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 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.
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.
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.
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.
-Selfish
-Acts like a douchebag
-Only cares about profit
-Fires you
vs
-Thoughtful
-Learns to better himself
-"Obviously, money isn't everything."
-Lifts you up
I feel like you can only get this interpretation of Rhys if you chose the most douchebag options in the first game, which says more about the people in charge of the story than it does about Rhys.
-Selfish
-Acts like a douchebag
-Only cares about profit
-Fires you
vs
-Thoughtful
-Learns to better himself
-"Obviously, money isn't everything."
-Lifts you up
This is what happens when you have people more interested in promoting an agenda rather than honoring the character as they were written. Easier to make him another greedy, power hungry CEO that promotes guns and war to shoehorn in an anti-capitalist message (“a byproduct of a capitalist system that thrives on violence”), rather than stick to the man who rebuilt Atlas to genuinely try and help people in need and become the opposite of Handsome Jack. Fuck that nuance I guess, let’s just make him like every other company leader in this universe, and have him fire one of the main characters to show just how much he loves money and hates people.
-Selfish
-Acts like a douchebag
-Only cares about profit
-Fires you
vs
-Thoughtful
-Learns to better himself
-"Obviously, money isn't everything."
-Lifts you up
Rhys doesnt actually die, they just show him "die" with everyone else who "dies" before Anu brings them back. It just doesn't specifically show Rhys be brought back, but no he is not actually dead.
I think my biggest questions really is why the fuck Fran or Octavio die off screen. It is actually so comical that it happens and is serious. Last scene is "Good job. We saved the world guys!" one year later"YOOO FRAN FUCKIN DIED YO!!!!"
It honestly does the worst kind of "choice changes the ending" where it just takes random things you did and have 0 rhyme or reason, and then all of sudden this is your ending. Character dies off screen, the end, bye.
So this may change as the day goes on, but this may actually end up doing worse than gotg
So 2 things to keep in mind. Play numbers are not the best comparison and PC now has users on EGS. However, vast majority of the time a game releases on EGS and Steam, Steam will take vast majority so I dont see how EGS could have about 400 or more users playing now than Steam. Even if EGS was the same amount, it still is just below what GOTG was so I'd say it would be doing on par, which also isn't good. (Also in general player numbers are never the best way to truly count sales, best we can do is compare.)
That said, even if this game sells super poorly, I don't even know if it matters. It is over priced as hell and although we have no idea how much it actually cost them to make, it feels very cheaply made.
-Selfish
-Acts like a douchebag
-Only cares about profit
-Fires you
vs
-Thoughtful
-Learns to better himself
-"Obviously, money isn't everything."
-Lifts you up
I think my biggest questions really is why the fuck Fran or Octavio die off screen. It is actually so comical that it happens and is serious. Last scene is "Good job. We saved the world guys!" one year later "YOOO FRAN FUCKIN DIED YO!!!!"
WHAT? That's how they handled character deaths? That seems like a very important part of a story that you'd think they want people to see.
Rhys doesnt actually die, they just show him "die" with everyone else who "dies" before Anu brings them back. It just doesn't specifically s… morehow Rhys be brought back, but no he is not actually dead.
I think my biggest questions really is why the fuck Fran or Octavio die off screen. It is actually so comical that it happens and is serious. Last scene is "Good job. We saved the world guys!" one year later "YOOO FRAN FUCKIN DIED YO!!!!"
It honestly does the worst kind of "choice changes the ending" where it just takes random things you did and have 0 rhyme or reason, and then all of sudden this is your ending. Character dies off screen, the end, bye.
Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
-Selfish
-Acts like a douchebag
-Only cares about profit
-Fires you
vs
-Thoughtful
-Learns to better himself
-"Obviously, money isn't everything."
-Lifts you up
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself written as a villain.
I feel like you can only get this interpretation of Rhys if you chose the most douchebag options in the first game, which says more about the people in charge of the story than it does about Rhys.
Now after ruining Rhys and Vaughn, Gearbox is off to ruin Fiona next...
It's only a matter of time until Sasha, Loader Bot, and Gortys are next...
This is the worst timeline of all time.
This is the greatest murder case of all time
This is what happens when you have people more interested in promoting an agenda rather than honoring the character as they were written. Easier to make him another greedy, power hungry CEO that promotes guns and war to shoehorn in an anti-capitalist message (“a byproduct of a capitalist system that thrives on violence”), rather than stick to the man who rebuilt Atlas to genuinely try and help people in need and become the opposite of Handsome Jack. Fuck that nuance I guess, let’s just make him like every other company leader in this universe, and have him fire one of the main characters to show just how much he loves money and hates people.
Rhys doesnt actually die, they just show him "die" with everyone else who "dies" before Anu brings them back. It just doesn't specifically show Rhys be brought back, but no he is not actually dead.
I think my biggest questions really is why the fuck Fran or Octavio die off screen. It is actually so comical that it happens and is serious. Last scene is "Good job. We saved the world guys!" one year later "YOOO FRAN FUCKIN DIED YO!!!!"
It honestly does the worst kind of "choice changes the ending" where it just takes random things you did and have 0 rhyme or reason, and then all of sudden this is your ending. Character dies off screen, the end, bye.
So this may change as the day goes on, but this may actually end up doing worse than gotg
So 2 things to keep in mind. Play numbers are not the best comparison and PC now has users on EGS. However, vast majority of the time a game releases on EGS and Steam, Steam will take vast majority so I dont see how EGS could have about 400 or more users playing now than Steam. Even if EGS was the same amount, it still is just below what GOTG was so I'd say it would be doing on par, which also isn't good. (Also in general player numbers are never the best way to truly count sales, best we can do is compare.)
That said, even if this game sells super poorly, I don't even know if it matters. It is over priced as hell and although we have no idea how much it actually cost them to make, it feels very cheaply made.
. . .
I'm beginning to think that they only watched this scene of Jack taking over Rhys body, not knowing he was possessed, as their basis for him.
Gearbox when asked to revisit the original Tales script to gain inspiration for their rendition.
WHAT? That's how they handled character deaths? That seems like a very important part of a story that you'd think they want people to see.