The last quarter of the year is not just a IMPORTANT MOMENT IN TECHNOLOGY: In the video game market, it also represents a crucial moment. Titles like ‘Ghost of Yotei‘ either ‘Metroid 4‘They will come out over the next few months, but the one that has just arrived is one of the bombings of the last layers of 2025:’ Borderlands 4 ‘. The analysis reflects that it is a hilarious gamebut also something that players are not missing: it is the example of what is wrong in the current megap production industry.
And in this story the director of the game is being considered as the villain when we should look beyond: to technology and optimization. We are going to review.
The situation. ‘Borderlands 4’ was launched last week and the reception by the players was good. It is a continuous, really fun title that, in addition, looks spectacular thanks to the artistic style so characteristic and that the engine Unreal Engine 5 (Stay with this name) Allows you to offer. The Steam review system is quite broken, but it is a thermometer of both the quality of the players and, at first, the reactions were mostly positive. All that has changed to ‘varied’, which implies that there is more bad than good.
The problem is not the game itself: even those who put a bad review admit that it is a ‘borderlands’ and is hilarious. Here the problem is optimization of the game, especially on PC. Players complain that specs Minimum and recommended offered by developers -Gearbox- do not add up to the experience they are having with teams that reach those specifications or that exceed them.
A negative
A positive, but also talking about performance
Randy Pitchford. It is the name of the director of Gearbox and one of the heads after the success of ‘Borderlands’. Also One of the most controversial characters of the industry due both to your actions as to his most recent statements about the price of video games with that “True fans will find a way to pay them”. It is a guy who does not usually go unnoticed and that uses his social networks to ‘chop’ with any user, and with the wave of criticism of his game, he has not lost the opportunity to get into a couple of gardens.
There are countless encounters these days between Randy and users and the problem is that he is doing it from Twitter X. This direct communication between managers and public is a fixed double weapon because it gives the sensation of closeness, but for somewhat large companies have communication teams: so that what is happening does not happen. If we take a look at some Steam reviews, many are reflecting the discontent with the game for those words of Randy.
Among the messages of the manager, have Those who encourage a refund to ask if you do not agree with the performance (something that, after two hours plays cannot be done), to “accept the reality of the relationship between the hardware of your PC and the software they want to reproduce”, “”program your own engine and we will be your customers ”and another Comments series that a good part of the community has been taken as a “Randy is calling us poor to those who do not have a RTX 5090”
The reaction. And what, unfortunately, happens so much in the world of video games: people who pass from the line. A sample is the following message that Pitchford himself shared In X after receiving it by mail:
“You are a damn idiot. If you think that the” Premium “games exist or that there are” premium “players, you are a damn delayed. You are the closest that a white man can become a ‘n -r’ -a racial insult, basically.
This type of messages, more own ‘Gamergaters’ than from someone civilized, is a sad reality in certain forums and Randy himself commented that he had “caused harm.” And there are already developers who have shown support to the CEO of Gearbox for the situation.
Another one with Unreal Engine 5. Seen all this context, we go with what directly affects the game: the engine on which it is developed. When Unreal Engine 5 was presented, the latest version of the Epic Games engine, We all stay with our mouths open. The demo in PS5 It was impressive and promised a lot. The problem is when the games began to arrive.
That a game uses Unreal Engine 5 usually involves bulky requirements to make it work, mediocre yields –even in consoles– In many cases and a series of failures that prevent players from enjoying it as a launch as they should. And it is a problem because the engine greatly facilitates the development of video games, so he is tempting for studies, but there are already those who, when he sees the EU5 logo, starts to tremble for how the title will work on his machine.
Balls out. It has passed with more recent examples, such as’Metal Gear Solid Delta‘, or the remake of’The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion‘, and Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, He swept home A few weeks ago, stating that the engine is good, but that studies should start with optimization tasks at an earlier phase of development, and not crossing the task just at the end.
The big background problem. As much as it is, and Returning to ‘Borderlands 4’, it is evident that there is a problem. Digital Foundry is an expert medium in the technical analysis of video games, the performance being one of the parameters that measure. From the middle they affirm that there are decisions that do not understand, such as limiting cinematics in real time to 30 fps, the overload that seems to occur when there are many enemies on the screen, the ‘level of detail’, or Lod ‘so aggressive or the pop-in that occurs walking around the world. And that on the CPU and GPU for videogames “faster than money can buy.”
Another of the team members states that it works “worse than usual for a game with Unreal Engine 5”, pointing out that the game is terribly inefficient with the resources in the highest configurations. And this cocktail there are three ingredients: Gearbox, for not optimizing how they should and have published specifications that do not correspond to reality; Epic Games for those problems that EU5 drags in certain configurations and … nvidia.
In recent years, Nvidia has focused on offering graphics cards with a gross power slightly higher than that of the previous generation, but with enormous advance in artificial intelligence capabilities with technologies such as DLSS, which are getting better and better, or those that are invented. AMD has their respective technologiesand the problem is that, for a long time, we see that developers publish specifications already taking into account that players will use these image reconstruction technologies. And, with them at their disposal, the studies are possible to decide to invest less time – and money – to optimize because AI will already be in charge of the players’ graphics cards.
It does not get rid of consoles either. The game, as in PC, yields well in the first missions, but little by little that performance is falling. Even in Ps5 pro.
A JALEO. That a game needs DLSS and Frame generationeven in the most leading hardware, to function as a problem, but something that is logical when we take into account the situation of many studies in the current industry, in which there are long periods of ‘crunch‘ and Budgets that climb wildly If the development is extended in the least. And, although they are technologies that are fine for previous generations cards to execute current games, it should not be the standard for the most modern graphics.
The problem of ‘borderlands 4’ is that Pitchford himself assured that the game was designed to use these tools. You have to applaud, yes, that Gearbox is striving so that players can enjoy the title in better conditions. I have rarely seen that a study publis Nvidia or of AMD Find the ideal configuration for your model. In them, they specify each and every one of the parameters to be configured depending on the GPU. And, as I say, it is appreciated.
Solution? Complicated. Now, they themselves say that, to play 4K in a RTX 5090they recommend enabling dlss in the ‘performance’ mode (which amounts) with 4x frame generation and with Nvidia reflection to reduce latency. To play with the same GPU in 1440p, the same, but with the DLSS in ‘quality’. Something is something (and it is evident that there is a problem there).
The problem is that there is no clear solution. That Unreal Engine 5 has some problems is evident (either by the engine or by the optimization of the studies), but performing that period of optimization would imply what is commented: more time and money for games whose development already dilates too much and whose employees, in many occasions, suffer long periods of ‘crunch‘To be able to meet those times, that the game leaves in date without delaying and that the study does not have to pay more in development and, above all, marketing.
Is the solution that each study does its engine? Not everyone is willing to invest resources in it when there are third -party engines that can be licensed and, in addition, it also does not ensure that the problem is solved. An example is an ‘Alan Wake 2’ whose Northlight engine belongs to them and what is One of the most demanding titles (even needing AI to be able to execute in an acceptable way).
The answer is complicated, but in the end, games like ‘borderlands 4’ become perfect examples of what Much of what is wrong in this industry With the developments, their times, the mastery of a single tool, communication in networks and, in extreme cases, threats and vexations to developers.
In Xataka | Steam has become a video game landfill: 19,000 titles in 2024, almost no one played 80% of them
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings