Recent reviews by Spec

The automatons have attempted to deceive us, and we have successfully maintained our Liberty through our determination and display of Freedom

The game has the right idea, but there feels to be a pedaling insertion of an agenda that is seen with the current gaming and movie political climate. What I mean by that, is the inclusion of everyone, though on paper this is a great idea, but by trying to include everyone, you take away the dynamic or focus of your main player base. You either do one thing well or do everything subpar, there appears to be not enough focus on what made the Borderlands image. The voice acting performed by Tiny Tina, I don't know the name of this voice actor, and by, I can't remember the character's name, Andy Samberg was perfect, as a fan of Brooklyn 99. Andy's performance was amazing, hilarious and had a comedic approach compared to his character in Brooklyn 99.

The next issue is replayability, once you beat it, there doesn't feel to be any desire to play the game over again.

If you are looking for the love that was put into Borderlands 2, this isn't it, which is sad to say.

This game was fun for a little bit. It has a "Souls" feel, though the weapon system is not nearly as dynamic. The customization is also something that is limited. Basically if you are wanting to play a "Souls" like game that is a bit more simplistic then this would be a good fit. If you were looking for that challenge and the diversity, this may not be the game for you.

I so badly wanted to love this game, Anime and Souls, win-win. Well I was wrong. There is a lot of flash, but not a lot of meat behind the story. Though one could argue that there is no story in "Dark Souls", I would respond with you are right and you are wrong. There is an unbelievable amount of lore, but there is little to none hand holding story in Dark Souls. CODE VEIN does have a story, though the story just didn't connect with me.

These are the pro's and cons for me.

Pro's:
Challenging (Dark Souls like)
Graphics (special animations)
Has a story
Fast Paced

Con's:
Limited Weapon animations
Limited customizing; outfit, weapons
Weak Story
Becomes redundant rather quickly

I am sad to report this after being such a long time fan of the Borderlands series except for Pre-Sequel, which was just pure garbage. Borderlands 3 is really lowering the bar on the quality of character interactions and DLC, with the only redeeming factor being the gameplay.

First I need to state that I am comparing Borderlands 3 to Borderlands 2. The thing that made Borderlands 2 so amazing was the dialog with the quips and banter between the characters. Borderlands 3, unfortunately, really dialed back on having those constant quips and banter and instead had a dry, stale and frankly boring dialog. Borderlands 3 brought the nostalgia of the previous borderlands characters but had erased their personalities. They did evolve Tiny Tina into something with potential; if they were to make another Borderlands where she could not just be the psycho, but also caring and volatile character that we loved in Tiny Tina's DLC or in the Torgue DLC (both from Borderlands 2).

I played with all the characters and the only playable character that had a genuine funny dialog with quips throughout the game was the operative. Unfortunately, all the other characters were merely a fill-in to the role and simply responding to commands, not maintaining that Borderlands charm that we have all grown attached to and loved. With the characters being drawn up so boring, it has made playing the game a dull grind instead of a joyful adventure. I have found it difficult to want to continue playing the game. Jacobs being one of the main NPC contributors in the commentary, had only a minor positive contribution to the abysmal story development. Borderlands 3 falls short on the other characters in a dull, 'going through the motions' development. The main villains lacked dynamics. They were one dimensional with predictable plots, where as in Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack had events that shocked you and caught you off guard. You hated him, you wanted him to die a brutal and horrible death, getting to choose how to end Handsome Jacks life. In the end of Borderlands 3 all I could think was "wow, that was anti-climactic," which spawned hope for a more fulfilling DLC to come.

At this time I have played the DLC from the first season pass and have put in a total of 92 hours of gameplay. I will not give away any of the spoilers, but I was really really bored and felt that I was being spoon-fed a political agenda in "Guns, Love and Tentacles". There was just a lackluster development of the characters' love story with no genuine emotions to enrich it. Supplied with a hurried shallow tale story, that at the end of it made you say, "Really? that's the ending?".

The combination of weapons and elements is where this game really shines. Evolving the explosive combat, increasing the fast paced fire fight as we struggle to survive with the new dynamics and smashing the buttons/keys to get away brings the game more to life. The characters' abilities are well balanced and able to mesh with a friend in co-op or in single player, instead of one person rolling through everything (though this can still happen). Thanks to the evolving difficulty factor when playing with other players and scaling mayhem mode to match your desired challenge, it continues to make the gameplay intense and entertaining.

I do not plan on getting the Season 2 Pass at this time. If I happen to get it for free, or if 2K happens to have an insane deal on it, I will get it. No way will I be paying full price or 50% value on it. They already tricked me once with their Season pass I do not plan on making the same mistake.

Recap:
Story-weak
Character Development-weak
DLC-weak
Gameplay-strong

A great remake, graphics are beautiful, controls in sync, and that lovely movement that makes you want to scream at the screen for the character to run faster cause you're gonna die. Word of caution don't go zombie land on everything, meaning shooting every single zombie you see, be stingy with the bullets, deposit your stuff that you don't use regularly, learned my lesson. Don't forget to take your time and save often, only on the first play through.

With the Mod menu finally being taken down, let me back up and explain my position. I am all for mods when it doesn't effect someone elses game. If it is only being used in single player, its great, you are only effecting yourself and enjoying the random mods like becoming the hulk, or magneto random stuff like that. When you bring the Mods onto the online, you are having fun, but for those who don't want the mods you are ruining the game for those players.

Now with the Mods having a heavy crackdown on the players who use them the game is starting to proceed again in the GTA fashion that we remember, blowing stuff up on even playing grounds, Rank actually being used to the advantage in which it is supposed to rather than this rank 3 with a CEO/MC and MOC and flying around with a Hydra blowing everything up. Clearly not earning their equipment and exploiting their gifts making those who have invested their time into this game seem not as fun or desirable to play.

This game is amazing, it carries its same GTA vibe since GTA 3, get in cars, blow stuff up, jump off stuff, range of weapons. If you are a GTA fan, this is still the great game you fell in love with all those years ago, but with a twist, thanks to the people buying shark cards, free DLC/ UPDATES to the game adding new content. Just a shout out, you don't see new content free in a game anymore, you can just look at Destiny as a prime example of that, along with many others. This is not a rant, i enjoy this game as you can see i have played quite a bit and the new MOC add on is amazing with its new range of vehicles and its new weapon modifications, bringing a new twist on the old obsolete weapons.

The counters are clunky and the game feels forced, both in gameplay and in story. With not much of the free running as smooth as it has been, it now requires more to do the free run instead of the usual Assassins creed of only two buttons to hold, now its an awkward three. One positive addition in this game is switching, on command, in and out of stealth mode to change your pace, and to become harder to detect. I loved Black Flag, this just leaves my Assassins Creed itch to be remained unsatisfied.

WIth its sexist like favoring in the game, i would say the biggest issue that is unspoken is the strength of the specials for the female characters, compared to the male characters. Also with a lack of humor in comparison to the last two Borderlands, this has been nothing short of a let down, and has completely discouraged me from playing anything that may have the title Borderlands in it. The first 2 were great, with story, humor, action, interesting specials( take the hint from this there is nothing really interesting in the specials for Pre-Sequel, sure you can PAY TO PLAY, or pay to enjoy with the new characters trying to boost up the interest level, but the damage is done and there is no saving this game) cut scenes, there was just so much going on with the Borderlands franchise, and to put this bluntly, this game just came in, B lined the whole story, and shat on it, if you like Borderlands, save yourself and don't download this game, stay with what you have on the other two, this will do two things for you; one, not lose your faith in the company, and two you will be able to still enjoy the other borderlands, after playing this one, and trying to go back its not bitter sweet when you play one of the previous, its more like a bitter chalk, it sounded good but didn't satisfy do to the huge disappointment from the Pre-Sequel, and with you playing the previous two you can't help but feel that dissatisfaction while playing the others knowing you just wasted your money on this game.