Destiny 2 PC experience @ E32017
Guardians! E3 was an amazing experience for a lot of us in attendance. We got to hit up three different Destiny booths to get our hands on some sweet Destiny 2 action. Bungie gave a good inside to the layout for Destiny 2 prior to E3 kicking off to make sure we knew where to go. As the doors opened up my fire team and I headed straight towards the Nvidia booth to get our hands on some sweet Destiny 2 PC action.
NVIDIA Destiny 2
Destiny 2 PC Gameplay
At Nvidia, we got to test out some PvE story mode action. During this mission, we have to try and defend the tower from Ghaul’s invading forces. All PC playing experiences were with the Dawnblade Warlock through the Homecoming mission. After experiencing the hype, I can say that it is real. Destiny 2 is amazingly beautiful at 4k resolution with no FPS cap limit. The fluid character movements, environmental effects, gun controls, and detailed reactions made me tear up in joy.
The character movements were the first thing I noticed. AI’s were reacting appropriately, NPC’s were smooth with on time animations. Personally, I ran with a Pulse Rifle and Hand Cannon for my load out. I did this to get a feel for recoil mechanics with PC controls. With the Pulse Rifle, recoil was easily manageable when using the mouse to retain headshots. Switching between primary and energy weapons was easy and fluid on the PC by using the mouse wheel.
Other than weapon switching some controls were easy to utilize. While other controls had me reviewing them multiple times for hand/keyboard positioning. Halfway through the mission I still found myself pressing the wrong button for grenades. Have no fear though, controls can be reconfigured depending on your preference. On a side note if you prefer to play with a controller you can still do so while playing on PC.
The video quality is what took the show for me, the environmental and lighting effects made me feel so much more immersed in the Destiny world. The game all around felt amazing and almost more natural to play with mouse and keyboard controls for movement and aiming purposes.
If you would like to see some high-quality video with commentary DigitalFoundry put together a sweet video here for your viewing pleasure.
PC vs Consoles
detailed armor in Destiny 2
Now it comes to the age-old question, playing on PC vs console. One big issue is cost, depending on what type of game quality you like it may cost a bit to get up to that level if you aren’t already. Most of the video gameplay you have seen from Bungie and Nvidia has been on 4K G-Sync monitors with the GTX 1080 Ti card. Additionally, they have said that those settings used at E3 were not on ultra-settings.
4K G-Sync Monitor will run you somewhere between $600-$1300, plus an additional 699.99 for the video card. So, if you need a major upgrade it’s going to be a steep cost. Currently, we are still waiting on what the minimum and recommended PC specs for Destiny 2 to be released. For the Console side of the house, it looks like good quality 4K HDR TVs will run you somewhere between $700 to $1500 depending on input lag, screen size, curved display, etc. The PS4 Pro is still listed for $399.99, Xbox One S is $249.99, while the Xbox One X (Formerly Project Scorpio) will open up at $499.
The PC experience will definitely be something I am looking forward to enjoying with all the additional editable graphic settings. Josh Hawkins over at Primagames did a great in-depth list of all the manageable settings for Destiny 2 on PC. I’m excited to have the uncapped frame rate and adjustable FOV option on PC.
Pro Consoles
There are some minor upsides for the Destiny 2 console crowd to be happy about. One would be PlayStation exclusives while the other would be the September 6th release date. So that may change people’s viewpoints on which system they want to play Destiny 2 on. Another issue that I’ve seen change people’s mind is the PC release delay. While consoles will get the game on September 6th, PC players will have to wait a month and a half till October 24th. Some members of the Destiny 2 community want to play the game immediately which will force them to play on a console version as well. So choose wisely Guardians.
Overall
Overall, Destiny 2 is a game that emphasizes on the community aspect. So, before you go and buy the game, sit down with you friends and bring it up as discussion. Honestly, this game is the most fun when you are playing with your friends. I will be playing on PlayStation with my fireteam primarily after the PC version drops you will be able to catch me over there as well when my primary fireteam isn’t online.