I think it's about time I randomly pop up again. Don't know if and when I'll be doing any more entries after this one, but we'll see.

So anyway, I wanted to talk about the new Borderlands, because I'm assuming a lot of people don't have it yet (I pre-ordered as soon as it was available), and I figure on the off chance someone cares what I think, it might be nice to hear someone's opinion on the game. Or something. Mostly I just want to talk about it. So I will. That said, I'm not very far in, so I can only speak from what I've seen so far. I'd like to eventually make another entry when I've played all the way through, but who knows if I ever will or not.

But from what I think so far, the game is pretty damn good. Borderlands 2 left some pretty big shoes to fill, and they didn't disappoint. The addition of laser weapons (essentially in place of E-tech) is pretty interesting, especially since they're counted as they're own weapon type with their own kind of ammo. I haven't seen much of the Cryo element yet, but it seems promising.

As for playable characters, I can only really speak for Claptrap, as he's the only one I've played so far. And he's pretty much about as great as you'd expect playing Claptrap to be. His action skill is unpredictable and a lot of fun to mess around with, randomly selecting from a series of different "action packages" that give him various buffs or abilities, and in some cases summon a minion he calls Mini-Trap. His skill trees are pretty diverse, with him being viable either as a support/healer type in a group of players, or a more damage oriented character. A while ago, my friends were joking about having a three Claptrap party because we'd all want to play him, and honestly I think it would actually work pretty well if each went down a different skill tree. The tree I'm going down is based on a variety of "subroutines", one of which is randomly selected upon respawning, or when you run out of frag stacks (which serve no other purpose but that of a timer, although with later skills more stacks can be acquired to maintain a subroutine longer). There is always one (and only one) subroutine active at any given time, and each buffs a certain thing, at the cost of debuffing something else. For many of them, the debuff is general gun damage, which can be problematic, but there are also subroutines for each gun type that buff that type and debuff all others, as well as elemental subroutines that work the same way. Because of the combined buff/debuff, the player is forced to adjust their approach every few minutes to acommodate a new subroutine. Personally, I appreciate that it makes you switch things up and keeps things interesting, although having to keep one of every gun type on hand and rotate them around in my inventory is rather tiresome. Overall, I enjoy it, though some players who prefer a particular style of play may not.

The story, I can't say too much about, really, but it's quite promising so far. It's interesting to get a different perspective on some of the characters, especially Handsome Jack. While he's essentially a good guy in this game, you clearly start to see how he ended up going down the slippery slope to being the asshole we all know and love, and you can also see where his constant belief he's the hero and his hatred of bandits come from. Some of the new characters are quite interesting as well, and of course the returning characters are as much fun as they've ever been. I don't know that it's as outright hilarious as Borderlands 2 was, but it's definitely still very, very good.

As for visuals and whatnot, it's pretty much the same quality as Borderlands 2, although the landscape is different. Elpis is covered in giant cracks in the ground, which the player often has to jump over. and on the subject of jumping, the O2 kits and their boost mechanic are pretty cool. Slamming down on enemies is very statisfying, and being able to glide around and steer your jumps a little more can come in handy. Playing Claptrap I haven't had to deal with running out of Oxygen (robots don't breathe), but I can see how it might be frustrating. That said, there are no shortage of places to get your oxygen refilled, so it probably isn't too big of an issue unless you abuse the boost feature (which I do, because I don't need to breathe so I can get away with it).

Overall, it's a pretty awesome game. I'd pick it up if possible. 9.5/10, I'd say. So there you have it. And now, farewell.