We embrace the differences between individuals, and we appreciate everyone has their own unique sense of humour. For the longest time, though, Borderlands has been aggressively unfunny in our opinion; it appears it’s an issue Gearbox is all too aware of.
Writing on X (or Twitter), narrative director Sam Winkler candidly said he “remains firm in his criticism of Borderlands 3’s overabundance of toilet humour”. While he wouldn’t comment specifically on the content of sequel Borderlands 4, he noted “if the word skibidi ships in the game under my watch I’m gonna cry real tears”.
Winkler described the latest title as Gearbox’s “most ambitious yet” and added that he’s worked with some of the “funniest people I know” to write the plot.
Of course, we don’t want Borderlands 4 to suddenly become all self-serious and maudlin, but it would be nice if it actually made us giggle from time to time. In our opinion, Borderlands has relied far too much on toilet humour and obnoxious shouting for far too long, so it’s good to see the studio is aware of the issues and actively working to address them.
[source x.com]
Comments 38
Sure I guess we'll see about that 😏
I feel like Borderlands 2 was just a lightning in a bottle moment for the series and they've never got even remotely close to replicating it since. I played a ridiculous amount of Borderlands 2 but played only a few hours of 3 before I couldn't stand it anymore
The wackier and the more "lol random" the franchise got the less interested I was. I still think the first is the best
All I remember from playing BL3 was having a raging headache after each session. I put this down to the excessive use of particle effects and a constant stream of awful white noise of gunfire, music, enemies screaming and the npcs screaming over the radio all at the same time.
With Pitchford at the helm I’ll always be doubtful, BL3 was the best game in many ways like exploration, gun play and traversal, but it was seriously lacking with its storytelling and character handling, hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
I loved BL2 and 2 I played it to death on PS3 back in the day especially 2 with Handsome Jack and Butt Stallion. I got 3 for free on Steam (somehow) and I tried it the other week and I'm sorry but the graphics or all though improved and they look good the story and characters are awful boring
It’s not going to be a Borderlands game then?
I know of multiple people that refunded BL3 directly because of the millennial writing and reddit humour. Kind of explains why that game is always on sale for 90% off. The Borderlands movie isn't exactly going to help change people's expectations either
I mean it still has Sam Winkler as the writer so no not really.
@carlos82 id think waiting almost an entire decade to make the next mainline game had something to do with it too; but yeah , i agree
@Burnish1619 oh damn , i completely forgot about the movie 😂
It's disengenious to say they won't rely on toilet humour as it implies they just hit the fart noise button one too many times in BL3.
The dialogue in BL3, imo, is borderline unlistenable. A cringe hotpot of stale, 5 year old meme references, Marvel-lite "he's behind me isn't he?, well that just happened" tosh and characters who just scream at you like a child on a sugar rush.
I legitimately turned the dialogue off in the game and just played through without it, which I think is the only game I've ever felt compelled to do that for? Plenty of games have bad writing but never to the point of just wanting to not hear any more of it.
If this guy worked on the first game, it's definitely a risk this game is just as bad. He mentions he hired a bunch of funny contractors to help, and that's potentially a good sign. But are they funny writers? Or what he considers to he funny writers? Because he obviously thought BL3 was a fantastic hilarious product.
Can't wait to discover the legendary Hawk-2A gun.
@carlos82 bl2 story was great, tps story was great, even wonderlands story was good. Bl3 story was just really bad.
Can I have that in writing please.
I think I outgrew the humour in Borderlands about 10 years ago. It's not for me anymore, and that's fine, plenty of teenagers in the world.
I didn't play BL3, but I'm quite shocked it lost it's typical outlined comix graphics. Did I missed something?
@carlos82 Thing is, Borderlands 2 was badly written and had terrible humour too, @Burnish1619 mentions the 3rd game having unfunny millennial humour for Redditors and I'm sat here thinking...yeah that was Borderlands 2 as well. I guess some of the OG fans of BL2 grew up between the releases and somehow remember the second game differently even though it was the same terrible immature meme type humor with now many outdated meme jokes (i.e dick butt, arrow to the knee, poopy fart, everything that comes out of Claptrap's mouth and that awful racist character Tiny Tina talking in ebonics etc etc).
I never played these games for the story or the writing and I'm still surprised there's apparently people that do lol. I simply played them for the gameplay and multiplayer. I blanked out all the characters in both games due to how obnoxious they were lol.
@TruestoryYep it's simply a matter of degrees. BL2 was obnoxious but BL3 was a great deal more obnoxious. Also, 2 had other story beats going for it, whereas I couldn't tell you what the plot was in 3. There were some twins I think.
Why don't they concentrate on making a good story/ plot, and then find ways to add humour and nuance? Or, even better, the humour should arise organically, from having a well written script, with characters that have emotional depth.
Stating that you're working with the funniest people to write the plot sounds like another mistake. I'm sure they thought the last few games were funny at the time, but the writing was all purely adolescent and missed more than it hit.
@TruestoryYep Absolutely spot on. I really can't understand how people can relish Tina with praise, while criticising so much of the humour of the series, when she's been one of the most despisingly written characters in the whole thing. People slandered Awkwafina for "talking like she's black", but Tiny Tina gets scooped up for a sequel, and a film, with no one batting an eye at how offensive she is- and not in the intended way.
Looking back at 2, it definitely has its fair share of cringe and insufferable dialogue. I think the difference with 3 is 2 has a much better story and writing, and Roland and Handsome Jack aren’t as intolerable as Ava, The Twins and almost every single character in 3. I think the only characters that have any charm to them in 3 are Maya and Balex, and those two are not even there for most of the game. 2 at least had other things going for it whereas 3 is an endless bombardment of insufferable and obnoxious characters and fifth grader lines.
Also, as said above, I also had to turn the dialogue for 3. It’s the only way to enjoy the game and it’s the only game I’ve ever felt this way for in ~3 decades of gaming. I don’t have high expectations for much better with 4.
I dunno. I love the gameplay loop but the humour in the borderland does not clicked with me. Im prefer humour type for example in psychonauts 2. Those game make me chuckle a lots
@Victor_Meldrew I see another person of taste here, I thought about it and I wouldn't mind playing through a story similar to the Borderlands Telltale game in BL4.
Borderlands games as always been funny to me.and its a game people needs to chill.word up son
Winkler? Can we get some Fonz jokes then?
That's the thing about humor. There's only so many ways to say "it just isn't funny," but you KNOW you are right. The problem w 3 was the characters.
I think the series hit its comedic peak with BL2. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that that was the entry with Handsome Jack as the central villain. Also Anthony Burch was still the lead writer and I think left after that (or maybe after TPS?).
I didn’t mind BL3’s writing too much but it definitely wasn’t the same. I remember I liked a lot of Fl4k’s lines a lot, but a lot of that may have been due to ProZD’s delivery. Not sure. I just recall not liking the main villain that much. A bit one note and not nearly as charismatic.
I played the last two games, counting Wonderlands, with a couple of friends in co-op and we had a lot of fun. But for the life of me I can't tell you what the story actually was 😂
@TruestoryYep yeah I'm not sure why some people say that 2 is great and 3s is bad. They're both pretty cringy.
Even the first game, I remember at the time complaints from reviewers about how aggressively annoying claptrap is. Although I think the first game kind of has a consistent tone and it doesn't go too over the top
@Overmind I was thinking the exact same thing. Always been a fan of BL, and spent 70 hours with BL3 but I cannot tell you a single thing about it.
I put so many hours into borderlands 3, a lot of fun, so excited to see what they do with this.
There is no way this will hold true. When any character opens their mouth the games drop from a 7 to a 1.
I found it quite telling that there was almost no dialogue in the whole trailer. I can't decide if that means it will be better or if they know it's still terrible and are just hiding it.
I dream of a Borderlands game without that dreadful ploptrap character.. Bin the Bin!
"I’ll be retweeting them as they post about it (though not all may still on this site)."
Lord knows all of the most irreverent and hilarious people have fled X for Bluesky in a butthurt rage.
Time for the blind, no armed pilot to make a comeback.
Yeah I tried BL2 and the humor was a turn off.
The humour in Borderlands must be hard to get just right. It relies on a bunch of annoying characters, and it can very quickly turn to pure annoyance, rather than fun, depending on your mood. Good luck to them.
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