Destiny

[Eleven]

You guys going to try out the upcoming beta?

[danielpholt]

Pre-ordered it yesterday for that exact reason. The game is out in less than 3 months, and I'm about as far from excited as I could be without completely wiping it from my mind. Maybe that'll change after getting some hands on with the beta, but in all honesty I think Destiny might have been a time and a place thing for me. I was single. I had nothing better to do and I was living with my parents, it all came together at the right time.

Now none of those things are true and I'm not sure I want to dedicate as much time to Destiny as the game demands to get the most out of it. 

[Hot Heart]

If you have pre-ordered, you should have (been sent) a code that you can use on Bungie's site to then get a code for the beta, which you can pre-load.

While I have plenty of reservations about it, I was hearing Luke saying how they value it as this social thing like poker night or whatever, and that's still the appeal to me. I have fond memories of getting together with my fire team every Tuesday to tackle the end-game content, particularly when it was the three-man Prison of Elders stuff, so hopefully that carries through at least.

[danielpholt]

Already got the beta downloaded on the PS4. Destiny to me is almost entirely a solo experience, and whilst 95% of the time that's totally okay for me, there are times where I wish I had a group of friends who were as into gaming as a whole as me. Unfortunately I don't have that, and so I'm stuck with either ignoring the top-end stuff entirely (I didn't even complete a nightfall let alone a raid) or partnering up with some rando's who'll likely give me a world of shit.

Hopefully they do a better job of making that stuff accessible for me. I'm interested to see how their raid stuff works, although It's going to be a built-in version of what I could already do on reddit. Which is a nice improvement, but hardly changes the way the game handles its top end content. 

 

[deanb]

I'm gonna give it a go, just waiting for their "open beta" to be open. :/

[CorgiShinobi]

I haven't redeemed my code yet. Went on vacation, but I'll be back home tomorrow to get it loaded up.

[MetalCaveman]

Kinda want to try it, when does the open beta start for those who did not pre-order?

[Hot Heart]

21-23 July for open beta players.

Early access begins on the 18th for PS4 and 19th for Xboners.

[Eleven]

I'm thinking of pre-ordering on Amazon just so I can jump into that beta sooner. 

 

Then maybe just cancel it later. 

[MetalCaveman]

56 minutes ago, Hot Heart said:

21-23 July for open beta players.

Early access begins on the 18th for PS4 and 19th for Xboners.

Cool, thanks!

[danielpholt]

Super duper early beta thoughts?

I've done the available strike and it seemed so much more difficult than I remember. Now granted, we're probably all a little out of practise, and there's new things to learn..but boy. I spent half an hour shooting that thing and you know what? I don't think I enjoyed it all that much.

I'll play it again over the weekend for sure, but I think I might be done with Destiny..

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[Hot Heart]

My early impressions having done the first mission, the strike twice and a match of crucible as a Warlock (plus, the first mission as Titan) is that I quite like it.

The weapon changes with Kinetic, Energy, Power is pretty nice because it feels like a decent mix where your energy weapons can serve a general purpose but really reward you for matching the elements to shields (and enemy shields are nice, big spheres or cylinders now). It also means you can have "elemental primaries" that everyone missed after TTK, so I was packing an elemental pulse rifle or scout rifle once again.

I'm not sure about weapons having the same rolls for the same type but at least you can still change the scope and stuff. One sidenote: I tried the scout rifle the Titan starts with and it feels a touch too weak for my liking. Maybe that's deliberate now but it pales in comparison to the relatively wild bullet spam of a pulse rifle even at distances. Could just be that one though, since the Warlock energy one seemed okay.

I'm actually glad self-res is no longer a thing for Warlocks. It's way more fun to just use your super and get involved rather than feeling like you need to hold it in case. However, I'll need to look deeper at the subclass options because I couldn't see the Scorch ability where your melee gives you an overshield which was absolutely vital for my survivability in D1. That said, the healing rift has already proven itself very useful so that's a decent replacement if it has gone.

As for the actual combat, I'm really digging it. There are bigger environments and setpieces, giving you plenty of scope as a fireteam, with way more enemies. They've got a few mixes of enemy types to keep things fresh (even if they're essentially Cabal versions of Knights, Sniper Vandals & Thralls). I noticed that Centurions now have a slower, more powerful blast weapon (and I think it's void instead of solar?) and Harpies now do a constant void beam instead of bursts of solar fire.

And everything's just a touch faster without being overwhelming. The annoying thing is that I was running out of ammo at some critical points, however, and it doesn't seem as wasy to spot anymore.

As for the crucible, it's early days but having not played D1 for 6 months, I think I got into the swing of things okay.

For some reason, I regularly tend to go "the wrong way" at certain points in matches and miss hotpoints of action and in 4v4, I guess it's still going to be a thing. Crazy how much we were switching capture points as well (since there's no longer a neutralising step to capping). Interesting that they've actually brought back putting the names of the map sections on the screen e.g. Shrine, Gulch, etc. for the more professional players to do callouts.

Edited July 22, 2017 by Hot Heart

[CorgiShinobi]

I haven't played Titan, mainly because I never cared for the playstyle of the class. However, seeing them in action, they're really formidable in Crucible with that shield ability and now that Striker has a roaming Super.

I'm still a Hunter main through and through. It wasn't until I went onto the subreddit that I learned that Arcstrider does in fact has combos. Would have been useful last night against some foes. You'll need to know them to help close the gap. Speaking of, it is very possible to avoid the Supers. Actually, teamshooting is highly effective in this game now. It gets to the point where it's almost annoying.

The Strike was kinda boring, and it didn't help out that either people were either very rusty or this is their first rodeo in Destiny. Of course I was a little rusty too and some of the same mechanics are a little tweaked. Given the weapons, perks, and cooldowns we have, enemies felt rather spongy. The Super cooldown is ridiculously long right now, but I want to believe that's because we have so little points in the 3 categories from armor. Most people have noticed it takes so long to start recovering health.

Still, this is just the Beta and is suppose to be a sample of items. I'm seeing people getting it confused as the final product. Even in the Strike there's evidence that there's more to the terrain and structures that we'll be exploring. The enemies themselves have evolved for the better and I love our Vanguard and other NPCs being involved in the Main Story mission and Strike.

So I'll definitely be getting the game, but for now I'll go with the Standard edition and use some of my Amazon credit to get it for cheap.

[Mister Jack]

I tried the beta and I didn't even finish the story mission.  I get all the way to the end, then I died a couple times on the turbines.  The game forces me out of the session by acting like I'm holding down triangle to leave even though I'm not, then it puts me ALLLLLLL the way back at the beginning of the mission.  It happened to me three times before I said fuck it.  

[CorgiShinobi]

You mean where you have to destroy the three turbines? What exactly kills you?

At first I thought I could run on the edge, but those heat sink things will burn you. After that segment you're basically at the end because you go through a door and it's the cutscene with ol' Gary.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Atomsk88

[Mister Jack]

The turbines kill me.  I know how to do it, I just haven't gotten the timing of the jumps down, and considering that it boots me to the beginning of the mission after I die two or three times, I don't think I'm going to bother.

[Hot Heart]

19 hours ago, Atomsk88 said:

Most people have noticed it takes so long to start recovering health.

Datto and some others actually looked at this and it's actually about the same based on recovery stats.

I'm hoping that everything related to cooldowns on abilities, etc. is just because of low-spec armour (even though it's supposed to be legendary) and the strike boss feels a little spongey because you're still matched in light level (when you tend to exceed it pretty fast). The only other enemies I felt were spongey were Gladiators, but that's clearly deliberate.

I'm hoping movement speed is a little faster though since avoiding Gladiators is way harder than the sword-swinging Hive Knights of old and that was with the lowest mobility set-up I always ran.

17 hours ago, Mister Jack said:

The turbines kill me.  I know how to do it, I just haven't gotten the timing of the jumps down, and considering that it boots me to the beginning of the mission after I die two or three times, I don't think I'm going to bother.

It can be a little troublesome but there shouldn't really be any complicated jumping involved.

You can shoot the first one from above, then the next one is clockwise round so you just watch the lower spinning baton that is also going clockwise and time your drop down behind it then sprint after it, sliding into the next recess in the floor if you feel you need to (I don't think it's necessary). From there, you're below the spinning batons and can safely shoot the turbine again. Once that's done, you just have to watch that lower baton again, wait until it passes overhead then jump out of the gap and follow it to the next recessed area where you'll find the final turbine to shoot.

[TheMightyEthan]

PC Gamer has an article up about game balance based on the PS4 beta.

The more I see of this game the more it seems like they're going ever farther down the path of fucking over PvE to get the PvP balance right.  Since that was my biggest complaint about Destiny 1, they're not doing much to convince me to get this one.

[MetalCaveman]

So that's a thing

[danielpholt]

I thought they were going to allow access to the hub area for a limited time on the final day? Now, unless I'm wrong, isn't that today?

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, it'll be available for an hour today, starting at 6pm over here.

And now news that the beta won't end today but see some other (new?) stuff Monday and Tuesday.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2017 by Hot Heart

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, it was from 10 AM - 11 AM PDT today.

[MetalCaveman]

Played for a bit, including twice through the campaign mission, and well... It's Destiny. The guns and the shooting feel great as expected, and there does seem to be more story stuff, but I'll pass, after playing the strike twice and not getting anything other than weapons I already had I realized this game just isn't for me, the environments are pretty cool, and the shooting is fun, but it's not enough for me. Still, for everyone getting it, I hope it's all you ever wanted and more. \m/ \m/

[Thursday Next]

Hotty, I don't think they mean new content, I think they mean that they will be screwing with the servers in new ways so you'll have connection issues and get kicked from games and such in the name of testing netcode.

[Hot Heart]

12 hours ago, MetalCaveman said:

not getting anything other than weapons I already had

That's just because of limited stuff in the beta (and you already start with a fair few weapons anyway). Although, if you're referring generally to the shoot-and-loot cycle then, yeah, that won't change.

That said, given the amount of cutscenes and stuff they're supposed to be including, it sounds like it might make for an okay campaign experience (like, even The Division was alright in that respect).

52 minutes ago, Thursday Next said:

Hotty, I don't think they mean new content, I think they mean that they will be screwing with the servers in new ways so you'll have connection issues and get kicked from games and such in the name of testing netcode.

Yeah, I saw the full announcement after that. I thought they might try and test something else like they did with the social space (and I think the D1 beta got extended for some stuff), but it's just things their end; seeing what it can withstand if this and that are unplugged, break etc.

 

EDIT: Oh, and in general terms, I'm feeling a little more positive about the game based on a) the little details and things that people are spotting/uncovering that suggest Bungie really are keeping schtum about a bunch of things, b) what Bungie are saying with regards to addressing or having already addressed some of the concerns from the beta.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Hot Heart