Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 is a 3D first-person shooter-looter where you (and up to 3 friends) progress in a mostly linear science-fiction story, kill enemies with guns, and loot the bodies for better guns.

THE GOOD:

• This is probably the best installment in the series yet. It has an overall engaging story, fun characters, well-balanced fighting that stays fun throughout, and a good variety of enemies and weapons.
• The story is pretty funny and ridiculous. It's a great parody of modern social media influencer culture. There is a decent plot twist at the end.
• The mission featuring the real voices and likenesses of Penn & Teller, and lampooning the Burning Man festival, is particularly well done.
• If you have a capable graphics card, Borderlands's signature cell-shading art style is still super gorgeous. The environments are prettier than ever.
• Orange items, the best item type, which has some kind of unique special ability, are much more common, which is more fun to be honest.

THE BAD:

• The plot, while overall fun and funny, involves your opponents being omniscient and knowing everything you are doing and planning. It feels a bit frustrating at times to have the bad guys outplay you constantly with knowledge they couldn't possibly have.
• The are several important cutscenes that involve the NPCs doing major things, but where your characters are apparently sitting around powerless with their thumbs occupied.
• Make sure you have the subtitles on! It can be hard to follow the plot sometimes when people are talking while bullets and explosions are flying everywhere!

THE UGLY:

• We did encounter some annoying bugs three or four times. Mission objectives would fail to complete, usually after fighting our way through a really long level. It wasn't a show-stopper, but we had to reload the game and start the mission from the beginning again.
• A lot of the macguffins you search for through the entire game lead up to building a magic bridge across a chasm... a chasm that you could have easily crossed using routinely available vehicles depicted many times in the story... I'm not sure if this was tongue-in-cheek or an oversight?