Wednesday, June 19, 2013,
And then along came a Bungie-developed title called Halo: Combat Evolved, a futuristic game about some guy named the Master Chief. And suddenly, everything changed.
"Other than Goldeneye (on Nintendo 64) there weren't really shooters on consoles," Parsons, the COO of Bungie, recalled at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in early June. "Not to sound arrogant, but Halo changed the way you played shooters on consoles forever.
"And now, we kind of think we're taking that next big step in shooters."
This is the ambitious but hardly easy goal of Destiny, the new project from Bungie, a developer that has never known how to think small. Years ago, the company legitimized the FPS, and now it's time to revolutionize it with another futuristic vision. Destiny, due out next year for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, will be a story-driven, "connected shooter," with a vision that's part role-playing game and part massive multiplayer online.
Thing is, the rules of the console game have changed, and Bungie now faces overwhelming competition. Ubisoft's The Division, EA's Titanfall and PS4 exclusive Killzone: Shadow Fall all have their own next-gen designs. Bungie no longer stands alone. But Parsons doesn't worry.
"To us," Parsons said, "this (revolution) is exactly what we do . . . We're making destiny, and we're going to change the world with it again."
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This revolution is something for which Bungie has been preparing for more than a decade. Parsons said there are "elements" of Destiny that were being designed way back in 2002. As much as the Halo games defined the Xbox and Xbox 360 era, Parsons says they sometimes fell short, less because of game design and more because of technological limitations.
But the Xbox One and PS4 bring so much more graphical prowess to the table, taking visual details to levels that must be seen to be believed, and pushing draw distances to unprecedented levels.
"This is always the game we wanted to make," Parsons said. "But back then (in 2002), it just wasn't possible."
It's not surprising then, that Destiny, at least from what's been revealed so far, has a somewhat old-school feel. Where games such as The Division deliver an innovative tablet app to enhance gaming, Destiny mostly wants to immerse you in its richly detailed world, pushing the idea of the connected shooter to new levels.
Truth is, we've seen fragments of connected shooters in current-gen games, especially recent ones. Destiny has a Diablo-esque feel, with plenty of loot available, but Borderlands, of course, brought the loot-driven shooter to us a few years before. Leveling up in a shooter? Been there done that?
The whole idea of connectedness? MMOs pioneered this years ago.
But Destiny's ability to captivate will stem from equal parts depth, detail, and brilliant new world. The Halo feel — no, the Bungie feel, says Parsons - is easily evident in the fact that each Guardian (that's you in this game), gets a "Ghost," a flying, talking drone of a sidekick. The gunplay will feel familiar as well.
Nothing else, however, will. This game looks far different, marrying both science fiction and fantasy in the designs of its vehicles, weapons and characters. Your avatar can take a boatload of shapes and sizes, and he or she could wield a futuristic laser as easily as they could land a shotgun with a wooden grip. Bungie drew inspiration from everything from 60s pulp science fiction to old Clint Eastwood films to Ian Banks books, but nothing seems strangely out of place in this fantasy world where both Titan and Warlock can be character classes.
A 15-minute hands-off theater demo at E3 showcased this to a tee. Bungie crafts a world that's more visually stunning than anything gaming's ever seen, with tiny details all over its futuristic land, blowing leaves and gusts of wind, and a flock of crows all flying away off rusted cars as the gamer trudges toward a mission.
These details aren't meant to make Destiny feel realistic; they're meant to make it real.
"We felt like the next generation of shooters was going to be persistent and online, kind of like it was a living place," Parsons said.
It all comes to life at the tail end of the demo, as several players come together in a "Public Event," taking down a massive walking tank in a large multiplayer battle.
***
There is a great challenge in making the "living place" that Parsons and Bungie aim to create. To stand apart from the massive online theaters of Call of Duty and Battlefield — and even to separate from the worlds of MMOs - this living place needs a story.
It needs something to help it appeal to more than the common multiplayer gamer, lest it be confused for a mere futuristic multiplayer shooter. Not all gamers are content to drop in and kill, and Parsons knows that. And not all gamers appreciate the MMO aesthetic; not all gamers are dying to interact with people online.
"You think about them being opposite ends of the spectrum," Parsons said. "There's the person who says, 'I just want to play great stories, great characters.' And then you have the other side where they say 'I'm just in it for the competitive multiplayer.' It's tricky."
Destiny hopes to appeal to both brands of gamer. There promises to be plenty of shooting and slaying and looting for the competitive multiplayer, but, according to Parsons, the game will offer a heavy-hitting story, too.
It's here that the potency of new hardware may be put to its greatest use, allowing Bungie to create NPCs with stronger facial expressions, environments that look more real, dialogue that conveys greater emotion.
"We're telling your story," Parsons said. "So we're going to have to build different characters and archetypes, much richer worlds, much richer characters, much richer environments around that space so we can make sure to propel a story with you at the center."
A short teaser video played after the hands-off demo, showcasing a dialogue between a player-character and a blue humanoid alien who could have easily stepped out of "Star Wars." The conversation seemed filled with emotion. Bungie has done story before, too, and its narrative style gradually improved as the Halo series progressed.
"We want to give you all that story that you want (if you're into great stories)," Parsons said. "If all you do is play Destiny by yourself, you're gonna love it."
Still, a full single-player experience is hardly the vision. The vision is of a fully connected world, with plenty of interaction between characters. You'll be able to play all by yourself and appreciate the game, Parsons said, but in between battles and quests, you'll frequently land in "open public areas," where other gamers may be passing through, or preparing to enter a large skirmish.
You could watch in these instances, essentially being treated to a massive cutscene courtesy of a spectacular in-game engine, but Parsons hopes you will eventually take part.
"Maybe you'll end up jumping in," he said, "and you'll end up meeting someone."
MADDEN SHARE IS FREE . . .
And it shouldn't matter. But to EA Sports, it does.
On June 24, easports.com detailed the not-so-revolutionary "Madden Share" feature, which essentially lets us do stuff we've been doing for years. You can share playbooks, rosters, game sliders and the like, and it should all happen in fluid fashion. It's all as revolutionary as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, of course, but the good news? It's "completely free," according to the website.
It's rather disappointing, actually, that this was even mentioned, because such content should be free in all sports games. User-generated playbooks, rosters and other things are the lifeblood of sports games, the portions of these games that sometimes help budget gamers derive enjoyment past the typical one-year due date on sports titles.
So let's hope they're always "completely free." Let's assume it, and hope that never changes.
TURBO BOOST
Downside of the new Skylanders: SWAP Force game coming this holiday: You'll need a new Portal of Power. So if you buy this game, you're buying the bundle one way or another. Thanks, Activision . . . If you liked the budget shooter Sanctum 2, there's more where that came from. The Road to Elysion DLC pack is now available on Steam for all of $3.99 . . . More DLC. GRID 2, an impressive racer that came out just before E3, already has a Super Modified car pack available for $5.99 on Steam, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . . .
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