I honestly hate how this game's plot and story is just "thing happens." We have them go on Shark Tank for whatever reason and have Fran actually fight sharks. It is so dumb in the worst ways. Even more ironically hilarious about it is that its all off screen and instead has you just hear about it. Its already a "jump the shark" moment and yeah idk no words. Just pretty bad.
Also seriously there have only been like 5 total locations in this game and practically no other characters other than the 3 playable ones.
I honestly hate how this game's plot and story is just "thing happens." We have them go on Shark Tank for whatever reason and have Fran actu… moreally fight sharks. It is so dumb in the worst ways. Even more ironically hilarious about it is that its all off screen and instead has you just hear about it. Its already a "jump the shark" moment and yeah idk no words. Just pretty bad.
Also seriously there have only been like 5 total locations in this game and practically no other characters other than the 3 playable ones.
I honestly hate how this game's plot and story is just "thing happens." We have them go on Shark Tank for whatever reason and have Fran actu… moreally fight sharks. It is so dumb in the worst ways. Even more ironically hilarious about it is that its all off screen and instead has you just hear about it. Its already a "jump the shark" moment and yeah idk no words. Just pretty bad.
Also seriously there have only been like 5 total locations in this game and practically no other characters other than the 3 playable ones.
The whole game feels extraordinarily cheap. There are no real intro's because that cost money. The only other NPC character you actually interact with commonly is Lou-13 as everyone else has one scene and then they are gone, half the time you're in the Frogurt shop and when you go somewhere else you are there for ages, which all feels like its been done to save money on environmental assets by making sure anything happening stays in one place. Honestly I think the worst part is that its really, really boring. I was watching it on a delay at x2 speed and I have to take a break because I am honestly bored to tears. I'm mostly just watching to see how they can somehow go even further downhill.
They had the benefit of making a full 5-episode game, before launch, and they still couldn't make choices that have good consequences or properly-paced/length episodes.
So on to episode 2 and what I've seen so far.
The intro's suck. Really no other way to put it, reeks of given no budget so there simply i… moresn't any intro credits. Instead you just get a weird minute long song playing as characters just do something bland.
Already a choice made in episode 1 just like- disappears. Spoilers if you care, but Fran can freeze someone in the freezer and not only are they completely forgotten about, they actually disappear from where they were. So either the game glitched and didnt recognize the episode 1 choice correctly, or it is just being forgotten about. Also possible it is brought up again later, but scene framing wise, they seemingly have disappeared. Reminds me of Conrad in anf episode 4 to 5 where he kind of just warps out of reality. (Edit: This choice does get followed up in episode 3 as happening, but they are just moved for whatever reason.)
Edit: Episode 2 just barely reaches an hour and consist of about 3 scenes. bruh
Rock Paper Shotgun is confirming everything I'm fearing about the New game. Thanks, I hate it.
It doesn't even do the cool music video bits at the start of chapters properly! That's like the best bit of actual Borderlands! How do you mess that up?!
Yeah no, like I said I suspected the will remember that stuff was cut because it draws attention to choices meaning absolutely nothing. Also not related, but the open critic score for Tales isnt correct as one review gave it a 5 but open critic has it listed as an 8 lmao
They had the benefit of making a full 5-episode game, before launch, and they still couldn't make choices that have good consequences or properly-paced/length episodes.
Wow.
Also just read one review that spoils something that happens in episode 4.
Like, ESRB already kind of leaked it, but uh yeah. Can't wait to see it in full glory.
Also just saw the scene if you zap the Sasha photo that was mentioned earlier. Rhys says its the only photo of Sasha he has and he could maybe ask Fiona to help him, but then says he can't find her either.
Honestly hate the idea of Gearbox trying anything with Sasha and Fiona. The incompetency to tell a story is insane and I really dont need Gearbox to even try to touch that story. Plus ignoring my own personal feelings on TFTBL romance, I hate how they just canonize choices. Really at the point I dont think the writers of this game even know what other choices tftbl1 had in any form except for when they played it 5 years ago or something.
I really do not like the new Art Style of borderlands. TFTB and BL2 had such an awesome style. Borderlands 3 was a step in the wrong direction aside from the vault hunters themselves looking good.
This game just looks like any other game will a small black outline around the characters. I'm looking at the people from the Sink or Swim backroom, and they look so boring. I miss the style this franchise used to have.
Also gotta say, the story in a story is severely missing. Shit like Fran unironically killing massive sharks like- for real, is so absolutely mind numbly dumb because it really did happen. This is the kind of embellishment the original would do to pull the rug out (it also would show it lol). TFTBL1 remembered to be grounded in this world, now it feels like wacky wahoo is what comes first.
I like how most of these reviews are the most generic thing ever, half of them saying "Yeah its actually kind of bad, 8/10" and then theres RPS and Destrucoid reviewed by people who actually played the first roasting the hell out of it.
Man they really have a scene where they bring in "all the other ceo's" but none of them can talk because its an echo call, but what is so funny about it is they bring in Katagawa Senor, who is just Jr with a new texture plastered on and Athena and her 2014 model for some reason? Like huh? Why is Athena here?
Also honestly at this point I think Gearbox Quebec will be fine. This game honestly must've cost so little with how little it does that I am sure it will make its money back.
I haven’t read any of the reviews, but that sounds hilarious. They can’t even paint the game in a positive light and still take that good review money lol
I like how most of these reviews are the most generic thing ever, half of them saying "Yeah its actually kind of bad, 8/10" and then theres RPS and Destrucoid reviewed by people who actually played the first roasting the hell out of it.
Yeah just saw the whole thing and I'm done. Fiona appears at the end, and looks like we are getting an epic Fiona story at some point! Wow I juuuust can't wait.
Someone please take Borderlands away from Gearbox.
Yeah. That finale was awful. (you were probably watching the same stream where they set sound effects to 0%, but still).
That was just so bad to the point it was silly. Just an all around awful game. Barely felt like Borderlands. Only 1 og borderlands character appears in the game, with a new voice actor. Could have been a new IP easily.
I couldn't stand the climax. So many minute-long jokes that just were not funny and I had to sit through them. The characters will be in the middle of a serious situation, and then they'll make a bad joke, then they'll repeat the bad joke 10 times over with slightly different variations. Just painfully bad. I guess I'll have to wait around to see the other endings.
Yeah just saw the whole thing and I'm done. Fiona appears at the end, and looks like we are getting an epic Fiona story at some point! Wow I juuuust can't wait.
Someone please take Borderlands away from Gearbox.
Yeah. That finale was awful. (you were probably watching the same stream where they set sound effects to 0%, but still).
That was just so… more bad to the point it was silly. Just an all around awful game. Barely felt like Borderlands. Only 1 og borderlands character appears in the game, with a new voice actor. Could have been a new IP easily.
I couldn't stand the climax. So many minute-long jokes that just were not funny and I had to sit through them. The characters will be in the middle of a serious situation, and then they'll make a bad joke, then they'll repeat the bad joke 10 times over with slightly different variations. Just painfully bad. I guess I'll have to wait around to see the other endings.
So after seeing this whole thing, I can very easily say this may be the worst narrative based video game I have ever seen. And I really dont want to be this negative just to be negative, somehow this was a lot worse than what I imagined. I don't think anything in this game makes any sense or has any cohesion at all. This plot makes 0 sense, its meandering and simply not funny or charming, or really anything. This honestly is the most soulless thing I think I have ever experienced.
I really don't even know how to describe anything that happens in this game. It is just THING HAPPENS and then uh... and then uh OO ANOTHER THING HAPPENS! The quality between the original and this is just- night and fucking day, man. Watching it honestly gave me second hand embarrassment. The amount of times they dont show things because of budget is also insane. I don't think I ever really seen a video game do something like this before, where you can actually tell they did not have a budget for the thing they wanted to do rather than just cut it. "That thing is off screen and we need to fight it but uh cut to either nothingness or something way way way cheaper to make" It is almost hard to explain what I mean here without seeing it for yourself. Don't know about other endings, but Fran dies off screen in one of them. Fucking, huh? I'm not going to act like I cared about Fran considering I don't think any of these characters are really good at all, but how the hell do kill off one of your playable characters off screen? It just sort of happens too, for really no reason, but that is probably how I'd some up this entire story.
The characters are one note and there is simply not enough of an ensemble cast. Episode 1's problem was split between 3 characters all doing different things and taking too long to get them together, but once they are together they are just- together. This is your cast- yourself + Lou-13 who is probably the only character I somewhat liked. Then characters just appear! There is a terrible running gag with the vault lander solider where he just appears where ever and wants to play the most dull mini-game imaginable. Towards the end Staple-Face, just kind of, SHOWS UP for some reason. Like honestly I could write so much more about this but like- I just give up. Fiona shows up at the end as a .png, voiced by Laura Bailey somehow, but unfortunately means we can buckle up for Gearbox making Fiona an incredibly 1 note and uninteresting character. I just simply can't wait.
I think the RPS review quote sums up how I feel about this game: The very existence of New Tales From The Borderlands is a more effective critique of corporate structure and the pitfalls of capitalism than any of the content of any Borderlands game. Apart from the best one. Just play Tales From The Borderlands. Returning to the husk of an 8 year old game you didn't create, electing not to work with the original creatives, and pushing out the most soulless product for the market. I know the Borderlands oversaturation will never stop until it actually stops making Gearbox money, but I just wish someone else could handle it going forward. I just feel sad.
So after seeing this whole thing, I can very easily say this may be the worst narrative based video game I have ever seen. And I really dont… more want to be this negative just to be negative, somehow this was a lot worse than what I imagined. I don't think anything in this game makes any sense or has any cohesion at all. This plot makes 0 sense, its meandering and simply not funny or charming, or really anything. This honestly is the most soulless thing I think I have ever experienced.
I really don't even know how to describe anything that happens in this game. It is just THING HAPPENS and then uh... and then uh OO ANOTHER THING HAPPENS! The quality between the original and this is just- night and fucking day, man. Watching it honestly gave me second hand embarrassment. The amount of times they dont show things because of budget is also insane. I don't think I ever really seen a video game do something like this before, where you can actually t… [view original content]
The stuff I'm hearing from you guys about this game is honestly chilling.
Who would've guessed this would be one of the scariest games of October
From what I'm hearing, this doesn't even sound like a "so bad it's good" game. Just bad.
Damn. Some small part of me was hoping to get this in the future on a deep, deep, Mariana Trench-deep, sale and "enjoy" the insanity.
So after seeing this whole thing, I can very easily say this may be the worst narrative based video game I have ever seen. And I really dont… more want to be this negative just to be negative, somehow this was a lot worse than what I imagined. I don't think anything in this game makes any sense or has any cohesion at all. This plot makes 0 sense, its meandering and simply not funny or charming, or really anything. This honestly is the most soulless thing I think I have ever experienced.
I really don't even know how to describe anything that happens in this game. It is just THING HAPPENS and then uh... and then uh OO ANOTHER THING HAPPENS! The quality between the original and this is just- night and fucking day, man. Watching it honestly gave me second hand embarrassment. The amount of times they dont show things because of budget is also insane. I don't think I ever really seen a video game do something like this before, where you can actually t… [view original content]
I’m not even angry, just sad. It’s been 8 or 9 years since Tales came out. That game was a part of my teenage years. I wasn’t intending to be nostalgic over it, but when you remind me of a simpler time while you use the game’s name to make… not even a quick buck, this game’s NOT going to sell well. But when you do that, how can I not be sad over that?
My mental state has actually been rock bottom this week, so this couldn’t have come out at a worse time either.
The stuff I'm hearing from you guys about this game is honestly chilling.
Who would've guessed this would be one of the scariest games of O… morectober
From what I'm hearing, this doesn't even sound like a "so bad it's good" game. Just bad.
Damn. Some small part of me was hoping to get this in the future on a deep, deep, Mariana Trench-deep, sale and "enjoy" the insanity.
Man this game honestly crushed my soul, man. Knowing Fiona is gonna go from one of the best female gaming protagonist to one of the most 1 note, boring and uninteresting gaming characters was really the cherry on top.
Also to finally put to rest who the original people were we have a whopping 1 writer returning and it was Anthony Burch. So please don't turn this into Anthony Burch drama as I only really care about the writing. I would say its fair to say his writing is a bit hit and miss and as time went on it got a lot more miss than hit, I also (just to be clear this is speculation) don't think Burch was really the driving force behind Tales 1 and the episodes he contributed on. Telltale changed a ton and pretty much took over the direction right away and I am assuming this was probably the case when he came on board for a few of Tales 1's episodes. (And even after all this, this still isn't truly former Telltale as he worked for Gearbox.)
The rest consist of Kevin Bruner and other former Telltale staff. Bruner House's main contribution seems to have been the actual dialogue and choice system. After that, a few others at Bruner House who used to work at Telltale did additional writing. However, only one of them was a writer at Telltale and they did not work on Tales 1. The rest worked at Telltale but not as writers.
They gave this game a bigger score than A Plague Tale Requiem, a better game in every single way. IGN just never changes. Always inconsistent with their reviews.
I'm more surprised it averaged a 7.1 from critics. Like I am really shocked how bafflingly bad this game is. The plot is almost impossible to explain because not a single second makes sense, like very noticeably not making sense.
They gave this game a bigger score than A Plague Tale Requiem, a better game in every single way. IGN just never changes. Always inconsistent with their reviews.
I relate a lot to this. It probably sounds weird to say, but TFTBL and really that 2012-2015 era of Telltale was really encouraging for me. These games are some of the few I really can say really, really touched me. And if we are being honest, even though I gush all the time about Wolf, TFTBL was Telltale's best game. It felt the most complete, it perfected the formula the most, had some of the tightest writing of any video game, really everything about it. And knowing the history of its dev hell, how hard it was for the devs to make it the way they wanted, and then the guy who was responsible for causing so much friction just goes to work on this? It really feels depressing. Like I really can't even be mad at this. I just feel really, really empty.
I’m not even angry, just sad. It’s been 8 or 9 years since Tales came out. That game was a part of my teenage years. I wasn’t intending to … morebe nostalgic over it, but when you remind me of a simpler time while you use the game’s name to make… not even a quick buck, this game’s NOT going to sell well. But when you do that, how can I not be sad over that?
My mental state has actually been rock bottom this week, so this couldn’t have come out at a worse time either.
Comments
I honestly hate how this game's plot and story is just "thing happens." We have them go on Shark Tank for whatever reason and have Fran actually fight sharks. It is so dumb in the worst ways. Even more ironically hilarious about it is that its all off screen and instead has you just hear about it. Its already a "jump the shark" moment and yeah idk no words. Just pretty bad.
Also seriously there have only been like 5 total locations in this game and practically no other characters other than the 3 playable ones.
I'll be curious to hear what episode 4 and 5 are like, from the sounds of the Rock Paper Shotgun review, that's where it really starts to suck.
IGN review said episode 5 is actually terrible and they gave it a 7 and were a lot less harsh.
Obviously they didn’t show the sharks to save on budget, but that was the only part of the game that made me chuckle so far.
I hate how disconnected this game feels from the rest of borderlands universe.
TFTB1 had so many characters from the main games in its first few episodes. Jack, Scooter, Athena, Brick, Mordecai, Springs.
TFTB2 has only has rhys if that even counts
The whole game feels extraordinarily cheap. There are no real intro's because that cost money. The only other NPC character you actually interact with commonly is Lou-13 as everyone else has one scene and then they are gone, half the time you're in the Frogurt shop and when you go somewhere else you are there for ages, which all feels like its been done to save money on environmental assets by making sure anything happening stays in one place. Honestly I think the worst part is that its really, really boring. I was watching it on a delay at x2 speed and I have to take a break because I am honestly bored to tears. I'm mostly just watching to see how they can somehow go even further downhill.
They had the benefit of making a full 5-episode game, before launch, and they still couldn't make choices that have good consequences or properly-paced/length episodes.
Wow.
Rock Paper Shotgun is confirming everything I'm fearing about the New game.
Thanks, I hate it.
That's just sad.
Every time Fran opens her mouth (2:12)
Yeah no, like I said I suspected the will remember that stuff was cut because it draws attention to choices meaning absolutely nothing. Also not related, but the open critic score for Tales isnt correct as one review gave it a 5 but open critic has it listed as an 8 lmao
Also just read one review that spoils something that happens in episode 4.
Like, ESRB already kind of leaked it, but uh yeah. Can't wait to see it in full glory.
the bdsm plot? i thought someone was joking when they said that was in the game
Also just saw the scene if you zap the Sasha photo that was mentioned earlier. Rhys says its the only photo of Sasha he has and he could maybe ask Fiona to help him, but then says he can't find her either.
Honestly hate the idea of Gearbox trying anything with Sasha and Fiona. The incompetency to tell a story is insane and I really dont need Gearbox to even try to touch that story. Plus ignoring my own personal feelings on TFTBL romance, I hate how they just canonize choices. Really at the point I dont think the writers of this game even know what other choices tftbl1 had in any form except for when they played it 5 years ago or something.
I really do not like the new Art Style of borderlands. TFTB and BL2 had such an awesome style. Borderlands 3 was a step in the wrong direction aside from the vault hunters themselves looking good.
This game just looks like any other game will a small black outline around the characters. I'm looking at the people from the Sink or Swim backroom, and they look so boring. I miss the style this franchise used to have.
Also gotta say, the story in a story is severely missing. Shit like Fran unironically killing massive sharks like- for real, is so absolutely mind numbly dumb because it really did happen. This is the kind of embellishment the original would do to pull the rug out (it also would show it lol). TFTBL1 remembered to be grounded in this world, now it feels like wacky wahoo is what comes first.
FREE LABOR
Okay first off
Second, I never actually looked at the price, but 40 Bucks?!
I like how most of these reviews are the most generic thing ever, half of them saying "Yeah its actually kind of bad, 8/10" and then theres RPS and Destrucoid reviewed by people who actually played the first roasting the hell out of it.
Bruner House!!! Yeah baby!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!
Trophy list for the game for those who want to see it:
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/18852-new-tales-from-the-borderlands
Man they really have a scene where they bring in "all the other ceo's" but none of them can talk because its an echo call, but what is so funny about it is they bring in Katagawa Senor, who is just Jr with a new texture plastered on and Athena and her 2014 model for some reason? Like huh? Why is Athena here?
Also honestly at this point I think Gearbox Quebec will be fine. This game honestly must've cost so little with how little it does that I am sure it will make its money back.
I haven’t read any of the reviews, but that sounds hilarious. They can’t even paint the game in a positive light and still take that good review money lol
Yeah just saw the whole thing and I'm done. Fiona appears at the end, and looks like we are getting an epic Fiona story at some point! Wow I juuuust can't wait.
Someone please take Borderlands away from Gearbox.
Fiona
IS IN THE END OF THE GAME SETTING UP BORDERLANDS 4. SAME VA, WHAT????
Yeah. That finale was awful. (you were probably watching the same stream where they set sound effects to 0%, but still).
That was just so bad to the point it was silly. Just an all around awful game. Barely felt like Borderlands. Only 1 og borderlands character appears in the game, with a new voice actor. Could have been a new IP easily.
I couldn't stand the climax. So many minute-long jokes that just were not funny and I had to sit through them. The characters will be in the middle of a serious situation, and then they'll make a bad joke, then they'll repeat the bad joke 10 times over with slightly different variations. Just painfully bad. I guess I'll have to wait around to see the other endings.
Considering Fran dies off screen I have very little hope for any other endings.
So after seeing this whole thing, I can very easily say this may be the worst narrative based video game I have ever seen. And I really dont want to be this negative just to be negative, somehow this was a lot worse than what I imagined. I don't think anything in this game makes any sense or has any cohesion at all. This plot makes 0 sense, its meandering and simply not funny or charming, or really anything. This honestly is the most soulless thing I think I have ever experienced.
I really don't even know how to describe anything that happens in this game. It is just THING HAPPENS and then uh... and then uh OO ANOTHER THING HAPPENS! The quality between the original and this is just- night and fucking day, man. Watching it honestly gave me second hand embarrassment. The amount of times they dont show things because of budget is also insane. I don't think I ever really seen a video game do something like this before, where you can actually tell they did not have a budget for the thing they wanted to do rather than just cut it. "That thing is off screen and we need to fight it but uh cut to either nothingness or something way way way cheaper to make" It is almost hard to explain what I mean here without seeing it for yourself. Don't know about other endings, but Fran dies off screen in one of them. Fucking, huh? I'm not going to act like I cared about Fran considering I don't think any of these characters are really good at all, but how the hell do kill off one of your playable characters off screen? It just sort of happens too, for really no reason, but that is probably how I'd some up this entire story.
The characters are one note and there is simply not enough of an ensemble cast. Episode 1's problem was split between 3 characters all doing different things and taking too long to get them together, but once they are together they are just- together. This is your cast- yourself + Lou-13 who is probably the only character I somewhat liked. Then characters just appear! There is a terrible running gag with the vault lander solider where he just appears where ever and wants to play the most dull mini-game imaginable. Towards the end Staple-Face, just kind of, SHOWS UP for some reason. Like honestly I could write so much more about this but like- I just give up. Fiona shows up at the end as a .png, voiced by Laura Bailey somehow, but unfortunately means we can buckle up for Gearbox making Fiona an incredibly 1 note and uninteresting character. I just simply can't wait.
I think the RPS review quote sums up how I feel about this game: The very existence of New Tales From The Borderlands is a more effective critique of corporate structure and the pitfalls of capitalism than any of the content of any Borderlands game. Apart from the best one. Just play Tales From The Borderlands. Returning to the husk of an 8 year old game you didn't create, electing not to work with the original creatives, and pushing out the most soulless product for the market. I know the Borderlands oversaturation will never stop until it actually stops making Gearbox money, but I just wish someone else could handle it going forward. I just feel sad.
There it is.
also according to credits, Anthony Burch helped with this game. huh.
Based
The stuff I'm hearing from you guys about this game is honestly chilling.
Who would've guessed this would be one of the scariest games of October
From what I'm hearing, this doesn't even sound like a "so bad it's good" game. Just bad.
Damn. Some small part of me was hoping to get this in the future on a deep, deep, Mariana Trench-deep, sale and "enjoy" the insanity.
Man…
I’m not even angry, just sad. It’s been 8 or 9 years since Tales came out. That game was a part of my teenage years. I wasn’t intending to be nostalgic over it, but when you remind me of a simpler time while you use the game’s name to make… not even a quick buck, this game’s NOT going to sell well. But when you do that, how can I not be sad over that?
My mental state has actually been rock bottom this week, so this couldn’t have come out at a worse time either.
I think miserable is the best word to use.
Man this game honestly crushed my soul, man. Knowing Fiona is gonna go from one of the best female gaming protagonist to one of the most 1 note, boring and uninteresting gaming characters was really the cherry on top.
Like, did he actually write for episodes, or was it more of a creative consultant or something?
Also to finally put to rest who the original people were we have a whopping 1 writer returning and it was Anthony Burch. So please don't turn this into Anthony Burch drama as I only really care about the writing. I would say its fair to say his writing is a bit hit and miss and as time went on it got a lot more miss than hit, I also (just to be clear this is speculation) don't think Burch was really the driving force behind Tales 1 and the episodes he contributed on. Telltale changed a ton and pretty much took over the direction right away and I am assuming this was probably the case when he came on board for a few of Tales 1's episodes. (And even after all this, this still isn't truly former Telltale as he worked for Gearbox.)
The rest consist of Kevin Bruner and other former Telltale staff. Bruner House's main contribution seems to have been the actual dialogue and choice system. After that, a few others at Bruner House who used to work at Telltale did additional writing. However, only one of them was a writer at Telltale and they did not work on Tales 1. The rest worked at Telltale but not as writers.
They gave this game a bigger score than A Plague Tale Requiem, a better game in every single way. IGN just never changes. Always inconsistent with their reviews.
I'm more surprised it averaged a 7.1 from critics. Like I am really shocked how bafflingly bad this game is. The plot is almost impossible to explain because not a single second makes sense, like very noticeably not making sense.
I relate a lot to this. It probably sounds weird to say, but TFTBL and really that 2012-2015 era of Telltale was really encouraging for me. These games are some of the few I really can say really, really touched me. And if we are being honest, even though I gush all the time about Wolf, TFTBL was Telltale's best game. It felt the most complete, it perfected the formula the most, had some of the tightest writing of any video game, really everything about it. And knowing the history of its dev hell, how hard it was for the devs to make it the way they wanted, and then the guy who was responsible for causing so much friction just goes to work on this? It really feels depressing. Like I really can't even be mad at this. I just feel really, really empty.