I was about seven when the first Halo was released, but I wouldn't play it until I was eleven. Boy did I play it. I fell in love with the vast spaces and the grand, rich story. I quickly became enchanted with the Halo universe, reading every bit of lore I could get my hand on from books and comics right to the back of the booklet that came in my copy of Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC. I would go over to my friends house as often as I could and insist on playing Halo 2 on his Xbox (I could not afford my own at the time). My excitement only grew at the announcement of Halo 3, and I would beg my parents to get me an Xbox 360 so I could play it. While I saved and waited for Halo 3, I went deep into Halo: CE. Modding, Map-Making, even cranking up the difficulty past Legendary so that I could play more of this fantastic game. Finally, on Christmas my parents got me an Xbox 360 Elite; mind you, not the newer Xbox 360 Slim, no, I'm talking that beautiful curvy beast with the (whopping) 120GB HDD. (I thought I would never fill that Hard Drive) That very Xbox got me to where I am today, but I digress. Halo 3 brought with it new, special memories, with Xbox Live, Forge, Custom games, friends, and a brand new chunk of story to chew on. It was fantastic. If you bother to look, you'll find that I've played 2000+ custom games and sunk hundreds of hours into Halo 3. The story continued, I played (and enjoyed) Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach. I was even part of the Halo Reach Beta! (Yes, I remember the days of pineapple grenades and frustrating dropped connections) I had the privilege to see holiday - themed events and in game content, easter - eggs, and so many small details that made my experience so much better. My love for Bungie was at an all time high, and it felt like it could only get better. Until finally it came to an end, Bungie would no longer be working on Halo. Then Destiny was announced. I was renewed, I had high hopes for this game even when I knew almost nothing about it, and I anticipated it's arrival, scraping together the money to pre-order it, hopping on board with the beta at the very first opportunity. Playing the beta, I thought it looked great and it felt fun, if not a bit sparse, but it was a beta, so I set aside my doubts and kept my hopes high. I refused to watch or read into the game much more, I wanted to soak it in myself when it was released. Release day finally came, but sadly my hopes were not nearly met. There were many more things I had to ignore than I want to admit. I have never enjoyed MMOs so much, but Destiny didn't and doesn't present itself in a very MMO way; I was unhappy to find that the game was entirely unplayable without a decent internet connection. Sometimes I just like to shut out the world and enjoy a game for a bit, unfortunately Destiny would not be that game. Upon starting the game, I took care creating my character and was mildly disappointed with the lack of options for character creation, but I shrugged it off and jumped in with my brand - new Male Human Hunter. After an hour of playing I was wondering why I was doing what I was doing, hoping the story was just around the next corner. In the next dungeon. On the next planet. until finally I realized my hopes that Destiny could fill the shoes of Halo were doomed. So here I am, wondering what happened. Bungie, the creators of the most interesting, creative, and involved story I've ever know. The very name I watched build an incredibly loyal following with an equally incredible game. The name that I saw listening intently to their fans, and providing awesome content, tailored to bring smiles. How could the name Bungie, make a game I would describe as "meh"?? C'mon guys! I thought Halo Wars was fun! I still do! I even have that tin case for it and I regret nothing! Destiny was disappointing at best but I wanted it to be better than it was, so I stayed. I brought in my friend and girlfriend to play it with me to make the best of a bad situation. We've actually had a lot of fun, we got the season pass and have been playing the (incredibly repetitive) missions together with smiles because we were in it together. We were both very busy and couldn't play enough to keep up with the curve of new content, but we worked hard to get our gear and make it our own, customizing and working to get our dream gear sets. We even found time and friends to play some raids. Many people will not hesitate to say that Crotas End and House of Wolves were jokes and fell miles short of being DLC worthy content. I am not so harsh. I would say however, they were definitely not worth $20 each, or even the $30 I paid for the season pass. I would personally value that content at $20 for both. That said I would put the value of the game as a whole at $40 at the time of release. My hopes were dwindling, but I kept telling myself it would get better; I mean, how could it be worse? Strike #1 The Taken King: The option I chose to buy this new DLC was to purchase the digital download. (Which, by itself would be fine) But I want to give you a bit more, Bungie, I want to throw you a bit more money for some cool extras, now that I have the money to do so. This DLC however is not $20 as I would expect, or even $30 for a bulkier DLC being the first one not included in the season pass. No, this DLC is $40. So I'm already re-thinking buying a higher tier to get cool stuff, and what happens? You FORCE your fans to re-buy the entire game and the first two DLCs of they want a go at the extra content. Yes, I do mean that you exclusively screwed over your fans with this one, as anyone who was already a fan of Bungie would have already purchased the game and DLCs. Aside from your abhorrent disregard for your existing fanbase, you made a decent DLC. You fixed things that bugged me in year one, you gave me a shiny new, sassier ghost, with a much better sense of humor. You made the leveling system better, and let me see all the shaders and sparrows and jumpships I could ever want right in the game, and told me where I could find them. You gave me a whole new area to explore and new items to collect. You also destroyed all the hard work I put into the game up to this point. I had to start over. I don't get to play much as it is, so what I had, I worked hard for in the little time I had to play it. Just when I got close to finally maxing out my light level, all my gear is worthless. Even the exotics. This is Strike #2, Bungie: Refer-a-Friend I did that. I did that to my girlfriend, I did that to every friend I could for an ENTIRE YEAR. Now I get nothing? Because I was loyal? Because I jumped all over your mediocre game and dragged as many friends into it as I could right off the bat? Now you're telling me that, once again, I'm missing out on extra content because I was loyal to you. That's messed up. That's not right. That's not even half - decent business. You are punishing your fan - base and loyal followers for being ahead of, or even following the curve. You are rewarding the people that managed to drag themselves out of bed just in time to catch the last five minutes of a class. You are losing my faith in you, Bungie. Fast. TL;DR: Get your s*** together, Bungie. Or I won't buy another one of your games on principle.