Destiny: FIN

[Takizawa]

The hype is sucking me in but it sounds like the kind of game where, two days after launch, noobs are gonna have a bad time with it now.

How so?

[macosx]

Having fun with it . But this Kotaku UK impression nails my feelings exactly

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/09/10/heres-think-destiny-far

[Spacehost]

I'm still too into PvZ Garden Warfare to have picked this up yet. The hype is sucking me in but it sounds like the kind of game where, two days after launch, noobs are gonna have a bad time with it now.

It's like 90% co-op and the multiplayer strips out level benefits. It's really pretty slick.

[Rambles]

Just plonked my name on the spreadsheet and should hopefully be around later this evening for some Destiny action. Managed all of 10mins so far...

[Pob]

Something for the FAQ maybe: does levelling up by itself increase your stats, or is levelling simply a way let you use higher-rated weapons and armour? i.e if I level up mid-mission, am I suddenly doling out more pain and soaking up more damage?

[Timmo]

Having fun with it . But this Kotaku UK impression nails my feelings exactly

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/09/10/heres-think-destiny-far

Careful, that article mentions Borderlands 2 which will make some people here flip out.

[Dave White]

anyone know how many maps there are in PVP? Ive only seen 4

[Takizawa]

Borderlands 2 is probably my favourite game of the last few years so any comparisons are good as far as i'm concerned

[Flub]

Apparently if you run out of ammo, you can run and hide for 30 seconds and your ammo magically fills up again too

Good old space magic.

That saved my bacon totally last night. Hit the last wave in a mission and ran totally out of primary ammo. Nothing on the ground and only a few rounds of secondary ammo left. Ran away to hide and plan just how I was going to titan punch my way to victory and then after a short time I noticed I had full ammo back (I'd been stood still behind an object waiting to get shields back)

[Sng]

Ammo pick-up in general seems a bit old these days. Would rather it just regenerated like health.

[BarryL85]

That saved my bacon totally last night. Hit the last wave in a mission and ran totally out of primary ammo. Nothing on the ground and only a few rounds of secondary ammo left. Ran away to hide and plan just how I was going to titan punch my way to victory and then after a short time I noticed I had full ammo back (I'd been stood still behind an object waiting to get shields back)

Is it just the primary ammo that regenerates or does special and heavy too?

[Captain Kelsten]

For me the game doesn't have much personality, but is fun to play so far nonetheless. It plays a bit like borderlands, the characters look like they're out of titanfall, the enemies are straight out of halo, the ship is just a pretty way to hide loading screens, the guns lack oomph, the class differentiations seem nonexistent outside of the super ability...it seems like a lot of good things but none of it really feels like it gets together into a cohesive whole, and it doesn't have anything that hasn't been done before, sometimes better, elsewhere. Still, I'm finding it fun and the music is great.

[CarloOos]

Strategic combat like Halo? No way, not a chance. It's nothing like that. The enemies in Destiny are dumb bullet sponges.

I'm more skeptical about the game than most in here, but I can't agree with this at all. The enemies in Destiny have far better AI than those in Borderlands or other loot'em'ups, the quality of the combat is pretty much the only thing holding it together. It's not quite the same standard as Halo but far better than most other straight shooters I've played, most of the enemies don't behave anything like 'dumb bullet sponges'.

[Spacehost]

Even since the beta the AI has improved. I was trying to kill a Captain at close range with a sniper rifle and he kept strafing out of the way. Would've been fine if his asshat buddy Vandal didn't then use my stupidity to shank me to death.

[Vemsie]

Was Rab's take already posted?

http://www.amusementarcade.org/2014/09/10/destiny-diary-day-one/

[Timmo]

Ammo pick-up in general seems a bit old these days. Would rather it just regenerated like health.

Are you sure about that? I guess it depends if you want a challenge or not. Resi 4 wouldn't be half the game without ammo conservation, and I think most shooters would suffer.

I hate the idea that I can drop back to a safe zone (and this game has plenty, enemies suddenly turn around for no reason if they get too far away from their spots) and get all my ammo back. Not only is it removing challenge and encouraging pot shot tactics, it's stopping the flow. I was enjoying ducking and diving yesterday to pick up ammo from the enemies I'd killed previously. Having the option to drop back for 30 seconds to a risk-free area seems like terrible design.

Anyway, I realise I'm being massively negative about this game, but I've loved all of the Halos and expected this to blow me away. I hope it's a slow burner and I'll give it the time to show me if it is.

[Rambles]

Even since the beta the AI has improved. I was trying to kill a Captain at close range with a sniper rifle and he kept strafing out of the way. Would've been fine if his asshat buddy Vandal didn't then use my stupidity to shank me to death.

I'm sure i'm not alone in the feeling of satisfaction the first time i'm properly killed by AI. After years of playing Halo and other shooters of the same ilk I jumped into the game expecting to breeze through. It's really refreshing to have to work for kills at certain points, or be stabbed in the face by a random AI assailant.

[And]

The morse code idea almost worked!

I shall be on later if you are again.

Destiny has plenty of odd elements but I still want to play it.

I think the communication stuff was network based, it started when tndom left.

Also, I definitely miss picking up guns from the battlefield.

The ghost is a different voice for different classes?

I might switch if that's the case, he's doing my head in.

The morse code was me toggling the mute switch on the headset, it's weird as I changed headsets, batteries, pads and even restarted the Xbox, maybe you're right, will see if it occurs next time

[RubyJester]

The Moon has the same gravity as Earth.

*SAD FACE*

[Sng]

Are you sure about that? I guess it depends if you want a challenge or not. Resi 4 wouldn't be half the game without ammo conservation, and I think most shooters would suffer.

I hate the idea that I can drop back to a safe zone (and this game has plenty, enemies suddenly turn around for no reason if they get too far away from their spots) and get all my ammo back. Not only is it removing challenge and encouraging pot shot tactics, it's stopping the flow. I was enjoying ducking and diving yesterday to pick up ammo from the enemies I'd killed previously. Having the option to drop back for 30 seconds to a risk-free area seems like terrible design.

Anyway, I realise I'm being massively negative about this game, but I've loved all of the Halos and expected this to blow me away. I hope it's a slow burner and I'll give it the time to show me if it is.

Yeah I bet loads of people said that about regenerating health though.

As long as a game is designed with it in mind then I would love it. Who wants to be conservative with ammo in a shooter anyway?! There could be plenty of ways to implement it fairly. Like regenerated ammo after initial ammo is used up is x% less powerful.

[Captain Kelsten]

Some things I don't like; it's not open world - I've encountered invisible walls galore, as well as sudden death drops.

All the story and lore that you acquire through your grimoire has to be read online at bungie.net - there is no way to access it in game.

The titan's jetpack jump can't be controlled. Like, say you only want a quick burst to cover a gap, well tough luck because once you've pressed it you're getting full burst and you'll often land in completely the wrong place. Not a huge issue, but I wish holding x = longer burn.

[elmo]

Really weird question here BUT Does anyone know how much data destiny downloads in an hours play? Not including updates and that.

[sdmilne]

Unless I'm missing something really obvious, is there any way to delete your character and start again?

[Loki]

Go to Settings > Logout > Change Character. Then hold Square over the character you wish to delete.

[Pob]

Are you sure about that? I guess it depends if you want a challenge or not. Resi 4 wouldn't be half the game without ammo conservation, and I think most shooters would suffer.

I hate the idea that I can drop back to a safe zone (and this game has plenty, enemies suddenly turn around for no reason if they get too far away from their spots) and get all my ammo back. Not only is it removing challenge and encouraging pot shot tactics, it's stopping the flow. I was enjoying ducking and diving yesterday to pick up ammo from the enemies I'd killed previously. Having the option to drop back for 30 seconds to a risk-free area seems like terrible design.

Primary ammo is so plentiful that it seems essentially infinite for me so far. It's the secondary and tertiary ammo that need to be used carefully. With that in mind having it regenerate doesn't seem like a problem. The game is not designed around you running out of primary ammo.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Some things I don't like; it's not open world - I've encountered invisible walls galore, as well as sudden death drops.

All the story and lore that you acquire through your grimoire has to be read online at bungie.net - there is no way to access it in game.

The titan's jetpack jump can't be controlled. Like, say you only want a quick burst to cover a gap, well tough luck because once you've pressed it you're getting full burst and you'll often land in completely the wrong place. Not a huge issue, but I wish holding x = longer burn.

I agree with you on these (first two) points. I really miss a tab which pulls together all the grimoire info, I find the companion app clumsy to use in this regard (although it's good for other things).

I don't agree that the guns lack grunt or the AI is dumb, but inevitably Halo comparisons emerge because of the factions, and the animations are so similar.

As for classes, I'm planning to take hunter a long long way before rolling a Titan. The only thing is you need to have a clear target in mind for the super before engaging it because of the sudden change to the third person perspective. When you get that worked out its 3 cheap kills and a few orbs of light.

Loot is way less plentiful than the beta through so far, lucky to get one item in addition to the mission rewards.

[Stanley]

Was Rab's take already posted?

http://www.amusementarcade.org/2014/09/10/destiny-diary-day-one/

That's a fucking excellent little article. Such a great writer and a lover of games.

[Takizawa]

The titan's jetpack jump can't be controlled. Like, say you only want a quick burst to cover a gap, well tough luck because once you've pressed it you're getting full burst and you'll often land in completely the wrong place. Not a huge issue, but I wish holding x = longer burn.

Sure it can, it's all about the delay between the first press and the second press. Quick double tap will give you max height and distance, a double tap with a delay in the middle will give you less height and a more horizontal glide style jump.

[Takizawa]

I have to say, this from the Defender sub-class sounds brilliant:

Super: WARD OF DAWN

Ward of Dawn: shape Void Light into an indestructible shield to protect you and your allies from harm.

• Armor of Light: while inside Ward of Dawn, you and your allies gain significant damage resistance
• Blessing of Light: passing through Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary shield.
• Weapons of Light: passing through Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary increase to weapon damage.

[Majora]

Off work today so I've played it some more. I feel like for a game so obviously designed to be a social experience, they haven't really made it easy to actually be social with other players.

I'm now level 4 and everyone on my friends list today is about level 10 or something so I figure it's probably not worth joining them. Bungie have, for some reason, made joining someone else's game friends only by default so you can't actually join most of those players running around the hub unless they've changed the setting but most people seem to be unaware of this and Bungie have done a really bad job explaining how this works in the game.

That you can only communicate with strangers by dancing and pointing and sitting on the floor makes the hub feel like some big-budget space version of Home on the PS3 which just seemed to exist so strangers could dance in a conga line. I can set my options to public and then invite people from the hub but right now this feels like the most anti-social game I've ever played that is so clearly intended to be a social experience.

I guess I'm one of the people Rab is talking about in his article but I'm not a fan of the artificiality of the missions and the feel of grinding/padding. How everytime you go back to earth you start off in the same place and the enemies are all in the same place and you go back over another path you've already been down so you can walk 50 metres further than where the last mission ended and scan a computer or something.

I haven't played Borderlands or Diablo, seemingly the two most common reference points, so maybe that's just how these games are. Personally I find it somewhat claustrophobic, like I'm stuck in an endless loop where my actions don't matter and I'm destined to fight the same respawning enemies in the same places over and over again under different flimsy narrative pretences.

The visuals, music and moment to moment combat are definitely the high points but I can't say that I've seen much in the way of noteworthy AI. In the second mission on earth alone, for example, there are rooms and corridors in the arena boss fight at the end that the AI simply won't follow you down for some reason.

I like it enough to keep playing but I'm not seeing anything particularly outstanding or interesting about it.