What was that wrench you had to get for Ellie in the Commander Lilith DLC called? It seemed like an R&C reference too. During the Scooter tribute quest I think?
@Spudunk It is unfortunate that you feel that way. I think BL3 iterates pretty well on the Borderlands formula. The skills seem to take into account some complaints with the prior games, the weapons that return are mostly good, and the new weapons are, in many cases, a continuance of the kinds of cool weapons we saw in previous games (Brainstormer, Cutsman, etc.).
I think any game like BL3 gets to the point where players discover the meta and then it becomes the type of play you describe. Just think about BL2 - there were basically about 2 ways to play each character at end game or, in Gaige’s case, 1 (LOL). Players figure out how to min/max and then it does become an OP contest once they discover all the best gear and best anoints. I am not sure how you avoid that though.
IMO, there is about the same amount of build diversity in BL3 at this point than there was in the history of BL1 or BL2, and those games have been out for 10 and 7 years, respectively. People will figure out new stuff, there will be DLC weapons that will change things, and there may even be DLC skill trees and perhaps a level cap (though I hope not - I hope they do DLC skills trees and keep the level cap at 50). If they have DLC skill trees you will start seeing tons of different builds, because players will have to make many more tough choices with skills to get what they want.
I think the game design of BL3 is in a pretty good place right now. The game’s technical performance, not so much. This game would really be fantastic if it didn’t crash and lag all the time. Not being able to play online co-op sucks, as this is the most fun part of BL. I am on Xbone and the lag makes the game essentially unplayable.