#18

I for one hope they stick to the narrative choices that they made, if only to shut everyone who keeps moaning about the BL3 plot up :stuck_out_tongue:

(to make this emphatically clear, I am joking with that)

But, naw, it’s actually because I think on the whole it brought something to the table. There are decisions some folks don’t like, and I get that. I didn’t like everything about BL2, but the developers made their choices and people will either like or not like them.

That decision doesn’t fall to Gearbox, it falls to 2K who I believe still publish Borderlands games.

And no, generally, games can’t be delayed infinitely. Doing so costs money, and not everyone has infinite bags of money to throw around. That’s about as much as I can say without going down a dreaded political tangent :smile:

1 Like
#19

We are not talking massive delays, like 6 - 12 mths.
SR Reboot was pushed back. With them stating that they wanting to polish the game more.
Bethesda duo was delayed but that might be cause while Bethesda was happy Xbox wasnt.

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#20

6 to 12 months is that much in development costs, launch window opportunities, and so on. It means redoing advertising, etc.

I’m not saying games shouldn’t be pushed back. I’m saying that call is not Gearbox’s, and that “delay the game until it’s finished” means something different for every poster.

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#21

i get its a joke, but holy ■■■■ i hope they do not. that game’s story deserves all the critique it gets. the only real way to get people to shut up about bl3 plot is if it was retconned into oblivion lmao, and im not even exaggerating

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#22

If they do yet another story where the PC is completely ignored in cutscenes, and major characters like Lilith throw their powers and lives away instead of presenting something resembling a semi-competent defense*, then who cares? It’s just half-assed background noise to jazz up the calms between fights.

Handsome Jack was great, but he was lightning in a bottle, and if they just keep bringing him back they’re going to ruin what he had in the first place.

*People constantly complain about balance in these games - GBX can’t even balance the combat in CUTSCENES.

4 Likes
#23

As a personality, absolutely. As deus ex machina? He’s little better than the stuff people get mad about in BL3.

BL3’s problem is that it had other problems and divisive choices. And I understand why people look back more fondly on BL2 - it you like a lot of game, it’s easier to look past the weaker parts.

The problem is when we start assigning worth to people because of the games they prefer. It’s safe to say this doesn’t really happen to BL2 (first and foremost) fans. But it happened to TPS (first) fans even though it’s viewed more fondly now. And if happened to BL3 too.

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#24

Laughing… perfectly put.

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#25

Don’t forget that when ‘we’ get killed in BL, voila! A new copy is generated. So, previously killed characters can make a comeback…they’ve been stuck in the buffer.

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#26

I’d rather have more content for BL3 as the VHs are fun to play and the graphics still hold up. Wonderlands shaping up to be a “TPS 2” had to be expected and would have been better off as a DLC pack for BL3 similar to how TTAoDK was for BL2.

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#27

Save for Maya, of course, who is stuck inside the rotting, mutated corpse of an entitled, cannibalistic brat. Pretty sure she’s not coming back, and honestly, I think that’s okay. Borderlands has a main siren plotline. It doesn’t need three more. They’re struggling enough with the first one.

#28

Uh, Assault on Dragon Keep was a pretty straightforward, reasonably-sized DLC similar in scale to General Knoxx or any of the other DLCs in the first two games. Wonderlands as an add-on to BL3 would’ve pushed the game way past its processing capabilities. They could’ve butchered it up a bit, sure, to ensure that the rest of the game remained functioning stably, but then it would’ve been received with even more criticism than it currently receives.

TTWL has a LOT of issues - lacking endgame content being chief among them, but even with those problems, the build diversity is insane and wonderfully varied, and according to Gearbox’s promise of a 7th class, it looks like that aspect of the game is not going to disappoint any time soon.

Gearbox can still turn TTWL around, in my opinion. It’s going to take some serious work (a couple free content packages similar to BL3’s takedown raids certainly wouldn’t hurt) and probably a fair amount of butt-kissing the player base they’ve been actively shunning since… I dunno… the end of BL3’s major updates? I will give Gearbox the benefit of a doubt until they pull all support from the game like they did with TPS. That happens, and my days of supporting Gearbox are over. If they finish TTWL, though, and make it into what it has the potential to be, then they’ll have my respect again pre-order for the next installment.

#29

I think @Gorbles said it pretty well already, but yeah, a 6-12 month delay is literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in development. These games aren’t being put together by one rogue programmer who’s pouring everything he/she/they have into a passion project that might make them rich. It’s hundreds of people, thousands of hours in labor, and an incalculable loss in sales whenever a company pushes back their release date.

Anything more than a couple of days, by definition, is a massive delay in development terms: 6-12 months when you’ve already publicized your release date? That’s basically a death sentence.

#30

I agree to disagree. :rofl:

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#31

lol. Not for me.

3 Likes
#32

About which part? o_O

And yeah, it’s understandable. I think there are plenty of Borderlands fans who are sick enough of the shenanigans, that they’re out where future releases are concerned. We’re almost there. Just a wait and see at this point.

2 Likes
#33

Did they, in their minds? BL3 had massive first day sales, and ongoing for quite a while. Take Two also said that TTW “exceeded expectations”.
So while many of us here are not as pleased, from a pure revenue standpoint BL3 and TTW are winners to GB and the publishers.

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#34

To be fair, literally anything that generates sales after a year-long economic freeze resulting from a global pandemic would be touted a success. It’s a miracle anyone got anything done during the lockdowns that were set in place, lifted, reset, and then just ignored.

“Success” is a relative term, and it’s not an accurate representation of the game’s quality by any stretch of the imagination. I hear what you’re saying, I really do, but you also have to consider that Gearbox had always held itself in pretty high regards despite consistent criticism from those of us who know they can do better.

3 Likes
#35

Very very true. But it does allow future production. Just like Hollywood, if you can show you’ll do the same thing that someone did nd made a lot of money they’ll green light it, even if there is no guarantee of quality.

Which is part of my point. Making hundreds of millions on BL3 and an unknown amount (so far) on TTWL, with their general hubristic opinion of the quality of their work, means that, to me, it’s very clear that they are working to get BL4 out as soon as they (not us) feel it’s ready.

And anyway, I will pre-order BL4. While I stopped playing BL3 after a year and only did one playthrough of TTWL, I still got my money’s worth of entertainment. Something like BL2 comes around very infrequently and I don’t expect it, but BL3 is about what I expect and a acceptable place to put my entertainment budget.
Better than subscribing to a raft of streaming services producing post-broadcast TV episodic pablum.

1 Like
#36

Word.

My pre-order of BL4 will depend entirely on how TTWL is handled before before its announcement. If at that time, TTWL is in anything that resembles its current state, they can count me out, but if they can turn TTWL into the game it has the potential to be, I’ll continue to support Gearbox.

I only play two games anymore, and Borderlands is one of them, so it makes a big deal to have it functioning properly and providing the entertainment/escape I’m seeking. That’s not an especially tall order, either, if you ask me:

  1. Melee overhaul - fix melee-proof bosses, revamp the Live Wire, and add viability to existing melee weapons

  2. Looting overhaul (or rather, a reversion to what it’s been up until TTWL) - dramatically increase loot drops outside of the Chaos Chamber for targeted farming (which is what BL has always done best)

  3. Another 5-6 side objectives and 10ish new curses added to the Chaos Chamber to improve gamelan variety and build diversity (a Kill the Juggernaut mode, one where players have to spend a certain amount of time inside a moving location, Low grav mode [for a throw- back to TPS and this of us that loved it], etc, etc, stuff like that)

  4. For crap sake, give The Maker and Aspects exclusive gear, so that there’s actually a reason to fight them!

Optional 5) I think it would go a LONG way to appease a disappointed community by providing a free takedown-like DLC or two like they did for BL3. It can all function through the Chaos Chamber; it would just be another selection to make through the Dragon Lord. An endless mode would be fantastic imo, similar to the Slaughterdomes of previous installments, but it only ends when all lives are used up. No crystal for loot bunnies there, either. In addition to regular looting during play, rewards would be granted at the end of a run according to how long player’s survive, and reward quantity and quality increase in relation to survival time. Something like that would be relatively easy to implement as it would utilize resources already present in the game, and it would allow us to truly put our builds to the test. Certain rewards could be exclusive to that game mode, and they could even use it to introduce a legitimate raid boss at lvl 50 or whatever while scattering the current bosses (aspects included?) and mini-bosses throughout the levels.

Just my two cents, though. I haven’t been thinking about this or anything. XD

2 Likes
#37

I say just be done with WL, it’s flatlined. I would take another arms race map or takedown for BL3 however

1 Like