Almost Gamers
Join us in a casual conversation with friends about gaming. It's a humorous journey into what we are currently playing, sometimes poorly and not usually on trend. We also talk new and upcoming releases, gaming news, best of lists, and are never afraid to go off on crazy tangents.
Almost Gamers
Episode Seventeen: Borderlands History
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Deep dive in the history, lore, and gameplay of Borderlands. A great primer for those just jumping into the universe, or anyone needing a recap of the series.
All right, it is time for a special edition boss battle. Collector's edition, even if you will. Hope everybody pre-ordered because it has limited quantities. We are gonna talk all about Borderlands. Borderlands. Surprised no one were very excited for the release of Borderlands 4.
SPEAKER_03We should also make note that you're probably if you're listening to this, it's already been released. Yeah, more than likely came out two weeks ago. Yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_01But for us in the past.
SPEAKER_03But this is for people too. Like if you've heard the reviews, and I assume the reviews are gonna be nines, tens. Yeah. So you might obviously be mixed. It's gonna be sevens and eights. A lot of hate. But if you're on the fence and you want to know a little more before you invest your money, this is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01So Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna break it down. I'm gonna talk about the franchise in general.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I'm gonna give a little bit of a lore breakdown, but more importantly, a story breakdown, like a story previously on.
SPEAKER_03And we'll also talk about the game mechanics and what makes it unique sometimes.
SPEAKER_01And a little touch on our experiences with it, our our friendship over it. Right. I remember my first I have no idea when this game was first announced. Um that was way too long ago. But I remember my very first knowledge about this game was the game informer cover story in 2007.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01And that was good, yeah. This was back when the game looked, played, and felt completely different.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you did know it before it was the true form.
SPEAKER_01So this game was being developed in uh one's some people call it the brown era, when a lot of games had that like brownish tone.
SPEAKER_03And I wanted to talk about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they were all dark and gritty. Yeah. They were they were about to go into alpha. They already done this cover story for a deep dive, and gameformer was at that time like the thing. Like everyone like read it and subscribed to it. I obviously did. What had happened was they saw that there was so many games as they were developing it, were to look the same. It just felt very samey, and like a lot of the artists, especially weren't feeling it. And they came to Randy and they're like, Hey, what do you think about this? And uh they said they showed him like a very different, uh not 3D, it was more of a 2D exaggerated like comic book almost technically it isn't cell shading, but basically a cell shading kind of style. Yeah, and he's like, That's kind of cool. Uh here, here what I g I'll give you two weeks, play it out and see what. Yeah. His whole time he's Randy's thinking, it ain't gonna work, it can't work. We can't change at this point. You know, he was still, you know, the he owned the company, but it was still there was uh published by 2K. Right. You know, they had like the final saying, yeah, yeah, um and the as he said the worst thing that happened, they brought back like all this new artwork. He's like, fuck, that's it. That's what this game needs to be. Yeah, that's what I read. Yeah, and he's like, We're doing it. Yeah, and it pissed off a lot of people in the company. Apparently, a lot of people quit. Oh, wow. Yes, because some didn't agree with that decision. Yeah, but for the vast majority, they felt like no, this is the tone we need to go for. This is um, you know, the the the style, because you know, all these other games were just very much so that and and it was uh self it like snowballed from there. So once they decided that was the tone, they went even more.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And um one of the writers, and I'm not sure which one because I could not find the article, um, but I'm pretty sure it was Mikey Newman. He's definitely one of the writers of Borderlands one, who also voiced Scooter.
SPEAKER_03Oh, Scooter.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I remember reading this, and this was I had I was spent hours trying to find this quote today. So this was the they said they were they were sitting in like the writer's room, and they came up with this line, and they said once he wrote this line, they're all like, Yeah, that's the way we're gonna go. And I clearly remember this from the game. I don't know if everyone's gonna be here this on the podcast, but this is Scooter. Um, you know, Luck is an old buddy of mine, and uh, by old buddy, I mean asshole that ruined my mom's girl parts. Now he's in trouble. So you go on ahead and try to keep him alive long enough so I can kill him at a later occasion.
SPEAKER_03I do remember that moment. And that that's the tone of the hole that's still a humor.
SPEAKER_01They they they go for it. They do. And as you remember, Scooter's mom is Moxie. Moxie.
SPEAKER_03Which is funny because well, yeah, I just I I was I I've been the last two days I actually reloaded and started playing uh their pre-sequels.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Just for getting ready for the new Borderlands, and I didn't I they they kind of fill in some holes, but Moxie. Hey, with Moxie though, she uh she there's a moment where she relapses and she becomes Scooter's kind of hillbilly-ish kind of talking style. Oh god. I remember that. Like you find her in her room and she talks like she's talking for whatever reason, kind of like a redneck, and then all of a sudden she sees you, and she's like, don't ever tell anybody about this. So she puts on her super sexy voice.
SPEAKER_01That's her ultra ego. Yeah, her uh persona, her person.
SPEAKER_03She's the sister, no mother of uh Scooter and um Yeah, so she's from the same lineage, yeah. But eh, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, it was neat that so that was that was a total shift, like that all just kind of hit, and then they then they developed Claptrap, who was not original plans. But uh another so when I was trying to figure out who wrote who the writer was that was crediting, originally I thought it was Anthony Birch, but Anthony Birch did not become a writer for the series until Borderlands 2.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And his sister, he hired to play the voice of the famous Tiny Tina. So that's how Ashley Birch got her uh start. Ashley. Ashley.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01That's how she got her uh start in the uh voice acting and now has gone to do minia games. Good for her. Yeah, her um her eyes.
SPEAKER_03If you want to come on the podcast, oh yeah, she's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Mythic quest, she's so good in Mythic Quest. She's awesome. So that's how Borderlands evolved from just this thing into a very unique thing. Right. That, and even before all that, they did always have the idea of creating this new genre called a looter shooter. Right. Which was basically Diablo with guns. But it's crazy thing about no, that didn't exist. That didn't work. That's what I was just about to say. Like the D and all those games. Yeah. And they actually very much so solidified, I mean, Diablo created like the rarity thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But Borderlands was the ones that codified the uh And also I wanted to go over that because we made jokes about you talking about white weapons in previous episodes.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and I thought maybe just so here is so they're the the every weapons have a rarity associated to them. Yeah. And they actually have the um the mnemonic device that Borderlands put in the game was when Patrick burps, Grandpa Obeys. And I will never forget that. Yeah. So your your rarity in increasing order. Yeah. So it is white, green, blue, purple, orange. That sounds right. But I mean, before it was it that was sort of the way I for I completely forget the Diablo. I don't think they had orange, but Yeah, I don't think so. So it was basically the white weapons suck and have no extra properties to it. And as you go up or up that lineage, if you will, they added more properties and better. So for the most most part, every green's better than a white. Yeah, green's better than white. And then the orange usually have like something like super special. Orange was like, whoa. Yeah. Then you start adding red and pearlescent and things like that. There was, yeah. But that's a whole other thing. But for the most part, you play any RPG. And then all of a sudden that's the standard. Yeah, that's pretty much, yeah. But yeah, they they created a genre. So we have Borderlands one, two, and then there's the pre-sequel, which came out in October of uh 2014. So two years ago.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna ask when the pre-sequel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so pre-sequel was actually, even though it was uh technically gearbox, it was actually created by uh an outside company, right? Mostly Australian, which is why a lot of characters now have an Australian accent, if you noticed. But I I clearly remember Randy's great at like doing teasing and like fucking with you in a fun way. Because he he he said, Oh, I remember he was like, hey, there's something coming out we're gonna announce, um, but it is not going to be a sequel to Borderlands, I assure you. And then someone like caught up, like, oh, it's not a sequel. Does that mean it's gonna be a prequel? And he's like, No. Yeah. Because it's a pre-sequel. Yeah, because it was a pre-sequel, which is fucked up. But neat, like you knew it. Like, he it's like I feel I wonder if he developed that game simply just for that pun, if you will. Wow. So basically, so it takes place between um one and two one and two. Right. So it's it's not a officially a sequel to two, but it's not a prequel to one. Yeah, it's so weird. But the weirder part, and I will talk about this my timeline, is that it's actually technically told in a flashback. Yeah. So therefore, it takes place later, also. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're gonna get into that. They do that a lot. Same with which comes out two years the same a month later was Tales from the Borderlands. That's a good one. Which was a Telltale Games RIP. Although technically they came back, but as a separate company. Yeah. But so the uh the Telltales games were are um very story-driven, yeah, kind of choose your own adventure. Yes, awesomely done. Yeah, they're just fantastic. September of 2019 was Borderlands three, which was uh seminal moments in our lives, I feel like. Yeah, um because it took a while, yeah. It did. I mean, so you're looking at so between Borderlands 2 and 3 was seven years. I was gonna say it was seven. Seven years. Yeah, and uh yeah, so it took a while, and then three years later it was uh the spin-off series, if you will, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Yeah, good game. Well, we'll we'll dive into all these a little more. I just want to give like the timeline of release. Release dates and then um New Tales from the Borderlands. I forgot that happened that was released in October of 2022. Yeah, I haven't played that. No, I haven't either, so I will not be talking about that. Um I didn't want to look at a story synopsis of a game I haven't played. Me either. And then Borderlands 4 will be released or for future or for you listening at home uh was released in 912 of 2025. All right, so Amman.
SPEAKER_03Now here we're getting into the nitty-gritty.
SPEAKER_01This is yeah, I got a lot. I got a lot of notes. So where are we going with this? I'm going to try to keep this as concise as possible.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_01I'm going to talk a little bit about the overarching lore of the series and then go through basically the major plot points of all the games. And this is obviously spoilers. Yes. But so this is gonna be for people who have never played the game, and maybe we'll jump into four. That's what I was gonna say. And I assure you, you will be fine. This little primer is gonna get you set, yeah, and you probably won't even need that. You can just play the game and enjoy it. Plenty of people ignore the story.
SPEAKER_03100% the story is always eh for most people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I will say uh a lot of the and this is also for other people who would just forget the story, yeah. Maybe missed a game or missed missed, and this is the interesting part. So a lot of there's not a whole lot of cutscenes from major story beats. Most of the lore is told on audio logs for through exploration, yeah, which is nice because it's not forced on you, and if you don't, if you want to ignore it, you can very easily ignore it. The problem is if you don't want to ignore it, A, those audio logs are hard to find. Very, and B, a lot of times we pick it up while we get our ass kicked.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was always my problem. And in Borderlands 3, I'll give them credit, they finally introduced an element where you could re-listen to the logs in the menu.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think Halo pioneered that. Um, Halo, there weren't audio logs, but there's a lot of dialogue as you were playing. Uh-huh. So it let you just if people just wanted the action, they could just do it. But if you wanted the story, which I always say the Halo stories were amazing. There's a lot that I'm gonna talk about tonight that I either forgot or never knew. Possibly because we never fucking picked up those audio logs. But uh, are you are you ready? Get your hot cocoa ready. Yes, because it is story time. Story time. Motherfuckers. So I'm gonna just talk a little bit about the backstory that basically hell happened, I don't know, thousands or hundreds of years before we for the games take place. So there's a mysterious alien creatures known as the uh Iridians. And they are fighting over the destroyer. Not fighting over, fighting against the destroyer, who is an evil monster entity bent on destroying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was f guessing like from what I read is destroying the universe, essentially.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, universe, which is made up of a very specific amount of galaxies.
SPEAKER_02Is that right?
SPEAKER_01I I guess there's like six gu I I there's there's plots where I yeah, we're gonna gloss over. But yeah. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's what it was.
SPEAKER_03Like well, I just saw it was gonna be destroy everything.
SPEAKER_01Destroy alright, destroy everything, like existence, basically. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03That's what I gathered from one thing I read.
SPEAKER_01So their idea was uh he couldn't be defeated, but he can be contained. Yeah, that sounds right. So they decided we're gonna imprison him on a planet, which happened to be the planet of Pandora. Right. But to imprison him, they needed help from Neread, who is the first siren. Because they realized to imprison him, A, we need to debate, we need to bait him to come after us, and B, we need to somehow be able to seal him in. So Neread as a siren had uh this leech power where she could basically suck energy out of living things, especially Iridian things, and use that to basically lock up the destroyer. Unfortunately, that meant she needed to suck the life out of every living Iridian. And so that they begged her to do that.
SPEAKER_03That's why the Iridians that's why the Iridians died off.
SPEAKER_01She literally sacrificed them all to lock this destroyer on the vault of Pandora. And that they also created false vaults on Pandora to kind of uh, you know, people are trying to come look for this this this destroyer thinking it was something good. They would say go to these vaults and get fucked up by the uh monsters they had in in between there, which is an allusion to the first game, which we'll we'll get a little bit back to. But the other backstory I wanted to say this vault had remained sealed for again hundreds and hundreds of years until it was opened by the first vault hunter, who is Typhon DeLeo. Typhon. Yep, who we actually don't meet until I think Borderlands 3. So Typhon and his girlfriend Leah find this vault and they end up destroying a monster inside of it. I I don't this I'm not all clear a lot of this, but they're so excited that they found this vault that they uh basically made love inside the vault.
SPEAKER_03I do remember that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and later she gave birth to the twins, Tyreene and Troy.
SPEAKER_03Most bad guys of the thing.
SPEAKER_01Right. So quick background on sirens. And I wasn't gonna I was gonna ask. I was not going to delve into this, but I realize it is very important to like the whole thing. So she was the first siren, and we're not really sure what happened after that, but the current world, the universe is there's always six sirens exist at a time. Right. Some people say there's a seventh. Yeah. We're not gonna go into that at all. There's seventh. So there's six, and they each have a unique powers like phase lock, phase grasp. Um, the first Miriad had phase leech. That's important. That'll come up later. So basically, what happens is when a siren dies, their powers go back into the universe and are into another person to be reborn. That's what I read. So um Niriad, I forget how, but basically Niriad dies. But her powers didn't get back, right? Um, her what? Her powers didn't go back, right? They didn't, but we don't know that yet. Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Alright, sorry I'm spoiling.
SPEAKER_01I was alluding to it, Andrew. Oh, Jesus. I'll stop talking. No, I like it. That's cool though, because you that also helps me keep that thing straight. Okay, so now let's jump forward in time to the events of Borderlands 1, which honestly was the story was very, very not in depth. So we were back on Pandora, and now because of Typhon, there's a lot of people hunting these vaults. Oh, I should say, so Typhon, he actually did find some stuff that was worth it in that vault. Right. And there the uh they also created vaults, I mean the Iridians, on other planets throughout the universe to A, house cool shit, and B have enemies in them, like bad monsters. Both the ideas was these were training grounds in case the destroyer comes back for people to find them, get the good gear, and and try and to uh beat them, beat the monsters. This is different from the vaults on Pandora. Pandora was specifically keep there to make people not find the true vault on Pandora. Yeah, that's very hard for me to figure out.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01And again, because this is all backwards. Like this is all explained here, but not really into Warlands 2 and 3, so it's hard to like keep in your mind. Good job, man. So that's what? So the the vaults on Pandora are all false vaults, which we'll get to real quick. So we're trying to find these because they found good vaults elsewhere, but on Pandora, the word is there's some good ass vaults with the ultimate vault in it.
SPEAKER_03Right, you need the ultimate, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, which we think is an amazing vault full of all kind of treasure. So there's a lot of vault hunters, as they're called, come to Pandora, and we meet our merry band for the first time. It is made up of Mordecai, the sniper, Lilith, who is a siren, and her ability is phase walk. It's phase walk, and I'm gonna touch on that real quick shortly. And Roland, who's a soldier, your typical soldier class. And uh Brick. Yes, in the in the movie, and Brick, who is the berserker. So you basically have your sniper class, your soldier class, your heavy class, and then Lilith. This is interesting because uh in this game, Lilith was uh the assassin. So basically her her phase walk makes her become an Visible and you can go up and sneak and kill someone. Yeah, I should say I've I so my main I've played as the siren, at least as my first playthrough in every every play. You're always a siren. I don't know why. It changes like the siren from one is very different from the siren from two, which is why I decided to play the siren from two because I didn't want to do the same that I you know it's weird. Yeah, it is funny. So the the plot is as such. So you land on the you know on Pandora and all of a sudden you're contacted tele telepathically from the guardian who says, All right, I I want you to help us open this vault. And she says, and you also be guided by my buddy, my companion, Claptrap.
SPEAKER_03So Claptrap was the key.
SPEAKER_01He was, he was he was half the plot.
SPEAKER_03He really was.
SPEAKER_01So you are opposed by Commandant Steele. I don't know if you remember her at all. Vaguely. White hair, um, also a siren.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01But it wasn't really touched upon. So one of the traits of a siren is the left half of your body is covered in tattoos, but usually glowing. Hers never glowed. Oddly enough, the character art for Commandant Steel was the original character art for Lilith. Like you can see old pictures like on that game in former, yeah. It's Commodant Steele. And then they shifted. Really? I don't know why, but yeah, they did. So so Commodant Steele is uh she works for Atlas, which is one of the major corporations. Yeah. Um, there's there's basically so there's Atlas, Malawan, Dahl, Jacobs. Don't forget Torg. Torg. Hey, I can't believe I just named those all. I'm that was impressive. So not only are the major uh companies that kind of roll the world, yeah. Uh they're actually make all the guns that you use. So it's it's it's interesting, like it's a lore or slash an excuse. Commandant Steele also imprisoned a certain scientist of Iridian artifacts. Uh Tannis. Yes. So uh her plan is to open the vault and get its ultimate power. She actually succeeds. But again, it's not really a vault. It contains a destroyer who escapes and kills uh Commodant Steele.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So we never actually learn Commodore Steel's siren abilities. So we don't know. So remember when she's dead, so her abilities go back into the universe. But we don't want to know which ability it is. So our team of Vault Hunters uh seal that Guardian back up. And then uh you basically then in the end game find out that uh the Guardian has been broadcasting from a Hyperion satellite in orbit this entire time. Which the time you're like, fuck. It doesn't mean anything at all. It's weird because none of these games, it's like none of this plot makes sense out of context. No.
SPEAKER_03I'm sure everybody's this has been weird and interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you I think everyone is getting uh mandatory, you have to listen to this twice.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01So I'm just saying there were four DLC for Borderlands one. I didn't I didn't quite remember that, but yeah. So the first one was um the zombie island of Dr. Zedd, not Dr. Ned. So Dr. Ned is a recurring character in the Borderlands, he's the doctor, yeah, right, but he pretends to be someone else completely different.
SPEAKER_03I vaguely remember that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's funny because it jumps on the bandwagons. Remember, that was at the time where everything had a zombie mode.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So it was it was that zombie story story-wise, nothing really happens there, but I remember being fun. Uh, two was Mad Moxie's Underdome Riot. Third one was the Secret Armory of General Knox, which I clearly remember this one because it was hilarious.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, but it did introduce Athena of the Crimson Lance, that was the big part of that. She she comes into play later. Right. So she used to be part of the Crimson Lance, which was the military arm of Atlas, one of the Megacorps. But she had a falling out with them and decided to leave them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And she kind of had a bone to pick with General Knox, who took over. And I remember it's hilarious because General Knox, the actual, I'm sorry, the actual leader of the Crimson Lance after this fell to like someone's son who's like six years old. So I remember the whole thing was like, yeah, I got General Knox was like, yeah, I got orange today. It was just a teddy bear and an arrow. Uh so yeah, the unimportant thing is there, it it it introduces Athena. And I forgot this point. So since you sealed up the Guardian back into the vault, it would not be able to be reopened for another 200 years. It's like a time delay safe, apparently. It's nice that they had that technology.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. Whatever.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so this is where we start getting into the weirdness because the next game chronologically was not the next game that released, as we've alluded to before. So this is the pre-sequel now. Happens.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh, it's interesting. This game, this has the most vault hunters of any game.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01Yes, because you have Athena, uh, the clone of Jack. Yeah. Let's just go through one. All right, so Athena, who we know um is from uh an ex employee of Atlas, and she was, you know, takes Atlas now, and she's trying to like kind of make shit right, if you will. Right. And then we have so in the pre-sequel, you have Jack, who's going to be later known as Handsome Jack.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But he just kind of he's in your band, but you're not not as a playable character. But who can you play as is his body double, Timothy, who's a clone of Jack, you know. So you can play as is him. So his his his class of character, if you will, is the the the doppelganger. Oh, Athena's class as Gladiator.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And then there's Wilhelm, who is Jack's real Jack's right-hand man and enforcer, and that's actually his class as enforcer. And you have Nisha, who is uh the lawbringer, yeah. And she is kind of your typical like sheriff type, which is interesting because she is the first person, even so this is the third game in the series, if you will. Right. All right, she's the first one to bring in the stacks, which is the a kind of a complication of the skill trees. Right. Where how would you describe stacks? Like some of them are like kill skills, like if you kill third, you know, someone in a row, every person you kill after that, you get a bonus to your reload speed. Right. And it keeps stacking until you stop killing people.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01It's it's it adds a complicated layer to the game that was neat, it wasn't there before, and it persisted in Borderlands 3. Very much so. Oh, yeah. And I imagine it's definitely going to do it in um.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, looking at some of the characters, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a big thing. So, but yeah, Nisha was uh the first one to have the stacks. And then there was two DLC playable characters claptrap. Yeah. And uh Aurullia, the Baroness, uh, was it was Sir Hammerlock's sister. Sister, yeah.
SPEAKER_03She's in three.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the plot of this one is yet again, you're trying to find a vault, I think. Yeah, it's always confusing. But your your nemesis in this one is Colonel Zarpadon.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Zarpadon.
SPEAKER_01You start all this game, I should say, on Elpis, which is the moon to Pandora. Um which in the first game you can always see in the sky, and it's fractured.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, the second one. I'm sorry, no, the second game. First game, it's fine. It's the second game, it's cracked. It's it's cracked.
SPEAKER_03Like kind of the crackering or something like that.
SPEAKER_01The cracking, the cracking. Yes. So um is your ship is shot down and you crash land on Helios, which is a huge Hyperion space station orbiting Elpis. Right. Woo! We'll get there. I only say all this because these all are very important. Yeah. I'm only it's weird. I know it's a lot, but it's only the it's all the important stuff.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01So you do some fighting and whatnot, go through the levels, and Jack throughout he Jack starts off as a normal business dude. Business dude. Yeah. But he starts as a slow descent into madness. Yes. To the fact where he just like you defeat Zarpadon, and it should just be the end of it, but then Jack goes and flat out murders them. Yeah, like kind of cruelly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he becomes the Jack from two.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. He's slowly, he's slowly going down there. Um, and he starts to see zip visions of uh the vault. And he kind of knows where his destiny lies. Okay. And then I don't remember how or why um Lilith shows up and punches his motherfucking face in.
SPEAKER_03Lilith's good for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's how he gets the scar and becomes disfigured, and that's what finally turns him into handsome Jack because he has a mask. He has a mask, he has a mask to show off his. But it was Lilith that was the one that she did it. Yeah, she's the one that did it. Shh, yeah, she leaves, Jack escapes. I don't remember how, but he's on. So Hyperion's like the head. I'm sorry. Um, Helios is the head of the Hyperion Corporation, right? So Jack essentially takes over Hyperion, which is the company he kind of worked for, anyways. And I don't I know he kills, he then kills the Atlas CEO, but I don't remember, I I could not find out the circumstance of how that was he just there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't remember any of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but he also kills the so yeah, so he kills the CEO of Atlas essentially ending Atlas's dominance. His whole time between General Knox dying, Athena going A-WOL, now the CEO's dead, so now Atlas is kind of like done dwindling in power, and they yeah, they out of uh Pandora. Okay, so now Pandora is fully under the control of Helios, right? Which is Hyperion. I mean he Hyperion, yes, thank you. Okay, right. Oh, there was a fourth, there was a fourth DLC. Wow. Again, this is why I need an electronic notebook. All right. The fourth DLC to Borderlands 1 was Claptrop's Robot Revolution. Which I don't think I've ever played that one. I do remember that. But not much of a plot point happens there. Yeah, believe it or not. It's all just silly and fun. I mean, yeah, we'll get into that, but all right, so this brings us to the events of Borderlands 2.
SPEAKER_03Now, everybody.
SPEAKER_01Richard Nixon. All right, so same deal. People's still be vault hunting. Right. So our cast of vault hunters for this one is Maya, a siren.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01And she has phase luck. Right. Um, and this is a previously unseen power.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Again, I say this because remember they transfer. So I'm trying to, you know, let you know. So this is this is a new one, not an old one reborn. Okay, yeah, this is a transfer. Right. So Salvador was the Gunser. Yeah, basically you're you're you're a your gun bridge. Stevie Staff, yes. Axton Commando. So your typical soldier, Chris. Yeah, soldier. In Zero, the assassin, who That's who I played first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I was Maya, obviously. Yeah. Well, you're always but Zero was closer to Lilith in the first game. I want to mention sis. I remember the first game. So you had your classes you had to pick, and it also obviously affected your skill tree, but also affected which weapons you could use.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember that? I kind of do.
SPEAKER_01Like, you know, obviously Mordecai was snipers, yeah. And uh Lilith was SMGs, Roland was probably assault rifles, and brick was uh definitely explosives and shoddies, and you kind of were locked into you could use other weapons, but they weren't effective.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I feel like I remember that.
SPEAKER_01But that and they got rid of that from two on, but I always kind of kept with that. Like I kept like my sirens should use SMGs. It was like, you know what I mean? Yeah, I I don't remember what the what the limiting factor was, but I just remember it sucked if you use something that was out of your class. I don't remember. I like to look back on that and see.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we'll go back to whatever. Maybe in a respawn, we'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So there were two D DLC characters for this one. Right. Uh it was Gage, the Mecromancer.
SPEAKER_03I played as her, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I never did. I have no interaction with Gage until the DLC of uh BL3, which we'll talk about. Oh, yeah. Um, and then Krieg the psycho. That was you, man. All right, so this time you're basically joining Foresha's Forces with um, she had previously called herself The Guardian, but now she calls herself the Angel.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And um Claptrap and the Crimson Raiders laden uh run by the four Vault Hunters of the first game. So they become like the main NPCs. Yeah. And you have the yeah, the new Vault Hunters yourselves. Right. So basically, we're trying to get the key. It was stolen from Handsome Jack, uh, stolen by Handsome Jack. We're trying to get it back from him. Um we encounter his right-hand man who had slowly over the years turned himself in the robot, the robot now known as Wilhelm. Yeah, that was that was neat because it all in the pre-sequel, he was slowly like robotting himself up or something. I can't it was weird. Yeah, we destroy Wilhelm, and then we go after, and then we find Angel. And it turns out Angel A is a siren. Yeah, spoilers. And oh yeah, her siren ability is phase shift. Oh, and she is Jack's daughter. And he's been using her power to charge the vault key to open up the vault early. Because remember, he used to have to wait 200 years.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_01So that's a whole thing is that he has her hooked on iridium because sirens, it's like crack for sirens, but uh or uh yeah. Actually, closer to V from uh the boys.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it supercharges her powers, but it ain't good for you. They get all fucked up. That's right. So she says basically, hey, I don't want to do this, you have to stop, and the way to stop it is for you to kill me. Right. So the vault hunters uh reluctantly kill Angel. Um but in retaliation, Jack gets all pissed and ends up killing Roland. Roland, which is a big twist. A big, big twist. He's our he was our vault hunter from the first game. It was like the main character came by Kevin Hart. And then he captures Lilith. Yeah, yep. And then so now he's like, Well, I don't have my daughter anymore. Um, so this by the way, this releases. She was a she was a oh yeah, she was a siren, so this technically releases the phase shift siren into the universe. So somebody has it. Very much so, pay attention to that point. Jack is like, I'm gonna use Yil Lilith now to open the vault. Right. Um, so we all go up against Jack, obviously kill him, kill the destroyer, I think, who was kind of released. Yeah, right. You do kill it. Yeah, yeah, you definitely kill it. But it can't really technically be killed. Yeah, that's I don't think it's yeah. Um, so Lilith says, fuck all this, and she destroys the vault key, but it ends up opening a map which shows all of these iridium vaults that have been hidden across the galaxy, universe, galaxy, whatever. So that was the end of the events of Boderlands 2.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01Now their DLCs don't really increase the lore, they don't move the story forward. But I did want to touch on them because they were all fucking fantastic. They were amazing. The first one was Captain Scarlet and her pirate's booty. Yeah. Which I mean, which is all pirate themed and fantastic as you think it should be. Uh yeah, the then the the number two was Mr. Torg's campaign. Which leads us to I don't remember if you remember this, but there's a vault in the badass creator of badassitude.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I really remember that.
SPEAKER_01I will remember because I that this was this was the the quest where there was you're trying to find the monster, and uh you find it and it's uh monster truck, and he's like, Puttons, motherfucker. Torg is yeah, he's one of the describe Torg a little bit. I can't. He's like a muscle so you draw Randy Macho's Yes. Randy Savage. Randy Savage.
SPEAKER_03Yes, combined like crack.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So if you ever think, I mean, you ever think about, you know, oh dating ourselves here, but any of those like monster truck commercials in the 80s and 90s, he's that announcer all the time. All the time. And just total intense and just total super muscly and just all about explosions. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh explosions.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Anyways, next is um Sir Hammerlock's big game hunt. Ah, that's a good one. It's a fun, it's just fun. It's um this would be like 1800s um Empire Europe think ex uh League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen. Uh, before I get to the next one, I do want to point out, I didn't write them down because I don't want to dive too much into this, but this was right around this time before the fourth one comes out, is when the Headhunter packs come out. They came out with these small mini DLCs um for over the span of about a year. They were like five bucks each. Yeah, not much. And they were always holiday themed. Yeah. There was uh definitely a Halloween one, a Thanksgiving one, a Christmas one, and a uh what's that lovey dovey gross one? Valentine's Day one. Yeah, an Easter, and there was an Easter one.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So for that year they had every holiday, but they were short, sweet, like three hours. It worked for us.
SPEAKER_03It worked for we wouldn't because we met up so few and far between. We were just like, let's do it. And it would be a one-nighter game.
SPEAKER_01It'd be a one-nighter, and we just beat it every time. It was so great. They were so on theme. Yes. Like you would like the it was it. I remember the I remember the Christmas one was basically you were playing in the world of like a Frosty the Snowman or like Rudolph movie or uh yeah, like yeah, those movies. It was yeah, it was great. It was very, very great.
SPEAKER_03I don't know how they do it, but they knew it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that was so much fun. Yeah, and they kind of wrote I think I feel like the success of that was we realized, all right, let's do a full because a lot of these DLCs, they had new characters, obviously, and new skins and some new powers, but just very very lightly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, it was more of just a general theme. Right. But enter DLC 4, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Key. That's and that was like kind of the game changer of what a DLC should be. Yeah. And it was uh it was we played a in the overworld fiction is you're playing a game of bunkers and badasses with Tina. Which is Dungeons and Dragons. Which is Dungeons and Dragons. I think it's Tina and Brick and Lilith and I think Mordecai.
SPEAKER_02Mordecai, maybe?
SPEAKER_01I can't remember who I think. I know he's in.
SPEAKER_03No, he's not.
SPEAKER_01No, I think he's the one. He's the one playing. Anyway, so it's neat. It's very Dungeons and Dragons. It's very narrated by Tiny Tina. Narrated by Tiny Tina. Alright, and we'll say this is probably voiced by Ashley Birch and pro possibly one of my favorite video game characters. You do love her. Just something about a just a deranged, unhinged 10-year-old is just like. And yet you hate kids. I know. But I mean, I don't know if I'd want to actually hang out with her. She's a terror. Yeah. She's insane. But funny. I just I just read an article. I was researching everything. She has that crazy, lazy eye that just rolls around in the back of her head. That wasn't a purpose, it was a little glitch, and they decided to leave it in.
SPEAKER_03See? That's why you listen to this. Man has that kind of thing. Inside info.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, she's just out of her mind, crazy. And as you're playing the game, like she'll either change her mind, you argue with her, like, well, wait, I thought you said it was a dragon. It's like, fine, whatever. And like literally the landscape will completely change in front of you. Like it's it's crazy. It's like you're playing inside of a crazy kid's sandbox. Yes. Yes. But as you learn, it's really all about her processing the grief. Grief of losing Little Rolland. And it is like, I'm getting I'm not tearing up right now, just thinking about it. Like it's extremely touching. Yeah, it is. Because that was her dad almost. Yeah, so it's it's and I think that's that's what solidified me as a Borlands fan forever. Fun, zany, but deep and touching somehow. Technically, the next game in the series, timeline and re no, not release-wise, timeline-wise, would be Wonderlands. Uh, but there's no plot, really. That's like a spin-off. Yeah. Nothing happens in the world. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So we don't have to worry about that one, folks. It's a good game, though.
SPEAKER_01It is very much so.
SPEAKER_02We never beat it. Did you beat it? You beat it? Okay.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I should be able to. I gave up on you. Were we were close? I feel like we were close. Very close. Okay. Maybe I'll maybe I'll have at it. All right. So let's move to Tales from the Borderlands. So this is, as we mentioned earlier from Telltale Games. This is not a first-person shooter. This is a very much a super story focused game by a different company, but obviously with the blessing and uh care consideration. Yeah. Um, because everything was canon and uh obviously it very much so as you see uh happens um in the uh main series. So I would do want to mention this game is also told in a flashback, but I'm the the flashback is within the timeline of this game, so we don't have to worry about it, and I'm not gonna talk about it, even though technically I just did. Shh. Okay, so we are following uh four folk in this one. We have Fiona and Sasha, Reese and Vaughn. They're basically all con artists. Uh Fiona and Sasha very much so are. Reese and Vaughn are uh employees of Hyperion, which um at this time Jack is no longer in charge of because Jack is dead. Which is very sad from a comedic standpoint. So they are just kind of trying to get ahead in the world again. It always revolves around a vault key. Like everything, the plot is just vault key. Vault vault key in vault keys. It's nice. I mean, it's making it simple. Yeah, it's very much so a uh McGuffin, but it's fine. We don't worry about that. Uh I we've used that term a lot, McGuffin. And I forget the exact origin story of that. Oh, respawn later. But a McGuffin is essentially a a plot device in a game, a movie, whatever media, where it's like, all right, the good guys and the bad guys are all have to get a thing, and when they get that thing, they save the world and the world, depending on a good guy or the bad guy.
SPEAKER_03So it could be a ring.
SPEAKER_01It could be a ring, it could be uh Morris Wallace's soul. That is a um Pulp Fiction reference.
SPEAKER_02Is that what that is?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I I I'm pretty sure that that, you know, the briefcase full of gold. That's a reference to an old movie, which I think might have been the origin of a MacGuffin, but again, I'm probably wrong. Respawn.
SPEAKER_00Respawn!
SPEAKER_03I never heard that term before.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03No, it's nice that you explain it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I know I use it a lot. You just kind of go with it.
SPEAKER_03Sometimes you just gotta let the man in and do his thing. All right. But that's good. Thank you, man. All right, yeah. I'm I I appreciated that. I'm here to tell you. I was gonna actually ask it. Oh. And then you explained it.
SPEAKER_01There we go. That's we win. Um, so some stuff happens, they're moving around. Reese is trying to find basically a way to find the vault key. So he puts a he's a kind of a cybernetic. Everyone here is kind of has some cybernetic parts. He puts a thank chip in his head to try to find it. He ends up getting handsome Jack in his head.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_01So throughout this series, you're joined by the AI embodiment of Handsome Jack, who tries to help help we uh that was quotes, sorry, help, for those of you not watching, which is probably everyone, um Reese and then the gang um find this vault key and win, whatever. And they they learn about something called the Gordies Gortis Gortis project um that will land to help them find a vault base. Oh, the vault of the traveler. That's right. This is a new kind of vault, like a super special vault. And then they realize that Gortes, Gortis, is actually a robot. Okay, and it's a robot companion that kind of follows you from here on out, who I find hilarious. Yet another awesome character. But on the way, you meet yet another awesome robot, Loderbot.
SPEAKER_03Oh, Loderbot.
SPEAKER_01Who is yet another amazing character? Again, it's hard to describe why, but just gotta play it. I I I feel like he had no regard for human life. Right. He was yeah, it was and it was funny, hilarious, good, good, good, good plot points.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you're traveling with this merry band trying to get to the vault key, and you are almost killed by basically this introduced the antagonist of the series, if you will, is Valerie. And I don't know her whole deal, but basically she's also trying to find the vault key. So she she almost kills our merry band, but we were saved by Athena. Okay, yeah. Athena shows up, yeah. Who, if you remember, was uh vault hunter from the pre-sequel and was uh ex-leader of the Crimson Guard. Right. Woo! See? It's crazy how the characters keep coming back. So she saves you, but then she runs into Brick and Mordecai, right, who then take her.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So this is where the flashback complications come in. Because when they take her, that's it, that's it. The the Tales from the Borderlands just continues on like nothing else happened. Yeah. But in the pre-sequel, yeah, this is technically the present day. Because I remember I alluded to the pre-sequel as technically a flashback of them telling a story, right? And it's that that flashback takes place actually during Tales from the Borderlands. Wow. Yes. So what's happened? So Brick and Mordecai capture Athena.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Athena knows that she was with handsome Jack, and she was one of her, his associates. So basically, Lilith is like, explain yourself, and Athena's like, eh, wait, wait, wait, it wasn't me. And then retells the events of the pre-sequel. Right. So it was like a hey, it wasn't me. I never, you know, I left Atlas, Jack. I realized he was a crazy maniac, Timothy's okay, but um, I wasn't part of this. But Lilith is on a rampage, probably because, you know. Roland. Because Roland, is he dead yet at this point?
SPEAKER_02Is it?
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's right. That's why she's so pissed because Roland, she's she's grieving. Her and Roland may, may or not have had an intimate. Even though like brick and mortar car, like, all right, she'd had another do it. But out of her rage, she orders the Crimson Lancers to execute her. And they shoot some bullets, but the bullets never reach her. And up appears an iridian. Oh, Reacher. Oh, yeah. No, it wasn't actually, yeah, Jack Reacher. Um, so it appears an Iridian known as The Watcher.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Who says that a war is coming and you'll need all the Vault Hunters and I did read that.
SPEAKER_03Holy cow. I'm looking at his notes.
SPEAKER_01You thought we were done? We're just getting started. Wow. This is why this is its own separate episode. For the four of you still listening, uh, we got some good shit coming up. We got some good shit coming up. So back to Tales from the Borderlands. Right. Valerie orders the team. Um, so for Gordis to be able to find this vault, he needs to get upgraded. You know, he's a little robot. She, I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure it's a she. I always forget that. Um the upgrade is on Helios, and she's basically like, hey, I'll I think she keeps Sasha as a sacrifice. Anyways, like, we gotta do this, but we're we're all fucked. So we definitely need to get to Helios. We build like a rocket ship or whatnot, it's not gonna quite make it, and with the help of scooter, who has to sacrifice himself. You think about it, I mean, so he wasn't just a side character, he was your transportation guy. Yeah. So when you got a car in Borderlands 2 and 1, it was catch a ride! Like it was him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, and that's why in Borderlands 3 it was Ellie, his sister, takes over the business. So, yeah, they I wonder if they had to like rewrite or re-change their plans. Maybe. I'm curious, but yeah, it was it's very impactful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was, because people, even though he was a goofball, he's very lovable, and I would I did not expect him to die in this.
SPEAKER_01No, me either. I should say he wasn't like I don't know where he was, he appeared in this game a lot-ish. I don't know, yeah. There's a lot of details I don't remember where we're uh we're going over that.
SPEAKER_03But but you're doing a good job.
SPEAKER_01RIP. Yeah, scooter. Scooter. Catch you out around in heaven. All right, so that happens. Um they arrive on Helios, and believe it or not, Jack turns on them and he has his own agenda. Believe it or not. But you know, he's in he's in Reese's head. Um, I don't remember exactly what happens, but Reese ends up crashing. I think to stop Jack, he ends up crashing Helios, which is this major satellite around Elpis, which is the moon of Pandora. He ends up crashing this satellite into Pandora. So after this happens, Reese is free of Jack's, you know, hold. Uh Pandora's looking a little fucked down there, but he finds the deed to Atlas hanging out in Jack's office. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which Jack probably grabbed from Rember Back when he assassinated the leader, yeah, the CEO of Atlas.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's right. That's how he becomes the leader.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, alluding to uh the next game.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Um, I think everyone, yeah, they they kind of fight the the traveler and the the the the the the vault of the traveler and blah blah blah. There's a final showdown. And Fiona and Reese both disappear.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and they never explain that.
SPEAKER_01No, I think we understand why. Well, obviously Reese right here, but the Fiona one, um I think is probably gonna happen in in I feel like Borderlands 4. I feel like everybody. I'm calling it. So yeah, that was that's the end of Tales of the Borderlands. Right. I think we alluded to it, but there I forgot there was a point in um I f I'm sorry, folks. I'm yeah, it's hard. In the pre-sequel where they blow up accidentally the moon. Okay, and that's the krakening. We kind of alluded to that. Yeah, yeah, but we didn't we didn't say that it happens at the end of the pre-sequel. Right. Which is why the moon is broken in the sky.
SPEAKER_03It's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But now not only is the moon broken, but now Helios crashed into Pandora.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01So Pandora's looking rough right now. I do remember um in BL3 there were stages where you were like driving on the remnants of uh Helios.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. You could be right.
SPEAKER_01I could be very, very wrong. Okay, now let's talk about I forgot about this. All right, the fifth DLC, the Borderlands 2.
SPEAKER_03There's a fifth.
SPEAKER_01There was, we definitely both played it. It came out seven years. Oh, wait, hold on.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, we did play it.
SPEAKER_01It came out seven years after Borderlands. Yeah. And it takes place two years after Tales of the Borderlands and seven years before BL3. So basically, what it was, right before Borderlands 3 came out, they're like, let's let's bridge the gap. We're gonna give out a free DLL C I remember that. To as a prequel to Borderlands 3. It was who does that? It was awesome. It reintroduces you the characters. Yeah, yeah. Some it wasn't a whole lot. The the bad guy was called Hector. He created a bioweapon that turned Sanctuary into like plant zombies.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you have to find a cure. Um, you do you end up defeating Hector, but you end up destroying that map. Remember, uh Lilith had found a map to all the sanctu to all the uh vaults in the universe.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I do remember that.
SPEAKER_01But she's like, I I think I have a personal connection probably through my siren powers to all of them. We should go go hump for them. Right. And then that leads directly into Borderlands 3! We made it. If you're still with us, if you're still with us. So Borderlands 3 starts off with our antagonists, who we talked about before, is the twins Tyreene and Troy DeLeon, who are the Calypso. The Calypso twins, who are the offspring of Typhon de Leon and Leah Calypso. Now, if you remember, they were conceived in the lair of the original um siren, whose, I told you before, her so when she died, her power went into the universe, which was phase leech. Yeah, because so oh, I should say sirens are always females. Yeah, they're always females. So that power ended up going to Typhon and Leah's daughter, but they were conjoined twins by the arm. Troy's arm. He didn't have an arm, it was actually attached to directly to um Tyreene. So what ends up happening is they were born. Um eventually at some point Troy got a badass uh cyber arm. Yeah. So he inherited some of the leech powers. So Tyreen was a true siren. Troy had some signs of siren powers, but basically, to survive, he needed to leech power from Tyreene to live. He was like literally like a parasite.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so it created an interesting dynamic, yeah, but that also means that Tyre Tyreene has this leech power. Yeah. Which so she uses this power of the siren to amass followers on Pandora. Basically, she's like a uh uh uh TikTok queen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that was the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she created a uh children of the vault uh cult, very much so, very much so. And she was, you know, as always happening for mainline borderlands game, trying to open back up the vault. So we got our our baddies and the Crimson Raiders are like, fuck. All right, we need some help here. So they're recruiting some new vault hunters. And this is your typical Crimson Raiders. So this is still um Lilith and Mordecai Brick. Um, they're all hanging out, and at least zero. So all the ones from BL2 are also in the Crimson Raiders, but they're just yeah, they're in and out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but not yes.
SPEAKER_01This is how these games go. So your your vault hunters of one game become your side main characters of the next game while you introduce another another playable character. Yeah, part of the screen. It is always interesting because you learn very little about the characters as you're playing as them. You play you learn more about them when they become the main characters of the next game.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01So that's why I know next to nothing about Amara. Uh speaking of Amara. Ooh. So you're you only have four. This is the only game that only has four vault hunters. Well, the first one. This game only has four vault hunters, four player playable classes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you have Flack, which is actually spelled FL4K. Don't remember why. Uh he's the Beastmaster. So he's once someone's pets. Yeah, that's right. Uh Moose, who is the gunner. Basically, Moose jumps in uh a mech. Yeah. Mecca, mecha assault. An Amara, who is a siren. This siren's skill is phase trance. And then Zayn Flint, who I didn't realize his player class is himself. Because he creates copies of it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's uh yeah, he's a corner.
SPEAKER_01So uh alright, so I played as my obviously my first playthrough, I was Amara. Yeah. And um, you were Zane? I mean Zane. The Irishman. Irishman.
SPEAKER_03And I still stand, and he's actually in BL4. They've er they officially said he's part of it, but he's not a playable character. He's just classic. Yeah. He comes back as an NPC, but we were just talking about, yeah. So, but anyway, he's still his one-liners were some of the he was great.
SPEAKER_01So the plot of this one is basically Tyreene trying to open the vault, as always, and she's leeching the powers of other people to try to get enough power to again, it ends up being to supercharge the vault key to open up the vault.
SPEAKER_03Sooner than it should be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sooner than it should be. So most of this game is basically Sanctuary 3, which is your home base, which is now a spaceship.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And your newfound buddy, the head of the Atlas Corporation, Reese. That's funny. Fighting against now his enemy, which is the Called the Vault, who teamed up with Malawan, which is another company I haven't really talked about now. So basically, with Hyperion being kind of gone because Jack dead, Reese taking over Atlas, Malawan walks in to be like, Yeah, bitches. Yeah, right. Um, so all it's basically, yeah, so it's Atlas and and Reese and us versus Call of the Vault and Malawan. Mostly trying to find the vault keys spread throughout the galaxy, whatever.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So on Athenus, so this is the first game where you go to other planets. We should mention that. Yeah. And every planet was composed by a different composer. Oh, really? I didn't know that either. Yeah, you knew that. I definitely have told you that before. And I totally have written down and totally remember. But um I I know Pandora and another planet that I don't remember was Yesperkid. Right. Um one of the other planets was Michael McCann. Yeah. And the third wasn't finishing move, was it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was.
SPEAKER_01It was finishing move.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was finishing move.
SPEAKER_01Which is funny because we talked about them a lot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's funny.
SPEAKER_01But it made it neat because every planet looked different, had a whole look and feel. Yeah. But the fact that it had like a different composer made.
SPEAKER_00I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01I know, I know I told you that when it first came out. You probably just forgot. But that's what made it, you know, so cool. Athenus is where Maya's hanging out. It's our uh our our siren from the previous game, who now has an apprentice, Ava. So the thought now, oh, that's interesting. Ah, that's interesting. Oh, yeah, Ava. I don't I honestly I don't have a problem, but that's where the hate comes from. I know. Well, she was an angsty teen. So Maya had was just the this planet is like made for sirens. Yeah. Had an old queen who he knew used to be a siren.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh used to also date uh Typhon De Leon. Yeah, he had a type, apparently. Uh so the understanding was that Maya's trying to to not just give her siren abilities to the universe, but to pass them on to someone specifically. So hence Maya being her apprentice. Yeah. She's trying to like actually give it to someone flowback. Which makes you think that her siren powers probably came from um the queen. I just said her name like uh Dio. Yes. Okay. Yes. Anyways, again, we're just trying to track. Remember, there can only be six. There can only be six sirens. And up until this point. You know, potentially well, no. I said no.
SPEAKER_03Okay, massive, sorry.
SPEAKER_01Yes. At this point, we don't know all six powers.
SPEAKER_03Oh, is that the thing?
SPEAKER_01I'm basically I'm leading up ultimately, is the big question is, and I think it's sort of actually already been answered, is the siren from Borderlands 4. Is it gonna be s an old power or is it gonna be the the final power we've never seen? Um I think I know the answer. Ooh, I think everyone knows the answer but me, because I haven't been looking at Borderlands 4. I think it's I think it's been clearly announced. Oh, really? Maybe I don't know. Has it? Yeah, you haven't heard. I don't want to.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, going away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_03That's flapping.
SPEAKER_01So I am flapping. I'm so glad there's video here.
SPEAKER_03That's that's over it.
SPEAKER_01So eventually, like there's a vault here, they close it, they fight the typhon, they fight the eclipse of the winds, then they go with the Prometheus, there's a vault there, and that leads to a vault in Eden Eden 6. Yeah um, and then they've they confront, yeah. This is where they confront uh Troy and Tyrene again, and Troy learns that he can actually leech sirens, not just his sister, but any siren. So he ends up leeching Maya to death. Which everybody hated. Yes, and ends up taking her powers, and now he has phase lock now. So if you're following along, he has both phase lock and phase leech. Okay, so that's very sad. Um, Maya does not take it well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm sorry. Uh Ava. Ava does not take it well.
SPEAKER_03He comes pissed off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and does pretty not happy about that. Um, we're so we're in Eden 6. We get helped up by uh we just meet now, Wayne Rat Jacobs, who's the leader of the Jacobs Corp. It's interesting because like so most of the companies are bad. Yeah, you know, or evil. Yeah. Um, except now Atlas because it was taken over by Reese, who we're buddies with. Yeah. And and Vladov is or uh I never seen a Vladimir. Isn't Vladoff Marcus? Doesn't Marcus own Vladov? Is that right? You don't need better ammo, you just need more bullets. I never really I thought I don't know. I forget. I I think I think Marcus is, yeah, I'm saying Marcus is Vladov, which is why they're the the silly company. Yeah, they're just whatever. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, yeah, but then no, so we meet we mate the owner of Jacobs, which is Wayne Wright, who um is a good guy, good guy. Yeah, yeah, he helps us out. Yeah, he's he's cool, he's very cool.
SPEAKER_03I I think that's where like the game for me it was like started having a little more I don't know depth and nuance, yeah, and yeah. I I felt like early on it was silly, but they it was interesting with them, and then they DLC with a woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll definitely talk about that. But don't worry about that. But um, so but unfortunately, while he's trying to help us, um the twins kidnap Tannis. Yeah. And they're that's right, about to execute her.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So Tannis has been a constant companion through Borderlands one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01She's the crazy science scientist, like scatterbrained, like would have no problem like skinning someone alive. It's all pure science. Put them for science. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's always scientific. Like you never trust her, but you could like, yeah. She's one click from being a psychopath, but now she's kind of an right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01So if you remember, so the the twins have her, yeah, and she's hooked up to this machine, yes, um, which is about to execute her. Now, I didn't mention before one of the sirens' ability, phase shift, which was held by Angel, is the ability to control machines.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So all of a sudden, Tannis is entrapped in this contraption. All of a sudden, this contraption blows the fuck up, and Tannis jumps into the air, full-blown, glowy tattoos on the left side of her body. So she had secretly kept it gotten the siren ability from Angel, but we didn't know for like two and a half games. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Is is neat to see. So she she fucks up, fucks them up. So skipping back. So Tannis frees her ass, freezes frees her own ass. Okay. Um, and then since she can control shit, or the whole goal is now to have Tannis um basically do the same thing that um the original siren did. Okay. Um, this machine that could suck the life out of all of the remember, uh I should remember, uh, I'm sorry. Let's back up a little bit here. Remember, Neread basically sucked the life out of all the Iridians to she had did that with the help of a machine. Okay. But so since Tannis can directly control machines, maybe Tannis can just use the machine to entrap the guardian forever.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So she tries to do that, but in comes, you know, obviously, the twins, and um Tyrene kind of fucks it up, but then there's a kind of a bad I there's a between the twins, like there's a falling out. Yes. So they both realize that remember from the back of the beginning, Pandora is the prison. Remember that the vault was the faky.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Pandora is the true prison of the destroyer. That's why the destroyer's always kind of popped out a little bit, yeah, but not really come out. Right. Because he's actually in the planet. Right. So the key is actually Elpis, the moon. So Troy is trying to activate Elpis to destroy Pandora, i.e., open it, so that they can bring out the destroyer, and then the plan is that Tyreene is gonna use a destroyer to do exactly what it's supposed to do. Destroy. Destroy. So, in the middle of that, Troy realizes he doesn't have enough power, so he does what he always used to do and suck the power from Tyre. Who does not appreciate that, shit happens, whatever. Troy ends up getting killed. Yeah. Um, just to make sure he's dead, Ava touches him. And Ava then completes the apprenticeship cycle and inherits the siren powers that Troy had stolen from Maya, which were always meant to go to her. So Maya becomes the siren of Phase Lock. Bam, I'm nailing it.
SPEAKER_03You really are, man. Good job. I'm following it though. Are you? Semi. Semi. It's alright.
SPEAKER_01So uh yeah, we're basically at the end. Um, then you all fight, you fight Tyreene slash the destroyer, and um you defeat it, and Lilith gets her powers back.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, do I think we skipped that? We did. Okay. Yes, earlier, very early on, um, Tyreene leeches Lilith's phase walk ability, and she's not a siren for most of the game. So now she gets it back tenfold. Um she uses her powers to stop the key as an Elpis from destroying Pandora by transporting it out of probably the dimension.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01Um, so Elpis is gone, completely vanished, but so is Lilith. And there ends Borderlands 3.
SPEAKER_00This girl is on fire, yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's how it ends. Um yeah. Wow, wow. You got me emotional, man. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I played all the games again.
SPEAKER_01It was uh a lot of death, a lot of life, a lot of that's where we're at. Well, no, no, we have the the four DLCs.
SPEAKER_03Of Borderlands 3.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's where I was gonna I was gonna end it.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Because some shit happens, man. Some shit happens.
SPEAKER_03It does.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it does. Let's go with it, man. Alright, all right, all right. DLC one was Handsome Jack Pot. Which this one actually doesn't remove the plot forward, but it was a fucking ton of fun.
SPEAKER_03I think that was the best.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So this is uh handsome Jack apparently stole a casino from Moxie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And now there's a bunch of now the handsome Jack is dead, there's a bunch of pretenders uh wanting to uh take over the casino. Yep, and she wants you to take it the fuck back. Yeah and you end up unwittingly uh uh getting help from Timothy Lawrence, aka Jack's clone from uh the pre-sequel.
SPEAKER_03It's funny, so it does yeah, so they do, because I yeah, I just started and I was like, oh, that's him? And is that from that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is again, it all comes full circle. It's it's crazy mind boggling.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they're keeping their story straight.
SPEAKER_01They is go ahead. So um that was kind of it for that. You eventually win. Yeah, yeah. Uh DLC 2, one of my faves is Guns, Love, and Tentacles. That is one of the better ones. So you essentially get invited to the wedding of uh uh Jacob's Wainwright and Sir Hammerlock.
SPEAKER_03Dude, I just want to take a moment. That dude who who owns the hotel that you're staying in, yeah. Creepy dude. Yeah. That was one of my some of my favorites.
SPEAKER_01The series is just so full of amazing characters. Yeah, it's just so great.
SPEAKER_03If you you just play that, it's just funny as shit. He's so creepy, but he ends up being a cool dude, but he's creepy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yep. But uh what I liked about this because this game is very Eldritch. Yes, which I felt I needed to look that term up because we hear that a lot. Oh, yeah. What does that mean? Well, I yeah, I just read some of it. Yeah, so it it it it officially is the definition means uncanny or unearthly. Yeah, but usually they also um say that it is unfathomably ancient or alien. So the the the big thing is love crafting. Yeah, that's what I am. But think lots of tentacles, hence love uh guns, love and tentacles, but it's like Cthulhu, and it's it is it's it's things that are yeah, you you it's inhumane inhuman as possible, yeah, very horrory, very just weird. The only thing I have to say about that is the gauge moments. So you only engage with her for uh an echo devices.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I again that was a character I'd never had much interaction with.
SPEAKER_03Wedding planner.
SPEAKER_01Yes, she was the wedding planner, but throughout the episode you find these these recordings, and she this voice actress was amazing because she mimics every vault hunter in the series. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she likes she pretends to be like all their voices, and she does such a phenomenal job, and it just cracks me. There you go.
SPEAKER_03Sometimes that's all it takes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's yeah, it was good, it was very, very good. Alright, next was I tried to swipe up there. That doesn't work.
SPEAKER_03Not on your paper.
SPEAKER_01No, it does not. Uh the next one was The Bounty of Blood, which is a cool one. It was basically Old West.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's about outlaws and sheriffs.
SPEAKER_03I played it, but I don't remember very well.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So I can't, I can't talk to you. No, there was a lot of it was cool. It was fine. It was they're all they're all good. Yeah. Um, and then the last one was Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fuster Cluck, which is actually the first one I played with you. Yeah. Yeah, I played that. And that was that was neat. That was that was Tannis decides that she wants to um basically psychonauts, uh, if you remember that game. Uh she wants to send you into the mind of Krieg.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Which is it's very, very weird and very surreal, but also heartwarming. Yeah. Because you realize that he he and uh Maya had a thing. And he was very much so in love with her, and he kind of has to process her death. Yes. So yet again, same as Tiny Tina. I'm sure all of you were following very, very closely about the sirens. So as at the current state, pre-BL4. Remember, there can always only be six sirens with six individual unique powers. So we know for a fact we have Amara, which has phase trance, Ava has phase lock, Lilith has phase walk, Tannis has phase shift, and then we know that phase leech, number five, is out there because we killed the twins. And then there's a sixth power that has never been named.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Now remember, Commandant Steele was a siren. We never knew her power. Okay. So the major thoughts are she has the sixth power, and that's out there, has already gone to like a young child, and that young child is learning it. Or there could be the leech went to a young child, and the young child is learning it. We don't fucking know. Um, but maybe we do know again. I I haven't really looked into Borderlands 4, and I I know there's a siren. Yeah. So I don't know if that siren is it would have to either be the leech, someone's getting fucking killed, or it'd have to be the sixth and final unknown power. I'm gonna guess it's gonna go with the sixth power, just from the real little shit I've seen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't know what the power is. I I'm I'm with you. I haven't really paid attention.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I I think that's how it's gonna go because the leech is seemingly like the evil power. Okay. You know what I mean? It's never, never, never for good. No. So I feel like that's gonna be one of the the new antagonists might pick that up. But we don't know. But I think that's neat by the lore. It's like the whole Yeah, yeah. I I kind of enjoyed that. The whole Yeah, it's unique.
SPEAKER_03I never power power, not cow or power. Cow power. Yeah, I don't know. Interesting, man.
SPEAKER_01So okay. All right, so that is the obviously the very, very long short, short to the point. Short to the I actually found a YouTube video uh that was like uh a brief history of uh Borderlands Lord is like three hours long. Yeah, so I beat that at least. Well, this is obviously gonna be its own complete episode that people don't care about Borderlands, will not listen to. Yeah. But I don't know. Is there anything you want to talk about the series? Yes. I feel like now, all right, so that was the lore. We'll chapter mark it. Is there anything you want to talk about in the series in general? Like it's your it's thoughts and prayers. Thoughts and prayers. Like me and you have spent a lot of time playing this together.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um I feel like it's important for people who are new to the series or potentially being new to the series. Like it's uh it's a first-person shooter, right? Oh, yes, it is. Yeah. Uh what else is unique to this game? Oh, the humor. Yes. I was thinking we should maybe mention the humor. It's for me, I laugh, but uh if you listen to this podcast, you know I have a seven-year-old, maybe a six-year-old sense of humor. Right. But it most kids today would say it's cringe. And I like it for that. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01It's tough because you know, the it it was funny at the time, it's still funny yet now, and supposedly they're gonna change it for the future. Yes.
SPEAKER_03So I can't speak to the future. You're right.
SPEAKER_01There are yeah, it's I always remember uh R Randy Pitcher did an early preview of uh Borderlands 3, and you're walking through Sanctuary, and you see there's two pipes, and one's labeled coolant, and the other's labeled heatant. And I remember him saying, These are jokes, kids. If you don't like it, it's not gonna get any better. And I agree, like that, that is that's the humor there. Yeah. And I I don't know how to explain that joke if you don't get. So I can't my my absolute my absolute favorite was that quest where um it's given by a character named Jason. And in the in in the end, you're trying to find his waterfall. And when you get there, it's forbidden. And then there's a sign it says Jason's waterfall, and it says no it has like the circle with a cross through it, so like no go. Yeah. And then you get the achievement, quest completed, don't go, Jason's waterfalls. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03I mean, and yeah, I mean that's it in a nutshell. Like and then I'll I'll speak of my one of my favorite moments of Borderlands was just Borderlands 2. And I think it was just one of those moments where we were playing it, and I just like it was so obvious, but it's just so a Borderlands is we were playing a mission and it was a side mission, I forget where, but we had to go in the technically the sewers of this area, and and we had to kill the we had to deliver pizzas. Yes. And and uh and it it it's it's the reference is forming in the back of your head, but you don't it seems obvious when you talk about it, but it's a time where you're like but I was also and then there was a achievement, not that back then it wasn't achievements, I forget what they called them badass points or whatever, and it was like you had to kill so these people attack you when you deliver this pizza, and they're they're within the game, I forget what they're called, but they all have roughly ninja turtle names, and then you have to kill them in the order of the song, and you get an achievement, or in this game, I forget what it is, but yeah, and you have to remember the the song way like Leonardo didn't I think Donatello and then Raphael and Michelangelo and have to kill them in that order, and you got this little it was a silly thing, but at that moment I knew this game is for me, but also just the silly potty humor and seven-year-old jokes. But I I always think that's why the game will always be a seven or eight in most people's minds, because the humor is is subjective, you know. I find it hilarious, but most people find it kind of eh.
SPEAKER_01And I I think we shouldn't, you know, trivialize obviously the the loot or shooter part of it. I mean, the gunplay I always think that's why I always coming back to even Borderlands 2. I mean, we were amazed like when you weren't holding the gun up to your eye and it was down, yeah, the scope you could kind of see like the reflection in scope. So that was cool, and the the the the amount of variety of the guns in one and two was amazing, yeah. But three broke that like every single not every single, but like I'd say hundreds of guns felt unique. Like obviously the thing is there's billions and billions in guns, but that meaning some have slightly different stats, this and that, and this and that. But especially with that game, you could uh Jacobs felt like a Jacobs, yeah, a Malon felt like a Malwan. And even then, there'd be like crazy Malwands that like little robots ran out and like attacked. Like every gun was just like so different. You're right, they all had different literal feels, but if you're playing on PlayStation with the uh haptic feedback, the reload animations were unique to every weapon, yeah. I mean, it was so that's crazy. That's it doesn't need to be, but it just that that I think that's why we love it. People that love it love it for that reason because that little shit means so much. So I don't know, man. I mean, do we talk at all? We definitely I mean, I gave a very, very brief synopsis of the story. Yeah, so brief. So brief. Uh only four hours in. Who is your favorite character to have played as?
SPEAKER_03Oh, a playing character.
SPEAKER_01I'm not gonna ask your favorite character because I I can't I can't pick one.
SPEAKER_03Who's yours? Do you have one?
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna seem like you have one. I'm gonna go with Krieg.
SPEAKER_03Krieg is good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he was I mean, he was not easy to play with. Like you can't play with Krieg alone. I realized, yeah, that's right. I tried playing with Krieg alone. Yeah, and you can't because again, he just randomly kills him, literally punches himself in the face to death. Yeah. But um I always remember like when you would revive me, he always goes, love you. So because yeah, he was such a bizarre bizarre. But for power trip, like crushing it. Yeah. Um not who's the the mech mecca girl? Moes. Moes was fun jumping in that fucking uh Yeah, that always felt good when you were in that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm trying to think who else. Oh I guess I'd have to just go with um Claptrap. Oh I played as Claptrap the most.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's funny, like what you know, I'm like struggling, I I turn around and look out of the corner of my eye, and you're a pirate ship.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. I was sad because I started like I said, I started playing it again. Just I don't know, pre-sequel get doesn't get a lot of love, but I was like, let's just go through pre-sequel. And uh I was sad because I was like, Where's the pirate ship? And I was like, Oh, that's the capstone skill.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you have to all level up to get the pirate ship. Aww. So I didn't I don't have that, obviously. Yeah. So but yeah. Clapped around I don't know, he's always got a spot in my heart. And it was it was cool to be able to play as him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. He's not the best.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, folks, I uh think we might have to unfortunately uh bring this to a close. I know. This was our very, very special Borderlands edition of Almost Gamers.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And I hope you learned something. I hope you cried, laughed, and uh more importantly, I hope you uh are gonna play BL4.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say, if you have a way, let us know. Play and let us know what you're playing as. If you have played it, yeah, tell us tell us your character, tell us your build, tell us, tell us everything. Yeah, and we'll we'll talk about maybe.
SPEAKER_01All right, gang. Unless there's too many. So uh don't elpus your butt stallion.