• MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    I feel like a game like Borderlands needs to lead, not follow. They took some risks with BL3 that did not pay off, but the playability of the game was significantly improved.

    Naming a character “skibidi” is moronic in the sense that, this is already a meme. If it get put in the game, they’re just trying to be cool for the sake of it. It’s a very “hello, fellow kids” kind of thing.

    Borderlands, instead, should have some creativity with what’s being said and done in the game. Take a look at Tina for a second. When she’s introduced, she’s unapologetically strange. You either work with her on that level, or not at all. IMO, that’s why Tina is a fan favorite. The absurd and borderline insane statements she constantly makes is the reason that she is so well liked. She makes sense in an almost frightening and sociopathic way… And we love that about her.

    Going to the length of dragging Gen Z memes into the game for no good reason isn’t going to help, and will, in all likelihood, make things very bad. It’s just, in bad taste, lazy, and a cop out IMO. With such interesting and absurd stuff already in the game, like butt stallion, CL4P-TP, BNK-3R, and more than I could possibly think of or remember that are amazing… They’re going to stoop to a pop culture meme instead?

    Borderlands is about being weird and original with stuff, and some things really work, others, not so much. And that’s what made the series great IMO. They took chances, and went out on a limb for a joke, sometimes literally.

    I mean, who can forget shooty mcface? That’s a footnote in a quest and it’s honestly really funny, weird and something that sticks with you. That’s what Borderlands should be. It’s not some meme pop culture reference machine.

    • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It’s also worth pointing out that borderlands on it’s own has contributed to the cultural zeitgeist. “Looks like we got a badass” is still a regular quote when bosses appear in games. Every single character has a quotable callout and you can normally spot a BL player and their main by the one they use. Cellshade and rotoscope both has a renaissance after BL2 and cosplay contests regularly have a Moxy or Maya. The best way for Borderlands to keep it’s steam is to just be Borderlands, that alone will make the memes.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        This is what I’m driving at.

        Borderlands creates memes. Borderlands isn’t just shoveling in whatever memes are popular at the time of the creation of the game. They’re doing their own thing and letting the players decide what is meme worthy.

  • derpgon@programming.dev
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    4 days ago

    Paul Tassi joked that we were gonna have a gun called Hawk 2A and a fellow dev asked me if it was real and I wanted to put my hand down the sink grinder.

    As long as it didn’t scream “Buy muh crypto” when shooting, I would’ve loved the inside joke.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Imagine if gearbox actually hired writers with experience and good credits instead of just relying on their Skinner box casino loots.

  • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Can we get whomever wrote Handsome Jack to get in charge? 2 was so great because they landed into the humor and fun of the first one instead of shying away from it.

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Burch was the head writer for 2 and pre sequel, they replaced him for 3 and I think the consensus was while the writing in 2/pre was mediocre 3 was much worse it feels like writing by committee. I’d prefer they get someone who wrote at least one semi successful book with a beginning, middle, and ending.

  • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.org
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    5 days ago

    Maybe they could go back to some of the rough, fun storytelling they nailed with the first two games? Instead of marvel-esque storytelling from the third game. Toilet humour has a place in borderlands, its filled with dumb humour and always has been, but its been in a way that feels almost natural.

    A skibidi toilet reference isn’t going to fit, because that’s a passing meme. But shit like the ninja turtles quest in bl2, all the dumb jokes in bandit weapon names, face mcshooty, scooter’s entire existence throughout the first two games, tiny Tina’s character, thats all fucking awesome because we’re all in on the joke and the only pop culture references are evergreen ones.

    What I really want from borderlands is for them to get back to the anti-corpo/anti-capitalist messaging that was rife in the first games. Borderlands 3 felt so hollow because I almost felt like I was part of one of the corps. The ragtag group wasn’t a ragtag group anymore, we had similar influence to maliwan for fucks sake and were flying all over the place dropping on planets and exerting our might. Where’s the scrappy mad max vibes?

    • Marighost@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      The jokes in BL/BL2 felt like their own unique jokes, contained within the Borderlands universe, because they were. BL3 had a lot of reference humor, which can be fine, but some of the memes they referenced were 3-4 years out of date and the jokes fell flat and made us groan.

      The trailer for 4 was promising, and I only realized on a second watch that it contained no jokes, which honestly I appreciated. I think it has potential, as long as Randy Shitford doesn’t do anything to fuck it up.

      • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.org
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        5 days ago

        I mean they made a lot of pop culture jokes in borderlands 1 and 2. But they weren’t about “current” stuff. It was, as I said, evergreen things, like lord of the rings and tmnt.

      • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.org
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        4 days ago

        Cliche catchphrasey dialogue/plot points. “He’s behind me, isn’t he” “did I just do that, with my freakin’ mind?” type stuff

    • mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I am not sure what‘s up with the pretenses there, lowbrow and scatological humor has been very much Borderlands brand.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    I’m sorry, but after Borderlands 3 trashed the franchise, why should we give even the slightest crap about anything Gearbox makes? They went from Handsome Jack to the farking Calypso twins. Also, Randy Pitchford is a dick.

    • DdCno1@beehaw.org
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      3 days ago

      Because everyone likes a redemption ark. For as much as Pitchfork is a dick, his studio has plenty of good games under its belt. Dismissing them entirely because of one game you didn’t like is rather foolish.

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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    5 days ago

    I’m glad the guy who left a flashdrive full of porn at a Medieval Times, which he explained was there for “magic trick research” will aim for high brow stuff

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    I’ve managed to avoid finding out what the slang term skibidi means so far, somehow.

    I guess it just doesn’t come up in the media I consume. Not heard Kruggsmash or Technology Connections mention it yet :-P

    But yes slang aside, I’ve never enjoyed toilet humour, even as a child. Maybe because I’m very hygienic? It just disgusts me, haha. So this is good news.

    • Flatfire@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      It also doesn’t mean anything. It’s not even slang, it’s just a meme reference.

    • Maalus@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Skibidi is a machinima. Like in ye olden times when we used gmod to make movies / animations / shitposts. Just another generation of people leaving their mark on the world. They do have source filmmaker now, so that makes it higher quality than the physgun posed animation way back when.

        • Maalus@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Lmao no, we didn’t. You are thinking 2012. I’m thinking 2008 - DasBooSchitt with his Idiot Box series. It was a while before we got filmmaker and it was a huge gamechanger with how smooth the animation could be. No more players throwing shit with the gravity gun from the sides, no more posing a face and changing sliders to make a stop motion “animation”. No more invisible thrusters to make someone flail their arms and legs. No more physgun from the side rotating the head to simulate “talking”. That’s why vagineer had such an exaggerated face - you can’t / don’t need to make that shit talk.

          I don’t pull this quote often, but do not cite the deep magic to me, I was there when it was written. I was on Unsmart’s when Mopaz was coding the drunk combine. We had a shitload of the most talented Expression 2 minds around. We had VTOL planes, we had WW2 tanks and artillery, AC-130s which flew around the map. Hoverballs were literally the most shameful tool someone could use, everything was calculated with actual physics and applyForce / applyTorque. Those were the days. Nowadays they aren’t the days.

  • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    You know some prankster programmer is going to put that in a comment somewhere for the lols now that he’s said that

  • Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    I got to about level 5 in borderlands 3 and just gave up… It felt like a slap in the face after the great stories of borderlands and borderlands 2. The third attempt seemed like it was written by 13 year old boys…

    • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Complaining that Borderlands 3 has a juvenile tone, while praising the first two games great stories, feels disingenuous. Or, at the very least, it reads as excessively nostalgic.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 days ago

        Borderlands 2 was written by Anthony Burch, and featured a lot of HAWP style humor. It had plenty of material that didn’t land but plenty that hit the mark.

        Burch also set a bar that 3 failed abysmally.

      • fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Yeah, but borderlands 2 feels like it was written by a funnier 13 year old that’s kind of self aware. 3 has a more “hello fellow children” vibe to it.

    • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      The main issue with any borderlands title is that they aren’t worth buying on day one… Or even year 1. I quit buying after 2, and waited for a goty edition for 3. Ended up with the Pandora box which was more than I had planned on getting. Even when 4 releases, I’ll be waiting for the day it goes on sale with all dlc before I even bother looking at it. So probably just 2027 at this point.