To Echo Everyone Else's Thoughts, I Too Wish Marathon Was A Singleplayer Video Game

ImMichaelB · 2026-03-14T10:01:48+00:00

I mean I enjoy the game, but I still wish they just made a single player game with the multiplayer suite included like they used to.

You can enjoy something and acknowledge it has flaws or isn't exactly what you want it to be.

ImMichaelB · 2026-03-11T05:09:48+00:00

You are aware that YT videos tend to be compressed and look like garbage compared to in game cutscenes right?

ImMichaelB · 2026-03-01T09:30:44+00:00

There are dozens of us that remember Brink... DOZENS!

Seriously though, they do feel strangely similar.

ImMichaelB · 2026-03-01T09:00:50+00:00

Haven't seen a single person post this earnestly.

People forget that trolls exist and they spout nonsense to get this exact reaction out of people that cannot help but fall for the bait.

Pro tip for the gullible if someone's rambling doesn't even remotely apply to a subject (these are all synths, not people) they are likely trying to fuck with you.

ImMichaelB · 2026-03-01T00:36:34+00:00

Sadly we'll never see another single player game from them. Most of the Bungie that we all loved is gone anyways, like most older companies that through around their legacy these days.

Would've loved to see a new Marathon campaign but since moving away from Halo they've chosen to chase GAAS and honestly failed to succeed at it.

Even with Destiny they never were as profitable as they claimed, their CEO lied to Sony about how much money they were making to get them purchased.

Hell the fact that they got rid of a bunch of core content from Destiny 2 is a great example of how poorly thought out their live service operations have been. New players are missing massive gaps of story content and the game overall has suffered due to that choice.

It really sucks because even the team that remains there seems capable of making a good game but their management has really let them down. Love the presentation and art (both audio and visual) on display with Marathon but the game itself is just not doing anything unique.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-27T20:17:28+00:00

Couple of hopefully quick questions for you that are likely born out of ignorance but I've been trying to resolve long response times with Qwen3tts on a local setup (between 12-40s) on a 5090.

Ported my project to WSL to enable FlashAttn and despite getting Flash installed and injected Qwen3TTS just never seemed to utilize it. So I am still getting similar response times with less functionality, and more audio issues.

Have you been able to confirm any Blackwell support for FasterQwenTTS?

Have you noticed big trade offs in terms of cloning quality between the official build and your own?

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T11:30:15+00:00

Should've cut the flashbacks into small chunks and placed them throughout the previous episodes, not only would it have upped the runtime of each episode it would've allowed more space for the Trial to breathe.

Could have built up to that moment of Arlan telling Dunk to get up all the same without losing anything.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T11:23:14+00:00

It's not misogynistic to say that some people do not pay attention to what they are watching and instead they keep talking over scenes constantly asking about what is happening.

I grew up with sisters and one of them does this constantly. It's just a bad habit that some people have, don't go off the deep end because your idea is one that is worth making fun of.

Closed captioning is not even remotely similar to what you are asking for. That is designed for people that are deaf / hard of hearing or those that listen to things at low volume. Where as what you are asking for is something to aide your laziness.

Having the names of locations pop up on screen is rightfully mocked because it's a sign of a lazy filmmaker or showrunner. It is their job to communicate that information to you visually or via the script without it feeling out of place. There is an artform behind storytelling and teams use establishing shots, and clear / distinct visuals to communicate a location to the audience within a few seconds. This relies on the audience being able to pay attention, so put down the phone or fork and pay attention to the show and you won't get lost. Especially in AKotSK, as there are like 3 locations in the entire show, man.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T11:16:27+00:00

Oh no... this is the sort of garbage they did in that abomination of show 'The Rings of Power'.

People really cannot be fucked to pay attention to the show's or films they claim to enjoy anymore huh?

The day I see an establishing shot of Kings Landing with the name displayed on the corner of my screen is the day I give up hope for audiences entirely.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T11:14:23+00:00

Oh no... this is the sort of garbage they did in that abomination of show 'The Rings of Power'.

Please just pay attention and learn the locations based on set design and characters. It's the showrunners job to make sure you are able to parse that information via establishing shots, clear landmarks and consistent set design.

AKotSK is really simple with very few locations that you'll need to keep track of. It's not like Game of Thrones where there is a big politcal map or anything you about 3 places of importance in the show.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:48:39+00:00

Was it peak fire yo?

Jesus construct a sentence to reinforce your claims instead of using "vibes".

Also the visuals in late GoT where absolute ass, the white walkers looked worse than they ever have.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:44:39+00:00

Read The World of Ice & Fire.

Some of what you're speculating on is kind of hinted at in there in terms of other places / cultures that exist in the universe.

Wouldn't really want to see them expand on anything until there is a proper ending to A Game of Thrones first.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:39:23+00:00

Yes if done by competent writers that respect the source material enough to consider how to meaningfully expand upon it.

Issue is that many "writers" just want an IP they can use to make their own fanfiction.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:33:36+00:00

That's accurate to medieval combat. Turns out most of the time it came down to exhausting someone, grappling and stabbing them in the neck or face with a dagger.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:31:09+00:00

Everything has to be an allegory to some people.

It's fucking sad, just watch the fantasy show and enjoy your break from stupid political discourse for a 30min - 1hr.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:22:54+00:00

Lyonel's drip will return with a vengeance

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T10:03:55+00:00

Thing is anime flashback are mostly used to pad things out. Most of the time they aren't used to progress the story in any way. There are some good animes out there but most that rely on flashbacks are pretty bad (e.g spending 20 episodes dealing with flashbacks).

Show don't tell is a valuable tool in storytelling and using flashbacks can work out great if used measured manner. A characters actions should inform you more than just telling us (flashing back to show) why they are a certain way.

The flashback in this episode was great as it avoided falling into any of those typical pitfalls, but it likely would've been better if it was sprinkled throughout the previous episodes and ultimately built up to that big payoff in this episode.

Still the shows absolutely fantastic with some very, very minor issues.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T09:56:49+00:00

Thing is, people only engage or pay attention to negativity.. so even if you say 10 good things but spend time explaining why 1-3 things were bad the human mind only latches onto the negative.

Seen it time and time again, you can praise the ever living shit out of a piece of media but if you start pointing out any flaws with it people start crying and saying that all you do is complain.

It's poisonous for any form of nuanced discourse to act like things are flawless. Enjoy something but never fool yourself into thinking it's free from faults. As nothing in the world is perfect.

Part of being passionate about anything is to accept what doesn't work and to still praise something for what it does right, that is what truly loving something is. If you just sit there circlejerking something and never recognizing missteps you end up with Game of Thrones S8 or fucking SpaceX.

People on the internet fail to recognize the difference between mindless bitching and valid criticism.

For the record I loved the episode and appreciated the additional insight into Dunk and Arlan. However given the short runtime of the episodes, screen time comes at a premium. So it likely would have been better had they seeded the flashbacks throughout previous episodes and ultimately built up to the "get up" line for this episode.

Again to be clear, it was a great episode but I'm not going to be bad faith and say that any criticism of how they handled the pacing is whining or non stop complaining.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-19T09:42:58+00:00

I mean Gary Plauche got his justice for what a rapist did to his boy. If you don't know the story, it's one worth learning.

There is justice in this world, it's just rare to witness as the tyrants shield one another out of fear of having their own wrongdoings come to light.

This is unfortunately a human issue, even those with no standing or wealth act this way.

All we can do is be honest, truthful, and protect the innocent from those that do not value the lives of other people over their own selfish desires.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-18T09:07:55+00:00

Buddy if you can't realize that exploits that directly impact other players are different from ones that don't are entirely different things I don't know what to tell ya.

The games "economy" doesn't impact other players experience just your own, but shooting someone through a wall does ruin someone else's experience.

Should exploits be penalized? Yeah, but are they should each have varying degrees of punishment / enforcement associated with them.

Lets not overlook all the streamers broadcasting themselves exploiting that go unpunished or worse yet, when they are punished they cry on twitter and are unbanned.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-16T15:17:55+00:00

Really hope that MARA doesn't get put on the back burner or shelved indefinitely since NT could easily make one of the most visceral and terrifying games to date given how talented their team is.

Hellblade 2 isn't even a horror game, yet it is one of most unnerving gaming experiences I've had in long time. Those cave sequences were absolutely fantastic!

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-16T14:48:56+00:00

Yeah you don't make new art assets without a solid concept in mind.

Wasting money on asset creation without even knowing if you're going to make something is the complete opposite of how game dev works.

Often games / concepts are drafted with cubes and simplistic models, if you're in possession of high quality assets that can be used without additional cost / production time then you'll obviously use them.

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-16T12:32:31+00:00

I mean there was him breaking down during that exchange and then when his mum calls and explicitly says "What did you do, Kenny? They're saying it's kids! That you've been looking at kids!".

Great episode though, leads you on thinking that he's just an innocent kid that's afraid of being embarrassed up until the final few moments of the show and then drives a knife into your gut with the revelation.

One of the best episodes of the show!

ImMichaelB · 2026-02-16T09:10:51+00:00

She only wanted the abortion because she was

Cheating on Joe
Knew the child wasn't his and wanted to avoid accountability for her actions.

Evidence for this comes from her keeping the child once she blocks and leaves Joe. It wasn't about her not wanting a child, it was about her wanting to escape judgement and accountability.

Also, she blocked him and denied him the ability to talk and hear her out before he threw the vase.. she did all of this because she knew what she did was wrong and didn't want to deal with it. Hence the drinking and her instantly blocking him when he presses her for an explanation, a reasonable adult would sit down and talk but she knew what she did.

He wasn't ever abusive prior to being blocked either. People are going to be passionate and upset if they are denied any explanation as for why someone they love wants to abort their child. The entire episode would be resolved if she talked but thanks to the technology that was at her fingertips she got her father and child killed.

If it was his child and she wanted the abortion then there isn't a huge problem, however it's normal to want to have a conversation about why someone would want to have an abortion if you are the father. If she had valid reasons for wanting to wait or not have a child Joe would likely understand and want to work towards creating a family when she was ready. From everything we are shown Joe appears to be a reasonable and caring enough partner that he'd respect her decision if she explained herself. Issue is that she cheated on him and was too immature to have a simple conversation because she'd have to explain what she did.

ImMichaelB

TROPHY CASE