Bungie's Destiny

I haven't tried to log in today. I've been working around the house and honestly I "think" I've seen everything the demo has to offer.

Here's the problem. Bioware called this a "demo" instead of a beta. So the gaming community as a whole expected this to be the finished product of the game and not a beta to "test" the game and check for bugs. If they would have called it a beta it would be easier to forgive the problems that this demo has. We played the Stronghold probably 20 times and were only able to actually complete it one time without someone getting kicked, getting a blue screen of death, locking up at the mission screen and having to restart the game, etc... I fully expected long wait times at the beginning of the game. That always happens because you have a million or so people trying to log into the game. It took me about 3 hours to finally get in and finish the mission and get access to the stronghold and freeplay. All we did as a group was play the stronghold and it is a lot of fun (when you can "actually" play it). The Javelins are a lot of fun to play around with and the gameplay is solid (again... when you can actually play). I'll upload a video of the final boss fight later. Then we tried to go into Freeplay together and were never able to get the group into freeplay as it would lock up on the mission screen every time. I played around in Freeplay by myself and it was actually a lot of fun and the map that they gave you to explore was pretty damn big with a lot of missions and materials you could play and collect things to craft weapons and things.

But after this demo I think they are going to get crushed in the media which sucks because the game is good. Unless they do something amazing before next weekend I think they are going to have even worse problems since anyone can play and the servers will just burn to the ground if they can't handle the load from just the people that pre ordered the game.

In this day and time no game launches without bugs and an update file before the game launches. That is the norm. But after this disaster of a demo I think a lot of people are going to ask for a refund and I "personally" don't blame them if they do. I'm still going to play the game because I think it has the potential of being a great game that has a lot of deep elements and playstyles to it. I imagine that a month or two into the game the majority of the bugs will be fixed. I just think this demo really destroyed their reputation already and that is sad. I can't believe they released a demo that is actually six months old and not completely representative of the final game.

 

I forgot to mention that when you are in the fort, which is actually your own instance for doing everything to your character, it looks like it's running at about 15 fps which is almost unforgivable. It wasn't just me that had this issue. It was everyone that I played with and I'm on a PS4 Pro. It really looked like shit when you were walking around the fort. Once you get out of the fort and actually played, everything ran fine and looked amazing. So I don't know how they are going to fix all of this before next weekend or even February 22nd. I "hope" they actually have a finished version of the game ready and not this demo version.

Here's my problem. I really like the game. It's solid gameplay and great mechanics. It seems like it's going to be very deep with a lot of things to do and every expansion is free. But, I like Warframe just as much if not more and that's not based just because of the terrible demo. It is based off what the game will offer. Warframe is just better I think only because it is so much deeper. But that is just my "personal" opinion because I love the deepness of the MMO style that Warframe offers. A lot of people don't like having to do a lot of research about how to do something in a game but I "personally" do. I think that Anthem will fall somewhere between Destiny and Warframe as far as content and how deep the game will be. I played the demo for two days straight and I still had the urge to jump into Warframe. So... I dunno?

 

That is a solid review of the experience. The thing is the gaming community is eager for a dev to make something great. With that said though, they are eager to see effort and growth of folks. Considering that D is dead to many and guys like me who it went away a long time ago it won’t be easy for folks to accept right away that anthem is a lost cause. I bet these updates will cause a second emergence when they get it there. I mean I’m one of those assholes who continually believed in destiny to hang around long enough in the first one which is the first and last I ever did that for a game. Normally if a game sucks, I simply move on, but I like many desperately wanted destiny to deliver. I even bought the second game after criticism a month later with the idea that there is no way they could do the same to that one...nope.

My argument here is that I bet guys will be glued to seeing the progress of anthem for the next few months. I mean with fall out 76 what’s killing that game is they are in the same situation as anthem in a certain perspective, but Bethesda cheaped the fuck out of that game and are anything but transparent about it cause they don’t want to answer themselves as really evidence wise they have no excuse. With BioWare, they applaud their successes and identify freely their mistakes and current short comings man. To me, that is unprecedented in this day and age and active communication without requesting it IMO is one of many things that will save anthem assuming they are executing these issues accordingly. I hope to be on that band wagon, but if not then in time I won’t. But that’s the beauty destiny brought for all of us, it’s not the initial content, but the long road that matters. They bullshitted and bullshitted a sad ending...anthem is likely still not ready for deployment, but hey the fact they are saying they are a work in progress has my attention in a good way and gives me some trust in that things will improve. Destiny filled a hell of a void, and like almost all of us....we have left that D ship and are ready for the next one to embark on. So anthem IMO has to really prove their are liars and no progress will be made for folks to entirely abandon cause unless they are into other genres...well this is the only ship going back out.

 

Cool....Don't really care

I've got the best sniper in Warframe and I didn't have to pray to RNJesus to get it. Also have the best secondary in the game and all I had to do was farm the materials and build it. Destiny can suck a dick with RNG.

 

Best sniper

 

It's not exactly like that. You have to get all the parts for the weapons to drop and get the blueprint. So as long as you have a relic that has a chance of dropping that part you have a chance to build that weapon or warframe. The good thing about it is, if you are in a group of four and you are going in Void Fissures (using a relic) and that piece drops for another person you can chose that piece that dropped for them and they also get to keep whatever dropped. If something drops for you and other people chose your item the game gives you extra void traces (used to level up your relic) so it's an incentive to keep playing so you can get a lot of prime items that drop out of the relic. Then... if you get a lot of prime items that you don't want or already have you can go into trade chat and sell that piece for Platinum (the actual in game currency for "real world money"). So the more you play the more shit you get.

You actually have to be good to get the good shit out of the relics and you have to know what you are doing and the best way to farm. It takes time but it also takes RNFuckingJesus out of the equation. So yes... I've got the best sniper and secondary in the game at the moment. But I specifically farmed for those items. So those items are not easy to get and not everyone has those items as you say. It doesn't work the way you think.

If Bungie brought back Glass Needles it would be an improvement. Glass Needles let you reroll your items for a better perk. The Division has a similar system where you can reroll your items for a better perk that improves that item. Both of those are good systems and allow the PLAYER to have some control over what your loadout could be. Warframe has the best (and most fair) system of any game out there. Your weapons and warframe are only as good as the mods that you put on them. So as you play the game and get items that you can trade for mods, you get mods that drop after every mission, or mods that you infuse into other mods, your items get better and better. Your items are only as good as the mods that you put on them.

So if you like Destiny in its current state I'm happy for you. If your having fun in the game then that's what matters. But I'll shit on Destiny every time from now on. I spent over four years waiting for this game to get stable and it never did. I'm happy with Warframe and your happy with Destiny. That's just the way it is.

 

That's the one thing that gives me hope for Anthem. BioWare responded immediately to the issues they were having. I still can't believe that they put this demo out but it is what it is. It will be interesting to see what happens next week. In the demo you only got access to two Javelins. You started with the Ranger but when you hit level 15 you could only choose one other Javelin. They have now opened it up where you have access to all the Javelins so they are at the very least trying to give the players something. They have been very open about what has been going on. I just fear after this demo the game will get completely shit on by game reviewers and run a lot of people off. Hell... the demo will probably run a lot of people off just because it's in a shit state. I hate it for BioWare because I think Anthem will be a good game. They just fucked up and released a completely broken demo. At the very least, I can say that every demo that Bungie released was pretty stable. This demo is almost unplayable.

 

Here's the boss fight at the end of the Stronghold. I went in with a shit loadout because I didn't have anything but a marksman rifle and a automatic pistol. So I really couldn't damage the boss so I just focused on adds most of the time and used my super when it came up. At least it didn't crash during this run.

 

And here's one thing that is really cool about Warframe. Every 30 mins or so a new mission, alert, invasion, or void fissure comes up. An alert comes up on my phone letting me know what the reward is and if it's something that I want I've got an hour to get into whatever mission that comes up. The rewards change every time and may not come back for a month or so. So if it's something your interested in or something that is valuable it's a good time to go in and get it. Once the mission countdown is over, that mission reward won't be back for a long time. So if you pick something up, even if you don't want it, you can hold on to it and sell it in trade chat at a later time. This is the Warframe Market site where you can check prices. I've got 4 Primed Flow mods and they are selling for around 80 Platinum. So if I decide to sell all 4 that is about $15 in real in game money that I didn't have to spend a dime on.

Primed Flow Mod



What it looks like on my phone when an alert comes in

 

K

 

Pretty accurate review and concerns about Anthem. I may be out $70 I dunno? We'll see? I hope it can be fixed before launch but I would say to anyone out there... DO NOT pre order this game. Wait for a month or two before you decide to buy it. I've wanted to play this game since I first saw it so I don't mind being the guinea pig. I did the same thing with The Division and got burned. Same might happen here. Time will tell.

 

You going to pull your reserve on the game? I'm glad we are on the same page!

Whats funny is that vid is next in my que to listen to on the tube!

 

No. I'm going to stick with it in the hopes that it turns out okay. But if I lose $70 I just lose $70. Is what it is. I've got Warframe to fall back on. And that's the problem. There are a lot of comparisons between Anthem and Warframe. Some of those are validated some not. But the issue is, like I mentioned before, the entire time I was playing Anthem... Man... I still had the urge to jump back into Warframe because I felt like I was missing out on all the loot.

 

Well, I've already paid for it and I'm not concerned enough to figure out how to cancel it, if that is even possible. It will be interesting to see how many people do cancel, and somebody at EA is going to have to run the numbers and do some sentiment mining to figure out whether they release something on time (but unfinished) or delay for the best return on their investment. Likely they will just release and count on working the development team to death to fix things, or at least start a microtransaction stream that gets them to break-even. Gameplay does look awesome, and personally, I'm not against a subscription model that keeps funds flowing for new content (not for just finishing the game development, though). I don't think the Destiny model works great -- it's tough to continue building content if the only additional funding coming in is from adding new players. I'm NOT a fan of microtransactions unless it's for cosmetic stuff. I won't buy the stuff, at least not a lot of it, but it's obvious that some people like that option.

 

God damnit!!!! They better fix that shit, I need this game. Warframe is kicking my ass.

 

I dunno man. I've got my reservations about it. The issue is not so much with BioWare but I think EA will somehow fuck this up. The problem is the demo is not indicative of the actual in game loot and economy. I'm starting to think there will be more locked behind paywalls or if you want that item it will be such a grind that most people will decide to pay money rather than do all the grinding to get said item. EA, like Activision, is one of the most hated companies in the business. And EA is in trouble with their stockholders right now because their shares are down so much. So I don't think BioWare is the issue because I think they are trying to put out a good game and being very transparent about it. But EA owns BioWare and I don't know how much pressure they will put on BioWare to implement more microtransactions?

This demo was horrible to say the least. If you could get in and actually play the game it was solid gameplay and a lot of fun. But goddamn the bugs. Like I said, we played the Stronghold about 20 times straight and we were only to actually able to completely finish the Stronghold one time without anyone having any issues. I got kicked one time and had to log back into the game and as I was logging back into the game they had just finished the second encounter and I was unable to get any loot because I got kicked. Now in a demo that's not a big deal. But if that were the actual game and I had spent 20 mins on that fight and got kicked at the last min. and was unable to collect any loot? That's a HUGE fucking issue with me. I'll log back in next weekend but I've got a feeling it's going to be even worse than this last demo since anyone can download it and play. I just don't think that they can fix it in a week. Unless they have a completely different demo of the ACTUAL finished game (which I don't think they have), it will be a complete and utter disaster. This last weekend was a disaster for them and if nothing changes for this coming weekend??? It's going to be hard to get the numbers of sales that they are looking for.

As far as Warframe goes and this game. There are a lot of comparisons to be made. This game is much deeper than Destiny which is a good thing. But the menus are clunky and inviting people to your game could be better implemented. Building your Javelin is going to be a lot more in depth than anything Destiny has to offer and although it's not nearly as confusing as Warframe, it's still much deeper than you think. So it will take some time to figure out how to best loadout your specific Javelin. One good thing about it, it controls similar to Warframe so the learning curve there shouldn't be bad. Plus playing with a Scuf controller helps dramatically.

 

Well, like I said before, I am keeping my excitement to a minimum and just waiting it out to see what happens when its actually released. Time will tell I guess, I'll stick with it for a while and see how shit goes with BioWare and hopefully EA keeps their mitts out of it. Hopes and dreams, its all hopes and dreams at this point.

 

You can cancel your pre order if you like. I'm like you and I'm going to stick with it. The game is going to release on Feb. 22nd. That is a set date and it's not going to change. I just don't know how they will fix all the issues with the game if the demo is any indication? As far as microtransactions in a "paid" game goes... I don't think anyone likes them. I can handle it if it's just cosmetic items because I won't be buying those items. But if it's tied to progression? That's a huge issue to me.

I'm not against paying a sub for a game that is finished and polished. I paid $15 a month for over 10 years to play MMO's and as much as I played them I got my money's worth out of them. But if the game isn't polished and it has microtransactions in it? Fuck that shit. And I know I keep going back to Warframe but if you want a perfect example of how to create a game that is fair to its player base you can look no further than Warframe. It's free to play, it looks amazing, there is an unbelievable amount of content, it's deep, and you never have to spend a dime on it if you don't want to. The developers truly care about the player base and because of that the player base supports them by actually purchasing things from the market to support the game. I have no issue with spending money in that game because it is so fucking good. But in the two months that I have played the game, I've spent $15 on it and those were for boosters to get more resources, credits, etc... There is no "pay to win" model in the game. You still have to play the game to get the mods you want.

 

I didn't try the demo personally, but it sounds like it was really, really rough for being this close to launch. There are ways to simulate things like this, which takes a lot of work, but the only alternative is to have several demo/beta tests ahead of launch. Not sure how many closed betas they had, if any -- but this is just too close to launch.

 

Yep... at this point that's about it. I still think it can be a great game but I'm starting to get the feeling that it's a little more complicated than I was hoping for. I'm really starting to think that EA will fuck this up for BioWare and we might be left with a game that isn't supported in the end. Like I said... If I'm out $70 I'm out $70. So be it. But like I said also... The entire time I was playing it, I still had a strong urge to be playing Warframe instead. But that's just me "personally".