Borderlands 4 is out now. Our Borderlands 4 review is not, because we have only just been sent a review code. I fear I was unduly forgiving of Team Cherry last week for not supplying Silksong code before release – they’re a cute, tiny indie, after all, albeit a cute, tiny indie with the power to break Steam – so let’s take a firmer stance this time: bad! Wrong! Don’t you know you’re suffocating games journalism, Gearbox and 2K Games, you swaggering chancers? Whither accountability and transparency in a time of choosy PR departments?
I should teach you all a lesson by diverting your brand power and googlejuice towards some other game instead. I think I will, actually. What else is on sale today. Ah yes, Try To Drive.
Try To Drive (Steam page) is one of those daft multiplayer games that trades on co-op partners repeatedly sabotaging each other. In this case, it’s a tandem simulator, a tandem being a bicycle for two people.
Doesn’t sound nearly as arduous upfront as, say, climbing out of hell while shackled to Nic “We Can Jump Those Lasers” Reuben and Brendan “My Left Not Your Left” Caldwell, but you will not be cycling down any ordinary roads in Try To Drive. You will be cycling along chains of floating biscuits pooped out by gingerbread men. You will be ponderously T-bogging your way over precarious glass accordions.
I actually have some firsthand expertise to bring to bear, here, based on sharing a tandem with my life partner. The trick is to put the one with the biggest bum in front. No, I am not going to tell you whether I have a bigger bum than my partner – don’t be uncouth. My other top tip is to put a mirror on your handlebar so you can check whether the other rider is goofing off.
I have run out of tandem expertise to share, so let’s circle grudgingly back to Borderlands 4, the game that murdered journalism. My big takeaway from the previewage so far is that it won’t be as jokey as the other Borderlands games, apparently because it’s set in a totalitarian world, and they want to set a grimmer tone.
As some of you noted at the time of that linked report, the idea that humour isn’t seemly in this context seems absurd, given that past Borderlands games have already seen us battling against odious corporate bosses and tyrants, while rattling through gags like ammo belts. That said, I do think Borderlands in general could benefit from being less punchline-driven.
Beyond that, I can tell you only that they want 100GB of SSD space for the pleasure, and they were pondering an $80 price tag at one point. If you’re hungry for more, I will grit my teeth and suggest that you cast your eye over this review from Very Gary Computing. They did get code, possibly because they didn’t call the studio boss an idiot in any of their news coverage.
Borderlands 4 can be found on Steam and Epic Games Store.
