Destiny Sparrow Tricks Trailer

This week saw the release of the first Destiny expansion pack, The Dark Below — as well as a music video for the song Paul McCartney penned for the game. However, fans and developers alike will always have one eye on the future of a constantly-evolving title such as this, and based on comments made by community manager Eric Osborne at PlayStation Experience, Destiny might see an official racing mode.

While Osborne was careful not to make any promises, here are his comments on the possibility of racing in Destiny from an interview with GameSpot this past weekend:

"It's definitely an idea that has come up at the studio, and there are dozens and dozens and dozens of cool ideas. Part of the process of sustaining [Destiny] is figuring out what's the most bang for the buck, what's the right feedback to go after and address, how do we deliver the experiences that players want. And race is definitely one of the things that has come up as a topic, so we'll see."

Alongside the much-used 'dance' emote, tearing around distant planets on a Sparrow is a well-loved pastime for many Guardians. We've seen the vehicle help players jump the Hellmouth, and it's even been given additional trick capabilities thanks to a special variant for expansion pass holders.

However, for as fun as the Sparrow is to ride around on, it doesn't have much of a role to play in the game apart from getting players from location to location. Without any weaponry, it's not much use in the combat that makes up the bulk of gameplay — something that a race mode would remedy quite comprehensively.

Destiny Video Sparrow Dancing

This wouldn't be the first time that Bungie have put together a racing mode for one of their shooters. During the heydey of Halo 3, the 'Rocket Race' game type split eight players into teams of two, with one team member driving a Mongoose and the other sitting on the back with a Rocket Launcher in hand — players were invulnerable, so the only use for the weapon was to impede other drivers.

What followed was routinely some of the most chaotic fun that Halo multiplayer could allow for. There were problems — griefing by players who fell behind was common — but it certainly demonstrated the potential that Bungie's vehicles offer for a very different experience to traditional FPS multiplayer.

All this being said, while Sparrow racing certainly seems to be a topic of discussion at Bungie, there are no solid plans for it to make its way into the game just yet. It could end up being an event much like the Iron Banner, it could be something that's saved for the sequel, or it could well be something that's scrapped and never mentioned again — but Rocket Race fans will certainly be hoping that's not the case.

Destiny: The Dark Below is available now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Source: GameSpot