonial space vessel just rusting there on its launch platform, I thought the area looked REALLY good for a one time location. Lots of effort on those art assets for just one level, guys and gals. I see where your budget went! Then, each subsequent earth level spawned me in the same spot next to the same abandoned colonial space vessel. It actually was a bit jarring, really. Each level also made me go through corridors I already visited, with the AI having the gall to actually even mention my previous visits to the area just 30 minutes prior.

Furthermore, each level / mission seemed to rely on wave based challenges to pad out length and increase difficulty. Defending a floating geometric shape from throngs of foes as it hovers around a computer panel was fun... the first time. I did it so many times in my 4 hours of the beta that I began to dread the upcoming tedium that would no doubt result from me plugging the ghost into whatever odd terminal it had taken a fancy to.

So yeah, I don't know. If the repetition is just to help ease us into the game and teach us the basic concepts and controls, that's fine. However, if the moon consists of starting by Apollo 11's rover six times over and fending off space wizard waves as The Ghost lustily scans another computer interface with his lewd blue light... I think I'll just move on to something else and regret my purchase. I didn't like the repetition in Halo back in 2001, and I'm not going to like it any more 13 years later.

This has all the hallmarks of a game that will be praised and remembered for its technical aspects, but won't be any fun to play for more than a couple of hours :(

Preeety sure that dorks is facetious.

Wait is is Halo or not? They talked about unique acting and looking enemies, but these things look and act JUST LIKE the Elites? Is this based off of Halo or not I've haven't followed it. Was excited for Bungie to go outside its comfort zone but this seems more of the same to me? Also Merglglglglglfrglglgel

@rethla: I'm sure it will but you may as well link Jeff to this comment too if you're telling me.

Not sure how that's true considering he's written his own books. Or whatever, you guys can keep bitterly bringing up the wrestling thing if it provides you some kind of solace.

I think it's funny we got to see Jeff branch out last time and play a Warlock, now he's back to playing the standard soldier class like does in all those games.

Not judging him, it's his choice to play what he likes. I just thought it was funny.

Can't say I'm gonna be excited to run through this map AGAIN for the final release but I am really enjoying it. I've found to level your abilities you just need to get XP and not exactly from just using that ability. I've been grinding those since I hit level 8 and it's actually still fun, for me at least.

EDIT: I also read the Halo books. :(

I think it's a case of Dan seeing himself as predominantly a normal guy with one nerdy pastime, so every chance he gets to distance himself from real nerds, he takes.

We've all run across this behavior in the course of liking nerdy things. There's always one or two guys in your subculture who are eager to prove to you, themselves, and others that they aren't really one of you. It's an off-putting habit, but forgivable, and it speaks more to their insecurity than anything.

There's less backtracking and "oh I've been here" than in the Borderlands, that's something I enjoyed about the beta so far.

The Xbox consoles get their start at 10 Pacific on the 23rd.

I think Dan's joking about the book thing. I mean I hope so. He wrote a book about an alligator that flies planes, so...

There is a difference between people who read Halo books and people who feel they need to convince others to read Halo books.

As an PC gamer my relationship towards Halo and Bungies games had surely been a one sided one, for most of the time. But i'm not gonna lie: If this game would use a Halo backdrop i'd be instantly all over it!

It's like Jeff pointed out, replacing the space marines military style with some mystery guardian/wizards from the moon BS does not fit really well.

This game feels like the natural evolution of what the next Halo game should have been, or at least an "Halo mmofps". After all those Halo games Bungie created, they had build up enough believable lore and world for people to be invested, now they had to reinvent all that from scratch and it's kind of showing :/

As a person who hates Halo (though I only ever played the first one, so maybe I'm missing something) and only put about 10 hours into each Borderlands before getting bored, I should not be the target for this game... Yet I am totally loving it.

I really like the feel of the combat encounters and the loot is doled out at just the right pace for me to enjoy it. Usually loot games dump so much loot that I feel like I'm spending more time sorting my inventory than using it. With Destiny, I pick up one or two useful new pieces every time I run a level. It's a very we'll paced drip.

On the down-side, the writing seems like it might be awful and the graphics - though nicely art directed - are just acceptable on a technical level.

No game is perfect though and so far I'm having a blast with what I've played. Doing the free-roam missions on earth, I've stumbled on a number of secret areas where I get killed very fast. It seems like there might be more to it than what the story-missions explicitly lead you through.

every time I see this game it just looks so meh, I don't like that I have soured all my friends on this game it just looks so bland it has no soul.

How am I supposed to feel safe at Giant Bomb when I'm in constant fear of this Dan Ryckert guy demeaning me and giving me wedgies and swirlies? I can't believe someone would have the gull to call science fiction military books based on video games a thing for dorks.

Progress mayyy carry over to the final game ( i goddamm hope so)

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bungie-hasnt-decided-if-destiny-beta-progress-will/1100-6421127/

This game's still really fun.

What is the origin of the "actual moon" thing? Somebody help me out.

@aceofspudz: Absolutely, that's what I meant originally but you pretty much described it a lot better and more succinctly than I did. As you said we all know that guy who does this.

yea, im close to about 10 hours with the beta, and logged about another 10 in the alpha, the missions are very replayable, and for me the strikes change enough (enemy placement, your role in your team and such) that its still fun to play

but i do hope this beta is like 10% of the final game's worth of content though. if this ends up being like 25% of the final games content, then there's gonna be problems. like it has me worried that they reused the same strike from the alpha. this has to be the starting area for them to do that.

I continue to like what I see of the combat, but how much content the full game has is still the big question for me.

Hey Dan, why don't you wait for those 'dorks' to tell you a thing or two about World War 2 while they're at it?

No offense, but that kind of attitude kinda stinks.

Jeff complains about the repeating environments straight away, and then spends ten minutes milling around shooting enemies waiting for the right drops. I haven't played any of this, but it doesn't look like it's for me. Sounds like all of the worst elements of MMOs are being channeled here.

TASTE THE BACKLASH

...Whatever, I like it!

hey guys getting defensive about the sci-fi books and "dorks" comment-

dan is a self-admitted wrestling fanatic who works for a video game website and wrote a book entitled, 'air force gator.' he also went for a couple Guinness records concerning marathon video game sessions.

...so let's walk it back a bit, mmmkay?

@mellotronrules: in the age of a overly sensitive internet. i doubt that'ill happen.

this'ill last for the next day or 2.

Real disappointed by how much this looks like Borderlands. Don't know why they had to be so vague during their marketing. I was expecting some sprawling, mysterious, epic shooter campaign from what they were saying, not a loot game.

That hovering vehicle and the high jumps look great, though.

How can anyone be afraid about there not being enough content from playing a beta? Often Betas have 3 maps, or in the case of Battlefield: Hardline...one. Its way too soon to worry about any of that stuff. Plus, the beta talks openly about battle happening away from Earth, so its not like you are just going to be tooling around Old Russia for the entire game.

I wonder if Bungie was planning on adding the digital effect to the voice or if they did it because people said that they were going to because by itself it sounded awful.

dont be so sensitive kid