90°

Borderlands 2 Writer "Apologises" for memes

VGU.tv reports on the antics of Borderlands 2 writer, Anthony Burch, on twitter last night. It started as a whine post about not being nominated for a BAFTA award for his work on Borderlands 2 while criticising a game that did. The result was being informed that Borderlands 2 may not have been worthy and a series of funny twitter posts.

Blacklash934455d ago

Borderlands 2 was pretty damn funny and had several amusing characters, but the actual meat of the plot wasn't anything special. It's was all pretty cliche and skin-deep.

But I'm pretty sure this guy knows the humor was a hit with the fans. Why get all butthurt over an award?

Blacktric4455d ago (Edited 4455d ago )

"But I'm pretty sure this guy knows the humor was a hit with the fans. Why get all butthurt over an award?"

Yes, because pointing out a glaring goddamn problem with the writing is being "butthurt". If there is someone that's being butthurt, it's Anthony Burch with his cheap attempts at witty humor by putting every single well known meme he can find into the game. Memes may be funny at times, but for the most part, they are old, overused, uncreative references. Nothing more nothing less. And he has no right to attack a game that's nominated for a BAFTA award just because it has a "by the numbers" script.

http://i0.wp.com/www.vgu.tv...

We are counting cheaply placed swearings and movie references on top of memes as "jokes" now.

Blacklash934454d ago (Edited 4454d ago )

Umm... I was talking about Anthony being butthurt in the first place, not anyone who doesn't like Borderlands' humor. Please pay attention to what I'm saying.

shodan744455d ago

I absolutely loved the writing in Borderlands 2 - but it's pretty unprofessional for him to attack the writing of another game in the way he did.

CraigUK4455d ago (Edited 4455d ago )

Anthony is actually a really nice guy. The original tweet didn't mention borderlands at all, if he didn't work at gearbox he would have posted the same thing, it is just unfortunate that when you work for a company and you voice your unrelated opinion that people make it related.

He used to make videos on destructoid called "rev rants" where he would "rant" about all sorts of things game related. The guy is passionate about games and likes to voice it. Gearbox have their own public relations people if you want to get offical gearbox opinions on stuff. Anthony is just a normal guy who landed a pretty sweet job.

toguns4454d ago (Edited 4454d ago )

The fact that he works at gearbox is entirely relevant. If he didn't write a game that wasn't considered for an award I doubt he'd have posted the tweet at all. Further if the first person to accuse him of being upset hadn't been right on the money I doubt he'd have responded to it, much so defensively. He's a smart guy, I'm sure he knows rationally that responding to that kind of tweet doesn't end well, yet if he was upset about something then he is far more likely to do something he knows is a bad idea.

WildArmed4455d ago

I loved borderlands 2, i laughed every time i played the game..
esp. that claptrap lol

But that was quite unprofessional of him calling out the BAFTA nominees. Thou I understand it's his personal twitter, but he should know that anything on the internet is public domain.

also: "He was promptly put in his place" <--- what...?

toguns4454d ago

If you disrespect somebody else's work. And are then forced to defend yourself, I think it is safe to say that you've been put in your place. Do you disagree?

WildArmed4454d ago

I think using terms like those detract from the quality of one's writing. It would sound more objective if you didn't include "put in his place". It makes an objective journalism piece with the goal of informing, instead of feeding an opinion.

Regardless of what I think or you think of what he did. I think this helps the reader make their own decision about the news. Not see it through the author's "eyes" so to speak.

It's a personal preference I guess. A simple "in response, he was confronted by gamer questioning the quality of his work"

Or something like that. Just trying to provide some constructive criticism.

Alos884455d ago

Hey Ant, Why're Ya Bitching?

70°

"Still Wakes the Deep" was just honoured at the BAFTA Games Awards 2025

""Still Wakes the Deep", the narrative horror from genre masters The Chinese Room and independent publisher Secret Mode, has been honoured at the BAFTA Games Awards 2025 ceremony with three awards, the second-highest number of wins for a single game at this year’s ceremony." - BAFTA Games Awards 2025.

90°

Shenmue Revealed as ‘Most Influential Video Game of All Time’, According to BAFTA Poll

Today BAFTA has announced SEGA’s open-world action-adventure title Shenmue (1999) as the Most Influential Video Game of All Time, receiving the most votes in a public poll.

Popsicle23d ago (Edited 23d ago )

How does Street Fighter 2 not break the top 21? Literally spearheaded a litany of clones for years and cemented a genre that continues to be relevant to this day. Some were such a blatant rip off that it led to lawsuits (See Fighters History).

Also I agree that BG3 is one of the greatest games of all time and the game with the most depth that I have ever experienced. In fact, it’s probably my favorite game of all time. That said, I have not seen its influence on the industry yet because there is nothing that’s been introduced that is truly comparable to the breadth of the experience imo. I anticipate and hope that it will become one of the most influential games of all-time because playing it has spoiled me.

Profchaos23d ago (Edited 23d ago )

I don't get it I just played the first game on the ps4 about six months ago and for its time it was probably well regarded for bringing a cinematic feel to gaming but I feel like there were far more engaging RPG's and titles that deserve it more.

For example I find Doom is likely the most influential game of all time for shooters, Mario for platformers the list goes on.

I'm not saying shenmue doesn't deserve praise just was it honestly that good there's a ton of moments in the game where you have to sit the controller down and walk away from the game for an hour for the in game clock to get to 8pm or something there's only so many times I can play space harrier as a distraction

CrimsonWing6923d ago

So why can’t we get an ending?

FinalFantasyFanatic22d ago

Did Shenmu 3 not end the series? I have the all of the games on PC, but I haven't played them yet.

jznrpg22d ago

It did not. It needs 2-3 more games he said to finish, I believe. Heard rumors of 4 but that’s as a little while ago.

Popsicle22d ago (Edited 22d ago )

Very good point. So influential that the 3rd entry had to be funded by fans (sarcasm). I really enjoyed Shenmue 1 and 2 in 99 and early 2000s, but by the time the 3rd entry was released, I had moved on.

JEECE23d ago (Edited 23d ago )

Shouldn't the first shooter to use the standard dual analog control scheme be on the list? As far as I can tell that was Medal of Honor on the PS1 in 1999, although I'm open to correction if someone knows of an earlier game that had it (and no I don't count N64 games where you had to hold two controllers, haha). That control scheme, which was apparently far from obvious to devs at first, has become a default for essentially every 3D game that doesn't have a fixed camera (assuming you aren't using M/K).

CrimsonWing6922d ago

My understanding was Alien Resurrection on PS1, but that’s literally me not googling before answering m and just pulling random facts I had stored in the ol’ noggin’

JEECE22d ago

That came out after Medal of Honor, but yeah it was among the first, and it may have been the first to have that as the default (in MOH 1999 it was one of like 6 control scheme options).

140°

I Sure Hope The Next Borderlands Is A Lot Like Borderlands 2

Ahmad from eXputer: "Borderlands 2's unrivaled storytelling is something that has to lean into the core elements of the next iteration in the Borderlands series."

TheNamelessOne255d ago

What? You didn't love the cringe writing that 3 had?

pwnmaster3000255d ago

Playing it now and it’s not so bad, but I’ve just started so maybe it will get worse

DustMan254d ago

It's not bad. It's just hard to top Handsome Jack as an antagonist. I really enjoyed 3. It has the best gameplay of the entire series, and it holds the same vibe. Tiny Tina's Wonderland was a huge disappointment to me.

Demetrius254d ago

I recently finished 3, definitely had fun fr

-Foxtrot255d ago

I'm curious how they are going to do the Siren since they've kind of wrote themselves into a corner regarding the lore.

gold_drake255d ago

well, im sure the last eridium slab is the answer to that. either mystery or villain

-Foxtrot255d ago

I meant more in terms of how they established only 6 Sirens can exist in the entire Universe...which was kind of silly to me as they seem to all end up on Pandora, and the Universe is a pretty big place.

Then there's now the fact, since Borderlands 3 retconed it, when a Siren dies she can transfer her power to the next Siren, they don't have to be born with it. This also means there's only 6 Siren powers which will end up being recycled as the franchise goes on.

Phasewalk (Lilith)
Phaselock (Maya / Ava)
Phasetrance (Amara)
Phaseshift (Angel / Tannis)
Phaseleech (Tyreen)

So there's only one power unaccounted for and I'm guessing it belonged to Commandant Steele. There was Queen Dido but she died and someone else like Amara, Maya or Angel could have gotten their powers so really it only gives them one more Siren before they need to start rethinking things going forward.

Either we get Phaseleech next or whatever power Commandant Steele had (kind of odd she never used it in her boss fight but you know).

Terry_B254d ago

inb4 the next siren is a trans character.

gold_drake255d ago

it will probably be alot like wonderlands, since that is the last borderlands game

but we'll see soon

Terry_B254d ago

Most people do. But the people that create the games don't seem to understand that.

I bet it will be even worse than BL3 when it comes to story and character designs.

RaidenBlack254d ago

Hey Gearbox, remember Brothers in Arms?

Abnor_Mal254d ago

I would love a new game in the series, or a remake/remaster of the first three games.

RaidenBlack254d ago

I'd want them to do the 4th part and just end the story of Baker Company.