So unlike what I did with some of the other E3 conference stuffs, I've jumped the gun for the Sony conference, because Dest2ny. Since Destiny is kind of our bag around here, I figured that if anything awesome does happen during the Bungie portion of the Sony conference, we'll just plunk it down here. I'll follow up the conference with what I've been doing for the other bits too.

See ya'll on the other side. :)

Squeeeeeeeeee!

You know...they said that Ghall was a proper villain...and they might be right.

Fuck yes.

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SO. Alot to unpack. Highlights (as I recall them):

• Uncharted The Lost Legacy. Yep.
  
• God Of War - Childcare Edition!
  
• Horizon Zero Dawn's First DLC - The Frozen Wilds. Video Here.
  
• New IP - "Detroit: Being Human". Looks like a Dues Ex lite.
  
• Spider-Man: Homecoming. Very entertaining video below.

Other stuffs:

• Skyrim - NOW IN PSVR!
  
• Shadow of the Colossus is getting a graphics remake.
  
• Days Gone. It has zombie bear.

...um... anything else? Anything I missed?

Neh. I think that's it. :)

https://twitter.com/UrkMcGurk/status/874454847596019713

Sounds like PS4 pre-orders gets beta July 18th and Xbox get it July 19th

The Beta is during San Diego Comic Con AGAIN. This happened for D1 also. This is literally the one week per year I won't have any sort of access to a console.

Extra confirmation from the Activision Press Release: https://blog.activision.com/t5/Destiny/Destiny-2-Lights-Up-E3-with-a-New-Trailer-New-Launch-Date-Beta/ba-p/10282050

But don’t worry if you’re not at E3, because you’ll soon be able to experience Destiny 2 for yourself. Players who pre-order† the game will be able to participate in the console beta beginning first on the PlayStation 4 on July 18 at 10am PDT, and on Xbox One beginning on July 19 at 10am PDT. After that pre-order early access period, the beta will open up to all console players on July 21 at 10am PDT, and will conclude on July 23 at 9pm PDT. The PC beta is planned for late August, and we will have more details soon.

I'll be on vacation with the Jeep in Colorado.

This vacation is just fucking with me. A band I really love (Circa Survive) is playing with AFI at Red Rocks the week after I'm in Colorado. They recently announced a full tour, and they'll be in my home state the week I am in Colorado, and now I'll miss the beta too. I just picked the wrong week!

No regrets--I can't wait!

I'll be in China during the beta. Hopefully it lasts until I get back.

Edit: Nope, I'll still be gone when it ends on the 23rd.
https://blog.activision.com/t5/Destiny/Destiny-2-Lights-Up-E3-with-a-New-Trailer-New-Launch-Date-Beta/ba-p/10282050

Then again, some salty folks didn't take too kindly to the last PS4-focused Bungie day...

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Bungie Day is supposed to be a celebration of the community and everything it is as it always has been, not some partisan day just because Sony decided to pay more for exclusive access to a developer that still develops the game for both consoles.

Either way, they already said the Alpha was internal only.

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Remember: Preorder Cancelled. Order in question. It's actually a better post than I thought it was. I was much more angry than those words convey. Things are much better this time. No surprise alpha bestowed on the blessed platform weeks early. No "f-you Xbox players" announcement on Bungie Day. Heck, Deej probably won't even need to attempt to soothe us with comforting prose.

With this last piece of info I think its safe for me to preorder Destiny 2 now. :)

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Don't do it! Don't pre-order or get season passes or reward any company for proving literally nothing! Make them earn the moneys!

Don't do it! Don't pre-order or get season passes or reward any company for proving literally nothing! Make them earn the moneys!

On the other hand, Bungie hasn't really let me down yet, and I'm getting Destiny 2 on day one without reading reviews anyway, so why not preorder and get some goodies along the way?

Don't do it! Don't pre-order or get season passes or reward any company for proving literally nothing! Make them earn the moneys!

On the other hand, Bungie hasn't really let me down yet, and I'm getting Destiny 2 on day one without reading reviews anyway, so why not preorder and get some goodies along the way?

I would argue that your reply is also totally valid. I loved me some Destiny 1 even with all of its problems and lack of story. But I'm not pre-ordering the sequel, and I won't be buying it on day one. I'll probably wait a bit, hear what people irl, here, and on Xbox Live have to say, maybe consider PC, etc. But I won't reward that lack of story and all of the issues from the first game with a pre-order, if at the very least to spite Activision and whatever they're looking at.

Meh. So far I've seen:

• A great, hour long reveal event with some fantastic cutscenes and a good bit of awesome looking gameplay.
  
• A full recording of a cool looking Strike beginning to end.
  
• The recordings and impressions of multiple people who played multiplayer at the reveal event.
  
• A pair of podcasts that were decently informative
  
• And now, a nice end of a cutscene where the villain has more lines of dialogue than all of Destiny 1's raid bosses combined.

That, and I have three years with the first game that I greatly enjoyed. I think it's much safer to preorder Destiny 2 than it was for me to flip flop five hours later when I went from cancelling a preorder to upping it to the Ghost Edition.

Besides, Kahzgul told me preordering is ok now. :)

Don't do it! Don't pre-order or get season passes or reward any company for proving literally nothing! Make them earn the moneys!

On the other hand, Bungie hasn't really let me down yet, and I'm getting Destiny 2 on day one without reading reviews anyway, so why not preorder and get some goodies along the way?

I would argue that your reply is also totally valid. I loved me some Destiny 1 even with all of its problems and lack of story. But I'm not pre-ordering the sequel, and I won't be buying it on day one. I'll probably wait a bit, hear what people irl, here, and on Xbox Live have to say, maybe consider PC, etc. But I won't reward that lack of story and all of the issues from the first game with a pre-order, if at the very least to spite Activision and whatever they're looking at.

I totally get it. I used to be hard in that camp. I argued and argued with folks about preordering. Then I realized that particular battle was lost a decade ago and life is too short to actually care.

I rarely preorder, personally, but I also don't buy a ton of games at launch. There are just certain games (like Destiny 2) that I'm definitely going to get on launch day with zero regards for review. Halo 5 was one of those games, Destiny is one. After The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 will probably be one.

I can see the argument that preordering sends the wrong message, but for those rare games that I'm going to buy immediately anyway, there's no downside for me, regardless of the end quality of the game.

In regards to Destiny 2, specifically, as long as its at least as good as Destiny, I'm good. I'd be slightly disappointed if it's just more Destiny, but I'd still enjoy it. And I'm honestly not expecting it to be significantly more than that. I hope for a better campaign and more interesting activities, but I feel like we sort of know what we're in for after three years of seeing what Destiny is, and I'm happy to pay money for more of it.

The strike (Lake of Shadows) looks neat. Looks to feature big open areas (much like the other strike shown), but this one takes place in the European Dead Zone, and it's against The Taken! Good to see that they aren't just swept under the rug, especially with all of the new Cabal classes coming into play

As far as exclusive gear, looks like Titans get Zavala's armor again, or rather a newer model (a lot like the Pilot helmet from Reach), and it's symmetrical! Finally!.
Hunters get a Long Tomorrow-looking set as well (though I don't like the helmet nearly as much. I hope Long Tomorrow makes it back in the game, even as a non-exclusive), though the vest is now a crop top.
And Warlocks get screwed over armor-wise (although the boots FINALLY look neat).
The ship continues the Blue/Silver trend, so once again, sorry Blue.

But the Borealis looks REAL nice. All three elements in one sniper. If it was the highest impact class, I'd be pretty set; but the UI implies that it holds five shots, so that's unlikely.

The crucible map's on a cabal ship in the middle of an aerial battle, so that's kinda neat. It has a similar layout to Black Shield/Thieve's Den with a pinch of Vertigo (Horseshoe with action at the top center).

Neat stuff!

Meh. So far I've seen:

• A great, hour long reveal event with some fantastic cutscenes and a good bit of awesome looking gameplay.
  
• A full recording of a cool looking Strike beginning to end.
  
• The recordings and impressions of multiple people who played multiplayer at the reveal event.
  
• A pair of podcasts that were decently informative
  
• And now, a nice end of a cutscene where the villain has more lines of dialogue than all of Destiny 1's raid bosses combined.

That, and I have three years with the first game that I greatly enjoyed. I think it's much safer to preorder Destiny 2 than it was for me to flip flop five hours later when I went from cancelling a preorder to upping it to the Ghost Edition.

Besides, Kahzgul told me preordering is ok now. :)

I can confirm that it's okay to pre-order as long as you can get a refund if the product isn't to your liking :)

The whole reason to be anti-pre-order is because you're buying something sight unseen with no recourse if it isn't as advertised. Having the option of a refund means you have recourse. Personally, I think that lends itself more towards pre-ordering, since it will help the devs figure out how many servers they need by launch, get better pre-launch beta data (or at least more of it), and let them know that X number of people will be returning their product if it stinks, which makes their sunk cost in infrastructure that much more painful if the product doesn't measure up.

So... Only pre-order if you know you can get a refund. Otherwise, wait for the reviews. Those six hours won't kill you.

And, really, if devs want to see bigger pre-order numbers, they should unmuzzle reporters a week or so before launch so you can have reviews before release.

So unlike what I did with some of the other E3 conference stuffs, I've jumped the gun for the Sony conference, because Dest2ny. Since Destiny is kind of our bag around here, I figured that if anything awesome does happen during the Bungie portion of the Sony conference, we'll just plunk it down here. I'll follow up the conference with what I've been doing for the other bits too.

See ya'll on the other side. :)

End of July just happens to be very open for me, squeezed in between family vacation and a 2-week business trip.

Still very much looking forward to it. The new Ghaul trailer was very good, and very neatly gives us something to hate.

One question: what will be the life/death/resurrection mechanic without light? I know it's mostly meta, but the whole ghost-reviving-with-light worked nicely, especially during "Darkness" spots where resurrection could not happen.

I loved Ghaul's "you've merely learned to not fear death..." or whatever; it's kinda true. Courage isn't courage if you've got no repercussions to fear.

Love ya, Raga, but I can't relate (and I've tried). There were probably technical reasons as well as business reasons for limiting the alpha to the PS4. I can understand disappointment and jealousy and railing against exclusivity in the video game industry as a problem. I can't understand treating it like a personal betrayal by Bungie. The alpha access was a very short-lived bonus.

Love ya, Raga, but I can't relate (and I've tried). There were probably technical reasons as well as business reasons for limiting the alpha to the PS4. I can understand disappointment and jealousy and railing against exclusivity in the video game industry as a problem. I can't understand treating it like a personal betrayal by Bungie. The alpha access was a very short-lived bonus.

The worst part about exclusives seems to be their reveal. Or, the anticipation. For example, once XBox got access to the previous exclusives (i.e. the 1st round exclusives like Hawkmoon) I found out I did not care.

As an XB user for example, I'm grateful that it's only a 1 day difference between PS and XB for the Beta.

Wait.

Do I have Stockholm Syndrome?

Destiny 2: The Guardian Rises

September 6 is the new release date on all consoles

So they moved it from a Friday slot (September 8th)... to a Wednesday slot? WHY!? I mean, shoot, two days earlier, Sweet! Yet, I still find myself scratchen my head here wondering why the move.

I have to say though that the video was super cliche. The music, dialogue, all of it. Not that it matters for the game, but it's just another "counterfeit" trailer from Activision.

Open Beta July 21st, PC release October 24th

Could we get a count down for the Beta? Maybe link it to a persons fireteam builder preference? Or... Keep it simple and just PS4 00-00-00 / X1 00-00-00 / OPEN 00-00-00 some where on site? Then after all that is done have it switch to the countdown for Launch with consoles, then finally PC.

That would be sweet.

Edit: Clarified Title.

I really liked that trailer. Ghaul checks all the boxes for a good villain.

X - Looks cool.
X - Sounds cool.
X - Cold blooded.
X - Has a goal he believes is righteous.
X - Driven by entitlement.

"You're not brave. You've merely forgotten the fear of death. Allow me to reacquaint you." As he boots a head and turns his back.

That is a bad ass line.

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The Beta is during San Diego Comic Con AGAIN. This happened for D1 also. This is literally the one week per year I won't have any sort of access to a console.

I don't see Sony on the list of official Exhibitors, but in years past they and Microsoft have had a presence (although I've missed the last couple of years). Perhaps they're still setting up something in a nearby hotel - if so I'd expect playable beta setups from Sony. You'll miss out on any exclusive emblems, though. For that you'll need someone to log in with your account.

Of course you can always do what I did the last time around and bring your console with you - at least this time around the Xbox Slim is smaller and has no power brick :). I ended up shipping mine to the hotel in advance just to have room in my luggage.

The Beta is during San Diego Comic Con AGAIN. This happened for D1 also. This is literally the one week per year I won't have any sort of access to a console.

I don't see Sony on the list of official Exhibitors, but in years past they and Microsoft have had a presence (although I've missed the last couple of years). Perhaps they're still setting up something in a nearby hotel - if so I'd expect playable beta setups from Sony. You'll miss out on any exclusive emblems, though. For that you'll need someone to log in with your account.

Of course you can always do what I did the last time around and bring your console with you - at least this time around the Xbox Slim is smaller and has no power brick :). I ended up shipping mine to the hotel in advance just to have room in my luggage.

So what is the going rate for internetz in hotels these days? Or... do you use a hotspot? O_O

I'm ignoring the idea that just poped in my head about using public wifi. The Horror. >_<

Either way, title.

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granted, it took all night to download, so i didn't get to play the first night.

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I have to say though that the video was super cliche. The music, dialogue, all of it.

That's why it was awesome.

It's Comic-Con; if you're not spending unfortunate amounts of money you're doing it wrong :)

So what is the going rate for internetz in hotels these days? Or... do you use a hotspot? O_O

No hotspot; I think it was actually a wired connection in the room. Not speedy but I don't recall it being overly expensive. Just as with Schedonnardus, it needed the first night just to download.

I'm ignoring the idea that just popped in my head about using public wifi. The Horror.

Public Wifi is a joke at Comic-Con. It exists but is so swamped by 150,000 people that it's effectively broken. The cell networks get overwhelmed too - I think it was the same Con when Destiny launched that the cell companies had to deploy special trucks to add capacity.

So unlike what I did with some of the other E3 conference stuffs, I've jumped the gun for the Sony conference, because Dest2ny. Since Destiny is kind of our bag around here, I figured that if anything awesome does happen during the Bungie portion of the Sony conference, we'll just plunk it down here. I'll follow up the conference with what I've been doing for the other bits too.

See ya'll on the other side. :)

End of July just happens to be very open for me, squeezed in between family vacation and a 2-week business trip.

Still very much looking forward to it. The new Ghaul trailer was very good, and very neatly gives us something to hate.

One question: what will be the life/death/resurrection mechanic without light? I know it's mostly meta, but the whole ghost-reviving-with-light worked nicely, especially during "Darkness" spots where resurrection could not happen.

I loved Ghaul's "you've merely learned to not fear death..." or whatever; it's kinda true. Courage isn't courage if you've got no repercussions to fear.

Dying sends you to the Character Creator screen. You spawn in a random spot, and have to work your way back to your old Guardian's body to recover the loot.

It's Comic-Con; if you're not spending unfortunate amounts of money you're doing it wrong :)

Yea. I guess.

So what is the going rate for internetz in hotels these days? Or... do you use a hotspot? O_O

No hotspot; I think it was actually a wired connection in the room. Not speedy but I don't recall it being overly expensive. Just as with Schedonnardus, it needed the first night just to download.

That is surprising. I would expect the upstream/downstream to be fairly tame for video usage at max.

I'm ignoring the idea that just popped in my head about using public wifi. The Horror.

Public Wifi is a joke at Comic-Con. It exists but is so swamped by 150,000 people that it's effectively broken. The cell networks get overwhelmed too - I think it was the same Con when Destiny launched that the cell companies had to deploy special trucks to add capacity.

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I was naively unaware that many people actually use public wifi. Dat ping doe.

Also - lordy, I hope those people use a VPN. Yet... I know. Ugh. The Horror.

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Love ya, Raga, but I can't relate (and I've tried). There were probably technical reasons as well as business reasons for limiting the alpha to the PS4. I can understand disappointment and jealousy and railing against exclusivity in the video game industry as a problem. I can't understand treating it like a personal betrayal by Bungie. The alpha access was a very short-lived bonus.

The worst part about exclusives seems to be their reveal. Or, the anticipation. For example, once XBox got access to the previous exclusives (i.e. the 1st round exclusives like Hawkmoon) I found out I did not care.

And I never cared. I mean I almost always played strikes as part of a playlist, so on the PS4 I'd get an exclusive strike every once in a while and think: this is something I haven't played very often. But I never recall missing anything on the Xbox. It might have been different if I'd become attached to the exclusive exotic or something, but half the time I didn't get those anyway.

Love ya, Raga, but I can't relate (and I've tried). There were probably technical reasons as well as business reasons for limiting the alpha to the PS4. I can understand disappointment and jealousy and railing against exclusivity in the video game industry as a problem. I can't understand treating it like a personal betrayal by Bungie. The alpha access was a very short-lived bonus.

It was a crappy thing to do to their fan base. I don't think really disputable.

I get the technical side. It may have been the most important factor. I get the financial/deal making side too. But Bungie didn't have to use Bungie Day to announce that a large group of their eager fans would have to watch the other group play first. I would not have been anywhere near as angry if we'd know that there would be an exclusive Alpha for as long as we knew there'd be a preorder based Beta. They could have told us long before they did. Or a day after they did. But no, they choose the exact wrong day to reveal that info.

The way they announced things this time was much better. Instead of keeping some things secret until just the wrong time, they announced all the dates together. On principle, I'm still not happy that my dollars and my preorder is worth a day less than a PS4 owners, but at least they were up front about it this time. That means a whole lot to me. It shows more respect. It shows they learned.

Anyway, I didn't bring all this up because I'm still mad. I did it more to poke some fun at myself. That's why in this same thread I made sure to link to my post of me preordering the Ghost Edition five hours later. And the thing is, I don't regret either of those posts and I stand fully behind them. :)