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Borderlands 4 Trailer Quashes Returning Vault Hunter Speculation, Reveals Large-Scale Conflict and Pod Racers

Cpt.Jank

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As expected, a new trailer for Borderlands 4 officially launched at The Game Awards this week, and, although it has poured cold water on speculation of the return of Gaige, the DLC vault hunter from Borderlands 2, there are some intriguing details in the trailer. For starters, we got a look at what looks to be the next Borderlands villain—or maybe even villains—and it looks like the inter-faction conflicts will play a much larger role in Borderlands 4, with larger-scale conflicts at least being part of the lore, if not the actual gameplay.

The new Game Awards trailer picks up where the previous teaser trailer left off, as teased by Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, but it turns out the robotic arm didn't belong to Gaige, the mechromancer, as previously suspected. Instead, the character picking up the mask at the start of the new trailer appears to be the cruel leader of some sort of robotic bandit militia preparing to do battle against an army of soldiers or drones, who bear some similarities to the Eridian from past Borderlands games and are being led by a single general, who also seems to be a main villain in the game—perhaps some invading force looking to exploit the planet. The resulting conflict between the two rival factions is on a larger scale than we've seen in previous Borderlands games, although there have always been inter-faction conflicts in Borderlands games. Of course, new enemies and factions aren't the only details included in the new Borderlands 4 trailer.



The Game Awards Borderlands 4 trailer also confirms that Borderlands 4 doesn't take place on Pandora, which also gives Gearbox a chance to introduce new a new aesthetic, different enemies, and new environments that are much more in-line with what's expected from a modern RPG. Along with the other new elements, we're also apparently getting new vehicles, akin to the pod racers of the Star Wars universe, and a grappling hook, suggesting that Borderlands 4 will again build on the improved mobility and verticality of Borderlands 3.



Gearbox also gave us a look at our next group of rag-tag heroes, and the four-person vault hunter formula seems mostly undisturbed, although there's not much to go by in the trailer, aside from a handful of clips showing the character designs and a few moments giving us a glimpse at their abilities.


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The rythmic stomping by the end matches the song very well.
I like it! (Which is not something I can say about too many of those game trailers in the last few years, unfortunately.)
 
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I'll buy it when i can play as Gaige, like BL2.

It's why i never bought BL3 either.
 
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My Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 experience in a nutshell: First 2 hours "Cool game!". Next 2 hours......."I've been lost for 35 minutes, how the hell do you read this map, oh look another dozen Space Lion Dog Boars attacking me.....and...another dozen.....how the hell do I reach this way point!?". Final 2 hours "I started this mission/raid/boss fight 2 hours ago and its STILL NOT DONE!?!?". Uninstall.

On the upside, ClapTrap.......
 
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Borderlands with friends is an experience unlike any other. Playing solo is okay but the world feels kind of empty. Gearbox if you're reading this, please stick with your working formula. Do not pull a Fallout 76 in the future.
 
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My god does the pre-rendered part of the trailer looks like its from a completely different thing, genuinely thought they had gotten rid of the series artstyle. . . Why can't they just show gameplay to begin with? Bad trailer imho.
 
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Borderlands with friends is an experience unlike any other. Playing solo is okay but the world feels kind of empty. Gearbox if you're reading this, please stick with your working formula. Do not pull a Fallout 76 in the future.
Fair point, I go into each game with enthusiasm (granted I do wait for discounts before diving in) but I've yet to have one of these games stick....you hit the nail on the head, the worlds feel empty with random encounters feeling repetitive. I think of it as a FPS, I need to think of it more like, I guess, Destiny....which also never clicked.
 
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Checked it, Borderlands 2's trailer instantly sold it to me, this one looks stale in comparison.
 
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My Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 experience in a nutshell: First 2 hours "Cool game!". Next 2 hours......."I've been lost for 35 minutes, how the hell do you read this map, oh look another dozen Space Lion Dog Boars attacking me.....and...another dozen.....how the hell do I reach this way point!?". Final 2 hours "I started this mission/raid/boss fight 2 hours ago and its STILL NOT DONE!?!?". Uninstall.

On the upside, ClapTrap.......
Thats maybe an issue on your end.
I've been playing the serie since the launch day of Borderlands 1 and I'm still having a blast with BL 3 after ~1150 hours. '90% of that was solo'
I have all of the chars/classes at max lvl with an end game build and clearing Raids is a non issue, this game is like basically an ARPG in a FPS form so your build and gear does matter in the end game/max level content.
I can smoke any of the Raid bosses on Mayhem 11 heck its almost too easy, some of my chars can clear the difficulty meant for 4 players/full party in solo.
Needless to say that I will be a day 1 player of BL 4 too.:)
 
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My Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 experience in a nutshell: First 2 hours "Cool game!". Next 2 hours......."I've been lost for 35 minutes, how the hell do you read this map, oh look another dozen Space Lion Dog Boars attacking me.....and...another dozen.....how the hell do I reach this way point!?". Final 2 hours "I started this mission/raid/boss fight 2 hours ago and its STILL NOT DONE!?!?". Uninstall.

On the upside, ClapTrap.......
You could tell exactly what the game was when 20 minutes in you had to dig ammo out of dog crap. I liked the weapon system so I kept playing (some of the guns were extremely satisfying, for ex. Pestilent Defiler, Volcano, Orion, Skullmasher...), unfortunately in BL2 they screwed up exactly just that, it at least had more variety to keep me going but I couldn't even bother finishing a second playthrough.

And claptrap was the worst part of the game, probably the only good thing in the claptrap DLC was being able to massacre all those annoying bastards. Worst forced joke character I've ever seen.

Never even bothered with the rest because the designs were seriously off-putting from BL2 onwards.
 
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Borderlands with friends is an experience unlike any other. Playing solo is okay but the world feels kind of empty. Gearbox if you're reading this, please stick with your working formula. Do not pull a Fallout 76 in the future.

Sorry, if anything, you WANT them to pull a Fallout 76. Stellar game, and has been since the Wastelanders update.

My god does the pre-rendered part of the trailer looks like its from a completely different thing, genuinely thought they had gotten rid of the series artstyle. . . Why can't they just show gameplay to begin with? Bad trailer imho.

Cause game's probably at a conceptual stage... prototype at most. Really, trying to build momentum off the flopped movie they announced this way, way early... even listed it on Steam almost a year ago.
 
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I totally agree it's a me problem on this game....I want to like it, I dig the start of every new one....and then I just drift off because I feel like I'm fighting over and over and over and not really getting anywhere even when I'm trying to follow the quests, you lose track of whatever story they are trying to cobble together and, particularly in part 3, I didn't like the story or the characters I was paired up with, the quest it all made me kinda not care about progressing. Again, me problem.

But you all dissing on ClapTrap....there's some seriously nihilistic/sarcasticly dark writing in that character, what's not to love :)
 
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But you all dissing on ClapTrap....there's some seriously nihilistic/sarcasticly dark writing in that character, what's not to love :)

I like claptrap and that might explain why. Also, playing as Claptrap in The Presequel was great fun, especially when you transform into a pirate ship. I don't like other goofy characters like Jar Jar Binks.
 
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Sorry, if anything, you WANT them to pull a Fallout 76. Stellar game, and has been since the Wastelanders update.



Cause game's probably at a conceptual stage... prototype at most. Really, trying to build momentum off the flopped movie they announced this way, way early... even listed it on Steam almost a year ago.
They could've cut the trailer's length in half and it would've all been gameplay, the whole thing satisfying. Instead the first half of the trailer looks unrelated to second half as it just doesn't look like Borderlands at all. The CGI in the first half wasn't half-assed either, it's rather pretty, so this isn't a case them lacking enough footage but of their priorities.
 
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I totally agree it's a me problem on this game....I want to like it, I dig the start of every new one....and then I just drift off because I feel like I'm fighting over and over and over and not really getting anywhere even when I'm trying to follow the quests, you lose track of whatever story they are trying to cobble together and, particularly in part 3, I didn't like the story or the characters I was paired up with, the quest it all made me kinda not care about progressing. Again, me problem.

But you all dissing on ClapTrap....there's some seriously nihilistic/sarcasticly dark writing in that character, what's not to love :)
1 & 2 were solid, the prequel and #3 were bad. I have no idea what the story was for #3 and if I was playing the game alone I wouldn't have even completed the prequel or #3. Maybe too much of one thing got to me, kind of like how there are so many AC games and CoD games that after the first few it just got dull.

The character that irritated me to no ends was Tiny Tina - what an awful, annoying character. I had to mute the volume when she was talking. I think she was the only thing in #2 that I hated.

With the last two games of Borderlands not being to my liking I suppose I don't care about this one. Maybe one day when it's really cheap my brother may get it for us to play co-op.
 
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My Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 experience in a nutshell: First 2 hours "Cool game!". Next 2 hours......."I've been lost for 35 minutes, how the hell do you read this map, oh look another dozen Space Lion Dog Boars attacking me.....and...another dozen.....how the hell do I reach this way point!?". Final 2 hours "I started this mission/raid/boss fight 2 hours ago and its STILL NOT DONE!?!?". Uninstall.

On the upside, ClapTrap.......
Part of the issue is also the complete absence of sense in the whole world. Its not immersive, its just weird. In over 300 hours of Borderlands I have not once had the sense of immersion in its world. You're just shooting things with various weapons in various environments.

Claptrap is awesome tho.
 
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