Destiny Catch-All

Anyone else hear about some of the persistent multiplayer features and think that someone has finally taken a cue from Dark Souls?

Edit: Also FireFall influences, I think.

Halo/Mass Effect world with Dark Souls/FireFall influenced online elements sounds good to me. Often the best "revolution" is just to steal good ideas and apply them to a new genre.

So, from what we can see so far, is this just Bungie taking a (acronym meltdown incoming) F2P FPS MMO to consoles, and trying to be the first company to do it right? Just like Halo at the time, there doesn't really seem to be anything special about it compared to what's already available on the PC side. An initial purchase plus DLC is nothing new either, although this is requiring an internet connection at all times which is a bit new for console games.

Activision saw the DLC possibilities and immediately wanted to be best friends forever with Bungie.

This is my biggest concern over anything. How the DLC will be handled. I'm not optimistic really.

On a more general note. I'm kind of feeling bad for the journo's who went all the way out to their offices to not even see the game, only be talked to about it (and not even anything juicy) and how amazing Bungie are as a studio. I think they may have been inside their own little bubble too long.

Kuldorn wrote:

This is my biggest concern over anything. How the DLC will be handled. I'm not optimistic really.

Apparently it's a main game every other year (not yearly as I mis-remembered earlier) and filling in the gap with DLC. That doesn't seem too different to something like Battlefield3, or Call of Duty if you don't alternate studios on it for a yearly release and compensate with DLC.

This might just be the initial plan which gets changed over it's life, or not the plan at all as they haven't revealed that bit officially yet, but it still seems quite traditional and safe. I wonder if this is just a way to introduce the series on the current-gen both in technology and what the current consoles will support business wise, and then the next lot of consoles give them more latitude to do different things.

If they build a good enough fan base initially, could Destiny2 launch itself (optionally I hope) as a digital title on console. If it was on PC the answer would be certainly "yes" (look at Planetside2) but consoles need someone to prove it works.

I'm in for sure. Bungie may not be great at story telling but they still make the most fun firefights and enemy AI in shooters. I'm done with the vs. multiplayer for the most part though.

EvilDead wrote:

but they still make the most fun firefights and enemy AI in shooters.

That's a good point. I'd say it's a hallmark of most PvE shooters, especially online coop ones that they have pretty poor enemy AI, if they can shake that up a bit with enemies being more than dumb loot piñatas then it might be interesting.

Kuldorn wrote:

On a more general note. I'm kind of feeling bad for the journo's who went all the way out to their offices to not even see the game, only be talked to about it (and not even anything juicy) and how amazing Bungie are as a studio. I think they may have been inside their own little bubble too long.

Yeah, for them to hold this big press event only to reveal less information than your average kickstarter campaign makes me feel like this will be a continous dripfeed of hype until I'm completely sick of hearing about this game long before it will come out...but brand awareness will be so high that it'll probably be a massive success.

Also, as others have said, can't feel more than a little depressed at the fact that Bungie managed to break free from Microsoft and have so much money they could literally do anything they wanted....and decided to make a sci-fi FPS. This partially makes me a hypocrite because I would blow a gasket tomorrow if Valve officially announced Half-Life 3, but, I don't know. I guess I feel like 2012 especially highlighted to me that most AAA games I used to get excited about now feel so tired and boring in execution.

EvilDead wrote:

Bungie may not be great at story telling but they still make the most fun firefights and enemy AI in shooters.

I'll be waiting for a lot more details before getting excited about this, but agreed.

kuddles wrote:

Also, as others have said, can't feel more than a little depressed at the fact that Bungie managed to break free from Microsoft and have so much money they could literally do anything they wanted....and decided to make a sci-fi FPS. This partially makes me a hypocrite because I would blow a gasket tomorrow if Valve officially announced Half-Life 3, but, I don't know. I guess I feel like 2012 especially highlighted to me that most AAA games I used to get excited about now feel so tired and boring in execution.

I have no problem seeing the newest work from a group that's doing what they do best. If they did somethign that wasnt a sci-fi FPS i'd be worried if they could handle it.

I just hope the PC jumps in as a platform at some point. Earlier the better.

I wonder if with the competition on the platform, an initial PC release would be a bit of a wimper than a prestigious big bang arrival that they would want. Consoles aren't going anywhere, so they want to establish this thing first, then expand it bringing that momentum to the next-gen and hopefully PC.

Unabashed fanboy, will buy, as I have every Bungie title since Pathways. Go go gadget brand loyalty.

Dyni wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

Bungie may not be great at story telling but they still make the most fun firefights and enemy AI in shooters.

I'll be waiting for a lot more details before getting excited about this, but agreed.

I'm going to be excited until I see a reason not to be but then I've enjoyed every Bungie game I've played to date and, with Jason Jones still in place, I can't see them moving away from their excellent game play. I only ever saw the stories as giving you a reason to fight X enemy or X and Y enemy and never thought they were bad.

Just a random thought, not necessarily directed at Destiny: Is apocalyptic future the next setting people get tired of?

Oddly enough, I'm more excited about the social aspect than the actual shooting. Bungie knows how to make a very competent shooter, but the most interesting tech for the 360-era Halo games has always been the Bungie.net community functionality. It'll be interesting to see where they go with that, because Bungie.net had the best integration with Live out of any game out there.

This game rings of Planetside 2, a lot.

maverickz wrote:

This game rings of Planetside 2, a lot.

I was actually thinking of Too Human for some weird reason.

maverickz wrote:

This game rings of Planetside 2, a lot.

I think Destiny will use instancing a lot though. They've already mentioned dungeons or something like it, and at least the current-gen consoles would weep at having a few hundred people in the same area. Who knows what's in store for next-gen though.

What I thought was a mixture of GW and GW2. Alot of the features of GW2, but more along the structure of GW in terms of hubs, some open areas, and plenty of mission/event instances.

cube wrote:

Oddly enough, I'm more excited about the social aspect than the actual shooting.

That's not odd at all. That's what's new and interesting here. The rest is just "We don't own Halo anymore, had to come up with a new setting for our space marines."

Not that there's anything wrong with space marines.

I've been dying for the entire world to steal good ideas from Dark Souls vis a vis multiplayer interactions, and this sounds a bit like they have. This is the future of connected gaming that I want to see.

Edit: Or did you mean the iPhone aspects? Those could be interesting, too, or just so much marketing.

I'm still excited to see what this game is all about, but that ViDoc was very little to go off of. Basically confirming what about the leak was true and showing a little bit of video that didn't give too much detail.

I don't know why people gotta keep being sick of sci-fi as if it is one nebulous thing. The look of this reminds me of some of my brother's old sci-fi novels from the 80's or 70's that he had from the Used Book Store, and considering Halo was inspired by Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein and, according to folks, Iain Banks (never read the Culture series) I'm on board with any sci-fi they do. I like their sources as opposed to "Let's be inspired by Trek, Wars, or Michael Bay". Or Hell, better than being inspired strictly by James Cameron's Colonial Marines.

It looks like a bright and colorful setting for a ruined world, and I'm on board with that.

I just want to see what the game plays like instead of Bungie publicly masturbating to their own success. Or perhaps it is more worry and the need to mention "Halo" just to make sure people remember who they are?

Apparently this could be coming out for every platform under the sun eventually (except 3DS):

Upset that Destiny hasn't been announced for the Wii U or PC yet? Don't be, it could be coming to both platforms and more! The official website for Bungie's upcoming game Destiny has data that can be found in its coding from the pre-order page that directly refers to both the Wii U, PC, PS4, Xbox 720, and PS Vita as platforms for the upcoming title. There is no mention of Nintendo's handheld 3DS platform however.

Of course, this could just be there in case Activision asks them to bring it over to those platforms and so it may mean nothing at all. Or perhaps Bungie is anticipating a release on these platforms. Whatever it means, we here just hope that it means every home console owner will be able to experience Bungie's next big title when it launches in the future.

Activision tends not to skip any possible revenue source, so I wouldn't be surprised to see all those shake out eventually.

ccesarano wrote:

I don't know why people gotta keep being sick of sci-fi as if it is one nebulous thing. The look of this reminds me of some of my brother's old sci-fi novels from the 80's or 70's that he had from the Used Book Store, and considering Halo was inspired by Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein and, according to folks, Iain Banks (never read the Culture series) I'm on board with any sci-fi they do. I like their sources as opposed to "Let's be inspired by Trek, Wars, or Michael Bay". Or Hell, better than being inspired strictly by James Cameron's Colonial Marines.

It looks like a bright and colorful setting for a ruined world, and I'm on board with that.

Listening to Gerstmann talk on Giant Bomb about what he saw, it sounded to me a hell of a lot like Rifts. I've long dreamt of a Rifts video game...other than one for the N-Gage.

How is Heinlein visible in Halo?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

How is Heinlein visible in Halo?

Maybe the whole military as a dominant force in society thing?

I am very interested in this game so far despite how little I've seen it. I've been getting less interested in the competitive multiplayer shooters. Thanks to mass effect 3, I'm intrigue with the cooperative (rpg skill base?) multiplayer shooters. The experience just scales better with player skill and playing with friens. Plus Bungie AI will add so much to it. The whole new trend of leveling and getting new weapons in shooters fits much in the cooperative space than competitive. Also microtransactions are easier to accept in coop than competitive. I'll be fine with that model as long as I don't pay subscription and follows what EA has been doing with Mass Effect 3. (never charge for new maps, new maps just keeps the player base in the game to buy more microtransactions)

Sounds like I'm in the minority but I find the world fascinating. Visually the world is stunning (omg the traveler, more on that below). I like the idea of explorering terra formed planets in our solar system. Its colorful like the Halo series. Soldiers have a interesting medieval knight look to it and not just big metal space marine.

I guess it doesn't take much for me to get interested in a world, but the premise with the traveler intrigues me and seems to be an interesting. I'm glad for once some unknown alien artifact isn't out to get us. I find that mystery more attractive than the mystery of some unknown alien/robot race out to get me. It makes me want to ask "what's in it for the traveler? What does it want?"

Alright nerd rant done. I'm excited so far, I just wish they just showed more. Geez!

Blind_Evil wrote:

Apparently this could be coming out for every platform under the sun eventually (except 3DS):

Upset that Destiny hasn't been announced for the Wii U or PC yet? Don't be, it could be coming to both platforms and more! The official website for Bungie's upcoming game Destiny has data that can be found in its coding from the pre-order page that directly refers to both the Wii U, PC, PS4, Xbox 720, and PS Vita as platforms for the upcoming title. There is no mention of Nintendo's handheld 3DS platform however.

Of course, this could just be there in case Activision asks them to bring it over to those platforms and so it may mean nothing at all. Or perhaps Bungie is anticipating a release on these platforms. Whatever it means, we here just hope that it means every home console owner will be able to experience Bungie's next big title when it launches in the future.

Activision tends not to skip any possible revenue source, so I wouldn't be surprised to see all those shake out eventually.

Apparently the source for the pre-order page is the same as Activision uses for any game, so all those platforms are just enabled as needed.

DSGamer wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

How is Heinlein visible in Halo?

Maybe the whole military as a dominant force in society thing?

For some reason I keep forgetting Starship Troopers, which is obviously influential to all space marines, especially armored ones.

It's a one-off for Heinlein's work; I think that's why I forgot it.

As someone who never really liked Master Chief and only really enjoyed the HALO games where you're someone else, I'm on board. I'm just worried it's going to get bogged down in microtransactions, as MMO-ish games with no subscription fee tend to. Not that I'm against the model. I'm just so, so sick of hearing people whinge about it.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone else hear about some of the persistent multiplayer features and think that someone has finally taken a cue from Dark Souls?

I thought, 'Hmm, Dark Souls influence!?!' when I heard that mentioned in the trailer.

I think it's far too early for anyone to condemn or praise this game. Haven't seen any meaty game-play yet. I felt like the Halo games took a very random walk in its' progression as a series. I'm keeping an open mind to the series, but I have a hard time imagining myself getting deep into a FPS again.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Not that I'm against the model. I'm just so, so sick of hearing people whinge about it.

People would moan if Bungie were handing out mind blowing sexual favors for free. The internet is not the best place to be if this is the kind of thing that annoys you.

edit: Just realised the unintentional humour in how I worded my response. I'm keeping it.