#I would just really like for people to remember just how shitty bungie is being

[amiryllisthorn]

like you have this new activity called the coil, which is an activity meant to do multiple runs in kinda a rouge lite style of loop, and its actually pretty interesting!

HOWEVER

its still the same seasonal weekly bullshit that bungie seems like they will not get away from.

you do an interesting thin, listen to someone, do some bullshit chores(in this case BLIND FUCKING WELL WITH NO CHANGES OTHER THAN ITS SLIGHTLY HARDER)

fucking MORE MONETIZATION WHERE THEY WANT PEOPLE TO PAY FOR EXOTIC GUNS

and this is just a personal gripe but god I do not want to see a fucking billboard for the witcher when I am SUPPOSED TO BE SEEING DIALOGUE FOR THE MAIN FUCKING STORY

and on that note, the utter absurdity of having these macro transaction armor sets (that cost as much as full games btw) of wolf themed medieval armor, and NOT having new Iron Banner armor is just a choice.

Joe Blackburn wants this game to be as good of a narrative as past games such as Halo or Marathon, but as long as they keep treating the game as a cash shop first, and trying to get people to log in every week, it will never be that.

FF14 gets people to log in by having good content, that is approachable for new people to get into(multiple free xpacs) and is just fun to play. It has its own issues sure, but it isnt asking you to pay like $200 to play the god damn game.

Oh and lastly, the fact that Bungie is essentially refusing to actually acknowledge the mass layoffs, outside of some really fucking stupid comments from pete parsons, and like a paragraph or so in a halfassed twab, and how the poor execs didnt take bonuses is just fuckign insulting.

How Bungie fired 100+ people, including some of their longest employees, in surprise 15 min meetings, or by locking them out of their terminals is fucking amazon level of fucking evil, and I want the community to always remember that.

a friend of mine called Destiny 2 the RWBY of video games and I cannot get that out of my head.

[saprophetic]

crow anon again. and oh no i know, it's ok, i don't think you've done anything wrong and if at any point i make you uncomfortable it's ok to not answer, also

i can't really articulate well right now but

i was going to say, my issue with crow is an issue with bungie i think because it's like, it is funny they made a character who can't stand guardians a guardian, but it feels like, basically a shitty redemption arc? where they just don't acknowledge the harm that uldren did, and they act like other characters are just misunderstanding when like, crow wears uldren's face. he looks like uldren, and people will assume he is, even if he isn't

i think i just feel like it's bad writing to have done that? to take a character who was terrible, kill him, and then bring him back as a hero who doesn't remember being himself, and then expect everyone- fans and characters in universe both- to accept the idea that he's not the other character, even though he's in the other character's body

with "redemption arcs" i always feel like, the character has to have fought against what was making them do bad things, and always have inherently chosen good over evil, and accept the fact that people may not forgive them. and i don't feel like that's the way bungie has handled this, even though i know uldren was always in conflict with his sister i don't feel like he... made good choices. obviously

my brain is messed up so it's hard to talk, if this isn't coherent enough i can come back if you need

i'm also not trying to argue any particular point, i just want to talk about destiny asggkghfjj

SORRY I JUST REMEMBERED THIS. so like what made me remember this is that i was talking to someone about how like. like.

crow isn’t a redemption arc. uldren doesn’t need or deserve a redemption arc. crow is a second chance to be someone entirely different who is informed by but not beholden to who uldren was.

i also do like. 100% believe that crow Is Going To Find Out about uldren sometime, very likely soon. and honestly i think that crow is going to have to come to terms with exactly who uldren was, what uldren did, and that he’s going to decide that he wants to be better. hell, he’s already decided he wants to do better, and that’s without even knowing the specifics. that still won’t be a redemption arc tho in my opinion.

you’re absolutely correct about what redemption arcs need to be, and i firmly believe that uldren would never have been able to have one. i don’t think that uldren would have been able to recognize the things he did as wrong even if he wasn’t literally having a psychotic break at the time of his death.

it also just.... really really rings hollow, to me. the idea of crow being a redemption arc just... doesn’t fit. uldren was a really good antagonist. not all antagonists need redemption arcs. honestly i think it’s a mark of a good antagonist that they work better without!!! i really really like uldren but he was never actually going to be a good person. he couldn’t! not with the way he was, the way his life was. he was a rich, snotty jackass who thought he was better than everyone else who had a deeply unhealthy codependent relationship with a sister who admitted to manipulating him for millennia. uldren was never going to be a good person, he was never going to get a redemption arc.

and i LOVE that about him.

crow is interesting to me because he’s not uldren’s redemption. aside from the trauma crow faces because of uldren’s actions (and my own headcanons about the way that mental health is from previous life to after being risen) uldren really doesn’t have anything to do with crow. and that goes both ways. they’re two entirely different people who are narrative foils, but beyond that they just... it’s just really interesting to me!! and i feel like it does both characters a disservice to act like crow is just uldren’s redemption.

[littleshebear]

Okay I’ve read the Fall of Osiris issue again and…yeah, I still hate it. I wanted to like it, I really did but I have so many problems with it. Putting this under a cut and I won’t tag to spare the people who loved it. 

I’ll start with some things I did like. I liked Saint. Saint seems like a nice, reasonable dude who is capable of seeing both sides of a situation. You can see why he was so loved based on only these few panels that he appeared in.

The narrative taking the piss out of the Cult of Osiris was good because I am here all day, every day for those ridiculous edge-lords being mocked.   Okay, the things I didn’t like. They are legion. 

Osiris. Sorry guys, I know loads of you love him but I’ve never liked the dude. I’ve got no time for arrogant people who prize intellect to the exclusion of everything else. Osiris is the kind of person who doesn’t even bother trying to explain things because the peons will never understand (See also Asher Mir, can’t stand him either for precisely this reason). He’s the kind of person who won’t delegate effectively. He can’t trust anyone else because no one else shares his brilliance so he has to do it all himself. I don’t care how much of a genius he is, the most intelligent dickhead in the world is still a dickhead.

Now, this wouldn’t be a problem in itself. I’ve got nothing against stories having unsympathetic, flawed protagonists. This is fine. What’s not fine is when the story has a narrator who is so ridiculously sympathetic, it means the meta-narrative is basically bullying the reader into liking him. Ikora’s narration is just dripping with regret and admiration for Osiris, the narrative clearly wants us to side with him but I’m just sitting here like, “No. He was irresponsible and he had no business being Vanguard Commander, he sucked at his job.” I really, really don’t like stories that try to tell me how to feel about the characters and I feel like this is what’s happening. It’s like Bungie have gone, “Here’s a really complicated, nuanced, flawed character but we don’t want your view of him to be nuanced. He’s a Good Guy!”

My other issue with him is that I find the central conflict just so damn stupid. Osiris is Vanguard but he’s not doing his Vanguard duties. This is Objectively Bad but we’re supposed to believe that it’s okay because, why? He was right about the Vex? Bullshit, he can be right about the Vex and still be a shit commander. I just don’t understand why Osiris took the job in the first place, he has nothing but contempt for the Traveler, the Speaker and the Consensus, he was never a good fit for this job so I don’t understand why he said yes to the job offer in the first place. If he said yes because of his ego but we’re still supposed to believe that he did nothing wrong? No, that’s nonsense and I’m not having it. For someone so smart, accepting the post as Vanguard Commander was staggeringly stupid and lacking in self-awareness. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to do a job, you step aside for someone who does. 

I also have some trouble with his philosophy. He claims that the Traveler is the cause of the Vex arriving in our universe and he’s demonstrably wrong on that. Okay, Osiris doesn’t have the benefit of the Books of Sorrow to know that the Vex’s arrival was down to Crota but even with out that, his views on causation are shoddy at best. If the Traveler didn’t exist, how could he possibly know the horrible things wouldn’t have arrived in any case? Just because the Traveler’s arrival in antecedent, that doesn’t mean it’s causative. For someone so smart, you’d think he’d be able to make that philosophical distinction. Okay, yes, it’s likely that hostile life forms would chase the Traveler because they want its power, that makes sense but that doesn’t necessarily make the Traveler’s motives nefarious. Osiris is clearly unfamiliar with the concept of reciprocity, that it’s generally considered morally correct to help those who help you. He obviously doesn’t give a shit about imperatives either. The Guardians are in a position to fight evil so they should, because it’s the right thing to do regardless of the Traveler. But no, he’d rather spread empirically and ethically shoddy nonsense about the Traveler. 

He’s also a hypocrite. He complains that his cult are blindly stupid followers, he rails at Saint about how the consensus doesn’t allow dissent but his response to Ikora’s questioning of him is always the same: Have faith in me. Faith in the Speaker and the Traveler? Bad. Faith in Osiris? Good. Like, fuck off dude. 

I’m sorry but his reasons for ignoring the looming Fallen threat make no sense to me. Yes, Osiris, we get it, the Vex are bad. But as Ikora rightly says, there are lots of bad things. Saying that they might die out where the vex won’t is the such a fucking ridiculous response. “Oh, the Fallen might become extinct.” Yeah. They might. Doesn’t make a blind bit of difference if they trash the City and murder all of humanity before that happens. There are innumerable threats and a good Vanguard Commander has to be able to juggle all of them. So not only can he not manage his time or delegate effectively, he can’t prioritise either. Dude needs to go on business management training to learn how, for real. For the most intelligent person in the system he does and says some incredibly stupid things. 

He has so many faults but this narrative wants us to overlook them because Ikora said so.

And then there’s the characterisation of the Speaker. Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy. I don’t know why they did this. After the D2 campaign the outpouring of love for him was pretty universal so to see them going int his direction with his character really hurts. He went from a kindly, paternal spiritual leader to a straight up book burning fascist. Like, that’s extreme Bungie. Yes, there is a strong religious element to the Speaker’s philosophy and he probably doesn’t like that being undermined but I think they’re over-egging the pudding just a teensy weensy bit here. He’s so completely unsympathetic in this issue it’s hard to believe it’s the same man. It’s never explained exactly what is so heretical in these prophecies either. We’re just supposed to take it on faith (ha) that the speaker is being unreasonable. He wants to go full on dictator because of Reasons, basically. The reader is never told why, exactly. I really hope that’s expanded on in subsequent issues because at the moment it just isn’t good enough. Furthermore, remember how devastated Ikora was when the Speaker was taken by the Red Legion? I just can’t see her getting that emotionally invested in someone who burns books and suppressed knowledge. It’s so inconsistent.  I really don’t understand why they did this with the Speaker.

Oh wait, no, I do. They did it in a clumsily obvious attempt to make Osiris seem sympathetic in comparison. I mean, why write a sympathetic character when you can just make a shitty character look good in comparison to REALLY shitty ones, right? This is not good writing.

I wanted to like this, people, I really did. I’m so stoked about the idea of more fleshed out Lore, actually seeing characters we’ve only heard about in grimoire but oh boy, I am not here for this perpetual white-washing of Osiris’ flaws. It bugged me in The Curse of Osiris campaign and it’s just been compounded here. we were promised a dangerous man, we got misunderstood Battle Santa. 

The only thing that could possibly get me through this nonsense is seeing Ikora as an incredibly unreliable narrator. 

[sentinelkelly]

Destiny 2: Curse of the Butthurt Man-Children Review

Destiny 2 has been in trouble for awhile now and despite what the crying man-children on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, the Bungie forums and the hack of journalists from Kotaku, Forbes (lol did I really include them?), IGN, and Polygon, I strongly believe Destiny 2 is getting better in some aspects and worse in others. I still believe this game have great potential in the future, but for Destiny 2 to be great, Bungie needs to be less reactive and beat the community to the punch, sort of speak. More on that a little later. Let’s get on to my blasphemous opinions.

The Story

The Curse of Osiris story reminds me of Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s story. Let me explain before you get triggered: The Call of Duty, in my opinion, always had a great story despite how you felt about the multiplayer and it’s community. When I played Black Ops III’s campaign, I couldn’t help but to be lost in the plot and be almost put to sleep. The plot was convoluted and had too much filler content that further added to my confusion. This is exactly how I felt playing Curse of Osiris’s story. Although people think the story was pretty fast, I beg to differ. It took me about 4 hours to complete, excluding getting distracted by Public Events and in real life stuff. Then again, I wasn’t speed-running. Maybe that’s why, but it was definitely longer than the Dark Below which a lot of people forget about. Bungie squandered a perfect opportunity to effectively use the Osiris lore.

At the same token, Bungie opened the door to expanding the Osiris lore  (besides a webcomic) and revealing some Saint-14 lore. I would also love some Dredgen Yor lore at some point too. Time well tell how much more lore we’ll get and of whom.

Eververse

Dear Lord... I hate the fact that the loot pool is so large and RNG is still what you expect from a Destiny game. If I had to pick which is worse between Treasures of Ages and Illuminated Engrams, I wouldn’t answer because there is no lesser of the two evils. Although, at least I get the armor in Destiny 2 while I still haven’t get a single piece of AoT armor for any character on Destiny 1... on Xbox and PS4.

At the end of the day, her wares are still optional, cosmetic to a certain extent, and not game breaking. That’s all I truly ask for in microtransacions. You can make the argument that the Ghost Shells increase xp gains, points out nearby chests and all that jazz. Then, I’ll rebuttal by calling you a retard and ask a simple question: “How does differ from other Ghost Shells and how does it give you an unfair advantage in the Crucible?” Basically, the only people who still hates Eververse are unlucky like me, poor/cheap people and conspiracy theorists that think Bungie is intentionally making her stuff look better than the non-microtransaction gear. Stop being poor. Taste is subjective.

Mercury

It’s a very small area that I would’ve forgiven if you could freely explore the Infinite Forest, Past Mercury, and Dark Future Mercury. However, you can’t. You can only replay the story missions and adventures to go to those places. Not to mention there’s only one Lost Sector. There’s enough space for at least three. Mercury was over-hyped. The Infinite Forest was filler. More could’ve been done.

Despite that, the visuals are beautiful as always. Past Mercury gives you a sense of peace and serenity while Dark Future Mercury makes the atmosphere more grim and dire. Also, doing Flashpoints on Mercury doesn’t require to actually do a single Public Event. You just have to kill majors that are running around the map.

The Leviathan Raid Lair

I have not played it yet, but I heard great things about it. It’s a shame that Bungie advertised it as just a shorter version of the current raid with different bosses and mechanics because I had low expectations and now I think I might be in for a great time.

I’ll update more when I can finally play it.

#TwoTokensAndABlue: Public Events were Nerfed

So much with being rewarding. Less xp gains, lower probability getting exotics, and quite frankly more of a reason not drop everything to go do one.

The Current State of Crucible

Crucible is still like listening to music on Spotify without premium: You gotta play until you get the gametype you want or keep backing out until you get the match you want. There are also no signs of old Destiny 1 game modes returning and the current ones being separated. 

At least, we get to tell future Kinderguardians that for a weekend, the Destiny Community was able to play a large game of laser tag and then there’s the return of Mayhem Clash. MC is the only thing making PvP worth play to me.

Armor Ornaments

I’mma just say it: Most of the ornaments makes the armor look ugly and/or are uninspired. Above all, I’m extremely disappointed with Future War Cult’s. All it does is change the color scheme to white and blue. That’s it.

I do like the fact that you can unlock ornaments account wide. For example, unlocking the Crucible Titan Mark ornament unlocks the Crucible Hunter Cloak and Warlock Bond even if you never played on the other characters.

“Heroic” Strikes

Oh boy... Where do I begin? I was very excited about this. A good percentage of my Destiny 1 playtime was shutting my brain off after a long day and running Heroic Strikes if I liked the modifiers. Destiny 2 said, “Why don’t I just take Vanguard Strikes, raise the power level and call it Heroic Strikes? That’s it!” Bungie did say that they will add modifiers, but two things: 1) Why didn’t you just wait? If it’s incomplete why release it now when you could do so later complete? 2) I hope the modifiers aren’t the Destiny 2 Nightfall modifiers. Please God no.

The Vault System is Still a Mess

Imagine every single file on your computer was on your desktop. No folders. Just right there in front of your face. On top of all that, you can only have 200 of those files on your computer before you have to start deleting stuff. That’s where we’re still at. Not to mention you can hold up to 50 different shaders on your person, yet Bungie decides to make more than 50 unique shaders. It gets better: Duplicate Dawning shaders will sort into separate stacks depending on where they were received from. Dawning shaders received through Eververse will fall into one stack, and shaders earned through activity rewards will be sorted into another. This is not a bug and was intentional. On top of all this: no increased vault space, shader kiosk, or mass deletion option.

Prestige Mode Locked by CoO-Paywall

It seems like the less you invest in Destiny 2 (monetary-wise and in playtime), the more your opinion matters somehow in comparison to actual dedicated fans of the game. The whole issue was that people who didn’t owe the DLC, can’t play the 330 version of the Nightfall & Leviathan Raid due to vanilla players not being able to reach the new level cap. Trials of the Nine was also blocked. Note: Normal Mode was bumped up for both the Nightfall and Raid so you can still reach 305 playing those. Trials ALWAYS required people to have the latest DLC and patches. Hell, Nightfalls got the same treatment in Destiny 1, and mind you, there was only one difficulty. The only people that were angry were the disgruntled Destiny 2 players who stopped playing a long time ago and/or already owns the DLC. Trust me, if you’re a hardcore fan of Destiny or remotely likes it, you would’ve made arrangements to get the DLC.  Don’t come at me with that “I love the game, but have no money” bullshit. This was all a case of “What if my friend buys Destiny 2 and I can’t play with him/her?!” Um... tell them to buy the game used/on sale and the DLC? Maybe you could buy it for them so you can play with them? Gee, this is a difficult situation I’ve never been in.

Trust me, no one who hasn’t bought Destiny 2 at this point won’t buy it because of all of the ruckus this community is making. Due to Bungie getting cuck’d by a bunch of poor people who don’t even play their game anymore that complained about a theoretical situation, the first Faction Rally of Season 2 was postponed to I assume (I hope) at the beginning of 2018. 

Quality of Life Updates Frequency

I remember a time Bungie was constantly adjusting things like the economy and user interface on top of tuning weapons and subclasses, squashing bugs and things of that nature. Destiny 2 received its first Quality of Life update in December on the day of this DLC’s release. Yeah, Bungie fixed stuff here and there between vanilla Destiny 2 and Curse of Osiris releases, but there was the over abundance of legendary shards some people had to deal with, shitty RNG not giving people what they want, etc. that was just improved. The difference between patches and QoL updates to me is one fix problems and the other improves on what was working fine but can be frustrating. There is less of the latter.

The State of the Destiny Community

Everything that I’ve stated thus far is forgivable. However, Destiny 2′s state of being the target of hit pieces of gaming media and butthurt “fan” backlash is 10% Bungie being reactive, 10% Bungie making dumbass decisions, 80% self-proclaimed fans having buyer’s remorse. Destiny 1 was considered an abomination of game around this time last year for whatever dumb reason people came up with. Destiny 1 was shitted on repeatedly. Now all of a sudden, people love and miss Destiny 1 so much. It was the community’s constant bitching that made Destiny 2 the way it is. Bungie had to find a way to not repeat Destiny 1, but guess what... people flipped flopped. Ask any Destiny fan how they felt about Destiny 1, I guarantee all will praise it, but half of them were singing a different tune last year. Destiny 2 and Curse of Osiris is the community’s fault. Bungie had some part in the blame, but: 1) Me and every other non-Bungie employee don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors at the studio in Redmond, WA. 2) If anything, blame the leadership at Bungie. Why are you getting mad some artist or sound engineer. They don’t program the game or have authority to do whatever they want to the final product if it’s outside of their department.

We are the point where people constantly complaining about bullshit like optional microtransactions and plays other games are considered “concerned fans.” Meanwhile, people like me who are objective, still actively plays the game despite it’s current state, and can compliment game when something is done right gets accused of being on Bungie’s payroll. The toxicity of this community reached heights I never thought possible and it makes me cringe to be an actual fan sometimes. Not to say I’m an angel, which I’m not, but at least I provide constructive criticism to Bungie and lash out at little Jimmy who claims to hate the game so much. I’m against people who insist upon passing on their misery onto other people who are actually enjoying the game. I’ve looked on GameStop’s app and Destiny 2 is worth between $12-18. I can recommend better games for that price. If you have Destiny 2 on disc and are that dissatisfied with it, I challenge you to sell it. If you have it digitally, I’m sure you can get a full refund somehow. I challenge you to get that refund. A reasonable adult, tries to get their money back and move on. If you don’t at least try, you’re full shit.

Bungie’s only unforgivable sin is giving birth to a community of entitled ingrates.

Final Verdict: 7.75/10

This could’ve been better and it could get better in 2018. However, out of the gate... it does not live up to the hype.

[sovpologist]

i am also super insane about mara and how it’s implied that uldren knows how the awoken were born but his mind doesn’t let him consciously remember it because it’s too painful. (now think about what that says about mara that she has to remember that every day of her life…) uldren wouldn’t be able to reconcile that “crime” with the person he’s made mara into, a godlike queen up on a pedestal.

but sjur recognizes that mara is a human being and is able to empathize with the impossible choice mara had to make and then keep making for centuries. their relationship is genuinely one of the deepest, most complex, most loving in all of destiny— when mara is around sjur, her ahamkara instinctively reacts because sjur IS mara’s greatest wish, the difference between what she has and what she wants.

but all of that is in the lore, which not everyone reads. and mara by design is a character who keeps herself very masked and doesn’t let her real personality show, so people took it at face value that she was a manipulative godqueen. now the writers are working overtime to humanize mara and endear her to the audience and the way they’ve chosen to do that is to have her realize she was a shitty sister and to have crow’s rejection “humanize” her. but this feels out of character to people who have read the marasenna because mara already knew how to be human— sjur taught her that! she just needed to learn how to be that way with more than one person.

it genuinely felt like at some point, sjur was supposed to come back and make an appearance ingame, and then it ended up getting cut for time/resources/seth dickinson left bungie and took his outlines with him. but that doesn’t mean they should just drop her like a hot potato and only acknowledge she exists by namedropping her in lore entries once a blue moon. and the one time she’s mentioned this season isn’t even about her connection to mara! it’s mithrax talking about eido’s namesake while mara smiles fondly in the background! obviously i know that sjur is mara’s lover, but i would argue that someone reading this flavor text who hasn’t read the marasenna could easily assume that mara and sjur were just close friends.

sjur is important to mara’s story and character. period. mara should be allowed to talk about her in voicelines, she should have more lore where she thinks about her, and she should be able to make it obvious that sjur was her romantic partner. honestly, the way mara and sjur have been treated over the years both by the fandom and by bungie is just really disheartening and sad.

caught up with the seasonal quest and i'm just absolutely baffled that mara didn't bring up sjur in her radio message with crow. not only is it a missed opportunity but it seems like such an obvious and fitting choice? why would she not bring up her dead wife when crow is struggling with grieving someone he loved? especially since crow has his memories of his life as uldren back and presumably remembers sjur... there was even a perfect opening when mara is like "i know what it's like to lose someone you love" and crow goes "are you talking about me?" she could've then talked about losing sjur and how hard it was and how she dealt with it etc. it really did feel like they meant to bring sjur back at some point but tbh at this point i don't even think they remember she exists :(

[schultz290]

Wolfenstein 2′s Biggest Flaws Mirror Those of Halo 2

From the moment I finished Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, I’ve had an uneasy feeling about the game and especially its second half. I was torn between an amazed glee at the game’s strongest moments and a confused disappointment that that glee didn’t really sustain itself until the credits. By the end the game felt cramped, and a lot of the best ideas mentioned in dialogue or in readable pickups didn’t leave that space to be interacted with or even seen. At the same time, boy were those ideas really strong! The KKK running the south? Can’t wait to see that! A Nazi Venus base? How alien and weird will that look, I bet it’ll be way more than just corridors!

What I didn’t realize until just recently is that I’ve felt this way before. Thirteen years before, playing another highly praised but at the same time controversial shooter sequel. My hands gripped the Xbox controller tightly in excitement as Ron Perlman’s voice boomed: “Master Chief, you mind telling me what you’re doing on that ship?” to which Steve Downes dutifully responded: “Sir, finishing this fight.”

At this point it would be hard to describe anything I feel for Halo 2 at this point to be anything other than pure nostalgia, it was a game that gobbled up more hours of my childhood than I can even begin to remember. It was a revolution in online gaming for the time, and was a sequel to a game that I loved and still love. This is to say that the conflicted feelings of disappointment and enjoyment that I had on finishing it had largely faded to the back of my mind until very recently. While watching Lucas Raycevick’s Halo retrospective videos I noticed that he was pulling from a developer’s commentary that had been recorded for Halo 1 and 2 and immediately had to seek them out for myself. Upon watching the Halo 2 commentary (and watching Raycevick’s thorough retrospective) I remembered just how strange and disappointing the second half of Halo 2, and ultimately the game in general had felt to me. The Developers point out contrivances they invented to replace entire cut levels, like characters teleporting to exactly where they’re needed for no reason. The infamous ending was one of these contrivances, a brutal heartbreaking compromise Bungie had made with themselves to get the game released. 

The disjointed and strange second half of Halo 2 now reminds me of the disjointed and strange second half of Wolfenstein 2. In the same way that Halo 2 does Wolfenstein tells instead of shows, teleports characters to where they’re needed, and generally lacks the coherent sense of pacing that makes the first half so strong. The problems begin immediately after B.J. gets his new body. Why do you go to New York to get a Nazi dossier on Horton if Anya and everyone is talking about how the Nazis are purging New Orleans right now. They repeatedly mention how the Nazis are moving in right now and we need to hurry to get to New Orleans immediately or else people will die. But for some reason despite being very invested in saving the people of New Orleans Grace decides it more prudent to stop in New York and have Blazkowicz obtain intelligence on Horton that serves no real purpose in the story. Blazko just shoots his way towards whoever is left in New Orleans after the several hours have passed and most everyone is dead. It turns out that by the time the resistance got there that, what do you know, only Horton’s crew was left anyways. Horton was also found standing on a balcony loudly taunting the Nazis and shouting “Hey I’m Horton I’m resisting the Nazis wouldn’t it be great if someone came and rescued me”, so was it really necessary to gather whatever spotty intelligence the Nazis might have had and sacrifice thousands of otherwise savable lives? It’s less that the game doesn’t care about the people of New Orleans or that the characters don’t, it just seems like suddenly the writer forgot how space and time work.

This is especially jarring considering how the game uses travel to explain certain scenes well. For example, Blazkowicz stops at Mesquite because it was on his way back to the submarine off the coast of Galveston. The game does make this mistake a few times in the first half, take for example the jump from New York to Roswell with just an animated map to show the journey and the strange contrivance of the tunnels under Spesh’s restaurant that lead very quickly into the Area 52 base. But in the second half it becomes truly endemic and begins to seem like it’s covering for the absence of something. This happens again for the player getting to Venus. To go to the Moon in the first game took obtaining a specific Nazi uniform, a task that entailed an entire level. In this game, one jump cut separates Anya suggesting Blazko disguise himself as the actor and the actor being tied up in their back seat as they arrive at the Nazi space airbase. Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a stealth level kind of like Roswell wherein you and Anya are sneaking around the milkshake bar looking for Redfield? It would have been another chance to explore the warped combination of Nazi iconography and Americana that is pretty much the game’s raison d’etre. But instead nope, Anya and BJ are teleported (as far as the player is concerned) to the point in time where pretty much their entire plan has gone off without a hitch. In gameplay terms, the player puts down the controller in New Orleans and picks it back up in the audition scene on Venus. It feels totally disconnected, like Master Chief going from the ground on the Halo looking up at High Charity to being teleported deep inside of it.

This then brings us to the Hitler scene, which I feel incredibly conflicted about. On the one hand, it’s an amazingly acted, written, and directed scene that features my favorite depiction of Hitler in any medium. On the other hand, it serves absolutely no purpose in the story and feels totally disconnected from the levels that came before and after it. Wouldn’t it have been great if Blazko said “Drop fucking everything, we’ve gotta kill Hitler” once presented with the opportunity? It could have been awesome to chase Hitler through a fast paced level where you get to see his personal living quarters and those of the Nazi elite, and then continue to chase them onto the surface of Venus for crazy low gravity high heat gunfights. All the while the game could keep cutting back to Hitler and his security detail, with the Nazi henchmen getting increasingly frustrated with the demands of their shitty old man leader they’re forced to protect. Instead, he gets secured offscreen while we fight Nazis through more generic empty corridors.

Venus in general feels like the biggest missed opportunity. Instead of feeling truly alien like it’s theremin laced soundtrack implies, it feels like more rote metal corridors the likes of which have been seen in the New York Bunker, the three separate missions inside the U-boat, the beginning of the New Orleans segment, the entirety of the Area 52 segment, and the both of the Ausmerzer’s missions. In general the levels feel like flat gameplay spaces when they aren’t serving as explicit narrative corridors like the town of Roswell or the Mesquite section. Raycevick points out something similar about Halo 2: while the developers promised massive environments, most of the environments in Halo 2 are small, boxy, and heavily overused in long attrition battles.

The final level is perhaps where the game falls apart most profoundly. First, it reuses a variety of environments from the earlier Ausmerzer level, and second, its new environments are more generic steel corridors. The Ausmerzer doesn’t feel like a giant flying ship, there’s nothing to distinguish it from the underground areas the player has spent almost the whole game traversing. Remember the Return to London Nautica level in Wolfenstein: The New Order? It’s full of moments like when you fall off the roof and catch a rope to swing into a lower floor and onto a Nazi, or when you scramble along the scaffolding on the side of the building as the snow gently falls on Nazified London. It had a sense of verticality and scale to it that pretty much all the levels in Wolfenstein 2 entirely lack. Imagine if you had fallen off of the Ausmerzer only to be rescued by Wyatt/Fergus flying the Helicopter, and then got dropped off on a different point. Imagine if you had to engage jets and flying drones scrambling to try and stop you. The end of the level almost approaches this feeling as you rush across the top of the Ausmerzer while being bombarded by drop pods full of super soldiers, but you still feel like you’re on a grounded structure. As well, in my experience the lackluster music almost always bugs and cuts out in the last few fights, and with little ambient sound you end up fighting the climactic battle in silence. This climactic battle, a brawl with a huge number of soldiers and three imposing (but uninteresting) robots doesn’t feel climactic. It feels like kind of a tough fight, but it feels as perfunctory as the tough fights that proceeded it. Nothing about it says “grand finale” in the way Wolfenstein: The New Order’s amazing last level and fun last boss fight did.

Then you have one last brief Wolfenstein moment in which you kill Frau Engel, and the game ends. The revolution that you’ve worked all game for is placed on the other side of the screen the characters are speaking to, and the only glimpses of it we see are a slideshow of trite photos set to the worst credits song of all time. This is perhaps the game’s biggest mistake, and here it closely mirrors the feelings engendered by Halo 2′s ending. Sure Master Chief has escaped High Charity, but now he’s gotta take the fight back to Earth to save humanity just like the whole game has been building up to! But nope, you don’t even see the slightest glimpse of besieged Earth, just a quick shot from space that cuts to the Master Chief in a dull gray corridor. On this boring shot of the Chief in an unfinished looking asset the game cuts to credits. Just like Wolfenstein, it didn’t even begin to live up to the amazing ending of its predecessor in which the Chief soars out of the Pillar of Autumn just in time for it to explode and tear the Halo apart in a jaw droppingly action packed sequence. Wolfenstein: The New Order and Halo both end on bangs, Halo 2 and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus end on whimpers.

Of course it is impossible for me to know if Machinegames were under the same pressures to cut content that Bungie was in 2004. It could be that exactly the game Machinegames wanted to make, disjointed narrative and weak second half and all, was what we got. And there are deep narrative problems with the game that aren’t solved by adding in the “cut” content that I conjectured about above. For example, the game would still have the naive doublethink that America is both horrifically corrupt but also fundamentally worth saving at its core. Frau Engel would still be a one note villain who pales in comparison to Deathshead, and her daughter Sigrun would still be supposed to earn our respect by choking a black woman and screaming in her face. Bombate’s characterization would still be a mess, the shirtless scene with Anya on the Ausmerzer would still be a trip too far into pulp absurdity, and I doubt any draft of the game’s storyline would fully explain what the stupidly named “God Key” is. However, if you cut the fat of challenge modes, perfunctory DLC, and assassination side missions, and replaced it with more levels that were of the quality of Roswell or Mesquite, Wolfenstein 2 would feel more whole and less compromised.

Part of the characterization of Wolfenstein 2 as the new Halo 2 is also about hope for me. Halo 2 was a sort of nadir in the series for many fans, but what followed is, in my opinion, still the best Halo game ever released: Halo 3. Halo 3 delivered on the promise of Halo 2 in many ways, including by making static scripted sequences like the Scarab fight into massive dynamic battles. If Wolfenstein 3 is the same leap from 2 that Halo 3 was from Halo 2, then we could be in for a really massive treat. A game with the unique and intelligent creative perspective of Wolfenstein that was also firing on all cylinders in terms of polish, level design, and gaudy spectacle could await us. Obviously it could also be a massive disaster, but Machinegames making the same missteps as Bungie could mean that they have learned many of the same lessons. Here’s hoping!

[sentinelkelly]

“Disappointed Fans” Stopped  Being Fans Months Ago or Never was to Begin With

Rise of Iron: Same Shit, Different Day (the most tired and incomprehensible argument still being used). Ever since Rise of Iron released, a lot of people who claims to be fans of Destiny were up at arms about how lackluster Rise of Iron is. Not because it’s boring or anything, but because “its same thing.” Oh Lord... Where do I even begin?

The Story is Short

Whaa the main quest line is only 5 missions long, Kelly! It’s short like The Dark Below and House of Wolves! OH NO! The set of missions that you were only going to play three times before you play nothing but Strikes, Raid, and Crucible is short! BUNGIE PLEASE FIX THIS! Honestly, who the fuck cares? If Wrath of the Machine was available before even taking back the Iron Temple, a good portion of the Community would have 20+ completions without ever setting foot on Felwinter’s Peak. But Kelly, MUH LORE! I remember being ridiculed because I didn’t know Queen Mara was alive until Bungie released a statement about her fate. You people laughed and said, “lol It was stated in the Grimiore Cards!” You suddenly forgot about those? Your precious lore is on an app.

Another thing: In Main Story, you hunted the Black Heart and destroyed it. In the Dark Below, you hunted down Omnigul and Crota then killed them. In House of Wolves, you hunted down Skolas, captured, then killed him. In the Taken King, you hunted down Oryx and defeated him twice. In Rise of Iron, you stopped Fallen occupation in an important location of the Cosmodrome and stopped their bioengineering experiment from giving them upgrades that could have made them unstoppable. SIVA IS NOT A PERSON! HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE CONSIDERED “THE SAME THING?!” Whatever, let’s move on.

Wrath of the Machine

This is basically another point to the statement I made earlier. I haven’t heard anything too bad about the raid itself surprisingly. In fact, all I hear is “Rise of Iron is bad but I love the raid tho.” What are you, retarded? That's like saying, “I’m smart, but I’m a terrible test-taker” or “She has an ugly face, but have a nice ass so I’d still bang her.” That’s hypocritical! You just got finished belly aching over how short the story is, yet you enjoy the very thing you unlock after the story. And I bet you have more play time in the raid more than of the story.

One of the few criticisms I do hear about the raid is that bosses are bullet sponges again. ..What are you smoking? The whole raid was a combination of Bullet Sponge and Mechanic. Hell, I use “Bullet Sponge” loosely because some YouTubers/Streamers make Vosik and Aksis look like a joke. For people who aren’t that skilled or knowledgeable of the game, playing normally involves a lot of mechanics. Plus, Gjallarhorn, the God-Slayer of Year One, didn’t make the boss fights any easier, Dark-Drinker did!

Crucible is the Same Shit

Supremacy, Private Matches, and eSports compatibility aren’t new concepts in gaming, but it’s a first for Destiny. For Destiny fans, that’s all that matters. Hardcore Crucible players welcome new modes, whether they’ll play it a lot is up to them. Casual and Hardcore Crucible players alike always wanted a mode to have a friendly contest of skill with their friends without trying to lock a skirmish lobby. “Professional” Crucible players always wanted an eSports league to actually be considered a Pro. Pre-Rise of Iron Crucible was just a competitive mode.

Before I get hit with the terrible RNG post game drop rate, lemme just tell you something: SHUT UP! RNG giving shitty drops is normal, has always been apart of the game, and won’t be changing anytime soon. Yeah it’s annoying, but you’re not going to get an exotic every time you play, no matter how good you did. Deal with it.

Grinding is so “Easy” Now

I wouldn’t say that... I virtually have no life. Just throwing that out there. I take online classes, work around 20-24 hours per week part time, my girlfriend and close friends all live in other time zones, and usually have no interest in leaving my home. Reaching 400 Light was easy... for me! FOR ME! But that’s because I converted my free time into hours and hours into getting to 400 Light on all of my Xbox characters and at least 385 on my newly created PS4 characters. That and, unlike most people, I use LFG Forums and get raids and Nightfalls done weekly. Sometimes I play crucible. There’s people with more free time than I do and played since Day 1, but never peaked 375 Light on one character yet... To this day! I can’t fathom the thought of that! What can you possibly be doing to stay that low yet play everyday? The Heroic Strikes alone can get you up to 385 as of October 18th. People belly ached that reaching 310 Light and eventually 320 Light was difficult last year (which it was), unless you were lucky. King’s Fall was the only way to reach 320 if I remember correctly. The factions weren’t going to give 310 Light gear. Crucible was iffy. Court of Oryx did nothing really. People were pushed to do King’s Fall and Nightfalls every week to have a chance at high Light gear. Even then, it wasn’t guaranteed. The old infusion system wasn’t helping much either. Now, the max level cap is achievable without depending on a single activity, yet that’s still a problem because no lives like me play too much. The real problem is the changes were meant for the people who choose to play a social game like Destiny, but blames their social anxiety and lack of friends as the reason why they haven’t got to a certain light level yet. The problem is these people claim to love Destiny, but aren’t motivated to actually play it. Of course, lots of people have responsibilities stopping them from playing a lot of video games in general and I’m not referring to them.

One thing I love about Rise of Iron is how the drop rate of Strange Coins and reputation gains have increased. That’s beautiful in my opinion. The material and reputation grind is a bit easier now. That’s a good thing!

Microtrans--

I’m gonna stop you right there. It’s still not pay-to-win after a year and few months. If you don’t have money to spend or don’t want to spend your hard earned money, you don’t have to buy anything! But Kelly, I want that cool sparrow and Dab emote. So buy it! I have them and love them. Worth every penny. But why we gotta pay? Shit, Bungie said we were going to get free DLC and it never happened yet. It’s because of cheap whiny assholes like you. If you’re not going to contribute to the Free DLC Cause, shut the fuck up!

Where’s Vault of Glass and Crota’s End?

Wow! You do care about post game content! You was crying about the story, Bungie probably thought you’d just play the story missions over and over until the next game. Unfortunately, Bungie had the bright idea of keeping Wrath of the Machine (and King’s Fall to a certain extent) relevant. I for one want to them to come back too, but mind you, this DLC wasn’t supposed to be a thing at first. We should be playing Destiny 2 by now, but shit happens. I’m glad they’re held back on revamping Vault of Glass and Crota’s End. The Great Content Drought of 2016 was bad. I lived, other people got impatient and abandoned Destiny. Bungie still has the “Bring Back the Old Raids” card. Had they would’ve used it early, they may not have anything planned for post-SRL 2k16 Destiny. We’ll have to wait and see what they’ll do, but there’s still hope.

The Plaguelands is Just an Expanded Version of the Cosmodrome with Snow

So? That’s still technically not a copy and paste job. It’s still new and different with some respect.

Quality Wise, Rise of Iron is Living in the Taken King’s Shadow

I agree, but that’s a good thing! It’s a very beautiful thing. What if Rise of Iron was the best DLC to ever happen to the game? What if Rise of Iron was so great that everyone loves it, yet Destiny 2 flops... badly? People like me will try to see the good in Destiny 2, some might go back to Destiny 1, others might stop playing Destiny all together. The Taken King was a great DLC. At least if you love it so much, you can still play it. If being on the Dreadnaught gets you get excited, you can still go there. If fighting Oryx makes you cum in your underwear, you can still do that. However, there’s no guarantee if existing content is coming to Year 4. I rather Bungie save all the magic for the next game because I rather have the Taken King being considered the better DLC than Destiny 1 being considered the better game for reasons that aren’t nostalgia.

Conclusion

I’m not telling that you gotta love Rise of Iron like I do. You’re entitled to your own opinion, but make sure its rational. The bulk of the criticism are coming from people who clearly have stopped playing months ago or just started playing but allowed other people’s opinion affect their own. It’s clear that they’ve eternalized something from another DLC and are trying their best to not be opened to change (even though they claim that’s what they want). Saying Rise of Iron is the same is a down right lie. It shows that you haven’t put enough time into it. If it is the same, how the Taken King better? Shouldn’t they be equals if that was the case? There’s nothing wrong with admitting that Destiny doesn’t hold the same appeal to you as it have at whatever point. It’s okay to admit that you play occasionally just to see if you get invested again. It’s okay to admit that Rise of Iron is not your thing. You can’t say it’s the same thing when you weren’t there for the changes or choose not to acknowledge them.