Retrofitting a story.

So Borderlands 2 tells is meant to be a direct sequel to Borderlands. Except, all the story elements, and personalities of the characters are pulled from no where. Which is fine, it is used to make the game more interesting, and make the player care about the situation.

If you play the original Borderlands, it is made clear that all playable characters are only here for money. They have little to no personality, we get a few words of backstory, and now they are "vault hunters" and are here for fame and fortune. It is not exactly deep. The various antagonists get much more in the way of story and personality, but they are all dead by the end of the game.

Then you start Borderlands 2, you have 4 new characters, this time with backstory and personality out the ass. Which is good. However, you the meet all the playable characters from the first game (now as NPCs), and suddenly they are acting far different then what you would expect. Now the old characters have distinct personalities, and apparently are not just here for money, they want to protect the poor people of Pandora. Where did this come from?

No where. These personalities came from no where. There wasn't much to work with to base a sequel on after the last game, they had to make some up. The second game was more popular, and many of its players never played the first game. So, they get a pass on this.

Powera Xbox One Wired Controller

I was in need of a controller for my Xbox one. I also didn't have interest in paying for an official one. At Walmart I found a cheaper option. 

This is a wired controller made by Powera. It was only 20$. It is a pretty good deal.

It has a good hand feel. The buttons and d-pad are responsive. The analog sticks are accurate. As mentioned it is wired, it comes with a removable 8 foot long cable.

The controller is much lighter than standard controller, and its rumble motors do not seem to be as powerful. Neither of these are real problems, but worth noting.

For 20$ this is a great deal. Good to have around as an extra for player 2, or as a back up when your first party controller runs out of batteries.  It also works perfectly on a Windows PC.

What do you call this?

Is there a term for a game that is very much like a "Legend of Zelda" game, without actually being part of that franchise? There are whole separate franchises that are like this, "Okami" springs to mind.  There however seems to be no single term that describes this.

I hear the term "action role-playing" thrown around, but it not nearly enough of the games in that category are in fact "Zelda-like". For example Square Enix's "Seiken Densetsu" (Secret of Mana) series is very much an "action role-playing" game, while being nothing like a "Zelda" game. Often these kind of games are much closer to true "role-playing" games, simply using a more action oriented style of combat.

Games which are "Zelda-like" are, but are not limited to, "Darksiders", "Recore", "Okami", "Beyond: Good & Evil". These games all feel so very much like "Zelda". They all involve progression based around exploration and the attainment of items of one sort or another. In these games every thing found allows greater access to the world in some way, might let you pass a barrier, might allow you to damage a formerly invincible foe. Often reward are there to be found if you backtrack with what you have newly acquired. 


The lack of a term for this phenomenon just struck me the other day, and it seems odd for the amount of time this has been happening. The first "Zelda" game came out in 1986, the first game to be "Zelda" without the name was also 1986.  It just seems we could use a simple term for this in gaming.

Let's Talk About Console Gaming

Let's Talk About Handheld Gaming.

Improving World of Warcraft

Everything Wrong with Modern Gamers.

Pretentiousness is the worst thing for anything.