Destiny: First Impressions

As many are aware, the Destiny beta has begun. The beta gives players a look at Bungie's next new IP, will Destiny live up to expectations? We won't really know until its full release, but that doesn't mean we can't judge it based on the beta.

Character creation is something new Bungie is including in Destiny, you'll be able to design your character in many ways, including 1 of 3 races, hairstyle, hair color, tattoos, and eye color as well as sex.

Human, ??? and Robot, I forget the second race name, they resemble humans, but have beady eyes and are much more pale

The Robots

Humans

These things

You also get to pick your class, Titan, Hunter or Warlock. Each specialize in something different. The Titan is all about power, using weapons to down their enemies. The Hunter is the assassin of the group, using stealth and quickness to take out enemies, the Warlock, as the name implies, is the mage, the use magic energy to down enemies

The classes and their symbols

The story missions are relatively quick, each mission takes, depending on skill and if you want to explore, about 10 minutes. They generally involve reaching the objective point and then killing a bunch of enemies, killing a boss or surviving until your partner, Ghost, can unlock something.

After each mission, you get a summary, how many enemies each person killed, loot you earned and can go back to Destiny, the safe zone where you can buy new gear, turn in quests, interact with others and more.

Destiny is a central hub where you can see and interact with other players, trade stuff, form parties and accept new quests or bounties (basically challenges that earn more money, exp, and reputation with factions), as well as check new messages you may have.

As of now, the MP has only one game mode, Control. You earn exp and Gladiator rank (think *insert current name of PvP currency in World of Warcraft*, earn enough and turn it in for better PvP gear. You also earn less impressive gear during MP (all the stuff I earned was worse than what I had, so I just sold it).

Character with Superior gear, rare and time consuming

You can earn glyphs, which can be converted to gear during missions as well, these are generally uncommon and pretty good gear (at least for now). The tougher the mission, the better gear you can earn, within reason.

A few modes require teams, these are similar to mini dungeons, I haven't successfully done one yet, as my team usually quits before we complete it.

As one may expect, characters can learn some skills and also be upgraded to increase stats, things like more armor, faster recovery and movement are a few of the things that can be upgraded.

MANY skills to be learned

Weapons can also be customized to some degree, rarer weapons have upgrade slots which can be used to do a variety of things such as increase damage, rate of fire, increase accuracy and much more.

2 upgraded spots, one with 3 upgrade options

For obvious reasons, it's too soon to say if the game will be good or not (although I'm sure it will sell well since it's, well, Bungie (and they have a large fan(boy) base)), the game is interesting so far. I woudn't personally buy it right away, I just don't feel enough draw to it. Halo with RPG elements sounds cool, but it doesn't play as I would think.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

Peace comes at a price

Story

The opening scene has Miller and Snake (who is now played by Kiefer Sutherland, not David Hayter) talking about Paz, a character from the previous Metal Gear game, Peace Walker, who had survived her fall from Mother Base and was being held captive in attempts to locate Cipher. Snake fears that she will become a liability, as she was a Cipher Agent with knowledge of Mother Base, but with some coercing from Miller, the two agreed her rescue would prove to be more beneficial. Miller also learned that Chico, a young boy who also helped Snake, was captured trying to rescue Paz, resulting in his imprisonment.


Graphics

The graphics, at least on the Xbox One/PS4, are amazing. These are the best graphics I've seen in a game. The facial expressions, physics, environment all look so real.

Still makes me weep in awe

Snake's skin in the rain

Stills don't do the game ANY justice, they never do, seeing it in action is preferred. I'm amazed with them, seeing how the game is on both current and last gen, which means that they STILL aren't as good as they could be. The ground and textures look, again, amazing. Everything in this game is that, amazing.

Amazing.

The game also uses motion capture for the characters, so if their movements seem fluid and almost eerily human, that is why.


Controls

Any MGS player can tell you that at time, Snake is tough to control (especially when crawling). Most of these have been ironed out and controls are very responsive, which is good for people like me who like to run in shooting people. Snake handles like a BMW, tight and accurate, no more wonky controls when you are running for your life.

The game doesn't offer an in-game run down of the buttons, you can look them up in the menu, but it's more fun to just press random buttons and see what happens.


Voice/Music/Sound

We'll, I still don't know how to feel about Kiefer replacing David, yes I'm a fanboy, if you want to say that. There was nothing wrong with his voice, so Kiefer takes some getting used to. Personal feelings aside though, Snake, Miller, 'Huey' and everyone else sound great. Metal Gear does occasionally have wonky VO, usually intentionally, didn't hear any of that this time. The actors are great, so I have high hopes for them in Phantom Pain.

Sound and Music are both used perfectly, the right music plays at the right times and the sound effects are varied and realistic (granted I've never actually DONE any of the things Snake does, so I may not be the greatest judge).

The game brings back the directional mic as well, so you can eavesdrop on enemy conversations. Where's Johnny?


Other

As you've undoubtedly heard, the game is short. At first, you only get one mission, rescue Chico and Paz. That's it. After beating the game though, you unlock 5 side-missions that require various skills to complete, as well as harder difficulties and unlockables. If you are playing this SOLELY for the story, you will be lucky to pull an hour out of this game, if you are aiming for everything, you'll be busy, what with the collectibles and all.

If you are interested in the game, but don't want to buy it, you can watch my pre-recorded session, I beat the game in about an hour, this includes all the cutscenes for you to enjoy. Metal Gear Ground Zeroes Completion

When spotted by an enemy, the game slows down, allowing Snake to quickly (and preferably, quietly) take out the enemy that spotted him before back-up is called. This can be crucial if you are going for perfect runs, although you shouldn't get spotted at all. It DOES help avoid mass fire fights.

The inventory is hotwheeled now, meaning you use the D-pad to select items instead of going through a massive cacoffiny of menus.

Enemies can also be marked if you are close enough, or have binoculars. When marker, you will always see the enemy, even though walls. This will help you plan your next move when extracting prisoners.

When CQC'ing an enemy, you are given the option of killing, knocking them out or interrogating them for information. This is not a new feature, but is done much better than before.

CQC from behind

Much easier to remember now, if fact, you don't have to

Overall

A fun game for Metal Gear fans, or fans of stealth based gameplay, others may want to wait for a price drop, or for Phantom Pain, which I'm sure will have a Collector's Edition with this included.

8.5/10.0

Help Us Hit 10K and Win Prizes

To say thanks for all the support we've gotten these past years, we're having a raffle!!!! Right now, we are very close to hitting 10,000 blog reads (a milestone for something I do for fun), and to say thanks we're going to giveaway a few small prizes in the coming weeks. What do you need to do?

Comment your gamertag and share (+1) this blog post.

SIMPLE.

The more comments and shares this gets, the better the prize.

Might not seem like a big deal to some, especially since I've had this blog up for a few years, but the thing to note is that I really didn't make use of it until, well really a few months ago (just look at the posting history, already I almost have more posts than all the other years COMBINED).

Here's where we sit right now:

WE'VE DONE IT!!!! Thanks to you all, we've received over 10,000 blog hits. So, this FRIDAY, I'll be picking out one lucky person, maybe two, to get a $20 Xbox LIVE Giftcard to buy whatever you want (as long as it's $20 or under), so be sure to hit that +1 button and leave your Gamertag in the comments!!!!

But whateve's, +1 this blog post, comment your tag and we'll contact you if you win!!!!

Thanks for the support!!!!

~ Leo, LVGRB Writer/Owner

Defiance: The Free-to-Play MMO Shooter

If you're a sci-fi buff, you may have heard of the show, did you also know it's a game? I'm sure you did if you like said show. If you know nothing about Defiance, well, it was a game released some time ago, that was to take part during the same time as its TV counter-part (which I've been told is pretty good). The actions of one influencing the other, and of course, it was an MMO. The game had to be bought, but will soon be made F2P (or free-to-play).

The game itself is.... okay, at best. I've not played it in a year or so and have just started again. The community is small, but will undoubtedly grow when it is made F2P this month (July 15th for Xbox and PS3, a later date for PC).

You can still buy the game, in doing so you'll be granted extra content:

A grant of 1,000 Arkforge, a currency redeemable for resetting weapon mastery, upgrading your weapon's power rating, or even bumping an uncommon weapon to epic rarity.

4 Character Slots, 5 Loadouts, up to 75 Ark Keycodes, and a minimum 70 Inventory Slots.

A 30 day boost will be granted to:

Boosts to skill, XP, scrip, salvage, and reputation gain rates that stack with the matching boosts available in the store.

10% store-wide discount - boosts, costumes, lock boxes, all of it!

A grab bag of one-hour boosts or Arkforge from Daily and Weekly Ark Hunter Bonus Lock Boxes. (Playing on console? Be sure to link your account on the website to get this bonus!)

The character customization is limited at best, you pick between 3 races (and the 2 genders), some class types, one of three "looks" and some hair, eyes, color, and voices.

Overall, it's an okay game, not great but there are worse games out there. If you are interested, be sure to check out my list of Arkfall Codes for extra loot.