To me, better graphics have never made the difference between a good game and great game.

Would you have played (and enjoyed) Limbo if it looked like space invaders?

You're twisting their words there, though. Jumping between the graphics in Limbo and Space Invaders in pretty extreme, cross generational, and largely irrelevant?

That's not the point. The point is that so many people responded positively to the atmosphere of Limbo. Narcogen and JIllybean even say that's one of the big reasons they love the game. If the graphics in Limbo had not been able to do that, then I don't think anybody would have paid it much attention. Limbo is an example of graphics making the game significantly better.

well, when you put it that way, every game is like that

Isn't the Destiny engine completely new?

Hard to say. I mean, even if you know exactly how the development has been going, how do you classify something as a "new engine?" How much does someone have to leverage source code from a previous engine for the current engine to be or not be a "new" engine?

That said, it's at least probably different enough from Reach's engine that most people would consider it new. For instance, it's fairly certain that the lighting model is going to be quite different, and it's also very likely that there will be huge differences on the network engineering side due to it being a very coop-centric game. There's also been talk about efficient large-scale occlusion handling and such...
Bungie will doubtless have done plenty of Bungie engine work. They've just about always done it between major releases.

343/Bungie are the only people that know for sure.

I'm really looking forward to find more things like these and make up for all the years I've been away. Cheers!

On this note, check out the Hive guy behind and to the right of the "undead royalty." Four arms?

Yeah, so the Fallen can be infected too. I need to find the actual paragraph where this is discussed so we have the canonical reference…

One thing I've seen mentioned in interviews is this idea that The Hive are sort of like The Flood, in that they consume other races — certainly the aesthetic of this character is similar to the Hive ‘drones’ (if that's what they're called), and the setting for the ‘chained beast’ has a lot of details that could be interpreted as being connected with The Hive (hanging cocoons, ethereal giant cobwebs etc.) Is this actually a Cabal member who has been ‘infected’? Or is it another race entirely?

On this note, check out the Hive guy behind and to the right of the "undead royalty." Four arms?

~M

There's also still the matter of the creature that looks like some sort of chained beast. I believe it can be seen in (what i believe to be) the Hellmouth interior during the PS4 announcement footage, and very briefly (unskinned) at the beginning of the GDC character design video.

I went back to look at this, as I was sure it was just a Hive character, but having looked at both I'm no longer quite so sure:

The untextured version above as it appears in the character development video shows several clear physical traits that distinguish it from what I initially assumed it to be; a Cabal race creature. The head is too big for that, and there is the exposed ribcage to consider too.

Here's the announcement trailer shot:

And zoomed in:

Now, what I'm wondering is whether this truly is the mysterious fifth race, or if it's actually something else. One thing I've seen mentioned in interviews is this idea that The Hive are sort of like The Flood, in that they consume other races — certainly the aesthetic of this character is similar to the Hive ‘drones’ (if that's what they're called), and the setting for the ‘chained beast’ has a lot of details that could be interpreted as being connected with The Hive (hanging cocoons, ethereal giant cobwebs etc.) Is this actually a Cabal member who has been ‘infected’? Or is it another race entirely?

I'll try to post some shots later in the day, but I've yet to see anyone point it out. I suspect it may have to do with the as-of-yet-unnamed fifth race.

~M

Ooo I'd say your on to something. You wouldn't happen to remember a caption or discussion from Bungie of that picture off the top of your head would you?

Oh, it's from the PS4 announcement, while Jason Jones talks about an exciting new universe of mystery and adventure with contagious enthusiasm!

That shot really stood out to me though, and I was instantly reminded of it after seeing the misty funk in the yellow image.

The Fallen look very noble (in the noble-born sense), so my head-canon is that they once had a sprawling empire and were quite humiliatingly and broadly known beaten down, only recently gaining power back.

The Hive look like they have some Queen-like individuals, which in my head-canon translated to a hivemind-like society.

Now, the VEX don't look that puzzled, so maybe they're supposed to leave us vexed. (ba-dum-tisch)

Oh, I didn't mean "and also pointed out many times" as a poke at you.

Thanks :) Hard to tell when someone is serious or not sometimes, myself included. I'll go back and reread something I wrote and think, "Man, I sure sound like a jerk (idiot, moron, know-it-all)," when I totally didn't mean it that way.

Plus, flying by the seat of your pants is always fun. :-)

It doesn't always end up well, but definitely fun :)

Somewhat related and also pointed out many times, there's banners and ships with the New Monarchy logo on them in this new piece of concept art:

Yeah, my bad. In my excitement I just ran with the idea without giving it much thought.

Oh, I didn't mean "and also pointed out many times" as a poke at you. Said that to give credit to people who noticed that before I did. Plus, flying by the seat of your pants is always fun. :-)

(but I think I'm the first to notice the Seven Seraphs logo on the helmet...maybe)

This gives the universe a really juicy mythological Lord of The Rings sort of feel where you know there are mysteries in the margins--perhaps outside of the scope of the story--that could definitely be explained and analyzed to death if only there were someone who still carried that ancient knowledge. It allows the writers a lot of freedom while perhaps making for a richer, more imaginative experience. Some things are better left open to interpretation. The unexplained is often more interesting to me than the explained. I'm not sure if this signifies fantasy or what, but at a certain point I think it just comes down to an argument of semantics.

Yeah I absolutely agree with that sentiment. I also think it's too early to claim which genre Destiny is since they haven't gone into detail about how the "magic" works. Maybe they won't, which definitely leaves it more in the realm of fantasy, or maybe they'll use the Traveler to provide some kind of Unobtanium like Quirel talked about, we just have to wait and see.