26 May 2017
One of the many alien environments of Destiny 2.
It’s fairly well known that I’m a massive Destiny tragic. A friend recently asked me if it was worth considering Destiny 2. They were originally interested in Destiny, but since it was console-only they were quickly turned off. However, things changed when it was announced that Destiny 2 was coming to PC.
They had several questions :
- Is the actual gameplay fun, or is it just about the gear grind?
- Do you need to be a hardcore raider to effectively play the game, or can you have a less intense casual experience and still get something from the game?
- How important is it to have friends to play with in order to enjoy it?
And this was my response:
Is the Gameplay fun?
The main reason why I like Destiny, and much like Halo before it, is that the gunplay is satisfying to me. Everything from how the gun pulls when you shoot to the sound to the enemy’s reactions is at it’s core why I continue to play this game three years after its release even though there’s been some severe content droughts. (which hopefully they don’t do this time around)
Added to this is all the different grenades and abilities that give you more options in how you tackle something.
I can’t really compare it to something like Borderlands, because the way the gunplay works in that game is completely different (and completely shithouse).
I mean sure, it’s macro-level gameplay is shoot>loot>shoot, but there’s just so much variety in the shooting from all the different weapons you can use that all have different sounds and effects and ways to use them that you can mix stuff up and have an entirely different experience because you made a few changes in your character’s setup.
That’s going to be a purely personal thing, and I hope they open the beta up to non-pre orderers so people like you can have a shot at it and see if that grabs you at all.
Is it for the Hardcore only?
Not really. I can’t do end-game content a lot, and I still have fun. I’ve gotten to max light (power level) without doing any of the current raids. There are end-game things to do with small groups or solo as well.
They’re making it even easier in Destiny 2 to do end-game content as well, as they’re adding a system called Guided Games where people in guilds without full groups can advertise as Looking for Members for a raid run and hopefully get them. Not entirely sure how it works, but they’ve said it will be a thing.
Do you need friends?
Well, that’s subjective. Some people will claim you absolutely need friends to make Destiny fun. I love playing with friends and it makes some of the slogging stuff more interesting. I’ve had half-an-hour long conversations with friends while skipping in circles around a building.
But, the majority of my Destiny time has been solo play. The game has no lack of content for the solo player to go through. There’s always something to fuck around with. That’s just me, though. You may or may not like playing that way but that’s something you can only tell after some time playing.
So, yeah. If you can get access to the beta, give it a shot.
21 Nov 2016
Cat, after recieving a Cease and Desist.
This is a formalised version of the twitter thread I posted here:
This was basically kicked off by the removal of the fangame projects AM2R (Metroid 2 remake) and Pokemon: Uranium from the Game Awards 2016.
Good.
Not only is it vaguely insulting to actual original work to go up against a remake of (insanely) popular intellectual properties (which by the way, neither projects have any legal right to), but I think it’s actively harmful to the small independent game development community to have such efforts be recognised in such a way. Don’t get me wrong, I think mods that are sanctioned by the developer are fine - in those cases you a) have legal permission and b) it’s no different to using a game engine. Even mods that recreate previous content like Brutal Doom 64 and Black Mesa are fine. In either case they have the explicit permission of the IP holder to release those works, and they are both transformative, updating older game mechanics and refining what came before.
I don’t disagree that both AM2R and Uranium do the latter, both are taking the existing games and adding refinements and tweaks to the mechanics of the franchise. They both however violate the former; Nintendo has not and are unlikely to ever give permission to the developers to make and release these games.
To which I say to the developers; Are you insane? Why would you ever put months if not years of effort into developing a work using an IP you have no right to? Why would you put that much effort into something a well-paid laywer in a large company can obliterate with a single A4 page of text? Why would you devote so much time and effort into something you cannot ever gain compensation for?
It’s one thing to love a franchise. It’s one thing to do fan art and comics and animations and stageplays and fanfics and all that stuff. It’s another to go head-to-head with the IP holder on their own turf with the IP that they themselves control. They own all the ground, you own nothing, not even all the sweat and toil that you put in. It can all be taken away like it wasn’t even anything at all.
I kind of get it, I truly do. I love Metroid as much as the next bearded 30-something white male, and I’m occasionally despondent when I see how Nintendo has treated one of my favourite characters and settings. I grew up with Pokemon, and I occasionally get infuriated with certain mechanics and think “hey, I can do this better” (‘call for help’ in Pokemon SUMO, I’m looking at you.)
BUT
At the end of the day, these are their franchises to do with what they wish. They made them, they own them. Would you like it if Nintendo went and released a game based on an IP you created? Just because you’re a small guy and they’re a huge company, doesn’t make it okay - and neither is the reverse. You should expect better, and also behave better.
This industry lives and dies on the back of it’s ideas, and an industry rooted in remakes and reliving what came before is one that is dying a slow death.
So, what is the right idea? What should you do if you love a franchise like Metroid, and you want to see it loved again?
Do what Toby Fox did, take the idea (Earthbound, for reference) and run with it. Make something insane. Make something unique. Expand the genre and make it better. Do it on your own terms.
Make something so amazing that Nintendo can’t ignore the demand.
Make something that makes the creator break out in a sweat that they didn’t think of that game mechanic.
Make something that makes the original games look like ancient artefacts, best left undisturbed.
Make something on your own terms.
If you want to, make something and get paid while doing it.
Who knows, maybe you’ll get hired to work on that thing you love.
Maybe by that point you won’t want to.
11 Nov 2015
Hi, my name is Chris and this is my site.
Hi Chris.
At some point I’ll write something.
