Like many other players, I stopped playing after the original content grew stale. I only logged in a few times over the past couple of months and it was to mostly play PvP for a few minutes so I wondered what improvements have been made to the game. It's evident that there has been a lot of focus on improving the visual elements of the game. Maps seem more detailed, inventory menus are crisper, and some of the fit and finish on the guns is awesome. Hurray for vault space too! It was only 5 months later than it should have been. Especially for something as easy as that. HoW has undoubtedly been a huge endeavor, which makes sense since it's likely to be big money-maker for Bungie. The new activites are engaging and new weapons are always fun. I appreciate some of the updates to bounties. I'm sure that certain old bounties like the fusion rifle sprees & dead man hand sprees were barely completed because they were so tough so it's nice to see some easier ones. Although it's still bizarre that Banuk is a bounty (which takes 2 minutes) but 5 enforcer medals can take an hour or more of gameplay. It's sad that some of the only advancements in the game are tied to updates that require money from us, the users. Simple things that would remove a lot of the frustration and imbalance to the game have been left broken. I can only guess because there is no monetary incentive to fix them? [b]Connection[/b]: It's bad in PvP but it's equally as devastating in PvE. Playing during the past few days I lost connection to my Destiny game dozens of times. When this happens during a patrol? Eh, whatever. When it happens during nightfalls, weeklies, dailies, public events (including the pack of wolves) and crucible matches it's a deal-breaker. If Bungie wants to understand why so many regular players have no problem taking advantage of the exploits that a minority have found, look no further then all the glitches in gameplay. You can't blame many players for occasionally wanting the easy road when the odds of a game-related failure while playing by the rules is SO high. Most of the time when I lost connection, that prematurely ended my gaming for that session. I'm sure I'm not alone. I read that in one of the recent updates that improving connection in realtime was a priority. It only seems worse now. Why? [b]Respawns:[/b] The've always been bad in PvP but bizarrely they've gotten much worse in PvE. In Crucible, my bad spawn rate is approximately 10-20%. Several months ago Bungie claimed to me that the BSR was only 1-2%, but that looks like pure fiction. Let's assume I die 10-15x per game in PvP. Bad spawns happen to me at least once or twice a match (I'm a 1.5 K/D player, or better). 1-2% = acceptable. 10-20% = broken. In a recent rumble match, my opponent and I both killed each other at the same time (another stupid part of the game, but whatever) at close range. We both spawned at the same time with me appearing 3 feet in front of that same opponent only to be shot in the back. While we're on the topic of Rumble respawning, I can only imagine the BSR is 25-30%. If you see someone die in Rumble odds are you can simply gaze longingly at the nearest spawn point and you'll be rewarded. I watch guardians respawn in Rumble often, which should never happen. I get that the action in Rumble should be fast paced but this is way too far past the line. I can't understand how the spawning on Twilight Gap hasn't improved. Since Day One the spawn point on the platform near the heavy ammo location is the worst place to spawn. If someone is sniping that gap (which is about a 50/50 chance) then odds are you won't last more than 1 second. Also, why is that heavy ammo on Twilight Gap still in such a wide open location? It's just about the only one in the game like that. The overall map balance on Shores of Time is also critically broken (especially in control). If your team spawns on the C side, you have a significant upper hand. I'm curious to see what the disparity is between winning the game and original spawn location for Shores of Time. I bet it's significantly higher than any other map. Also what determines initial spawn points? I'd say that 70% of my control matches on Shores of Time I spawn on the A side. Why? Respawning during PvE patrols has inexplicably deteriorated. I died during a pack of wolves event in the Skywatch and wasn't revived. I respawned at the edge of the Skywatch norder inside the Terrestrial Complex. It took a full 30 seconds to return to the scene of the action where I arrived too late and missed out on the reward. Same thing has happened during regular public events as well. Why is the spawn point in this scenario 3 miles away? Public events are buggier than ever. Being in the middle of the action and seeing the event completely disappear for no reason is also a deal-breaker. Why should we sit around for several minutes waiting for a public event only to see it glitch out? Why is the vault in the Reef so hard to find? You can't walk 3 feet from spawning in Tower before being prompted by 15 vault stations. I appreciate the idea of the Reef but its presence complicates the game further. If all the vendors from the Tower were present in the Reef it would be great! But if I want to buy something from the Vanguard, visit the Gunsmith and grab a Queen's mission the loading screens and time spent in both the Tower and Reef are prohibitively time-consuming. Matchmaking still seems like its in beta, 8 months later. When players drop from strikes or PvP they're rarely replaced. I've played countless salvage/control/clash matches where my team started short 1 or 2 players and finished the game equally short-handed. Going back to the connection I got booted from several crucible matches and I felt bad because I guarantee you guys didn't replace my spot on the team. Maybe fix the connection and the crucible matches will run more smoothly with fewer dropouts? I can't be the only person to think of that. Bungie is always quick to point out that they can't prevent players from leaving matches but you sure can do something to discourage such behavior. Right now there is zero consequence (implied or otherwise) to leaving a match/strike. If you want to reduce dropouts then prompt users with an "Are you sure?" style message when leaving a game. Or inform them of a black mark to their gaming record, bad karma w/ Xur, ANYTHING. Blaming users for dropouts while doing nothing to prevent them yourselves is like apathetically shrugging your shoulders and walking away while someone is actively trying to start a forest fire. All in all, Destiny has expanded its offering in the last few months, especially w/ the HoW expansion. Things are generally aesthetically more pleasing and it's nice to finally have some more activities. However, this feels like a mid-cycle refresh on a terrible car. Remember those Chrysler ads for the "new" 200 during the Superbowl w/ that Eminem song a few years ago? All of that marketing and fluff nearly masked the fact that that 200 was the worst American car for sale at the moment. They redressed it and gave it a PR boost but ultimately it was still the same crap underneath. Is that the future of Destiny? Just a lot of refreshing without addressing some of the most important elements? I hope not. But after almost a year it doesn't seem promising.