So I have a question for you guys. Does MS deserve more credit for Halo being what it is than they've perhaps ever gotten over the years?
I mean, yes, Bungie had been working on the game before MS bought them sure. However, it was a massively different game then compared to product they eventually shipped for Xbox. Whether or not those decisions were directly influenced by MS we can't really say, but let's fast forward to the here and now. Bungie leaves, MS creates a brand new studio for Halo (with a few familiar faces, but not that many in the scope of things). That studio, 343, creates what I think many, including myself, consider to be the best Halo campaign/story since the original. Fair enough the MP wasn't the greatest in the series, but that's in part because they were evolving it from Reach, a game with which Bungie had already taken the franchise's MP to a low point. They also knocked Halo 4 out in just 2 years time compared to the 3 Bungie had usually taken. Meanwhile, Bungie goes on to create Destiny in partnership with Activision. And Destiny is.....just mindbogglingly mediocre. I don't even feel like getting into all the ways in which it falls flat on its face because after discussing the matter with dozens of friends over a month of time since release, I frankly have just grown tired of beating the dead horse.
So I look at it and I ask again...does MS deserve more credit for how Halo turned out? If they had never bought Bungie, would the result have been similar to Destiny. A game oozing with potential, but never capitalising on it?
Cus honestly man. I look at Destiny and all I can think to myself is......how is this from Bungie? Who are these guys? Am I really just supposed to chalk up all of Destiny's flaws to Activision being evil?