Topic: DESTINY 17gb update

@Red620Ti So is Destiny now a 'proper' game, with a campaign and single player stuff or is it still online mp only?

Edit: Didn't see your review before I sent this off. I'll have a read and see what you thought

My "Redview"? I like that term!

@crippyd, there is a bit of a story to the taken King but honestly, you can bang through it in a few hours (I've played it through 3 times - one for each character). I honestly feel that to get any value at all out of it, you have to hit the multiplayer. Am I enjoying it - yes. Do I think it's worth the asking price - absolutely not. Once again Bungie have reused lots of the areas and the enemies are just an Alan Wake version of those there previously. The old network problems are back (they really don't have enough servers). Destiny IS strangely addictive but no way is it value for money. -Anyone is free to disagree of course but first try playing Borderlands DLC and tell me that both give the same VFM (BorderlandsDLC is 25% of the cost).

@sorethumbed Thanks for the in-depth reply. With your input and @Red620Ti "Redview" it is certainly food for thought! I may pick this up when its on sale.

@crippyd, no probs. I'm sure there are plenty in here who may well disagree with my assessment. As I said and whatever criticism I may lay at its door, it is strangely addictive. I just feel that Bungie have been more than a tad lazy.

Sorethumbed does make a good point, and if I was doing a proper review instead "one mans impression", then VFM would come into it. Mr Thumbed's perspective does seem to be more from a single player stance (correct me if I'm wrong, mate?) whereas I have a regular fireteam, and its in the multiplayer that the game really shines. Me and Des were doing the Nightfall last night, and we came to a bit where there some Vex Hobnobs. Well, I shot one, and as it shielded, I punched it, knocking it off the platform it was standing on, straight on top of Des! His squawk of terror and me saying "Surprise!" had us giggling probably longer than we should. That I managed to do it again later with a Minotaur was just the icing on the cake.

In other news, my light level hit 290 this morning. Raid ready baby! Thank goodness for feeding armour to armour....

In essence, the Taken King itself is just more of the same. Mission structure is the same in general, levelling up is similar in principal, there is still the grind to get resources, weapons, gear etc. It still plays incredibly well and feels great mechanically.

However if you liked what Destiny offered, The Taken King has improved on certain areas. The 'Story' has better writing and more depth and cut scenes - Its still not as deep as a dedicated SP campaign though. The 'grind' isn't as tedious as drop rates of engrams seem to be more significant so you are always getting more gear. The new quests open up more things to do than just repeating the story missions, playing predictable strikes etc. Talking of Strikes, these have been changed to be less predictable too. Whilst the bosses are the same, you get different enemies and objectives en route to these making the same Strikes play differently - albeit slightly in some cases.

Overall the Taken King is better than Destiny in a lot of ways but it is still Destiny. In terms of 'Value for Money', The Taken King is a little steep for those that own Destiny and the Expansions but compared to games like the Witcher 3, Borderlands etc, I have a LOT more hours invested in just the expansion content than I do in any of these. Not saying those games are bad or poor value, but just using those as examples and to put some context into it. Its nowhere near as deep as those at face value, but the gamplay is very addictive and as a result I have nearly 1,700hrs (just from my XB1 version) so far from the content and I don't play the MP (PvP). Therefore in terms of 'cost per hour' Destiny and all the expansions so far have by far the lowest of any of my games.

I have hit 290 too...

@Red620Ti: whilst you are correct in that I generally play solo, my points are made about the game in general. By value for money, I'm talking about your average player who plays through the storylines and the odd MP game (and by MP I'm including strikes and raids, not just pop). Destiny is just not for those. Most of the multiplayer is in fact locked off from you if you are not in a regular fire team and I've berated that ludicrous design decision before. 7 short missions covering old ground do not a story make (though admittedly they are more than what was there before). It's a corridor shooter (admittedly the corridors get occasionally wider) and is very good at it. It's when Bungie try to pretend it's something else that I get fed up.

@BAMozzy, 4 hours a day for a year! Man you must like the grind. 😀😀😀

@sorethumbed: Its hardly a 'grind' if its an enjoyable game from my perspective.

And incidentally, the majority of the co-op part of the PvE - i.e. Strikes are all match-made - in other words you do not require a 'regular' fireteam. The only activities that require you to find a 'fireteam' is the Raids and Weekly Nightfall. - basically the highest level activity. Personally I am OK with this as I wouldn't want to be matchmade with people who don't communicate or use the same language, have a very different agenda (i.e want to be carried through for the rewards, run off, severely under level etc). All other content though is possible to play without having 'friends' to play with - this content includes Story, Strikes (inc weekly Heroics), PvP, Patrols etc. This content will also get you to the level required to do the highest level content if you wish - not like before when you needed to play the Raid to reach the highest level.

Admittedly if you don't like playing games with others - randoms or friends - and/or expect a game like 'Halo' (i.e a traditional campaign that you play once or twice with a very separate MP) then this game is not for you. You are probably better off buying Wolfenstein: The New Order for your FPS as that is a SP Campaign only game.

@BAMozzy, lots of people are happy in other games to play the highest level content with randoms. Bungie are just trying to add an unwarranted level of 'mysticism' to the highest level content. Try a 12 player ESO trial, that's hard enough and just because people are 'randoms' doesn't mean they don't communicate. It's not that I choose to play solo, I just don't randomly add people to my friends list just to be able to game.

@sorethumbed: The difference between Destiny and other games in terms of end-level content is that the content is designed specifically with team-work, communication and co-ordination to be successful. They are not like the Strikes and Missions - just with the difficulty turned up. People have very specific roles and there is a lot of timing involved too. Often people are not always in the same area either and so need to communicate to let others know where they are or when to do certain things to progress. Without team work, communication or co-ordination it will not succeed! They are not something that can be done in an hour (unless you are very experienced and all know exactly what to do) either.

You do NOT have to add people to your friends list either. You can find 'Randoms' willing to do these activities, willing to communicate and be part of fireteam etc - either in the game (by inspecting and messaging) or via websites. They do NOT need to be on your friends list at all. A lot of my completions have been with people I found on websites and only ever played with them once. Maybe if you get on well enough with them you can add them to your friends so it may become easier than trying to find randoms everytime.

@ BAMozzy, doesn't change my point. Try a 12 player trial, same applies, communication is vital. It's just exactly what I said and the point you make just reinforces it, you can (and have) complete the Raid with randoms, you are just using Reddit (or similar) to provide the matchmaking that Bungie have failed to implement. Just as you are grinding ( computer game term - rerunning content over and over to increase level/ obtain better gear, you may not see it as such, most others would) to obtain value from limited content.
EDIT - The real reason IMO that Bungie want you to play in a group is that it makes it much easier to return when you get KTO as that is back with a vengeance. You seem to be experiencing network problems. For more information on this error code, search the Internet for error code "Bungie get a grip".

When Bungie announced Destiny, they said "we understand that people come home from work tired so we don't want it to be a grind. That translated to, "run this strike playlist over and over and over and over and we will reward you with better gear for doing so. Bungie have become the BBC of gaming with "another chance to see" and infinite repeats.

They are "comfortable with the value destiny represents". I would be too if I could deliver £5 of NEW content and charge £40 for it. When Bungie delivered Halo, they were hand in hand with Microsoft. Now they are flying solo, we are seeing them for what they are.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game, I'm just enjoying it with the blinkers off.

We're going to have to get you through the Raids, Mr Thumbed...Or can I call you sore?

Lets get a time nailed down with some peeps. Aetheon on easy, no one die?

@Red620i sore will do (I'd prefer Billy) as I am at the moment. 4 days on the south coast doing my impression of someone trying to get a minor part in the remake of cool hand Luke (breaking rocks) looking for fossils. Not even one! Next to me, some little kid said ooh mummy, look at this as he pulls a fekkin huge Ammonite out of the sand/pebbles after 5 mins and I have a sneaky suspicion that it came out of a chunk of rock that I discarded.

I'm up for it. I've got a warlock at 260 and a Titan and hunter about 230. I can probably get both of them past the 240 mark in the next couple of days so whichever you want me to use, I will focus on. I'm on every day during the day and every night after 10:30pm. I've completed 260 lvl strikes, I may be on ESO or Mad Max or Crysis 3 but can easily come off. I guess Aethon is Vault of Glass? If it is I've got reasonable void weapons (no yr2 legendaries yet).

@sorethumbed: A grind to me is something that is not enjoyable - a repetitive chore. Playing Destiny is not a chore although I will admit it does have a certain amount of 'repetition'. Resources, engrams etc can be obtained from a variety of sources so its not like you have to stick to a specific activity either. They have made the Strikes a bit different too so if you want to play the vanguard strikes, the same one can be different from the the last time you played it. As I said, I don't find this a grind - especially when playing with friends because I enjoy doing this. I must admit though sometimes farming materials can be a grind but I have hundreds of each now so I have no need to 'farm' - in fact I wish i could sell or trade these as they are clogging up my inventory! You get resources from various bounties/rewards so you don't have to farm (at least not as much as you once did) anymore. I certainly don't find it a grind - not like trying to get certain achievements - like playing fifa09 for 50hrs just for 1 gamerscore!!

Living in Europe, matchmaking would be very difficult. You could end up with six people all speaking different languages or even people without mics. Not only that certain aspects of a raid are much easier with certain classes. Matchmaking could end up without these classes making the raids very difficult. Manual matchmaking (as it is at the moment) allows you to find specific classes, people with mics who speak the same language and specific classes and/or people to fulfil certain roles - like swordbearer in Crota and with specific weapons - High 290+ Snipers are essential for Kings Fall for example. manual match-making also enables you to find players of certain level. If you have players 'under-level', It can be very difficult and very frustrating. I wouldn't want to be match-made into a team of 270 (or less) for the nightfalls for example. I know a lot of 'under-level' players would be useless and only there for the rewards. Its bad enough when you get match-made into the heroic strike playlist with low level players.

Have you done the new raid, Bam? How was it?

Billy, I reckon we can have a troll through the Vault no worries. Any of your characters will be good, Void weapons will help a lot, if you have Gjallahorn, even after the nerf, it will be useful because of the tracking. I tend to run Atheons Epilogue (void autorifle), Icebreaker and Corrective Measures (Void machinegun). Although I do have a nice shiny new 290 atk Void rocket launcher, with tracking!

I've got reasonable damage void weapons (all around the 280 mark). No void exotics though. all my chars are about 280 now, depending on weapons load out.

Should be more than enough mate, see you about 10:30!

Ok. I'll run with a Titan I guess. Hope I make it. There are 7 series of sons of anarchy sitting in my wife's prime watchlist 😒😒