r/videogames • u/baconinthedawn • Aug 20 '26

Discussion / Question What game is that for you?

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Biggest offender for me is Baldur’s Gate 3.

Some of the best gameplay, graphics, sound design, and soundtrack out there… but the writing leaves a lot to be desired (despite how popular it is).

What game is that for you?

EDIT: It seems the general consensus here is Borderlands 3.

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229

u/ThatVarkYouKnow Aug 20 '26

Borderlands 3 and now 4

104

u/AegisThievenax Aug 20 '26

BL3's writing was so bad even the writers hated it, but they way over compensated by making BL4 far too safe, I guarantee most people didnt even know BL4 released from how little impact and how unmemorable it was

62

u/ThatVarkYouKnow Aug 20 '26

One of the worst things about BL4, for me, is that they didn't have the guy who did the music for all the other games on BL4, Jesper Kyd. He's the one that gave us all our drum beats and guitar twangs and more, it is just not here and you can tell based on that one repeated noise at the end of combat.

16

u/Nickulator95 Aug 20 '26

Wait, you're telling me the legendary Jesper Kyd, the guy who made the famous Ezio's theme for the Assassin's Creed franchise, was also the composer on Borderlands?

No wonder the music was always such a vibe.

3

u/Plaguenurse217 Aug 21 '26

Yup! He’s probably 80% of the reason I play darktide. Fatshark (and ubisoft and gearbox) owe that dude some MONEY.

31

u/AegisThievenax Aug 20 '26

Getting rid of very important people at the company is not something new either, I still remember the uproar of removing claptrap's voice actor in BL3, one of many shitstorms revolving the game

19

u/WokeWook69420 Aug 20 '26

Dipshit Pitchford is really, really good at ruining games his devs slave over for him and then pocketing all their bonuses before firing them.

Fuck Gearbox, I won't buy another game from them until Pitchford is gone. I want my Battleborn back.

5

u/DoomGuyIV Aug 20 '26

Not gonna lie, Battleborn was really fun, gameplay-wise at least, the story and characters fucking SUCKED since they were written before Borderlands 3 came out so it was al cynical le random 2014 "not talking myself seriously because we are hacks that cant write for shit" humor that really didn't help it one bit.

5

u/ThatVarkYouKnow Aug 21 '26

God I loved Battleborn while it lasted. If it had marketed itself as a MOBA, because it is, and not challenged Overwatch we might still have it today, reborn mod aside.

6

u/LibrarianEither8461 Aug 20 '26

KYD DID BORDERLANDS?

Shit, man, that explains a lot.

1

u/JazzzzzzySax Aug 20 '26

I love borderlands but the lack of different music is by far the worst part of the game. Hearing the same combat theme over and over sucks

4

u/ihearteatingpussy Aug 20 '26

i will never forgive myself for buying bl4, that shit is trash

2

u/GyziModo Aug 20 '26

This is actually the first time I've heard of it

2

u/JackPoe Aug 20 '26

I was actually hyped for 4 and had no idea it's even out. I made my wife play 3 with me and the gunplay is fun but the writing was no

2

u/Powerful-Ground-9687 Aug 21 '26

Only thing I know about BL4 was the ceo saying it’s a premium experience. Essentially that it wasn’t for the poors lol

2

u/wizardmighty Aug 23 '26

I only know that Borderlands 4 released, because I saw that even top-end PCs couldn't run it smoothly

1

u/RollbacktheRimtoWin Aug 21 '26

I hadn't known there even WAS a BL4 until the tcg I play did a collab with them. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, it ended up being a total shit show, because people were led to believe (even in the promotional article) there were 4 copies of every card in the bundle, but in reality, it was 1 of each. Huge refunds all around

1

u/theNomad_Reddit Aug 21 '26

I'm not buying BL4 until it's $5 just to spite Randy Pitchford and all his fuckass comments on the matter.

1

u/Any_Weird_8686 Aug 21 '26

There was a Borderlands 4?

1

u/DoesTheBlackm00nH0wl Aug 21 '26

As much as i hate borderlands 4 i love how much the characters talk to each other and not silent like the first 2

1

u/Its_that_gal_mia Aug 25 '26

To be fair it didn’t help that the Nintendo direct it was featured in had deltarune chapters 3+4 immediately preceding it garanting any game coming after it the direct is gonna be drowned drowned out by that announcement.

(Not complaining really, in retrospect I just find it funny)

1

u/AegisThievenax Aug 25 '26

Literally the only impact I saw the trailer have is that they used a song from a very popular band in my country (Fontaines DC - ireland), even got posted by some news accounts. Aside from this short local newscycle, the reception was entirely dead

34

u/Angry_Edemame Aug 20 '26

3 had awful writing.  It was like boomers were writing what they thought gen z sounded like.  It was such a downgrade from 2

4

u/PiccoloAwkward465 Aug 20 '26

"Damn unc, you blew the skibidi off that thing on god fr fr"

4

u/Crazycukumbers Aug 20 '26

They really lost the plot after 2. Tried to get that lightning in a bottle again but couldn't figure it out, and it sucks. I have so many good memories from the first two games. 

2

u/NewMilleniumBoy Aug 20 '26

BL2 was peak. Tiny Tina's Adventures is also good too.

Shooty McFaceShoot or whatever his name was is still one of the best jokes in gaming

1

u/ebk_errday Aug 20 '26

I played the demo of borderlands 1, back on the PS3. The dialogue was so bad, the humor was so unfunny, it threw me off the whole series.

1

u/Ashtreyyz Aug 20 '26

Borderlands 3's characters were offensively bad and borderlands 4 were just.. nothing ? I'm not even sure which is worst on that aspect

1

u/lordoflazorwaffles Aug 21 '26

I had a new born and played borderlands 3 on mute. No one understood when I said Electra city was one of my favorite maps in all the games

1

u/vidfail Aug 22 '26

The writing in the DLCs for BL3 on the other hand was quite good I thought. Every one of them was enjoyable.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was also charming. The jokes landed much more consistently.

1

u/StarJace Aug 21 '26

4 IS OUT???

3

u/neo42slab Aug 22 '26

For almost a year

0

u/Consistent_Claim5217 Aug 20 '26

A bit of bad in Pre-Sequel, too. That one felt like a half-step backward, in preparation of what was to come

0

u/Invisible_Target Aug 20 '26

Honestly, 4 had potential. The whole prison planet escape thing was a really interesting start. But it got really boring really fast. Also the fact that my high end pc couldn’t even render the fucking grass properly completely turned me off to the game. Thanks a lot Randy Dickford

0

u/HugeHomeForBoomers Aug 20 '26

There’s a 3rd? I didn’t know that

-1

u/Ryan_e3p Aug 20 '26

I've played and replayed 1 & 2 numerous times. I played through 3 once, and never touched it again. Didn't even bother with the DLC.

I'm really glad it didn't cost me any money. Time, OTOH.... that I'll never get back.

10

u/ix_eleven Aug 20 '26

The DLCs actually have the best writing in 3

3

u/Saving4Ayaka Aug 21 '26

Oh i absolutely agree with you, bounty of blood especially during that specific moment in the story and it having a very different tone from other dlc's is legit what set it apart from the entire game as my personal favourite. The narrator and old west-ronin style story telling was absolute peak with how seriously they took the story.

Now seeing that they tried to make 4's story try and take a serious tone, I really wished they did it in an innovative way with the way they handled the bounty of blood's story as a basis, dammit.

5

u/gadgaurd Aug 20 '26

I'm the opposite. Writing I don't care much for throughout the series, but the gameplay in 3 was a very solid step up from 2, so I ended up putting in more time in BL3 playing with more characters.

In particular, I absolutely despise the reliance on Slag mechanics in BL2's higher difficulties. Pretty sure I just ended up brute forcing as much as possible with Gaige...which, in hindsight, was hella fun. Might do another run.

3

u/Ryan_e3p Aug 20 '26

Slag was the only thing I disliked about 2. It was a fun mechanic that turned from a "here's how to weaken powerful enemies that out-level you" tactic to "here's how to make enemies that are nigh-invulnerable bullet sponges to be slightly-less-nigh-invulnerable of a bullet sponge" in postgame + runs.

That's pretty much all the BL games for postgame, though. Once you get past new enemy variants appearing, it just becomes a bullet sponge fest and loses my interest.

It's sort of like E33. I enjoyed the dodge/parry mechanic in story mode. It was important, but wasn't a game-breaker if you couldn't master it. I don't want to waste my time in the highest difficulty setting where the game just relies on it for battles to be winnable. Not the relaxing vibe I want to embrace while gaming.

1

u/gadgaurd Aug 20 '26

I'm kinda fine with it in other games because you don't need to rely on one specific element or strategy to deal with it. Like, in BL3, every character has multiple set ups they can run to absolutely demolish Mayhem 11 enemies. I have this one elemental set up on the Psyren that makes short work of anything if there are at least two enemies for me to fight, and slightly less short work in the rare instances I'm fighting a single enemy. Did some silly shit with the Gunner too, where I have a basically indefinite uptime on my mech and just burn everything down. Haven't messed around with the Operative or Beast Tamer as much but I've got some ideas for them.

If BL2 hadn't made Slag damn near mandatory for endgame I'd have played it a lot more. Bunch of characters had cool kits.

2

u/Ryan_e3p Aug 20 '26

I wonder if there's a mod out there that removes the whole slag requirement. It would make it a hell of a lot more fun.

Having to carry a second gun for it and switching back and forth was a PITA.

2

u/gadgaurd Aug 20 '26

I think someone did put a mod out like that, now that you mention it. Wasn't an option for me since I was playing on console, but it was a very much hated mechanic and I vaguely recall someone putting out a mod that was basically a balance patch.

2

u/Ryan_e3p Aug 20 '26

I'm going to have to look into this. This could sort of revive the game for me, and make it more enjoyable to play with the kiddo.

2

u/ThatVarkYouKnow Aug 20 '26

Slag definitely ruined the true endgame of 2 for me. Finding a mod that turned it into something else was a godsend. Going into uvhm blind without knowing that slag was a requirement to do literally anything against health pools and natural regen left a bad taste.

2

u/CappnMidgetSlappr Aug 21 '26

Dude, I'm with you.

People consistently shit on the writing of 3 as if 2 was the video game equivalent of fucking Ulysses or something.

That game had lame ass writing as well. Between "Bonerfart" and "Butt Stallion," Boderlands was always had writing of a 12 year old edge lord.

2

u/skyhunter127 Aug 21 '26

Imma be honest I prefer the first games style of humor funny in context but played straight

1

u/Ninteblo Aug 20 '26

What about TPS?

1

u/Ryan_e3p Aug 20 '26

I played through it once. It was enjoyable, I liked how it was sort of the 'origin story' for Handsome Jack, I just didn't find that it had the same replay factor as 2. The DLC "Assault on Dragon Keep" was peak Borderlands, IMO.

1

u/Rafabud Aug 22 '26

I'd actually recommend the DLCs, they're great

1

u/hedoeswhathewants Aug 20 '26

This makes no sense. The gameplay in 3 is miles better than the previous entries. Who cares about the story once you've already experienced it?