Respawn Monday #2: Marathon Season 2, Game Shows, and Darktide

What a weekend. As I write this, it's still not over as I'm still absorbing what I watched at the 2026 Xbox Showcase, plus the other shows that have come and gone. Despite the reveals from Summer Game Fest 2026, Xbox's bombardment of game reveals, and Sony's tame State of Play, I still got some games in. Some thoughts.

Marathon Season 2

Love it or hate it, I'm having a blast with Season 2 of Marathon. This is partly due to the fact that I now have a solid and consistent group to pull from to lessen my urge to pair up with random players. The fights are intense, the loot too lucrative, and the night version feels like a mini-cryo experience with a special section closed off and accessible if a group has the requirements to enter and loot what's inside.

It's not all positive. It's actually pretty negative at launch, as servers took a nosedive with multiple disconnects ruining the first 10 hours of the new season. This resulted in an emergency maintenance, which is funny because when Sony promoted Marathon during their State of Play presentation, mentioning it's free to play until June 11 (extended), people who saw that message and downloaded the game were likely met with matchmaking offline. I was lucky to avoid these pain points as, in the Philippines, servers went live early in the morning, so when I woke up and was done with work, everything was stable.

A bad look regardless, as Bungie's bad luck continues.

State of Play vs Xbox Games Showcase vs Summer Game Fest

From mid-week to the weekend, it's all about the big gaming shows. State of Play June 2026, the 2026 Xbox Games Showcase, and Summer Game Fest 2026 all delivered simply games, really. All had their high points, but on a personal level, Summer Game Fest delivered as there was more of what I was interested in at that show.

Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, Guild Wars 3, Resident Evil: Veronica, just to name a few, got me excited about what the future of games looks like. While State of Play had interesting reveals, only ILL stood out, as Marvel's Wolverine isn't as interesting as Spider-Man despite looking good, and God of War: Laufey is something I never found myself wondering about Kratos' wife, despite her being a significant element in both God of War (2018) and Ragnarok.

As for the Xbox Showcase, it was just a rapid fire of game reveals. Persona 6, State of Decay 3, Senua, Gears of War: E-Day, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Spyro: A Realm Beyond, Clockwork Revolution. That's a lot of games that caught my eye, and most of them are heading to Game Pass on day one, showing that Xbox is still committed to the service.

The big shocker is Xbox pivoting once again on their stance on exclusivity. Gears of War: E-Day is now an Xbox console exclusive, meaning it will only be out on Xbox consoles and PC. Clockwork Revolution is also an Xbox console exclusive when it launches in 2027.

They want to give the Xbox brand more weight, and despite their multi-platform commitments, exclusivity is now back on the table. They still plan to release first-party titles on other platforms, like State of Decay 3, but there will be titles only available on their own hardware.

A lot of major adjustments, but to be expected as there's now new management at the top.

Overall, a great showing for gamers as there's something for everyone.

Fun fact: Grand Theft Auto VI is the undisputed major release this November. A few smaller titles dare to share the month, but no major release wants any part of that launch window, making September and October looking rather crowded.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide

I randomly downloaded Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on the PS5 as it was one of the monthly games offered this June for PS Plus subscribers. A change of pace as I tend to spend time on the console when winding down in bed.

I delved into this one on release via PC, and it's good to see it now well-optimized and still thriving with players on multiple platforms. Granted, there's an influx of new players thanks to PS Plus, but those I paired up with are maxed-out players on PC. With me being in Asia, it's reassuring that finding players won't be a problem.

It's also good that Fatshark continues to update the game. The skill tree is completely different, and they now have two new DLC classes with one more on the way. Fatshark is one of those studios that releases games in a questionable state, but always bounces back after years of updates. Good to see they still haven't lost their touch.

What did you play? 

Respawn Monday #01: Abiotic Factor, Marathon Runs, and Outward 2

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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.