As my May game challenge was fairly relaxed on the terms, I can say without hesitation that it’s going quite well! I played far more Destiny over the weekend than I planned, but since I got to everything the new content from House of Wolves has to offer, I can’t feel too bad about it.
I was absolutely sucked in to the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game is engaging, intriguing, and beautiful to explore. I can’t tell you how many times I just stood in one place and admired the scenery and the emerging weather. The sound design was immediately noticeable, as I was often struck by the authentic sound of the wind rustling through the trees, grass, and over the water.
The game is immersive.
However.
There is apparently a save bug that is plaguing the Xbox One and PC versions of the game, sometimes wiping out entire hours of progress. I have read that in very few cases it is also touching the PS4 version, and that has me a bit scared to keep playing on the off chance that it gets my save as well. I have been saving early and often, and backing up those saves.
I am especially wary of this as I had a few issues early on with the game crashing entirely. Each time I would choose to pass in the in-game card game Gwent, the whole thing would crash sending me back to the main PlayStation menu. I found out that that wasn’t uncommon, but found a way around the issue, so things have been mostly okay since. There were a couple of times where the game wouldn’t allow me to save (even though I wasn’t currently in combat), but otherwise, it’s been mostly smooth sailing.
The majority of my weekend, however, was spent in Destiny. I played solo quite often, but also with others for periods on Friday and Saturday. I completed the new story missions and the new bounties, ranking up to level 2 with the queen (I want that giant blue ship!). I dove into the Trials of Osiris and the Prison of Elders and oh boy…
The two other people I was doing the Trials with are both good at the Crucible. I can be pretty good, but when I start to tank, watch out. I will tank hard.
Anyway, we went in, round after round, and super lost. Repeatedly. We began to get the hang of things, but only ever won one round.
One.
And only one person on our team even ended up with gear.
It was pretty demoralizing and disheartening.
We had a far better time with the Prison of Elders. It was chaotic, exciting, and fun, and at the end I came out with another Gjallarhorn.
While that was a great reward, I would have quite appreciated some Etheric Light so I could start leveling up appropriately. Not finding any Etheric Light in the three places it is supposed to show up (Nightfall, Trials, or the Prison), I felt discouraged.
I came out of the weekend feeling like I may be putting Destiny behind me for a few reasons. The slog of getting all these things with the RNG in control is always a gamble. I have also been having a hard time finding people to play with, and the experience is getting me down. So I’m not sure how much more Destiny I will be playing. Or multiplayer games in general.
On that note, I am looking forward to playing more single player games, as I know I can count on myself, and I rarely have to worry that I’m letting myself down or expecting more than I should.
I hope everyone had a marvelous holiday weekend. Cheers.
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
The first part is worrisome to me, because I am interested in the Witcher 3. Not interested enough to buy it, yet, but still looking into the game.
Your experience with Destiny is why I quit playing after the first week. I think it’s lazy to make people play the same over and over to get anything useful from a quest just to increase play time. I thought the game had an overall lazy design. Boss battles aren’t good (to me), they are just artificial difficulty rooms.
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i am concerned about this save issue as well. i hope cd projekt red addresses it sooner than later.
destiny will always be a give and take for me. i both love it and am intensely frustrated by it. and i definitely understand where you are coming from.
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I was really looking forward to Destiny because I had hoped it would provide a more evolved “Borderlands” experience. Alas, it did not. I did enjoy playing it with friends in the same way that I enjoy anything played with friends… because it’s with friends, not because it’s Destiny. I kind of always felt like I was just tagging along. Everyone was trying to be as efficient as possible in areas they had played dozens of times, but I was seeing for the first time. Ahem, spoilers! I wanted to explore the world at my own pace (which is apparently much slower than everyone else’s pace) and find some immersion. That’s hard to do when everyone is telling me exactly what is coming and what I need to do step by step to be successful. I guess if I had played it alongside others who were also seeing it for the first time it might have felt different.
I wasn’t going to buy The Witcher, not yet. I won’t be playing it for some time and told myself I would buy it when I was ready to play it and would likely save some money as a result. But then I saw what CD Projekt Red was including in the regular $60 package and decided they deserved my money. Nobody packages a game like that anymore unless it’s a collector’s edition and as a consumer there’s only one way to voice my approval. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out before I get around to enjoying it.
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i can totally understand how that would ruin the experience. i had someone who was only occasionally guiding me through the story, and it wasn’t so bad that it ruined anything, so i didn’t mind. do you still play? on what platform?
i think that’s an excellent reason to buy the witcher. i know there are a few issues right now, but i have faith that they will have them fixed quickly. and yes, the standard edition had so many extras (stickers!) it was surprising. not to mention the 16 free dlc items coming to the game.
i haven’t bought a season pass for anything in a long while, but i did for this. i know the first dlc doesn’t drop until october, but that’s just fine with me. i think this game has longevity. and i can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
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I still have Destiny on my hard drive (PS4), along with what the season pass provided. I actually haven’t played any of the expansion stuff yet. I would be open to diving back in at some point…
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well if you even do decide that you’d like to hop back in, and you feel like connecting, just let me know and i’d be happy to not spoil anything for you. :)
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I would like to take you up on that… once me, my PS4, and a stable internet connection are all in the same room. Whether or not Destiny met my expectations, it is a solid shooter and I should at least play through the story content of the two expansions I paid for. And it’s always nice to make a new gaming buddy!
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no worries. just shoot me a pm whenever you are ready. i will be here.
indeed!
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The Witcher 3 is gonna be a major time sink,I haven’t had much issues with it,it only has crashed once.
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that’s good! and yes, it certainly will be. i hope to play more today.
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I’m gonna play it later I think.
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