Remember when Bungie made Halo games? Remember when they made Halo Reach? That was probably the best game in the Halo series, imo. It was like the Modern Warfare 2 of Halo. Reach was a great example of just how good Bungie is - or can be - at making games.
So why isn't Destiny as good as other games by Bungie? At first, I thought it was because Joseph Staten left Bungie and it threw everything off with a year left before Destiny released in 2014. But now, I realize it's because of Activision at this point.
Seriously. Not only are they why the expansions are so expensive and the microtransaction system is up for discussion at all. Activision has apparently given Bungie a lot of trouble focusing, especially on the story. They're in charge of publishing expansions and titles, so it's kinda easy to see why a lot of expansions ended up being kinda bad: it's because Bungie was forced to rush their work, to some degree.
Activision is also in charge of the marketing, and no, I'm not taking this in the direction of microtransactions. I want to acknowledge not just how expensive the expansions are, but also that Destiny is gradually becoming more of a pay-to-win game. These deals that they're putting out are, well...okay, I'll say it: [i]they're simply unfair.[/i]
First off, to own Forsaken, you also have to own Curse of Osiris and Warmind. But hey, at least you can instantly level up one of your characters for free to play the Forsaken campaign right away. Great, right? Well, except that doing so skips over all the previous campaigns, [i]and you can't replay any of the missions.[/i]
Then Black Armory showed up, and people who bought the expansion pass (like me) were probably thinking, "Yay! I won't have to worry about paying for this separately since I have the expansion pass!" Then they find out that [i]now they have to buy the ANNUAL PASS SEPARATELY, TOO?![/i] Seriously, I don't know if I've ever been this angry about a deal like this before. Come on.
And it constantly taunts you in the menus by having a flashing icon at the Tower for Black Armory leading you to Ada-1, trying to tell you that you [i]HAVE TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW.[/i]
This is all just further proof of just how greedy Activision truly is. I'm convinced at this point that Bungie needs to cut their ties with Activision. They'd really be better off without them. 'Nuff said.
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The Bungie that made reach/halo isn’t the same that made this.... it’s just a memory now. As far Activision, that deal is done, they signed on the dotted line. It’s over. What we get is what we get.