“Bungie” Have Cut The Corporate Cord. But Can They Forge A New Destiny?

Divorces rarely run smoothly. They’re costly, time-consuming and hardly a barrel of laughs for either disputing couple. More often than not the dissolution of a marriage is attributed to “inconsolable differences”, which is a just polite way of saying “I can’t stand the sight of that conniving, adulterous prick. Give me half of your money and get out!”. The very formal legislation, complicated terminology and general legality of divorce can get a little messy, especially when it comes to which parent gets custody over their children. In the case of Bungie and Activision it appears that the former has not only profited from its detachment from its domestically abusive spouse, but has also restricted all visitation rights from their offspring: Destiny. I think it’s safe to assume that Bungie are the aggrieved party in this analogy, with Activision capably adopting the role of “Sadistic Husband” who doesn’t allow his wife to go out socialising with her friends or allow her to have an opinion of her own. And if we are honest it’s normally the male that messes relationships up and boy, did Activision do a spectacular job here.

Bungie somehow managing to retain the rights to Destiny is not only surprising, but implies that they believe they can redeem the underwhelming franchise, free from their former corporate overlords. But has the brand been tainted by its faltering reputation? No doubt there are some Destiny 2 fanatics that will proclaim it as an unparalleled experience, unworthy of such vitriolic ridicule. That the game is immeasurably better when you splurge £100 on content that should have been included from the beginning. I’m not judging, simply stating that these kind of business strategies are some of the most heinous supplements of modern game development. Still if the perpetrators were Activision, which I suspect that they were, then perhaps Bungie, free from their oppressors can salvage Destiny and perhaps thrive.

If I sound a little sceptical it’s because that the creative freedom granted by independence doesn’t necessarily ensure success. Unless Bungie are looking to negotiate with another publisher then the risk of failure increases. Even if the presumed successor to Destiny is their first initiative, there’s no guarantee that even fan goodwill will be enough to help, especially at a time when game developer’s/publishers are being so heavily scrutinised. For me personally it’s difficult to feel confident or even joyous about either Bungie’s independence or the acquisition of Destiny when their reputation as a game studio is tarnished by the only franchise of there’s I’ve played, that being the much maligned Destiny.

Whatever happens there’s no denying that this is a watershed moment for both the industry and consumers. And it will be interesting to see if anyone else begins to consider their own professional marriage?

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Are you excited to see what Bungie does with its new-found freedom? Of course you, stupid question. Do you think they will be successful, with either Destiny or something new? Let me know in the comments below.

Destiny 2 And How I Secretly Hope It Fails.

I shouldn’t, should I? It’s vindictive to wish failure on a person, let alone an innate product that provides such emphatic elation with mere anticipation alone. I’m an honest guy. I live a life committed to such a principle, completely unabashed by my earnest assertions that sometimes provoke the exasperated mire of others. I try not to hold grudges. They require too much endurance as well as a capacity to recall the offending incident that instigated such a grievance. But there’s something about Destiny that still irritates me. Now I know what you custodians of the mundane and enablers of negligence will persecute my contempt as being ignorant of its abundant refinements that, after years of considerable monetary expansions confute its formative complacency. That the Destiny I remember is not the same game it eventually became. That content has been added to innovate and expand it beyond its evidently specious conception. And Destiny is a profoundly more cogent experience with all the additional features garnished over a distinctly bland infrastructure. But with tortured metaphors aside I can pin point precisely when I knew there was something off about Destiny.

When I played Destiny my initial reaction was one of suitable contentment. The shooting was refined, saturating its environments with enemy combatants whose skulls could be vaporised with satisfying precision. It was replete in beautifully articulated environments, imagined with such detailed creativity that you’re convinced Earth’s now eradicated civilisation and subsequent alien residency is a prophetic glimpse of a legitimate future. It becomes apparent very quickly though that these alluring implements of cranial dissection will only maintain a limited appeal, especially considering the diverse architectures are deposited in rich, detailed environments that are mitigated by the exterior vacuity and finite space to explore. Perhaps my own ambitious perception of what the game was going to be subverted my judgement. Maybe I conjured some romanticized view of the game, interpreted through amalgamated information and misleading marketing. Regardless having neither been initially chided by Destiny’s glaring omissions or irked by the limited environments I persevered seeking some kind of context for my characters sudden aversion to death. You soon reach the Last City, an ornate fortitude populated by a colony of guardians who protect the last bastion of human civilisation with the aid of the traveller: a huge spherical meguffin. Essentially the Last City is the only remaining refuge for mankind, predominantly used as a place to purchase new artillery, modify existing ones and initiate impromptu dance numbers. It’s here, guided by your AI assistant Ghost, basically Wheatley from Portal if it were a fidget spinner with built-in sat-nav, voiced by the eternally catatonic Peter “I needed a new loft conversion” Dinklage that we are introduced to a man eerily referred to as the Speaker. Having searched low and high (Peter Townshend, look it up kids) you discover that the “Speaker” is of very singular expository importance with a name as that couldn’t be more ironic. A man with an extensive knowledge regarding the declination of the human race and other historically pertinent information, that could benefit you on your travels and impart a wisdom, purpose or even a point to your intergalactic exploration.

ME- “Please great Speaker. Confer your infinite wisdom so that I may better understand my purpose and aid you in the preservation of our species?”

Speaker- “I could tell you about the great War that has ravaged our people. A conflict hat has left humanity on the cusp of extinction?…..”

ME– “…… Please do. Continue.”

Speaker- “Oh, look at the time. I really have to go and so must you to…eh…Venus to recover a thing. Go on, off you pop!”

“Seriously, this is what’s supposed to get me excited? Is that a robe?!

That’s it? That’s my incentive? The reasons could be just about anything! Perhaps we borrowed some washing powder and didn’t return it! Anything would be better than some vague briefing! So with that vacant explanation my engagement was quickly rescinded, with the monotonous repetition of participating in the same missions and redacted story providing little engagement. The inflationary nature of Destiny that boasted an unparalleled experience before release, instead concealed its flaunted story behind the compliance of commerce. Stripping necessary portions that would have elevated the game beyond a glorified beta. As a consequence of extensive tampering the finished product felt moderated beyond understanding. The game, consolidated by the paid for “additional features” is far more accomplished, and personally the game it should have been on release. You’d think years of abstinence would have diminished my hostility, that such a churlish resolve would have faded and peaceful, amicable resolution found. Nope, not even slightly. I hate that it was so disappointing. I hate that people forgave it for its obvious manipulation. And I hate that it got a sequel!

All of the trailers leading up to Destiny 2’s release were so obnoxiously abhorrent . There’s a very smug, self-congratulatory quality to them, like it found a pound coin in a shopping trolley. You get a sense that the developers truly believe that Destiny was as important to the games industry as the Bible is to Christians. The trailer also features a rather irritating guardian performing a motivational speech as if he were a stand up comedian poorly imitating Deadpool. It’s so incredibly ostentatious and detestably vulgar, yet I seem to be the only one that recognises just how odious it is?! Destiny 2 could very well be the game of the year and I realise that my conservative estimation of it won’t be influenced or changed by any plaudits it receives or the magnanimous support lauded on to it by a dedicated fan base that relishes its existence, and perhaps that’s my loss. But I doubt it. If you’re one of the many adopters of this very popular franchise then you’ll feel no obligation to advocate your participation, not that I’d ever criticise anyone from enjoying a game I didn’t like. But for me the original Destiny “experience” has left such a virulently bitter taste that has remained agonizingly chronic even now. I can’t forgive its voluntary greed nor its underwhelming performance as a whole. Much like Clarke Gables famous retort to petulant southern dame Catherine O Hara in “Gone With The Wind”, when it comes to Destiny 2, quite frankly I don’t give a damn!

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What do you guys think of Destiny 2? Is it rational to hate a game you’ve never played? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

Destiny: The Re-Review.

It’s been a year since I was so grievously wounded. The traces of those superficial lacerations and cerebral malady’s inflicted by its dalliance remain as subverted inflections of its malicious ferocity. The nagging throbs of pain and irritation emitted from those sensitive wounds are emblematic reminders of its accursed failures. Alas how I wept and grieved for a game that never materialised, cursing the very foundations of this most profane gaming oddity. How had such potential been squandered with only a thrift of its advertised utilities available?! Sorry, was that a bit too much?

Yes Destiny is still the most disappointing thing since I lost my virginity while under the influence of way too many beers! The pain and neglect have never fully healed (the game I mean, not my inability to perform in the bedroom.) So to commemorate its one year anniversary, which is even more pertinent given “The Taken Kings” popularity, I felt compelled to re-review Destiny in all its purity to see whether that judgement still holds true. Let me first digress that I believe this generation of games consoles represents all the innovative variation you’d expect, with the most regressive systemic adherence for continuous monetization a ubiquitous theme attributed to games such as Destiny. I was particularly complicit in my abhor for Destiny’s deficient constituency occurring within its restricted substance. It’s publicised expanse was all exclaimed with such commercialised aplomb that it helped distract potential investors from its supplemented arrears. It’s surreptitious contraction ascribed to its release was so evident in its wilful convalescence and prohibited character progression, that discovering it’s mass vacuity with such prominence belies just how equivocal it’s erroneous deceit was. (Sorry, I swallowed a thesaurus last night.) What I meant to say was that Destiny annoyed me more next doors kitten leaving tiny brown “gifts” in my garden (a rather appropriate analogy!) Destiny represented a cruel deflection of earnest conception that resulted in my almost immediate departure from its depleted conceit. It has since amassed a reputable resurgence in my absence however, bolstered by additional and rather substantial content that belies it’s otherwise barren origination. I must admit that upon its release I had never expressed such hostility towards a game, so was a little worried about returning. I viewed it as an erroneously duplicitous scheme to extort money from fallibility of commercialised hyperbole, with only a fraction of advertised content. Oh yeah, those bitter, resentful, seething discharge of anger is starting to resurface again like bile! I can’t tell you just how much Destiny disappointed me. Yet here I am prepared to get hurt again, much like that salacious night with an ex girlfriend!

“The Dark King does look great. But I can’t help feeling it should have been part of the original game?”

The first thing I noticed was the absence of Peter “roused from a coma” Dinklage, which is hardly the most divisive of vocal replacements. Whether there was an artistically deliberate method in delivering his automated lines with such diminished vigour is now innocuous. He’s returned to Westeros to drink wine, philosophise and spit gum into his wife’s mouth. Nolan North, the perennial jester and continued larynx of practically every game ever made now provides you with much of your guidance, with a slightly more refined diligence and inured cadence than we are used to from this jovial chameleon. It’s a pleasant, if slightly confusing addition considering it’s merely a floating apparatus that opens locked doors and delivers expository information. In any case it does a sterling job of navigating you to your next destination in what I’d actually forgotten is a stunning vista of environments. Whether it’s the subterranean passages that reticulate through the moons crust, the vacant remnants of earth’s past or the strangely venerable plant life that hues Venus surface, the environments and terrain feel detailed and real. The gun-play is also beyond compelling, delivering cathartic and fluid results. Controlling a character with such lateral as well as horizontal mobility granted a far more effusive, as well as satisfying way of annihilating potential aggressors, providing variable strategic options which you’re require as it is very easy to become outnumbered. Destiny to its credit provides an easy to use interface that could also be accessed via applications on your phone, making the transfer of equipment simple. The waiting times for your ship to enter any planetary atmosphere have been mercifully reduced too, though there are still some area based latency that requires the request of server connectivity. The engrams that you acquire are now also what they say they are. For example if your fortuitous enough to discover a legendary diagram, it will be legendary, not rare or common. And it appears the infamous loot cave that was so commonly exploited no longer generates the necessary supplies to bolster your resources. But other issues still persist.

“Destiny, despite its drawbacks, is still visually resplendent.”

The environments though beautiful were regulated by invisible infringements, with spatially irregular declivities that penalised you for your exploration, as such the wide expanses that appear ripe for plucking are deceiving mirages, akin to a backdrop on a theatrical stage production. Fatigue begins to materialise after subsequent raids on the same facilities as do the enemies proclivities to spawn in the exact same place after only moments of being cleared. Your main source of transportations are a spaceship that’s exterior can be altered with aesthetic allures but no tactical applications, and your hover bike offers nothing more than a functional connection from one rural setting to another. Then, finally, we come to the “story” which from my own perspective concerns and orphaned apparition called Tim, whom upon being revived from century’s of temporary death seeks reconciliation with his adopted children, Jennifer and Gertrude, both of whom have been kidnapped by….something. I don’t know, I kind of ran out of ideas, but I already feel this manufactured yarn it’s a more compelling motivation than the one depicted by Bungie and grants a measure of abstract purpose to my trigger happy endeavours. The economised plot is just as much of an issue as it was when I first played it. It’s lauded with reductive incentives that leaves you questioning why anything is happening. How was I brought back to life? Why was I brought back to life? What on Earth is the darkness people keep referring to? Is it a hermetic organisation? An ethereal being? Is it something to do with Justin Hawkings?! Who is the mysterious woman that’s trying to help me? And why won’t she explain her motives? I just don’t know what’s going on!

“As I gaze upon the world around me I can’t help thinking? What the hell is that thing?!”

This is the level of facilitated deception demonstrated by the industry: providing gamers with the bare bones game and then charging users for additional content that should have been available from the offset! Or at very least supplemented at a later date for free. I resent that Destiny merely validated just how innovatively greedy the industry has become. The substantial monetization has crippled the industries credibility in providing gamers with progressive continuity, but rather attempting to mug them on some deserted back alley. Moreover the Taken King can’t actually be downloaded unless you have already purchased it’s 2 previous DLC’s. This morally bankrupt conceit, not merely exclusive to Destiny appears to be blissfully ignored by the greater gaming community. Well perhaps ignorance is a complacent definition, but certainly a will of acceptance as though this is just the way things are now. Gamers appear to generate subsidise penance for Destiny’s initial shortcomings, by purchasing The Taken King in the hope that maybe–just maybe–it will atone for its lazy banality. But I can’t treat this degenerative malignancy with anything other than contempt. It’s a reprehensible act created to inflict perennial austerity on its users. Of course we are just as compliant and should be held moderately accountable for our own purchases. I’d be remiss if I didn’t accept partial blame for being lured by its intended potential that was such an alluring prospect at the time of release.

If DLC is going to become mandatory expansion then it should enhance the already significant content rather than apply substantial data prohibited on release that should have been present to begin with. The Witcher 3 offered free content expressly to enhance players activities, despite the replete missions at your disposal from the offset. Playing Destiny again only vindicates my apprehension for the future of gaming, one in which gamers are punished for their optimism.

Have you played Destiny since its release? Let me know your thoughts.

And The BAFTA Goes To……Huh?

“And the winner is……huh? Wait, that’s not how you spell Shadow Of Mordor is it?” I wasn’t in attendance at last nights prestigious (stifles laugh) BAFTA game awards and consider my exclusion a very fortunate privilege. Now that’s not to suggest that developers admirable exertions should go without suitable recompense for their exulted contributions. Many titles are deservedly honoured for their exuberant services to interactive medium, lauded with glamorous adulation, rapturous applause of gratifying self-importance and appraised with elegant concertos that helps usher a celebratory event that ultimately plunder’s any inert decorum such a ceremony should preserve. With the faux perception of solidarity of its elected representatives, that then congratulate everyone participating. From their mothers, publishers, spouses to their pet cat scruffies! Sorry, I guess I’m just a little ambivalent to this gregarious, pat yourself on the back mentality, the formal extravagance of gaming adoration and the kind of sanctioned endeavour to assimilate gaming into collaborative mainstream communal, rather than the appropriate nerdy parish to which it belongs. So with these kind of errant affairs of conceited modesty, there is very little that leaves me speechless. A judo chop to the throat, sure. But I think I’d rather have suffered such a savage violation on my gullet rather than watch Destiny win “best” game!

“This is what a worthy and nerdy winner looks like!”

There was an audible gasp of surprise that rippled through the well-respected crowd, that is only further punctuated by the rather curious presenter of the award, Dynamo (an illusionist) which so far has not been advocated as one of his many confounding deceptions. You can almost make out the red reflector sight on his lapel from some concealed assassin, employed by Bungie as he vocally rendered the successful winner. Seeing that Destiny had won was for me like looking into a back up toilet! I was just like “ugh!” Now I’m not saying Destiny is a bad game, I actually had some good fun with its precision shooting that made me look half competent. But it can’t even be categorised as a nomination for such a comprehensive accolade. Shadow of Mordor, for me absolutely. Dragon Age: Inquisition, sure why not. Alien: Isolation……pushing it, but I wouldn’t be totally aggrieved. But for Destiny to generate such recognition with its farcical grinding and absent content appears less based on eccentricity, and more contesting gamers integrity by exhorting the general gaming sentiment (that it wasn’t very good!) denoted with a figurative middle finger that derogate’s gamers lingering protestations as mute and ignorant. Destiny’s success here is almost a mocking indictment of the industry, on an evening that actually awarded accolades to some credibly laudable applicants. But for Destiny, a divisive, critically impoverished game to attract such esteem is the antithesis to the meditative examination we’d expect. It’s probably not fair of me to criticise an event that celebrates such a breadth of diversity into its selection process, but it does make question whether Chelsea FC could be awarded for their sportsmanship or “Transformers” would obtain the cinematic equivalent of a BAFTA for “Best Picture”?

Destiny winning best game was either some intricate ploy by BAFTA, a genuine choice by the delegates that selected it or BAFTA is governed by some of the most highly dubious envoys outside of North Korea?! I just don’t know?

What do you think was the best game of last year? And am I being to critical about Destiny’s success? Let me know what you guys think. Cheers.

Up Yours Social Gaming!

Some things, by their very definition, are more effective when more than one recipient is involved. Such as playing twister or initiating an orgy. But there is something to be said of the intimacy of single player, free of external interference that often retains so much repressed animosity. The last generation of games consoles, over the course of their perpetuating existence resulted in a dramatic declination for the quality of singular sourced gaming, with greater emphasis observed for the amelioration of multi-player. A studious aspiration only augmented further by more respondent servers and the obvious financial incentives amassed from sustained inter-connectivity. Of course many titles retained some affiliation with offline properties, but became the subsidiaries of a more robust multi-player. General etiquette is to defer the once monogamous relationship with a competent script, with narratives that are now so redundant that they may have well been scribed with crayon or etched into the bark of a tree, engraved with the authors initials framed in a heart shape and arrow through it. Yet 2014 has represented a resurgence in singular activity that I never anticipated and once again renewing my opinion that gaming is better alone.

“Yes kid I get it; you’re going to blow me and my mum. Geez!”

The abject tolerance towards solitary excursions by developers, seemingly abashed by the lack of interactive connectivity, again supplemented how gamers collaborate with one another with the advent of new consoles. With games such as Destiny for instance that focused purely on networked collusion, with varying degrees of success. Forcing gamers to be logged in at all times invariably chaperones you into congenital issues such as a latency in server retention, while also punishing those who wish to casually drop into games by insisting that they join a clan if they want to progress, not just merely accompany a match with randomly elected affiliates. And of course if there is a domestic issue with the server native to your device or attributed to an external link you have no control over, then you can’t play. Whereas conversely, 2 of my favourite titles of the year, Alien: Isolation and Shadow of Mordor, both of whom retracted the availability of social interaction and instead relied on the fabled mechanism of functionality. Do you remember that? The blessed days when games worked? They represent the established principle that every game should abide by; to function! They refined the primary ideals that has been radically stunted many of this years abhorrently publicised titles; that games perform greater without the overt contraction of networked interaction, between gamers separated by oceans, and in some cases a common language.

“Um, I could use some help here…..anyone? Oh Shi……”

I can’t help but lament that Destiny, for all of its enamelled sophistry and ornate scope would have been so much better if it alternated its inherent ordinance between interludes of sole and collaborative activity. Any substantial server interference is then negated by the accessibility of isolated persuasions. Sure the arcane intelligence of the allocated, computer generated allegiances are rudimentary in their combative indulgences, but judging by the expertise of the real life confederates I’m eternally coordinated with, having a team comprised of lumbering marionettes continually shooting partitions, stationary ornaments and the ambient environments are of a far more favourable calibre. But this isn’t about admonishing games, but praising the freedom emitted from confines of solitary. Nothing that Shadow of Mordor or Alien: Isolation did was revolutionary, the former was largely an exact replication of the Arkham series, just relocated to Middle Earth. They simply invoked a nostalgic reliance we had in gaming, renouncing the trending philosophy that continually bludgeons us with the reliance of communal synergy, and has certainly adapted the notion of individuality into a credible preference. Any game that retracts the auxiliary impedance of hearing an agitated teenager berating my proficiency with gestural indications that they have violated my mother or compromises the availability of social interaction in general, is fine by me. Bless those little cherubs.

Do single player games still have a future? Let me know your thoughts. Cheers.