Latest news with #Borderlands4
Forbes
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Borderlands 4' Adds A Hugely Requested Feature Months Before Launch
Borderlands 4 Gearbox Borderlands 4 has officially become my most-anticipated game of the year, between how good its previews have looked and the glowing hands-on reviews that have just hit the internet this past week. Now, I am deeply impressed by what Gearbox has just announced. Due to a load of fan feedback and debates about the issue, they have added a feature to the game that will launch with it in September, a demonstration of both listening to the playerbase and nimble development. The debate was whether or not the Borderlands 4 'compass' system of locating objectives and enemies was better than a 'minimap' system that did the same thing but in a different format. Gearbox adamantly defended the compass decision, but the conversation was so pervasive that it has just been announced that Borderlands 4 will indeed launch with a combat minimap option. Here's Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford showing off the system during a 32-tweet thread covering the issue: Randy credits the community for helping to reinforce how important this issue is and that it needed to be addressed: 'This happened because of the best elements of our community. I'm talking about the real fans who sincerely want the best for the game and gave constructive notes and made reasonable arguments. You know who you are and you rock! You made this happen!' I'm not exactly sure which side of this I come down on. I think perhaps the compass, as it seems less intrusive in the UI, but I'll try both out to be sure. Regardless, it's great that there's an option, and you really do not see this sort of thing happen this quickly and way ahead of launch, rather than a 'yeah, we'll look into that for the future' sort of thing. It seems like it's all green lights for Borderlands 4 so far. The only negative things I've heard about it are not about the game itself, but people saying they didn't like Borderlands 3 , so they're not excited about 4. But a lot of the praise about Borderlands 4 is that it's fixing many of the issues of 3, from combat movement to looting to even the tone of its writing. That, combined with what appears to be a very reactive dev team on top of their game, I think this is going to be a big fall launch, particularly with a number of other games moving out of its way. Can't wait to play. Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , Bluesky and Instagram . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .
Geek Culture
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
‘Borderlands 4' Goes Back To Series Roots, Even As Gearbox Software Expands Core Concepts
In the crowded first-person shooter (FPS) genre filled with overly serious military simulators, hectic multiplayer PvP experiences, and nostalgic boomer shooters, one franchise stands out and above because of the absolute nonsense it brings to the battlefield – Gearbox Software's Borderlands . While many IPs struggle to find that balance between providing an engaging narrative alongside solid gameplay fundamentals, while not being too reliant on a multiplayer aspect to keep a player engaged in the long run, Borderlands' three mainline entries and two spin-offs have provided an addictive gameplay loop alongside an engaging narrative to boot, balancing equal parts humour and drama. Granted, some changes have sat better with fans since its 2009 debut, especially with the last mainline entry, 2019's Borderlands 3 , drawing criticism for its writing, in part due to the game's influencer-like main villain duo, the Calypso Twins leading the game's overall tone which tried to cater to a target audience that didn't exist. Well, fans would be glad to know that the criticisms did not go unnoticed by the studio, because with its upcoming sequel, Borderlands 4 , the studio is going all out to ensure that the highly anticipated outing not only makes an effort to ground the series to a level that fans can appreciate. ' Borderlands has always been in the borderland between drama and comedy, there's its centre line that has always been serious, and on the fringes it was ridiculous,' explains Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford during an exclusive interview with Geek Culture alongside an accompanying preview session. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford (far left), Gearbox Global Creative Executive Officer Andrew Reiner (far right) 'But it's neither, it's never been either a drama or a comedy, but it's both of that. It's this weird thing in between, and that's what Borderlands is, it's always the in-between space of things that don't belong together.' As a series, Borderlands has always leveraged its humour as a selling point, constantly ramping up the ridiculousness with every entry, and while this growth has seen its share of hits and misses, the team has taken it all as a learning experience. 'I think Borderlands 1 was probably the most serious version of Borderlands , and Borderlands 3 was probably the most ridiculous.' Pitchford adds, 'The more we've done, the more experience we have, and I think we now know the right place to dial in Borderlands 4 for where we are at this time and place, and that's where we're at now.' At the core of the Borderlands experience lies its jokes, an area where the third entry unfortunately fell flat due to its focus on quantity over quality. To this end, the game's narrative director, Sam Winkler, previously teased that the game would feature 'more situational' humour this time around, a point that we asked Pitchford to elaborate on. 'In the past, there was a moment when we felt like we would do a lot of jokes at once, because different jokes would hit for different people, and because not everyone has the same taste and humour, so we thought we'd just machine gun it,' Pitchford explains. 'And that kind of works, because if you tell 20 jokes, one of them will hit, but there's also something to be said for the experience of feeling the 19 that didn't.' 'So I think in this context, we've been a lot more surgical and measured this time around,' he adds. 'I think what Sam was speaking to is a better coordination between narrative storytelling and writing with natural elements like the environment, the situation and gameplay construction. And I think that's a really cool thing.' To put this into context, an example of the Bloodwing fight in Borderlands 2 was brought up. For the uninitiated, Bloodwing was the loyal companion of Mordecai, one of the four main characters in the first game, who was unfortunately captured and mutated by the second game's villain, Handsome Jack, forcing both Mordecai and the player character to fight and kill the corrupted beast, a moment that served as a significant emotional moment in the game. As messed up as the situation may seem, there was something innately humorous about the whole situation, infusing the series with a special kind of dark comedy that makes a player question why they were forced to fight such a well-known character, building on equal parts astonishment and disbelief in the moment to make players crack a regretful smile. According to Pitchford, it's this natural (and sometimes unintentional) integration of humour into moment-to-moment gameplay that will drive Borderlands 4's comedy forward. 'Every experience adds up,' says Pitchford, who admits that even though the development of Borderlands 4 was not affected by the rather poor reception of the third title, both its criticism and praise and their effect on the team were impossible to deny, who used these learning lessons to craft a much more formidable, and less annoying, villain this time around: The Timekeeper. Borderlands 4 takes place on Kairos, a once-hidden planet ruled with an iron fist by the mysterious Timekeeper, a being of immense power in command of a vast army of synthetic enforcers known as The Order. According to Pitchford, the Timekeeper marks the franchise's most serious antagonist to date, which is certainly an interesting twist in tone. 'I don't think he has ever told a joke. If this is a smile, the Timekeeper probably hasn't even done this.' Pitchford explains, as he cracks the most forced smile he could muster as a reference. 'He is intelligent, calculated, in your face right out of the gates, and a serious threat. He's no joke. Darth Vader? That guy cracks more jokes.' It will be interesting to see how a shift to a completely serious main antagonist will affect the game's overall comedic element, although chances are, it will be delegated to the four new Vault Hunters (Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe) and their interactions with their various allies and foes. It's this return to the traditional four pre-set characters that marks yet another way Borderlands 4 is doubling down on series roots, even as the team also expands upon this sequel's scale, story, and comedic elements. Alas, this means that the franchise's updated character customisation, introduced in 2022's Tiny Tina's Wonderlands spin-off , which allowed the tailoring of a character's looks, along with a player's ability to mix and match classes to suit every playstyle, won't be seen here. While it marked a refreshing and well-received switch by the fanbase, due to the added gameplay flexibility and personalisation it provided, the team decided to return to the traditional method of only allowing the choice between four pre-set characters. Why? For Pitchford, allowing players the freedom to create an original character diminished one important aspect of its story – the element of playing out a superhero fantasy. 'With Wonderlands , the strategy was leaning into what we fantasise about when we think about playing fantasy role-playing games, how part of the joy is crafting your character,' he explains. 'In Borderlands , we don't have that same wish. The thing we are offering instead is the ability to become one of the characters that are integral to the storyline, to be a superhero. If we could all create our own superheroes, then all of the superheroes would be diminished.' And while some fans might be disappointed that they won't be able to create their own Vault Hunter in the game, the logic is sound, considering the game's lore. Pandora was always a dangerous place, and Kairos looks to be even more so, making the four new Vault Hunters the proverbial cream of the crop, the only ones badass enough to survive and thrive in the harsh world where so many other would-be treasure hunter enthusiasts have failed. Having a choice of pre-set characters ensures that each possesses a unique personality, something that's difficult to pull off when opting for a creation system seen in Wonderlands . Furthermore, the team has also made steps to properly establish the player character's presence in the game's storyline this time around. And while Borderlands 3 faced criticism for leaving the player character on the sidelines, with its story playing out like it was independent of the main protagonist rather than them actively being a part of it, Borderlands 4 is set to focus heavily on the player character, and rightfully so. For the first time in the series' history, the player will not only physically appear in cutscenes, but also accurately reflect a chosen outfit, which will probably lead to hilarious interactions considering how wacky some of the game's costumes can get. With the improvements and reworks of its story, characters and humour, that leaves one other major aspect of the game that has been developed from scratch – its world. Instead of exploring the vast and diverse landscapes of Pandora, or in Promethea, Athenas or Eden-6, Borderlands 4 is shifting gears and dropping players on the brand-new planet of Kairos. And despite focusing on a single planet this time around, the game promises the most diverse and expansive environments to date. 'In terms of square footage, Borderlands 4 has more than all of the previous games added together – it's massive,' states Pitchford when asked about how the game's scale compares to Borderlands 3 , which back then was the franchise's most environmentally diverse title with its inclusion of multiple planets to explore. 'In terms of diversity of environment, well, again, Borderlands 4 is at the top of the game. Yes, each planet in Borderlands 3 had some different, distinct set pieces and environments, but that was integral to the game's story. Borderlands 4 is about this legendary planet of Kairos that's been locked away for thousands of years, which has more vaults than any other planet in the universe. So it's a whole different story conceit, everything happens on this planet, with the struggle between the dictators controlling the planet and everyone's desire for freedom being the backdrop.' So, how does this translate to more meaningful exploration and discovery? For Gearbox Global Creative Executive Officer Andrew Reiner, it's all about creating player agency within the game's sandbox. 'Another big distinction in Borderlands 4 is that we're not just creating vistas and backdrops,' he adds, 'You can physically get everywhere in this world. You see a crashed ship on a hillside? It's not just there as something to look at and say 'Oh, that's cool'. You can get up there if you want, everything is free to explore and experience.' Even from early impressions, it's clear that Borderlands 4 is doubling down on the franchise's madness. We've already seen this in effect via our extended gameplay preview, but this looks to be the case for its narrative elements as well, with all signs pointing to a title that will put the series back on track while making meaningful adjustments. Let's just hope that most of its jokes will hit this time around, and that Claptrap will remain just as annoying as ever. Never change, Claptrap. Borderlands 4 will launch on 12 September 2025 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a release on the Nintendo Switch 2 arriving later in the year. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. 2K Games Borderlands Borderlands 4 Gearbox Software Geek Interview
Geek Culture
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
‘Borderlands 4' Ramps Up The Mayhem Fans Love With Enhanced Mobility And More Complex Guns
Billions of weapons Yes, you read that right, with a 'B' to start, and an 'S' at the end. That's exactly what developer Gearbox Software is promising with the next iteration of its beloved looter shooter, Borderlands 4 . After a brief stint in the fantasy genre with the Dungeons & Dragons -esque Tiny Tina's Wonderlands , the franchise is returning to its roots for its sequel, which looks to build upon everything fans have come to expect from the series while ramping up the carnage to a whole new level. And if our exclusive and almost four-hour-long hands-on session with an early preview build of the game was any indication, the sequel is a shining example of the word 'more'. Not just more Borderlands and more guns, but also more build flexibility, more weapon complexity, and a more engaging experience throughout. Spanning a sizable chunk of the game's Fadefields region, the preview let us loose to explore the sights and sounds of Kairos, a brand new planet discovered following the events of 2019's Borderlands 3 . According to Gearbox, the change in scenery also brings about a shake-up in its storytelling as a whole, featuring a non-linear main quest design allowing players to choose the order to which they handle the plotlines, alongside a host of dynamic world activities and the largest number of side quests ever seen in a Borderlands game, although the preview's curated nature prevented us from experiencing the true scope of the title. For the preview, only two of the four total playable Vault Hunters (the game's treasure-hunting protagonists) were made available – Siren Vex and the Exo-Soldier Rafa. As with all Borderlands games, gameplay progression lives and dies by the build of each character, and Borderlands 4 has taken things up a notch in this respect. As with its predecessor, each class has access to three different skill trees, each with its associated Action Skill, powerful attacks that can turn the tide of battle, which operate on a cool-down system. The difference here lies in just how expansive each skill tree is, with each individual tree possessing almost as many skill nodes as an entire character's roster in Borderlands 3. In addition to various passive stat-boosting skills, each tree also has nodes that augment a character's abilities and moves, alongside a Vault Hunter trait unique to each character. Take Vex, for example, who possesses the Phase Covenant trait, which attunes her melee damage and Action Skills to the element type of her current gun. On the topic of Action Skills, Vex's three Siren abilities mark a dramatic shift from franchise norm, making the class more of a summoner character, similar to Borderlands 3's FL4K. Aside from one skill that gives her wings and the ability to send forth a powerful Eldritch Blast, her two remaining skills focus on spawning minions to dominate the battlefield with numbers. The first summons Trouble, a cat-like creature that permanently stays by her side to attack enemies and respawns when killed. Vex can then use her action skill to cause Trouble to deal damage in an area, transforming into a Badass version, Big Trouble, for a limited time. Her final action skill operates similarly, this time summoning up to three phase ghosts of herself temporarily, with a choice to mix and match between a mobile scythe-wielding variant or a stationary sniper. Rafa, on the other hand, possesses skills related to his high-tech Exo-Suit, which includes one that summons a turret on his shoulder to automatically target nearby enemies, the ability to dual-weld a plasma cannon alongside his currently equipped firearm, or summon armblades to slice through enemies in third-person. As the bread and butter of the Borderlands series, gunplay and core combat feel largely unchanged from previous iterations, possessing the same core gameplay loop of mowing down fodder and dealing with the occasional Badass variant, while looting and swapping between guns along the way. Instead of shaking up the already well-established combat loop, Gearbox has chosen to make minor but impactful changes to the formula. Gone is the need to keep heavy weapons like rocket launchers and grenade launchers in one of the four available weapon slots, as the throwables slot from previous games has been revamped to encompass both grenades and heavy weapons like the aforementioned launchers, miniguns or large energy cannons. This change also means that players no longer need to scavenge for precious heavy weapon ammo, with the tradeoff being that the weapons now operate on a cool-down system. This minor change does wonders for combat, opening up all four weapon slots to be used according to a player's style, opening up the potential to have more weapon classes to swap on the fly, and improving combat effectiveness at all ranges. Recovering health has also been made more streamlined, as apart from collecting health pick-ups in the world and from defeated enemies, players now have access to Repkits, instant-use health items that gradually refill after use. Perhaps the biggest change to combat's flow lies in the game's enhanced traversal mechanics, with players now having access to a grappling hook which can not only propel them at specific points, but can also be used to snag objects like explosive barrels from afar, which then can be thrown at enemies. This feature, combined with the new mid-air glide and quick-dash mechanics, makes movement much snappier during combat, with the easiest way to describe it being like Borderlands meets DOOM: Eternal . But what would Borderlands be without its absurd guns? Absolutely nothing, and that's why firearms have seen their biggest overhaul yet. The franchise's icon gun manufacturer system, which gives weapons of a specific make a unique trait, returns with a bang by introducing three new manufacturers: Daedalus, Order and Ripper. Daedalus guns all possess the ability to switch ammo modes, with an SMG, for example, able to swap modes to fire sniper rounds instead, increasing damage but eating through precious rounds as a tradeoff. Order and Ripper guns both operate on a charging-up system, with the former's guns firing off multiple rounds at once when charged, while the latter's require a spool-up time before firing in rapid succession like a minigun. On the flipside, series staples Dahl and Hyperion have been removed, leaving Borderlands 4's final gun manufacturer count at eight: Jakobs, Vladof, Torgue, Maliwan, Tediore, Order, Ripper and Daedalus. Gun manufacturer changes are not limited to just new ones, though, as each gun can now be made from up to three different manufacturers at once, which ramps up combat to a whole new level. In theory, this means that a weapon has the chance to possess three unique skills at once. For example, a gun can hit hard and with extra headshot damage (Jakobs), while simultaneously being able to swap modes to fire rockets (Torgue) and also be thrown like a grenade when reloaded to deal additional damage (Tediore). The possibilities then are almost endless, harkening back to the studio's promised 'billions' of weapon variations. It seems that they are going all in on gun manufacturers this time, as even the artefact slot, which used to give additional stat bonuses in past games, has now been tweaked to specifically provide bonuses to gun manufacturers, enabling players to further optimise their build to suit their favourite kinds of guns. All that being said, how well does everything come together? In short, combat can be described as chaotic, in the best way, with players zipping all over the place with the new grappling hook, while hovering and shooting mid-air. Some enemies, such as those from the new Order faction, possess unique combat skills of their own, enhancing the chaos unfolding on screen. Badasses, specifically, offer a real threat this time around and are usually much tougher to take down compared to what players might be used to, which does help to encourage tactical use of weapons and abilities. The preview session culminated in a high-level boss encounter, with players similarly receiving pre-determined high-level guns and gear. This was easily the most intense part of all, as despite the more powerful equipment, the boss was still tough as nails, operating in phases that required the use of all the skills learnt so far, such as juggling, grappling, hovering and shooting at exposed weakspots. It was refreshingly engaging, and a far cry from the series' usual boss-fight pattern of shoot, avoid, rinse and repeat, and hopefully, this won't be a one-time affair either, and the game will introduce increasingly more complex encounters along the way. While just an early look at a minuscule portion of the game, Borderlands 4 is already shaping up to be the franchise's biggest and most innovative iteration yet. What remains to be seen is how well the game would handle its open world design and activities to balance quantity with quality, and how its story (which thankfully Gearbox promises would be far more grounded than recent entries) will fare. Borderlands 4 releases on 12 September 2025 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will also release on the Nintendo Switch 2 later in 2025. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. 2K Games Borderlands Borderlands 4 Gearbox Software Geek Preview
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Borderlands 4' Hands-On Previews Are Here, And They Are Fantastic
Borderlands 4 I have yet to see anything in Borderlands 4 previews that suggests to me that it's not going to be great, and in the wake of pre-orders (at a $70 price) launching this week, now we have a large batch of hands-on previews that have dropped from various outlets and creators. Well, the good news is that the Borderlands 4 previews are almost all universally positive, and have a general sense of the series being 'back.' The bad news is…well, I'm not really seeing bad news. Here is a smattering of highlights from the previews, which come from both outlets and YouTubers deep into the scene: IGN: 'After several hours dipping our toes into what is sure to be a massive looter shooter, we're much more optimistic about its odds of recapturing our affections after years apart.' Game Informer: 'With Gearbox, it truly feels like Borderlands 4 is taking those steps to change the direction of a franchise that had been drifting away from me for more than a decade, while still remaining staunchly true to its overarching identity.' Screenrant: 'It's hard to distill everything I loved about my time playing Borderlands 4 down to a digestible length. I could go on for far too long about how great the new throwing knives are or how this is easily some of the best-written Borderlands content, thanks to the game's humor staying grounded in its own world as opposed to relying too hard on dated internet culture.' FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Moxsy: Joltz: EpicNNG: This echoes the sense the previews gave, that this had taken the immense amount of feedback and criticism from the (still very successful) Borderlands 3. Two areas that have been significantly addressed are the dramatic increase in mobility, ranging from grappling hooks to gliding, to make the combat feel more fast-paced and modern. It's also refreshing to hear that the writing is less meme-y than it used to be, harkening back to the BL1 days of the series where sure, there was comedy, but it didn't go overboard to the point of being exceptionally lame (something BL3 had in spades). spades). Borderlands 4 recently moved its release date up to September 13, 2025. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that it was just confidence in the product, not trying to avoid Bungie's Marathon, which it previously shared a release date with (as of yesterday, Marathon is delayed indefinitely anyway) or avoiding the not-yet-announced GTA 6 (which was eventually delayed to May 2026). So, he was right. Borderlands 4 was already one of my most-anticipated games of the year, possibly the most-anticipated, given the thousand hours I've put into the past games. Now? I'm doubling down on that. I cannot wait. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Borderlands 4 hands-on and interview - ‘some people have a negative reaction'
The first Borderlands sequel with a proper open world is almost here but how does it play in solo and co-op and is it still funny? It seems like an eternity since the last Borderlands game, but it's only been six years. That was before Covid, which explains why it seems so long ago, but it means that the series is earning a reputation for unusually long gaps between its numbered sequels. We've had spin-offs Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and New Tales From The Borderlands in the meantime, but it's only now, 17 years after the release of the original game, that we've finally got the sequel everyone's been waiting for. As successful as it's been, Borderlands has a right to feel underrated, as it popularised the concept of the looter shooter long before Destiny, and yet it's often not even mentioned when the sub-genre is discussed. It did have two main problems though, in that for a first person shooter the gunplay wasn't very good and while it acted like it was an open world game, on a technical level it wasn't. Borderlands 3 addressed the gunplay issues, but it is only now, with Borderlands 4, that we get a proper, modern open world to explore. And from what we've played of the game, it was worth the wait. Although it's made with Unreal Engine 5, the distinctive cel-shaded visuals of Borderlands means the graphical improvements between each new entry are much less obvious than with other franchises. Nevertheless, the open world of the planet Kairos looks suitably vast, with a silky smooth frame rate no matter what's going on. The plot of the game involves a dictator named The Timekeeper, with the developers keen to emphasis a dystopian setting and what they describe as grounded, dry humour. As we explored in our interview later, that's not the sort of thing we'd normally expect from Borderlands and we can't say it was particularly evident in anything we played – with lots of shouty voiceovers and comically inept boss characters. We had a few sensible chuckles at some of the one liners, but our ribs never felt in much danger of cracking, although that's a considerable improvement from the mercilessly unfunny Borderlands 3, which was so convinced of its own hilarity it never shut up. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Without that frustration, we were able to enjoy Borderlands 4 a lot more, and while the gunplay is still nowhere near as good as Destiny it's a step up from Borderlands 3 and feels very tangible when you get a weapon that suits you. We would've liked to see something a bit wackier than just machine guns with a freeze effect but maybe we just got unlucky with the random drops. Although we did like the gun that turned into a turret (in that it floated in mid-air and fired itself) and another one that spat out spare ammo. The switch to a proper open world brings with it some practical considerations and the first story mission ends up with you being given a hover bike that you can summon at any moment. But there's also a lot more traversal abilities than normal, to help you get around, including a double jump and mantle ability, the chance to glide through the air, a grapple hook, and swimming. All of that felt fun to try out and while we didn't see any particularly complex architecture or landscapes, that demanded their use, there was a bit more platforming than normal for the series. You've also got a little robot drone with you, called Echo-4, which can do a lot of donkey work for you, including highlighting objectives with a detective vision style overlay, collecting side quest rewards for you, and hacking doors and turrets. We played around with two characters, both of which are new: exo-soldier Rafa and Vex. Rafa is more of a melee expert, with close-up special attacks revolving around big metal scythes that come out of their back. We never get on with that sort of character in a first person shooter, so preferred Vex. Despite being a siren like Lilith she has quite distinct powers, with the ability to summon a big magic sabretooth tiger, as well use a variety of elemental attacks and the chance to drain health from enemies. It's all good fun but basically you are still just shooting bad guys with relatively ordinary guns, with the sequel relying on the open world element for much of its novelty. We did get into some good scraps though, especially when taking control of the characters at level 20, instead of 5, with a save from a bit later in the game. This featured a nicely escalating battle on a floating island, where there's nowhere to hide for long, culminating in a fun boss battle against a jungle monster that floods the area with toxic waste, forcing you to swing around on vines, looking for a weak spot. If you've never liked Borderlands we don't think any of this is going to change your mind – even if a co-op open world shooter is always inherently appealing – but if you did enjoy Borderlands 2 and were put off by the last one, then Borderlands 4 is looking like a welcome return to form. Formats: PC (previewed), Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PCPrice: £69.99Publisher: 2KDeveloper: Gearbox SoftwareRelease Date: 12th September 2025 Age Rating: 18 After the hands-on we got to speak to executive producer Chris Brock, who's worked on every entry in the series, and lead writer Taylor Clark, whose only previous involvement is New Tales From The Borderlands. GC: I was going to start off facetiously, by saying I don't understand why in the artwork he's not holding up four fingers. [The main artwork for Borderlands 2 and 3 featured a Psycho holding up an appropriate number of fingers.] CB: We actually talked about that. TC: We asked the same question. GC: Is that a secret reference to the fact that you're trying to get back to Borderlands 2? [He does have two fingers extended.] Both: [laughs] CB: Man, you've thought about it more than I have. TC: If you count the veins on his arm there, there's four. [laughs] GC: [laugh] But my first real question, and I don't mean this in a negative way, but who is your audience for Borderlands? Because I feel Borderlands 2 was a long time ago now… CB: Yeah, 2012. GC: [resigned sigh at the passing of time] CB: Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. GC: I enjoyed Borderlands 2, but Borderlands 3 was a long time coming and by then I assumed it just wasn't for me anymore. The sense of humour felt a lot more obnoxious… CB: [laughs] Yeah. GC: Like it was meant for teenage boys, which is fine, but it wasn't for me. But I got the sense from when you were talking earlier, that you did see that as an issue, that had perhaps narrowed the audience a little. TC: Personally speaking, as a writer, sometimes people get a little confused by the tone, because Borderlands is tonally… the voices of the characters are over the top a lot, in performances, that you kind of miss the subversiveness of a lot of the jokes. And I recognise that that's not for all people. Some people have a negative reaction to the tone. Part of the fun of writing for Borderlands in general is that, especially in 4, I think we're trying to subvert the cliché as much as we can with humour. So, I guess that is a recall of BL2, which was often like that, in terms of subverting the cliché. GC: Did you work on Borderlands 3? TC: I didn't work on Borderlands 3. GC: Okay, so I can say what I like. Both: [laughs] GC: Borderland 2 was genuinely funny, but in 3 I could see the jokes, but I never laughed at them. CB: Yeah. BL3 also had kind of a comedy machinegun approach to it as well. And I think that's something we can do in BL4… humour is a pillar of the franchise. We don't want to ever get away from that but just pacing it differently… and we've talked about some… the stakes of the story are different, which requires kind of a different approach tp the humour. TC: So Pandora, as you will recall, was a Wild West kind of place. GC: Yes, I recall that. Just don't ask me some complex question about the lore. TC: [laughs] I won't! But thematically, tonally, it was a place where kind of anything went. And so, the gunslinger comedy approach made more sense there. In the context of a totalitarian dystopia ruled with an iron fist by this ominous villain… GC: Which is not the obvious thing I would've expected from a Borderland sequel. TC: No, no… GC: When you were saying the humour's dry and grounded, again, that's not how I would think of Borderlands. But then after playing it, I kind of see what you mean. It is quite dry, it is sarcastic. TC: Yeah. I think wit rather than wackiness might be the distinction, where the knob gets tweaked a little bit. CB: Also, over time, it just practically takes longer to make a game. So for BL2, for example, we could make references to internet jokes and memes and stuff. And between the speed of the dev cycle and the speed of the internet moved, that could be timely. Right? GC: I don't want to seem like I'm discouraging Borderlands from being funny. So few games have a decent sense of humour, I guess because comedy is hard. TC: Comedy is hard. GC: But also, as you're saying there, it takes so long to make a game now. So, one obvious question is are there any references to the movie in the game? Have you even had time to add that? CB: Not really. There might be an Easter egg of a gun or something, but I don't think… TC: Yeah, barely. CB: Maybe if we'd had more time, maybe you could make it. TC: Yeah. I mean the game is so big and has to be localised to so many different languages that the lead times for dialogue and stuff are longer than you would think. So yeah, we just can't be reactive to… and we wouldn't be, I mean the movie was its own, we really didn't have… CB: Yeah, there was not a ton of crossover between the two efforts. TC: I mean, some of us were consulted, just sounded out on various… to make the movie world feel accurate to the game. But other than that, they were completely separate productions. GC: And you say you've worked on all of them? CB: Different capacities in all of them, but yeah. GC: Because I think the other thing with Borderlands 3 is that people were surprised it wasn't open world. It feels like only now have you done what everyone assumed you would've with a sequel. CB: It's interesting, actually. So for BL3, I don't think there was ever really any… we actually don't think about BL4 as really an open world… with BL3, it had been so long since BL2 it kind of felt like we needed to make the Borderlands people are familiar with. Let's return with a vengeance, or whatever, and that means that it's structured in these ways. And then jumping off from 3 to 4, we were like, 'The big improvement we want to make here is in exploration.' We want to have all these movement abilities, all this traversal stuff. We want to give the player more reasons to explore. And so that kind of led to the structure of the world. When we say seamless world instead of open world… open world means different things to different people. And to us it does not mean crafting, it doesn't mean X, Y, Z, right? GC: Oh no, no. To me it just means a contiguous world. CB: We just wanted players to not be impeded. We don't have to load all the time, so we don't. TC: I would say Borderlands 3 opened up the galaxy. You did go to different places. CB: Yeah. That was our way of blowing it up in that one. TC: This is finally expanding the map to feel like, for the first time, I think, like a real planet. You don't see it in the build that you played necessarily, but you can take a straight line where you go through a forest and then a grassy part, and then the snow starts to appear, and then suddenly you're in the mountains. That's an experience that was not available before. GC: You get a vehicle very early on but is that something that just comes naturally with a seamless world? Because it sounds like you're doing it the other way around, you're not thinking, 'Oh, I want to have an open world. What can we do in it?' Is it like… CB: We want to do these things, what's the world going to be like? Exactly! GC: So the open world is just a means to an end, essentially. CB: A means to end might be a good way to put it, actually. We have all this extra space now to do all this extra exploration. Do we want to have to go to a Catch-A-Ride [terminals where you collected and customised vehicles in the previous games] all the time? No. It's like, well, what would be more convenient to a player? Just give me a vehicle. TC: It made so much more sense before, you would load into a new map and the Catch-A-Ride station would be there. So you would naturally get on there. Here you can be anywhere at any time. It just makes sense; more sense than before. GC: Okay. And this is slightly awkward if you've worked on them all… CB: [laughs] GC: But I would not say that Borderlands is particularly noted for its gunplay. It's kind of the inverse of Destiny, where that's the only thing that's interesting in the game. Whereas in Borderlands it's fine but a lot of other stuff is more notable. Do you see that as a major problem for the series? CB: That was actually a big effort of 3. So going from Pre-Sequel to 3 was like, 'Hey, we have all these great guns…' It's actually much like what you just said, we have all these great guns, we need to start having best in class gunplay as well. It needs to feel great to fire that gun. I think we've continued that. I think that 4 is an improvement over 3, but I feel like 2 to 3 was kind the big level up there. GC: I agree but I would've liked to see guns that did more crazy video game type things. A lot of what I was playing with was still basically a machinegun or whatever. TC: You may be the only one to say that borderlines guns aren't crazy enough. GC: They do some weird things, like that turret one, but do you even want to get crazier than that or is it still important to keep things relatively grounded? CB: That's a good question. I think you largely want it to feel familiar. Like, 'Hey, the icon says that's an SMG, I roughly know what an SMG does.' I think you do want a percentage of your guns to be very weird. And where we tend to do that more is with Legendary weapons. If you see an orange gun drop, sometimes they'll be very strange. There'll be unnamed guns, wild stuff. And we tend to try to save those for later in the game, like Legendary weapons, mission rewards. Sometimes we'll give those. TC: That's when it gets really experimental. GC: I was playing some co-op just now but we didn't have mics so it was really more like playing with a human bot. Do you do anything to try and encourage more communication and teamwork or do you have to assume people won't be talking? CB: We try for both to work, right? We have data. Most people who are playing online, they're not chatting as much, especially in pick-up games. If you're just matchmaking, chances are good you're not going to be talking with everybody in your party. So it has to work in that way, where we're not communicating super in-depth. It needs to still be fun and it still be worth it. Also, between the character classes covering off 10 different areas, once people are communicating and working together, we want that to also feel rewarding in a way. And I find the game far, far easier if you're doing those things and can chew through more of it; you can grind, more bosses get better loot. So yeah, you basically just have to do both. GC: But you weren't stopping them from being the same class, were you? CB: No, we're not. They could all be the same class. You could all be Vex if you want to. And hopefully the character skill tree depth is enough to where that actually is meaningful too. PR guy: I'm sorry, we're out of time. More Trending GC: That's all right, that's fine. CB: It's good to talk to you, those were good questions. TC: Love the questions. GC: Thank you. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: The Witcher 3: Complete Edition is less than £7 in new PlayStation sale MORE: Stellar Blade dev gifts Switch 2 to staff as Nintendo port rumoured MORE: Mario Kart World's soundtrack is fantastic – here are the best songs
