Happy Thursday my fellow Pixlbits!
What follows is the ramblings of a man all coffee’d up and eagerly anticipating the release of Destiny. Try note to be too judgmental.
I’ve sat patiently these past seven months. Patiently enduring podcasts, blogs & tweets full of opinions regarding the next/current generation of consoles. Conversations regarding 60 frames per second and 1080p were but water to my duck’s back as I made do with my PS3, Vita & Wii.
But now, my friends, the time is nigh to enter the next gen arena (so to speak). September 9th is the date. The Destiny PS4 bundle is the ticket. I’m in. Soon.
Back in February, when we were all in a furor of blogging for BaD, I posted my list of most anticipated games. Five games which back in February were making my mouth water in anticipation of their sharp visuals and crisp gameplay. Five games which did not include Destiny.
Let me take a moment here to mention my love/hate relationship with the FPS genre and specifically Bungie.
To the best of my knowledge, my introduction to the FPS genre was Duke Nuken 3D at an approximate age of eleven. From the get go the genre both exhilarated and scared me with its up close and personal visuals and its requirement for fast reactions. I was hooked. I remember my buddy and I playing well into the morning trying to get punt the final bosses head over the goalposts but wasting far too much time handing dollars to the pole dancers. Oh the joys of youth. The next games which really stood out to me were the original Medal of Honor games and Unreal Tournament. Both games offered very different takes on the genre and both had a rather large impact on my gaming growth.
The game that takes the biscuit though is Halo: Combat Evolved.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the original Halo claimed more of my time than any other game. I literally played if for an entire calendar year. That’s twelve months of wanting to do nothing more than play co-op with my friends and kill as many Grunts as possible. We tried speed runs, we found all the secret places, we played with the physics, we even played our own made up games in the multiplayer maps (with our own commentary). We genuinely gained as much as is possible from that game and enjoyed every second of it. Then the unthinkable happened. Halo 2. Halo fucking 2. I’m more than likely alone here but there is not a game on this planet today that disappointed me more than Halo 2. Sure the gameplay was crisp. Sure there were more weapons. Sure they introduced new features (& online) to the multiplayer. And sure enough, I didn’t care. Looking back on it now, as tends to happen for gamers with sequels, my anticipation and excitement for the game could never have been fully satisfied. I wanted not just a game, I wanted an experience. I wanted to feel what Halo: Combat Evolved had made me feel when I first played it. I wanted to be awed, I wanted to be amazed. I wanted it all. And thus, in one fell swoop, my FPS desire was quenched. Killed even. I lost all excitement in the genre and although in later years I purchased & played games such as Halo 3, Bioshock & Killzone 3, it was more to check if maybe, just maybe, I could reclaim that feeling. Alas, no.
Enter Destiny.
I won’t lie here folks, against my better judgment, I’m damn excited for this game. I’ve watched dozens of gameplay videos this past week and it feels “right”. The game looks to have heart, ambition and most importantly, it seems to have a true sense of what it wants to be. Combine this with truly gorgeous graphics (just look at the hair!) and a FUCKING WHITE PS4!! and I’m gung ho. Totally fucking gung ho.
PS4, you may have had my heart from the get go, but it is your sexy lover Destiny which has pulled me under the covers.
September 9th cannot come quickly enough.
Later!
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