Destiny (you know, Bungie's new FPS)

Magician

A simple man who simply loves gaming.
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I've already placed my digital preorder on PS4, but I wonder if it'll be worth upgrading to the digital CE?

$29.99 for a couple exclusive (timed?) expansions and a few skins?

If those expansions are full-on exclusive then I'll upgrade, if they're timed...I'll pass.

"Upgrade to the Destiny™ Digital Guardian Edition to receive a digital download copy of Destiny™, and access to the Vanguard Armory and Emblem pre-order bonus, an exclusive Ghost Shell, Player Ship, and Player Emblem, and a reservation for two upcoming Destiny™ Expansions featuring all new storylines, new cooperative and competitive activities, and new weapons, armor, and gear to earn."

 
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Magician

A simple man who simply loves gaming.
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Two days...just two more days.

It's fine...it'll fine...soon.

/me - puts his knees to his chest and begins rocking back and forth in anticipation.
 

xb74

Gai's Trainer
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I am so sick to death of pre-order exclusives and perks. Release one full complete version of the game you clown holes and resume counting your money.

With that out of my system, I am very interested to get impressions from peeps when possible :)
 

Magician

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Just got home from work, downloading the beta now! At 11GB it'll take around an hour to finish. I hope the rest of the audio is as cool as this install track is. New age celestial (google Hearts of Space if you'd like a taste)?! I love that shit, nevermind that it fits Destiny's setting so well.

Ahhhh, the wait is almost over.
 

Magician

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I played for a few hours last night and I've gotta admit...I'm enamored. It's the mash up of Borderlands, Halo, and an MMO that I was hoping for. I suppose it's the client system underneath everything that I'm most impressed with. I've never programmed a full game myself, but I appreciate how Destiny sorts and seperates to keep load screens and load times to a minimum.

After the introduction mission your given your jump ship and are introduced to the navigation screen (Destiny's main menu). From there you can access the central hub (Tower), missions (Earth), multiplayer (Crucible, unlocked after reaching level 5), expansion content (Moon). From the navigation screen you can invite friends and form your "fire team" (party). Forming a fire team is important for friends saying together, I'll explain.

Each mission on Earth is an instance. Within each instance are several zones or bubbles...I suppose. Each of these zones are their own instance within an instance. Each instance appears (I really didn't keep an honest track of this, I was too busy having fun) to only hold up to nine players. There's zero load time between zones. And these zones are massive; compared to say FFXIV: ARR each of Destiny's missions is the size of a raid level in FFXIV: ARR...massive.

Which brings up the importance of forming fire teams. I noticed on more than a few occasions that as I switched zones the players beside me would disappear. I think it's fair to assume that may addition to the new zone instance reached the player cap, and so the player next to me was shuffled to a seperate instance. And because of that it's important to form fire teams if you're playing with friends, otherwise you'll be shuffled to different instances.

Of course, this makes pick up parties without communication impossible, but there's a player profile/gear check/invite system in place if you want to meet'n'greet and party up on the fly.
 

cannonball

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Looks pretty cool. I wish they had thought to do a PC release. My money is ready if they ever do.
 

Magician

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Lunchtime, so I thought I'd expound more on my experience with Destiny.

The gameplay elements are already far too familiar. This is Halo, only with a new skin set and a Borderlands-esq loot and gear/inventory system. The current endgame gear is clearly presented at the various venders within the Tower. All level 20 gear, all with what appear to be rather steep prices to purchase.

Enemy AI between levels 1-3 is simple, use the environment and shoot from cover, you'll be fine. Enemy AI between 5-8 starts to perk up, flanking you if you're in cover or throwing grenades to get you out from it. Enemy drops are fair. You'll receive primary ammo from trash mobs, secondary or special ammo from elites, glimmer (currency) from special units, and then blueprints from captains/leaders/bosses.

Like an MMO, enemy squads are placed at specific locations on each mission. These squads, once eliminate, are replaced with similiar enemy units after about 30 seconds. Droppped from a warship rather than spawned into the level, which I think is a classy touch. I'm still not sure what the conditions are for special units to spawn, which appear to be the best source of monies.

The first enemy type you fight, The Fallen, have the typical "head shot for max damage" weak point. This makes starting the game with a semi-auto rifle or burst rifle important. The accuracy on the beginning auto rifles is too poor to score easy headshots with, seriously hampering your offensive capability. Then there're the interesting choices of physics for the other weapons I tried.

The shotgun, a favorite of mine from Halo, suffers greatly from extreme recoil. A squeeze of the trigger will result in the targeting reticle jumping up a couple or few inches. Realistic...sure, but it makes the shotgun unwieldy up close; forget trying to use them at medium range. At the other end are sniper rifles, which of course are difficult to use at close range and are best served to thin out enemy groups before approaching with your primary weapon.

The loot system is bit odd at first. Your best loot is found in chests, however chest are randomly spawned everytime you start a mission. Never in the same place twice. It's easier to farm enemy units for gear than it is to go looking around, but enemy drops are usually less exotic than chest rewards and the glimmer payout is much worse.

I'm looking forward to playing more over the weekend.

Anybody got questions?
 

Zapperkhan

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How are class abilities now. They felt very underwhelming for the minimal extra amount damage and the long cooldown associated with them previously. I think I played the warlock in the alpha.
 

Magician

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How are class abilities now. They felt very underwhelming for the minimal extra amount damage and the long cooldown associated with them previously. I think I played the warlock in the alpha.

I missed out on the alpha so I probably can't answer your question accurately.

The cooldown for grenades seems fine for now. I can see the layers in the gear and skill trees that'll help greatly decrease the cooldown time as you progress through the game. The class supers are much the same although there appears to be fewer avenues to decrease cooldown time as are available with grenades. Right now, there appears to be three different build choices. Survivability, grenade cooldown, or super cooldown. Do you min/max or go hybrid?

And yet...this is an opinion from only a few hours of experience with the game, so I'm probably way off base.
 

MilkManX

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I will be on the 360 beta starting Wed the 23rd in case anyone wants to know how it runs on there.
 

Lagduf

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Magician, I'm concerned by your statement that Destiny is "too familiar" - Can you elaborate?
 

td741

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I've got a couple of North American psn codes for the beta if people want in.

Not sure if they are directly redeemable at the store or if they are PS3 compatible or PS4 only.

To bad I wasn't able to import my alpha character but this time the starting levels are more structured with story elements. In some areas there are other players but I don't know if/when you (and your team) go into your own sandbox.
 
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Lagduf

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I'd love to try on PS3! I could at least test to see if it is for PS3...
 

Magician

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Magician, I'm concerned by your statement that Destiny is "too familiar" - Can you elaborate?

Just that...this is Halo. In the sense that the gameplay is slower than you'd find in say CoD. Success in combat depends on teamwork rather than twitch fps skills. Add in Borderlands gear and class specials and you'll have a good idea on how Destiny plays. However, the setting feels fresh and the character progression has more options.

As a Halo fan (although not a diehard like VT) the gameplay feels like coming home, comfortable...familiar.
 

Lagduf

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So I imagine I can jump in to Destiny and feel at home.

At first I thought you meant familiar as in "been there, done that - this has nothing new to offer to me"
 
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Magician

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Well, it appears as though the beta isn't any longer than the alpha was. After about six hours I've experienced much of the PvE content. Four story missions, one strike mission, and free roaming. Although I have no interest on trying the other two classes, I'm happy with my choice in the Warlock class.

I really don't want to play too much more since progress isn't being carried over to the full release.

I want more.
 

munchiaz

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Ive played it a few times so far. Got up to level 5. I really enjoy the single player stuff so far, which is saying alot, because i usually cant stand that stuff in FPS's. I played a little multiplayer today, and that was pretty fun as well. It was a capture the territory game, and team work was paramount to achieve victory. I'm still not 100% if I will end up buying the game, but so far its got me interested.
 

td741

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My codes are ps4 only. Duh was in description. (Said Fire team code for PS4... I'm not very observant these days.)

Anyway they were all claimed.
 

CORY

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I have 2 extra codes for the ps4 version pm me!
 

KRiSX

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i'm surprised i actually really liked this... it feels very good to play and has all the leveling/gear goodness to keep me hooked...

hit beta level cap on ps4 and will be doing the same on xbox one this week so i can compare the 2... i've actually got it pre-ordered for xbox one but a friend gave me a key for ps4... if there are drastic differences in performance i'll probably cancel my xbox order and change to ps4 but we'll see
 

Hot Chocolate

No Longer Yung, No Longer Raoul,
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Had a fun time playing with HeartlessNinny a couple nights ago
 
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