#siren song (post-bl3)

[kitsumidori]

I spent way too much time on this.....

The soul of the Warrior settles itself inside Krieg's mind and lay dormant for 7 years until the events of Fantastic Fustercluck when it shows up during the battle with the Psychoweaver, with Krieg having full control over it.

#borderlands #borderlands 2 #borderlands 3 #krieg the psycho #krieg borderlands #the warrior borderlands #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

athenas or the new ign videos... hmmm

im gonna go for the ign videos (moze gameplay and sanctuary-iii, no guns yet, i have a reason for that) because athenas hasn’t gotten its sweet instagram video yet. once that’s released i’ll do a full post on it. by the time i got around to finishing this post, they had released the video. oh boy... gonna do the gun post then the athenas post, i think. alright, off we go.

tl;dr: we read the entire end user agreement DAHL thrusts upon us for using the ECHO device, talk about some stuff like how (spoilers) it seems like Lilith will be getting her powers back at the end of the game, and a voice line Lily says that sounds like “Tyreen took my powers. it’s like Tannis said: [inaudible] Siren” (altho im not 100% sure on the [inaudible] part because 1) it sounds weird and 2) there’s a drum beat and also the devs are talking over her, the Siren part seems fairly accurate because of the way her mouth moves). so you know. im gonna be agonizing over that until i can hear what she says. ive already spent an hour just repeating it over and over. i nearly fell asleep lol

we’re gonna start with the moze gameplay (the first 14 minutes of bl3) because chronologically it’s first in both timeline and release date

i love the license plates on the right there

also it looks like they added in claptrap’s old welcome sign from windshear waste! time to stand in front of it for 30 minutes to see if any messages pop up like bl2

fast travel station as well, definitely going to see if/where i can teleport and going there immediately. i imagine this is more for DLC stuff and grinding tho.

also! i do believe we saw Covenant Pass previously. good to know this is actually where it is!

Marcus saying “And Welcome to Pandora!” in the beginning confirms that, yes, they’re going to be on a bus!! i wonder if there will be a fight scene before that though. it’s interesting Clappy mentions that “those jerks who tried to murder you are the children of the vault!” so i mean... there’s gotta be... right?

im also convinced this intro is going to be a mirror of Borderlands 1. i stg if it starts out with the first few notes of Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked and then swaps songs I’m going to lose my mind

also also, the order is totally going to mimic the bl1 one. Fl4k = Mordecai, Amara = Lilith, Moze = Roland, Zane = Brick. We even have Lilith taking Angel’s spot as the mysterious voice in our heads, and probably Marcus driving, AND being dropped off at a bus stop.

bet the reason they changed it from ‘Moze as the Bot Jock’ to ‘Moze as the Gunner’ is because it fits under ‘Roland as the Soldier’ better. Also, ‘Zane Flynt as Himselfs’ would be a play off ‘Brick as Himself’. Amara as the Siren is obvious, and ‘Mordecai as the Hunter’ vs ‘Fl4k as the Beastmaster’ is pretty similar as well, given Fl4k has all those Hunter skills.

the 4 basic emotes im guessing. im so glad we have the option to boop our friends in the face with emotes.

also moze’s little bunny skin is adorable

the ECHOnet used to be called “Riftspace”, “the Spline”, and... “MercTel: A Cyber-Dahl Joint” lmfao

specifically calls out Pandora. also, “artificial megastructures”??? THAT’S SO COOL

AND FUCKING

SENTIENT MEGASTRUCTURES???? 

gearbox. please. i have never ever wanted anything more in my life. please. it’s probably my birthday. PLEASE GEARBOX

also interesting that the user agreement specifically notes ‘Respawns’. I assume this is a joke because New-U stations have been confirmed not canon

“Core law”. Core law? Core... daddy? ... ????

core as in like a core government somewhere that’s not the border worlds? that’s interesting...

“The Legion”, okay, acknowledging TPS, that’s dope

“Project Blackrakk” ... im interested

“Thresher Company” lmao

im curious if Axton was apart of any of the mentioned ones. i don’t think it’s been stated, but i could be wrong

“Chieftain Oort”. also ‘Recently Legless Gary’, lmfao poor dude.

oh yeah im sure this is fine. also holy shit did they google the synonyms for ‘change’ and just start listing them? lmfao

“implicit subscription to the Digby Vermouth ‘Dig’s Gigs’ secret concert subscription service” 

sorry, what?

if this doesn’t come up again in the future- if we don’t get a spam letter or 3 in our mailbox about this concert subscription thing i'm gonna be so disappointed

Dahl hates you if you’re not a fan of hyper-jazz, “you snob” lmfao

my brain hurts, they’re good at writing these 

damn phones exist? i thought everything was ECHO. aight, that’s good to know. i guess there just aren’t any phone networks around the border worlds

also “shared dreamspaces” sound really cool

hm. that’s no good lmfao. also i love that the buttons are ‘Agree’ and ‘OK’. there is no escape, once you agree, you can’t even leave because you’re agreeing that you’re trapped with these rules even if you cancel.

that’s fucked up, DAHL. can’t believe you treat your user base the same way you treat your employees. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised.

anyway, shoutout to literally the only TOA I’ve ever fully read in my life.

also, clicking through this TOA too fast WILL end claptrap’s voice line early. so be careful if you want to hear what he has to say!!

oh shit lmao I gotta go edit that Fl4k post

ok im back ~time magic of being able to save things in drafts and post them at a later date~

sliding preserves momentum, so you can actually slide (nearly) the entire way down! i love this.

small, but claptrap bends his antennae when trying to be stealthy. i thought that was a pretty cool detail

“and some guns include an alternate shooting mode~! try it out!”

player: `immediately shoots claptrap in the face`

i died lol

a very nice look at this sign.

good to know that the twins really are tempting people to join with promises of food. i mean it makes sense, i imagine most of the cultists are desperate for stability and a reasonable life on pandora.

also, Shiv calls himself “holy influencer of the children of the vault” lol. i love that. gearbox really is going for the internet’s throat, isn’t it?

i do like that hovering over an NPC will give you their name only and not name/healthbar.

a better look at one of the signs referencing the Mother!!! i was waiting for this, the only real look we got at one was in that one scene with Moze and IB

“Behold the Mother strength surrender to the truth” 

yeah that’s not ominous...

i assume the mother and father are intended to be tyreen and troy? but idk how i feel about that implication...

i like the new little gear/spring effect for the magnet lol

new lilith! i know a lot of people don’t like it, but i do. she looks better than the bl2 vers. altho i think it’s weird they swapped both bl1 and bl2′s ‘AI’ effect to those dots and then didn’t bring it to BL3. the dots effect felt cleaner. curious why they’re not applying it to bl3 when they went thru all that effort in 1 and 2.

... back up please.

i like that there is a changing icon for long pressing now

“time to check out our slay of the day!” sounds like Tyreen but tbh i legit thought this was moze’s reaction to opening the chest at first lol 

you can hear someone start screaming in agony while she’s walking up the stairs, so i know it’s not moze, but im so used to the VHs talking when they see a new piece of loot my brain just assumed.

also THE MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND IS A REMIX OF BANDIT SLAUGHTER!!! IM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS I WAS FREAKING OUT THE FIRST TIME I HEARD IT

also, claptrap when dropping health yells “this could save your life! then, you’ll owe me a life debt!” bullshit im pretty sure you already decided we owed you a life debt the moment we stepped off that bus

“i see it... the great vault” - a line from a cultist you kill

i know i mentioned in this post that the Great Vault may be already opened, but it could also just be a Vault they’re planning on opening and using the propaganda to convince the cultists to help them find it. 

“if you help us get this vault open, you’ll be handsomely rewarded! you’ll get superpowers! you’ll get regular meals! you’ll get money and guns and dates!” you know, the usual stuff. 

either way, elevating the Vault to a higher state (god/heaven/whatever) makes sense if you’re running a cult.

btw there is a hidden chest in the scaffolding to the left of the door, if you’re interested in grabbing some better guns before shiv. personally, i’ll be using the toy guns.

also the TVs are actually playing propaganda now!!

this one is asking questions that i cant understand due to the sound effects of the chest and claptrap talking, but it says something about “... the dust? ... join the Children of the Vault!”

“hey shiiiiiv all your dumb friends are dead!!”

shiv be like

“all my friends are dead”

some cool level-up art! I notice these are the same pictures as used on the japanese site. i wonder if they change depending on which VH you’ve picked (If you’re playing Amara/Fl4k, do you get pics of Amara and Fl4k? the player is playing moze, afterall).

also also “it’s a KIA on the knife wielding maniac. suuuper dead.” 

it’s cool that the VHs have specific lines for the deaths of bosses. i hope that continues and it’s not just a ‘15 min of intro gameplay’ thing. you know, where everything is super detailed in the beginning and then slowly gets less and less as the game progresses? anyway, moze’s little chuckle is fuckin adorable lol

ah. the door closes now so you can’t even explore Shiv’s room before Lilith shows up. gearbox plS you know me too well, i was looking for a g l i m p s e

claptrap’s voice line for getting released is SUPER off time, he hits the ground before going “you did it! i’m sa-ahhhhhhhh!” it’s weird, wondering if that’s just a glitch.

also also we get a nice listen to the revive ally sound. i could’ve sworn it wasn’t in the first look at this mission we got, because i heard it for the first time during the coop Zane/Amara gameplay on Promethea. i might be wrong, tho.

im very curious what these symbols are claptrap is beaming up

i mean you know what im gonna say

they look eridian

and they do

so wtf clappy why u beaming up eridian letters to Lilith

i assume maybe Tannis gave clappy some weird upgrade or something so he could communicate with the crimson raiders without the CoV listening in? it could be that Tannis or someone is decoding this message since Tannis does know how to translate Eridian (as shown in her bl1 ECHOs)

... or at the very least she gave Lilith a translator

the darkening makes it so that you can see the crackening. also this COULD just be a beam that lilith can see from wherever she is, but i want to believe there’s more eridian stuff. bc eridian stuff is fun.

this is so fu cking crisp im dying i love it

lilith’s tattoos spreading down her fingers

same symbol as her chest tattoo. maybe the symbol denotes new powers? like how lily has one on her chest for phasewalking, and a new one on her hand for teleportation

i love how her wings look like actual fire. i fucking love this

lilith is looking so fucking good in the new engine

im glad they got rid of her super red eyes, tbh it looked a bit weird

i think they are really pushing her fire affinity, im sure we’ll see Maya has an elemental affinity as well (im calling corrosive) and im sure Tyreen will too (slag). Amara looks to be Shock because that’s her ‘default’, but who knows until (if) bl4 comes out. but corrosive wings on maya would look SOOO fucking cool. please. please please please.

god she looks so good compared to bl2. i love how the tattoos softly glow in the dark, too. i gotta play this mission late in the day...

“you’re... the voice in my head, right?” i love this so much, i really hope my shitpost comes true.

lilith gives you a grenade mod for completing her mission! im really glad they are PUSHING through the tutorial/intro so you can get right into the game. bl2′s ‘intro’ of all these tutorials was brutal. especially waiting to unlock your action skill.

in 3 you get your action skill automatically at level 2!!! which is insane, i love it! they’re jumping right into it, it’s great. and they seem to be pushing for you to get all the stuff you need right away. 

it’s curious to note that in bl3 we get our class mods at the end of the Promethea demo (after Gigamind), since in bl2 you get your first (usually?) after the hunting the firehawk mission and both seem to take place immediately after we get to the ‘base of operations’ of the game (Sanctuary vs Sanctuary-III).

yep that quest is 100% in line with the quest marker. 

i imagine From the Ground Up may be discovering where the Vault Map/Key actually is? maybe bringing people to the Recruitment Center (notably Tannis)

for this scene. i hope this takes place after the HBC, because i seriously... can’t imagine the twins showing up, taking the Vault Map, bringing it to the HBC, and then NOT taking Lilith’s powers/trying to kill Lily and accidentally taking her powers. it just doesn’t make sense, Vault Hunters be damned, we are level 2 they could melt us easy peasy. 

If anything, it feels like we COULD find the Vault Map in the Recruitment Center, Tannis tries to activate it/fix it, we find out it’s mega broke, and then the Sun Smashers show up and take it. but i seriously can’t imagine Lilith nor the new VHs allowing that to happen while they’re still there. maybe if Tannis sends us to do something while Lilith is gathering other CR members? then it could make sense if they attack while Tannis is alone with the Key...

OR

we end up finding something in Shiv’s room that shows/helps us realize the Sun Smashers bringing the Vault Map to the Calypsos. tho this would mean the quest From the Ground Up is SUPER short and I imagine it’s not. Maybe we raid a camp of theirs like the one in front of Sanc-III with the bridge/ramp? We need to be about level 6 before we go and we start From the Ground Up at 2 so there’s obviously something DEEP we’re missing here. maybe this is a mission where we go gather the other Crimson Raiders? HMMMMMMMM...

.... oh.

nevermind lmfao

she opens her ECHO immediately after this LOL i feel kinda dumb now

raiding their camp it is! the Droughts sounds like a fun location. Very much like the dust. you guys think there’s a Shade situation going on there? i’m excited to see it. Still think we’re going to use Shiv’s room to get that lead, though. i just really wanna watch tv lmfao. i hope this means the bandits run from the camp to the HBC, or we find info that the bandit warchief sent a party to the HBC with the Vault Map. either way, i just don’t want the twins showing up until after the HBC or i will have so many questions. “why didn’t you kill lilith?” being the first. “the god queen wants her head!” ur goddamn right she does, so why doesn’t she (try to) kill lilith???

85% already?! hot damn

also

that’s one badass description there, Moze

also also

while having gun slots locked is pretty normal, im surprised they’re locking class mods and relics, too! i wonder when we’ll be able to equip relics. maybe when we first go to eden-6 or smth. or maybe after we meet up with Rhys. shit maybe he’s just handing us an artifact (im gonna interchange these a lot, sorry!) in that Promethea video lmfao

“ready to chuck some boom and frag some maniacs” lol moze i love you

if you’re playing Zane... `equips grenade mod for checkmark` `immediately equips second action skill and never actually uses grenade mod`

“it’s the firehawk! the god queen wants her head!” 

like i alluded to before, i would not be surprised if Tyreen doesn’t know she can absorb Siren powers... when she goes to succ lilith in front of Sanctuary-III, it’s totally possible she actually was trying to kill her. That could explain why she looks so intrigued at her hand like “oh shit okay lets see what this can do”

might be why she was okay with sending her cultists after her instead of showing up herself.

“alright, we got a foothold. maybe things are turning our way. come on killer, you’re with me” we are going to explore the SHIT out of shiv’s room.

alright alright alright

let’s move on to the Sanctuary-III stuff

yessss

i love the quest objective thing, it looks like we will be able to swap through our quests with the push of a button! also im curious why exactly we’re going to promethea right away. i wonder if the twins say something about moving there after getting the vault map/lilith’s powers, or if we hear from rhys. im expecting something about the vault map, since our vh will admit they don’t know rhys at all when talking to lorelei. but for some reason we need to be within the city limits? since lily says ellie got us within the city limits. 

hmmmmmm. okay, okay, maybe the map was trying to lead us to promethea for vault reasons during that short amount of time that we had it and it was working. maybe promethea is what we see when tannis is activating the key during that one cutscene? ohhh shit how dope would it be if we got that fucking easter egg message? omg “Children of the Vault. Come to Promethea. We are not on Pandora anymore. Tannis is not what she seems. Do not open the Vaults.” and everyone is like ‘uh did that thing just mention Tannis by name??’ and now it’s REALLY important to get the map back just so we can figure out wtf it’s trying to tell us. 

i will question how ‘Tannis is not what she seems’ would affect character relationships, especially if it’s said so early in the game. so perhaps we only hear the first part of the message. maybe it’s corrupted because it was recently broken. iunno. just playing around with ideas. the canon of this game is like flarp putty until sept. 13th

anyway moving on because this is literally the first f r a m e of the video

i like that you can see pandora’s eridian scar. if the destroyer is speaking through eridium to people, it’s gonna bust outta the side of this planet like you wouldn’t fucking believe lmao. eridium is a window to the soul and if you stare long enough into its glossy, shining sides, the destroyer stares back

that or it’s just like a beacon, slowly spreading its influence across the universe. but i like the idea that the destroyer can waltz out of a big enough hunk of eridium. so it will bust out of pandora’s eridium scar. F in chat for pandora but also lmfao the amount of tentacles and rage would be unparalleled.

reality is that the twins are probably farming this scar for eridium to turn into slag for multiple purposes. like brainwashing their cultists, giving them powers, and ensuring their guns have their manufacturer’s quirk (im getting to this in my next post bc im just gonna compile all the ign gun videos into one big post)

the floor art is different from the actual sanc-iii demo. i mention this first in my behind closed doors panel analysis, but im gonna mention it again because this is ~official~. the floor list on the first walkthru of sanc-iii we got had the names of all the crimson raiders and lines leading to their shops. so we had the infirmary/tannis, marcus, moxxi, etc listed on the floor. i imagine this new sanc-iii will change as we get more people on board or if we do a sort of re-decoration of the ship.

also also, it’s cool to see that we have 4 rooms on the minimap, likely one for each of the VHs (and your coop buddies). ive seen speculation that the other, non-played VHs will hang out in their rooms when you’re not playing them, and tbh i really hope this is the case.

we also know this version of sanctuary-iii is after pandora, so there are no promethea citizens aboard yet. which makes me double certain the first sanc-iii video we got takes place either after endgame (explaining why Lily has her tattoos back) or right after Athenas (explaining why Maya is there). which... i mean... spoilers, guys. 

that’s one good lookin fast travel station, holy shit

im in tears over here because “Caution: no steppy”. this is so fucking funny to me

no steppy on me

okay moving on because i will cry laugh over this for forever im allowed

moze’s room is so much different than amara’s

also i notice she’s on the left of the two on the top, which makes me hope the other 4 are reserved for the other VHs (or your coop buddy).

compared to the official sanc-iii demo video

and amara’s room

moze’s is so barren oh my god

someone get this girl like... a colorful throw pillow or something

baaank. also doubles as the secret stash. kinda upsetting, because that is infinitely less loot i can store when i make a lot of characters. also if i upgrade the bank once, is it upgraded across all my other characters too? or are the guns i put in storage slot 11 locked up until i buy the upgrade?

either way, i am saddened because no more mule characters. and way less space the more characters you make and more gear you find, because all gear you put in here is there across all characters. i hope this means our backpacks will be a lot bigger this time around!

supamax mfg shows up again

ppm/04-02 matches up with the number behind the fast travel station. i wonder if this will come into play. if the number changes later in-game im going to freak the fuck out bc that means wherever we are isn’t actually sanctuary-iii

ppm/04-02. remember that 👀

also, the wall behind the golden chest changed from red to steel/greenish. can’t tell the actual color. same as the floor

you know. that color.

“golden keys are popular. you can get some in-game and also get them online”

in-game you say??? im interested! i wonder if there will be some sort of arena (like moxxi’s) where if you complete it you get a key as a reward. i saw people speculating about some sort of randomized boss rush, that could definitely be a way to get gold keys, as well.

oooo engine room! im excited to explore here.

original size is 16. so, we have 40 backpack slots! still... you know... only 1 above the max of bl2, but hey. at least that’s an upgrade. as small as it may be

on the bright side: bank upgrades increase capacity by 5. with a base of 10, and 8 upgrades, we have 50 slots to fill. which is a big leap from the original 24. it is still a shame we have to share these across characters, tho

offline cultist stream? makes me think the CoV really was trying to steal/take over sanc-iii from the crimson raiders and we went to go take it (back?) in Taking Flight. either the CoV found/ordered Sanc-III, or the crimson raiders were building it/fixing it up, their stronghold got taken over, and the CoV were prepping it for takeover.

the shooting range. and if you notice that little CoV symbol in the bottom left there? yeah pretty much backs up my previous theory

all those red bits are tied to ellie’s crew challenge. so we’ll be collecting things for her!

an altar for scooter 😢

“we’re gonna get those cultism sumbitches, believe you me”

where you get yeeted out of Sanc-III. im definitely going to try jumping in it to see if it kills me. doesn’t look like the drop pods are available yet

that’s not clappy, pretty sure he’s hanging out on the bridge right now

schematics for veronica

the thing i was most excited about in this video!

loooots of customizations! which excites me because i know eridium used to get useless late game when you’ve grinded all the raid bosses. it looks like eridum is going to be in ultra high demand. but u can bet ur ass im gonna be unlocking all those fucking customizations asap.

veteran rewards is also super super interesting

hgggggg i wanna know what the shields do!!! 

i like the vault symbol at the top of the item card as well, shows you its a special type of weapon/item. im honestly surprised we’re able to buy ‘veteran rewards’ so early in the game? i mean obvi we won’t have enough eridium (look at the costs!) but it’s wild it’s even accessible. im personally a fan of the first bonus ‘anointed: gain life steal on action skill end’

looks like these guns have been chosen

to give them those special bonuses

i do see that just anointed is not class specific, but the ones that say anointed gunner or maybe anointed siren will be (confirmed by the devs in video).

you pay with eridium, so maybe the vending machine has some way to confer the power of eridium to the guns. or some shit. iunno. it’s possible this won’t be available until the end of the game, hence veteran rewards, and is only being shown to us right now since this is a showcasing video.

pandoran civilian. no promethea civilians today folks! i am CONVINCED that the old sanc-iii demo takes place after the end of the game. at least after athenas.

it’s weird seeing moxxi hanging outside her bar.

is also cool to know that the 4 slot machines are actually available. seems like npcs can play them, but we can use all 4 if we want to. which is really nice

the one on the far left is called the ‘loot boxxer’ and it gives mostly guns lol. i see they are taking jabs. good for them

better pic of the leftmost machines

Zer0 seems to have a bounty board? not sure if this is like a physical bounty board or if they will contact you when they want something dead, but it is cool to note. this isn’t shown in video, just the devs speaking about it.

similarly hammerlock has ‘big game hunts’ where you find “rare, challenging creatures” and kill them for him

apparently we’ll be killing something known as a manvark

this book

i fucking recognize this book

HAMMERLOCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

in all seriousness tho

hammerlock probably isn’t in his room because we haven’t rescued him from eden-6 yet.

a cool thing about the crew challenges: as you progress through the game and do these challenges, sanc-iii will ‘grow and change to reflect the things you’ve accomplished’. altho another dev says “sometimes these are optional things, like challenges” 

so now im like oh shit we’re gonna change sanc-iii as we play the game. i wonder if that means we’ll be changing the hull, too. because you know. the blue paint job. we gotta go STEALTH. sneaky beaky into the calypsos fleety

tannis doesn’t have the saurian on her table. also, interesting note, she DOES have the eridian log in the corner. meaning she must have had that before eden-6. interesting... maybe we’ll find more on Pandora.

she is still covered in blood tho. idk i don’t have an explanation for that. don’t think i want to think of one, to be quite honest.

oh no. (those are skulls next to all the gurneys)

“tannis plays a much bigger role in bl3 than she has in past games”. bigger than borderlands 1? that is... impressive. she’ll be running the health vending machines (which is weird bc i could’ve sworn in the promethea demo, zed was still running them... hm.)

another angle of sanc-iii

clappy? you good there?

the devs said they’re using him to plug a hole. i assume the calypsos shot at the ship as we’re leaving or smth.

lily with no tattoos, who also looks significantly more pissed than her other sanc-iii demo counterpart

you know. because she got her tattoos.

also

fucking

lilith says something right here. all i can make out is “Tyreen took my powers. it’s like tannis said. ..... [inaudible] Siren.” maybe some weird word i haven’t heard before? i swear she’s saying ‘like tannis said: a ‘m...’ Siren” but i am not 100% sure. if someone could help me out, that’d be rad.

so its sounding like lilith rushed in with explicit warning from tannis about tyreen stealing her powers, and tannis knew tyreen was some sort of Siren and warned lily, but lily didn’t listen. it could also be that lily is saying something like “im not a siren” but i can’t really hear it if she is. it sounds like she saying a word that starts with m to me. if someone could help me with this i’d owe you my life

whew. i am. fucking TIRED.

im gonna sleep for like 3 hours and then wake up and make food before the fl4k streams start.

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3

[brothermouzongaming]

Borderlands 3 review

Level 50 Zane, 15 Amara. Minor spoilers ahead World/Maps -The worlds you travel to are impressively large even though they're broken up into smaller sections; the term "smaller" is used very loosely. I may be wrong but these are by far the most areas and largest in the franchise and its kind of impressive. My favorite level is the Lectra City section of Promethea. It's both organized and maze-like where a gunfight can break out literally around every corner. All the sections are noticeably big and feel unique to the planet or area they represent with that "if it's on the map there's probably something there" design that not enough games take advantage of. -The color pallet is miles better than any previous game in the series. This game can be pretty but its even prettier when everything is blowing up and shit catching fire, particle effects are trying to fuck your eyeballs. The previous games were kind of bland color-wise, the pre-sequel did try and venture out more but this is way above that in my eyes. Gameplay/Guns/L00t

-The combat is sublime. I have heard people complain that doesn't feel much different but I think they are wrong and need to go back and play the less enthralling, less involved combat of the previous games. You didn't have many options in the first games when firefights broke out and it was dated but distinctly Borderlands. Now that the slide and mantle have been implemented (it's about time really), combat is faster and players can take advantage of high points and hit cover faster. The slide even has combat implications once you get to the later parts of the story. It's all very well worked and thought out as opposed to being just thrown in because it's what shooters do now. -The guns and gunplay are on par with Destiny, they may even be a little better when you consider how deep the loot is and how the stats visibly and tactically affect the guns they’re applied to. You get one Duke in D2 and you've pretty much got them all. Here you can get the same gun to drop and actually see and feel the difference between the stats it rolled with. The distinct differences in the manufacturers have really been leaned into as well. They reworked some of the distinct hallmarks of the makers and improved them to help ramp up the combat. This is minor but I really like how manufacturers will mail you guns the more you use theirs. -Vehicle controls are muddy as hell and will take a second to get used to. It’s definitely not the best possible setting even after messing with controls for a few minutes. The default kind of forces you to shoot where you’re looking unless you’re standing still, you may want a little more flexibility in your controls which is available. That said, the models and their functionality are varied and cool but I’m honestly surprised they haven’t perfected controls yet. Story/Writing

-The story is decent, wildly better than the actual writing and dialogue itself (which doesn't say that much) but once you get to the end there are some connection's made that are interesting and well thought out. Now that I've gotten the "good" out of the way. What the fuck is up with all the cutscenes not having our character in them. All events in cutscenes play out like our guy or girl isn't in the room and can't affect the events that play out in them. There will be so many times where you yell at the screen as to why your character is never seen/not doing anything in pivotal situations that could use a Vault Hunter. LIKE THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE STANDING RIGHT THERE. -Troy (male villain) literally says "You were like, 'My powers boo hoo'!!" which is a Handsome Jack reference. It would be nice and nostalgic if it wasn't the very first thing that comes out of his mouth when the Twins intercept you at the Dry Dock. Instead, it just seems beyond lazy and proves just how lacking in identity they both are. Tyrene is arguably worse, she just says things and then follows it with "I don't believe that," or " That's just something people say". That could show how little she cares and that would be fine if it wasn't the only thing about her that stood out. They almost do something interesting later in the story where Troy takes center stage but that lasts literally a boss fight. Both of them are just, underwhelming in almost every single way. All seldom the connection they have and how Troy is capable of being a Siren and Tyrene's seemingly completely unique and powerful abilities. Co-op, Optimization, and Performance

- Co-op will go from fluid and fantastic to laggy and rubber banding at the drop of a mag and it's as frustrating as it is thrilling as hell. It's strange what situations will slow things down and what runs smooth as hell. We had four people on one internet connection and everything ran really well. One day my friend and I tried with just us on Promethea and the session was so fucked I actually couldn't see or fire my guns at one point and I had to back out and come back to get them functioning again. There are definitely more patches coming but for a game boasting online co-op, it should be better. I will say though, level balancing is amazing and can even be quite useful if you want guns to drop at level no matter where you are in the game. People have been complaining about the UI and I totally understand, I don't mind the design, what I do mind is how obnoxious the input lag is. Oh and the weird glitch where as you scroll your inventory, the pictures of the items toward the bottom copy to rows above them. It's easy to fix in-game but...why is it even a thing? How have they not fixed that glitch where your FFYL timer just drops off despite still having time on the meter. It's happened since borderlands 1 maybe there's a certain amount of damage you can take before the timer doesn't matter anymore? I genuinely don't understand it and on boss fights, it's infuriating to lose money when you could've gotten a kill for your second wind. Misc. -Of course, the first patch they put out isn't to fix the performance issues but to kill the Loot Tink farm on at the Jakob estates. A farm you can still do offline fyi ;) A billion guns and you mad people getting a slightly higher chance at getting the guns they’re just gonna get anyway. WHY -The trinkets are cute but useless, why not put a minor stat buff on them to actually give them reason? They're so small they almost don't exist to me. -Also, that end credits song is absolutely terribly chosen. The end sequence, in general, is just strange and seemed a little forced. Not how they presented it but what exactly they showed because as perplexing as it was to see what I did, I was just more upset I didn't get the development of those scenarios to see how we reached the outcome. I'm trying not to spoil things but it's difficult so I'll just be quiet. I'm not even sure of what I saw but I do know what it looked like. I just wish there was more background given since our character gets literally none. -REALLY weird cameos. Like, really strange. tl;dr BL3 is an 8.5 for me which flys in the face of my many criticisms but I can't deny how fantastic the gameplay is on top of the absolute wealth of content delivered, all without the modern monetization bullshit. The story is meh, writing meh, but god damn if it isn't rewarding in its gameplay. IF you like BL as a whole there's no reason not to play unless you're waiting for the Steam release. An Endgame post is in the works.

#Borderlands 3 #Gearbox #2k games #video games #gaming

[kitsumidori]

Siren Song! Tannis

My autistic wife who lives off of hot coco and cookies and hasn't slept in days.

Still dreams of having her own plant zombie army.

#lilith: tannis when's the last time you sleep? #tannis: how can I sleep when I'm close to another breakthrough?! #borderlands #patricia tannis #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[kitsumidori]

I mean Balex is fine I guess?....... But Felicity being the navigator for Sanctuary III is way better.

Bonus points for having both and they really hate each other

#borderlands #borderlands pre sequel #borderlands 3 #felicity bltps #balex bl3 #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[kitsumidori]

Another small Borderlands art dump

Just some more doodles I've saved up that didn't fit for their own dedicated post.

Siren Song concepts for both Hansuke and Naoko Katagawa.

Hansuke ended up surviving the fight (just barely) but ended up being held captive by the raiders.

By Siren Song, Hansuke is still in the custody of the raiders with a chance to rehabilitate (along with a temporary restraining order from Rhys and Sasha)

As for Naoko, after the war between Atlus and Malawan, Naoko has since settled down in Eden-6 and is aware of the situation with her brother.

Siren Song Lilith with the "scar" she'd received after flying into the moon. It's still unknown if it's a slag scar or something else entirely.

This was made around the same time the movie trailer was released and this is another reminder to please 🏴‍☠️ the movie.

Just a cute family picture of Maya and Krieg with their new daughter🩵

Ok this last one is more of a gag rather than canon.

With Sebastian being a freaky eldritch abomination, he thinks that nothing stranger would happen....... until it happened.

One morning, Basy woke up in hysterics as he was accompanied by an egg and his wife Nat was even more confused than she was before.

Like I've mentioned, this isn't canon.....yet???? I love the idea of Sebastian and Natalie having kids of their own, it's just the idea of how they started a family is what I'm still thinking of.

#borderlands #borderlands 2 #borderlands 3 #siren song (post-bl3) #katagawa jr #lilith the siren #claptrap #patricia tannis #maya the siren #krieg the psycho #psyren #sebastian (oc) #natalie (oc) #my art

[kitsumidori]

I just realized that I've never drawn Salem with either of her parents, this changes now.

Salem did grow out of her feral tendencies sometime after 3, making her (by Pandora's definition) a pretty normal kid, however there's still a few bumps in the road.

One day, Salem (who's 10 here) asked her mom to help her with her nails after getting sick of accidentally scratching herself. Maya knowing that her daughter was very nervous about it especially since Salem hated having her nails trimmed when she was younger. So Maya, after grabbing a spare nail file, suggested something a bit better.

And yes I gave Salem a Bluey plush, I was watching The Sign while making this.

#borderlands #siren song (post-bl3) #maya the siren #psyren #<= kinda since krieg is salem's dad #salem (oc) #borderlands oc #my ocs #my art

[kitsumidori]

More Siren Song refs, all in a minimalist style.

Most of them aren't finalized (mainly the Tales From cast) though I have been running dry on ideas

Ava

Her style fully evolved from emo into a punk rock style.

Phaseleache siren, though she has the least amount of responsibility (like due to being the youngest.)

Is next in line to command the Raiders once Maya retires.

Mad Moxxi

Not much happened to her and she's basically the same.

Though she's a lot more successful business wise with her multiple bars, her new underdome and her very own casino.

Didn't date Timothy until he started to look less like Jack, though she did offer to help with that.

Rhys

Nothing much on him, but his character is more like how he is in the end of the first Tales From game

Married to Sasha (obviously)

Fiona

While rebuilding the raider, Vaughn recommended a few people he knew with one of them being Fiona and let's just say that she and Lilith became more than just allies.

Semi-retired, while she spends more time with her wife Lilith, she still does the occasional pick pocketing and scams.

Vaughn

Was "persuaded" by Krieg to wear pants more often

Is Maya's right hand man (with Krieg as her left hand)

The design was inspired by @wainwrightjakobshammerlock design of Vaughn

Sasha

Atlas! Timothy au's are dull and uninspired, Atlas! Sasha is where it's at!

The girlboss to Rhys's malewife

Is surprisingly close to her sister in law Lilith

#borderlands #ava the siren #ava the apprentice #mad moxxi #rhys the company man #rhys strongfork #fiona the con artist #vaughn the money man #sasha the kid sister #rhysha #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[kitsumidori]

Siren Song art dump

Some art for SS that I haven't uploaded yet

I've mentioned the ideas of psychics and one bit about them is that they each have unique glyphs that surrounds their body (usually only seen by other psychics or when using max power)

Ok this is mostly borderlands 3 related, but I've got to mention this sometime.

Since Maya never went back to Athenas, Cereza ended up as the protector of the planet when Malawan started to invade since:

A. The majority of the monks are either dead or in hiding

And B. She'd feel guilty for leaving a planet full of pacifists in a war zone

Due to being the only one fighting back, she's more stressed than ever.

Siren Song full body refs for Ava and a ref for Gaige. Anarchy Forever!!!!!!

Lastly full body refs for the younger Psyren kids

#borderlands #borderlands 2 #borderlands 3 #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[kitsumidori]

Siri, play Warriors Code on repeat!

I can have neat ideas sometimes..... like the soul of the Warrior becoming a part of Krieg......

#borderlands #siren song (post-bl3) #krieg the psycho #the warrior (borderlands) #my art

[kitsumidori]

I like liarhawk and I like tannith so I went with the secret third option and have all three in a polycule

#borderlands #siren song (post-bl3) #lilith the firehawk #lilith the siren #fiona the con artist #patricia tannis #liliona #tannith #(also tannis/fiona as well)

[kitsumidori]

Natty, oh Natty~

Pre BL3

Was going though a major awkward phase, especially once the facial hair grew

Tall and lanky, this was shortly before she decided to buff up

Recently became the new leader of the Guinea Pigs, a bandit clan that mostly consist of Hyperion test subjects and rouge Hyperion scientist's

She's not at home often, but insisted on ading the Raider's

Still planning on murdering her uncle

Post-BL3/Siren Song

Retired bandit leader (The Guinea Pigs are in the hands of their new leader, who she'd hand picked)

Has since returned to Eden-6, her uncle's dead, life is good

Is married to Sebastian

#borderlands #borderlands oc #siren song (post-bl3) #natalie (oc) #my art

[kitsumidori]

Baby you're my ANGEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The shall she wears was made by Moxxi when she and Gaige had their son, she keeps it on because it makes her feel safe

Sanctuary III's weird art lady, room is littered with art supplies and paper

Due to what Jack did to her, Angel ended up with a strange fear of cybernetic to the point where she refused to have an echo-eye implanted in her

She once had a mental shutdown when she found out that Tannis has a secret chamber filled with Angels old memories (her old artwork, the family portrait with her late mother, the turret that Jack used to kill her mother) in her mine lab

(the only good thing out of it was that she's reunited with Captain Bear)

#borderlands #siren song (post-bl3) #angel the siren #my art

[kitsumidori]

The retired double income, whisky drinking uncles that unleashed the gift reckoning on Mercenary Day and their adopted eldritch god son who is now the new CEO of the Jakob's Corporation (now sporting a sweet stash and fucked-up eye(s)

#borderlands #wainwright jakobs #sir hammerlock #wainlock #sedastian (oc) #siren song (post-bl3) #my art

[kitsumidori]

So I made more Psyren fankids for funzies, until I grew attached to them

Salem: you already know her, the feral child that likes to bite people

Astrid: Born after the events of bl3, she's the ditzy but kind-hearted hippie girl of Sanctuary III

Jason and Artemis: Both are the definition of troublesome twins, mostly would pull harmless pranks on people (doesn't help that Maya would encourage/partake in the stuff her son's would do)

Haku: The youngest, not much about him but he is an inspiring vault hunter and wants to be like his parents

#borderlands #borderlands oc #salem (oc) #astrid (oc) #jason (oc) #artemis (oc) #haku (oc) #my ocs #my art #psyren #siren song (post-bl3) #(also kudos to anyone who remembers astrid)

[kitsumidori]

why did I give Krieg such a complicated design, now my hand hurts

More post-BL3 designs

Krieg

Fantastic Fustercluck still happens and is still the same as cannon with some slight differences. (for 1. Maya is still alive and 2. the final memory involves slag experimentation instead of that crazy gas)

Maya didn't care why the vault hunters were in his head, she's just happy that both sides were getting along at the end.

Married to Maya and is a father of 5 daughters (most of whom are adults now)

His sane side now has full control with his insane side taking control during fights or if wants to see Maya.

(sometimes both sides take control if they need both brains and brawn for the situation)

Still a huge poetry buff, keeps a journal with him for ideas.

The tattoo on his arm is to show his loyalty to not just Maya, but sirens in general.

Moze

Now one of the top soldiers of the Crimson Raiders.

She's been doing better mentally ever since Sanctuary lll heired a professional therapist. (I really doubt that Tannis would make a good therapist)

Her post-BL3 outfit is based on her Commissar Andreyevna outfit in 3. She has a hat too, but I didn't include it because I can't draw hats on people without making it look too big.

Besties with Gaige, usually both would talk about robot stuff or their siren wives.

Still has that war paint on her face. (In her defense she forgets to wash it off)

Married to Amara, no kids yet but they're planning on having some in the near future (or maybe sooner?)

#borderlands #borderlands 2 #borderlands 3 #krieg the psycho #moze the gunner #post-BL3 #bl3 rewrite #my art #siren song (post-bl3)