Amazing how well this has aged.

I'll admit to being a newish fan. I've always thought she had a great voice, I'm just not a huge country fan, so I never listened to her much.

1989, however, is my favorite album of the last few years. And that's saying something, as my all time favorite band, Modest Mouse, recently released their first album in nearly a decade (and it's fantastic!).

She seems like such a legitimately amazing, generous person, and really seems to give a lot back to her fans, and I appreciate that from artists I like.

Plus, I mean, just look at her. Being that cute shouldn't even be legal.

I'd never heard any of her songs until 1989, and it blew me away. I'm a sucker for a good, old-fashioned pop song, and hers are some of the best out there right now IMO. And yes, the cute-factor doesn't hurt either :)

Even more ashamed now.

I don't know why. Crow's awesome.

Even more ashamed now.

Don't be. I like that mission, too.

:p

I still love it when a Ketch flies overhead. It makes you realize how legitimately big they are. Sometimes just looking out over a landscape to the skybox does that for me as well. Destiny is such the perfect evolution of the Bungie/Halo art style. And they still make the best skyboxes ever.

[*]The craziness that is Skywatch. Urzok the impenetrable.

I remember the first time I went to take him on, I was by myself, and I thought nothing of it. After all, it's just a patrol mode enemy, right? I even laughed when "Fall before Urzok, the hated" came up.

Cut to my death mere moments later...

One thing that i've noticed is that in Halo, i would methodically kill every single enemy (in some instances you had to). I played the hell outta Silent Cartographer, AOTCR, The Maw, Delta Halo, Regret, Uprising, High Charity, The Great Journey, Sierra 117, Tsavo Highway, The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. In destiny, i look for the quickest way through b/c i want to get my XP/rewards and move onto the next activity. I don't care to replay any of the missions unless there is a bounty associated with them, or i need to glimmer farm. I'd rather play End-game content and Iron Banner.

I think this is Destiny's biggest problem. I would love to replay missions, but the incentive isn't there, other than the Daily. For me, none of the missions were really memorably enough to warrant playing through them again. You get the same scenarios just doing Patrol for the most part.

I'm not sure how they would accomplish it, but Destiny needs a more Halo-like campaign. Keep the public patrol areas, and let the missions move through some of those areas, but have more mission exclusive areas so they can design better encounters, rather than just having random groups of enemies standing around and kicking the dirt until you show up.

1989, however, is my favorite album of the last few years. And that's saying something, as my all time favorite band, Modest Mouse, recently released their first album in nearly a decade (and it's fantastic!).

She seems like such a legitimately amazing, generous person, and really seems to give a lot back to her fans, and I appreciate that from artists I like.

Plus, I mean, just look at her. Being that cute shouldn't even be legal.

• Joining Beorn in the Cosmodrome during the alpha (you didn’t need to go through the initial wake up sequence), and feeling like my eyes would bleed because everything looked so great.
  
• Coming through the wall the first time and seeing that flair shoot up, and hearing and seeing the Ketch pop in. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The first time I faced a Devil Walker. The first time I took one down by myself.
  
• Seeing the array unfold—that music!
  
• Lance Reddick’s intros still work for me, and one particular outro—“They always do.”
  
• The first time Sepiks Prime killed me with a proximity attack.
  
• Getting ambushed by invisibles on that “safe” balcony in the Refinery.
  
• Getting ambushed by pikes in general.
  
• Getting last second help with a Kill the Target public event is still killer.
  
• My first wolves public event (I failed). They’re tough!
  
• The first time I figured out the scorch cannon charge mechanic. They’re not so tough!
  
• The craziness that is Skywatch. Urzok the impenetrable.
  
• Taking in the scenery on the Moon and Venus for the first time. Mars less so during the day, but at night, it’s one of favorite locations.
  
• Turning on the lights for the accelerator on the moon.
  
• Unleashing the Hive. The chains breaking off the door.
  
• Killing Phogoth for the first time, when we all ran around like mad.
  
• Taking up the sword the first time. Taking up the sword for the first time in the Cosmodrome.
  
• The battle after which you retrieve the eyes. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• Seeing the orbs appear in the library before the Vex materialize for the first time. First insta-death by minotaur.
  
• The way the foliage shakes as the Archive doors open, and descending that staircase. Felt similarly the first time I entered Rasputin’s bunker. The music is perfect.
  
• The entire Endless Steps battle.
  
• The first cutscene in the Reef. This was the peak of my hope for the story. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The height of the battle after which you retrieve the eyes. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The Dying Mind final battle. Maybe it’s the novelty because I’ve only played it a handful of times, but that’s in part because people always quit and I don’t want to do it alone.
  
• Unlocking the constellation map during the Black Garden story. The intro and outro to the Black Garden final battle. That music!
  
• Getting handed the Stranger’s rifle and then shooting it for the first time. It was a revelation compared the other guns I had then.
  
• Skolas’ first appearance in that first HoW story mission.
  
• Fighting my way into Draksis’ and Taniks’ ships. Always get a bit of that Truth and Reconciliation vibe.
  
• Fighting invisible vandals outside the wall.
  
• Using the drop mines on a heavy pike for the first time.
  
• Pre-HoW: breaking through the gate and revisiting our “birthplace” outside the wall. Getting to the Terminus (with the current geometry) and climbing up to the playable space. I love that actual mission, too.
  
• Most boss mechanics in the POE have impressed me.
  
• The sound design is magnificent. Once recently I was very tired and just shut my eyes for a few seconds. I realized I could tell exactly what was happening just by sound.
  
• Nearly every week I find a cave or space I haven't seen yet, which is kind of stunning at this point.
  
• Virtually every sequence of the raids provided “Wow” moments for me the first time through. I still find them exciting.
  

All in all, I think I like this game. :-)

Heh, I love Taylor Swift.

Not like I do.

Okay, that was creepy.

First VoG runthrough
First abyss run through

One thing that i've noticed is that in Halo, i would methodically kill every single enemy (in some instances you had to). I played the hell outta Silent Cartographer, AOTCR, The Maw, Delta Halo, Regret, Uprising, High Charity, The Great Journey, Sierra 117, Tsavo Highway, The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. In destiny, i look for the quickest way through b/c i want to get my XP/rewards and move onto the next activity. I don't care to replay any of the missions unless there is a bounty associated with them, or i need to glimmer farm. I'd rather play End-game content and Iron Banner.

During the beta, Public Events were amazing. I remember doing a public event and just as I was about to lose some reinforcements showed up and we completed it. I wish public events scaled their difficult to the level of the players in the area or something so we could recapture that feeling.

Yes, that would be good. I'm not sure how it would be handled, exactly, but it sucks being able to just steamroll it by yourself. The "eliminate the target" public events actually do a pretty good job of thwarting you, at least when they have shields. The shields on those guys come back so fast that it is genuinely difficult to take them down on your own, only because their shields are back by the time you reload. Those usually require 2 people in my experience.

Seriously, though, you're right. My guess is that Bungie knows this, and will do more of that sort of thing in the sequel(s). Probably they'll try for it a bit in current Destiny, but my guess is that they've already done what's technically feasible.

One sub-thread went into the possibility of displaying the world differently for different players. It should be doable, at least for non-solid, non-interactive things like the array. Obviously doing it with level geometry would cause major problems, but I don't think any of that really changes anyway, other than doors opening and closing.

Thinking back... I remember the first time I unlocked my speeder bike. The archive was creepy and great. The exclusion zone was very memorable when the first cabal jumped toward me (man did I kill that memory with repetition). Killing those statues, whatever they were, at the end of the campaign was awesome. Each of the original game strikes was fantastic the first time I did them. Almost everything about the Vault and Crota was memorable. Soloing the Crota bridge and abyss on hard will be burned in my brain forever. Lamp cannon!

Nothing else in the expansions has been memorable, I think because I was already all geared up. TDB strike nightfall took about 10 minutes the first time. There were no new enemy types to figure out. Nothing unusual at all, really.