Battleborn Should Commit to Free to Play

Today, Gearbox announced that its long suffering multiplayer shooter Battleborn will be going free to play. Sort of. Battleborn will be available as what the studio is calling a free trial, and still offering the game at regular price through steam and retailers. I understand that Gearbox is still trying to milk Battleborn for all that it is worth, hoping that with enough time, support and exposure that the game will start to pick up. This latest attempt to liven up the player base has come so excruciatingly close to getting it right, but it misses a vital opportunity. There can be no halfsies when it comes time to make the move to a Free to Play model, and the longer Gearbox waffles on this matter, the more alien their game will become.

Some Thoughts on the Current State of Battleborn

Image courtesy of Gearbox

It has been a very long time since I played Battleborn. My last few sessions with the game a few months ago were undeniably bad experiences, but I booted it up again recently to see how much things have changed. I played a couple of the new missions (Attikus and the Thrall Rebellion and Toby's Friendship Raid) and a few rounds of multiplayer and while there certainly have been some additions, I wouldn't say that the overall makeup of the game has changed and I don't think I'll be going back again any time soon.

I Love Battleborn, But its Players are Ruining the Experience

Battleborn gets a bad rap. Too often compared to Overwatch, I think that Gearbox's latest quirky shooter can be a lot of fun to play. Mike, Wesley and I have spent many nights playing Incursion or Meltdown, doing our best to support our team and waste some adorable robots. We've had some great experiences with a few people in matchmaking, but more often than not we end up with a few really awful teammates and its becoming a serious problem that has kept us from playing more often.

Battleborn Review, From (Almost) all of Us

Image Source: Gearbox

Wesley, Mike and I have been playing a lot of Battleborn lately. Mike and I had the opportunity to play Battleborn at PAX as well as the opportunity to play in the closed and open beta. Together, we have slain many minions of Rendain and lain down our lives to protect Solus, the last star.  The three of us debated for a while over who would be the one to write our piece this time around. Because there is so much variety to Battleborn , we thought it may be best if we each wrote something about this game.

Post PAX Round-up : Prime 2015

PAX Prime 2015 is over. Our four days in Seattle brought us into contact with a great deal of interesting games and many of their developers. It was a strong year for indie titles and tabletop games, but a few AAA games shone through to capture our attention. We have a lot of content to unload over the next couple weeks, as well as a few surprises. Before we go in-depth with any of the games we played and the things we saw, here are some of my highlights.