I could see that being an issue... I REALLY try to never replay stuff due to how much I need to actually play now...

I also did literally all the side content. it's too much fun.

Freeman's Mind was my introduction to both him and Half-Life, and when my lady was watching Civvie's video on Half-Life, and said she was SUPER lost, I told her to watch that. Now that I've played Half-Life, I can comfortably say that that's my preferred method of experiencing it; I like Half-Life 2 just fine, but I can't stand the original. Hell, even that Black Mesa remake made me just drop it probably less than halfway through. And yes, the topics that come up in some of the most unexpected videos just blow my mind; he's very intelligent and worldly, and it's always interesting to hear what he has to say.

I definitely get that; I've had things I've written and revised over the years, but still carried the weight of the previous drafts for me. Sometimes, I'll even make sure I sleep and revisit something I've written before submitting it to whatever it is, be that e-mail, online comments, etc.

The part where he throws cats at people (if you read his diary) was a big part of what pushed him over the edge for me.

The man's a fucking hero, as far as I'm concerned, and I love his content, to boot.

Ha! Yeah! Thunder Breaker! Ha! Ha! Spider Strike! ...iunno; the stunlocked thing made me think of one of those RPGs where characters constantly shout attack names with every move. Anyway, I'll admit that Ava might be personal bias toward the "young woman who's been through some serious shit" type of character; it tends to kick my motherly instincts into overdrive. That and "young woman coming of age", so it's even worse. I get it, though; that's exactly how I felt about Grandia and Justin: I wanted to tear his skin off piece by piece, roll him in salt, and beat him within an inch of unconsciousness, just so he doesn't get a single moment away from suffering, and that was within the first 15 minutes of the game. I don't think I got much further than the ghost ship because I just hated the protagonist so much I couldn't drag myself to the fulfilment of his goals. Mischievous is fine - Ark from Terranigma was mischeivous, and I liked him - but this kid embodies everything that's awful about small children, and displays the signs of a budding serial killer.

And there's no problem with that; our opinions don't always align on a lot of things, and it doesn't help that I'm the queen of hot takes.

Okay, so an addendum, as I've been thinking about things:

+ Rhys and Vaughn are douchey, and basically the same character now? I didn't actually play Tales From the Borderlands, because it is ABSOLUTELY not my kind of game, but I did recently finish watching a playthrough - apparently, there were relevant plot points to 3's story - and the characters are VERY different from how they are in 3, and I have no idea why they decided to make them BOTH the obligatory nerd character. You know them: Dave from Cosmic Star Heroine, Neil from To the Moon, fucking Alphys from Undertale; that character who's annoyingly awkward, doesn't ever shut the hell up, and is supposed to be the character YOU most identify, because you're a nerdy nerd who likes video games. Nerd. For whatever reason, this kind of character became seemingly mandatory for a while.

+ Speaking of returning characters, I wish I could've had more time with Brick, Mordecai, and especially Tina; I think part of the problem there is that the more games we have, the more returning characters we have, the more bloated the overall roster becomes. Also, I would've liked more Mr. Torgue and ANY Dr. Zed, but same issue, probably; Dr. Zed is such an underrated character.

+ Agreed: the twins are assholes, but that doesn't bother me so much, because their role as villain means they only serve to collect ammo IN THEIR FACES. Admittedly, the social media influencer thing fit well with the overall tone of a Borderlands game, and the radio station had some great gags. Are you tired of deriving pleasure from the beverages you consume? Have you recently adopted an ascetic lifestyle? Then try LaTroy carbonated pond scum! LaTroy: you can almost taste it!

+ The emphasis on platforming was a really odd choice, and not one I was super fond of, because it led to hunting not only for hidden objects (fine), but also for how the FUCK you were supposed to get to them (not fine), and maybe that's a me thing, because of my afforementioned irritation with 3D Platformers.

I've only ever played them single-player, and I'm not sure I'll ever change that. Definitely not on a first playthrough, because I want to experience everything at my own pace, but after that? Iunno; one of the main reasons I never got into Dungeons & Dragons is "Does not play well with others". I'm like that at work, too; if you want a project DEAD, you hand it to me, and I'll do the work of five people by my damn self, but collaboration has always been tough for me, because I want to do everything myself, because I feel like I have to. Might have something to do with the world I grew up in; might have something to do with my genes; Iunno; the last therapist I saw skipped town to Florida and went into real estate. I'm not necessarily saying she did that because of me, but it absolutely did happen. Anyway, I know that's not the "correct" way to play Borderlands, but I think it's important to mention, because it paints my experience with the franchise.

I do see some of the problems with Borderlands 3, and that isn't even its own fault, because the first game had almost zero story, the second game had all of its own story AND created a story for the first game that it backfilled in, I love the Pre-Sequel too but I'm ignoring it because it isn't not a feature-length expansion pack, but where the HELL was 3 even going to go from there? 2 went too big too fast, and there wasn't really going to be any topping that, so 3 just shot for as big as it could. Absolutely loved 3, but I don't think there could or even should be a 4; make some kind of spin-off, because you've already explored the entire solar system and not only pursued, but also WENT INSIDE OF several vaults; the mystique is gone now. YOU HAVE DONE THE PHANTASY STAR 4. I think that's why Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was the next game, and not Borderlands 4.