Wow. Angry Joe nailed it.

I'm in near-total agreement with every word that comes out of his mouth in this video. I only disagree on two minor points.

1) The loading screens, while long and annoying, are not inexcusable given the complexity and graphical fidelity of the game.

2) Matchmaking would have made raids much less fun because they're so fundamentally reliant upon effective communication with your teammates.

But I agree with everything else he says - EVERYTHING - almost to the point that I wonder if he's been lurking these forums and reading some of the Team Cody posts. He even made a Dinklebot reference at one point. (Is that a phenomenon exclusive to DBO? I think it is... but I could be wrong.)

This is one of the best video game reviews I've seen in a long time. Joe covers all of the talking points about the game and gives fair consideration to the major counter-arguments, and he also talks about what Destiny's success could mean for the future of the industry in terms of DLC.

I know it's a really long video, but you owe it to yourself to watch it, especially if you're one of those people that don't understand the complaints about the game. Joe does a fantastic job of describing all of them.

Watch it!

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2) Matchmaking would have made raids much less fun because they're so fundamentally reliant upon effective communication with your teammates.

Anybody who wants matchmaking for the raid has never played the raid. Matchmaking for it would be a disaster, due to the complexity of the encounters and strategy, necessary communication, and time commitment. All of the awesome elements would have to be toned down to accommodate this. The moment you play it you will see why.

Also, why is the guy mad he got ELEVEN ascendant shards from the strike? Frankly that's a better reward than the exotic helms!

I'm watching it now, he's 100% right with his review. Too many fans are giving Bungie a free pass aswell for anti-consumer decisions (DLC to finish the story) and outright lying with their BS PR spiel. This is the last Bungie game I will be buying, I'm not going to even bother with the expansions since I'm already considering getting rid of this game when MCC hit's in November.

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and outright lying with their BS PR spiel.

Meh, come on. The only thing they lied about was going to Saturn. That's one thing.

Also, why is the guy mad he got ELEVEN ascendant shards from the strike? Frankly that's a better reward than the exotic helms!

It's the 'grass is always greener' effect. I don't think Bungie should show you what other people get post-game.

Split rewards into a separate, personal summary screen and include stuff like total XP, armour found in the field, glimmer, as well as any special end-of-level rewards. So people appreciate the totality these artificial rewards, at least.

Let people be happy with what they got, and if they REALLY want to know, they have to actually ask other people what they got. Rather than instantly seeing a 'rare' ascendant shard against 2 exotics and freaking-the-fuck-out.

Also, why is the guy mad he got ELEVEN ascendant shards from the strike? Frankly that's a better reward than the exotic helms!

It's the 'grass is always greener' effect. I don't think Bungie should show you what other people get post-game.

Split rewards into a separate, personal summary screen and include stuff like total XP, armour found in the field, glimmer, as well as any special end-of-level rewards. So people appreciate the totality these artificial rewards, at least.

Let people be happy with what they got, and if they REALLY want to know, they have to actually ask other people what they got. Rather than instantly seeing a 'rare' ascendant shard against 2 exotics and freaking-the-fuck-out.

I think this sums it up nicely.
http://youtu.be/meiU6TxysCg?t=1m18s

His yelling/angry rant gimmick is annoying. Sometimes. (If he used it more sparingly, it would probably have a greater effect.)

I don't particularly watch him very often, but I do watch his reviews for games that are being given a pass by the mainstream gaming press for no good reason. (Which is becoming more frequent with the passage of time, unfortunately.)

I pretty much always think to myself, "I agree with this guy". If nothing else, he speaks his opinion without bias, something you can't trust from companies like IGN or Kotaku.

He gets written off as a man child because of his stupid gimmick, but he actually makes very well-formed salient points in his reviews. It's cool to say you don't like him, but writing him off simply because of his persona is disingenuous. (Just to be clear, I'm not saying you did that.) The "angry rants" are just supposed to serve as a proxy for the viewer's actual anger over the game's faults, IMO.

Anybody who wants matchmaking for the raid has never played the raid. Matchmaking for it would be a disaster, due to the complexity of the encounters and strategy, necessary communication, and time commitment. All of the awesome elements would have to be toned down to accommodate this. The moment you play it you will see why.

I agree with you... but I'm pretty sure Joe did play the raid.

I don't know, Joe has always felt all over the map to me. Sometimes he nails just about everything I think about a game, sometimes he's way off base and gets a bit too nitpicky. I really think he shouldn't have had that clan complaint in there. Few people have to deal with such a large group.

I guess Halo and a few other games conditioned me for the low amount of in game story, though Halo did have a lot more going on without going to the EU so, and the approach really doesn't work that well for casual fans compared to the hardcore. The implementation of the Grimoire is a HUGE blunder though, having it in game would have help some. Most games with this type of storytelling have everything in game.

Gameplay-wise I understand the complaints. Grinding isn't for everyone, but it feels pretty good, decently rewarding if you don't lose your mind from occasional RNG bullshit. More satisfying than Borderlands at least. And there are a few ways to get guaranted awesome gear with Exotic Bounties, leveling the Cryptarch, and Xur at least. Having played a large chunk of Vault of Glass now has cemented the fact that Bungie "gets it" for the most part with the mixture of genres in Destiny. And competitive feels as solid as ever, though a bit light on modes and options.

I have issues here and there, but I also play a LOT of games and Destiny has that special something for me. I'm a bit surprised by the overall reactions, but not really by Joe's. I think that Machina video was pretty close to the truth for a lot ofreviewers, but a game that has to be lived in for the best experience does fight an uphill battle. In the end, I'm enjoying it and that's what matters to me. People should always seek out the games that resonate with themselves, and I hope anyone here or whatever that didn't like it can find something else.

I guess Halo and a few other games conditioned me for the low amount of in game story

Halo has a low amount of plot. Not a low amount of story.

Destiny has a huge amount of juicy lore, but a narrative structure barely exists: the missions themselves almost all have similar structure, so the gameplay hardly consists of effective building blocks for storytelling; the fact that missions take place in clusters in the same environment makes visual progression challenging; the fact that time-of-day isn't planned by the developer has similar issues (involving both color schema in a direct sense and abstract ways in which you can apply time-of-day to the narrative as seen strongly in Halo's 1 and ODST); the not-quite linear mission order has an obvious problematic effect on narrative structure; and on a plot level, although "important" according to some characters, the "main plot" doesn't really rise very far up from the general noise of smaller lore threads.

I pretty much always think to myself, "I agree with this guy". If nothing else, he speaks his opinion without bias, something you can't trust from companies like IGN or Kotaku.

An objective review is a myth. We are not robots and neither is he. I don't trust anyone that way.

He gets written off as a man child because of his stupid gimmick, but he actually makes very well-formed salient points in his reviews. It's cool to say you don't like him, but writing him off simply because of his persona is disingenuous. (Just to be clear, I'm not saying you did that.) The "angry rants" are just supposed to serve as a proxy for the viewer's actual anger over the game's faults, IMO.

Yeah, and I don't approach things I dislike in games that way. It's cool if his anger resonates with you, just doesn't with me.

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Perhaps they didn't outright lie, but they and Activision sure did mislead.

And even that was hardly a "lie". They interviewed a guy pre-release that isn't practiced at interviewing, and he name dropped a planet. And the planet he names is one that we never see gameplay of, screen shots of, or get further information. The most we could hope for is that Saturn was supposed to be a surprise that this guy accidentally leaked. And even if that's the case, a leak is hardly a promise to deliver within a time frame.

Knowing there there is 6+ years of development ahead of Bungie makes me think I should be about as angry about not visiting Saturn as I am about not getting dragon action in the first Hobbit installment. It's not as if we didn't get to go to Mars or something, a planet that was actually talked about extensively from a technical and artistic angle.

But I understand that people can feel betrayed by different levels of misleading statements, whether those statements were intentional or not.

I pretty much always think to myself, "I agree with this guy". If nothing else, he speaks his opinion without bias, something you can't trust from companies like IGN or Kotaku.

An objective review is a myth. We are not robots and neither is he. I don't trust anyone that way.

I didn't say he was objective. I said he states his opinion without bias. Opinions are subjective. Biases are things that modify that opinion to suit the whims of a third party.

Basically, I'm saying that Joe doesn't get paid under the table to give preferential treatment to certain games.

Yeah, and I don't approach things I dislike in games that way. It's cool if his anger resonates with you, just doesn't with me.

I get that. He definitely over-uses the anger gimmick, so even for me, it's too much to handle sometimes. Like I said, I don't particularly watch his videos very often.

Careful. Maybe he doesn't get paid by the companies though they have other ways of exacting pressure on someone.

But Joe does get paid by number of views/subs.

Now does he get those views by being honest, or by being populist/controversial?

I actually think he is on the level and is a legit duder as he seems to be into the same ambitious, old PC games I grew up on. But I also suspect some theatrical hyperbole and careless exaggerations. (The 500 million dev budget for this release has been debunked repeatedly).

I also disagree with him on Destiny. Especially the loot. The loot is not a grind if you are having fun whilst earning it, and most people seem to say the gunplay is great.