Destiny 2: Lost Sector - Methane Flush

The fourth installment of my Destiny 2 fan-lore for the Lost Sector bosses.

Destiny 2: Lost Sector - Sanctum of Bones

The third installment of my Destiny 2 fan-lore for the Lost Sector bosses.

Destiny 2: Lost Sector - Shaft 13

Another installment of my Destiny 2 fan-lore for the Lost Sector bosses.

Destiny 2: Lost Sector - The Atrium

Like many Destiny players, I mourn the loss of the Grimoire. While it was not perfect, it was a great way for Bungie to expand on the lore of the setting, and to encourage exploration of the world to find the 'dead Ghosts' that unlocked it. The Lore tabs on pieces of gear in Destiny 2 are good, but with no way to track or re-play the dialogue unlocked by scannables... well, it's just not the same.

So what comes below is a bit of lore I made up about the boss of one of Destiny 2's Lost Sectors, explorable side-dungeons.

Gamr Drivl: Mad Max

So Mad Max is a classic film series, which got a well-regarded and freakin' awesome revitalization with 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. Later in that year, Avalanche Studios released the video game Mad Max, which got a lot of influence from Fury Road, but told its own story, a possible prequel to the 2015 movie.

In the game, Max is wandering the wasteland when he runs across the War Boys of the brutal tyrannical warlord Scrotus. They steal his Interceptor and leave him for dead. Max links up with a deformed hunchback "blackfinger" (mechanic) named Chumbucket, who believes Max was sent to him by "the Angel Combustion" to help him complete his Magnum Opus, a customizable vehicle. Along the way, Max helps various survivor camps collect resources, dismantles Scrotus' hold over the wasteland, and despite his best efforts, starts to re-connect with humanity.

I played the game and actually really liked it. It didn't try to re-tell any stories from the franchise, and only used concepts from Fury Road to give it a vague relevance to that year's movie. (Scrotus is allegedly Immortan Joe's third son, but is unfit to rule the whole empire because of his rampant brutality.) Collectibles and other locations that you could explore built on the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max, giving you a sense of just how fucked up the world was before the end came, and how much worse things got afterward.

But there are some things I would introduce if I could have made the game. More below the break.

Gamr Drivl: "Fallout New Orleans"

War. War never changes.

In the beginning, there was conflict. Whether you believe one brother killed another out of jealousy, or that one tribe of risen apes slaughtered the next, there has always been war. The details don't matter-- the peoples involved, the weapons they used, or the stakes in play-- there has always been war in the pit of the human heart.

But in the 21st Century, these were the specifics-- mankind had depleted the world of resources. As forces like Russia and the European Commonwealth crumbled under their hungry infrastructure, the last two remaining superpowers, China and America, were at each other's throats. Then, on the 23rd of October in the year 2077, it all came to an end. Nuclear fire consumed the lands, the seas boiled, and radiation baked the skies. The world died.

But somehow, it didn't. There were survivors, eking out an existence in the wasteland. People band together to form new tribes, towns, cities, even new nations. New beliefs. A new world born out of the ashes of the old. But even in this new world, filled with both despair and hope, there will be strife. Because war... 

War never changes. 

I think and expound for some length about ideas for a new Fallout game below the break.

Destiny: The Last Laugh

The world was dying.

Years before, mankind had come to this cold, arid world in search of a strange entity. It had turned out to be a benevolent, wandering god, and had ushered in this age of wonders and prosperity. The dead world where humanity had met it had been colonized. Sprawling cities had grown on its surface, and one of the proudest was the city of Freehold. Its citizens knew that, even with the miracles performed to make the red planet viable, theirs was a taxing path, making a life for themselves here. But they had pushed back the rusty sands, and birthed miracles of their own. Freehold had become the Gem of Mars.

But all good things come to an end. No one was quite sure what was going on. There were hostile forces assaulting the Earth, Venus, and every other world that mankind had claimed. The system-wide communications network was in tatters. The Martian Defense Forces were scrambling to respond to the threat. Charlemagne was coordinating their efforts, but with every passing hour, more and more of the warmind's satellites were being shot out of orbit. The MDF were giving as good as they got, but the enemy seemed to have an unending supply of soldiers willing to march into the fury of their guns, as if willing to drown the defenders in a tide of dead bodies.

Gamr Drivl: "Red Dead Prohibition"

After writing my last video game-related entry, about How I'd Reboot "Freedom Fighters," I realized this would be a good platform for me to post similar ideas that bounce around in my head. Because, in case you haven't noticed, my brain likes to think creatively about a variety of subjects, all usually in the interest of finding good potential for storytelling.

So, here's another idea that's been riding around in my brain meats for a couple of years, that first came along while I was chatting at work with a colleague. We got to talking about a follow-up to Rockstar Games' 2010 acclaimed Western-themed sandbox game Red Dead Redemption, itself a spiritual follow-up to 2004's Red Dead Revolver. The Western gunslinging revenge story Revolver was something of a cult classic, but Redemption-- which followed the path of John Marston as he set out to take down his erstwhile outlaw partners at the behest of some corrupt government lawmen. Redemption's sprawling landscape took players through deserts, plains, forests, and mountains, while in the background there was the definite impression that the era of the "Wild West" was drawing to a close.

The ideas I set out below may seem slightly less relevant now that Red Dead Redemption 2, a prequel to Redemption, has been confirmed as dropping at some point in 2018, but hell, there are still ideas here that could be utilized for future entries in the franchise. Below the break, I'll talk about some basic story notions and gameplay mechanics that could be incorporated if Rockstar decides to do another follow-up at some point down the line.

Destiny 2: Condemnation

Notes from Jay: A brief little bit of writing. What might be going through the mind of the Guardian (the player-character) from Destiny 2, after their encounter with the overpowering Dominus Ghaul, the new villain. Inspired by the "Our Darkest Hour" trailer for Destiny 2 from Bungie. Ficlet below the break.

Gamr Drivl: How I'd Reboot "Freedom Fighters"

So Freedom Fighters was a video game made by IO Interactive (the same developers that made Hitman 2) that came out back in 2003 that should've gotten more love than it did. It was a third-person shooter set in an alternate history modern day, where Soviet Russia won the arms race and dropped the first atom bomb on Berlin, and so they became the more dominant power in the world. And then in the present day, they launch an invasion of the United States and occupy the country. You play as an average Joe turned resistance leader that fights against the occupation. It's like Red Dawn, except set in New York City. You had to make use of cover to avoid enemy fire, and use a squadron of up to 12 NPC fighters to flank the enemy and defend positions. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good, and never got the sequel it deserved.

When the Homefront games came out, some people were calling them a spiritual successor, but this was only because they dealt with "alternate history where enemy nation is the dominant superpower and occupies America." The first Homefront game was just a relatively bland FPS game that never really clicked to me, and Homefront: The Revolution was a hot mess of ideas that I couldn't even bring myself to finish.

So, let's see how I'd reboot Freedom Fighters.

Destiny bit - A Taken Kell

You are a Kell. The hand that guides your House. The sword that smites your enemies. The shield that protects your kin from the Whirlwind. But your life is pain and paranoia. They claw and slash at you, they plot and scheme against you.

You have been taken.

Let your hand rest. Sheathe your sword. Set down your shield. Their claws cannot reach you. Their machinations hold no power.

What do you draw your determination from? What drives you to rule? 

Your people were once strong and powerful. You commanded kingdoms and empires. You want to reclaim this glory. But your people have become few and conflicted. Others seek to usurp your throne and steal your dreams. Weakness plagues your people's hearts. 

If weakness infects them, you must take it from them. 

There is a knife for you. It is shaped like [feed me your pain]. 

Take up the knife. Drink its edge. Take your new shape.

Wrestl Drivl: Re-Booking Tim Donst, Eddie Kingston, and the Chikara Grand Championship

In my last installment of this periodic series, I re-booked a Wrestlemania match between Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar. I've debated since then about what my next installment should be about. Re-book a specific match, or a gimmick concept, or even expound on how I would change up the pay-per-view structure.

I've re-thought things a bit, and this idea just came to mind. One of my favorite indie wrestling companies is Chikara Pro, based out of Philadelphia. What makes Chikara unique is its approach to long-term storytelling, very unlike most other wrestling companies. Not everyone agrees with some of the storytelling decisions that are made, and I'll admit to being one of them.

Today, I'll be taking a look at Eddie Kingston vs Tim Donst from Chikara's 2012 season finale, and its aftermath.