Borderlands 4

I like the Borderlands franchise, 2 being my favourite, but I am hesitant to recommend this one. The price shot up to $90 CAD, and isn't even properly optimized. Compiling shaders TWICE on every load in, the second one being far slower than the first, or compiling shaders HORRIBLY slowly if I change any graphics settings. Speaking of which, on a rig that should be able to easily handle high, I had to drop to medium and low due to ridiculous frame drops in any and every fight. Which, this being a Borderlands game, is a lot of fights. That's a ton of frustrating fights and drops to the point where I can hardly see. Aside from the much higher than normal price tag up front, they lock tons of content behind a paywall. I already spent almost $100 on your game, and you want MORE?? For skins and crappy side stories that, based on other reviews, are not worth the time and money? The greed is so frustrating to deal with as a gamer. I want to enjoy games that I have played in the past, but I am not going to waste a bunch more money on something not properly optimized, or some weird lame side quest for an additional $20-$30. All of that aside, the roaming and exploring has been quite nice. The lack of load screens between areas is a nice change, and the open-world feel makes it quite smooth. As usual, the cinematics are funny and quirky, and there's lots to do and loads to discover and unlock. I am enjoying the story thus far, and am hopeful it's more immersive and gripping than BL3. The twins were fine, but not even close to being a hateful villian like Handsome Jack. The combat has been feeling a little.... weak. My husband and I play this together, and we put it on Hard difficulty, and we walked through the first main boss. The Eridium dependancy of the other games is now obsolete, and it doesn't seem to matter what element you use. In BL2, if you went against an armoured guy with anything but corrosive, you were not breaking his armour. I use a Maliwan Shock/Incendiary, and don't even have to switch to the incendiary after the shields are down, because I shred them anyway. A little disappointing. Looting weapons feels off this run as well; I only get shotguns, snipers, and assault rifles that only have a single shot (not full-auto). I miss rocket launchers being their own weapon as well; they have morphed into the grenade slot, and I never use them due to how long it takes to switch weapons, aim, and fire, as opposed to clicking G while shooting and automatically whipping out a grenade. All in all, I could recommend the game if you look past the pay-wall, the frame drops, and the shaders compiling EVERY. SINGLE. LOAD IN. Otherwise, it's been a disappointment for me.