Grave Gamer News & Views — destiny

Destiny Launches Globally on September 9th, 2014

“We first shared the design pillars of Destiny less than one year ago. We promised to redefine what players should expect from a Bungie game. We said we wanted to change the way people play games together. We set our bar high. For us, Destiny represents a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

– from Bungie.net

Bungie’s “shared-world shooter” – the first title coming out of the studio’s gates since 2010’s Halo: Reach – has finally been dated. Destiny finds a home on both current and next-gen consoles, releasing for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 simultaneously.

The public beta for the game begins Summer 2014, starting on Sony’s systems first.

Destiny Beta Arrives Early 2014, Called a “Massive Undertaking”

It’s starting to hit me. Bungie is back. And what they’re bringing with them is best quantified between “pants tightening” and “mind blowing.” That’s right: it’s pants blowing.

Though, some waiting is required before the world races into Bungie’s MMO-FPS hybrid, Destiny, due out sometime in 2014. But!While supplies hold out, your pre-order at a participating retailer gains you access to Destiny’s beta planned for the Spring. Bungie community honcho, Eric Osborne, labels the beta a “massive undertaking,” and I’m inclined to agree. The beta, which will be available across all platforms the game is on, encompasses way more of Destiny’s open-world than a paltry few disjointed sections.

“The Destiny beta, in many ways, is being treated like a full product launch,” said Osbrone in an interview with GameSpot. “We can’t just carve out three competitive multiplayer maps this time around. We’d only be gathering data on one facet of the overall experience – one that is the least resource intensive and most well understood by our team. Destiny demands more.”

Bungie wants to include rich, sprawling destinations in the beta for you and your friends to explore, introducing players to the core emphasis on discovering unique story elements, treasure, and engaging in “face melting action.” More importantly, Osborne wishes to stress test the game under the harshest conditions imaginable: by slamming Destiny into a wall of human interaction.

We can, and do, perform a lot of small to large-scale testing, but nothing beats a turbulent sea of gamers smashing up against our code, services, and content,“ says Osborne. "No amount of prediction or intuition can account for the delightfully random human element that will ultimately define Destiny.”

Destiny, the first title out of Bungie’s doors since 2010’s Halo: Reach, releases for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One next year, and is the first part of a proposed ten year cycle for the sci-fi franchise.

Check out this absolutely pants blowing trailer for the game called The Moon.

So something rather intriguing happened this week.  It would appear this new fangled “next-gen” officially kicked off.  Well, unless you count the Wii U next-gen, which you’re completely allowed to (inversely, I get to call you wrong).  That’s right, Sony finally ripped off the wraps on the PlayStation 4.  Fast, socially integrated, the ability to stream games, two separate cup-holders – Sony’s future proofing their brand and the attempt is, surprisingly, not a laughable disaster.

You can find my initial reaction to the hardware’s specs hereabouts, but we’re dialing back the technophilia today and also focusing on something more important than even a brand new, highfalutin’, Facebookin’ console: the games.

Hit the jump to check out what’s in store for gamers next generation; a generation right around the corner.  Oh, and welcome back to the Roundup.

Destiny Unveiled: Details On Bungie’s “Shared World Shooter”

Bungie has returned from their three-year video game hiatus to show us a project so utterly ambitious, its success could mean changing the console shooter as we know it from here on out.

So, what is Destiny?  Bungie likes to think of it as “mythic science fiction” in a massive, always-online world.  But we’re not allowed to call it an MMOFPS, despite how fitting it sounds.  The ingredients may all be there – gigantic open-world, instantaneous co-op, in-game currency to unlock better gear, the ability to embark on raids…But, no, MMO doesn’t fit the bill according to Bungie.  Despite the need for persistent online-access, publisher Activision promises there’s no subscription fees, and Bungie claims the amount of players you’ll encounter has a controlled cap, shirking MMO standards.  Bungie prefers to call it a “shared world shooter” (think Borderlands on a larger scale).

Players don the role of a Guardian, warriors tasked with protecting the last of human civilization.  Drawing their power from the moon-shaped “Traveler” floating above Earth’s last city, Guardians can evoke class-specific skills to thin the alien onslaught attempting to bloody humanity.  Three such classes were revealed: the Titan, a brute with a focus for guns, big ones; the Hunter, a lithe infiltrator with a knack for sneaking and a sure-shot sniper; and the Warlock, a mage imbued with the Traveler’s decidedly supernatural power.

When touching on the sheer scope of the game, Bungie revealed players will have to think big.  Not only can you traverse amongst the ruins of Earth’s once-great cities – locations like the swamp infested Old Chicago and the “European Dead Zone” – but your exploits encompass the whole of our solar system with customizable spaceships bouncing you from planet to planet (while Bungie hinted at space combat, it was mum on whether or not we’d take control of our vessels).

Each locale offers you the chance to create your own “Legend,” a set of missions that compose a story molded by your actions.  These Legends can be tackled by your lonesome or you can better your chances with Guardians you meet, randomly generated in your session seamlessly and unobtrusively (think Journey with a spot of the ol’ ultra violence).  Bungie made it a point that Destiny’s story isn’t told, but found; players having to actively seek, or even shape, the narrative and lore through discovery and completed Legends.  How that works is anyone’s guess since Bungie was far from clear on the subject.

And that same obscuring, self-perpetuated fog hides the rest of Bungie’s grand effort.  We know to expect Destiny on both current and next-gen technology (PS3, Xbox 360, and whatever’s around the corner) but Bungie is dodgy about when, though they’re sure cross-platform online play is being ruled out.  We get the general premise, and a bunch of conceptual art to boot, but the public hasn’t seen minute one of gameplay footage.  This may only be the first reveal, but it seems the meatiest of details are purposely being withheld.  Though, mission success if it was Bungie’s intention to make me crave more.

The general assumption was that we’d see Destiny release before the year’s out, but with critical information lacking and two of the four consoles it’s intended for still not public knowledge, it appears we’ll be waiting quite awhile yet before we experience this shared world shooter.  From what we’ve seen and heard today, though, it looks worth the wait.

[Check out a detailed assessment of Bungie’s reveal hereabouts.]

Bungie’s Destiny Unveiled This Sunday

The time is soon upon us, folks.  Announced on its newly created Facebook page, February 17th marks our first official reveal of Destiny, Bungie’s first major title since giving up control of the wheel behind the phenomenally successful Halo franchise.

Just an arm’s throw back, we were privy to a sizable leak of story info and concept art that Bungie begrudgingly confirmed as real.  In said lowdown, the basic premise picks up seven-hundred years from now and pits players as “Knights"  bent on protecting the near-extinct remnants of humanity and their "Last City on Earth” against bizarre creatures creeping in from the fringes of the universe.

What we don’t know is just what the hell kind of game Destiny is supposed to be.  Brace for impact: there’s going to be shooting involved.  But ever since the project hit the radar, it’s been hinted we might see Bungie take on multiplayer of the massive variety which, in and of itself, hints at an equally large open world.

MMO/FPS, open world/co-op shooter, Halo-meets-Nancy Drew…Whatever in the fuck it is, it’s an original IP from one of the industry’s best, fan-loyal developers and that’s enough of a reason to be excited.  See you Sunday, folks.