Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below Preview

What I really don't get is the lack of being able to upgrade your legendary weapons. At first I thought it was all weapons, but exotics will still be able to be upgraded. Still, popular weapons like Fatebringer, Blackhammer, Vision of Confluence, Fellwinter's Lie, Efrideet's Spear, and more notably the ToO weapons like The Messenger are all useless?  I'm not a pro players and I was very lucky to get to the Lighthouse... I have no desire to try that again and hope to get a "new" messenger, or grind IB again an get a new Fellwinter's or Efrideet's Spear. That's bullshit. Those weapons were hard to grind for and were my "Gally moments". What is even the point of doing VoG or CE raids when the weapons wont be as good as what is in The Taken King? No one is going to play these anymore except for the hope to get Mythoclast... Necrochasm is pure shit and no one is going to play CE with nerfed Gallys to get a shitty auto rifle. So they made 2 raids completely pointless to play to try to force you into paying $30... to force you to use the new weapons.

I bet the old raids will have their difficulty upgraded and they'll have done other new currency or loot table that gives better drops. Knowing bungie they'll probably change their mind about crap with the next dlc after taken king and slow everyone to upgrade their year 1 exotics to year 2 and by that point everyone will have destroyed all their good weapons and the select few that still had gally can upgrade them and be kings again. Eh.

And I read that the light levels will still be there in taken king but now will be a separate level of power or something. So everyone can level to 40 but will still need high light to be able to access more difficult content.

Year 1 exotics will be upgradeable. Its the year one legendary weapons that you cant.

It's all a bunch of BS now with bungie. :/ star wars battlefront will be out soon and that'll take care of my scifi cravings.

There in lies the problem, lets drop all support for old legendary weapons (some of which are far better then the exotics) and let everyone upgrade those exotics that most just bought instead of working hard to get. Don't get me wrong, quite a few of the best legendary guns are bought (Shadow Price for one, still the best auto rifle in the game imo) but a lot of those you work extremely hard to get (Fatebringer, the Messenger you have, Black Hammer, etc). I got lucky when I got on two weeks ago to buy Suros and got a Primary Weapon Legendary Engram drop out of the weekly. It turned into Up The Ante, by far the best legendary Hand Cannon in the game atm if you discount Fatebringer (as far as I've researched, almost everyone who uses a hand cannon seriously uses it). The abilities on it aren't exactly the best but I finally got my hands on it (even though it was never really going to be of use to me) but now, should I decide to go into the Taken King (which I won't), is completely worthless now. A gun that I did get lucky to get that I've wanted for awhile and now I can't even use it. Well that's fucking ridiculous but hey guess what that Gally everyone bought last week can still be used in Taken King because it can be upgraded even though Bungie has already said it was trying to phase it out by putting an even better exotic into the expansion (and nerfing it). This is why Destiny will slowly die. Yes there will always be people willing to put up with Bungie's shit (hell look at WoW, they're releasing a new expansion and only 5.4 million people still pay to play it (hell I think FF14 is over that number now and still growing)) but their stupid mistakes will eventually piss everyone off to the point they won't have a player base. Maybe it was a good thing that Microsoft got all the rights to Halo. I'd hate to see what would of become to the franchise had Bungie kept ownership of it (don't get me wrong I hate what 343 has done to the game/universe but they never fucked it up as bad as Bungie is fucking Destiny up).

Heh, I pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of Battlefront last week (as well as the Gold Edition of The Division since the PS4 Collector's Edition was sold out) so I'm freaking ready for it. It's going to be so much better then Destiny.

I'm about there. I dropped $100 on the GW2 HoT expansion, I'm going to drop the $$$ on Battlefront soon.

My money is still tight atm. I'll be preordering gw2 hot first then battlefront. Hopefully I'll get battlefront the week it launches so I don't miss much.

http://kotaku.com/destiny-the-taken-king-will-leave-gjallarhorn-behind-1725495291

Turns out our boy Gjally will be left behind when The Taken King comes out this September. While some exotic items—like Suros Regime and No Backup Plans—will get upgraded Year Two versions with better light and stats, Gjallarhorn won’t be one of them.

Writes Bungie in today’s weekly update

Did you redesign Gjallarhorn?

• Gjallarhorn will remain a Year One Exotic at Year One levels

And Gally is going to be worthless in less than one month.. even tho a bunch of other exotics will be upgradeable. I wonder if the mythoclast will be upgradeable to year 2. Ehh.. Battlefront will be out in november.

Wow... horrible game design.

I'll admit, the Queen is looking pretty hot in her 2 seconds of trailer time... I'll be watching cut scenes on youtube... I'm done with the misleading trailers.

Sadly you know she's only going to be a part of the cutscenes and probably only that one part shes show in. As much as I'm interested in seeing what her part in this new expansion is I'm just going to go your route and watch cutscenes on youtube. I'm done with this game and their stupid hype trailers.

I liked the space battle part.. its a shame we never actually flew our ships in space.

I generally don't like watching playthroughs, but I'll watch all the raids and the 1-2 new cutscenes from taken king on youtube and save myself $50.

It's sad... I wish Bungie would have went to EA instead of Activision.

http://kotaku.com/the-messy-true-story-behind-the-making-of-destiny-1737556731?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Warning: This hurts to read

Pretty much confirms a lot of what we have speculated in this post... the game that was presented was scrapped and butchered into the clusterfuck it turned out being... major parts removed for DLC and even the sequel. I feel bad for Staten... and I wish I could have played his vision for the game which we were all sold on within the various trailers and E3 presentations.

Well that confirms almost everything we've read, heard, and talked about. I really wish we could of seen Staten's vision but I think the success of Halo went to Bungie's head (well the top executives heads) and made them think they could pretty much take, what sounds to be a well written and thought out story, and hack it up for their own purposes. I honestly don't think things would of been better for them at EA (I mean look what happened to TOR in the beginning months when EA bought BioWare out and, even though it was a good game, what they did to ME2) but they honestly couldn't of been any worse (hell they'd of probably been better off going with Ubisoft).

After reading that I've lost almost all faith in Bungie. I just don't understand how you can go from releasing one of the best game series of the last two generations to releasing a cluster fuck of a game that just fails in almost every respect. Then again they do work for Activision but I think a lot of the problems still stem from Bungie's upper echelons (I mean look at the messy legal battle they had with Martin O'Donnell when he left the company. They owed that man a lot for the amazing soundtrack he wrote for Destiny and all his work with the Halo series).

That article makes me so sad. I was so hyped for Destiny to have a galaxy as big as Star Wars. But instead it turned into a horrible story and a bunch of good tidbits of story thrown into obtainable cards that can't even be read in the game. There was so much potential for Destiny.. but with Destiny 1 now setting a precedent and initial story I don't see how they could make Destiny 2 into something with an amazing plot now. As it is I doubt Destiny 2, 3, 4, etc will even leave our solar system. Every planet will be it's own dlc or new game. Hell, Jupiter with all it's moons will probably be Destiny 3 & dlc all by itself.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/8/9871646/destiny-bungie-dlc-microtransactions-taken-king-year-two

No more DLC for Destiny. I bet taken king didn't sell at all like they thought it would and whatever work they were doing on new raids and DLC will get bundled together and be sold as Destiny 2.

Its clear that the TTK didn't sell very well and/or the population completely died after the content was finished by the majority of those who did. They are going to really scrap the universe and start over. Activision isn't going to give them $500 million again. The next game is going to have to take place way in the future so they can get a clean slate going. Fallout 4/COD/BF killed there population, and it won't be coming back ever with the holidays only making it worse and the new year of games on the horizon. I'll probably buy the core game when D2 comes out, but if I find out they are gonna nerf and leave behind weapons again for the DLC, I won't bother and cut my losses there.

If the sequel is a time skip so we can pretty much forget about all the plot of Destiny 1, I might be interested. But either way I won't pre-order it or a DLC package. I'll wait for reviews for the campaign first before I buy another Bungie product.

Bungie will never get another dime from me unless they actually scrap this shit hole of a game, bring back the original story writer, and bring his vision to life. Plus you know Destiny 2 is just going to be a massive DLC priced as a regular game that continues wherever TTK and any future, free DLC's leave off. I highly doubt they'll do a massive time skip for a game they're finally starting to write a good story for (all the time they spent on making the story for TTK would be a waste if they did this).

The switch to micro-transactions is a bad omen imo. I wasn't hip on it for F2P games (and I'm still not even though I toss a lot of money at STO, those purchasable ships are just to damn sexy x.x ) and if console games are going to start doing this I might just quit gaming altogether. It's pretty much saying "Here's a game we want you to pay $60 and play. By the way all future DLC will be free but we want you to spend $20 on in game currency every change you get so you can buy these awesome little emotes we made for your characters to express you're emotions since we're too dumb to put a VOIP system into our game." While I know the business model works it's just a bad move for the gaming industry especially considering our generation are the ones having kids now and if we're not willing to pay the money for ourselves we're not going to spend it for our children to have. The industry has been slowly tanking the last couple of years (no matter what people are saying you can tell, massive studio closures and layoffs are a dead give away) and making this move might just put the nail in the coffin. I do, however, see this as the perfect time for Indie developers to shine and give us games that we want because they're made by our generation and they know what we want.

If I ever get burned out on the trend of AAA games I have plenty of games in my steam back log to fall back on.

Destiny going to microtransactions is the first step. Once they get a huge amount of items for sale I bet the game will go F2P sometime after Destiny 2 has been on the market for a while. Bungie is pulling the same crap Trion Worlds did with Defiance. I bought Defiance when it came out. It was bug ridden but at least the world was big and it was easy to play with friends and the campaign was bigger then Destiny's. They had numerous events over the year I played it but I never bought the DLC and after they finally finished up their new microtransaction store and fixed the majority of the bugs that have been there since launch, the game went F2P. It was like a slap in the face. The difficulty of mobs increased with each DLC and weapons up to 10x more powerful than what I had, and were needed for these basic mobs, could only be purchased with currency available from DLC missions. The mobs were so powerful that I didn't have a chance in hell of actually enjoying it anymore unless I bought the DLC that wasn't included in the F2P base game that I owned. In the end it felt like me and everyone else who actually paid money for the game at release, paid for an unfinished product and their end goal was to make it a f2p microtransaction game all along. Games like that should be a kickstarter with early access, not a AAA game in a late beta for $60.

With Destiny's TTK sales most likely flopping and hard core players getting burned out, Bungie is going to the same conclusion Trion Worlds did with Defiance. Huge microtransactions, paywalls and eventually f2p to lure in more ppl into their microtransaction store like WoW, STO and GW2 did.

It already feels like we all basically kickstarted Destiny with preorder sales and that making this game was all just a big experiment on Bungie's part. Its one of the primary reasons I don't pre-order games anymore. Same with Star Wars Battlefront. I was going to preorder it, but I didn't. Turns out it has bugs and features missing that I want. Its already dropped to $40 on sale at gamestop today so I'll probably buy it for that price tomorrow, but if I can deny any company that makes incomplete or beta quality games $20 or more, then I will. I refuse to kickstart AAA games anymore thru preorders unless its literally thru kickstarter.

With Destiny's TTK sales most likely flopping and hard core players getting burned out, Bungie is going to the same conclusion Trion Worlds did with Defiance. Huge microtransactions, paywalls and eventually f2p to lure in more ppl into their microtransaction store like WoW, STO and GW2 did.

This is where my problem lies. Paywalls should never be a thing for console games and if this happens the future of gaming is bleak indeed. Just because it works well for MMO's doesn't mean it will work well for games like Destiny that are at their core just shooters. Plus Destiny will never be F2P, Activision will never allow a AAA title to come out for free. There will always be a $60+ price tag on a core Destiny game.

That's the problem with pre-ordering, you're taking a shot in the dark hoping the game you're getting is what was promised to you. Honestly Destiny is only the second game I've ever wanted my money back for after pre-ordering it (the first was Halo 2). Don't get me wrong I've been plenty disgusted at some of the games I've pre-ordered in the past (Dante's Inferno, Armored Core 5, etc) but I've never felt like I've wasted my money. I got enjoyment out of all those games and while some were aggravating as all hell I still enjoyed them. Battlefront is actually a great game and had a great launch it just suffers from balance tweaks (which some have been implemented, hello Barrage nerf), lack of squads, and some side favoring on a few maps. Honestly my only gripes about the game are the same ones I had for COD games and Battlefield games (like certain weapons being OP and what not). I'll always pre-order games and that's mostly because I feel I need to buy every Collector's Edition for every game I want (an expensive compulsion). However, I only pre-order games from developers I trust and those are becoming few and far between now. Currently the only game I have on pre-order is The Division and unless Ubisoft really drops the ball on it I don't see this game being a disappointment at all (though I do need to pre-order Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Ace Combat 7 (after some serious research, I've heard the last couple have been flops (and I know Assault Horizon was because I bought it)).

Thats the biggest issue with this game is the paywall is an actual paywall, and not just DLC people cry about like on most FPS where you can still enjoy the core multiplayer. Instead, you're locked out of equipment which makes you useless in Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris. The fact that my Messenger got shitted on, when it was a brand new gun was complete crap... and of course they made a new gun to replace it for TTK. I mean the gun was barely 3-4 months old before it got left behind on what was suppose to be the hardest gear to acquire. It was my fatebringer, and they took it away. 

Destiny wants their own "Gem Store" the Anet guy they hired is definietly influencing the game... the problem is there is no F2P games on console, you're always paying a fee to play because of the XBL and PS+ fee. Asking to pay another sub fee makes it harsh for MMOs to survive on console. If D2 was structured like GW2 it would be interesting to see how it survived.... although the anet guy would be overrode by coperate execs and they'd sell pay-to-win type stuff eventually ruining the whole concept.

I'll def be getting AC7 Strider... I enjoyed AH, but I miss the days of AC4/AC5 type gameplay. I did enjoy 6 more than Assault Horizon as well.

If DICE put a paywall on Battlefield like how Bungie did to Destiny, it would ruin Battlefield. BF DLC introduces new weapons into the mix that are only accessible with that dlc, and there are always balance issues that are quickly addressed, but they never outright negated older weapons to be significantly weaker to force everyone to buy the DLC to stay competitive like Bungie does with Destiny. Hell, DICE has done so great with Battlefield, they're releasing a second free dlc map for BF4 without charging for it. And the population is still strong over 2 years later.

And the most Bungie has done for core Destiny players with no DLC is open the reef to them so they can see the different npcs that wont sell anything to them, and gimp every weapon and armor they have 3 different times as punishment for not buying the multiple DLCs.

I'll take a step back about my pre-order comment. I will still preorder some games, but only single player offline ones. The new final fantasy 15 coming out in 2016, FF7 remaster. Yeah, I'll be buying those regardless so if there is a good preorder bonus I'll do it. But online only games with no campaigns or hardly any info on campaigns, no. I won't preorder those. I'm looking forward to the Division and everything I've seen about it looks amazing to me. But its been delayed repeatedly, I haven't seen any info about how long the campaign will take or if it can be done solo offline (I think they said it could be unless that has changed), and I've seen the preorder for the division go down as cheap as below $40 during some promotions already (not reputable downloadable key companies imo). With the preorder for it already being on sale and its not even out yet, I worry that we're getting a Destiny style hype again.

The DIvision for the most part is a solo based game. Hell you can even go into Dark Zones by yourself if you're feeling brave. They've said more then a few times that the whole story/campaign can be played by yourself and was designed to be that way. Multiplayer is pretty much for Dark Zones only as when you're playing the story you are in your own instance (similar to the system used for Class Story missions in The Old Republic, no one else can enter it unless you are partied with them). Dark Zones however put you into a public server where anyone who is in that DZ can see you and attack you or help you depending on how they want to play it. They've never really said how long the "story" of the game is but since it's being made in the vein of an MMO you're probably looking at 10-15 hours of story with more to come in future expansions/dlc. I'm sure they're discounting it to generate more interest in it or to help those, like you, who are skeptical of the game. If you spend $40 on it you won't be so pissed if it sucks unlike those like me who dropped $90 on the Gold Edition of the game or those who dropped $180+ on the Collector's Edition. Ubisoft is generally really good about releasing quality games and you usually get what you see in trailers and gameplay videos (hell look at Siege, that game is exactly how it was marketed and I have yet to hear any negative things about it besides the usual balance tweaks being needed and what not). Watch Dogs is probably the only real title I've seen them release that wasn't exactly what we were promised.

I'm still skeptical about FFXV. While it looks pretty that combat system still bugs me and I honestly don't have the time to invest 60+ hours into another game (I'll probably still be play DA: Inquisition and MGSV when it releases). Based on reviews from reputable sources I may buy it but I will not pre-order it.

Since AC7 is taking place in the Strangereal universe I'll definitely be buying it now.