Today’s the day Destiny gets an overhaul. Bungie has posted patch notes for the new 2.0 update, which went live today. Lots of interesting balance tweaks in there, particularly for Crucible obsessives. We’ll have impressions as soon as we’ve had a chance to play.
Today’s The Day Destiny Gets An Overhaul
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38 responses to “Today’s The Day Destiny Gets An Overhaul”
Heres my impression. Its still the exact same game only soon 95% of your equipment will be worthless so you will have to spend another year farming only to then have Destiny finally come out of beta which will render 95% of year 2 equipment obsolete meaning another year of mindless grinding.
No Thanks.
So… it’s an MMO?
Honestly this is the first MMO style game Ive played so I cant compare. If this is how all of them are though, it boggles the mind how they became so popular.
Most MMOs have ten times as much content on launch as Destiny has after a year. The MMO comparison is one Bungie’s publicly tried to downplay because they know they don’t measure up when compared like for like.
Most MMOs will introduce you to side-quests with their own plot-arcs, dozens of social and questing hubs and biomes compared to Destiny’s one social and four questing. One zone in World of Warcraft will feature numerous rich inter-connected quests with plots rivaling the depth and complexity of the entirety of Destiny’s story. MMOs typically launch with a dozen or more classes to Destiny’s 3. (And no, the subclasses don’t count either, because most MMOs come with AT LEAST three subclasses to each of their classes, too.) Dozens of skills and abilities per class, to Destiny’s four.
They don’t like to make the comparison because actually comparing anything other than art and mechanism for interaction (trigger-pulling vs clicking) reveals just how shallow their metagame is. FF14 showed that consoles can handle the networking required to run a good MMO, but apparently Destiny being a FPS means that all that MMO-standard content, mechanics and competent communication is too hard or even impossible.
Bungie would have done a LOT better if they’d bit the bullet, accepted they were making an MMO grinder, and incorporated all the features that make those so successful, such as social tools allowing ease of casual communication with the randoms you meet in the world, smooth and quick grouping mechanics with actual benefits, comparatively in-depth crafting and cosmetics systems, worlds packed full of storylets and subplots and NPCs going about their business to make the world feel ‘lived in’ instead of ‘infested’.
Actually treating their game as an MMO might have also helped Bungie counteract the fact that MMO veterans have been inoculated somewhat against the skinner-box psychological manipulation that leads people to say that they have numerous complaints but can’t seem to stop playing. I personally suspect that if you were to measure the difference between those who bailed on Destiny early and those who kept playing, you’d probably find MMO veterans made up a significant percentage of the quitters, unimpressed by Bungie’s very bare-minimum entry into the genre. Once you’ve seen past the smoke and mirrors, they stop working as well as they used to.
I stopped playing once I had completed the campaign, what little of it there was.
Whilst I’m sure you’re correct, I’d be willing to bet there’s a fair contingent of single player gamers who stopped because the campaign was somewhere between lacklustre and non-existent.
Thing is tho, the core gameplay of mmos tend to be pretty naff.
Sometimes I just want to chill on.the couch and shoot things. And Destiny gives enough of an excuse to do that every now and then.
Destiny is outstanding at moment-to-moment gameplay and that is likely the only reason I played it as long as I did, even after identifying the grind. It just fails at all the motivating meta. 🙁
Don’t forget the FPS element. Yes the MMO storytelling and arcs are missing but it feels they were only ever trying to go COD deep. Run here shoot! Run there shoot! Grind. Grind. Run. Shoot.
Personally i think any two of the following.. sparrow races, spaceship dogfights and wildlife would have added enough to stop much of the “this game is empty / nothing to do” attitude. The story is rough and not-as-shown so it the most noticeable target.
The grimoire is odd (def not great) but i could see how it has been shoehorned from just a game encyclopedia. I also think a Skyrim/Witcher-length FPS world would be daunting for me. I actually avoid epic games in fear i’d never see the end. Halo games were always on the limit lengthwise for me to get all the way through.
Another comparison could be a JRPG I suppose.
They’re also about incessant grinding.
I get that they are making weapons obsolete like in any mmo, but, new weapons in say WoW dont actually change the way you play. Your whole game is based on your skills not you weapons whereas destinys gameplay is directly affected by your weapons so to me its not the same. That being said, i am looking forward to changing things up and getting new gear
Has there been any word on when us Xbox Destiny players will get that “timed” exclusive Playstation content? Not that I’ll be going back (quit after the first 2 months when my friends got bored) or touching TTK (too little, too late), it’d just be nice to know that we aren’t very much second class citizens any more.
I play(ed) on both consoles. It’s not game-changing content. Don’t stress dude, Xbox will enjoy some time at the top when Tomb Raider comes out.
In Phil We Trust.
Oh I trust Phil, literally anyone would be better than Mattrick. Couldn’t care less if MS or Sony has “time at the top” (of what?) as I own both so that system exclusivity doesn’t matter, I just choose to play multiplayer games on xbox because only 2 of my friends have playstation plus. I’d just like to know if/when the content will release and we aren’t treated like second class citizens that have to pay the same amount of money for a lesser product.
Fair enough. 🙂 To answer your original question though – looks like it should be on TTK launch? http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/24/destiny-the-taken-king-e3-2015-exclusives-xbox-playstation/
I’m interested in Destiny. Just don’t want to by the console lol.
Just remember folks this is the patch that seems to be confused with TTK…you get these changes regardless (some are worthwhile) but fuck me it is about time Bungie decided on what sort of game they are making and a goddamn single fucking currency and how to do weapon progression.
TTK is the new DLC content out next week which will cost you $69.95 (up from previous DLC cost of $25) which is obviously a big thank you kick-in-the-balls to us year 1 guardians…
Thanks Bungie!
$70 for Dlc? Does it at least have $70 worth of content?
That appear to be somewhat debatable…new story missions, new strikes, 1 new raid, new cruc maps…but not sure it is worth almost double the last 2 which would of had similar content.
And yes, that is just the TTK digital download DLC … there are more expensive options if you want to get some overpriced emotes and shaders…
It is assumed that the content added will be comparable to at least the base game, hence it being roughly the price of a standalone game. Whether it actually is remains to be seen.
Its got a heap of content… but don’t know about $70 worth. I quite enjoy the game, but am struggling with the price. If I was living in the US, I’d happily buy it, but with our Australian mark up… its a bit steep
Holy crap! I didn’t realize it would be $70! I wasn’t considering TTK, but now I may be done with the franchise. Which is a real shame as I’ve been a huge fan of Bungie since Marathon (till a month into Destiny anyway).
TTK only cost me US$30, but I’m not sure what Australian pricing is. It’s a pain-in-the-arse though, you can only get that price IF you own original + expansions all digitally. I have it digitally on Xbox and disc on PS4, so this time around I’ll just end up doing the new stuff with Microsoft.
EDIT: Correction, I think it was $39
If it was 39 bucks i’d buy it for sure, even 50. I’m still not sure about $70 though, i think its areal kick in the balls for fans that bought the original and first 2 expansions. Should at least get a bit of a discount as a hey thanks for making all this possible and supporting us…but no
Queue the delicious tears of rage.
Watching that download meter now as I benefit from regional Australia download speeds (no sign of the NBN rollout here folks!). So in about 24 hours I should be able to check out the changes, which I have been following closely and look very positive — I’m sure I’m not alone in being optimistic — you just need to look at Twitch to see how popular this game is.
I think it’s something shitty about the PSN connection specifically.
I have amazing speeds for anything except PSN. I can download anything else in the world at a gig a minute, but PSN seems to prefer to deliver at a couple meg a minute.
Same!
I can download 20gb games in 2hours, while my brother’s Xbox Will take over 4 hours to download the same game.
I am 100% sure, your full of shit.
*you’re
same.. Psn speeds are terrible.
Same here, 4 days to download FIFA 15.
It’s the CDN Sony/Microsoft are using to distribute the patch that’s throttling that speed. I’m downloading at about 250kBps, when I can get 2.2MBps from Steam. Turns out sending a million people 17.6GB each takes a fair amount of bandwidth and time.
I’m definitely keen. Destiny for all its faults is a dam good game and alot of the changes with this patch and the new content coming with TTK sounds amazing.
I also live in an area that apparently doesn’t need fast internet. ‘But your web pages still load up!’
21 hours left as at 7am. Thanks overlords!
They have me curious, so will be jumping on tonight for sure. Whether I enjoy it or not is still left to be seen, but I will give it a go all the same. Still on the fence with TTK though, that price is killing it for me considering I paid less for the full game to begin with
Here’s the thinf about Destiny; even Bungie don’t know what it actually is. And I kinda like that. It’s like we’re on a journey together to see where it can go and what it might become. I and my partner are as excited as ever to explore 2.0 and TTK, but I think we both agree that it’s the kind of game that really doesn’t fit within conventional game genres, because it mixes together so many elements. Maybe they did bite off more than they could chew initially, but I’m all for a game and a studio that isn’t afraid to evolve as time goes on.
No other game has me talking about it so far after launch.
3 hours gone and still the update hasn’t applied and that is while I am on 100/2.0 download/upload speed. Why can’t they do the update in smaller amounts, instead I am here twiddling my thumbs thinking “When is this ever going to finish” I have a love/hate relationship with Bungie I am afraid and it’s starting to turn more into hate/hate.
these problems with server connection issues seem to take forever