Borderlands 3is buggy. In our experience with the game, we have encountered all sorts of issues, ranging from minor inconveniences to game-breaking bugs that have forced us to reset. The game is also missing some features that fans expected to be in at launch, and the missing options combined with the bugs have gone a long way in hurting what is otherwise a fun looter-shooter. Today Gearbox released a hot fix forBorderlands 3that, instead of addressing the game’s major issues, nerfed loot drops in Mayhem mode and other areas of the game instead.
A hot fix for a video game is never intended to be an all-encompassing fix, but it’s still not a good look for Gearbox to nerf the loot drops inBorderlands 3before addressing the game’s more pressing issues. Over on the Gearbox forums, people have expressed annoyance at the hot fix, as some feel that Gearbox is focusing its attention on the wrong things, like nerfing loot drops to prevent players from farming for better gear.
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Borderlands 3loot farming tacticsdon’t necessarily need to be addressed at all, let alone in the first update to the game since launch. While loot farming may “break” the game,Borderlands 3isn’t a competitive multiplayer game or a live service game stuffed with microtransactions that would stand to make less money if people are able to farm for better loot, so it’s a bit puzzling that nerfing loot drops seems to have been a priority for the studio.
There are simply much bigger fish to fry when it comes toBorderlands 3, and some fans are understandably annoyed that Gearbox has decided to focus on nerfing loot drops before fixing the game’s more glaring issues. Many of these issues seem to plague the console versions ofBorderlands 3specifically, as PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game seem to be running into more problems than their PC counterpart.
One of the most notable examples of problems with the console versions ofBorderlands 3is the split-screen lag. When playingBorderlands 3in split-screen, players will experience insufferable lag if one person decides they need to open their menu. And in a game likeBorderlands 3where players are constantly getting loot, people have to open their inventory semi-frequently. Split-screen lag isn’t addressed at all with the hot fix, which is disappointing as it appearsBorderlands 3players will have to go through another weekend having to deal with poor performance when playing in couch co-op.
Speaking of split-screen, some fans were hoping thatBorderlands 3would add vertical split-screen with its first update, but that’s not the case. For one reason or another,Borderlands 3lacks a vertical split-screen option, which is strange as previousBorderlandsgames let players use vertical split-screen if they so desired. The lack of vertical split-screen inBorderlands 3is one of the more disappointing missing quality of life features, as is the inability to adjust text size - which is absurdly small, especially in split-screen.
Beyond split-screen issues,Borderlands 3has a laundry list of other technical problems. Players have run into issues like important quest NPCs walking through objects and becoming inaccessible, loot pictures and descriptions not matching what the player is actually looking at in their inventory, and more. Not to mentionBorderlands 3seems to have an issue with crashing as well, which is also not addressed with the hot fix.
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One problem that may be especially serious withBorderlands 3are the reports that the game is causing Xbox One X consoles to overheat. Now, we must stress that these reports are based on anecdotal evidence, but there have been enough people bringing it up that it seems to be a genuine issue. Unfortunately, Gearbox hasn’t acknowledged the supposedBorderlands 3Xbox One X overheating issue, so it’s unclear if it’s even something that can be fixed by an update, or is actually being caused by something other than the game.
Of course, something that should be noted is that this is a hot fix forBorderlands 3, not a full-blown patch or update. Presumably, Gearbox is working on the game’s bigger issues, but fixing those problems likely takes more time than quickly fixing the issues outlined in theBorderlands 3hot fix notes. Even so, it seems like it would have been a better idea to hold off on nerfing loot drops and the like until it also had a more substantial patch ready to fix the problems that fans have been complaining about since launch.
Future updates forBorderlands 3may be more substantial than today’s hot fix and could go a long way in fixing the game’s major issues. For now, though,Borderlands 3players will continue to have to deal with bugs and other technical problems, and get less loot for their efforts.
Borderlands 3is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Stadia version in development.
