WT Lite - Borderlands with Jay

Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

Jay and Squidge dive into the wacky world of Borderlands and share their love for the game's unique humour and RPG elements. From their favourite weapons like the Sweary shotgun (Boganella) to hilarious character moments like Torgue threatening to blow up the ocean.

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Show Notes

Squidge has a wonderful intro to the WT Lite series:

Waffling Tailor's Lite: the pocket size podcast that packs a gaming punch.

In this condensed concoction of gaming chatter you never knew you needed. We talked to Jay about the Borderland series. Take it away, guys.

— Squidge

The WT Lite series of episodes will be peppered in alongside the "standard" episodes, so keep an eye out for them. These episodes allow us to focus specifically on a specific game or series, and really focus on our guest's thoughts - Jay: Squidge's elevator pitch for these episodes was "All the waffle, half the caffeine"

And Jay started his episode off by sharing some "Jay Jazz" - which isn't half as dirty as it sounds.

We're going to find out whether [Borderlands] is worth the hype, from Jay's point of view

— Squidge

Why Borderlands?

Squidge started the conversation off with a pretty easy opener: why Borderlands?

Considering you're not one for first person shooters, I'm just wondering what drew you to the Borderland series? And what made you want to dive into the world of mayhem, loot and random carnage and all that good stuff?

— Squidge

Jay shared his reason for falling out with modern FPS games:

[Medal of Honour: Rising Sun] is the one that I remember playing last; console based first person shooter.

Before then, I didn't really play FPS games because they seem to require faster twitch reflexes than I am able to generate. And I'm like, you know what? "I'm not having fun. I'm going to go play something else"

Because, for me, if I'm not having fun, I'm going to go do something else, right? Especially if it's a for me, video games is a leisure time activity. It's a play activity. It's something where I can just relax.

— Jay

But that was when he saw Borderlands for the first time:

And then I think at some point in 2009, after Borderlands had come out, you must have told me, Squidge, "you should check out Borderlands. It's a load of fun." And I was like, "but it's a first person shooter. I don't want to play a first person shooter."

I must have seen you play it and gone, "actually, this doesn't look too bad." And I was like, "you know what? I'll give this a shot." And I gave it a shot. I quite liked it. And yeah, it's a complete departure for me.

— Jay

As much as he liked the game, the ending was lost on him:

I'll put my hand up and I will say I didn't get the original ending because when I was playing though it, I wasn't really listening to the story elements. I was like, "I'm enjoying running around, I'm enjoying shooting, I'm enjoying this 'cell shaded can run on a potato game'."

And I've never actually gone back and replayed it to get the story of the first one. And I totally didn't like when it ended. And it was like interplanetary super ninja clap trap. DA DA DA DA. And then it plays the the credits, and then it just loads you back where you were.

I didn't get at the time, and I will happily admit it now, I didn't get the comedy they were going after because that's what it was. It was comedy that they were going after.

— Jay

If it's not apparent yet, it was the silliness that hooked him:

The amount of stupidity they were able to put into this game. And it proves that games can be fun.

...

But for the first 13, 14 hours are you just running around and gunning down people and doing side quests and stuff like that, there's loads of silly stupidity. Then there's like, the hardcore RPG element of "here's the main set of fetch quests," because all RPGs are just - all Western RPGs - are just fetch quests. You get all of those and then you get past that and you're rewarded with more silliness.

And I absolutely flimin' flamin' love that 100%. So, that's what made me want to dive into it: it's not really the looter-shooter bit, it's the absolute silliness.

— Jay

Full Show Notes

Check out the full show notes for the full list of Squidge's questions, some extra stuff, and some links to related things.

Have you played the Borderlands games? Have you played them all? How would you answer Squidge's questions? What would happen if Kirby ate a hot dog?

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