Borderlands has one hell of a following that would put the Children of the Vault cult to shame. The Borderlands 3 Gameplay Reveal Event held earlier this year over in LA had at least 800 attendees, including myself. I didn’t meet all of them while I was there but I had the honor of meeting a small bunch of the Aussie writers and content creators who also came on the trip. With the release of Borderlands 3 less than a month away, I recently reached out to some of these content creators to question them about their love for Borderlands 3. I also decided to included a fellow member of the Game On AUS community whose also a diehard fan of the series.Meet SubPar Lover, Dantics & Menthonso.
SubPar Lover (or SPL for short) streams video games on Twitch 5 days a week on his own channel but also dedicates a couple of those days specifically for Borderlands. Just recently he became a member of the official Borderlands stream team representing the 2K ANZ community along side Naysy and Ziggy D.
Then there’s Dantics, an avid video creator who also streams from time to time via his YouTube channel. In the last 5 months he’s created 30+ videos covering all things Borderlands 3 from new weapons to character builds to exclusive gameplay from the Gameplay Reveal Event, E3 and his own streams.
Menthonso is a long time member of the Game On AUS community as well as regular streamer for the Game On AUS Legendary Legends stream team. His time and knowledge with the Borderlands games is pretty impressive. Unfortunately Menthonso’s had zero hands-on time with Borderlands 3 so he’s getting pretty antsy to start playing on September 13.
I threw a few questions at the three lads, along with a bonus question just for SPL and Dantics and found all their love for Borderlands to be uniquely interesting.
When was the first time you played Borderlands and what got you hooked?
SPL: I first got started with Borderlands 2 in 2017. I had sunk a LOT of hours into Destiny and had been well and truly bitten by the “loot and shoot” bug. At the time, I’d just started streaming and my potato Internet connection couldn’t even come close to handling Destiny, so I looked into Borderlands instead. Everything from the Borderlands art style, the humour, the variety of builds and the characters themselves got me hooked on the franchise in no time at all. It wasn’t just one thing but instead the combination of things that have allowed that title to stay relevant for over 7 years since it was first released.
D: The first time I played Borderlands was with the release of the first back in 2009. It initially caught my eye because it was a shooter that had a loot system like Diablo 2. What actually hooked me in the end was the rush of playing with friends.
M: First time I played Borderlands I didn’t actually get hooked at all. Quite the opposite. Was at a friends place and he couldn’t stop raving about this new game he had got. Tried it for about half an hour and wasn’t a fan. Jump forward about 2 years and I tried again and boy oh boy did I get hooked. The unique art style was probably what got me really enjoying it when I eventually put some solid hours into it. BL1 probably has about 500 hours and BL2 has close to 1k combined between console and PC.
Do you have a favourite memory from the games?
SPL: The first time that I took Maya all the way to the highest level at the time (OP8) was a really cool and memorable moment. I’ve never been what you’d consider a hardcore gamer in terms of the difficulty I’m willing to take on, so getting through the Digistruct Peak gauntlet solo over and over – each time on a harder difficulty – until I reached the summit felt like an actual achievement.
D: In the first Borderlands I was playing, fairly competitively with a friend. A legendary dropped, I picked it up, and suddenly I was one shotting enemies. His reaction was priceless as he scrambled to try to find a weapon to keep up.
M: Favourite memory would have to be finding out the backstory behind Tiny Tina in BL2. To think such a traumatising situation had befallen this young girl, who then turns it into her most powerful strength. Really hits hard when you try and relate it back to your actual lives. Don’t let shit experiences get you down, learn from them and become a stronger person for it.
What are you most hyped for when Borderlands 3 launches?
SPL: Honestly, I’m most hyped to see the reaction of the community as a whole and to be a part of it from the beginning. Borderlands 2 had been out for around 5 years when I first picked it up, so all of the awesome secrets and easter eggs had already been discovered and covered in 5 million different YouTube videos. When Borderlands 3 launches everyone will be coming in with the same level of knowledge and will be experiencing it all at the same time. This franchise – unlike any I’ve been involved in before, I think – has the ability to bring people together to explore, discover and laugh their asses off all at the same time.
D: Everything. I am hyped for more Borderlands. That includes the loot, the characters, the missions, the story, the co-op, the immersion and the experience. I am pumped to share this experience with my friends and my followers.
M: GUNS! MORE GUNS! GUNS GUNS GUNS! as Marcus would say. The biggest draw card for any looter shooter has to be the loot. So much customization and RNG is a hole I fall into very easily. Trying to min/max and get that perfect Unkempt Harold in BL2 was what kept me playing it for soooo long.
If you could be any Borderlands character for a day, who would you be and why?
SPL: I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I didn’t say Maya. The ability to just Phaselock people in place would be too tempted to pass up. Janice in the office being a little annoying while you’re making your morning coffee? Just Phaselock her and walk away. “Sorry, Janice but I don’t wanna hear about your kids soccer league today!”
D: This is a hard one. Of course I’d want to be a vault hunter, but there are a lot of dangers that come with the territory. Though with the New-U stations you can never really die, or can you? I guess we could argue that it only produces a clone of you and the clone wouldn’t have your consciousness, but that’s a topic for another day. I digress, lock in Zer0. Why? Because he is a badass.
M: Here’s me sitting at my “change my mind” table holding up a picture of Claptrap. Who wouldn’t want to be an annoying, self loathing, insane robot who just wants to help other people? Oh and of course to get back at all the people who didn’t turn up to my birthday party. sigh.
The Calypso Twins want to collab, what sort of content would you create?
SPL: The Calypso Twins are clearly an amalgamation of pretty much every douche-bag content creator currently walking the face of the earth today. They both assume that they’re the center of the universe and that every single step they take is an awesome event that needs to be documented for the masses to appreciate. If I collaborated with them, you know we’d end up doing a VLOG somewhere – probably on a Jake Paul’s yacht sipping champagne and just being the worse kind of people.
D: If they want to collab that would be quite the honour. They already have 3 billion psycho followers after all. I imagine we would be killing, grilling, and shilling.
M: I would create a cooking stream displaying all the delicacies that Pandora has to offer. From Skag Skewers to Stalker Burgers.
Now a question just for SPL & Dantics, after playing Borderlands 3 for the first time, what were your first thoughts? How did it make you feel?
SPL: What blew me away instantly was how polished it all felt and how many quality of life improvements have been made. Little things like being able to climb up and over objects as well as it now being possible to slide into your enemies were all welcomed additions that I noticed immediately. I walked away from my first hands-on with the game feeling that the developers had really taken their time and seemingly thought of almost every, tiny detail they could have improved on for this sequel. The trademark Borderlands humour is still absolutely there but this time I think players coming back to the series for the first time since Borderlands 2 will be really impressed with how polished and intuitive everything feels.
D: The first time I played Borderlands 3 was at the LA Reveal event. I was completely blown back by how much more engaging the side missions felt over Borderlands 1,2, and Pre-Sequel. The humour and witt were as strong as ever, and I found my self wanting to delay the main story line to experience everything it had to offer. Sadly we had a time limit to adhere to and my chat was getting antsy. I also absolutely adored how much more of an impact your character choice makes. In Borderlands 1 it felt like leveling only really gave you a small percentage boost here and there to your stats – but in Borderlands 3 you really feel the impact of each choice. Instead of getting +1% damage, you get a drone that drops grenades, for example. Your abilities cool down a lot faster in general, and you get more options. They had to drag me away from the game, I felt like playing all day – which is extremely rare at events like these as they can be quite mentally taxing.
I can’t wait to watch and possibly squad up with these awesome lads when Borderlands 3 launches globally September 13. #MayhemIsComing
