The Decline of the Halo Series

This year’s E3 will most definitely announce the next game in 343 and Microsoft’s Halo franchise. The “6th” game and finale to the series’ post Bungie trilogy. The weirdest thing about this, nobody is really talking about it. There was a time that Halo was the biggest franchise in the industry, now it’s a languid shadow of its former self.

Back when the original Halo trilogy was in the zeitgeist, it was seen as the definitive game in the genre. The first game received near universal acclaim from all major publications, as did the second and third for the most part. Not only that, the franchise had a major guiding hand in the direction that, not only the FPS genre moved in on console, but had an impact on modern game design sensibilities and the approach to online play in general. It was certainly the first game I was really aware of playing online on console.

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Borderlands 2 is the best version of Destiny

Borderlands 2 is one of my favourite games of all time. It was a realisation that came to me slowly when I found myself, once again, thinking of picking it up and starting a new character. Despite a play through taking over 40 hours, I’ve probably finished it at least half a dozen times already.

It was when pondering whether to start playing Borderlands 2 again, I came to the realisation of just how similar it was to another series I’d put a lot of time into, and how it does so many things just that little bit better. I’m going to stop playing coy now, I’m talking about Destiny. It was kind of obvious, it’s in the title of the article, and Cayde-6 is just below. I’ve complained about and praised Destiny again, again, again and again. It’s a game I love to hate and hate to love, and yet I still play it all the time.

In fact, they’re both games that capture a lot of the things I value in video games: Individuality of character in multiplayer games, replayability, diverse upgrading paths, procedurally generated loot. These are things that draw me into not just playing a game, but to continuing playing it for years to come. Both games do these things, to varying degrees of success , but ultimately I think that Borderlands 2 does the better job. This is my case for that.

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I’m not too hot on Destiny 2’s Crucible

I like Destiny 2. Is that a surprise? considering the stupid amount of hours I put into the original game, the fact that I am also playing far too much of the sequel should shock nobody. That I’ve already put 100 hours into the game in little under three weeks should prove that. Wow, when I say that out loud it sounds really bad.

It’s not to say I think the game is perfect though. While it’s better on the whole than the first game was upon release, there are a whole array of things I’d wish they had left the same. The customisation of subclasses for example. Also while set stats on weapons are a good thing, it takes come of the shine off getting a really good gun. All that aside, the one thing I have genuine to goodness mixed feelings on is the game’s new style of crucible. Which is its competitive multiplayer if you didn’t know that.

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