I DID hear that the cutscenes are prerendered this time… if that's confirmed I don't think it would matter then as even a PS5 should be able to play a 4K video file.

Who all is planning on participating in this update?
Looking forward to playing some missions with my son and rage quitting some SRL :P

We got WEAPONS. We got a JOB SYSTEM. We got CID AND VINCENT PLAYABLE. We got SKYDIVING FROM THE HIGHWIND.

LETS
MOSEY!

Valve just announced that Steam Machines are coming this summer. They’ll need a killer app.

The Summer Game Fest hosted by Geoff Keighley (friend of Valve) is tomorrow.

HLX is six years into development and likely either done or close to done at this point, based on datamining discoveries.

… This might be it.

Lots of cool stuff. That new hand cannon!

Why could they not make these kinds of huge updates when the game was still alive?

https://bulletpointsmonthly.com/2026/05/07/task-management-marathon

The Return of Sparrow Racing League
The long awaited and frequently requested Sparrow Racing League (SRL) is returning to Destiny 2! This isn't just SRL coming back as you remember it, though. We've brought the mode forward with a set of updates aimed at making races feel faster, livelier, and a bit more chaotic from lap to lap.

Ghost returns as your SRL announcer along with Shaxx. There's nothing more motivating than Shaxx screaming at you to push for first place after your opponent just took you on the inside of a turn on Mercury.

Skimmers are joining the fun, allowing you to choose between a Sparrow or a Skimmer before hopping into a three-lap race against five other players. Players won't have access to rail grinds or manual jumping as a Skimmer or be able to use destabilizers for rolls or flips as a Sparrow - in fact, we've done a ton of work under the hood to make sure that using either vehicle in SRL feels equally advantageous to players.

Speaking of under the hood, we've also updated SRL to support those photo-finish moments at the end of a race. Close finishes can now properly assess ties, which means when two racers hit the line at nearly the same time, the results screen can better reflect that outcome. We know the mantra “if you're not first, you're last” but our goal with SRL is to bring the chaos and friendly competition to the forefront and so tying means you both get equally great rewards.

A couple of new mechanics have been added to SRL. Rocket Boost rewards racers who nail their timing of hitting the gas just before the race begins, giving them an early burst out of the gate. Trick Boosts are just what they sound like: land a trick successfully and you'll get a boost. On PC, Sparrow and Skimmer tricks can also be remapped the same way emotes can and we've updated the UI to support that.

All four of the original SRL maps are returning, and we've got a brand-new map called Quantum Circuit located in the realm of the Nine! Avoid the Taken and enemies of the past while racing on this wild and intense ribbon road. Additionally, speed boost pads have been added to specific shortcut paths on all maps to offset any gates missed; a change that we think will make taking riskier or tougher shortcuts more rewarding and viable.

Finally, we've done some tuning on gate sizes, vehicle speeds, and rubberbanding to keep the pack together while still rewarding strong racing lines, smart shortcuts, and well-timed boosts.

We're excited for players to get their hands on all of these updates and hear the brand-new SRL music tracks when Sparrow Racing League goes live next month.

SRL Rewards

Alongside SRL's return as an activity, you'll also be able to earn weapons and armor rewards. If you've gotta go fast then these will feel right at home in your arsenal. The perks found on these weapons have speed and movement in mind, such as Eager Edge, Desperado, or Perpetual Motion.

While we want to keep the weapons and their perk pools under wraps, we will share an early look at the origin trait and armor set bonuses:

• Featherweight (Origin): Final blows with weapons that have the Featherweight Origin Trait grant increased movement speed while equipped.
  
• Revving Up (2-piece): Fast movement builds up a charge that gradually increases your health regeneration speed. Once you are Fully Revved, sprinting grants Speed Booster.
  
• Dielectric Drift (4-piece): Sliding while Speed Booster is active jolts combatants in front of you.

And for players looking for a little more style with their speed, SRL will also bring plenty of earnable rewards worth chasing. This includes brand-new SRL racing Sparrows and a Skimmer as well as SRL armor ornaments, returning racing Sparrows, and SRL shaders from Destiny 1 plus returning Sparrow Horns from Destiny 1 that also work with Skimmers (and can be previewed in menus), new and returning SRL emblems, and more.

Whether you're racing for the win, completing SRL triumphs, or just showing up for the chaos, there will be plenty of ways to earn gear and accessories that let you look the part.

Jason? Why do you play that game? All you do is complain about it.

I FEEL SEEN

Spooky!

Sparrow Racing returns! Nothing else matters! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Hearing this has me looking back and thinking about the journey that was Destiny. My many frustrations through the years are well represented in the forum here, but so are many of the highs. And man, those highs were so good, and remain nearly exclusive in all of video games for just how much fun it was.

Running Skolas for weeks to help folks for the Triumph. My first blind raid, King's Fall. The spacewalk in Deep Stone Crypt. The surprise Black Spindle mission. Running Crucible for weeks to get Luna's Howl. Running tons of Gambit to fight the Meatball to get Malfeasance. Entering the Dreadnaught for the first time, which felt like the first time Destiny really started to lived up to what it could be. Even the smaller moments of mystery, like when the roaming House of Wolves Fallen started showing up before that expansion dropped. Hell, there's so much stuff I feel like I could write pages about it. Trying to get that damn shotgun from Escalation Protocol on Mars. Even as frustrating as that was, I look back on it now with more fondness than annoyance.

For all its faults, Destiny was journey filled with amazing moments, and I find myself looking back with incredible fondness for just what the game was at its best, and now that it's coming to and end, I miss it more than I anticipated. Even when I wasn't playing for years, it was sort of a comfort, knowing it was there.

I'm still not sure Destiny ever lived up to its original promise, and it never fully managed to capture that early mystery where it felt like anything was possible. Looking back, though, Destiny was far more good than bad, and when it was good, it was unlike anything else I've ever played.

I'm looking forward to giving it one final hurrah on June 9th. Here's to hoping Bungie finds a way forward and can continue to build on what they accomplished with Destiny.

THE SHORT VERSION (TL;DR)
There’s a lot of words ahead, but here’s the gist of it:

• With the first season of Marathon we’ve created a strong core community.
  
• We're embarking on a multi-season journey built around growing from the seed of this >strong community.
  
• We’re looking to solve some pain points for players:
  
• Making the game less grindy, more rewarding
  
• Making improvements to things like the UI/UX, matchmaking, end game meta, playing as >solos/duos, etc.
  
• Smoothing out onboarding
  
• We’re also going to build out more of the core game:
  
• Adding new fun and mind-bending content: new and updated zones, Runner shells, new >combatants, weapons, loot, and more
  
• Building systems to make progressing more interesting
  
• We want to build more survival experiences for different moods, like if you want to full >sweat or lean back and chill.
  
• Exploring more pure PVP, PVE, and PVP-lite experiences
  
• Continue experimenting with experimental queues to learn more around these experiences

Other highlights:

• We're bringing back Duos for Season 2 with a rotating Duos queue.
  
• We're testing some experiments in Season 2 around PVE and PVP-Lite modes.
  
• We’re expanding the max size of your Vault and increasing faction progression rates in >Season 2.
  
• We’ll talk more about Season 2 content like Night Marsh, the new Cradle progression >system, and the Runner shell Sentinel, the week of May 25.

If this summary has your interest piqued, read on for more info on these topics.

Because while you could probably craft such a film to be better, it wouldn't be the same experience. The direct investigation and examination of items and the house does lead to a certain kind of intrigue that you can only have when directly controlling it. So, conceptually yes, I would say that Gone Home is in fact fine as a video game. Your choices and the fact that you are doing it makes it work.

But does MIxtape?

The discourse on this game is wild. It might be the only game I've ever seen where the trophies might actually save it. The fact that there is a trophy for jumping off a car with your skateboard or knocking down traffic cones or skipping a rock through a tire swing, on its own means that yes, this is a video game in the sense that your actions can make a difference. The physics simulation of the rolls while you toilet paper a house is actually rather satisfying, and you can TP the house in whatever way you feel like.

So the real question is: How was the experience?

This year, I want to ride a flaming stallion of delinquency

Nobody would ever say this.

The main conflict is of course in Cassandra, and I don't feel like the game really characterized or gave believability to her turn towards being so much of a Miscreant that she'd start a forest fire..

These things happen gradually. Why do we not see her first transgression and the thrill? Especially in a game about memories, why was the one we saw so unconvincing?

And the finale? Her father would never do that. I have to assume this is a memory warped because it is so beyond the bounds of believable, that if played straight it would ruin the entire thing. It has to be metaphorical and not literal, given the otherworldly depictions of events and emotions.

The biggest miss for me was the music. For a game that is explicitly about this: creating a literal soundtrack for all these moments in their lives, I just felt like none of it hit? Like, was "Love" by Smashing Pumpkins really the best you could do for a segment where you're pissed off and blowing up cars?! None of it felt right to me. None of it. Out of 20+ tracks, maybe two were kinda in the right ballpark?

Forget the discussion of whether it's a game or not. I just don't think it really did the job it was trying to do.

But hey, you can paint whatever you want on the door!

What is now $765 million dollars in impairment losses against Bungie is not something as simple as “Bungie games are $765 million in the red.” Rather, what impairment losses are doing is acknowledging that Bungie is not as valuable an asset as Sony thought it was when it bought it for $3.6 billion, so it keeps knocking that number down.

Despite this, Sony has at least publicly backed Bungie’s continued work on Marathon, saying: “Player reception to Marathon is strong, receiving a Metacritic score of 82 and more than 90% of the player reviews on Steam being positive. Engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level. Going forward, we aim to improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience, and expansion of the user base."

Destiny 2 simply…wasn’t mentioned at all, which is disconcerting for what was Bungie’s flagship franchise and now a game that has no clear roadmap for the future.

Stopped by my parents’ place to go through some of my old stuff I left during the move, and one of the first things I found is this:

I remember winning it as part of a contest here in DBO, but can’t remember any of the details. Aside from some tiny holes in the plastic wrap, it’s still sealed. I was never one for writing, especially by hand.

Does anyone else have old-school Destiny merch they still keep around?

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but that angle sure made for a horny trailer.

I was a little disappointed that the choices matter about as much as a Teltale game, but as Yahtzee put it, you shouldn't really be playing these kinds of games twice anyways. If you only do YOUR playthrough, the choices are all yours and matter.

At first I thought the dispatching was a bit weak, but as time went on it became more engaging, as well as providing a bit of storytelling on its own depending on who you send to what call and pair up.

9/10 so happy the game was a huge success.

tl;dw

Game is in an 8th timeline.
Durandal never liberated the S'pht from the Pfhor
The S'pht have aligned with the W'rkncacnter
"Escape' doesn't refer to escaping the closure of the universe, but escaping the Marathon ship