Destiny: FIN

[K]

On the other hand, it makes so much sense from a business perspective to hold back as much as possible to sell in small digital instalments that I find it hard to believe that Activision wouldn't insist on it. Release as little content as you can on the disc to avoid a backlash and hook players in, then finish off that stuff we cut and dribble it out over the next 12 months. It's the business model that Bungie sold Activision to get them to invest $10 squillion or whatever it was.

I'm not actually complaining because I've already easily got my money's worth even though it does feel light on content. But I'm also not looking forward to paying another £80 over the life of the game to get to see all the new environments, weapons and vehicles.

It makes sense, but it is just speculation. If the upcoming DLC was called 'Return to Old Chicago' or had a mission set among the ghost fleet round Saturn, then I'd concede the guy might have a point, but I think it's more likely that developing games is just really hard. Look at all the stuff they cut out of Half Life 2.

After all, it happened with Halo 2 & 3 - 2 had to jettison vast chunks of the campaign and whole modes from the multiplayer to make its relese date, and 3 had huge changes to the story at the eleventh hour. It does look like a tonne of stuff has been cut out of the story, but I don't think anyone outside of Bungie knows why. I struggle to believe that Activision made Bungie hack this Crow character out of the story missions, because how can you sell a story character as DLC?

[RubberJohnny]

I think there's a pretty big jump between observing that early previews showed areas that weren't in the final game, and concluding that these areas are completely finished and were cynically hacked out of the game to sell as DLC.

I understand the realities of development that sees stuff drop - Mass Effect 2 had vehicle controls in the PC manual for content that didn't come until later, but that was free and clearly something that happened late.

Whereas here it really does seem like it's being held back, watching those 2013 videos you can see exactly what they had implemented back then - that 2013 stuff references missions for the queen, raids in the reef, that are coming as DLC but marketed as part of the base game back then.

I actually think that most of it being from low-level zones make it more likely that it was cut, I mean, why else return to the Cosmodrome and add Level 10 strikes? These feel like levelling content. The abrupt end to the Rasputin story missions makes sense when the final Seraphim Vault behind the RAS-2 door is locked behind a paywall.

[Soi]

I really don't get this idea that Destiny is somehow light on content. I hit Level 24 last night, have played over 34 hours, and I haven't even done the first Mars mission yet. That's already over double the amount of time I would spend playing a game of the same price. I imagine by the time I'm done with it you could probably double that play time, and that's without any sort of paid for DLC.

I agree. I'm in a similar position to you, 26 hours spread over 2 characters (one 23, on 12), and not been to Mars.

The lack of a proper story is odd though. But then again, Bungie have for on this: Halo 2’s ending and all that.

[Pob]

I understand the realities of development that sees stuff drop - Mass Effect 2 had vehicle controls in the PC manual for content that didn't come until later, but that was free and clearly something that happened late.

Whereas here it really does seem like it's being held back, watching those 2013 videos you can see exactly what they have planned - that 2013 stuff references missions for the queen, raids in the reef, that are coming as DLC but marketed as part of the base game. As well as showing stuff like the Cassini in Saturns orbit that isn't even in the current two packs, so that's coming in 2015?

Yes, that is a key difference. People were shocked when it was revealed that the full game would only have four planetary areas to explore because they'd seen so much more in the pre-release media. I was really looking forward to levels set in and around that derelict ship!

Mercury must a shoo-in for a larger expansion, too, given that a bunch of the assets already exist for the PVP map.

[Loki]

The one massive disappointment for me (other than repetitive missions) is customisation.

• Dyes applying to the whole of your character. I wanted to dye individual bits of armour on a slot basis (like GW2 if you've played it).
• Items looking too similar. Even named the same with just 1-4 plonked on at the end.
• Talent trees; they're so bland. I've used the same bloody jump on my Titan from level 2 seen as more control and catapult are basically shit.
• Ships.

The death of this will be the arrival of Driveclub / Shadow of Mordor for me.

[mechamonkey]

On reflection I've stopped looking at this as the epic mmo I imagined, that's gone out of my mind, what it is for me is a fucking fantastic co-op shooter which irrespective of the many faults we have from our expectations still at its core bloody brilliant to just jump into and shoot the snot out of things. That gunplay is just brilliant.

I've stopped even caring about loot, as long as I'm physically able to kill things within a reasonable amount of time it's all the same really, I have no desire to do endless faction grinds, proper mmos cured any attempt at those long ago.

I'll probably never play this again for months when Borderlands the pre-sequel comes out though.

[SpagMasterSwift]

The first two missions I got were that one, and I got the helm and the chest armour I'm sure, so the drop is random and not tied to any specific mission.

Oooh, good to know!

[ICECOLD]

Cosmic Guru got one last night during our XBone adventures with Icecold (and also got a purple engram, the ship and a couple of Queens pieces! )

Big thanks for the games last night guys. Good fun! Can't believe how jammy Guru was though getting all those purples and an Ascendant Shard from the public event!!

I hit Crucible rank 2 last night so now I'm all decked out in purple armor. This is where the grind really begins...

Anyone on XBONE up for the daily heroic story tonight? Hit me up, tag is IC3COLD.

[K]

I understand the realities of development that sees stuff drop - Mass Effect 2 had vehicle controls in the PC manual for content that didn't come until later, but that was free and clearly something that happened late.

Whereas here it really does seem like it's being held back, watching those 2013 videos you can see exactly what they had implemented back then - that 2013 stuff references missions for the queen, raids in the reef, that are coming as DLC but marketed as part of the base game.

I actually think that most of it being from low-level zones make it more likely that it was cut, I mean, why else return to the Cosmodrome and add Level 10 strikes? These feel like levelling content. The abrupt end to the Rasputin story missions makes sense when the final Seraphim Vault behind the RAS-2 door is locked behind a paywall.

I guess we'll see when the first DLC pack comes out; there are something like seven writers listed in the end credits, so clearly something happened during development to pare down the story.

WRT the new strikes, once you get to lvl 20, the distinction between high and low level zones evaporates a bit, because you can set your own difficulty for the story missions and the strikes - so them adding new stuff to the Moon and Old Russia doesn't necessarily mean it was early-game stuff that was cut out.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Cosmic Guru got one last night during our XBone adventures with Icecold (and also got a purple engram, the ship and a couple of Queens pieces! )

Yes I did and she is a beast, solar damage to boot which I need for wizards and to complement my arc and void rockets. The others were dead jealous, see below!

I really don't get this idea that Destiny is somehow light on content. I hit Level 24 last night, have played over 34 hours, and I haven't even done the first Mars mission yet. That's already over double the amount of time I would spend playing a game of the same price. I imagine by the time I'm done with it you could probably double that play time, and that's without any sort of paid for DLC.

It's not light on content, but you have to accept there are limited areas and I personally think it helps to have a RPG background as much as a corridor shooter one. Replaying the missions with difficulty modifiers for example is fun, the hordes of level 20 minions charging way out of the temple the other night for example were a nasty surprise. Deciding on the next item you want to buy to upgrade your kit, doing the daily for an easy 5 marks and hoping for a few engrams, and then trying to figure out how you can use the days bounties most efficiently to look for materials or get a Public event or two, it all creates a decent amount of variety in pace and style of play in my opinion, from the hectic high level strikes to pootling around on Mars in your scooter looking for petrified dog turd. And that's totally ignoring the Crucible.

On reflection I've stopped looking at this as the epic mmo I imagined, that's gone out of my mind, what it is for me is a fucking fantastic co-op shooter which irrespective of the many faults we have from our expectations still at its core bloody brilliant to just jump into and shoot the snot out of things. That gunplay is just brilliant.

I've stopped even caring about loot, as long as I'm physically able to kill things within a reasonable amount of time it's all the same really, I have no desire to do endless faction grinds, proper mmos cured any attempt at those long ago.

I'll probably never play this again for months when Borderlands the pre-sequel comes out though.

Nailed it man. The shame is that Bungie don't enable temporary strike team status or something like that to enable ad hoc groups joining up for strikes or crucible play to share full comms.

Big thanks for the games last night guys. Good fun! Can't believe how jammy Guru was though getting all those purples and an Ascendant Shard from the public event!!

I hit Crucible rank 2 last night so now I'm all decked out in purple armor. This is where the grind really begins...

Anyone on XBONE up for the daily heroic story tonight? Hit me up, tag is IC3COLD.

See above!! After two chest pieces on missions I completed earlier solo, I felt incredibly lucky to get the sniper and the head piece. I only lack gloves for a complete purple set up for which I've now got a long grind to find materials to upgrade it all. I also need to find an item on Mars to kick start the bonus bounty machine gun. Hopefully I'll be in the frame more or less for a raid in a couple of weeks at the latest; I don't yet have a feel for the speed of increase in light level that comes with upgrading armour, it seems to suddenly jump ahead at times.

[metallicfrodo]

I'm quite sure that when you add in time spent at the tower you could add another 15-20pc to your playtime for this thing. 35 hours going strong!

I'm quite sure it's nowhere near that. You really think you spend an hour in the tower in every five hours you play?

[Sng]

There's a fan on top of the postmaster building and the button to activate it is over on the balcony bit up on the side. If you get someone to hit the button you can time it right and jump from the fan onto the big flag.

That explains why I've spent so much time at the Tower.

[p1nseeker]

I still don't know where the football spawns. I know the beachball is next to the bounty guy but I've never found where the football comes from.

[Takizawa]

There's a fan on top of the postmaster building and the button to activate it is over on the balcony bit up on the side. If you get someone to hit the button you can time it right and jump from the fan onto the big flag.

That explains why I've spent so much time at the Tower.

We managed to get the purple ball up there last night and were firing it into the air with the fan.

Most useful thing I did all week.

[Wavy]

According to that glitch video where the DLC unlocks there are 4-5 story missions, 3 PvP maps, 2 strikes and 1 raid coming with the Hive DLC, same again roughly for the Fallen/Queen DLC including a raid on the reef. New planets with the big expansion next year then.

[Harsin]

I think this is the funniest quote from Bungie in retrospect. When they revealed there would be no trading.

As for swapping irons in the Tower? Nope. We want you to earn em, says Bungie. You should be able to tell a badass story for every sweet jewel in your arsenal.

"Yeah, so I had a 1:25 kill/death ratio on my team and singlehandedly made them lose, then at the end the random number generator gave me a legendary engram and the rest of the team got nothing."

"Badass story bro!"

[Mystacon]

According to that glitch video where the DLC unlocks there are 4-5 story missions, 3 PvP maps, 2 strikes and 1 raid coming with the Hive one, same again roughly for the Fallen/Queen DLC including a raid on the reef. New planets with the big expansion next year then.

If correct, and it seems to be, I think that sounds like a decent chunk of content per DLC. That is of course if you take advantage of all it has to offer, I know some folks aren't interested in the PvP and it's downright difficult to get people together to tackle the Raids.

[Andy_Why]

Big thanks for the games last night guys. Good fun! Can't believe how jammy Guru was though getting all those purples and an Ascendant Shard from the public event!!

I hit Crucible rank 2 last night so now I'm all decked out in purple armor. This is where the grind really begins...

Anyone on XBONE up for the daily heroic story tonight? Hit me up, tag is IC3COLD.

I will be! If you don't mind a lowly 23 joining in. I am pretty tasty with the old hand cannon though. Would you mind helping me with a few Queens Bounties as well?

[Janski]

According to that glitch video where the DLC unlocks there are 4-5 story missions, 3 PvP maps, 2 strikes and 1 raid coming with the Hive DLC, same again roughly for the Fallen/Queen DLC including a raid on the reef. New planets with the big expansion next year then.

Has anything been heavily rumoured/ confirmed for a big expansion? There's Two dlcs releasing either side of Xmas but not heard about and expansion (though seems likely). Guessing that won't be part of the season pass?

[K]

I didn't think they'd announced anything more than the two expansions in the season pass; 2014 for Playstation, 2015 for Xbox. Then it's Destiny 2 in 2016.

[Harsin]

It was in the Activision contract that came out during the infinity Ward court case, two smaller expansions and then a bigger one (with the code name 'Comet').

[Wavy]

Yep. One would imagine the comets will get at least one DLC possibly tow also. Given there is a PvP map, its mentioned a few times in game, and is the next nearest planet we have not been to that Mercury will be the first new planet surely?

[Marmite]

I've gone from feeling a little under-whelmed with post-level 20 life last night to desperately wanting to be back on this today. I'll be on again tonight. Hopefully its just the initial leap from having no light armour to getting a decent amount with good levels that has created a slightly jarring experience.

I'm starting to feel excited about the DLC content having read the above. What's the best deal for that little lot?

[ICECOLD]

Sat at work listening to this. Not making me want to go home and play the game. At. All.

[labarte]

Stuff gets chopped out of games all the time in order to make release. Whether it was for profit or a cock up, destiny does seem a funny mix of amazing polish and half-arsed bits. Certainly if you put all the story missions back to back in the manner of a standard fps it would be a very short repetitive game. I don't imagine many play for the story but it is very lacking even for a video game. It's not as though you can even complain that too few questions are answered by the plot because it doesn't even ask very many!

If it has been cut down in a nefarious way then Bungie and/or Activision have made an error. A more compelling story in this first installment might have hooked me in to buy dlc. As it is I couldn't really give a shit and haven't even looked at a grimoire card (so tacked on you can't even look at them in game!).

Don't get me wrong I like playing it but bits of it are an embarrassment particularly the story.

[Wavy]

Cdkeys.com have the season pass for £32.99 with 5% off if its you're first order by liking them on Facebook. Not seen it anywhere else bar PSN.

Edit; actually it works out better value to get £35 PSN credit for £30.99 with 5% off and use that to buy the DLC from PSN

[rubberducker]

ok only just started this so a total noob. haven't really got any friends on PSN, so add me up if you are on it later in the evenings... (fluffyrussell is the name!)

Thanks

[ICECOLD]

Just found out you can buy Vanguard marks with collected materials. Is the same true of Crucible marks too? I'm all over it if so.

[metallicfrodo]

The one thing I don't really get is glimmer. I have more of it than I know what to do with. Yet literally every other resource and currency is really hard to come by, and yet they are mostly what you need to do things. This is compounded even more by the fact that you have the resource packs that increase the amount of glimmer enemies drop, and that the grimoire progress allows this to spread to fireteam mates as well.

It's like there was supposed to be something it was actually useful for, but it's been removed. What I would give for being able to buy other resources (helium filaments, relic iron and sapphire) with it.

[mechamonkey]

Don't do it Icecold, you'll need those materials to level up the items