Another week, yet more of the same from the Week in Review. This week’s article focuses on Borderlands 3, the flop that is the Epic Games Store, and Konami of all things!
Yes last week’s focus seems to be Epic’s exclusive alternative to Steam, the so called Epic Games Store. It seems to be getting quite a bit of flak as of late, with them privatising their roadmap launch dates, concerning fans as to the Epic store’s march forward. Which is bleak, and rather boring to read, with a lot of roundabout words being said. ‘Lawyer’ talk to be honest. Speaking without saying anything and all that; hell, people are outright mocking Epic for numerous failures, missed deadlines and unfinished features, which Epic are just ignoring or pawning off on Gearbox’s shoulders. As well as just the general lack of core features and services from the inferior model that is the Epic Games Store, even developers are confused and unsure about Epic Store’s future and business model. They certainly aren’t dealing with this too well, but that could just be them buckling down and putting their noses to the grindstone so who knows.
Jump up and cheer! It seems beloved indie studio Telltale Games, which recently closed in June of last year, is being revived – Ok, so not quite recently, but it did shut down, to the total of around 252 jobs being axed. But hope is restored… At least in the near-future term, as it seems Telltale is rising from the grave. LCG Entertainment has purchased Telltale and is hard at work already at bringing this indie darling studio back to life once more… But alas, LCG has stated they will be selling some of Telltale’s properties, whilst moving forward with new stories for the company to tell, as well as new licences and assets. Of course plenty of people are wondering about the projects that were caught in development when Telltale closed down; LCG has stated that it will do its best to continue Telltale’s iconic legacy as best as possible, so fans will have to be patient for now to await further announcements.
Some news now about Apex Legends, and the new void walker event. Just a short stint this week, it seems Respawn has learned their lesson since last time, with the new game mode’s rewards being largely obtainable through already established means in game, such as the loot pool, crafting and unlocks. The new game mode is nothing new, just a more limited version of standard gameplay restricted down to snipers and shotguns with an emphasis on movement and agility-focused gameplay. Not really much in the way of patching up the mess they made with their last event; it seems they’re almost sweeping it under the rug and keeping their heads down. Let’s hope they don’t drop the ball again.
Soooooo. More news about the EA, especially BioWare, with an announcement made over the weekend, pretty much stating the same things we’ve already heard. Namely “We hope Anthem has a bright future”. Nothing new really, with more promises that new fundamental improvements and content will be coming soon… But at least BioWare seems to be on the up and up, with a brand new custom designed studio office being in their immediate future, as well as a few hints at some new content, but nothing much else.
Now onto EA, with a surprise announcement about the two week test of their new cloud-based streaming service, which is already up and running as we speak. Of course you need to be signed up not only to EA, but also Origin to access this test for the codenamed ‘Project Atlas’ – There’s also only a small selection of games this test is being run with, including FIFA19, Need for Speed Rivals, Titanfall 2 and Unravel, with cross play and transferable save game data being the main offered features of this test.
News about Death Stranding? Oh boy this outa be fun. Recently Kojima took to twitter with this to say about Death Stranding.
With the above it seems like Death Stranding may be falling into the category of ‘The David Kage’ game – Super easy cinematic story experiences with little actually gameplay. Kojima did go on to say that this feature was intended for “non-game experienced western fans”, this is of course being understandable if Death Stranding is going to be a story-rich or story-heavy experience; those who aren’t to inclined with video games will obviously struggle to experience the story if they’re stuck on the gameplay.
In other Konami related news, and just a small snipit, Konami is seemingly trying to unburn some bridges what with the crackdown on the Japanese gambling guidelines; they seem to be returning to PC and console games, with a statement being made that they are looking into new IP’s and developments.
So, the main meat of this week’s article. Borderlands is now on store shelves; it’s out, it’s here and oh boy are journalists mixed – With a wide slew of negative reviews insulting, criticizing, and joking about the game right out of the bat – Of course the fans seems to be loving it, they’re getting exactly what they want, more Borderlands! But oddly enough 2K has been rather stingy with early access codes, only handing out a small amount to a sparce few outlets. Particularly those in the US – PC gamer certaintly trashed Borderlands 3 with their review’s opening, stating:
“Borderlands 3 is the Family Circus by way of Spencer’s Gifts. A game with long earnest quests about how darn good coffee is punctuated by gore and gun violence. Borderlands 3 walks by dog poop, points at it, and laughs, and then sets it on fire. Borderlands 3 stays up until 11:30pm drinking soda and googling crass flash animations taking down detailed notes. It’s stuck in the late 2000’s when surface level vulgarity was enough to qualify as edgy. Borderlands 3 is seriously obsessed with turds, and when the series was first conceived. It’s stuck in a time when memes lasted months rather than days, when referential humour was still a novelty and not exhausting. When you could point at something the slightest bit abnormal or gross ad call it a joke. Simpler times, not necessarily better times.”
Credit to PC Gamer for the above quote. Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/borderlands-3-review/
I mean, ouch. That’s gotta qualify for r/RoastMe at the very least – This seems to be the trend with a lot of Borderlands 3’s reviews. I don’t understand though, that’s pretty much what Borderlands is; toilet humour with guns and cell shaded giblets… Like, seriously, does no one seem to understand this in the video game industry? Like, it’s meant to be campy, it’s meant to be B-list. It’s purposeful. If you want a compelling story with amazing gameplay, go play Portal or the Witcher. To me it sounds like PC Gamer’s review was written by someone who did not particularly enjoy the franchise, or knew what Borderlands was at it’s core.
PC gamer called it out of line with today’s times. Polygon called it a chore, dragging on the new villains and the level designs, and plenty more. Why does everyone have to try and make every game into a multi-novel level script of Shakespearean quality? I read a handful of these reviews, and this is the main point that comes up. Why? Borderlands’ best character was Handsome Jack, and even then he was an anomaly. Bad writing isn’t new to Borderlands.
Anyways, that’s all for This Week in Review, I could go on and on about the criticism dealt to Borderlands 3 lately, but I’ve pretty much said enough as it is. I could go one more and more about the ongoing news about Cyberpunk 2077, but again, it’s just repeating what I’ve already said in previous articles.
Farewell to all for now! Stay tuned for next week’s article.
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