J4MES OX4D

Sign me up!!!!
 
I will always play a BF game. 2042 was pretty bad at launch, but its a helluva lot of fun now

The gameplay coming from the test environment looks very good especially from a mechanics standpoint. Looks quite refined now plus there's cool things like being able to drag and heal injured team mates for revive. Definitely seems much closer to BF4 and 2042 but I hope there are larger maps that aren't as chaotic and bloated with effects.  Who would've thought that ex-COD developers would save Battlefield lol! 
 

They're great at pulling nostalgia chords with their theme. I almost want to reinstall bf2 😆
 
 

I'm hoping this is basically BF4 2.0. That is IMO the best BF to date.
They're doing a big MP reveal event on July 31st and leaks suggest the beta will launch straight afterwards or the following weekend. The also accidentally gave away the release date which is October 10th.

Agreed, it was a really bad expansion, only did it on one character and that was because of the armor bounties. Still though, if you can get in near the keep, the Public events were wildly popular up until I stopped playing. 

I did the Shadowkeep campaign earlier which took about 4 hours over a couple of days. I completely forgot about this back in the day as I did a lot of activities on the Moon but didn't actually buy into the expansion itself. Kinda glad I didn't pay full price for it when it released as it's largely just a load of busywork. The location is great but the story and quests are absolutely mediocre and progress being tied to bounties sucks. I can't complain too much as I got to experience it for free but this pales in comparison to the work and structure that The Witch Queen had. Beyond Light was even a solid step up although still lacking in some respects. 

I can't even remember the names of the weapons anymore but the Grenade launcher that leaves the puddles that damage folks, and the Crafted SMG that poisons, really made that place easier.
 
Just need to switch them out.
 
I want to say my first legendary run in there I was using the crafted SMG, a Gunslinger hunter, and the Calus Mini-tool with the maxed out incandescent. None of which helps you anymore, sorry man, just reminiscing lol

I'm really enjoying this campaign - just finished the Savathun's right hand mission which was bloody challenging on solo legendary and took me well over an hour. Beyond Light I seemed to fly through in about 6 hours even with 34 quest steps but this one you really seem to get bang for your buck as every mission seems detailed, challenging and lasts longer than 15 minutes. 

I didn't mind the Final Shape, but there was zero chance I was doing it 3 times. The story wasn't bad, but man was it tedious at times.
 
I enjoyed Beyond Light but I think the Witch Queen was my favorite. 

Power level has just had a full reset, so probs a good time to start again lol. If you look at Armour too its had an update (Armour 3.0 now iirc?). So stats are essentially dumbed down a bit so no more intellect or other confusing words - its now:
Health Melee Grenade Super Class Weapons  
Witch Queen is hard to beat in terms of campaign. On Legendary it is a massive challenge and feels packed. The change to Normal and Legendary campaigns was such a brilliant move. Final Shape is up there with it, for obvious reasons.
 
 
You're crazy doing it 3 times. Don't think I ever did a full story through 3 times even in D1. Maybe did D2 as it was a breeze when it came out on launch with everyone on.

I had a bit of a shock returning and my power level at zero. I'm just playing for the story now and not too worried about seeking out all the exotic gear and doing add these padded side quests. Beyond Light had a 34-step mission and then some extras at the end which was good enough and I saw all I needed to see. Just started The Witch Queen on legendary which seems a real step up in narrative and mission-depth terms. 
 
Not really sure how power level works these days or when things got reset. Seems a lot of back-end changes have been made with things removed and others added. I had to sift through and remove a lot of obsolete stuff in my inventory too. 
 
If I am still playing after finishing these campaigns then I'll happily buy into the new content at full price as what I have now is a steal!

Yeah I mean I've paid for it because I wanted to play the story content. I don't ever play it for the grind anymore - I think quite a few did the same 2 years ago. It felt better to play without the grind for sure...the only thing that stopped me loving it was that people went away because its a game best loved when you're playing with others. Theres so many guns now that I don't worry about getting everything...but maybe thats the problem too. With too many objectives, it can feel pointless as you sense something else will come out in 6 months and smash the current AR I'm focused on.
 
Ah, heck. I dunno. It felt really good to boot it back up. I really enjoy the Journey page actually so I may just do the new story and focus on that as I very much doubt I'll be able to do a Deep Stone Crypt Raid anytime soon.

Funny you have come back to Destiny James, because I've just bought the next update after a long 12-18 months off it.
 
They've tried to find different ways to answer the new player experience, but as any existing game continually updates, there's probably no one single answer. They've created the 'Portal' page to help new people. I prefer the map but if you don't know how Destiny works, it does the best job of pushing you to do things in the game that you don't need to know how the world map works.
 
Beyond Light weirdly was one of the lesser story beats in terms of the campaign, albeit there were some cracking missions in it. The whole Beyond Light part introduced more so the best aesthetically pleasing raid of the lot and also a few fantastic story and gameplay inside the standalone exotic missions.
 
You've then got to go through the new way they've delivered story campaigns and that takes it up a notch. Its interesting to see the way Destiny has gone. For all the annoyance of where the game has gone, I play campaigns elsewhere and they don't hit as hard as these. I think the gameplay loop is the one they need to focus on - so much going on, its easy to get lost.
 
I have the new campaign which apparently is the best story but the new mechanic could somewhat make it not as exciting. Its not so bad so far after playing one mission. The PvE content now in the game is well worth it for £7.

I've started Beyond Light today which I never got around to buying all those years ago. It's not part of the Legacy Collection but the whole campaign is free within the game which is great. Once that's done, then I can focus on the newer expansions I got yesterday. Slowly finding my feet and getting back into the swing of things. 
 
Just done the Praksis mission which was good fun! 

Bungie are having a sale right now and in which you can get 3 expansions plus other content for around £7. I thought I'd revisit the game after an almost 5 year absence and it's a bit overwhelming , but I think I am slowly finding my feet.  There are lots of new things and quite a few old elements that I have forgotten about. I seem to be going through the New Light campaign for returning and new players which is a bit of a recap of sorts. Once that is out of the way I can have a look at the expansions I didn't stick around for.  This game is definitely a convoluted mess for returning players, let alone newcomers, and I think Bungie have made a lot of things rather shambolic and bloated. Much of it is a result of sustained development even with the vaulted content, but others are through efforts to drive income particularly when they went solo away from Activision and it looks quite messy.  
 
The content included in the Legacy Collection (2025) are:- 
The Final Shape Standard Edition
Lightfall Standard Edition
The Witch Queen Standard Edition
Beyond Light Pack
Shadowkeep Pack
Forsaken Pack
30th Anniversary Pack
Pit of Heresy Dungeon
Shattered Throne Dungeon
Grasp of Avarice Dungeon
 
I'm definitely going to look forward to working my way through this content and it may even lead me to purchase some of the newer expansions. I hope this bundle will get more people back to the game but it may be a little late in the day for many and I must say Destiny 2 is one of the least welcoming games for new players and even past veterans because of its approach and execution despite simple and enjoyable gameplay mechanics.  

The turnover of staff whilst this idea had lots of momentum hasn't helped and its lost its way. Game didn't have much identity, or wow factor. They can save Bungie by doing a U-turn and really redefining the Destiny roadmap. It still is a huge moneymaker and doesn't take much to bring people into the game. Marathon won't be for many casuals and that kills it immediately.

Premier League Winner, Nations League Champion, got married 5 days ago and now this. Absolute tragedy. 

I still can't believe that was Danny Dyer!
 

I actually think he's worse than Don Mattrick now - he only butchered one console, but Spencer is literally playing Russian roulette with every decision they make and as you say, shamefully bragging about the success in literally the next paragraph after statementing a commercial travesty. Phil was popular because he was seen as more of a gamer than a corporate, but now he's immensely unpopular and can't even be seen as a scapegoat because it's all his doing. 
 
Huge acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision that wont even pay themselves off in my lifetime and having to penny-pinch against the very developers they proport to support to keep game pass relevant is just a total shit show to behold. The problem is they want desperately one console generation where they get ahead of Sony and they just can't come close and now everyone, from developers to the consumers is suffering. Sony ain't doing much better as they will likely burn a billion on dead live service projects in a decade at the expense of many exclusives but Microsoft are the ones that are gutting their gaming division to save money through bad choices they have made. 
 
How they fuck up so hard after the 360 I will never know. 

This poor guy got tortured but whoever did the Stan edit is legandary
 

You nailed it. The Phil Spencer honeymoon is long over. The ‘gamer-first’ image doesn’t hold up anymore when layoffs and closures follow every ‘success.

Another video game crash can't come soon enough IMO.
These big publishers seem to think that gamers have an unlimited amount of money so they promise shareholders that profits will climb every year. Which obviously isn't possible as there are only a limited amount of players and money. This means that when profits don't go up they sack staff to save money. It's not even unbelievable that MS can sack staff and then Phil Spencer bangs on about how great they're doing as it's just the norm now. It's very believable that they did it.

it’d be so cool if Arkane or Eidos picked it up and made it their own...

Microsoft eh, raking in the profits and lying through their teeth. Closing the ESO studio, which had made them £2 billion is quite tge statement 👏

I still can't believe that was Danny Dyer!