They’ll have to do a lot of work. The PvE in Marathon is not engaging enough to hold up on its own. Without the risk of other players, the PvE isn’t difficult at all. Marathon with nothing but its current PvE design would be boring.

I’m totally here for them to experiment, but there’s a not insignificant part of me that worries they’ll be chasing more players and turn this into a game I just don’t like anymore. The Arc Raiders community is already insufferable because of people complaining about PvP, and PvP players tell them to fuck off if they don’t like it. Marathon has been refreshingly free of that. I just hope they don’t change the game too much, because it’s goddamn fun as is.

I'm interested, too, but also worried. Although I find the current game a bit too difficult at my skill level, I recognize that they created something special--they've balanced a lot of things very well.

Partly, that's because this game could basically be about me. That was my high school experience. I was Rockford in a lot of ways, the annoying music kid. I had my iPod with me at all times with at least one earbud in 24/7. I knew the stupidest trivia about my favorite bands.

As someone who was an actual teenager in the 90s, it all felt somewhat anachronistic to me. It feels like memories of the 90s filtered through the lens of an 80s movie. The 90s was such a wild decade, because early, mid, and late 90s were all pretty radically different. There was some overlap that just didn't match my experience. Granted I spent those years in Michigan rather than NorCal, but it was just off somehow.

Partly, that's because this game could basically be about me. That was my high school experience. I was Rockford in a lot of ways, the annoying music kid. I had my iPod with me at all times with at least one earbud in 24/7. I knew the stupidest trivia about my favorite bands. I wasn't quite a much of a degenerate, but it's also not that far off.

Partly, it's just that soundtrack is good. I honestly disagree with Cody, so far every piece of music has hit nearly perfectly. I love music, so I'm honestly not sure I'd recognize a bad game if it has a killer soundtrack that made me feel like Mixtape does. Maybe some people see it as cheating or cheap or something--this music is doing most of the work in the experience, and possibly making up for a lack in characterization and writing and gameplay and whatever. And I could buy that. This game wouldn't be enjoyable at all if the music wasn't hitting. But, I dunno, I'd say the exact same thing about Life is Strange, honestly.

The discourse around this game is fucking wild, though. I don't begrudge anyone not liking it, but for whatever reason, Mixtape has been sending people off the deep end.

I’m totally here for them to experiment, but there’s a not insignificant part of me that worries they’ll be chasing more players and turn this into a game I just don’t like anymore. The Arc Raiders community is already insufferable because of people complaining about PvP, and PvP players tell them to fuck off if they don’t like it. Marathon has been refreshingly free of that. I just hope they don’t change the game too much, because it’s goddamn fun as is.

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.

Does Gone Home conceptually work as a game? I'm not asking if you like it. I'm asking if it makes sense to exist as a game. Does the fact that you are interacting directly enhance the experience? Would 'Gone Home the Movie' be a functionally different experience?

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.

I think games like Gone Home, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, and other walking simulators of that level of interaction work great as games, because the method of interaction is integral to the way you experience the story. The slow ingestion of details, the piecing together of moments, objects, and narration to build a timeline and understand the relationships between characters, it’s integral to the experience. I found Gone Home to slowly turn into a horror story the deeper I got into the house and realized I’m going to have to go into the attic eventually, as the dread slowly crept in as a result of my actions and interactions. 10/10

It’s different from something like What Remains of Edith Finch, where there is defined gameplay that isn’t “you” in the world, but the the wildly different segments are used to tell their own story about each character and how they perceived life itself. 10/10.

And then you have Mixtape, where the “gameplay” exists to just give you something to do so you don’t get bored while you are fed a movie. I’ve seen it described as “jingling keys”, which isn’t too far off the mark. Still, it’s technically a game, but there isn’t really a point to its interactivity outside of triggering nostalgia for certain things, as the kids, story, and your understanding and level of context will continue exactly the same, regardless of your input.

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 Diablo Cody school of teenage writing strikes again! Boy that can definitely be hit or miss.

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!

They were games made for everyone and anyone.

Sorry, but they absolutely were not. Reminds of this XKCD:

And why did it take them so long to make a game with four maps and six playable characters?

I wonder this a lot. I have to assume the team size is a tiny fraction of what it ever was for Destiny.

Tassi posted a video recently (it came across my feed via Aztecross (he's a whole 'nother topic)) but I found the video very relatable.

The basic tone was, Marathon is the first Bungie game in 25 years that I have no interest in...and that sucks.

If you've been a Bungie fan long enough… it'll probably be your second.

The basic tone was, Marathon is the first Bungie game in 25 years that I have no interest in...and that sucks. Halo 1-Reach were bangers. Destiny 1-2 Bangers. All of them were fun with friends or alone, with tons of replayability. They were games made for everyone and anyone.

Marathon is made for a specific gamer. Competitive PC.
And why did it take them so long to make a game with four maps and six playable characters?
Considering the timeframe, budget, and target player...how did anyone expect this to be financially viable!?

with better reporting that him.

I see what you did there.

Yeah, it's not great news, but it's nice to know that Sony is sticking with them for the time being. I'm glad that Marathon is being given a chance to right the ship. As a Destiny player myself, I'd prefer that they doubled down on that game instead, but that's pure selfishness talking and I realize that.

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.

I friggin' cried manly tears at THE PART where the plot speeds up, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Punch Up hitting you in the nuts would probably make any man cry manly tears.

I still wear the faction shirts all the time. I also still have the engram stress balls sitting on a shelf.