Die-hard Destiny Fans Are Seeing Red (Bull)
Last year, Bungie’s long-awaited online shooter Destiny hit next-gen consoles to a mix of ecstatic cheers and disappointed yawns. The game was a visual stunner with some of the best gun-play mechanics on the market, but suffered from a drought of content. Grinding through the same quests for different loot and currency proved tiring for some, but many stuck with it. While following content updates have been criticized by many for failing to fill the holes of the original release, the game still has a passionate fan base. But will the plans for Destiny‘s latest expansion break the limits (and wallets) of fan loyalty?
The conflict began at The Taken King‘s price point of $40. This is double the price tag of past Destiny expansions, and isn’t included in the “Season Pass” that many players bought back at launch. But it doesn’t stop there; The Taken King is also being sold in a new, $100 “Collectors’ Bundle,” containing exclusive content (emote animations, to be specific) alongside the base game and past two expansions. When asked about existing players feeling left out of this new content, Taken King director Luke Smith said, “If I fired up a video right now and showed you the emotes you would throw money at the screen” in a Eurogamer interview. Eventually, Bungie relented and agreed to release the emotes as a separate download. But as you may hope, this outrage wasn’t centered merely on dance animations. Destiny fans have started to wonder about the value of The Taken King as a whole.
Furthering the PR nightmare, the game’s publisher, Activision, also announced a partnership with energy drink Red Bull this week, offering an “Epic New Quest” for those that buy both the game and beverage. The week of coverage has turned many passionate Destiny fans on the game, so often feeling that they are paying too much for too little.
Batman: Arkham Knight Is A Nightmare On PC
Those who dedicated themselves to gaming on PC are treated to many luxuries. High frame rates, exceptional visual effects and premium features are the norm, all delivered on a wonderful all-digital interface. But PC gaming does come with one big peril, and it’s latest victim is the Dark Knight himself. When a game is built with one of the next-gen consoles in mind, it can often take a certain amount of work to ensure the experience on PC meets customer standards. Sometimes companies don’t take that time, and the consequences are visible in Batman: Arkham Knight.
To start, the game is capped at 30 frames per second, the same standard seen in the Xbox One & PS4 releases. This is a bit of a slap in the face to users who run the game on hardware capable of higher frame rates (delivering a smoother game play experience), especially when the PC release has also seen many visual flourishes (such as rain effects) removed. Even worse, running the game on anything less than the highest-end equipment results in a sub-par experience full of broken animations & sudden slow downs. Online speculators have blamed this quality on evidence that it was outsourced to a small team of 12 people, separate from the core Rocksteady Studios team. In many ways, this matches the similarly busted port of Mortal Kombat X, another WB Games release.
After three days of sale on the open markets, WB pulled the PC version from sale on all digital storefronts. This is a first for the publisher, and likely spurred by Steam’s recent policy shift that permitted refunds on the service. While Arkham Knight‘s PC release is undoubtedly frustrating, it may serve as a warning for future broken AAA ports.
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter: @Mushroomer25