I loved how it subtly got more and more difficult, and I was often playing it long after the race was loaded.

Heh, I did the same.

That game still stands as one of my all time favorite games, and my second favorite racing game (Star Wars Episode I Racer is the best racing game ever created).

A huge part of that was definitely that it hit at the right time in my life. I was 12 or 13 or so. The "story" and dialogue were cheesy in a great way, the driving was fun, the courses were fun, and the OG Xbox's ability to use custom music all culminated to make for a great experience. Anytime I hear an Eagles song, the first thing that comes to mind is driving a classic Mustang over the Golden Gate Bridge in that game.

Back in my day we played Galaga during loading. And if you got a perfect score you unlocked a sweet car!

Speaking of which, I believe the patent on that behavior has finally expired. Can we get that implemented now in Destiny with our ships? pew pew during loading!

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

Right.

Destiny also gives full access to every element of game settings during loading screens. The other games just loaded stuff while you were on a screen. If you couldn't do it on that screen, you couldn't do it. In Destiny, you can do it all the time anywhere. That's the point.

I'm having difficulty parsing what you've written here- Do you have an example of something Destiny allows that Halo 3 didn't?

I'm not exactly sure what Funkmon is saying, but from my point of view and growing up watching little bars fill up atop a static image, it's impressive that we can do anything (like messing with our Destiny inventory) during a loading screen. Halo had neat animated loads, but you couldn't customize your Spartan during them for example. :)

Back in my day we played Galaga during loading. And if you got a perfect score you unlocked a sweet car!

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

Right.

Destiny also gives full access to every element of game settings during loading screens. The other games just loaded stuff while you were on a screen. If you couldn't do it on that screen, you couldn't do it. In Destiny, you can do it all the time anywhere. That's the point.

I'm having difficulty parsing what you've written here- Do you have an example of something Destiny allows that Halo 3 didn't?

I'm not exactly sure what Funkmon is saying, but from my point of view and growing up watching little bars fill up atop a static image, it's impressive that we can do anything (like messing with our Destiny inventory) during a loading screen. Halo had neat animated loads, but you couldn't customize your Spartan during them for example. :)

IIRC, the only "neat animated loads" Halo 3 had was that one that would occasionally appear between missions, or when you were hitting "Resume Solo game" at the main menu.

Reach was actually worse about this- The "Auntie Dot" animation would occasionally hang my game for 10-20 seconds while transitioning back to the Main Menu.

And on the other side of the fence, I've had plenty of times in Destiny where the the game flatly refuses to acknowledge that I'm pushing the "open menu" button while in transit.

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

Right.

Destiny also gives full access to every element of game settings during loading screens. The other games just loaded stuff while you were on a screen. If you couldn't do it on that screen, you couldn't do it. In Destiny, you can do it all the time anywhere. That's the point.

I'm having difficulty parsing what you've written here- Do you have an example of something Destiny allows that Halo 3 didn't?

I'm not exactly sure what Funkmon is saying, but from my point of view and growing up watching little bars fill up atop a static image, it's impressive that we can do anything (like messing with our Destiny inventory) during a loading screen. Halo had neat animated loads, but you couldn't customize your Spartan during them for example. :)

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

Right.

Destiny also gives full access to every element of game settings during loading screens. The other games just loaded stuff while you were on a screen. If you couldn't do it on that screen, you couldn't do it. In Destiny, you can do it all the time anywhere. That's the point.

I'm having difficulty parsing what you've written here- Do you have an example of something Destiny allows that Halo 3 didn't?

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

Right.

Destiny also gives full access to every element of game settings during loading screens. The other games just loaded stuff while you were on a screen. If you couldn't do it on that screen, you couldn't do it. In Destiny, you can do it all the time anywhere. That's the point.

Maybe he means using the character/roster/etc screen while you're in transit to a destination, which is something that you couldn't do in those games, right?

In preface, Halo obviously doesn't have the same sort of inventory systems Destiny does, so comparisons drawn during this argument are already diluted by that fact.

But outside of that difference, you could absolutely could do those things, yes.

In Halo, The lobby served the same purpose as the "in transit" screen Destiny has. Before entering a match, the map loading and matchmaking happened there, and you had complete freedom to edit your appearance or change your settings while that stuff was happening, the same way you could in Destiny.

Maybe he means using the character/roster/etc screen while you're in transit to a destination, which is something that you couldn't do in those games, right?

It was difficult to do this in the initial release of Destiny, if you remember. It kicked you back into the travel/loading screen each time it transitioned to a new animation. I was so happy when they fixed this.

Was the UI. I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe the UI. It was so good! And you could use it while loading! WAT.

I couldn't really care less about what was dropped. I just want to know everything about the current game UI and what went into it.

Initially, I thought having a cursor was weird, but it very quickly clicked, and I felt the same way.

This has been posted before, but here is a good review of the UI.