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Would you say it would be worth playing for someone who's kinda meh on the core Borderlands games humor?

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I'd say it's has way less humor than the Borderlands games. That was actually something which was really missing. There were a few borderland-style goofy elements (like that one part in episode 4), but overall it was quite tame on the humor. Note that you also have the choice to go less snappy in the dialogues.

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Also finished up Episode 5 and apart from the poor tech handling on Xbox One (some sequences juddered to a halt for no real reason), I also loved it.

 

Dewar, it is not as referential as Borderlands 2 (Burch seems to have done some writing on it but his influence isn't felt as heavily) but there are some great moments of this series poking fun at Telltale's 'template'. I also liked the angle of unreliable narrator and it worked well as the game flipped between the two.

 

I think it was mentioned on the Justice Points podcast (about Mass Effect and Dragon Age) that normally you play as the 'best' version of yourself but in Tales from the Borderlands you can just be a total douche and enjoy the outcome of being a dick as it is pretty humourous.

 

So, as someone who felt that some of the humour whiffed completely in Borderlands 2, I think there are way more hits in this. I also didn't think I was interested in a game focused on the story elements of Borderlands but this might be my second favourite of the telltale series, behind TWD Season 1.

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Borderlands 2 was very definitely trying to ask whether this universe could be extended without it collapsing in on itself, so I'm willing to forgive it its gunshy moments.

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I've been hearing a bit of Tales from the Borderlands buzz on the net, and then I come here.

Is it worth it if you haven't really ever played a Borderlands game?

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I've only finished up to Episode 4 so far, but I'd say it's definitely worth it even if you haven't played Borderlands. There's some little references to the games (such as selectable characters in the games making appearances) but nothing too major. And the Borderlands games themselves barely had any story in them anyway, I played them all in couch co-op so barely paid any attention to what was happening and I've been enjoying Tales from the Borderlands immensely so far, one of the few games to genuinely make me laugh.

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I haven't enjoyed the general Telltale Narrative Game model much, but Tales from the Borderlands intrigues me because it seems like it might be trying to be less of a dramatic choice-chooser where your choices can't affect the outcomes, and more like a fun romp where your choices can be satisfying because you got to punch out a robot or something silly.

 

Since everyone's talking about it, I figured I'd ask while I have the chance: Is TftB more of the same from Telltale, or is there a chance I might like it, as someone who has disliked everything else they've put out lately?

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Your choices still affect things.

 

I can't answer your question. I think if you hate Telltale you'll hate this.

 

Telltale makes great games, though, and this is probably the best of their choice-choosers (I'm glad other people are picking up my genre-name of choice(-chosen)!). Also probably the best since Sam and Max. Sam and Max was probably funnier, though, at least later on.

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I've only finished up to Episode 4 so far, but I'd say it's definitely worth it even if you haven't played Borderlands. There's some little references to the games (such as selectable characters in the games making appearances) but nothing too major. And the Borderlands games themselves barely had any story in them anyway, I played them all in couch co-op so barely paid any attention to what was happening and I've been enjoying Tales from the Borderlands immensely so far, one of the few games to genuinely make me laugh.

What?! Borderlands had tonnes of story (mostly optional though).

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Trauma :tdown:

An flash based "adventure" game. You're basically clicking through a bunch of photos to find polaroids and to make a gesture at certain places. The story has something to do with a car accident, I think. In all it's short and rather boring.

 

The Shopkeeper :tdown:

Another really short game, about 10 to 15 minutes long if you get it right the first time. It's sort of a point and click adventure game with a single dialogue tree and a bunch of things you can inspect (but you don't have the time to inspect everything). Until you figure out the proper sequence you are replaying the story over and over again.

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Yeah I didn't like Trauma, either. It thinks it's a whole lot more than it actually is, and is boring to play to boot.

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To provide an alternative, opinion, I thought Trauma was pretty alright and found that the soporific pace suited its theme of convalescence.

The ending wasn't the best, but then endings are difficult.

Care Bear approved.

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We finished, in co-op, both Expendabros and BroForce!  I can't recommend both strongly enough, some of the most fun I've ever had in couch co-op.  My only complaint with BroForce is that the difficulty really spiked hard in the final chapter, and the final chapter is a real marathon compared to all the previous ones.  Most chapters took us 15-20 minutes to beat, and the last one took well over an hour.  And as near as I could tell, you have to start a chapter over if you need to quit out.  We damn near had to start over most of the way through because we weren't anticipating how long it would be and had something we had to go do, but barely made it. 

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I finished Rebel Galaxy this weekend. By finished I mean I barely scraped through the last couple of missions of the main story line after playing about 20 hours. It's probably good for another 10 hours or so of bopping around, listening to space cowboy rock and running from the cops. It's definitely one of the best games I've played this year.

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I finished Super Meat Boy up to the credits this weekend. I played a bit of it on PC when it originally came out but it didn't hook me at all. In general I prefer my "difficult" games when they have few inputs a la Super Hexagon, a little to learn, lots to master, that sort of thing. Maybe Meat Boy didn't appeal because I haven't played a lot of 2D platformers in my time. But anyway, this time playing on PS4 it clicked with me. I found chapters 4 and 5 to rely on the more gimmicky mechanics too much, where most of the challenge came from an AI enemy seeking you out. But then I loved chapter 6, I wanted a lot more than the five levels you get. The chapter relied only on the simple obstacles: spinney blades and platforms. No seeking enemies or disappearing platforms, much more to my tastes. Now...dark world?

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Now...dark world?

 

Best of luck.  I managed to get...partway through Chapter 2, maybe chapter 3, before finally just completely giving up.  Whatever wonders are hidden there, I am not worthy.

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Super Meat Boy is the best. :3

 

I still haven't beaten all of the worlds without dying, though. ): I did all the light worlds, I think, but took a break somewhere in the middle of the dark worlds and never went back. D:

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Super Meat Boy is a game where the difficulty is so goddamn high that I think only a handful of people have done everything. I don't know anyone who has beaten the dark world.

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Oh. I have! I have done everything in that game, including all the bonus levels and junk. Only thing I haven't done is all the "no deaths in [world]" achievements.

And I think they added some other achievement around the time they added their utter failure of an attempt at adding level sharing.

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I know one person who has beaten the dark world

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Steamworld Dig and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

 

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is probably the best stealth game ever made, and it's one of my top-ten games of all times.  I cannot say enough positive about this game.  The only thing I actively dislike is the massive difficulty spike in the Bathhouse mission, but other than that, it's a game generally without appreciable flaws.  If you have any interest in stealth/tactical gameplay and haven't tried this, it is incumbent upon you to do so.

 

Steamworld Dig is a cheap little game that I picked up from the Nintendo Humble Bundle a few months ago.  It’s a fairly short game – I finished it in just shy of six hours.  It’s something of a Metroid-like in that you explore an area and unlock new skills that help you explore additional areas.  You play as Rusty, a robot miner who must dig down below his town to discover the world and the enemies beneath it.  In each playthrough, the mining area beneath the town is randomized.  I had zero expectations for this game because I knew literally nothing about it except that I owned it, and I was very happy to experience it.  I probably don’t need a sequel though.

 

The game allows you to dig in all four directions, but you cannot jump and dig at the same time, so you’ll only ever be able to “dig up, stupid” one tile.  Good for resource mining, bad for movement.  This creates significant navigation difficulties, but since the game allows you to buy resources to move up one tile (ladders are purchased for a pittance), it’s obviously a deliberate design decision.  I found that approaching the game in that manner was a bit slow-moving for my tastes, so eventually, I determined my strategy such that that would not be an issue.  The various tools and implements at your disposal help you work around this as well.

 

There are a lot of competing systems and metrics at play in this game, and it creates a game of significant depth (sorry, bad mining pun).  I’m happy that it didn’t go on longer than six hours because it could easily outstay its welcome, but all in all, it was a worthwhile experience.

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I fucking love Steamworld Dig - it is sort of a sequel to my favourite Xbox Live Indie Game called Miner Dig Deep. The reason I loved both games was their simplicity.

 

I finally got to play the game on Xbox One and went through in two sittings and apart from the combat - it was really, wonderfully, peaceful.

 

I went back before Halo 5: Guardians, and finished the Anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. I have forgotten how good this game was - the pacing, the setting and the setpieces. It has barely aged from that perspective, except for The Library - it is still rubbish.

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I liked Steamworld Dig quite a bit as well.  The team making it isn't doing a sequel, but they are planning on trying to make Steamworld their universe that they make different games in, keeping the aesthetic and themes.  Steamworld Heist is next, where you lead a group of steampunk space robot pirates, looting from spaceship to spaceship. 

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