I’m writing a post today that I would not have expected to write a month ago. It turns out that a little bit of content can go a long way.

Hype Machine

I’m usually somewhat bothered by games that receive too much “hype”. Some games the Media seems to pick up and run with, and the end result is never as awesome as what’s promised (kind of like most political campaigns). The latest example of that is Titanfall, a game that received pre-release hype of the highest order, and ended up falling flat after about a month. On the MMO front, I can think of lots of examples, some of which I’ve been burned by personally. So now I have an automatic aversion to hype. I didn’t buy into any of the hype for Destiny, but I randomly got a spot in the Alpha anyway. Now I’m completely bought into the hype, because marketing works.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPwCU0zEHCM]

Caveat Emptor

But sometimes marketing works a bit too well. Playing the Destiny alpha got me to pre-order Destiny and therefore check out the beta, but I’ve also been burned by “marketing betas” before. The most notable example is Champions, which was awesome through the beta process and reworked into something else on Day 1. I’m also going to pick on Firefall, which wowed me with a 30 minute tradefloor demo at PAX East, and then revealed that there wasn’t much else in the game after those 30 minutes. (I hear it’s launching soon, so maybe it actually has content now?) Limited Time Demos are also a trap, and if this turns out to be one, I guess I’m falling right in, because what I did play was quite fun.

Space Magic

Of course, now that I’m jumping in, I’m really jumping in. Decisions like what class I want to play (probably Titan), what weapons I want to use (flux rifles seem cool), and what abilities to take (this one’s going to need some work). I’ve read up on how the skill system works, how weapon leveling works (for weapons that can do that), and any information I can find about the classes and what they do, as part of my drive to know everything. While I haven’t been into First-Person Shooters lately, I did play a lot of Halo 2 through high school, and I’m hoping this recaptures some of that magic. I just hope I’m not being completely duped.