Game: Destiny, 2014, PS3Beer: Stone IPA, 11.2 fl. oz., 6.9% abv
# of beers consumed during play: 3
Level Reached: Level 20
Level of Intoxication: Woozy
Game
Ahh yes, Destiny. The game that seems to garner a new (mostly negative) news article in the gaming press at least once a week. Destiny is developed by Bungie, the team that birthed the Halo series and turned every Xbox owner into a frothing, bloodthirsty hate-fountain overnight. The fact that Halo: Combat Evolved was a launch title for the original Xbox is the video game equivalent of giving your co-worker--who is actually a terrifying werewolf--a 365-day desk calender featuring pictures of full moons for his first day on the job. Halo's impact was so far reaching, first-person shooters, which had up to that point been near-exclusive denizens of PC-land, quickly became synonymous with game consoles. You'll kindly notice that there is no PC version of Destiny. Unfortunately, the ebb and flow of vitriol that gets directed at Destiny from week to week isn't due to the lack of a PC version. No, by and large, the reason Destiny gets continually raked over the coals is because all the lessons Bungie learned--and unwittingly taught others--in the making of the Halo series were seemingly torched right after being written down. Which segues nicely into...
Gameplay
I'll go ahead and lead off with this: I really, really, really like shooting things in Destiny. I love it in fact. All the combat mechanics that made the Halo games so accessible were not only brought over to Destiny completely intact, they were polished to a level of refinement that's normally reserved for space shuttle components or German tax returns. Mind you, this is coming from someone who cut their teeth on PC shooters long before Halo or Call of Duty was a thing. If Bungie can be credited with only one victory, let it be the fact that yes, they managed to get console shooters to feel right, and that is no small feat. While I'm certain I'll be vehemently contradicted by a healthy cross-section of the internet, the actual moving and shooting in Destiny is so spot-on and pure that after a very short while with the game, I'd abandoned all mission objectives and was happily traipsing around the first level giving everything I encountered a mandatory dirt-nap. Each time I would hop over some rocks or jog around a corner to find a small squad of enemies, I would grin psychotically as my hands tightened around the controller. My assaults would last only a couple of seconds as I would lock onto enemy faces and rearrange them like a gun-toting Picasso. Headshots in Destiny are incredibly satisfying, with a pronounced whooshing/screaming sound that instantly alerts the shooter to their success. For the longest time, I foolishly clutched onto my beginner's auto rifle, running around the maps and flinging what may as well have been marshmallows at the baddies. It wasn't until I chanced into possession of a hand cannon that my experience with shooting things was radically broadened. I'll just go ahead and say this here: in Destiny, hand cannons are basically point-blank sniper rifles. Running right into a Vandal's personal space and popping his head like a toddler with its first balloon caused me to literally whoop and cheer so many times, I'm surprised my neighbors didn't call the police.
Of course, while the gunplay is simply the cat's meow, that's not the limit of your engagement with the semi-generic alien-based legions of doom. Depending on your class, you'll also have special moves which can be creatively combined with your bullet-tubes to wreak a special kind of grief on your foes. In the case of the Titan class (which I play), you have melee. Oh lordy do you ever have melee. After I had leveled up sufficiently, I gained a couple of upgrades to my already frighteningly powerful punch. The first upgrade literally caused unlucky punch-ees to disintegrate in midair which made me laugh so hard when I first saw it, I had to assure everyone in earshot that I hadn't suffered a mental break. However, that was nothing in comparison to the second upgrade, which gave me a flying double-fisted ground pound which caused any meat puppet near my landing zone to be thrown back and vaporized instantaneously. The very first time I ran into a closely bunched group of aliens and unleashed this attack, not only did I gain enough experience in one hit to level up, but I was so awash in awe and amazement at what I had just done that I immediately went to orbit to catch my breath.
One of the design hallmarks that directly enable this freedom to fight the darkness on your own terms is the fact that levels are not short, linear hall-crawls or even box-canyons. Instead, each level is a huge sprawling map with tons of dark doorways leading into crumbling buildings or shadowy, twisting tunnels. Early on in the game, you learn that these dark passageways routinely harbor abominations with bad attitudes and tons of hit points. As a result, each time you force yourself to go exploring in the dark recesses of the game, every fiber of your gamer being screams "NO! STOP! We got laid out like a bad floor plan in here last time! GO BACK TO THE LIGHT YOU BRAZEN BASTARD!" Now, I feel it must be said that large, open levels are both a good and a bad thing, and here's where my review begins to take a slow turn from glowing raves to something else. On the one hand, yes, the huge levels are a treat to explore and dominate, giving players multiple opportunities to rove around either alone or in loosely assembled groups and go on one long, genocidal burn through the enemy ranks. On the other hand, however, lone wolves that haven't taken the time to level up may want to exercise caution as around many of the aforementioned shadowy corners, mid- to high-level foes are ready to one-shot you into nothingness. I encountered this very phenomenon on my second day playing. I spawned on The Steppes and started running around the starting level killing things, no problem. Out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked to be an old subway entrance and decided it couldn't hurt to check it out. So, with trusty level 1 rifle in hand, I descended the steps into the darkness. I wasn't more than 10 steps in and I found myself face-to-chest with a large, horrifying thing with a hard to pronounce name and two red question marks where its level was supposed to be. I had just enough time to feel my butthole clench before it struck me and turned me into Guardian-flavored paste. Ergo, the designers at Bungie don't care if you're level whatever, if you go exploring outside the mission parameters, you implicitly take your life into your own hands. In fact, the phenomenon of running into overpowered CPU opponents is actually the rule as opposed to the exception. Run around in a given area long enough and the game will hand out optional missions which are timed and almost always focus on fighting against something insane. These missions are typically intended for a handful of fighters to tackle as a team, working together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. Overleveled or foolishly brave heroes can attempt to battle a Venerated Devil Walker alone, but victory is not guaranteed, and indeed, when you catch a laser-guided nuke in the face, you'll begin to wonder if it isn't Bungie's quiet revenge at all the hateful comments that the internet threw at all the Halo sequels over the years.
The stages in the game all being huge, twisting orgies of enemy encounters gives way to another design cue that significantly changes the way Destiny plays as opposed to a more traditional FPS. The first stage you are given to fight in is earth, and on the map screen, you will see a number of icons that correspond to the different missions in that stage. No matter what mission you choose, you will still spawn somewhere in that enormous stage, and can run to anywhere from anywhere. The difference between missions is where the game tells you to go. This is further exacerbated by the fact that many missions feature "respawn restriction" when you get close to boss encounters, meaning if you die, that portion of the mission resets and you have to restart from the checkpoint. Not only does this manufacture what I consider to be a needless progression barrier, it pulls me wholesale out of badass exploring gamer mode and turns me into a resource-hogging, corner-peeking, run-away-like-a-weenie-when-my-shields-get-low gamer. I don't like being that kind of gamer. That's the equivalent of going golfing with some friends and right before you start the back nine, telling everyone that going forward, if you hit your ball into the rough, everyone has to go back to the clubhouse and start all over. Now, don't misunderstand, I realize that hundreds upon hundreds of games have used the "checkpoint respawn" method to great effect. The problem I have is the fact that Destiny changes the rules halfway through a mission, puts on a pair of sunglasses and says "deal with it."
In fact, the more one plays Destiny, the more one can see the "Deal with it" philosophy peeking out through the rest of the game. It's apparent when you tackle bosses, it's apparent when you attempt optional timed missions. It's apparent when you start doing the Strike and Patrol missions, and it's apparent when you take on bounties, run the Crucible, or do pretty much anything else that may push against the hard walls Bungie has put in place to rigidly define their vision of what Destiny should be. As an example of this, one need only consider a short time ago, when a patch for the game forced matchmaking in Strike scenarios. Up until that point, Strikes could be played solo just like most of the other mission types. Videos and stories of players soloing these Strikes and completely wrecking shop against ridiculously overpowered enemies became very popular on gaming sites and channels. Not a week would go by without someone smashing the Vault of Glass alone, or, through necessity, finding an incredibly complex exploit just to squeak through a portion of the game as a solo player. Once the patch dropped however, gamers descended en masse on Bungie, quite put out at the notion that a company would think it a good idea to remove choice from a game. This was indicative of a larger problem where each patch would change a bunch of stuff in the game that players either liked or didn't care about and simultaneously leave in things that were either patently broken or universally detested. Gamers and gaming press alike have repeatedly wondered if Bungie is even listening to their fans, or if this is the ultimate extension to the "Deal with it" design structure that has seemed to define Destiny as a game since launch. Many gamers have pointed to the arbitrary leveling system in Destiny as proof that Bungie wants you to play their game their way, whether you think it's fun or not. Destiny players already know this, but for anyone who is still on the fence, here's how leveling in Destiny works.
From level 1 to level 20, killing enemies and completing missions and bounties will give you good old XP. Get enough XP and you gain a level, complete with sweet, sweet upgrades to your character's abilities. This is undoubtedly awesome. However, once level 20 is reached, XP no longer accrues to level you up in the traditional sense. Now, you must equip rare or legendary armor, which has a certain amount of "light points" it can gain. As you gain light, your armor will slowly help level you up. In order to continue leveling, you must also collect crafting materials, rare drops with nonsense names such as Ascendant Shards and Sapphire Wire. Don't worry, these drops and items can only be gotten either through crushingly difficult Strikes and Raids or by dismantling rare weapons. Also, there are no less than 10 forms of currency in the game, from the common Glimmer to "marks" that come from various factions that you can complete missions for. What this basically means is that just about the time you get used to the "XP grind" of the early game, Bungie switches things waaaaaaay up on you and you suddenly have to get used to the new "loot grind" way of doing things. Which is when you get to meet quite possibly the most infamous aspect of Destiny. The RNG.
Player, meet the Random Number Generator. RNG, meet your eternal victim. Once you get to the loot grind portion of Destiny, this faceless, fickle snippet of programming will rule your life. The RNG determines anything dealing with loot, including how often and what types of loot drop from enemies, what you get out of chests, and what kinds of stuff engrams decode into. While the RNG does have some base rules (higher difficulty Raids drop better stuff), you're still rolling digital dice. Some known weapon drops are so rare, no one outside of the Bungie offices have ever been able to provably obtain one, not to mention that the existence of some items have only been confirmed by digging through the game files. With the late stages of the game being laser-focused on loot drops for progression, this creates a hostile framework of gameplay. This factors in particularly at the highest levels of play where the chances of lucking into a piece of armor that is better than what you already have starts counting in decimal places. In practice, this means that you begin looking at a system of diminishing returns in terms of reward given over time spent. This isn't such a big deal when the loot is controlled by a RNG in a game such as Diablo, because no matter what armor or weapons you have equipped in Diablo, you can always make it to the level cap. The system Destiny has in place is engineered to make you play their way, and continue playing long past the point of amusement. In this, Destiny is the textbook definition of an operant conditioning chamber. While much of the machinery is hidden under bells and whistles, the point still remains that phrases such as "the worst game you'll ever get addicted to" are all too justified. Destiny has been dubbed an "MMOFPS" and has drawn many parallels with World of Warcraft regarding how the social and PvE aspects are handled. Not all of these comparisons cast a favorable shadow and indeed, many of the more "grindy" and chance-driven bulletpoints made the jump, and taken as a whole, especially considering the dearth of end-game content, Destiny is worse for it.
Graphics/Sound
Destiny is a pretty game. That's the ultimate summation of the graphics in this title. I have seen the next-gen versions in action, and I stand by my original ruling. It's pretty, with no need to add any superlatives or poetic license. The graphics are competent enough, utilizing tricks we've all seen before such as dirt/glare on the screen, bloom, realtime lights and shadows, and all manner of particles and shaders. The problem I have is that while the tunnels are appropriately creepy and the steppes are appropriately steppy, there's just no magnificence to anything. Even as I ran through rock formations and space stations and alien temples, the art direction is so unfocused, all I could keep thinking when I saw something new was "That would look even cooler if..." No matter what the game beamed into my eyeballs, I felt as though no one in the art department had been motivated to go above and beyond on much of anything. This was equally true in regards to the enemies in the game. As hinted at above, the alien races in the game aren't all that original. Humanoid, wearing weird armor, and jabbering in weird alien voices. Throw in some robots and a few unique foes, all with mix-n-match palettes and accessories and presto, the player has something to shoot at that is neither frightening or interesting. Remember, while the tunnels are creepy, it's less a product of the art department, and more a result of in-game punishments such as the restricted respawns. Ditto for the in-game foes, leaving the gamer to immerse themselves in a half-hearted world that does eventually pull the player in, but struggles to keep them there. Also of note is the menu interface for the game, which inexplicably uses a floating cursor rather than just allowing choices to be highlighted and selected using the D-pad. The feel of the interface is like using a mouse cursor with the speed turned all the way down to retirement home rec room computer settings. It slows down the entire experience every time you are forced to use the menu, speak with a vendor, choose a mission, or log in or out of the game. While there are some nice touches, such as new weapons and items all have a sheen over them, making it easy to find new loot and compare it to old loot, clever features such as this and the way acquired items pop up on the right edge of the screen are lost in the jungle of small but unmistakable UI gaffes.
While the graphics are largely uninspired with a few glimmers of hope hither and yon, the ear-juices in this game are quite fortunately the opposite. The musical soundtrack is majestic and classical, while beautifully communicating the combination of sci-fi and fantasy that the game conveys. Scores can be at once whimsical and sinister, featuring creative use of the full orchestra. The inclusion of male and female choirs to complement the instrumentation add carefully measured grandeur to the backdrop of the game and help flesh out the world in a way the graphics simply cannot even aspire to. The musical score is so well done in fact, that more than once have I simply left the game in orbit so I could relax and chill out to the tunes. Thankfully, auditory enjoyment of this game isn't limited to the tubas and violins, as the raw foley work on this game is exceptionally well presented. Each weapon type has a characteristic sound, and all of the guns sound punchy and menacing. Interestingly enough, most of the enemy guns are stuck with a neutered pew-pew noise, making the Guardian guns sound even meatier. Enemies chatter in their silly alien voices as drop ships warp in and out of the area with an accompanying audio cue that I can only describe as the exact sound I would expect to hear when an alien ship rips through space-time. Even little touches such as the shift and jingle of your armor as you run are pitch perfect. Again, kudos to the sound team, they earned their paychecks on this job. Of course, speaking of paychecks, I'm forced to address one of the bigger ones. I'm referring of course to Dinklebot. Now, before I continue, I want to go ahead and say that I have the utmost respect for Peter Dinklage and his talents. His work on HBO's Game of Thrones is superb and he carries an incredible presence onscreen. In the same vein, his voice is distinctive and characteristic, which makes it so pitiable that his range is shoehorned into a robot that looks like a Rubik's Cube and a Chinese take-out box got in a fight. While the game was in production, the roller coaster that was Dinklebot took eager gamers on an emotional journey. Elation at the announcement of Dinklage's involvement gave way to guarded skepticism when samples were heard in the game's teaser trailers and alpha release. Skepticism curdled into discontent when it was revealed the early voice samples were confirmed to be in the final game. As of today, the gaming community has settled on satire and parody to deal with the clumsily written dialogue and even clumsier delivery for your character's pocket-bot. Regrettably, Destiny merely holds up another example that bankrolling big name voice actors for games isn't going to guarantee a better game experience. In fact, just as in this very instance, such practices can harm the perception of a game while simultaneously preventing voice actors who don't already have a TV contract from breaking into the industry. Tell me Bungie couldn't have found someone in the VO industry who would have worked for a fraction of Dinklage's price and likely would have been a better fit. Better yet, tell that to Bungie for the sequel.
Story
Destiny's story isn't so much a story as it is a few pages of lore spread out between bosses, and really, that's being charitable. The broad strokes you'll pick up is that darkness is encompassing the galaxy and it brings these races of alien beings down upon us. By the time you pick up the controller, the earth is laid to waste and you are a being known as a Guardian. Many gamers and industry news outlets like to grill Destiny over this point, and really, I think they're right. While there are other games that have had either poor story, or just poor delivery of a good story, they don't drop the ball quite like Destiny does. Bungie has decided including backstory in the actual game is far too arduous a task and have thus included a "Grimoire Cards" feature. What is this oddly spelled construct you may ask? It is a set of digital cards that are only available on the internet. Essentially, as you play the game, find dead Ghosts, and complete story missions and other objectives, you unlock cards that you can look at...on the internet. These internet cards have a pretty picture and some text which reveals the barest sliver of history in the world Destiny inhabits. Essentially, Bungie is asking us to go out of our way to read their story which, had they just put the damn cards in the game itself, we wouldn't have to do. I've actually read some of the cards and while some set a nice scene, most are obtuse and assume a knowledge of the universe that really isn't there. With other studios such as Ubisoft forcing the use of companion apps in games such as the Assassin's Creed series, it seems the charge to de-centralize the game experience--and thus garner advertiser clickthroughs, deeper product penetration, and the white-hot ire of hardcore gamers everywhere--is much further along than people realize. In fact, just to press home the point, I'll revisit the topic of printed manuals being included in games these days. I previously lamented that Blops II came with a pamphlet...Well Destiny comes with less than that. The inside of the slip cover is printed with legalese and instructions to visit a webpage for the game manual. Perhaps they got in a fight with the printing company, maybe there was a Guatemalan paper shortage, or maybe, just maybe, this ties in with attracting users to a dynamic web site full of advertisements. Just thinking out loud over here.
Beer
The Stone Brewing Company aren't known for being subtle. Pretty much anything featuring their trademark gargoyle is going to be anywhere from incredibly bold to foolishly outlandish, with a dedicated and ever growing crowd who champion the brand to others at any opportunity. Stone Brewing Co. merrily feeds back into that crowd by releasing limited batches of even more stratified brews, catering to seasoned beer drinkers who are looking for something new and different. Stone beers all have a habit of kicking you in the face when you first drink them. This is to be expected, not only for the fact that they come from a brewery whose main directive is to constantly dial shit up to 11, but also because dialing said shit to 11 routinely results in the beers having at times comically high alcohol content. Many of their special releases have the happy number in the double digits accompanied by nonsense names that perfectly describe the experience within. Again, this has only served to bolster Stone's popularity in the face of more and more mainstream Coors and Bud drinkers wanting to discover this crazy "taste" thing they'd been hearing about, all while being headbutted by a beer that makes no excuses. With that being said, once you become accustomed to the constant attitude on display, you can begin to appreciate the lack of compromise. Stone Brewing Co.: beerdom's version of the ornery clerk at the DMV.Smell
If, by the above paragraph, you have surmised that Stone IPA is strong, congratulations, you've won the Captain Obvious Award. Here's the thing though, that really cannot be overstated enough. Even if you hopped around a street corner spinning a sign over your head that declared this stuff was strong, it would still not do the actual experience justice. Truly, this beverage is not for the faint of heart or soft of palette. Being an IPA, and particularly being an IPA from the house that Stone built, the hops jump out front and dropkick you in the face. Once the beer has firmly established who wears the pants in your relationship, the pure strength will give way to a bitterness you've never known outside of a messy divorce. This focused one-two punch makes the quiet little hint of citrus all that more surprising, almost as if the beer is squirting lemon juice in your wounds...I certainly wouldn't put it past this brew. Lastly, and this could be just me, but there's a faint odor of formaldehyde. I realize what that sounds like, and I really can't defend it other than to say your mileage may vary. Still, I couldn't help but notice that underslung current of medical malfeasance when I'd hold the bottle under my nose. How do I know what formaldehyde smells like you may snarkily ask? Well, in addition to its industrial uses as a precursor for other chemicals, uses in disinfectant, antibiotic, drug testing, and photography applications; it's also used as a specimen preservative for areas such as biology dissection courses. You people watch too much television.
Taste
Okay, so we know Stone Brewing Co. is going to have something bold to offer here and really, all we're doing here is exploring the absolute limits of understatement. Super hops. No, seriously, these things have a cape and tights with the letter "H" on the front, and they don't enter your mouth by being poured in...oh no, they fly in with one fist outstretched and a bayonet in their teeth. When they arrive, they punch through the back of your mouth directly into your brain stem where they immediately set up a command station. From there they direct the landing forces that you'll soon know as yet more hops with hoppy air support and an elite amphibious hop squad. Along for the ride like conscientious objectors strapped to a tank are little dabs of coffee and lemon, which, considering the onslaught of hops, is actually a very welcome reprieve. Other bits are reminiscent of--and again, your mileage may vary--hairspray and nail polish. Of course, these are the just the barest hints, but in a beer as strong as this, the tiniest taste of an Asian business license is a necessary tradeoff. Thankfully, this concoction does get better as you drink, it just needs to breathe. At this point, I know what you want to ask; "If my Buddy Weiser doesn't need to breathe, than why should your gargoyle drink need to?" And my answer is simple, because Stone Brewing Company doesn't bottle the week old piss sitting in the bottom of a NASCAR urinal like the "Big 3" brewing conglomerates seem to do. Okay, so that may have come off as a bit combative, but think about it, good wine you allow to breathe so the flavors become better blended. In fact, anyone who has ever had cause to drink Guinness in a proper Irish pub will attest that a good bartender pours a part of your beer, lets it settle, pours the rest, and then puts it in front of you, with the expectation that you'll let it settle the rest of the way. In settings such as this, people who grab for the glass right away are immediately identified as punters, and punters who can't wait for a good beer to get better should go back to Applebee's and stick with their bottles of beer that are a dollar off between 5-7 PM. If you think I'm being too thorny, you obviously haven't tried anything made by Stone.
Intoxication
With anything pushing 7% alcohol, there's going to be a generous bit of liquid happy going around, although I can say that with the aforementioned requirements to let the thing sit for a few minutes, coupled with the unforgiving sharpness to the taste, most drinkers will sip this slowly. This will aid them immensely, as a more deliberate consumption of Stone IPA will help to stave off an unexpected arrival in the city of New Belligerence, which is, incidentally just down the street from Angry Bouncerville, and only a short car ride from the sleepy hamlet of Handcufferton. All this to say that the actual intoxication given by Stone IPA is sharp and focused, with an alarmingly fast ramp-up and a short but highly concentrated plateau of poor decision-making. As with many other brews that place taste on a pedestal built from fermentation, the unspoken understanding that you are in sole control of your fate looms ever present over each drink. Stone IPA is just as happy to watch you make new friends with the bartender as it is to watch you make new friends with a toilet bowl. Certainly, it isn't as openly dangerous as a can of Earthquake or Steel Reserve, but it will still punish unprepared drinkers in glorious fashion, most often leaving them to the intoxicated machinations of their friends. While this may sound tame, if the friends have also been drinking Stone products, the possibility that everyone will wake up on Sunday as everyone else's victim is frighteningly high. You've been warned, don't drink Stone alone, but don't drink it with anyone you don't fully trust with a Sharpie either.
Feel
With anything that gleefully advertises an overabundance of a single ingredient, the odds of it imparting pain and suffering starts to approach 100%. Thankfully, Stone doesn't immediately fall into this trap. Oh, make no mistake, kill a sixer of Stone IPA, and you'll wish you had caught Malaria instead. The insane amount of hops in each bottle is nothing if not suited to making your insides feel like a glass factory in an earthquake, but it will take a bit to get there. Just a few of these will give you the happy, full feeling of having consumed good beer that is slowly pushing you toward a Denny's at 2:30 AM. Drink too much more than that in too short of a time span however, and you'll be able to tell all your friends what it feels like to incubate Satan's embryo. The Stone IPA will poke at your tender insides, all the while causing your body to recoil horribly against anything else you dump down there in a feeble attempt to settle your stomach. Unfortunately, what you'll only come to realize later is that your stomach now belongs to Stone, and the only thing that will alleviate your suffering is the agonizingly slow passage of time. During that time you'll reflect on how smooth those bottles of beer went down, the way they lit your bored, restless tastebuds up with refreshment. The way the bitterness of the drink seemed to make it fuller, and how there was a certain bite to the carbonation that made each sip an experience unto itself. You'll recall all this as the remnants of the Stone you've had slowly dissolve and break down into easily passed urine and even more easily forgotten regret. Again, you've been warned, Stone IPA will take your money, and if you drink too much, your dignity as well.
The Matchup
So here we stand, looking at the matchup of one thing which spent three years in a research tank to make it as addicting as possible, and another thing which happens to be alcohol. In the case of Destiny, yes, this game has been refined in the most granular of detail to ensure people who pick it up have the worst time trying to put it down. It is less a game and more an experiment in player exhaustion. On the other hand, Stone IPA is a beer that could care less if you get addicted to it or not, because it knows that if you like the first few sips, you're most likely the type of person that will stick around to try its brethren. It is also an offering from a company known for wild risk-taking in an industry rife with convention. That last sentence may have described Bungie many, many moons ago, but now, much like the levels on offer in Destiny, there's a lonely wind howling through overused and broken-down constructs, leaving gamers to look over the horizon, waiting for a game to actually fulfill its promises.
Cheers/Game on.