Borderlands 3

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

HEYOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Not confirmed, but after Arekkz video, I think we're safe from a battle royale disappointment.

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Seriously, fuck these people. Fuck battle royale. 🙄

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Since the Handsome Collection is free this month I picked it up. I originally wasn't going to play through BL2 again, but now that there is new DLC to bridge the story gap into 3, I've ventured into it.

I must say, some things have not aged well. wonky terrain with invisible hitboxes are REEEEALLLLY bad. Getting snagged on a structure or rock for no reason is super annoying, especially when you're walking backwards and shooting. They clearly made up for this with how much damage you can take though. The game is rarely punishing if you have to good shield. Trying to shoot through a fence or even a busted structure with gaping holes sometimes is blocked by an invisible wall as well. The driving controls are complete shit too It actually wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't shooting involved. The camera being the same as the steering is so UGH.

That being said, I'm still enjoying it. Its been so long since I've played it, the memories I had long forgotten coming back is enjoyable. The humor is great. I ended the night with Tiny Tina's tea party, and it was even better in 4K. The upgraded textures aren't that big of a difference unless you have a big TV I suspect. It mostly just smooths out the pixelation and tearing that occurs on newer TVs. I didn't know you had to download it separately, so when I booted up the game for the first time I was like "Holy cow, this looks so stretched". Being cel shaded, every black outline looked like a zoomed in pencil line on MS Paint. Anyways Kudo's to gearbox for just dropping brand new content for free (until next month). I look forward to getting there eventually.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I got to dive into this for a few hours. Time is tight since I'm pulling over nights for inventory but what I played so far is simply great for fans of the franchise. After playing BL2 remastered, I got a little disheartened because it wasn't as good as I remembered it. Not the story, but the gameplay. It aged poorly. Floaty moment, sprint was sluggish, shooting mechanics could be wonky at times, and the vehicle mechanics were just as bad as any Halo Warthog.

This was all fixed and it feels amazing. Movement is crisp, sprint is 3x faster than walk, shooting mechanics feel more like Destiny (which is what they said they studied to improve their system), and while I still dislike the vehicle controls, they are way more responsive. Playing with friends is easier than ever. You have to option to go classic co-op or the new cooperative setting which scales enemies for both players and has instanced loot. So if you're level 3 and your friend is level 30, Your friend can't oneshot everything in site while you do little to no damage to anything. Enemies are level 30 to him and level 3 to you, and they even drop corresponding loot appropriately. So you friends aren't punished with a bunch of level 3 trash loot for hours until you catch up. XD

Oh and shout out to fully custom button mapping. I'm glad this is becoming more of the norm since Overwatch did it. Presets controller schemes are trash. So far the game looks great, the comedy is good, the voice acting is superb as always. Colleen Clinkenbeard is seriously my favorite female VA ever because I love her voice, and she reprises her role as Lilith. The new Clap-Trap VA easily replaces the old one thanks to the auto-tune tech. Its barely different at all. Some of the animations have been a little janky when NPCs try to look at you and talk when you're standing in funny positions, but whatever, the gameplay has been a blast so far.

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Unfortunately the Multiplayer has become unplayable as of late. I guess devs forgot how to do P2P after we all demanded servers. Tons of lag, rubber banding, and audio going out when playing with friends. Hopefully a patch gets put out soon. The game works amazing solo though. Its just a shame with all these great scaling features for co-op its not working well right now.

I'm about half way through and the story is solid, but the side missions is where this game shines. They're absolutely hysterical. Gone are the go kill 20 of these or collect 10 of these. Every side quest has been as good if not better than a main story quest, full of dialogue and cut scenes. Simply outstanding.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Are the Borderlands games actual sequels to each other? Or will I not understand any plot if I skip the first two?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Yes, they are "loosely direct" sequels. Its hard to describe. Its all on the same time line, but the focus of the story is different each time. For every game the villains are different and have no connections with the previous one, also the characters you can choose from to play are different. The player characters of the last game become major story NPCs of the next game. You'd be lost on some of the lore, but you could still easily enjoy the story and the game. Since the characters you choose from are new to the borderlands world, the game treats your character as someone that doesn't know anything. So all the characters get their own introductions to you and things are explained to you as if you've never played a previous game before. This game also presents a ton of new characters to the universe like the owners of all the weapon brands. Borderlands shines more on its comedy, satire, and not taking it self too seriously. This is also the first game that leaves the home planet and you visit multiple worlds.

Best side mission ever.

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

lmao!  See ya Chadd.  

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I beat this today. It was highly enjoyable but I felt the end was pretty weak. Overall BL2's main story was superior, but BL3 is the better game as the overall story, with the side plots and all make for a much more enjoyable experience. Maybe they lost their focus a little at the end with all the work the put into making side missions the best any game I've ever played has seen. Very few side missions were collection quests and if they were it was only a part of it. They had a goal, a section of the map they took place in, lengthy dialogue, and hefty rewards other than just XP.

As I dive into the end game, the main takeaways from the normal playthrough:

The Good:
Excellent side quests
Rewarding loot from random chests and drops
Steady ammo supply
Inventory expansions (SDUs) are reasonably obtainable as your cashflow meets the pricing demand the further you progress in the game
Legendary weapons drop at a healthy rate at any level as well as purples.
Voice acting is amazing

The Bad:
Bosses are highly inconsistent. Some are pretty tough while others are laughably easy. And its not set in order. Some of the first bosses are pretty brutal while the final boss fight was a let down outside the visual spectral.
Snipers and Rocket Launchers are awful. They were super powerful in BL2 with limited ammo.... the ammo is still more hard to come by than other weapons but these aren't worth using. Pistols are still the best crit DPS in the game.
Jakobs and Tediore are OP weapon brands compared to the other brands.
While loot drops are generous and great, Boss and special chests rewards are supremely lackluster. All my best drops came from random spots, while where the best loot generally comes from gave greens and blues with the occasional purple. Each boss has its own legendary drop, so maybe that's why its like it is. Bosses respawn in their respective areas to be farmed, I guess they don't want you raking in the purples to sell as vendor trash to buy SDUs at an unintended rate.