Knowing Bungie, and their track record over the past four years, I already know all of the answers to your questions.

Wrong. Clearly, you did not.

- Will we hear more about how Guardians aren’t supposed to investigate their past.

Nope. It'll be a throwaway line that has little do do with what happens in the DLC.
(See: Osiris getting exiled)

Well... it wasn’t heavily touched upon, but it also wasn’t a throwaway line either. Ana investigating her past looks like it will have consequences of which we don’t know the full extent of yet.

- Ana’s full name being Anastasia. I hope we learn more about her and more how she even found out who she was.

We'll talk to Lakshmi to get some quick backstory on Ana Bray, and she'll probably say it during the first direct interaction with her, then it'll never be brought up again. (See: Eris, Petra Venj, and anyone with a remotely interesting backstory).

Wrong. Instead, it looks like we’ll be getting a few if not several lore packets detailing what Ana did before the collapse. The first one I’ve gotten talks a little about how it was Ana who programmed Rasputin how to speak / use language to understand.

- There’s a Hive army, including Tombships?!, trapped under the ice. How did that happen? Did the Traveler freeze them? Or Rasputin / Clovis Bray?

No explanation as to exactly how, just that X did it as "a last resort" to stop Y threat. Probably through radio chatter with Ghost. (See: SIVA, Skolas' escape and the Wolves rebellion)

There hasn’t been a lot yet. As always, I hope for more. And, since I’m not even close to being out of lore to find I can’t yet rule out the freezing won’t be something revealed in time.

- It was confirmed that those are Warsats crashing from the skies. You can even see one not crash but hit in the distance and skip across the ground/skybox in the gameplay Bungie showed. Are they crashing deliberately? Are they helping thaw the ice?

Yes, Rasputin is crashing them deliberately, as he always has. Except this time, it's because something vague is wrong, and we are being sent to investigate the mysterious circumstances (See: Every other DLC)

Wrong. Rasputin and Ana reveal why Warsats have been crashing since Destiny 1. As Rasputin has been waking up, he has been crashing old Warsats and replacing them with new ones that only he has control of. He said he is doing so to protect humanity, but reading between the lores paints his actions as far far more self serving than he let on when he spoke to us.

- It appears what Ana climbs is a launch door for something. Could in be some awesome Human ship or a badass doomsday device? Or maybe it’s a Hive ship.

Probably just Rasputin-related tech, which will be an alternate path to the Warmind (through Hive tunnels, no doubt). Expect the story missions to take place underground. (See: Rise of Iron, CoO)

Wrong. What we were actually seeing was Xol rise up in front of Ana. And while a couple of missions did in fact take place underground, other missions took place high up in the Clovis Bray facility and on the surface of Mars.

So yeah, character implications, implications on what happened during the collapse, and possibly big implications about the future of the fight for our solar system.

Nah, just monster-of-the-week stuff involving Rasputin, a reskinned Hive, and possibly a fight against corrupted machines (SIVA-related business?). Calus is the focus of the main story moving forward, so I don't see them tying Rasputin to him for anything significant leading up to the September DLC. (See: Anything non-Hive-related in the past four years.)

Wrong. Rasputin is beginning to (attempt to) reassert his control over the solar system. He appears to have massive automated manufacturing and launch capabilities. There’s no way this won’t have significant implications going forward.

That said, Xol did feel a bit monster of the week. Really, I was hoping Rasputin would launch an orbital strike on Xol... or at least land a Warsat on it.

Let's see how much of this holds up come launch day!

You were about 2 for 7. Better luck next time.

I thought the setting was intriguing and I was happy to see guardians doing things my character does in my head (gameplay shouldn't determine the possibilities of a world IMO).

My only critique came as I remembered Cody's edit of the end of Halo 4 where he cut out the Master Chief's portion of the dialogue. Less is more with a lot of the dialogue and I'd rather they go the "show, don't tell" route. Here's the scene we got:

"Guardians aren't supposed to investigate their past. That's the rule."
"But I'm not good with rules, not when there's this much at stake."
[Ana's eye implants are shown]
"The Clovis Bray tech in that building allowed us to colonize the system during the golden age."
[Zoom in on Ana's ID badge]

The second line is totally unnecessary. "But I'm not good with rules" is shown to us by the ID badge she's wearing later in the cut-scene. There's no need to have it called out in a way that feels really awkward when spoken. The other half of the second line ("not when there's this much at stake") isn't needed because the last line tells us about the tech and why there is so much at stake. If I were to redo this, I'd remove the second line and change the scenes to align with the dialogue.

"Guardians aren't supposed to investigate their past. That's the rule."
[Zoom in on Ana's ID badge]
"The Clovis Bray tech in that building allowed us to colonize the system during the golden age."
[Ana's eye implants are shown]

Anyways, it's a slight change, but I think it avoids the cheesiness of presentation.

A balanced middle ground could be:

"Guardians aren't supposed to investigate their past. At least, that's supposed to be the rule."

Bungie, please... stop teasing us by showing guardians doing awesome things in trailers if we aren’t going to be able to do it in-game. Zavala’s backstory piece was cool and all, but all I could think while watching it was “combat in Destiny is nothing like this”. Now we’ve got a guardian doing a spinning split kick and using her knife to climb an ice wall.

At best, it breaks any immersion do to the sheer contrast with actual gameplay. Worst case scenario, it kinda borders on false advertising.

Hear, hear.

----------------------------------------------------

Reading about the long canceled Human Head Studios version of Prey 2, I read something that felt relevant to this discussion. So here it is. Relevant sentence in bold.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Later in the project, we were told Prey 2 suddenly had a lot of quality issues. One of the ideas discussed was changing the beginning of the game. One had you start out at the plane crash site from the first Prey. Another one had you working with Tommy sabotaging a location before he appeared to sacrifice himself saving you.

One that I favored was getting the player in as quickly as possible without a series of tutorials. A bombastic James Bond opening. You play what you saw in Blur's Cinematic trailer made with Human Head’s direction. The video did a great job at introducing all the core mechanics. At the time it was a rare trailer showcasing what you could actually do in the game instead of a story cinematic.

Just to spite Blackstar

I will take back every bad thing I've ever said about Destiny if she's our planetary vendor and she's just standing on that fucking ice spire the entire time. That'd be hilarious.

I thought the setting was intriguing and I was happy to see guardians doing things my character does in my head (gameplay shouldn't determine the possibilities of a world IMO).

My only critique came as I remembered Cody's edit of the end of Halo 4 where he cut out the Master Chief's portion of the dialogue. Less is more with a lot of the dialogue and I'd rather they go the "show, don't tell" route.

Dude, let us know you're linking to a movie! I downloaded three copies before I figured out why a second tab wouldn't open.

I love Cody's edit. I campaigned for his fix before he made it.

I didn't really have any complaints about the voice over. Maybe some of those lines would've worked a little better as a dialogue between Ana and her ghost? The "I'm not good with rules" was a bit silly and the same gist could have been communicated with a smirk, and eyes narrowing as she mentions the stakes.

To the extent it works it works because it's a voice over. It is Ana's thoughts. And we don't know Ana very well yet. If I knew Ana Bray as well as I know Master Chief, I might have more issues with it. I think voice overs can be kind of cheap, but Bungie has used them often. (I'm glad we never heard them with Master Chief--it doesn't fit his character for us to know his inner thought.)

Now we’ve got a guardian doing a spinning split kick and using her knife to climb an ice wall.

At best, it breaks any immersion do to the sheer contrast with actual gameplay. Worst case scenario, it kinda borders on false advertising.

What's even more silly, is she just jumped down to get to the lower ice level... then she gets swung up, then slides down to almost the same ice level again; stopping her slide with her knife.

But instead of just dropping down and going AROUND the shard sticking out of the ground, she climbs all the way to the top... just to jump down... again? O.o

This makes ZERO sense to me. It's not a very well thought out sequence of events to showcase the new character. :/

As best as I can tell, she:

1. Started high and scanned the surrounding area
2. Jumped down and headed towards the Clovis Bray / Warmind facility
3. A hatch / launch door beneath her opened raising her up and she slid down its side
4. She stopped herself with her knife then climbed back to the top of that now fully raised launch door.

Doesn't the trailer end with an ominous shadow getting cast on her while she is still at the top of that launch door?

;p

At best, it breaks any immersion do to the sheer contrast with actual gameplay. Worst case scenario, it kinda borders on false advertising.

What's even more silly, is she just jumped down to get to the lower ice level... then she gets swung up, then slides down to almost the same ice level again; stopping her slide with her knife.

But instead of just dropping down and going AROUND the shard sticking out of the ground, she climbs all the way to the top... just to jump down... again? O.o

This makes ZERO sense to me. It's not a very well thought out sequence of events to showcase the new character. :/

P.S. If you liked the Halo 4 ending recut, ask me about my Blade Runner 2049 recut!

Crap, totally forgot to watch that! I'll set some time for it today

Yeah. I like that better. But... maybe sometimes even that change would make it too subtle for some?

Nah, he's right. The ID badge tells us she investigated her past. Use it as counterpoint to the first line of narration. The second line is redundant. Audiences are actually smarter than they are often given credit for.

It's one of those things where I am sure the line made sense on the page, but when put to the screen it's no longer necessary.

P.S. If you liked the Halo 4 ending recut, ask me about my Blade Runner 2049 recut!

In Ana Bray's case... maybe she was revived wearing or close to that Anastasia Bray M.D. security badge? It would be really cool if that badge has let her poke around in Clovis Bray facilities that other Guardians haven't been able to get in to.

So are you suggesting the possibility that the lady in this trailer isn't the guardian form of Ana Bray but has assumed her role? Or is just some random guardian looking into Clovis Bray? Perhaps she was one of the test subjects and the M.D. badge is just a clue she has obtained that led her to this trailer?

My guess is that she is Ana Bray, but unlike most Guardians who were people fleeing the Collapse (our Guardian was found at the entrance to the Cosmodrome, for instance) maybe she died in a secure Clovis Bray bunker or some place where her ID Badge and identity were readily apparent when her Ghost first found her.

We don’t have a lot of examples of what, precisely, Guardians know about themselves when they are first revived. There’s one reference to know knowing their pre-death age, but I don’t know that they even know their name. We do have that one mysterious reference to the Exo we know as Felwinter assuming that false identity that has not yet been touched on again.

In Ana Bray's case... maybe she was revived wearing or close to that Anastasia Bray M.D. security badge? It would be really cool if that badge has let her poke around in Clovis Bray facilities that other Guardians haven't been able to get in to.

So are you suggesting the possibility that the lady in this trailer isn't the guardian form of Ana Bray but has assumed her role? Or is just some random guardian looking into Clovis Bray? Perhaps she was one of the test subjects and the M.D. badge is just a clue she has obtained that led her to this trailer?