A disastrous debut on the big screen won't stop the madness in the world of Pandora in video game format. During today's Gamescom Opening Night Live, developer Gearbox and publisher 2K Games officially announced the fourth installment in the looter shooter series, Borderlands 4, and confirmed it will be arriving in 2025..

In the trailer, we see what looks to be a cataclysmic cosmic event that rains debris across the planet, followed by what looks like a machine or cyborg creature picking up the signature Borderlands mask. It was a brief cinematic trailer, but c??onfirmation of its existence matched with the fact it appears to ta?ke place somewhere new and with a more sci-fi-influenced tone certainly has me excited to learn more.

According to the Borderlands 4 Steam Page, players are tasked with seeing if they have what it takes to go down in history as a legendary Vault Hunter as they search for secret alien treasure, blasting everything in sight. You know, Borderlands stuff.

No platforms were confirmed, but the Steam listing indicates that both Xbox and PlayStation controllers are supported, which could hint towards it being available on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, as well as PC. I'm sure we'll learn more soon ahead of Borderlands 4's 2025 release.

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Lionsgate might be trying to find a Vault full of cash right now, as the Borderlands movie box office numbers for its opening weekend are bleak. The film's domestic opening for the August 9 weekend brought in only $8.6 million, taking fourth place behind Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us, and Twisters for its debut.

Overall, Borderlands made a worldwide box office gross of $16.9 million (via The Numbers), which is tiny compared to its reported $115 million budget (via IGN). Assuming the typical marketing spend outside of its production budget, D+ Cinemascore, and negative fan sentiment, Borderlands doesn't look like it'll make that money back.

Box office YouTuber and analyst Dan Murrell says that Borderlands will be one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, if not the largest. What doesn't help are the awful reviews for Borderlands, with our sister site WGTC calling the film "bottom of the barrel."

Surprisingly, some big names are part of the eclectic Borderlands cast, including Jack Black (School of Rock) as Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) as Tannis, Cate Blanchett (Thor: Ragnarok) as Lilith, and Kevin Hart plays Roland. Despite so many household names, series developer Gearbox may want to forget this entry ever happened, and remain focused on its new game in development.

It's not all bad news for the Borderlands series, however. The third game has seen a 14.5% player boost on Steam over the past 30 days (via Steam Charts), likely due to the publicity of the movie (or viewers of the film who wan??t to forget about it).

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Gear up for more Borderlands, as Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said that the company is working on a new entry, alongside a new Brothers in Arms and more. As the Borderlands movie reportedly stinks up theaters, a "new mainline title" has been teased by Pitchford during an Epic Games interview published Thursday.

When asked if Gearbox is working on the next "mainline" game in the Borderlands series, Pitchford replied: "Of course we are.�

That's not it, either. While discussing the new Borderlands m??ovie that is available in theatres this weekend, Pitchford teased to Epic Games that multiple projects are in d?evelopment, thanks to a "leadership cluster," which "drives a project from cradle to grave."

“With this approach, we’re able to spin up multiple things, including a new Brothers in Arms game, which has been in development for a while—but we’re not yet ready to talk about it," said Pitchford. Perhaps, we could see this project announced during The Game Awards this year. The Brothers in Arms series had a TV show in the works in 2020 as well, and there have been mentions of a new entry in the series over the years.

Duke Nukem is also referenced during the interview. "We’re working on every IP. I mean, we just launched Homeworld 3, and there’s still work going on there," Pitchford said. "And there’s Risk of Rain, and there’s Duke Nukem, and there’s more.�/p>

The latest entry in the Borderlands series was the spinoff Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, which was received relatively well by critics and fans. "Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is more Borderlands, and the lighter fantasy fare might actually get people to dive in for the first time," said our review. "With that in mind, it’s still more Borderlands, so the same basic formula isn’t going to magically chang?e your stance if you’re a ??lapsed fan."

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Embracer Group is cutting down even more and separating itself from Gearbox. Now, the Borderlands creator? will have a new home with Take-Two Entertainment. 

Embracer has announced that it's officially selling Gearbox Entertainment, which includes Gearbox Software, Gearbox Montreal, and Gearbox Studio Quebec, as well as franchises like Borderlands and Risk of Rain. It will retain a few pieces, however; namely, Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, Lost Boys Interactive, Cryptic Studios, and Captured Dimensions. Embracer will also retain publishing rights for the Remnant series, Hyper Light Breaker, and some other unannounced games.

In a press release, Embrac?er Group CEO Lars Wingefors wrote, “Through the transaction [with Take-Two], we lower business risk and improve profitability as we transition to becoming a leaner and more fo??cused company.�

That transition has been in the works for quite some time and is expected to be finished by the end of the first fiscal quarter this June. Embracer Group has made dramatic cuts over the ??past year. From March to December 2023 it let go of 8% of its workforce, and th??e slew of layoffs caused game cancellations and even closed entire studios.

With that as a backdrop, it’s not surprising that Embracer Group is divesting from Gearbox, especially since Take-Two is expected to pay $460 million for the studio. It's a different tone, though, from 2021, when Embracer paid $363M up-front and potentially much, much more in performance targets for the studio.

This particular transaction may not lead to as much collateral damage for the sold company as some of Embracer Group’s other recent moves. In that same press release, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford reassured fans that in his view, this is a good move for the studio as well. “My primary interest is always Gearbox, especially our talent and our customers. I want to personally assure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best they can possibly be.”�/p>

According to a Take-Two release, there are quite a few of those experiences in varying stages of development. Gearbox is currently working on six new projects. One of them is part of a brand-new IP, but the rest are sequels. Specifically, Gearbox is apparently working on another Borderlands game. 

Of course, there’s no guarantee that this deal won’t lead to some amount of layoffs at Gearbox, but we can hope. 2023 was a particularly brutal year for the industry, with around 9,000 layoffs hitting studios of every size. This year’s already gotten off to a rocky start, with layoffs affecting Supermassive Games and leading to a canceled Star Wars project at EA, among so many other hits.

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2023 has been an utterly miserable time to be working in the video game industry. Announcements of layoffs from some of the biggest names around have been dominating news sections lately. While we alread??y knew Embracer Group was one of?? them, we now know the figures.

In the most recent sales report from the Crystal Dynamics and Gearbox Software owner?, the company has said it experienced a 13% increase in net sales between July and September of this year (Q2 of their 2023-2024 fiscal year).

It then goes on to acknowledge that "around 900" people were part of the "reduction in headcount." This equates to 5% of the whole workforce. That's quite an astonishing amount of people to let go. Embracer Group said it's also "reduced the number of projects" being worked on ??and is focussing on "improving the projected return on investment within PC/Console."

At least the company is doing well...

The report goes on to say that CEO Lars Wingeford would like to "put on record a special thanks to the people who have left Embracer in the quarter." Unfortunately,?? it's unlikely to bring much comfort t??o those who have lost their jobs.

We already knew that developers under Embracer's umbrella were being targeted for mass layoffs. However, this latest report really hammers home the extent to which studios? have been affected by these "reductions."

You've heard this story dozens of times already. Ubisoft, Team17, Nau??ghty Dog, Amazon, CD Projekt Red, and many more have all been involved in redundancies, many to the tune of hundreds. One wonders whet?her anyone would still be interested in seeking a career in game development after all this.

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Embracer Group is a large company that has its fingers in quite a few pies. In 2021, Gearbox Entertainment was acquired by Embracer for an eye-watering $1.3 billion. Despite the pricey purchase, it seems not all is well, and a report from Reuters c?laims that Embracer is considering its option?s with Gearbox.

Reuters, citing three people familiar with the matter, states that the involved parties are working with Goldman Sachs and Aream & Co to explore a possible sale, and this comes after Embracer received interest f??rom third parties. This is certainly big news, but it's not entirely a surprise, as Embracer had previously made it known that the company is undergoing drastic changes.

In June, the company released an open letter explaining that it is aiming to shift from a "heavy-investment-mode to a highly cash-flow generative business." Doing this will require "closing or divestments of some studios and the termination or pausing of some ongoing game development projects." We've already seen the effects of this with the closure of Volition and Campfire Cabal.

[caption id="attachment_386449" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Embracer Group.[/caption]

 What happens to Gearbox now?

Gearbox is mostly known for the Borderlands franchise, with 2019's Borderlands 3 serving as the latest mainline entry. It has also published several successful titles, including the unexpected hit Remnant 2. Currently,? it is unclear what the studio's future will look like. Reuters warns that the deal may not happen, as nothing h??as been finalised. However, Embracer's actions this year suggest the company is eager to shed weight.

It's worth keeping in mind that the report mentions a sale as just one of its options with Gearbox. Though it's not stated, it stands to reason that a possible studio closure may be one of the other options, which would be bad news for Borderlands fans.

Gearbox was founded in 1999, and since then it has placed its fingerprints on several massive franchises, including Duke Nukem and Half-Life. Though it appears it may have an uncertain future ahead, its longevity thus?? far gives hope that it'll endure.

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2K Games and Gearbox have announced that they’ll be packing the entire Borderlands saga together in the Borderlands Collection: Pandora’s Box. This collection packs in all six of the base games (including the adventure titles) ??as well as all their add-on content. The pack will be available September 1st,?? 2023.

To be more specific, Borderlands Collection: Pandora’s Box contains Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands, Borderlands 3, and New Tales from the Borderlands. That’s a lot of Borderlands. More Claptrap? than you ??can tolerate, which in my case is very little.

The base price of the package is $149.99. That’s savings�probably. However, Borderlands Collection: Pandora’s Box will be available for a limited time at $59.99. That’s 10 whole bucks per game. And while this might be most enticing for someone who doesn’t own any Borderlands and would like to own all of the Borderlands, you’ll ??get a discount if yo??u digitally own any of the titles.

Here’s speci????fically what the site says on the matter:

• Xbox - If you already own a digital copy of any Borderlands game within the Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One and want to complete your collection, the Microsoft Store automatically entitles you to a special $30 price on this bundle.
• Steam - If you already own a digital copy of any Borderlands game within the Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box on Steam, you'll only pay for the content you don't already own. This will be reflected on the Steam Store page for Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box.
• PlayStation - If you already own a digital or physical copy of Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition or Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for PlayStation 4, or a digital or physical copy of Borderlands 3 on PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4, and want to complete your collection, you can access a special $30 upgrade offer on Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box by launching one of these titles and following the in-game instructions.

I actually don’t like Borderlands! I got the first game back when it launched and didn’t really enjoy it. I never really circled around back to it because I hate Claptrap. Absolutely despise that little chatterbox. But if you like Borderlands, here’s some Borderlands for you.

The Borderlands Collection: Pandora’s Box will ??be available for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms on September 1st, 2023.

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Adaptation approaches wrapping phase

It seems that Lionsgate's live-action adaptation of apocalyptic shooter Borderlands is almost in the can. As reported by Deadline, the bombastic-sounding sci-fi flick has entered its reshoot phase, bringing in a new pair of eyes to put the finishing touches to what sounds like a parti??cularly wild cinematic adventure.

While gorehound Eli Roth is credited as the director of the adaptation, the Hostel lensman has left the project at the final hour, as he has finally received the go-ahead to start work on his slasher throwback Thanksgiving �a project that Roth has been trying to get off the ground for well over a decade. Lionsgate has brought in Deadpool's Tim Miller to direct reshoots for Borderlands, with Deadline reporting that situation is extrem??ely amicable between all parties.

Based on the pulpy video game series, Borderlands features an all-star cast as the band of rag-tag reprobates on the search for hidden treasure in a desolate and dystopian universe. As we have previously reported, the new film stars Cate Blanchett as world-weary outlaw Lillith, Kevin Hart as disgraced mercenary Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as the unpredictable scientist Tannis, Ariana Greenblatt as cutesy bomb-lovin' maniac Tiny Tina manic explosives expert Tiny Tina, (along with her protector, Krieg (Florian Munteanu). The party of anti-heroes will be joined by wise-ass robot Claptrap who will be voiced by Jack Black.

Borderlands, as an i??ncredibly visual franchise, has a lot of potential for its big-screen transition. With capable hands both behind and in front of the camera, it could prove to be a pretty darn entertaining venture. Pro??jects such as these are not always the sum of their parts, but here's hoping that the finished film offers an authentically chaotic slice of interstellar action when its raggedy curtain finally rises.

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And that's no claptrap

Today is a day, and that means its time for a ratings board to reveal the existence of an unannounced game/port �On this occasion, its the turn of 2K Games' Borderlands 3, which is apparently getting a Ninte?ndo Switch port, ??as leaked by the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) committee.

The new port, as spotted by Gematsu, was listed on PEGI's website yesterday, appearing alongside its PC and console brethren and with a suggested release date of *checks notes* today! The listing includes the main game, first released in 2020, as well as a huge litany of DLC expansions, including Bounty of Blood, Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, Guns, Love, and Tentacles, and both the Designer and Director's Cut.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0paDkX5WQfk

Though publisher 2K Games and developer Gearbox Software are yet to announce a Switch port of the nihilistic open-world shooter, the new PEGI rating all but suggests that the hybrid platform is about to get 3000% more explosive in the very near future. We'll be sure to give y'all a heads up when Mad Moxxi, Claptrap, Psycho Krieg, and the rest of Borderlands' motley crew of gun-toting, bomb-to??ssing maniacs are ?heading to chez Nintendo.

Borderlands 3 is available now on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platform??s.

Borderlands 3 rated for Nintendo Switch in Europe [Gematsu]

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The publisher will be the steward of it moving forward

The Risk of Rain series is under new ownership. As part of the financial update from Embracer Group this week, Gearbox announced they'd acquired the IP for Risk of Rain and its sequel Risk of Rain 2.

Gearbox Publishing was the publisher of Risk of Rain 2. Now, i??t seems the company is taking t??he reins of the franchise.

"After years of passionate publishing work on Risk of Rain 2, we have developed a deep love and respect for the IP," reads a statement from Gearbox on the Risk of Rain 2 account. "We are eager to prove ourselves as worthy custodians by continuin??g to bring you world-class cont?ent and ensuring a bright future for this genre-leading franchise."

//twitter.com/Ri??skofRain/status/1??593242555214241796

Developer Hopoo Games, which made both Risk of Rain and its sequel, shared the news. Their statement describes it as "some excellent news for any Risk of Rain fans."

And to be clear, while Gearbox did purchase the IP, the publisher did not purchase Hopoo Games. So no, this does not mean the Risk of Rain devs have officially joined the increasingly massive number ??of stu?dios under Embracer Group.

It does, however, leave Risk of Rain 2 in a strange place. In Gearbox's statement, the publisher says it's working hard on bringing the Survivors of the Void DLC to consoles. There's ?also a "very special passion project" that Gearbox and Hopoo are working on together, to be shared soon.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ-aR--gScM

When it rains, it pours

Hopefully, this lets Risk of Rain 2 move into stable hands while Hopoo chases? something new. That seems like a best-case scenario. And ultimately, I'm gla?d Hopoo Games has a chance to work on a passion project, too.

Both Risk of Rain games are among my favorite rogue-style games, and Risk of Rain 2 in particular really impressed me with how it moved the original's action into the 3D space. They're excellent games. Fans seem a little worried about what this means for the future, and I don't blame them. But either way, we've still got the classic Risk of Rain 2 to fall back on.

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Saints Go

Game studio Volition is about to fall under the umbrella of a new publisher, as Embracer Group has announced that the Saints Row developer?? is to make a side-step from being a subsidiary? of Deep Silver to become a subsidiary of Gearbox Entertainment.

Embracer Group, (which owns all of the above), made the announcement in a quarterly financial report.

"Going forward, Volition will transition to become part of Gearbox which has all the tools, including an experienced management team in the United States, to create future success at Volition," declared Embracer in the report.?? "This is the first internal group transfer where we transfer a major studio between operative groups, but it is not necessarily the last."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvClpQdaX1Q

Elsewhere in the summary, Embracer notes that the recent Saints Row reboot "performed in line with management ?expectations in the quarter". Though the holding company also candidly notes that the hyper-trendy?? redesign "did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially polarized".

With this move, it will be interesting to see if Volition continues its work on the crime sim series under Gearbox, or whether the studio will transition into making content for series such as Borderlands. The comments from Embracer do not sound like the holding company sees Saints Row as a mon??eymaking priority right now �given the lukewarm reception to its "Old Men Portray? Gen Z" revival.

Founded as Parallax Software in 1993, Volition made an immediate name for itself with the esoteric space shooters Descent and Descent II. The studio founders would split into two separate developers thereafter, forming Outrage Entertainment and Volition. Today, the latter is best known for its work on the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises, as well as its gleefully violent 2005 shooter, The Punisher, and its fun gamut of company idents.

Saints Row is available now on PlayStation, ?PC, and Xbox platforms.

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The following feature contains a spoiler for Telltale's 2014 title Tales from the Borderlands. Just go play it, because that's basically the conclusion of this article, anyway.

Or maybe even better...

A couple of weeks ago, I had the displeasure of reviewing Gearbox's New Tales from the Borderlands. I try to give every game I review the benefit of the doubt, but this game just kept letting me down again and again and again, and in the end it turned out to be a pretty miserable experience �and I gave it a 3/10. The whole time I was playing, I couldn't stop thinking about how awesome I thought the first game was, to the point that it is one of my favorite games of all time. Before I even finished the first episode of New Tales, I knew I had?? to go ??back and see if the original held up in the way that I thought it did.

Turns out Alice Bell over at Rock Paper Shotgun and I think alike, because she had the exact same idea. New Tales from the Borderlands was so bad, it actually made more than one of us return to the original to make sure we hadn't created some kind of false, reverent memory as a coping mechanism. But the conclusion is the same, and it seems to be unanimous: Tales from the Borderlands is stil??l one of the best stori?es ever told in a game.

A sense of momentum

Right off the bat, the game grabs you. It opens wi??th this mystery of who kidnapped Rhys, one of the player characters, and after a few quips, he launches into a? narration of how he got to where he is in the first place. The story gets rolling right away, and it never really slows down after that.

The dialogue is smart and snappy, and perfectly paced while also giving us exposition at the same time. Compared to New Tales' slow, clunky exposition dumps, the original Tales' sharp, focused writing is all t?he more noticeable. It's also just funny as hell. There are still bits from this game that I quote to this day, and don't even get me started on the finger guns fight in Episode 4.

Then there's the musical opening, and while all of them are particularly great (shout out to the slo-mo rocket launch sequence from episode 4 �the entirety of the penultimate episode is nothing short of excellent, honestly), but episode 1's heavy beat and funky synth banger "Busy Earnin'" by Jungle is will be one of those gaming moments I remember for the rest of my life. It just sets the tone for the entire series, the song is dripping with style and swag, and it?? really hammers home the feeling that there's a whole adventure ahead of you. Perfection.

That sense of momentum is maintained throughout the entire rest of the series, except for maybe the last half of the final episode, which I can excuse because it makes way for the most video game-y section of Tales �the final boss ??fight. Otherwise, the rest of the episodes are jam-packed with plans, obstacles, and random happenstances that send the group reeling, and then we have a blast seeing how they manage to scrape by and eventually come out o?n top.

One particularly clever st?ory technique they used a few times was having the characters lay out their plan, and then use that to narrate them actually carrying out those parts of the plan, which is just efficient writing in my opinion. They don't waste a second of my time, let alone hours at a time like another game I can think of.

Cause and effect

Right off the bat, we know exactly who the characters are and what they're after. As their goals slowly shift as the series go on, we can see w?ho they are changing, in real-time, as they react to and deal with the circumstances that are placed in front of them. Of course, y??ou as a player are part of shaping that arc, and the game feels satisfying and reactive every step of the way.

I never understood the criticism of the "they will remember that" messages in the top corner of the screen, especially in regards to Tales. The Telltale devs get awesome mileage out of?? the mechanic, by constantly changing up how they use it for the sake of jokes, and, more sparingly, impactful emotional moments.

Something else that surprised me when I started Tales from the Borderlands is how often you interact with the game. It's baby stuff compared to full-on action games, but it might as well have been Breath of the Wild next to New Tales from the Borderlands. You have dialogue choices really often, sometimes as many as three or four choices a minute, and you spend a good amount of time each episode exploring the environment and doing some point-and-click stuff. Again, it's pretty basic, but it's far and away more interaction than you get in New Tales.

You don't know Jack

I also have to take a second to talk about how insanely good Jack's death scene is. Handsome Jack is already dead as of Borderlands 2, but he makes a posthumous return as an AI living inside Rhys' head in Tales from the Borderlands. Not only are all of the exchanges between Rhys and Jack excellent throughout the whole game, but their final confrontation is somet??hing straight out of Shakespeare's bibliography, and I don't say that lightly.

Whereas Rhys star??ted out as nothing more than a fanboy, he's learned and grown a lot since his first encounter with Jack. Plus, you know, he doesn't want to die so that Jack can just his bo??dy as his own personal meat puppet. That's less sexual than it sounds. Anyway.

An ultimate confrontation in the wrecked remains of Helios, pair?ed off with expert cinematography, thrilling, existential writing, and stellar performances from Troy Baker and Dameon Clarke make for some of the best storytelling in games you're ever going to see. I mean, we get Handsome Jack contemplating the true nature of death and Rhys ripping out his own arm and eye to kill his ?nemesis once and for all. What more could you possibly want? That's peak drama, baby.

I did not misremember... Tales is the GOAT

Tales from the Borderlands has always stuck in my mind as one of my favorite games of all time, but I don't think I realized in the years since I've played it how much it stuck with me, and even influenced my own wri??ting sensibilities. It's a fast-paced, ridiculous adventure, but at its core it's a really moving character piece that manages to give each one of its characters a c??ompelling arc, even outside of the main six cast members.

I could continue to sing its praises for thousands more words, but you get it. Just go play it, and if you've played it before, play it again. Telltale was on some next-level shit in the first half of the 2010s, but if you ask me, Tales from the Borderlands is their best work.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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I didn't want to have to do this, but they gave me no choice

I was really excited to get to do the New Tales from the Borderlands review for Destructoid. Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands is an all-time favorite of mine that I’ve played through multiple times, and while I was disappointed to see that Gear??box’s take on Tales wouldn’t continue Rhys, Fiona, and Sa?sha’s story, I was optimistic that the sequel would be an enjoyable experience. How wrong I was?.

As I made my way through each subsequent episode, I regretted taking on this review more and more. Now I’m tasked with detailing what a torturous experience this was, and to be the bearer of bad news. And likely incur some? wrath from those who want to defend this hot mess.

I honestly don’t even know where to start.

New Tales from the Borderlands (PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K
Released: October 21, 2022
MSRP: $39.99

Does this even count as a story?

The pacing of this game is so, so slow. Narratively speaking, it takes forever to do everything. Most of this game features the characters standing in the same building and talking �even one of the big battle sequences had the characters stopping and talking every other second. In the final episodes, where the story is supposed to be at its most climacti??c and enthralling, it would have been slogged down ??by the snail pacing if what was going on made any sense at all. 

A major plot point hinges on a montage of the characters sitting around and killing time. In the final episode, one of the main characters literally says they’re wandering around and doing nothing in particular. I don’t know who told the writers that I wanted to do chores and deal with an ?insurance claim in a Borderlands game without any sort of comedic twist, but they were sorely,? sorely mistaken.

When it came to the actual speed of the lines deliv?ered, or the pauses between lines, it also felt like everything was moving in slo-mo. I don’t know if it was a problem with the engine not loading things fast enough,?? but I felt like I was trudging through molasses the whole time.

I'm flatlining

None of the characters have arcs at all. Personality-wise, they don’t change or have any form of introspection (until some over-the-top scenes toward the end). The relationships aren’t developed in any meaningful or interesting way. One of the side characters had a somewhat interesting little semblance of an arc, but they use him?? so sparingly that it loses most of its impact. Some characters are introduced in the first episode and then never show up again except in the finale of the whole story. Threads are introduced and abandoned, or brought up in a way that would suggest some kind of significance that was never set up beforehand.

The final episodes try to pull off some emotional character moments, but when they ??haven’t been explored? or set up well in the first few episodes, they feel melodramatic and hollow. Plus the tone is super awkward and weird in the scenes themselves, so they don’t even work out of context, either. It honestly feels like someone gave a 15-year-old the reins of one of the biggest series in gaming and hoped for the best.

The adventure would slow down to explain to me things that had just happened, or would keep beating me over the head with the same point repeatedly. That’s a bold move whe??n the story doesn’t even have its own internal logic. In one scene, a character convenie??ntly fails to recognize the building where he has worked for years, owned by the woman who basically took him in as her son, which ends up screwing everyone over. Seriously?

??????????????????????????The character motivations don??’t make any sense to me, either. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the idea of who these characters are in a world as violent and horrible as the Borderlands universe is inherently funny. In execution, they're the driest, most uninteresting characters I’ve seen in a game in a long time. They never have one big goal that they’re working toward together, and the individual char??acter motivations never get less vague than, “save the world�?or “start a successful business.�/span>

The first three episodes, though boring as all hell, are at least�kind of�something? They don’t really add anything to the characters or build upon the narrative in any way or have any sense of cause and effect when it came to the storytelling, but they at lea??st weren’t incoherent. Things really went off the rails with the final two episodes, however.

Is it kink-shaming if it's shameless in the first place?

It pains me to even have to talk about this, but the people need to know. E?pisode 4 of New Tales from the Borderlands is full o?f weird kink/fetish shit. I’m no prude, and if there’s a place to make “edgy�sex jokes, Borderlands is ??the place to do it. But oh my god, nothing about it was funny, or cheeky, or enjoyable in any way. It was just awkward and gross and made me deeply, deeply uncomfortable. 

That episode alone evoked pee stuff, milking, force feeding, restraints and domination, public humiliation, a robot fully just having a prolonged orgasm in front of everyone, and an anal rape joke about said robot getting STDs. That doesn’t include other instances like allusions to necrophilia, ?and one of the main characters openly stating she wants to have sex with her surrogate son on multiple occasions. What the fuck? What the actual fuck?

There is no Borderlands in my Borderlands game

One of the greatest tragedies, though, is that New Tales from the Borderlands doesn’t even feel like a Borderlands game at all. It’s set in the Borderlands universe, it features characters from Borderlands, and there’s some violence like you? would see in Borderlands, but that’s about? where the similarities end. The final episodes especially devolve into some ridiculous sci-fi/fantasy stuff you’d only see? in some D-tier anime, but not in a Borderlands game.

I also have to talk about musical i??ntros, because the licensed music in Tales from the Borderlands is nothing short of icon??ic. Those songs have swagger, and a certain gritty gro??undedness that fits into the world really well. The songs in New Tales? Not so much.

The songs were either too ?bland, too on the nose, or didn’t sound like real songs at all. I regularly go back and listen to a playlist of all the songs from the OG Tales, but I have a feeling that won’t ?be the case this time aroun??d.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Borderlands is b?est known for its sense of humor. Not every bit in every game in the series is going to land??, sure, but Borderlands has always maintained a goofy, fun spir??it, wh?ile pretty consistently making us all chuckle at the very least. When it comes to New Tales from the Borderlands, though, I can?? count the number of times I laughed on one hand. It’s just not a funny game.

It is not a story that works on any level whatsoever. Apparently, this game was supposed to be about standing up to big corporations? Or something? I guess the villain of the game is technically a CEO, but the story is too incompetent to say anything at all, let alone anything about the inner workings of tryi??ng to dismantle capitalism. The found-family, healing broken relationships angle doesn’t work either wh??en your characters don’t have any chemistry. Telling me they care about each other doesn’t make me believe it.

The story really was so laughably bad I could feel myself going through all th??e stages of grief as I played. Although maybe I haven’t accepted it yet. I wouldn?’t be quite as harsh if the narrative wasn’t all it had, but it somehow has less gameplay than the original Telltale games.

What about the gameplay?

“Okay, so the ?story was horrible, but maybe the gameplay was alright?�I hear you asking. Well, I hope you like disappointment, because that’s ??all this game consistently gives me.

New Tales from the Borderlands barely even qualifies as a game �you'll often spend minutes at a time without any form of interaction at all. Maybe if they hadn’t used the �/span>Tales from the Borderlands�it could have existed as its own thing, but it’s obviously pulling from?? the success of the first game. What is baffling to me, then, is why they wouldn’t somewhat stick to the Telltale formula. 

The original Telltale games had a lot of point-and-click elements, which were pulled back to a mini??mum in New Tales from the Borderlands. Sections where you actually get to walk around and interact with the environment?? are few and far between, and they don’t a??dd much except to the runtime.

The classic dialogue choices are still there, but they were also fewer and further between than I would have liked. On rare occasions they offered an interesting tidbit, but for the most part I found them to b?e pretty same-y and bland. I tried to pick the most out-ther??e options to see if they would give me any more insight into the characters, but to no avail.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQw04Kbk8o

With the exception of the literal climax, those big choices with consequences las?ting the? whole rest of the game also appeared to be missing. Gearbox made a big deal about wanting to be less obvious about when you’re making a big choice for the sake of immersion. 

Sure, in theory, I could have been more immersed if the story was well written and the choices were compelling. But hiding big choices from the player and not clearly coding how those choices were paying off made New Tales from the Borderlands feel really on rails, even if my playthrough would have looked completely different to someone else’s. Even the slightest bit of transparency, like something as simpl?e as a story tree at the end of each episode a la Detroit: Become Human would have been to their benefit here.

Everyone’s favorite, the quick time events, really take center stage on this one �especially when you factor in the new mini-game. The characters start making a big deal about these little figurines you can find, and when you battle with them, it just throws a bunch of QTEs at you and calls it a day. They were also so easy I think I got hit once in one of these fights i?n the entire series. The fighting game reference is cute the first time, but it overstays its welcome really fast.

In conclusion: I wish I hadn't played it.

I have a few positives: this ???game looks really good. It definitely needed more of a cell-shaded look if it were to accurately capture the Borderlands st?yle, but with exception of some dull settings, the animation, character art, and environments looked nice. It's about what you'd expect to see as the next ??evolution of Telltale's style. I also didn’t encounter any bugs during my playthrough, at least that I noticed, so at the very least it’s playable and has some level of polish. Hooray.

I’m sure there will be people out there? who have a better time with this than I did (anything better than pure misery will do), but if the general consensus is that this game is average or above, I will be baffled. There are so many other things I could talk about here, but honestly, in the end I was mad that this game wasted so much of my time. It’s certainly not worth the $40, that’s for sure. If I didn’t have to finish it for this review, I would have likely dipped out after the first hour.

I wish I could say I nailed New Tales from the Borderlands with a bad score because I was holding it to a higher standard because it was dev??eloped by Gearbox, and that it had a lot to live up to by following the original Tales. Those things m?ay be true, but this g??ame is a soulless slog regardless of who made it or what series it’s a part of.

If you’re asking my opinion, don’t play New Tales of from the Borderlands. Or maybe pool your money together with your friends and do it in like an ironic, The Room-style playthrough. Thankfully this game won't detract from my enjoyment of the original Tales, but it's a real shame to think of how this could have built on that first game. Unlike its predecessor, I don't think New Tales from the Borderlands is a title I'll ever be returning to.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Due on October 21, 2022 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X

New Tales from the Borderlands was announced today at the Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, and it has a d?ate �a soonish date, at that. Pr??e-orders are up today, and it's coming to PC (Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on October 21, 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8688wNaRnD0

Gearbox is calling New Tales from the Borderlands a "standalone adventure." This new tale will deal with a "planetary invasion, a vault monster, and cold-hearted capitalists," complete with the classic choose your own adventure conceit. It?'ll also be a personal story of three people. Here's the setup, which has garnered an M rating from the ESRB:

"Within the perpetually war-torn metropolis of Promethea, players will decide the fates of three underdogs out to make mayhem their business, wi?th altruistic scientist Anu, her ambitious 'st??reetwise' brother Octavio, and the fierce, frogurt-flinging Fran."

Pre-orders will come with cosmetics for the core trio, 10,000 in-game currency (big question mark here), and an in-game FL4K collectible: that's $40 for the standard edition. For $50, you can get the deluxe edition (which is available in physical form) and grants you Tales from the Borderlands on top of the new entry.

It's weird seeing all these Telltale games come back, but the hope is that if they're split between multiple studios they'll fare better. At the end, Telltale was putting out a lot of stuff, and not all of it was up to par.

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It's out on Steam on June 23

A Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Steam release is imminent as Gearbox has just revealed that the game is coming t??o the platform on June 23.?? That's this week!

Originally released on March 25, 2022, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands came out on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and...PC, but only on the Epic Games Store. While many games have longer exclusivity windows, Wonderlands will hit Steam in less than three months, which isn't bad in the grand scheme of things. Gearbox has announced that the exact release time for Wonderlands Steam is actually 10AM PT on June 23. It'll debut with a standard edition for $60, or the special [Chaotic Great] edition for $79.99 (which includes? the season pass) �if you buy in on Steam through July 7, 2022, you'll get the golden hero armor pack.

So, a few quick things about the Wonderlands Steam edition. Gearbox says that save data can be transferred between Steam and Epic, "but will need to be moved manually." Annoyingly, the publisher says that "players run the ri?sk of potentially losing save files," and suggests that users "make a backup copy." This kind of goes without saying, but it's good to reiterate every now and then. The Steam version will also support cross-play, and will not be left out of that party. Oh, and the Molten Mirrors DLC is out this week, which will be live alongside of the?? Steam edition. It's the third (of four) "Mirrors of Mystery" DLC packs, which comprise the season pass.

You can find the Steam page for the game here. Again, it'll be live on June 23 at 10AM PT.

The post Tiny Tina’s?????????????????????????? Wonderlands only took three months to come to Steam, no longer an Epic exclusive appeared first on Destructoid.

They're really doing it

Video game adaptations continue to be all the rage, and now Duke Nukem gets to join in. The movie rights to Duke Nukem have been acquired by Legendary Entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Legendary has quite an interesting crew on board to produce the Duke Nukem project, too. Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg are reportedly ??on bo??ard.

Alongside Legendary Entertainment, Marla Studios will also be on to produce. Marla Studios was founded by Assassin's Creed (the movie) producer Jean-Julien Baronnet and specializes in video game adaptations. THR reports the search for a writ??er is underway, and there's no director attached just yet either.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahQltQK5xQ

There was a Duke Nukem film project in the works not too long ago, over at Paramount. The project even had wrestling superstar John Cena attache?d to it, but the film reportedly stalled out.

The Duke is back?

By all accounts, this is some wild news. Duke Nukem may have been a heavy-hitter of the arena shooter era, but the series has stalled out. The infamously catastrophic Duke Nukem Forever seemed like it had forever shut the lid on new Duke Nukem games.

But not all video game heroes of the '90s have faded into obscurity. Lara Croft had her revival in both video game and movie form, and Serious Sam has kept trucking along. 2016's Doom was a brilliant revitalization, but it also made Doomguy a household name a?gain.

Does Duke Nukem still have that appeal? Either way, Legendary Entertainment is picking the right team. The Cobra Kai is pretty dang good, and I'd imagine those showrunners could do something interesting with Duke. To be honest, after re-visiting the old Cena news, I'm now picturing a Peacemaker-style take on Duke Nukem and thinking it could somehow work.

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Both Gearbox and Embracer keep growing

Though Tiny Tina's Wonderlands just launched, it sounds like even more is in the Gearbox pipeline. Gearbox has nine games cu?rrently in development that it denotes as AAA.

This news arrives via Embracer Group's latest financial report, covering the fourth quarter and full year running April 2021 through March 2022. It's a pretty extensive report, covering a lo??t of companies due to how massive Embracer is at this point.

In the Gear?box section, the report says the company plans to keep on growing, with nine AAA games currently in development.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJgj2ngCyA

Gearbox itself is made up of several different studios at this point. There is Gearbox Software in Texas, but also Gearbox Studio Quebec, Montreal, Cryptic Studios, and the recently acquired Lost Boys Interactive.

Gears are turning

There are a few games being published by Gearbox at the moment, including Homeworld 3 and Hyper Light Breaker. But what these projects might be is a bit nebulous. AAA is a general concept, so it could honestly range all over the place. Gearbox did announce that a new Tales From the Borderlands is on the way, so that's a possibility.

In other Gearbox areas, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is not the only recent launch. Have a Nice Death rolled out not too long ago, and the excellent roguelike survival shooter Risk of Rain 2 also released its Survivors of the Void expansion. With Lost Boys n?ow under the umbrella too, it looks?? like a lot is in the works for Gearbox.

Embracer in general has been expanding, too. The massive group recently picked up several stu?dios from Square Enix, bringing Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal into the Embracer fold. The report indicates it plans on using the properties obtained through that deal; Embracer says it sees "a great potential" in not just sequels, but remakes, remasters, spinoffs, and transmedia projects. It's not done yet, but Embracer expects the deal to close sometime betwe??en July and September.

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Hopes are sky high

I don't think I'm alone in saying that Tales from the Borderlands was far and away my favorite Telltale game. The quality of the writing and characters was amazing, and it set the standard for choice-based adventures for years to come. When the news dropped this week that Gearbox is working on another Tales game internally, everyone kind of freaked out, myself included. But even with the bare-b?ones information we have right now, I have a lot of thoughts about the game. I've had enough time to think about it, haven't I?

The original Tales from the Borderlands came out in five episodes over the course of 2014-2015, and without giving away too much, the game ended on an ambiguous note, leaving room for a potential sequel in the future. My automatic assumption was that they'd be picking up right where the first game left off, but aft??er thinking it through a bit more, I'm apprehensive.

//twitter.com/JayShockblast/status/151722874?1721825282

The game's publisher, 2K, said itself that the game will feature "new characters and new?? storie?s." That kind of makes me nervous.

So much of what made the fi??rst game so great were its characters, their relationships to each other, and the performances the actors gave. Starting over from scratch when it comes to character is by no means impossible, but it would mean Gearbox putting themselves in a situation where they have even bigger shoes to fill.

Of course, that may not have been a conscious decision on their part �it's possible that they couldn't get some of the cast back for another game all these years later (Laura Bailey and Troy Baker are in high demand, after all). Legal stuff also got pretty screwy given the way Telltale shut down, so it's possible they weren't allowed to use some of the same characters from the first game due to logistics (although Rhys was a fairly prominent character in Borderlands 3).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1280"] _{[Image Source: PlayStation LifeStyle]}[/caption]As our very own Jordan Devore pointed out, we also have no idea if anyone from the original Tales team will be working on the new title, so there's no saying whether it will have nearly the sam?e quality when it comes t??o its tone and humor.

One potential upside that shines through this haze of uncertainty is that the game will likely be developed on a brand new engine, which would be a huge upgrade considering how rickety Telltale's old one was. Players have been complaining for years about?? the outdated systems, and former Telltale developers expressed the??ir desire to update the engine so they could update how the games feel to play and add all-new features to the tried and true Telltale formula.

The devs at the newly-revived Telltale Games discussed ditching the old engine to make way for Unity all the way back in 2018. Of course, the "new" Telltale is a very different case than however Gearbox is working on the game in-house, but either way, it's pretty safe to assume Tales is be??ing developed on a new engine. So regardless of how the game turns out, hopefully we have that to look forward to, right? ...right?

My take is that if for any reason, Rhys and co. are nowhere to be found in the new game, I'm okay with that. As much of a bummer it would be to not see that story continued when I was so invested, I'd rather see a whole new cast of characters th??an nothing at all.

I will say that above all else, my biggest wish is to keep the awesome musical intros for each episode, because those are ho?nestly my favorite uses of licensed m??usic in any piece of media ever.

In the end, I really have no idea what to expect. I'm doing my best to keep my hopes as low as possible so as not to be disappointed, but Tales from the Borderlands really meant a lot to me?? when I first played it back in like 2016, and regardless of what Gearbox does, there will be no escape from fan expectations. Now here's to hoping they can deliver.

??//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7093205021864594693?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=70527?88164067706373

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Putting the "light" in "roguelight"

Gearbox is best known for creating the Borderlands games, but it has also published some of the most well-loved indie games of recent years, including Risk of Rain 2, Astroneer, The Banner Saga Trilogy, and even Subnautica. Gearbox Publishing's newest project, Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom, looks like it's shaping up to be yet another ??charming indie project (and it has an amazing title, too).

Gearbox Publishing dropped the announcement trailer today at PAX East 2022, showing off the gothic "roguelight" gameplay from developer Under the Stairs. In the game, players take on the role of the titu?lar Victoria Bloom, who is searching for her lost grandfather in their dark, eerie mansion. Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds, because the ever-changing hallways are filled with obstacles and adversaries. The idea is that you're fighting off the dark forces in the mansion with light, which you'll be able to do with a host of different light-themed weapons, from Matches to a Sho??tgun Bulb.

//youtu.be/_Zb4dCWHtZs

One of the game's designers Filip Neduk said in a ??press release:

�em>Eyes in the Dark creates an atmosphere of loneliness and isolation, all while giving you the tools to ultimately come out of the experience as a stronger person. Victoria’s trial �going through the mansion alone and facing her fears �mirrors the player’s need to learn and master the mechanics of the game to progress; you both go through this adventure together.�/p>

In terms of its style, tone, and gameplay, Eyes in the Dark reminds me a lot of Hollow Knight at first glance �although from ??the looks of it, this game won't be a rehash of anything we've seen before. I'm excited to see a new game in this genre that gives us something fresh, which is what I'm expecting based on th?e trailer.

Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Care of One Victoria Bloom is set to release on Steam and the Epic? Gam?es Store on July 14.

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Borderlands x Ballantine's is the collab we didn't know we needed

I don't know about you guys, but I love some good video game merch that extends outside of the classic t-shirt or mug. Some companies get really creative with the kinds of items they offer fans to rep their favorite brands, and in this case, one of those companies is the developer behind the Borderlands series, Gearbox. They've teamed up with Ballantine's whisky, the second highest-selling brand of Scotch whisky in the world, to create a new liquor inspired by the games, or more specifically, their infamous bartender character Mad Moxxi. The themed blend of Scotch whisky is lovingly dubbed "Moxxi's Bar Edition."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFU3wKqEbBs

As part of the partnership, Ballantine's official YouTube channel just dropped an announcement trailer, which includes Moxxi herself speaking about her new whisky, as well as other Borderlands side characters, Amara and Claptrap. The ani?mated short gives us some silly banter between the characters, shows off Moxxi's whisky, and of course, encourages even Vault Hunters to drink responsibly.

In a fun in-universe press release, Ballatine's also appointed Moxxi the new Ch?ief Galactic Expansion Officer of the brand, to which Moxxi said:

“A good partnership balances business and pleasure in equal measure, and ours got off to a sweet start. George Ballantine came over to my place with a blush-worthy proposition. He offered me my own special run of bottles. I call it, 'Moxxi’s Bar Edition.' Get your hands on one of them, sugar, they’ll treat you right. Like the best things in life, it goes down smooth.�/p>

If that wasn't good enough, the whisky will also be available for purchase soon in Borderlands 3, which will also come with other in-game bonuses. When the drink goes live, it will also be available for purchase in the real world, although Ballantine's said it will only be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. I don't know about you, but to me, Borderlands and Ballantine's whisky feels like a matc?h mad??e in heaven.

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The co-op UI lacks important info at a glance

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands has a glaring issue with the way item summaries are displayed in split-screen co-op compared to solo play, and I hate to see it. In an otherwise pretty fun, comfort-food sort of co-op experience, it's unfortunate that it's a total slog to figure out which loot �aka the driving force of Borderlands �is worth equipping or ditching.

It's kind of hard to fully articulate the issue without visual aids, but I noticed something was off, and I poked around online to see if anyone else was feeling similarly (and if they had figured out a possible workaround; no dice). Other players have called the split-screen UI "infuriating," "tedious and obnoxious," and "nearly impossible to sort things out."

So, if you're wondering if it's weirdly harder than normal to figure out what to equip in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands with another player by your side in split-screen, well, same.

What item summaries look like in solo play

[caption id="attachment_314078" align="alignnone" width="1600"] _{It's possible to see what this item does right on the spot without digging into menus.}[/caption]

What item summaries look like in split-screen

[caption id="attachment_314071" align="alignnone" width="1600"] _{There are red and green numbers, sure, but what do they specifically mean?}[/caption]

Th?e overly vague item cards show up in the player inventory, too.

[caption id="attachment_314073" align="alignnone" width="1600"] _{By manually "inspecting" this Infused Bloodstone of Obsession (on the left), I can see what it does.}[/caption]

In order to see exactly what any given item does in split-screen, you'll have to "inspect" it, and then, when you back out, the menu kicks you to the top of the list, rather than leaving you on the item you just inspected. Again, it's far more of a chore than it needs to be, especially in an established series like Borderlands. The vague UI wastes time, straight up.

[caption id="attachment_314076" align="alignnone" width="1600"] _{Comparing items in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands should be this straightforward in solo play *and* split-screen.}[/caption]

As one final point of comparison, the screenshot above is what it looks like when you go to equip an item as a solo player in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands �you can see what the numbers actually mean in con?text, and there's a detailed sum??mary of the item's perks, so it's easy to weigh the pros and cons of the new item vs. what you currently have equipped.

Basically, there's no n?eed to hop back and forth between menus, as it should ?be.

Other players have been submitting their UI feedback, and it seems like a situation Gearb?ox Software could (and should) improve in a later update. I hope they do, and soon.

[caption id="attachment_314072" align="alignnone" width="1600"] _{The overworld is a bit goofy in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, but I like it.}[/caption]

In the meantime, I'll keep chipping away ??at this game with an hour here and an hour there.

Even with UI flaws, I'm digging Wonderlands more than expected, and it's nice to have an honest-to-goodness split-screen game again. I was worried about how it might run, but so far, on PS5, it's been smooth enough in Resolution mode �for once, Performance mode isn't actually worth t?he visual trade-off. I?? always pick the latter, but not this time.

Also, if you're curious, there is an option ??for horizontal?? and vertical split-screen.

You may want to hold off for now, and admittedly, the $70 price tag on PS5 stings. But if Borderlands is your go-to co-op game, Wonderlands might be tough to resist. I couldn't. Sometimes we're just in the mood to sling spells and sh??oot goblins in the face with an anachronistic SMG, and that's okay. And hell, I don't even mind Tina this time!

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Fantasy Borderlands

Borderlands is a fascinating series, in the sense that there always seems to be a game (or DLC) in the works for it, and they all kind of bump up against one another. There are iterative differences for sure, and tiers of quality, but when I hear the word "Borderlands," it's hard to think of a pivotal moment in franchise history that helped it break through into the zeitgeist. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands doesn't offer up a s?triking historical moment like that either, but it's par for the course, which is mostly good news if you're looking for another loot??er shooter.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (PC [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: March 25, 2022
MSRP: $59.99

So, it's Borderlands, but Tiny Tina is narrating everything with a fantasy/D&D tint (much like her DLC for Borderlands 2) and can bend the narrative to her will (from a meta-thematic standpoint).?? There's guns, classes, and lots of loot to enjoy and laboriously sift through, but now you can "roll" (choose) your own character instead of playing as one you can buy an action figure for.

Since classes are intrinsically important to Borderlands, I'll briefly go over all six gimmicks:

• Stabbomancer: A rogue of sorts that leans heavily into critical hits (crits). While this is usually not the type of playstyle I fully embrace in most of these games, the over-the-top nature of the Borderlands system helps get this off the ground and running fast. "Crits on crits on crits" is how I'd put it, and the traversal abilities of the class are fun to watch in a party, and play.

• Clawbringer: A companion class that also wields a hammer. At first, the differences between it and another companion class (Spore Warden) were less apparent, but over time, the skill tree sheds some light on that. Plus, the hammer is clearly designed based on Thor's "recall" ability, which you can do in-game.

• Spellshot: The mage-type that can use traditional spells like polymorph, and goes hard on raw spell power damage. The main idea here is that you're always supposed to be slinging spells, which in turn grants you a passive damage buff that goes away over time. It creates a high-octane playstyle with some utility, and is probably an easy stock pick for most people if they have no idea what they want to do beyond blow stuff up right away.

• Graveborn: A warlock-type that uses health as a resource. This is arguably one of the more complicated classes in the game as you're always flirting with death, but it also has a pretty high performance ceiling. Wonderlands needed a character like this for repeat playthroughs and veterans in particular.

• Spore Warden: Another companion class, which wields a bow and arrow and centers around poison damage. Given that the companion is a mostly passive entity, it's also one of the more lackadaisical classes to pick from, and the mushroom creature that tags along definitely makes an impression.

• Brr-Zerker: The classic brutish melee character that uses rage and close combat abilities. They wield frost powers, which helps differentiate them a bit. This is the inverse of the Spellshot, and perfect for people who like characters like Brick from the series proper.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-RAqyHU48M

There's a good spread! Of course, everyth??????????????????????????ing uses guns, and there's a dual class mechanic, which significantly widens the build system. For my "main" character, I went Clawbringer and Spore Warden for the double companion action, which was a ton of fun, but naturally other combos exist. Once you select your initial class, you can choose your body type/look, pronouns, voice, background (things like "raised by elves" or a "recovering hoarder," which mainly grant stat bonuses and spreads), and excess stat distribution.

During all this, you'll be going on quests, truncated by story bits from Tiny Tina and her crew (which is mainly her "party" of Andy Samberg and Wanda Sykes), as well as banter from the evil Dragon Lord (Will Arnett). They're basically talking the entire time, which is par for the course for Borderlands. If you were already tired of Tina based on her sequences in other games, you? might not make it through without turning off the voice audio. I wouldn't, though.

Ashly Burch definitely doesn't phone it in here, and Samberg and Arnett are really into it as well, hamming it up when needed. There is a bit of a disconnect between the aforementioned meta "party" and your actual actions in-game, and while it's easy to hand-wave while you're in the middle of blas?ting things, it is felt during the slower portions of the game. The narrative doesn't take itself seriously, which works in its favor for a spinoff like this, but will definitely annoy some people.

The villain will riff on tropes and talk to you "one on one" (just like Handsome Jack might "hack into your comms" and do the same thing in prior games), and the jokes are still a mile a minute. But given the relaxed "anything goes" theme, a lot of the writing feels less cringe, as the "hard" post-apocalyptical setting is completely dropped in favor of something breezier. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' difficulty system backs this, as you ??can swap between "relaxed, balanced, and intense" at any time, which is a sliding scale of player damage (and an increased emphasis on elemental matching), enemy damage, and gold drops.

There's a cool moment very early on that keys you into the type of game Wonderlands is going to be. I ran into a shipyard full of skeletons, with Tina describing a scene of calamity, with subsequent flourishes happening on screen after her rundown. It's a fun vibe that the original Tiny Tina DLC nailed, and it's still pretty unique to this day. The writing is just silly enough to work, and its lowest moments never approach the lows of Borderlands' cringe.

Some of the choreography does feel canned. A lot of setups involve getting to an area, being somewhat corralled, then asked to defeat an elite enemy: afterward, a wall explodes and you can progress. When zones are more open-ended (like the one above) this stings a lot less, but some locations are so linear that it feels like a string of arenas connected by exploding walls. Conversely, I feel like the Borderlands series has gotten better about providing varied environments beyond the dull trash heaps of the first game, and Wonderlands keeps that tradition going.

A few elements of the inventory system are changed here (with a bigger emphasis on a melee equipment slot, as well as spells that can be installed). But it still has several of the same drawbacks and inelegant design �particularly a huge amoun?t of junk and having to manually choose items to junk. The busywork and metaphorical inventory Tetris (item limit) returns, but with more buil??d options: it's a tradeoff.

To get to new missions, you'll traverse the "overworld" (seen in the screen below), which I'm kind of take it or leave it on. Simply put it's set up like an old-school platformer world map, with light exploration elements, very light "puzzles," and a few basic?? "random encounters" that wh??isk you away to an arena to fight enemies for loot. In that same vein, it's inconsequential as there isn't an over-reliance on it. At worst you can generally run around the random encounters and select the next zone in under a minute.

As is the case with most Borderlands games, the more you play, the more you unlock, and the more fun you'll have. The overworld lets you go more places, the dual class system opens up more builds, and there's always the classic endgame activity in the form of the "Chaos Chamber," which is basically a randomized dungeon to replay, and a step up from several other Borderlands equivalents.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is more Borderlands, and the lighter fantasy fare might actually get people to dive in for the first time. With that in mind, it's still more Borderlands, so ?the same basic formula isn't going to mag?ically change your stance if you're a lapsed fan.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Graveborn and Spore Warden are the final two

Gearbox showed off the final two Tiny Tina's Wonderlands classes in a new trailer?, which b??rings the grand (and final) total up to six.

So what are they?

First up is the Graveborn. This is your very necr??omancery class, with "dark magic attacks," as well as the ability to command a Demi-Lich companion. You can also manipulate life forces (health) and if you cast a spell, your Demi-Lich casts one too. Companion classes are typically a ton of fun, so this is probably going to be my main when I start.

Then there's the Spore Warden, which seems in part to be a Miko reference from Battleborn. They are "masters of nature who summon tornados and launch volleys of arcade arrows." They also have a companion (which seems to be a theme with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands classes) who "spews toxins."

The developers are also opening up a toolboxy mechanic they call the "multiclass system." The way they describe it is t??hat you'll pick one as your "star?ting class." Then you'll eventually gain access to a secondary class slot, and each class has a permanent "class feat," as well as two action skills and trees of passive abilities.

??Creative director Matt Cox elaborates on the system a bit, a?nd how it will flow without being overwhelming:

"There will be a point where it is mandatory to select a second class, but by tha??t time, there's no way you would've been able to fill out all of the slots on your initial class' tree. So for the rest of the game, you can get some of the benefits from your secondary class, but still spend all of your hero points and skill points on the things that best complement that primary class. You're not locked into having to spend skill points on the secondary tree; you still have the utmost freedom to spend those points how you wish."

I'm into it. As long as the core six classes have strong foundations, that is. There's a propensity for studios to go overboard with perks and upgrades to the point where many of them start to blend together; if Gearbox can avoid that for Tiny Tina's Wonderland, ther??e should be a lot of combos to experiment wit?h.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfryC-eTB08

[gallery columns="2" link="fi?le" size="medium??" ids="306278,306280"]

The four other previously announced classes for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands are Spellshots ("gun-toting wizards who can unleash a constant barrage of spells and bullets and transform their enemies into harmless livestock"), Clawbringers ("faithful warriors who bring down thunder and flames upon their enemies with a spectral hammer alongside their fire-breathing Wyvern companion"), Stabbomancers (sly assassins), and Brr-zerkers (frost-infused bruisers).

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It's magic

[Update: Gearbox has reached out for more clarity on the specifics of the Randy Pitchford award, as well as the Gearbox award. The company cites "Pitchford leading Gearbox through the merger," as well as spearheading the creation of Borderlands Science, which funnels into research for the Ame??rican Gut Project, as partial reasons for th?e win. The company also partnered with Direct Relief, and cites "fighting numerous bills that have been brought to Texas legislature that could remove [artistic] freedoms.]

A Randy Pitchford award? Well we're fresh out of Destructoid-head USB stick trop?hies to give away, so maybe this Tech Titans one will do.

Gearbox has confirmed to Destructoid that the company was presented with the "Tech Titans 2021 Corporate Innovation Award," while Pitchford himself won for best "Corporate CEO." Tech?? Titans is a North Texas technology outfit, who "celebrate companies and individuals in North Texas who are transforming the global technology industry." Yes it's so easy to forget that Gearbox is one of the few d?evelopers in Texas (Frisco, to be exact); especially after they opened up studios in Quebec City and (more recently) Montreal.

While that microcosm of an event was underway, Pitchford's legacy continues to grow in strange ways. Some within the industry love him, others say he courts controversy. This award ceremony comes just a few months after Pitchford named new presidents of Gearbox pu?blishing (Steve Gibson) and?? software (Steve Jones).

While the Embracer group may have acquired Gearbox Software in mid-2021 (which the two companies refer to as a merger), the name and its reputation, for better or worse, are ?unequivocally tied to Pitchford. As long as the money is flowing, I don't think anyone on a corporate level (but potentially Gearbox employees) cares.

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Wizards and Warriors

I have to say, despite the chance that the humor will grate over time, I'm starting to really like how Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is coming tog??ether. The scattershot approach of randomness and fantasy is working, and if the co-op element and longevity are there, I could be playing this for a while. It helps that the gameplay looks fun: including the new reveal of the Spell??shot and Clawbringer classes.

While everything in the game seems to be a "gun-toting wizard," Spellshots are described as "gun-toting wizards who can unleash a constant barrage?? of spells and bullets and transform their enemies into harmless livestock." Clawbringers are a little more traditional, as "faithful warriors who bring down thunder and flames upon their enemies with a spectral hammer alongside their fire-breathing Wyvern companion." Companions/summoners/pet classes? Say no more. The Spellshot and Clawbringer classes are on top of the Stabbomancer and Brr-Zerker reveals we've seen already.

The trailer below shows off both, as well as new areas. The Weepwild Dankness sounds like a classic Borderlands zone, with "a bajillion mushrooms" and a tree motif. Mount Craw is a goblin city, and Fearamid is...you can take a guess, a scary pyramid. As silly as it sounds on paper, I'm digging it. One of my chief complaints with earlier Borderlands games and DLC is a lack of aest??hetic variety, and this "anything goes" concept helps take care of that: so long as it follows through.

It's still out on March 25, 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJuve3SoDBk

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The Borderlands DLC gets a Wonderlands standalone

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is one of, if not the most, well-remembered DLC additions in the Borderlands series. It was popular enough that Gearbox is currently working on a full game spiritual successor, and today, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is also getting a standalone version.

2K and Gearbox announced today that a standalone called Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure is coming to PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox ?One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic. And it's available today, too?.

As part of the launch, Assault on Dragon Keep is free on the Epic Games Store until Nov. 16, so roughly the next week. Otherwis??e, it's going for $9.99 on the ?other storefronts.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf3T0LaGpxE

Even as someone with a hot-and-cold relationship with the Borderlands franchise, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is a standout to me. It was impressive back in 2013, when it arrived as DLC for Borderlands 2. Not just for its Dungeons & Dragons referencing, mind you, but for how it tackled one of the big story developments in Borderlands 2, and how that affected its characters. Borderlands 2 in particular hit a high note for me with how it tackled some tougher material, and I liked Dragon Keep for how it kept that through-line going.

That said, it's also an entire DLC featuring Tiny Tina. For some folks, that's a deal-breaker. But hey, if you wanted to give it a shot and see if Borderlands meets D&D works for you, this is probably the best opportunity to do it. Plus, it ends up now acting as a predecessor to the upcoming Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. If you want to know how it all ties together, and learn a little Borderlands history in the process, seems?? like a good opportunity to do so.

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Still due for March 2022

I'm still unsure what to think about Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. This world is probably worth exploring, and a more out-there Borderlands universe is one of the only ways they can push the envelope and potentially stay away from cringe commentary/humor. So I'm in at the moment, especially given the "Final Fantasy influences" by the development team. While we have plenty of time to mull it over, we have a chance to see a real glimpse of a few of the Tiny Tina's Wonderlands classes today.

In a video titled "Welcome to Wonderlands #1" (prescient), we get to see the Stabbomancer ("sneaky assassins") and the Brr-Zerker (frost-infused bruisers) in action. They'll romp through Brighthoof (capital city of Wonderlands), Sunfang Oasis (deserts), The Tangledrift (beanstalks), and the ??Butt Stallion's Castle while fighting members of the skeletal army.

We also have insight into how players will move around? throughout the game:

"The Overworld is an unmistakable nod to tabletop gaming, which gives players a third-person, bird's-eye view as characters sprint around Tina's meticulously crafted gam??e board. Your character’s heroic proportions are shrunken down, allowing you to explore the many nooks and crannies of the game board. Some discoveries might be minor—a shortcut here, a smattering of gold-filled chests there—but you could end up stumbling onto an entirely optional area that some adventurers might miss entirely."

"Minor discoveries and optional areas" sound intriguing for sure, and the environments in the below Tiny Tina's Wonderlands classes video look fun to play around in. I really hope there's a lot of class variety in the final ??version though, and a more compelling endgame.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=O08Y52AsplA

The post Here’s a new look at Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and two of the playable classes appeared first on Destructoid.

Gearbox confirms staff exodus 'on the best of terms'

A group of Gearbox Entertainment staff members have reportedly left the developer in order to begin work together on a new, independent project. As reported by Axios, (and later confirmed by Gearbox itself) the seven developers were in the pre-production stages ?of a new Gearbox title before their exodus. Gearbox has since moved new staff into the team's former roles.

The leaving team members all worked with Gearbox on epic sequel Borderlands 3, and include senior producer Christopher Brock, art director Scott Kestor, character artist Kevin Penrod, and mission designer Keith Schuler. The group left Gearbox followi??ng a two-week period of notice, but are yet to divulge details of their supposed new project.

Gearbox Entertainment founder Ran??dy Pitch??ford told Axios that the staff is leaving "on the best of terms."

"Before their transition, the group was part of a not-yet-announced pre-production team and their departure will cause minimal disruption in our current plans," Pitchford confirmed. "The bulk of our attention at the moment is dedicated to finishing Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, which is on track."

According to sources —and given Pitchford's comments �it seems the exodus is beneficial f?or both parties. A Gearbox insider told Axios that the departure shakes up the studio, opening up the potential for "new blood". Meanwhile, the exiting devs will now get to utilize their experien?ce and chemistry on a brand new project. This move could well prove beneficial for both Gearbox Entertainment and its squad of leaving team members.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands? launche??s on PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms in 2022.

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More Godfall to go around?

Gearbox's looter-slasher Godfall got off to a rocky start, but?? with some new updates on the way, it looks like Count?erplay Games is trying to turn things around.

The previously PS5 and PC-exclusive Godfall will be coming to PlayStation 4, with cross-gen co-op and a free PS5 upgrade path. Gearbox also confirmed today that two new updates are on the way: the Fire & Darkness expansion and the free Lightbringer upate.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=25dVoh-5Zqk

These updates will introduce the Fire Realm, the largest realm in Godfall to dat?e, as well as new missions, cutscenes, a beta for an endgame ma??tchmaking system and new endgame activities, and a bunch of new loot and cosmetics.

It all arrives on Aug. 10 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via the Epic Games Store. While it's not expanding out to any other console families, maybe the odd last-gen port will bolster numbers and bring some attention back to Godfall.

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