Tag:

Borderlands

Borderlands 4 is the series’ biggest launch ever on Steam, but it has earned the unfortunate nickname of Stutterlands 4

by admin September 12, 2025

Borderlands 4 is officially out – almost a day early for some people, and players on Steam have shown up in droves to jump into the latest loot shooter from Gearbox. The game has not only done very well for itself in terms of player activity, it also easily beat all other Borderlands games.

Steam user reviews, however, aren’t as glowing as you might expect.

Manage cookie settings

It seems Gearbox’s decision to make a more grounded game with Borderlands 4, and step away from referential humour and internet slang has worked in its favour. Over on Steam, the game peaked at 207,479 concurrent players (via SteamDB) just hours after it went live.

Considering some of the launch times, and the fact it wasn’t out on consoles at that time, there’s every chance the weekend will give these numbers a boost. Indeed, even if that’s the highest the peak concurrent is going to get, it’s still better than every other Borderlands game that came before, with its closest contender being Borderlands 2, having peaked at 124,678 concurrent players.

Borderlands 4’s numbers were certainly good enough to get into Steam’s top five most played games, and it’s currently Steam’s number one best-seller worldwide, having jumped up seven spots this week.

Image credit: Gearbox Software, 2K Games.

It doesn’t seem like everyone is happy with the game, however. Judging by its current Steam user review rating of Mixed (based on 5,435 reviews), only 62% had positive things to say about the co-op loot shooter.

While some of the negative reviews touch on narrative and gameplay content, the vast majority lament the game’s technical state. Borderlands 4’s long (and frequent) shader compilation pauses come up several times, as do your typical Unreal Engine navigational stutter. In fact, stutter issues are so common that some have taken to calling it Stutterlands 4.

This is another case of an Unreal Engine 5 game getting lambasted for its technical issues, and it’s actually become something of a nonestarter for players, many of whom get into the game expecting to run into problems just because of its use of Epic’s game engine.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Borderlands 3 had its fair share of technical issues, too, which took Gearbox a while to completely iron out. It’s quite possible this will eventually be the case for Borderlands 4, especially once Denuvo gets removed. Only time will tell.

Source link

September 12, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Where’s our Borderlands 4 review?

by admin September 12, 2025

Hello! We’re back already – it’s another one of those blogs telling you where our review is, but let’s be honest you can probably guess by now. Here goes: you might’ve spotted some Borderlands 4 reviews going live around about now, but unfortunately we won’t have a review for you here on the site today – or indeed on the game’s full launch when it comes out tomorrow.

This is because at the time of writing, we haven’t been provided with advanced review code by Borderlands 4’s publisher, 2K Games – and at this point it’s time for me to run through all the usual caveats to just keep in mind.

The important one, as always, is that we are absolutely not entitled to early review code. How many codes are handed out for a game and when is entirely at the publisher’s discretion – it’s their game, they can handle access to it how they like. Instead, please just see this is another “PSA” to go along with similar ones we’ve published in the past in similar situations, such as those for games like No Man’s Sky, Watch Dogs 2, Borderlands 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MindsEye, and most recently, Mafia: The Old Country.

We’ve not had a chance to look at Borderlands 4 in advance for other preview coverage, so here’s an official trailer to give you a basic outline.Watch on YouTube

As usual here, we’ll do our best to bring you a review as soon as is feasible. In the meantime, you can see what we thought of the previous entry in our Borderlands 3 review – and what we made of the most recent game from developer Gearbox, in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.

Source link

September 12, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

The 11 Best Changes In Borderlands 4 (And 3 Meh Tweaks)

by admin September 12, 2025

Borderlands 4 launches on September 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Gearbox’s open-world looter-shooter sequel is a big game with a lot of quests to complete and plenty of endgame content to check out. As such, my review isn’t ready yet. But I’ve played nearly 40 hours so far, and I’ve enjoyed my time. A big reason why is that Gearbox has made some smart changes in Borderlands 4 that make it easier than ever to manage, sell, and collect loot and get around the world.

As a big Borderlands fan who has played all of the games multiple times, I have cataloged a list of changes and improvements in Borderlands 4 that I think both longtime fans and newcomers alike are going to be excited about.

Finally, A Weapon Wheel

©Gearbox / Kotaku

For many, many years now, Borderlands fans, myself included, have longed for the franchise to add a real weapon wheel option. Past games have sometimes allowed you to use the d-pad on a controller to hot-swap between four guns, which is fine, I guess. But a true weapon wheel hasn’t been an option until now. Borderlands 4 finally adds a real, honest-to-goodness weapon wheel, and it’s so nice. It makes quickly swapping to a gun easier and faster than ever!

Mark Loot As Junk When Picking Up

In Borderlands 4, like in past games, you’ll spend a lot of time collecting guns that are bad, or just not what you want. In the past, you’d have to manually sell each of these. And yes, you could mark them as loot in the inventory screen and then sell them all at once. But now, in Borderlands 4, you can junk loot as you pick it up. This ties into another great change…

Instantly Sell Junk At Vending Machines

All that loot you mark as junk can now be sold at any vending machine just by walking up and hitting a single button. You don’t even have to go into the store screen. It’s so nice, and this change, as well as the last one, has helped keep my inventory mostly empty and ready for more loot.

The Lost Loot Menu Is So Much Better

Speaking of loot, in some past Borderlands games, players were able to return to a hub area and activate a “Lost Loot” machine that would spit out some of the guns that dropped out in the world that the player didn’t pick up. This wasn’t a very efficient way to handle the process and made using the Lost Loot option annoying. In Borderlands 4, this is now handled through a menu screen that lets you easily trash stuff you don’t want and take stuff you do want. And you can hit a button to take it all without having to grab each item off the floor.

A Warning When Selling Equipped Gear And Guns

Sometimes, when dealing with lots of loot and similar guns, it’s easy to mark an equipped piece of loot as junk and sell it. This has happened to me in past games. Sure, you could favorite stuff you didn’t want to sell, which is still an option in Borderlands 4, but it was always weird how the games just let you sell equipped gear so easily. Not so in Borderlands 4! Now you get a pop-up warning when trying to sell equipped items marked as junk. Nifty!

Legendary Weapons Are Much Rarer To Find, And That’s Good

©Gearbox / Kotaku

One of the biggest problems I had with Borderlands 3 was how easily and quickly you found legendary weapons and gear. On a recent playthrough, I was collecting and selling them within a few hours of starting a new character. By the end of the game, I had found well over 100. I lost count, really. This made them feel less special and made non-legendary purple gear less exciting to collect because better stuff was dropping all the time.

Thankfully, this isn’t the case in Borderlands 4. After nearly 40 hours with the game, I’ve only collected 7 legendary weapons and items. And one of those I bought from a vending machine, something I’ve only seen once in my time with the game. Unlike in Borderlands 3, when legendaries drop in Borderlands 4, I get genuinely excited! It’s a rare event, and many of the items have been powerful and memorable.

Customize Your Character Anywhere And Anytime

In the past, if you wanted to put a new skin or hat on your Borderlands character, you’d have to find a specific machine in-game and use it. This was annoying. Now, you can just open up the customization menu whenever you want and freely change your character’s looks.

Upgrading Your Inventory And Ammo Capacity Isn’t A Boring Money Grind

Borderlands 4‘s big open world has a lot of places to explore, things to do, items to collect, and activities to complete. And this time around, Gearbox has decided to tie the open world to upgrading your character. Instead of grinding for money and then going to an in-game store to buy SDU upgrades, which let you carry more stuff and ammo, you now earn SDU credits by exploring and completing activities. And this is all done via a menu that is available at all times. Need more loot space to collect more guns? Well, check to see if you have enough SDU credits to upgrade your inventory space, and if so, do it right then and there. So convenient!

An Optional Hologram Path That Helps You Go The Right Way

©Gearbox / Kotaku

I spent far too much time in past Borderlands games running around trying to figure out how to get to a specific place or a quest marker. The in-game maps have been helpful, but sometimes you just want someone to draw a line from where you are now to where you need to go. And good news: Borderlands 4 does that now! At any point, you can hit a button to get an in-game holographic path showing how to reach your destination, which can be a quest or just a random point you marked on the map.

Repkits Offer Healing When You Need It Most

A new piece of loot introduced in Borderlands 4 are repkits. These are small medical devices that players can activate every so often for some instant healing. No more hunting down health drops during tricky boss fights or big skirmishes. Those tiny bits of healing still drop and are still useful, but having a health gun at your side is great. And as with all loot in Borderlands, repkits come in various flavors with all sorts of weird, wacky, and useful bonuses and passive traits. Honestly, going back to any past Borderlands game is going to be hard after getting used to repkits.

Spawn Your Vehicle Whenever You Need It

A big theme when it comes to the changes and improvements made in Borderlands 4 is convenience. And perhaps the best example of this is the removal of Catch-A-Ride stations, which previously were the only way to spawn in a vehicle. Now, every player has their own personal Digirunner (which are basically Sparrows from Destiny), and they are awesome. They move quickly, feel great to drive, and being able to call one in whenever you want is so handy. Plus, combining Digirunners with the new movement controls, like double jumping and gliding, lets you speed across the world in style.

And now, some changes that aren’t so good…

Menus Feel Dark, Finicky, And Removed From The Game World

©Gearbox / Kotaku

Something I really loved about the menus in past Borderlands games was how vibrant they all were and how they existed in the world. When you opened your inventory or skills menu in Borderlands 3, you’d see your character standing in the world, and the menu would be hovering next to and behind them. That’s gone in Borderlands 4. Instead, all the menus and inventory screens exist in dark voids that feel disconnected from the world. And some of these menus are tricky to use or feel overly cluttered. The inventory, in particular, isn’t great to navigate when using a controller. This change doesn’t ruin Borderlands 4, but it does make me sad.

Loading Screens Are Dull

This is a silly complaint, I’ll admit, but the loading screens in Borderlands 4 are so boring. In past games, which were filled with loading screens, you’d get these wonderful, colorful posters of the location you were loading into at that moment. In Borderlands 4, which has far fewer loading screens thanks to its (mostly) seamless open world, the screens just look like someone took concept art and tossed the location’s name on it. They seem stale, cold, and drab. Thankfully, stuff loads so quickly that you won’t have to look at them long.

Rewards For Challenges And Quests Are Hidden In Digital Boxes

When you complete a quest in Borderlands 4 or when you finish an in-game challenge, you are rewarded with various goodies. But these goodies aren’t delivered directly to your inventory. Instead, you have to go into the character menu and open them up. Thankfully, you can open them all at once, but it’s so odd that this system is even in the game.

Sure, it’s nice that guns or loot you earn from a quest aren’t dropped right in your limited inventory. But it’s annoying that cosmetic items are also locked in these chests. The game also does a terrible job of reminding you to check on your rewards. Sometimes I’d open my character screen and see, like, 10 of these chests waiting for me. I’d love an option to get notified every so often when I have more than two or three of these things waiting around to be opened.

Source link

September 12, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Borderlands 4 Sets Record, But PC Players Are Struggling To Play

by admin September 11, 2025

Borderlands 4 is out now on PC via Steam and the Epic Store. And the looter shooter sequel is already the biggest Borderlands launch on Steam, with over 200,000 concurrent players just a few hours after its release. But reviews on Steam aren’t great, as many players are struggling to even play the co-op FPS.

On September 11, Borderlands 4 launched on PC. The long-awaited sequel to Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 is a bigger, better, and wilder experience than the previous game, featuring a host of smart changes and additions to the classic looting-shooting formula. However, that’s only the case if you can actually play the game and enjoy it. And on PC, players are reporting lots of performance issues, even on hardware that Gearbox listed as meeting the needed specs.

As of 4:30 pm EST on Steam, Borderlands 4 has about 2,000 reviews that are perfectly divided between negative and positive, giving the game a 50 percent mixed status. That’s no good! Scrolling through reviews, the biggest complaints seem to be not about the content of the game, but about how poorly it performs on various hardware setups. Players are also complaining about stuttering and hitching, or being forced to use DLSS to play the game at a stable framerate. Others can’t even boot the game up, reporting crashes before they even get into the action.

Of course, there are also plenty of reviews from people saying they had no issues at all and claiming that people complaining need to upgrade their PCs. This is the internet, so of course it devolved into a war with various sides and factions.

In the reviews on Steam, the most popular culprits people are blaming for the bad performance include Unreal Engine 5 and DRM protection software Denuvo. Over the last year or so, Unreal Engine 5 has become a target online as players believe the engine isn’t well-suited to big games and is hard to optimize. The complaints have gotten so loud online that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney even stepped in recently to defend the engine and lay the blame on devs who aren’t focused on optimization early enough in the cycle.

My experience playing Borderlands 4 on PC

I’ve been playing Borderlands 4 on PC for the last week, and my experience has been up and down. When I first got the game, I was playing on an RTX 3070 and struggled to run it at 1080p at 60FPS. I upgraded my rig to an RTX 5070 (something I had been planning to do for a few months now), and Borderlands 4 ran much better. However, I still found that I needed to run the game with DLSS on and frame gen to reach 120 FPS at 1080 with some settings kicked down to medium. Considering the specs in the machine, I was surprised by how power hungry the game is, and I’ll admit that I continue to be disappointed with Unreal Engine 5 games.

That said, ever since I found some settings that worked and downloaded the latest drivers, which weren’t available when I first got access to the game, I’ve been having a great time playing the game on PC. It mostly locks to 120 with my current settings and setup, and it feels great. I should also point out, though, that there’s been some chatter indicating that the day-one patch for the game, which arrived shortly before launch, may have caused problems that weren’t present when critics and content creators were playing it pre-release. In my quick tests, I’ve found the most recent patch, the one people are playing with on Steam right now, seems to bring with it some issues that weren’t present before the day-one patch. But I need to play more to really see if things are broken.

I hope Gearbox issues a patch on PC soon to help improve things a bit. Or at the very least, get rid of Denuvo ASAP.

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Borderlands 4 combat radar compass: All four Vault Hunters stood back to back firing weapons. Harlowe is in the bottom left, Vex in the bottom right, Amon in the top left, and Rafa is in the top right.

Gaming Gear

Your first move in Borderlands 4 should be to turn on this classic map setting

by admin September 11, 2025

The biggest change in Borderlands 4 is undoubtedly the shift towards a full open-world. Long gone are the days of separate zones; now we can walk from end to end with no interruptions—besides killing hordes of bandits, of course. However, this change has always made navigation that much more complicated, as we’re not restricted by closed-off locales and predictable corridors anymore.

Because of this, Gearbox made the baffling decision to remove the traditional minimap in favour of a compass at the top of the screen. Sure, the compass is useful for getting your bearings, but it’s also completely useless in pinpointing enemies in combat. There’s a psycho to your northeast, but they could be standing right in front of you or ten blocks away. See what I mean?

Luckily, tucked away at the bottom of the ‘gameplay’ tab in the settings menu is the radar display. This isn’t quite the minimap of old, which would give you the exact layout of the area, but it will help you track the exact location of enemies in combat relative to your own position.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Plus, you can use the combat radar alongside the compass to have the best of both worlds. With the radar enabled, enemies will no longer be marked on the compass, making it way less cluttered than it is by default. So, use the radar to track your enemies, and the compass to track your quest objectives and other open-world activities with no messy overlap.

Whether you’re a Borderlands veteran or not, try it out and see what I mean immediately—it’s a great boost to your situational awareness. Really, the radar should be enabled by default, as most people are going to completely gloss over this option and needlessly struggle on with the compass. It’s not optional in my eyes.

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Best Borderlands 4 Rafa build

by admin September 11, 2025

Borderlands 4’s Rafa, the Exo Soldier, might look like a walking tank with his cannons and blades, but he’s only as strong as the build you put together.

With four Vault Hunters to pick from, each with a different fighting style, Rafa’s kit is all about heavy ordnance and shock damage. Whether you prefer charged blasts, auto-turrets, or dashing melee combos, Rafa has a build that can fit your playstyle.

So, if you’ve tested Amon, Vex, or Harlowe and settled on this powerhouse in an exosuit, you’re in the right place. Here’s the best build for Rafa in Borderlands 4.

Article continues after ad

Gearbox

Best Rafa build

The best build for Rafa focuses on Peacebreaker Cannons for survivability and damage, while mixing in Overdrive for extra DPS and shield sustain. His other playstyles, the Lance and Arc Knives, are excellent alternatives, but the cannon build offers the strongest foundation for new players.

Best skills: Bullet Buddy Deluxe, Instincto, Unmissable Missiles, Shielded Systems, Overclocked Reload, Grenadier Sync, Thundercutter
Best Action Skill for solo: Peacebreaker Cannons
Best Action Skill for co-op: Arc Knives
Capstone: Beam Team or Hurricane of Special depending on build
Weapon type: High fire-rate elemental guns to pair with shield regen and Overdrive bonuses

Best skills to choose

Solo

Action Skill: Peacebreaker Cannons

Article continues after ad

Peacebreaker Cannons deploy Rafa’s shoulder-mounted turrets, auto-firing kinetic gun damage at enemies ahead. With augments like Bullet Buddy Deluxe for ammo regen and bonus fire damage, and Instincto for crit bursts, this becomes Rafa’s most reliable all-round solo setup.

Article continues after ad

To find the skill you want, type it into the filter under skill to uncover whether it’s a good one to invest in and how many points you should put into it.

Gearbox

Ammo regen during cannons, bonus fire damage scaling with mag size

Activate cannons for crit chance, re-activate for double crit and hit damage

Re-activate to fire a homing rocket volley

Increased shield recharge rate while Overdrive is active

Kills restore a portion of your shield

Bonus gun damage while shields are up, doubled at full shield

One cannon becomes shock beam, the other corrosive beam, bonus status effect damage

Co-op

Action Skill: Arc Knives

Arc Knives turn Rafa into a melee bruiser with dashes, shock combos, and mark mechanics. In groups, this makes Rafa the perfect frontline disruptor, marking targets for allies and detonating them for AoE bursts.

To find the skill you want, type it into the filter under skill to uncover whether it’s a good one to invest in and how many points you should put into it.

Article continues after ad

Arc Knives deal shock splash damage and increased blast damage

Activate cannons for crit chance, re-activate for double crit and hit damage

Re-activate to fire a homing rocket volley

Increased shield recharge rate while Overdrive is active

Kills restore a portion of your shield

Bonus gun damage while shields are up, doubled at full shield

One cannon becomes shock beam, the other corrosive beam, bonus status effect damage

Gearbox

Best Capstone

Rafa has several strong Capstone options:

Article continues after ad

Beam Team is the best for Peacebreaker builds, turning your cannons into elemental beams with status synergies.
Hurricane of Special makes Arc Knives devastating in groups, pulling enemies into shock singularities.
Inferno Protocol offers a high-risk, high-reward fire reflection setup that heals you as you unleash damage.

Weapon type

Rafa works best with fast-firing elemental weapons that keep up his DPS while his Action Skills cycle. SMGs and ARs are ideal, as they synergize with his shield sustain passives.

Avoid slow, single-shot rifles when using cannons. You’ll want consistent uptime and ammo feeding. For Arc Knife builds, melee-enhancing gear and shock/corrosive combos work best.

How to play Rafa

Rafa is built for aggression, so you should play him accordingly.

In solo play, Peacebreaker Cannons give you survivability through shield regen and ammo sustain, letting you handle both mobs and bosses. Use Beam Team to apply status effects for extra damage.
In co-op, Arc Knives shine by letting you dive in, mark enemies, and detonate them for huge team burst damage. With Hurricane of Special, you control entire groups while allies clean up.
The Lance remains Rafa’s precision option, which is great for sniping elites or piercing mini-bosses, especially with Engorged Ball or Project Gorgon for AoE.

So, that’s all you need to know about how to build the perfect Vex in Borderlands 4. While exploring Kairos, be sure to check out how to bag some free rewards through Twitch Drops, or all Borderlands games in order.

Article continues after ad

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Having Borderlands 4 PC Issues Or Crashes? Gearbox Has Some Advice

by admin September 11, 2025

Borderlands 4 is out now on PC, and a number of issues have cropped up as the game sets records on Steam. On the Borderlands Support site, Gearbox lays out some of the known issues so far and has provided workarounds for some issues.

Compiling shaders

To begin with, Gearbox reminded people that it’s a good idea to ensure your drivers are updated, since doing that alone can fix some issues. For issues compiling shaders, Gearbox said they should take about 10 minutes to compile, and if it’s taking longer, you can try rebooting the game and your system.

If that doesn’t sort out the issue, you can clear the shader cache. Here’s how:

For Nvidia:
- Open up the RunCommand (press WinKey+R),
- Paste or type the following: %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache and select “OK.”
  - This will open a File Explorer window to that file path.
- Highlight all the files in the folder and select “Delete.”
- Some files cannot be deleted, so another window will appear to warn you.
- Enable the “Do this for all current items” check box and then select “Skip.” the files that cannot be deleted.

For AMD:
- Open AMD Adrenalin app
- Select Gaming > Graphics
- Scroll down to bottom and select the Reset Shader Cache option
- Note: This will wipe shaders for all programs

If you’re running a 13th or 14th generation processor from Intel, that might be causing issues in your Borderlands 4 experience. Gearbox pointed out how Intel has acknowledged some instability issues, which can cause your PC to slow down, crash, overheat, or see large spikes of CPU usage. You can follow Intel’s instructions to try to sort the issues out if you’re experiencing them.

Troubleshooting tips

Gearbox also provided a rundown of general troubleshooting tips to help you on your way. These can be seen below, as written by the developer:

Verify Game Files – Corrupted or missing files can stop the game from launching

Steam

Right-click Borderlands 4 in your Library
Go to ‘Properties’ > ‘Installed Files’
Click ‘Verify integrity of game files’

Epic

Find Borderlands 4 in your Library
Click the three dots next to the game title
Choose ‘Manage’ and select ‘Verify’

Disable Overlays – Game overlays can cause performance issues or crashes.

Disable Steam Overlay: Steam > Settings > In-Game > Uncheck “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”
Turn off other overlays (e.g., Discord, GeForce Experience, MSI Afterburner)

Run as Administrator

Right-click the game’s shortcut or .exe file
Click “Run as administrator”

Also, try running the game in “compatibility mode” for Windows 10 if you’re using Windows

Check Antivirus/Firewall – Some security software can block game files.

Add the game folder as an exception to your antivirus.
Temporarily disable antivirus/firewall to test if it’s the issue (be careful doing this).

A complete rundown of Borderlands 4’s known issues on PC can be seen on the support website. If you’ve exhausted Gearbox’s list of troubleshooting techniques, you can submit a support ticket.

Missing Super Deluxe Edition DLC

The console edition of Borderlands 4, which doesn’t unlock until later today, September 11, is encountering some problems already as well. Gearbox said Xbox Series X|S users who bought a physical copy of the Super Deluxe Edition are not going to see their promised DLC at launch. The developer said it’s aware of the issue and is “working on getting players their bonus content.”

GameSpot’s Borderlands 4 review scored the game a 7/10. Reviewer Jordan Ramee wrote, “It’s the most mechanically sound Borderlands game to date, and the various Vault Hunters each present an entertaining opportunity to tackle the game in a different way.”

More:

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Borderlands 4 level cap max skill points: A bandit wearing the iconic mask, holding out an energy blade with his robitic arms.

Gaming Gear

What is the max level in Borderlands 4?

by admin September 11, 2025

Borderlands 4’s skill trees are deeper than ever, with more perks, augments, and capstones than ever. Unfortunately, you’re restrained by how many skill points you can earn, which is based on the current max level, so you can’t splash the cash and unlock every power.

Below, I’ll go over the max level in Borderlands 4 and how many skill points you can expect to earn right now, so you can properly plan out your characters’ builds. However, I’ll also discuss whether we can expect this to increase in the future.

What is the max level in Borderlands 4?

The max level in Borderlands 4 is 50, giving you a total of 49 skill points to spend across your three skill trees. Every five skill points you spend unlocks the next layer of the skill tree, apart from the final tier, which requires an extra point to get the final perk. In other words, you could almost reach the end of two skill trees if you’re being efficient, though that’s not really optimal for most builds.

There are a few key features related to your progression:

You’ll start encountering loot drops with Firmware as early as level 25 (these are effectively gear sets).
Once you’ve completed the main campaign, you’ll unlock the Specialisations XP bar that can level up hundreds of times, providing incremental buffs that eventually lead to slottable Specialisation Skills.
Once you’ve beaten the campaign, you can skip the story on alternate characters to immediately reach level 30 (which is generally the level you’ll be after finishing it naturally, anyhow) and experience the endgame.

One thing you’ll quickly notice with Borderlands 4’s skill trees is that they heavily incentivise you to invest in a single tree, with lots of incredibly strong skills to synergise with your action skill and other tree-specific perks. Gearbox wasn’t joking when they said these new skill trees were the biggest and most complex yet.

Generally, you’re likely to spend all 49 skill points in a single tree, or at best, only a handful in a second tree. At least the augments and capstones don’t cost anything to slot, though you can only have one of each equipped at a time (unless you’re using Vex’s Dark Pact capstone).

If that sounds quite restrictive, then it certainly can feel like it. Thankfully, I expect the Borderlands 4 level cap will increase in the future, as has been the case with previous games. For example, Borderlands 3 also initially had a level cap of 50, which was eventually increased all the way up to level 72 in free updates, without the need to purchase DLC packs like in Borderlands 2.

If I had to guess, this will most likely happen in the Invincible Boss free update, due a few months after launch, since this comes with higher-level bosses and more Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode levels, or in an update coinciding with the Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned DLC next year.

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Borderlands 4 Review – Cathartic Chaos

by admin September 11, 2025

Following Borderlands 3, I had a hard question to ask: Has one of my favorite series passed me by? That 2019 release made me realize that the last Borderlands game I truly enjoyed – outside of Telltale’s excellent Tales from the Borderlands – was Borderlands 2 in 2012. I initially approached Borderlands 4 with skepticism for that reason. However, Gearbox evidently agreed with my criticisms, as Borderlands 4 introduces and recalibrates myriad elements to deliver what could very well be my new favorite in the series.

Watch Game Informer’s Borderlands 4 Video Review:

Borderlands 4 plays all the familiar refrains for which the franchise is known: You control one of four Vault Hunters as you gun down thousands of masked maniacs and mutated monsters. Taking down these hordes of enemies not only grants you valuable experience for leveling your character, but also millions of guns to loot. True to its pedigree, these weapons are a highlight; every encounter holds the potential to yield your new favorite weapon, a rush I never grew tired of during my 50-plus-hour playthrough. Though upgrades to my existing loadout were ultimately rare, I lived for when I got something unique, like a sticky-bomb sniper rifle or a singularity-spawning throwing knife.

I always looked forward to the loot each battle would deliver, but Borderlands 4’s gunfights are as chaotic and fun as ever. Though some drag on longer than my liking, wide ranges of enemies from disparate factions elevate the variety of foes in any given fight, and I often caught myself leaning in to focus when the dynamic music shift signaled the arrival of a strong “Badass” enemy variant. I loved picking off foes with my single-shot assault rifle before storming in with my corrosive shotgun. Throwing a knife to deliver the final blow while trying to reload never ceased to make me feel like an action star.

The world of Kairos is under the oppressive thumb of the Timekeeper, who values order above all else. Gearbox has crafted an appropriately intimidating antagonist that shines distinctly from the series’ past villains, and in the process delivers my favorite big bad since Borderlands 2’s Handsome Jack. If you want the more unhinged villain type for which the franchise is known, you’ll find plenty of that through his supporting cast.

To combat the Timekeeper, this entry delivers arguably the strongest class of Vault Hunters yet, each with multiple distinct skill trees to develop, as well as character-specific Action Skills. Rafa’s an agile damage-dealer; Harlowe can apply a status ailment that spreads damage across multiple targets; Vex can summon support phantoms; and my personal favorite, Amon, can throw elemental axes or call upon a fiery barrier. Thanks to wider skill trees and a ton of unlockable cosmetics, you can customize your characters more than ever before.

Each character has access to all-new traversal mechanics like gliding and grappling. I always enjoyed gliding onto the battlefield, ground-slamming an enemy from above, and sprinting into a sliding shotgun blast before zipping out of danger. These improved movement mechanics add a ton to each combat encounter, and I genuinely think it would be difficult to go back to older Borderlands games where you don’t have these moves at your disposal. However, having the same button perform dodge, ground-pound, and crouch caused me more than a few upsetting deaths.

These traversal elements come in handy as you make your way through the largest world in franchise history. Kairos, which is fast to explore thanks to a summonable Digirunner vehicle, is full of fun diversions like safe houses, world bosses, and compelling side missions. You can also discover Vaults, which house wave-based combat punctuated by intense boss battles, but it’s disappointing to have some of the most fun content hidden behind a cryptic “hot/cold” meter that doesn’t work well with so many layers in the world.

Though the most rewarding moments of my playthrough came during exploration, the open world can be laborious, as I sometimes struggled to find the best route to my destination. Thankfully, the new Echo-4 robot companion can help navigate to your waypoint, but its guidance can be hit or miss.

Borderlands 4 generally scales with your level the entire game, which makes the steep level spike in the final stretch jarring and frustrating. That skyrocketing difficulty deflated the momentum I had going into the final act, but the story as a whole is much more even than prior entries. Borderlands 4 better balances the comedic elements and offers more memorable gags, characters, and set-piece moments.

In fact, the worst thing I can say about Borderlands 4 is that some things just go on for too long. Some fights are too prolonged, some missions feature too many chaining objectives, and some bosses have way too much health. When those bullet-sponge bosses have multiple forms, they become exercises in tedium and frustration rather than the adrenaline-fueled encounters they’re designed to be. But when the game is this much fun to play, that’s only a minor annoyance and is often alleviated through the series’ excellent co-op, which is even better in this entry, thanks to easy-to-join sessions, enhanced fast travel, and replayable boss encounters. However, by the time I reached the final boss, it was evident that some parts of the game are not appropriately tuned for single-player action.

Though many of the series’ core elements remain intact, Gearbox has refined and reconfigured them in such ways that Borderlands 4 rises beyond anything the series has accomplished to this point, making for a chaotic looter-shooter worthy of the series’ sterling early-2010s reputation. It’s simultaneously a poster child for excess and restraint, which sounds paradoxical, but for a series named for existing on the border of seemingly opposed concepts, it feels right at home.

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Borderlands 4 review: Gearbox’s looter shooter gets its groove back

by admin September 11, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Looter shooter Borderlands 4 is the first mainline game in developer Gearbox’s series that I’ve genuinely loved playing since 2012’s Borderlands 2.

While The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3, and spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands all had their own strong elements, something always felt like it was there to hamper overall enjoyment – be that poor pacing, agonizingly bad writing, or a lack of compelling endgame elements.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Release date: September 12, 2025 (October 3 for Switch 2)

Borderlands 4 (PS5) at Amazon for $69

In many ways, Borderlands 4 feels like a fresh start for the series, and it’s packed with the kind of confidence that made the first two entries so endearing to me.

Chiefly, Borderlands 4 greatly tones it down on dated meme humor. It still doesn’t take itself too seriously, but characters know to read the room during the story’s more dramatic turns, while much of its comedy actually does land, and I had far more hearty laughs than I was expecting during my playthrough.

But of course, Borderlands’ story and style of humor are just the foundations, and I couldn’t recommend Borderlands 4 if its lootin’ tootin’ and shootin’ gameplay loop wasn’t up to code. And if you come to the series for the near-constant changeup of your guns, augments, grenades, and such, you’ll still find that superbly enjoyable loot chase here.

The biggest divergence in Borderlands 4 is its move to an open world. Outside of dedicated instances like vaults and end-of-chapter fortresses, the map is almost entirely seamless – the planet Kairos’s three major biomes connected in circular fashion. It’s impressive, even if the reduction in load screens leads to its own performance hitches, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

With a well-paced main story and plenty of side missions and activities on offer, there’s loads to do on your first Borderlands 4 playthrough. And while I did find the juice wasn’t always worth the squeeze with its optional diversions, I had a Torgue-sized blast with the game, and I feel the series has regained much of its edge and personality with this latest entry.

Killing time

(Image credit: 2K)

Borderlands 4 takes place on the planet Kairos. Following the events of the third game, the planet has been thrown into disarray after the Siren Lilith forcibly transported the moon of Elpis into Kairos’s orbit. This completely shattered the flow of time and has allowed a dictatorial figure known as the Timekeeper and his underlings to seize control and keep the populace firmly under his control.

As one of four Vault Hunters, we’re captured by the Timekeeper but promptly escape from one of his facilities. From here, we travel to each of Kairos’s three biomes to free the people from his clutches and fold them into our Crimson Resistance.

It’s a simple plot, but one that serves the looter shooter action perfectly well. The Timekeeper himself isn’t exactly a villain to write home about, but I can understand that developer Gearbox Software probably wanted something a little safer after the disastrously ineffective and endlessly annoying villains of Borderlands 3.

On that note, as mentioned above, Borderlands 4’s writing is much stronger than its direct predecessor. Each playable Vault Hunter has bags of personality, while many of its side characters are surprisingly likable. Returning characters from previous entries are all winners, too, feeling better-written here than ever before. Yes, even Claptrap.

A rip-roaring good time

(Image credit: 2K)

Not much has changed in terms of the overall gameplay loop in Borderlands 4. Despite the shift to an open world, you’ll still encounter plenty of camps of baddies (the main two factions being Psycho-like Rippers and the Timekeeper’s robotic Order), and plenty of hives of fauna like flying Kratches and skittering Creeps.

There are plenty of variants therein, too, including tougher ‘Badass’ enemies, enemies with behavioral modifiers (including status changes and on-death effects), and powerful world bosses.

Best bit

(Image credit: 2K)

It should come as no surprise that the meat and potatoes of Borderlands 4 – its core looter shooter gameplay loop – is its strongest element. Guns and their modifiers are more impressively varied than ever, thanks to them being made up of individual parts that all offer their own unique quirks and perks. Finding synergy between your Vault Hunter’s skills and your preferred weapon types is seriously satisfying when you find a winning combination, too.

Traversal does have some new quirks, though, and movement in Borderlands 4 feels better than it ever has in the series. Your grapple is a huge new addition, letting you quickly assail to higher points via grapple nodes, or for grabbing and tossing various explosives at your foes. A new glider, quick-dodge, and air dash are also really welcome, and add plenty of dynamism to both combat and traversal.

You also have quick access to a speedy hover vehicle, which can be spawned at any time (provided you’re not in a zone that doesn’t allow you to drive). I much prefer this over having to trudge to garage locations as you had to in the older games, and it makes getting around the massive Kairos map a breeze. Though fast travel locations are also available at large quest-giving outposts and after clearing certain zones of goons.

There is plenty to do throughout the open world, including side missions, and optional challenges like finding hidden vault symbols, clearing outposts, and finding vault key fragments. Though I never felt particularly incentivized to go full completion mode here, especially as the bulk of challenge rewards simply provide you with storage deck upgrades for expanding ammo capacity and backpack space. A useful upgrade for sure, but a pretty unglamorous one.

It’s not his vault

(Image credit: 2K)

The stars of Borderlands 4 are of course its playable Vault Hunters, and we’ve got a memorable cast this time around. I completed my first playthrough (as I typically do with the series’ games) with the Siren class, Vex. She’s easily my favorite Siren in the series to date, packing a delightfully smug and edgy personality with some truly devastating action skills, such as summoning copies of herself to distract enemies and deal elemental damage to them.

Harlowe is another superb addition to the roster. While her action skills can lean towards support and crowd control, my favorite has to be her Chroma Accelerator – the Vault Hunter equivalent of a massive nuke. Action skills like this and those found on other characters can of course be further modified through skills (you still get one skill point per level), and respeccing is inexpensive, allowing you to experiment to find a build that feels right for your playstyle.

Naturally, you’ll be swimming in guns, grenades, and other glorious forms of destruction. The rarity system is still in place, with rare, exotic and legendary guns offering increasingly more stats and modifiers. What’s great about equipment in Borderlands 4 is that guns can be made up of parts from multiple manufacturers.

For example, a Jakobs gun can pack a mighty punch, but a Maliwan underbarrel may give it access to an elemental alt-fire, like a corrosive gas cloud or electrical taser. A Tediore attachment might also let you lob the gun at enemies instead of reloading it, causing more damage the more ammo it has in the chamber.

Grenades have seen a massive upgrade, too, and now come in several forms. Jakobs ‘grenades’ for example are now devastating throwing knives. You can also equip an Ordnance in your grenade slot, effectively replacing the rocket launcher weapon type from prior games. Oh, and better yet, grenades are now replenishable on cooldown as opposed to being their own ammo type.

Glitch in the system

(Image credit: 2K)

I have greatly enjoyed my time with Borderlands 4, but there are definitely a few bugbears to make note of, particularly when it comes to performance. Having a big open world is nice, offering plenty of variety from verdant forests and snowy peaks to arid Pandora-like deserts and dilapidated factories and high-tech bases.

There is a cost to the world’s more seamless nature, though. Performance, at least on PC, could be much better. Frame drops and hitches were a constant annoyance over the course of my playthrough, even with one of Nvidia’s current-generation graphics cards. DLSS and frame generation are supported and do help to smooth things out to a degree, but the overbearing issues certainly remained.

Another issue I ran into was that my graphics settings would slightly alter sometimes when I booted the game. Usually, this was DLSS disabling itself or changing preset, but sometimes the entire graphics preset would increase or decrease, leading to some fiddling around when I noticed performance was worse than usual. Hopefully this is something that gets addressed soon in post-launch patches.

Gameplay-wise, I think some of the enemy modifiers could do with a bit of tweaking, at least for a first-time normal mode playthrough. Enemies with regenerating health or additional health, armor, or shield bars weren’t particularly interesting to fight, mainly acting as irritating bullet sponges.

But to end on a high note, I really enjoyed Borderlands 4’s music. It’s never been something that particularly stood out to me in the other games, but here, it sets the stage for combat very well. Engaging Rippers, for example, will be accompanied by a fast-paced punk rock sound. While the robotic Order troops prefer a more techno-driven soundscape. It’s genuinely great stuff.

Should you play Borderlands 4?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

Borderlands 4 is teeming with accessibility options. Robust subtitle options are featured, including size, color, and background opacity. There are several audio presets for those who are hard of hearing, as well as protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia colorblind settings for user interface elements. Oh, and if you really can’t stand Claptrap, there is a dedicated volume slider for him, too.

How I reviewed Borderlands 4

My first playthrough of Borderlands 4 lasted 40 hours for this review. That included a complete playthrough of the main campaign, while also ticking off several side missions, objectives, and vault challenges. Having poured hundreds of hours into previous games in the series, I went out of my way to compare the quality and quantity on offer here in relation to other Borderlands titles, and came away satisfied with this latest entry.

I played on my new gaming PC, powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 GPU and Intel Core i5 14400F CPU, via Steam, primarily using the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller, with some time also spent playing the game with mouse and keyboard. While my main playthrough was with Vex, I also tested the other Vault Hunters including Harlowe, Rafa, and Amon.

First reviewed September 2025

Borderlands 4: Price Comparison

Source link

September 11, 2025 0 comments