It's hard to find things to praise about Destiny 2 right now with the MMO mired in bewildering, seismic economy changes, but if Bungie can do anything right it's make guns feel good. So it's both unsurprising and encouraging to hear that Destiny was a "guiding light" for The Outer Worlds 2 developer Obsidian as it worked to beef up its gunplay.

Speaking with GamesRadar+ at Gamescom, The Outer Worlds 2 game director Brandon Adler discussed Obsidian's conscious push to polish and refine the solid but not amazing combat from the first game.

"Early on, we kind of knew what players had said that they wanted us to improve," says Adler. "Combat in general was one of those things that came back, and that can mean a lot of different things. It could be like, hey, our encounter compositions could be more varied, things like that. And we did do that. We actually rebuilt our encounter systems. We made, overall, that portion of the combat feel really good. But another part of that is just the gunplay itself. It needs to feel good to just take actions in the world. We, luckily, were able to work with 343, or Halo Studios now. They sent us some feedback on our gunplay and what we could improve and different types of settings we could be using. And so we tweaked all of that stuff."

"Our design director, Matthew Singh, it was his task to work with the system designers and to put together this system," continues Adler. "He really likes Destiny, so he took that as a guiding light, and we spent a lot of time early on really refining and trying to get that feel. It was also important, not even just the actual shooting mechanics, but movement. We tried to make movement feel really good. Lots of sliding, parkouring. We just wanted moving around the world to have less friction. I think all of those things combined made a really great experience, which, when you add it to the thing that's already a good RPG, it's just the cherry on top, in my opinion."

Fittingly, Bungie was the original creator and shepherd for Halo, which came to define the setup and feel for countless first-person shooters. Destiny and later Destiny 2 just raised the bar for silky-smooth head-popping action, and when we finally got Destiny 2 on PC with the power of the mighty mouse in hand, it was downright heavenly. It still feels great to play, even if I cannot find it in me to care about playing it in this new Power-burdened era. If The Outer Worlds 2 can get anywhere close to that flow state, I'm in.

In our Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview, a difference in gunplay was immediately noticeable and palpable throughout. "Killer writing and shockingly slick combat suggest Obsidian will deliver on the Fallout: New Vegas comparisons," our own Andrew wrote at the time.

Outer Worlds 2 bosses "think it's funny" they've made an RPG about evil mega-corporations with Microsoft as their new owner: "It'd be ridiculous to say we don't notice that"

Hollow Knight: Silksong finally went live today—you may have heard something about that—and its arrival absolutely demolished Steam, which simply could not hold up under the crushing demand of Skongmania. As Steam crumbled like a train bridge made of soggy noodles, GOG did what it does best: Took a shot from the shadows.

"It appears that Silkzillion gamers worldwide are trying to get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong, and digital storefronts are struggling to handle the traffic," GOG posted on X. "But the DRM-free Bastion stands strong." Naturally, there was a link to Silksong on GOG.

I can't say I'd really thought about it before seeing that post, but it caught me a little by surprise because it felt, well, incongruous. The value of DRM is debatable but generally speaking it does at least help cut down on day-one piracy; releasing one of the most eagerly anticipated games to come along in years on a platform whose number-one promo point is "No DRM" was surely a high-risk move.

Except, maybe not. Sure enough, Silksong was available through less-than-legal channels almost immediately after launch, but as noticed by GamesRadar, the 2.4 million strong Piracy subreddit seemed torn on the topic: Unexpectedly, quite a few of its members have been urging people not to pirate Silksong.

"I was planning on doing it, since every recent game costs around $80 and that's a lot of money for a game," one redditor wrote in a pre-release thread asking how potential pirates planned to proceed. "But after the price was revealed, $20, I thought, damn that's good, and I'm not pirating it."

Others felt the same way, "I think I’m just gonna buy this one. It’s only $20 and I really enjoyed Hollow Knight so, I’m sure I won’t be mad about spending the money on this one," one respondent wrote.

"Apparently it'll only be like 20 bucks with a three person team. I can and will definitely buy it after it's been out a week or two," another added.

Similar responses can be seen in a bigger thread announcing that Silksong was uploaded to pirate sites 15 minutes after it launched.

Comment from r/Piracy

"It's a 3-4 person team that has done right by their fans at every turn," No-Shape6053 wrote. "Making sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should."

Redditor Efrayl added: "I'm buying this game on GOG straight away, even though I will probably play it later (after a few updates and when it will be on discount)."

RandoT said he's never purchased a full-priced game on launch day in the 10+ years he's had his Steam account, but he's doing it for Silksong: "It was Team Cherry that made me break my 'vow' to always buy on discount."

Silksong's release is the first time I've seen comments on the Piracy subreddit push for people to buy it instead.

— @airbagged.bsky.social (@airbagged.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.693Z

#Silksong has appeared on piracy websites for PC and r/Piracy is having arguments over pirating it, lmao

— @born2beslicker.bsky.social (@born2beslicker.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.668Z

To be clear, this is not a wholesale changing-of-ways. Plenty of people in the subreddit say they're going to pirate Silksong regardless, some with the claimed intent of buying it later when their finances allow and others simply as a matter of because I can principle.

But the extent of the push to just buy the damned thing seems genuinely unusual. Much of that arises from the fact that Silksong itself is very unusual: A monster-hit (and, going by the current Steam rating, very good—we're still working on our review but will have it up soon) game priced at $20, developed by tiny team that doesn't seem too arsed about the accepted conventions of making and releasing videogames.

It's not the sort of scenario that could be duplicated by Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, in other words, and I wouldn't expect executives at any major or mid-sized publisher to look at this and think that maybe ditching Denuvo really is the way to go. Still, it does really drive home the notion that while you're never going to stop piracy, you can sometimes turn some people around on it by asking a fair price, making a good game, and being genuine throughout. I think that's kind of nice.

As the saying goes on Arrakis, the spice must flow—and for a limited time starting next week that spice will be on sale. Dune: Awakening is having its first discount starting on September 11 and running until September 22, during which Funcom's survival MMO will be on sale for 20% off.

This sale coincides with another free weekend, though unlike the last one in late August, this free to play period comes with "zero restrictions." Play as many hours as you want from September 11 to September 15 (the first free weekend, bizarrely, was capped at 10 hours).

You can also explore the entire map instead of being stuck in the starting area. "Venture across every zone in Hagga Basin to the Deep Desert to Harko Village and Arrakeen City," Funcom says.

Perhaps most importantly, you can play with friends, too, by joining the server they play on—the first free weekend only let you play on servers with other players who were trying the game out, not people who had already bought it. I can only assume this new, free-er weekend is a direct response to the negative feedback from the last one.

And, if you do decide to buy Dune: Awakening after the free weekend, all your progress will be saved and you can pick up right where you left off.

A bit more news from the Arrakis hotline: Dune: Awakening's Chapter 2 update and the Lost Harvest DLC is arriving a day early, on September 9. Chapter 2 is free for all who own Dune (even people playing the free weekend), and will continue the main story as well as adding new contracts, armor, and a character re-customization tool so you can change your looks after starting the game.

The DLC adds a "standalone storyline" and a weird new vehicle that looks like something from the cover of a Popular Science magazine in the 1930s. You can check out the update trailer below to see what I mean.