My friends Jerry and Ryan both told me that Borderlands 4 is cool and fun once you get far enough into the game. Like the comic suggests, I bounced right off the intro. I kept getting shitty sub machine guns while running through featureless grey rooms. Eventually I got to a shack and that’s when Claptrap started talking and I had to stop. It’s possible it gets good but I’m just not wired to chew through the bad bits to get to the good stuff.
A game has about an hour to sell me. If I’m not having fun at that point I’ll probably never play it again. Amazing art might keep me plugging along longer but for the most part I need to see what’s fun about your game in the first 45 min. I also don’t like when games start with a long story and a bunch of exposition. I don’t even know if your game is fucking fun yet and you want to start telling me about the great sundering of the third age? Prove to me the game is good and then I might care about the other stuff.
Also it’s not like there aren’t a million awesome games out now or about to come out. Here are some new games that did grab me in the first 45 minutes.
This game was called Jump Ship back during the demo but they changed the name and released it into early access. This is essentially “Sea of Thieves but in space” and if that’s not enough to get you to download it I don’t what would.
I would describe this one as the "Oops all Dungeons” version of World of Warcraft. Super streamlined dungeon runs with a group of 4 players and a hub world in between rounds to upgrade your shit.
The demo for this kart racer is out now but the full version doesn’t drop until the 25th. Even just in single player demo I love the spectacle and the feel of these tracks. It is colorful, exciting, fun and confident in a way that reminds me of 90's era Sega. This feels like a Dreamcast game and I mean that in the best possible way.
I’ve always wanted to get into this series but I’d be coming in so late I figured it wasn’t worth it. With this remake of the very first title I can finally get started with these games. It’s a really good mix between a classic action RPG and a turn based one. You have access to moves that will let you hack and slash your way though smaller enemies but when you need to you can hit a button and switch to turn based combat. Even in this turn based mode you can still move and position your characters though. Both modes interact with each other in fun ways that make combat really interesting and tactical. It’s a beautiful remake and runs great on the Steam Deck as well for those curious.
This is a new game from the team that made CrossCode. This one reminds me a lot of one of my favorite Genesis games from a million years ago called Beyond Oasis. It’s a stunning retro action rpg and you should grab the demo right away!
-Gabe Out
