Let me be upfront — I grew up on Destiny. Peak gaming honestly. There was a period where Destiny 2 was right up there too, before they slowly dismantled everything people loved about it and turned it into a live service mess that eventually just... died.

So when Marathon got announced I had that complicated feeling. The one where you want to root for a team because of what they used to be, but you've also watched them fumble it so many times you can't fully trust them anymore.

And now Marathon is out. An extraction shooter. Paid. No free-to-play safety net.

The concept is interesting and the Bungie gun play is still there, you can tell these people know how to make shooting feel good. But extraction shooters are a ruthless genre. You die, you lose your stuff, you have to care enough to go again. That only works if the game respects your time and makes every run feel worth it.

What worries me is that this feels like Bungie chasing a trend rather than setting one. Destiny worked because it felt like nothing else at the time. Marathon feels like it's trying to slot into a genre that already has a lot of competition. I hope I'm wrong. I genuinely do. I haven’t had the chance to play it yet. But fool me once, Bungie.

Okay this one is personal.

I was late to resident evil. RE7 was my entry point and it absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way. First person, claustrophobic, genuinely terrifying, and somehow emotional by the end. One of the best horror games I've ever played. After that I went back and played through the series and understood why people treat it like a religion.

So the fact that Resident Evil Requiem is out right now and I haven't played it yet is physically painful.

Everything I've seen looks like Capcom are continuing the run of form they've been on since RE7. New setting, new characters, but that same DNA of making you feel like you're completely out of your depth and somehow loving every second of it. Early impressions from people who've played it have been strong and I'm going in completely blind which is exactly how you should play Resident Evil for the first time.

If you're in the same boat — hold off on the YouTube videos, avoid Reddit, and just play it. This is the kind of game that deserves to surprise you.

This one genuinely stings if you care about the industry.

Seamus Blackley is the guy who literally invented the original Xbox. When he speaks about Microsoft and gaming, it's not some random hot take — this is someone who built the thing from scratch. And he's been pretty openly suggesting that Microsoft is pulling back from gaming in a serious way.

Which honestly tracks. Between the mass layoffs at studios, the closure of beloved developers, and Phil Spencer seemingly losing influence within the company, Xbox doesn't feel like a platform that's fighting to win right now. It feels like a platform that's decided winning isn't worth the investment.

Game Pass was supposed to be the answer to everything. The Netflix of gaming. And it's fine, it does what it does, but it hasn't exactly set the world on fire in the way Microsoft needed it to. And when the hardware isn't selling and the exclusive lineup is thin and now even the people who built the brand are publicly worried — that's not a good sign.

I don't want Xbox to fail. Competition is good for gaming. PlayStation gets lazy without Xbox pushing them. But Microsoft need to decide what they actually want from this. Because right now it looks like they're not sure.

Lot to digest this week. Marathon has my cautious attention, Resident Evil has my full excitement, and Xbox has my concern. As always, just a gamer's take, not a journalist.

Till next time - framerate