Bungie's Destiny

Part of the problem with play for service games such as Anthem, The Division, Destiny, etc... is you can do all the internal testing you want and the game may run perfectly in internal testing. But when you release it into the wild there are so many variables that just can't be anticipated once it reaches the masses. IP addresses, connection issues, stability, etc... so those are things that have to be worked on after the game releases. There is no online game that releases without bugs and patches anymore. It's par for the course and I fully expect that. I'm personally willing to give them time to fix the issues that they couldn't see coming. It's the people that think a game should release perfectly without any bugs is what kills me. It's impossible to gauge all the different variables that come up. So patches have to be created to fix those issues. The worst part is people put out reviews of a game within a few days about a game and that is not indicative of what the game will be like six months from now.

Destiny had plenty of chances to do that and they didn't deliver. They never found their footing. The core mechanics of the game were great. No one can argue that. But the content they chose to put out was / is their biggest problem. That's why I've deleted anything Destiny related off my PS4. It will never get any better and they will fail in the end.

 

Anthem seems to me like something happened deep into development that forced them to start over and they didn't have time to finish before EA mandated a release. It could have benefited greatly from another year in development. They could even have avoided a lot of hate and bad reviews by not having that ridiculous early release schedule and just drop the game for everybody with the day 1 patch already in place.

 

Obviously I don't know how the game development played out during those six years. I'm sure the game changed many times over the course of development. But I agree that EA, at a certain point, was to the point that you are going to release this game on this date. The demos certainly didn't do Anthem any favors. It was by far the worst demo that I have ever played. That said... the demos weren't indicative of the final product which turned out to be completely different. There is still a lot of work to be done with Anthem. And given time, I think they will be able to do it as long as EA will let them.

 

This is a copy / paste from an earlier post that I posted about the Cons of the game and none of these have changed:

The cons:

#1: The Fort is hard to figure out where you need to go and who to talk too. It's also boring as fuck IMO. But you have to go to the fort to pick up your contracts. I skip almost all the conversations since they have absolutely zero impact on the game and your decisions that you make with your answers don't matter at all. The same outcome will happen in game no matter what you choose.

#2: It would be nice if they would allow for a marker to be placed on the open world map which would make navigating much easier rather than having to open your map to make sure you are going in the right direction during Freeplay.

#3: The radar FUCKING SUCKS! Put in a radar that actually makes sense for Christ sakes. Sometimes shit will spawn behind you and you don't know it. If you get sniped on hard / GM difficulty it's a one shot kill and you have no idea what killed you.

#4: If you go down, let there be a spectator mode like Destiny instead of just sitting there looking at your downed Javelin.

#5: They have drastically reduced the loading screen times but they are still a bit annoying. Destiny hid there loading screens by looking at your ship flying in space. That is a much more aesthetically pleasing screen rather than looking at a staganate screen.

Those aren't game breaking issues. But more of a quality of life change that they could easily make in the game.

 

Well shit it’s too bad I never got into destiny as it would be cool to take advantage of your down time.

 

Six years is a long time to have something in development. There are huge teams involved in making a game these days. It's a business, and at some point you have to stop bleeding money. You have to call it at some point. I kind of do blame the development side of things as much as the publisher. On the one hand, the publisher probably shouldn't force pushing it out before it's ready, but on the other hand, it should have been ready.

Developing for the current set of consoles actually makes it relatively controlled. Both have standardized hardware with similar architectures (as opposed to the PS3, which had a most awesome architecture, but very different from the PC-like architecture of the XBox and current generation PS4). Sure, there are various networking things that are out of their control that need to be worked out, but even those are relatively known and mainly just need to be "tuned" when releasing. Not a ton of variation to plan and test for, unlike in the PC world.

Anyway, I'll fire it up soon, and I'm sure I will enjoy it for a time and likely feel like I got my money's worth.

 

So I got to play Anthem with 3 of my friends for about 4 hours tonight and it was a fucking blast. For those that say there isn't anything to do in the game they are wrong. Yes there are only three Strongholds but that isn't the main draw. The main draw is the constant stream of loot that you get from doing Strongholds, Contracts, Freeplay, and Quickplay (where you jump into someone else game in progress to help them along). If you do quickplay, the loot that drops for you actually drops at your level. I can't tell you the number of Masterwork items I've gotten from just doing that. Now I'm looking for my first Legendary items to start dropping now that I'm fully masterworked out. The world is huge and they haven't even opened but just a portion of the map so far. Negative reviews aside... this game is a blast to play. My cons that I listed still stand but I'm willing to overlook those because the game is so much fun. It's one of those rare games that makes you actually feel powerful.

 

I’m finally 580! 650 here I come!

Only a few more gambits I have that gambit auto rifle.

 

Was also going to finish last word but then read the steps. Eff that.

 

I guess I need to fire this up and check it out. One more gambit first.

 

As per a Reddit thread, it seems legendaries have a higher drop rate from killing adds that aren't tied to the event or mission you're doing. For example, random enemies that are in between encounters when doing a contract. I haven't tested yet but will try it out today.

Also, looks like the planned March 12 patch is out now ! Many fixes in this one, going to go try it out now

 

I heard that also. I’ve been clearing out the valor board and haven’t gotten any legendaries yet but I heard they were rolling out the patch today.

 

Patch is out. They have made some pretty good quality of life improvements. Wind wall only lasts for 20 secs now but that's not a big deal since all it took was one sniper shot to take it down which pretty much meant that it only lasted for 5 secs at most. Now it can withstand more damage which is helpful. A lot of other patch notes that just generally make the game even better.

 

Haha. I have been. I think this week I’ve only played three days. Each of those I completed all of the bounties. Well not the void damage ones. Last night I finally got a prime engram that gave me something over 600. Most of my other drops are in the 500’s.

I hear you on hand cannons. I like using them in pve but suck with them in cruicible. I remember doing that quest for the shotgun in destiny one. I can’t remember the name. It had a similar quest step in crucible where you had to keep you kills over deaths with a shotgun. I saw that same thing for last word and didn’t want to do it again. Shotguns are one thing. Handcannons will be hard.

Side note that gambit autorifle is so sweet. Well worth all of the gambit games it took.

 

The last word was my jam back in D1. I agree the hand cannon has a learning curve, but once you start to gel with it man it just feels good putting down some peeps. Probably kept me in that game way longer than I would have been without the last word.

 

Ooooh pleeeeaaase no more gambit. All I want to do is to be able to reset my rank. I can’t believe I’m getting sick of gambit. Aka the same level over and over again!

Side note. I’ve read you get to choose sides between gambit and vanguard. I’m definitely doing gambit. Now that _____ is dead there isn’t anyone good left for vanguard.

 

Well today is the day. I won’t be playing until later, but who’s choosing which side? Apparently it’s a pretty convincing story when you play through.

First thought is the drifter but who plows after reading about it.

 

I'll probably do both, I have not had time to play anything lately though, too much work is a good problem I guess?

 

Better than no work!

I logged on and don’t have anything new.

 

As you would expect my light level isn’t high enough. Gotta be 620 to do the reckoning which after that I think you unlock the the new stuff. I’m level 617.