Destiny [Xbox One] - Next Gen Review

If you've lived under a rock for the past 18 months, you probably haven't heard about the new big kid on the block. His name is Destiny. Created by Halo's original makers - Bungie - and Call of Duty's Activision, Destiny is a new creation that supposedly incorporates open-world styling in a first person shooter setting. Think about Defiance but on a fairly restricted scale. But what is it?

Continuously we were bombarded with messages saying that this game had huge and expansive open areas for you to explore and fight enemies within. However this is not the case. These big areas are just CoD maps. You cannot just wander and explore the world, you follow a set path. You have to go on "Patrol" to really explore these worlds yet we have no inclination to actually do so. Its not open world. With very little to actually find on the surface, why should I bother spending ages looking about for some chests that are in vastly limited numbers when I could be getting on with the story?

This is were it gets funny. The story is almost non-existent. Thrust into this war to save the traveller (giant floaty ball), you must defeat its enemies that have come to claim it. You go all Master Chief

This time I chose the Warlock. Very Star Lord

and go kill everything in your way. You meet new races and your only reaction is to kill them. Each planet have their own race of fighters mixed in with the "Fallen" that fight each other...for some reason...Its simply not engaging. Riding off of the success of CoD and Halo is all that this is doing with a few vocal talents thrown in for good measure. I can't quite tell if the story is so convoluted that its just dull or that it suffers from CoD syndrome and lacks any substance other than "BLOW HIS FUCKING FACE OFF!"...

I'm playing on the Xbox One. With all they hype of graphics for the game, I felt my next gen console would grant me far superior visuals than my 360. Although I cannot speak for the PS4, the game does look good. Visuals are sharp and the landscapes do look great. The Guardians also look wicked. One thing I've enjoyed is finding new armour and weapons that look cool and improve my general look. But wait...Wasn't there talk of customization? Sure, there was. At the beginning, you choose the race, type and colour of your guardian but you won't see this often enough to actually care in the long run. If you wish to customise armour, you aren't in luck. Trying to create something that doesn't look like you're planning a gay pride parade across Mars, Venus and Earth is a huge pain in the ass. Simply because you need to actually find things that both improve and match. If its vastly better for defence, you don't want to hold onto something that just looks good but will hurt you in the long run. You can however get shaders. I have one. I can't use it yet as I'm not level 20 and I only got it because I pre-ordered the game alongside the upcoming CoD. Finding others are a mystery to me so I've left it down to looking a bit like a gay Star Lord.

Gameplay. What we all want to hear about. "How does it play?" I hear you asking. Well...Its alright. Aiming is rather slow and feels as if you're moving through glue. The rest of the shooty stuff is fine. You would expect it to be considering the developer combination. Moving is just a huge problem. Running about and shooting in chaotic areas means you cannot see where you are going. Often you end up getting stuck in a gap and then the game has a fit. Unable to jump out of this hole, all your character does is panic and appears to have some sort of seizure until he finally shakes out or you're shot dead because you can't turn around. When you play with other players, it can also be a huge pain in the ass when they continually push into you or walk into the line of fire causing you to waste rounds into the back of their skull. While also playing online with randoms, you will suffer. Continually I have suffered with it. Almost always finding people who are either inactive or inept.

This big fucker made life rather difficult

Just prior to writing this, I completed a strike mission with over 100 more kills than my team "mates" without being downed in the final attempt. Even worse is the fact that those inept are actually higher levels and will often try and grief you. From annoying humans to stupid AI's. Within the Beta testing, many complaints were raised about the Spider Tank and its incredibly high power for its level. Although I didn't have such a problem with it myself (Hide under the bridge and snipe it through the gap) it was substantially nerfed for release. Further into the game upon approaching several other bosses, these were also incredibly OP on their own or had continuous support respawning that you couldn't take him out without being surrounded by 2 dozen hostiles. The other issues is that many of the enemies don't know what to do with themselves. You can either find them hidden behind cover without moving or attacking or you will see them simply standing out in the open with little desire to do anything. The only other thing to really talk about is The Crucible. Online matches for those who get bored of the story. A mix of Captures and TDM's that do little to entice or excite me in the slightest. If you get bored of the story or feel you can't be bothered, they probably are the better place to go but in reality, we have plenty of other things we could be playing.

Perhaps my expectations for Destiny were rather high. Perhaps I caved in to the over generated hype by all the outlets and marketing campaign but is this really an excuse when Bungie and Activision were at the forefront of creating such a storm? I don't think so. The game is a huge disappointment. Already packs are being mentioned and are on pre-order in the hope to pad out the game in the long run but when you buy a game for upwards of £40, you want something with meat on. This was always the case before DLC became such a money-spinner and it angers me that I have to wait and pay more money to understand what the hell is going on with the story or get new game modes/maps. Being so utterly disappointed by Destiny, my only aim is to complete it, get some achievements and put it back on the shelf to look at in the future. Would I recommend buying it? Probably not until its on sale for a tenner. This grand piece of art only turned out to be CoD on a bigger scale. My rating for this feels like a 6/10. Maybe 7 if I get bored.

What did you think of Destiny and do you think DLC 'extras' are something we should embrace?

I'm just going to sit here and think about all the money I just wasted

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - Quicky Review - SPOILERS

9 years after the original, Frank Miller returns with "Sin City: A Dame To Kill For". Based loosely on the past events, A Dame to Kill for is something of a muddle. Both a prequel and a sequel to the original, this time around we focus on a few characters that we had previously met and a couple new ones to mix it up a little. Being that the movie jumps from past to present, following the general plot would normally be quite the task for many other movies to pull off. Much like the first instalment, it jumps around a lot between characters with no conceivable connection, which I can only assume is to mimic the way comic book series work from time to time. The problem here is that we never saw the host of characters meet/interact in the first one but now we actually do. Although the only connection made is to the muscle "Marv" for some help killing people or beating the utter shite out of them. Although it was fun, connections between characters like Dwight or Johnny and Nancy would have given the movie a flow that was far less jarring and added a layer of character development that could have been extremely fun had it been done in the right way.

Now for a story, I don't quite know how to describe it. Marv just goes around doing what he did in the first, just this time his plot wasn't driven by Goldie's death but more for the hell of it. Johnny is a gambler who has some sort of ability to win everything he does causing problem between him and the senator. On the topic of Senator Roark, Nancy is doing her stripper thing but aided by an alcohol addiction and crippling depression after the death of Hartigan. With the aim to kill the senator, we follow her through a dark process of gaining the courage to act upon her desires. Finally we have Dwight. Originally played by Clive Owen the role has now been filled by Josh Brolin who is being screwed about by Ava (Eva Green) and her lackie - previously played by Michael Clarke Duncan - Manute without the golden eye. Dwight's story is probably the most in depth story from the group and one of the better acted.

Having only watched the original the day before, I wasn't sure how everything would have panned out. For acting, I was expecting something a little more engaging and realistic. Other than going with cheesy one-liners or short quotes like a comic book, I wanted something plausible for this new instalment. Those who really achieved it were Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Josh Brolin. Taking over from Clive Owen isn't a hard job for anyone by Brolin makes the character his own. For all the characters, they had to act like they had come straight from the comic and its rather disjointing when watching Miho jump about killing people as she is frozen in position but the background is travelling and it looks rather corny and honestly terrible. Although Levitt's character was more of a waste of time for those who haven't involved themselves with the comics, he was an interesting character to watch nonetheless. His story arch did little to impact the story of all the characters apart from the Senator but he was enjoyable to follow.

Considering everything I've picked out, the movie was very enjoyable. The acting isn't always great and constantly being barraged with nude/sex scenes is rather painful and often unnecessary but the general flow of the movie was entertaining. Does it make me want to read the comics? I'm still not quite sure. I may invest some time into the first to see how well it goes down but I'm sceptical of the potential. So for an overall experience, you're going to have to watch the first to even understand this appearance but I think it deserves a 6/10, potentially a 7 if it grows on me at some point.