Destiny (XBone, PS4)

[king3pj]

Bungie is offering a trial/demo of Destiny for all systems. They'll even allow you to keep your progress into the full game. Exactly what the trial/demo entails seems to be a mystery. Maybe I'll pick this up, even though it would literally be the THIRD time I've started Destiny (I played the Alpha and the Beta.) Also, while I do think this is a cool idea of a try before you buy, it does reek a LITTLE of desperation from Bungie.

What version should I get? I'm assuming more people have the PS4 version of this game?

http://www.bungie.net/de/Help/Article/12406

PS4 is where I played and I might get back into it once the game and expansions are discounted. The PS4 version supposedly had extra content but I'm not even sure what that was.

Edit: I'm starting to prefer some of the features and layout on my Xbox One but the PS4 is still my go to system for most multiplatform games. New games like Dragon Age are still being released at 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One. IGN mentioned that Far Cry 4 had slow loading textures that would pop in as you walked past but mentioned that it wasn't a problem on PS4. Neither of these things would probably hurt my enjoyment of a game but I'm not sure why I would play the inferior version when I have both options available.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I think it varies from game to game. Even though the PS4 is the "more powerful" console I've seen a number of times where the Xbox One version performs better, such as with CoD:MW and Shadow of Mordoor. I think at this point it just goes back to you get the version that more of your friends have. When it comes to Destiny though I don't know of anyone that has it. Maybe my cousins have it, but they're not even on my friends list. I may just get the One version because my One is hardwired to my router and the transfer will be faster, as opposed to my PS4 which is on the other side of the house and the signal (while not laggy) isn't as strong/fast.

 

[king3pj]

I hadn't heard the reports about Advanced Warfare and Shadow of Mordor running worse on PS4. I do know that both games run at a native 1080p on PS4 but not Xbox One. I've also put about 20 hours in with Advanced Warfare on PS4 and haven't really noticed performance being a problem.

That being said, you are right about just playing on the platform your friends play on. I would be perfectly happy playing all my multiplatform games on Xbox One and I highly doubt I would notice a tiny resolution difference. If a game has lots of slowdown, screen tearing, or textures popping in that might be a different story. For me, unless I am playing COD, Madden, NBA 2K, or WWE none of my friends will be playing anyways. These Halo nights we've been having have been fun because it's nice to party up with people on a different game for once.

Edit: Here is an IGN Wiki that shows native resolution and framerate for just about every game on PS4/Xbox One. I don't see a single game that runs at a higher resolution on Xbox. Many are higher on PS4 and a lot of them are the same.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/PS4_vs._Xbox_One_Native_Resolutions_and_Framerates

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah I couldn't care less about resolution. As long as the game looks good that's all I care about, and I can't tell the difference between 900 and 1080p unless I look side by side. And I want a more consistent, fluid experience as opposed to a prettier one.

As far as the frame rate issues on CoD, here's the info I found:

http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/advanced-warfares-1080p-on-ps4-comes-at-a-price/

And I remember hearing on the IGN review that Mordor has a few frame rate issues on the PS4, but that it didn't deter or hurt the experience (he gave it a 9.3 I believe.)

I think the One pushes more for the best frame rate, while the PS4 seems to be pushing more for higher resolution, which is having some adverse effects. Still it's early in the life of all the consoles so I'm sure they'll sort these growing pains out in due time.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Destiny's first expansion DLC comes out today.

http://trib.al/AdUeiUz

 

[yourbeliefs]

Apparently everyone gets a free gift today.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/7/7508011/destiny-free-legendary-gift

 

[yourbeliefs]

Many people aren't happy with the pricing scheme of the new Taken King expansion, and the director had to come out and defend it.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-king-director-defends-40-expansion-price-tag

 

[yourbeliefs]

One of the quests in The Taken King is accessible only buy getting a can of Red Bull, from 7-11..

http://quest.redbull.com/us/en

It should be noted that this unlocks for everyone on 1/1/16

 

[king3pj]

I actually think about jumping back into this game every time I see it on sale for $19.99. The only reason I don't is that I've already played all the content that comes with that package. If I played again it would be for the expansions and to check the raids out. The problem is that it would cost me $20 for the game (if I can find that price on sale), $35 for the expansion pass, and $40 for The Taken King expansion.

I'd like to check all this stuff out but I'm not paying $95 for a year old game. Maybe there will be a complete edition someday to pull me back in but it sounds like they trivialize all the old progression each time they release a new expansion. I'm not sure how good the experience would be for new players a year or two after this stuff comes out.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Shots fired..

 

[yourbeliefs]

Dying Light is doubling down on their mocking

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/25/8848529/dying-light-techland-drink-for-dlc

Also, I couldn't help but laugh at this

 

[yourbeliefs]

Apparently Bungie hired comedian David Cross to write some jokes for Destiny, but they ended up not using any of them. Perhaps they were afraid that Ghost would actually have a personality.

http://kotaku.com/david-cross-says-he-wrote-jokes-for-destiny-that-bungie-1715634105

 

[king3pj]

I actually think about jumping back into this game every time I see it on sale for $19.99. The only reason I don't is that I've already played all the content that comes with that package. If I played again it would be for the expansions and to check the raids out. The problem is that it would cost me $20 for the game (if I can find that price on sale), $35 for the expansion pass, and $40 for The Taken King expansion.

I'd like to check all this stuff out but I'm not paying $95 for a year old game. Maybe there will be a complete edition someday to pull me back in but it sounds like they trivialize all the old progression each time they release a new expansion. I'm not sure how good the experience would be for new players a year or two after this stuff comes out.

So it looks like The Taken King Digital Collectors Edition is the package I want. It includes the base game and all DLC up to The Taken King expansion for $80. Once that goes on sale for $40-$50 I may finally jump back into Destiny.

Now it's just a matter of which console I would go with. I have a level 22 Titan on PS4 but I actually have a few friends still playing on Xbox One. If the expansions have really trivialized the base game's leveling system as much as I have heard it might be worth switching to Xbox and trying to catch up to the people I know who still play this game every night.

I still find it kind of shocking that Destiny hasn't been ported to PC. I really thought that would happen a few months after launch but I haven't even heard rumors suggesting they are thinking about it.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I don't think we'll ever see Destiny on PC. Destiny is a MASSIVE game and porting it won't be easy. Odds are they'd have to outsource it (let's not forget that Bungie hasn't made a computer game since 1998, unless you count Oni in 2001 by now defunct Bungie West) and it'll likely be buggy as hell because history has shown that if you don't develop something with PC in mind first, the port will almost always be awful. And all this while they're still developing content for the 4 other console versions. I don't think there's big enough demand in the PC market for Destiny. Let's not forget that the MMO market (yes, Destiny is an MMO no matter what Bungie says) on PC is MUCH more saturated, so it's even harder to make an impact there.

 

[king3pj]

I actually think about jumping back into this game every time I see it on sale for $19.99. The only reason I don't is that I've already played all the content that comes with that package. If I played again it would be for the expansions and to check the raids out. The problem is that it would cost me $20 for the game (if I can find that price on sale), $35 for the expansion pass, and $40 for The Taken King expansion.

I'd like to check all this stuff out but I'm not paying $95 for a year old game. Maybe there will be a complete edition someday to pull me back in but it sounds like they trivialize all the old progression each time they release a new expansion. I'm not sure how good the experience would be for new players a year or two after this stuff comes out.

So it looks like The Taken King Digital Collectors Edition is the package I want. It includes the base game and all DLC up to The Taken King expansion for $80. Once that goes on sale for $40-$50 I may finally jump back into Destiny.

Now it's just a matter of which console I would go with. I have a level 22 Titan on PS4 but I actually have a few friends still playing on Xbox One. If the expansions have really trivialized the base game's leveling system as much as I have heard it might be worth switching to Xbox and trying to catch up to the people I know who still play this game every night.

I still find it kind of shocking that Destiny hasn't been ported to PC. I really thought that would happen a few months after launch but I haven't even heard rumors suggesting they are thinking about it.

Looks like I completely misunderstood The Taken King purchase options. That's understandable with all the ways you can purchase this stuff. Turns out you don't need the Collectors Edition to get what I want. Here are the purchase options for The Taken King. The $60 legendary edition is much more reasonable than I originally thought. Once this goes on sale for $40 or less it should be a pretty nice buy.

https://www.destinythegame.com/taken-king/wheretobuy

If you already own the base game and expansions you can buy just The Taken King expansion for $40.

If you don't own any of it you can buy The Taken King Legendary Edition for $60. This includes Destiny, Expansion 1, Expansion 2, and Taken King.

Then there is also the $80 Collectors Edition I talked about earlier that includes everything plus a Steelbook case and some other nonsense.

My main takeaway from this is that early adopters got screwed. They paid $60 for the base game, $35 for the expansion pass, and now they have to pay $40 for The Taken King totaling $135.

The $40 they are asking for this latest expansion seems unreasonably high when newcomers can get everything ever released for this game for $60. People thought the Arkham Knight season pass was bad but this is a whole new level of crazy.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah. In case I needed another reason to not get into Destiny..

 

[king3pj]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/04/nolan-north-to-take-over-role-of-ghost-in-destiny?utm_source=IGN hub page&utm_medium=IGN (front page)&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=Blogroll

I originally thought this was a joke when I read the headline but it looks like it's true. Nolan North has re-recorded all of Peter Dinklage's lines in Destiny. Apparently Bungie hired Nolan North to take over Dinklage's role for The Taken King expansion. They liked his version of Ghost so much better that they decided to have him do his own version of all of Dinklage's lines in the base game and the two season pass expansions too.

When Taken King comes out they are going to patch the game to switch over to Nolan's recording of the lines.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I was about to post this. That is VERY odd. I doubt it was cheap to re-record ALL of Dinklage's dialog.

 

[king3pj]

I was about to post this. That is VERY odd. I doubt it was cheap to re-record ALL of Dinklage's dialog.

Yeah, it seems kind of insane to redo the entire voice over of a game that is a year old. Sure, his performance was pretty lackluster compared to Tyrion on Game of Thrones. Still, it was hardly the worst I've heard in a video game.

I had problems with Destiny but Dinklage's dull line reading wasn't a major factor for me. Destiny is not The Last of Us. The story is barely there and the character you control only has a couple lines of dialogue in the entire game. Most of Dinklage's lines are something like "hold off these enemies while I unlock the door." The vast majority of voice over did come from him but he was playing a robot and not given a lot to work with. Yes, it was lifeless but this seems like a waste of resources.

 

[king3pj]

So I caved in and bought the digital collectors edition of Taken King (the version that comes with Destiny, both currently released expansions, the Taken King expansion, and some other stuff) on Tuesday.

I switched to the Xbox One version even though I already had a level 22 character on PS4. The reason I did this was because I have a couple friends who play Destiny on Xbox but that wasn't the case on PS4.

Part of the thing that sold me is that if you buy the digital version they give you access to everything that is currently released now even though The Taken King doesn't come out until 9/25. This gives me time to level up my character before The Taken King comes out so I can catch up to my friends and actually play with them when they move on to the Taken King content. I'm hoping I will actually be able to try out the raids this time since I know other people playing too.

Speaking of leveling, I think they must have changed this system since I played this game almost a year ago. I've only been playing since Tuesday night and I'm already to level 14. I've only completed the first mission on the moon and the moon is only the 2nd out of 4 places you travel to. Level 20 is the highest you can get by earning XP and when I played the game the first time I didn't get there until I only had one or two missions left. At the pace I'm going I'll be there before I finish the moon and I'll still have two planets to go. I have played a couple hours of The Crucible (PvP multiplayer) so that is part of the reason I'm over leveled for my missions.

I'm actually okay with leveling faster than normal. I have already played the non-existent story. I just want to get close to the level my friends are at so we can play together and still have the game be balanced. If I were to try now my character would be too weak to get any kills. It wouldn't be any fun for me and I would be making things harder for them. I need to get to at least 26 so I can try out the raids too.

Character leveling currently goes up to level 34 but everything after 20 comes from equipping armor with high "light levels." I was able to find enough of this stuff to get to level 22 on PS4. To get into the 30s you have to grind for rare armor with very high light. I should point out that the light system is going away when Taken King comes out. This article from 2 days ago says that you will go all the way from 1 to 40 by earning XP when the new expansion comes out. I'm not sure which way makes more sense to keep people playing in the end game.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/04/bungie-revamping-destinys-leveling-system