We’re just a few short days from the release of Borderlands 4, a game which I quite enjoyed during my hands-on session at Gamescom.
Borderlands 4 is set to be the first instalment in the series with a “seamless open world” devoid of loading screens, thanks in large part due to the swap to Unreal Engine 5. However, these improvements necessitate more powerful hardware than previous games in the series.
Borderlands 4 is a Technical Leap for the Series
Randy Pitchford took to social media to speak about Borderlands 4’s performance. In his reply to a user worried about Borderlands 4 being unplayable on their system, Pitchford emphasised the importance of understanding the game’s minimum specs, so nobody ends up disappointed on launch day.
“The Day 1 patch does a lot! That said, the expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable,” Pitchford writes. “That the game runs at all on your system is a miracle. That you can get 55–60 FPS out of heavy combat is actually incredible given the engine and what’s going on beneath the hood. Your specification doesn’t indicate if you’re on an SSD or HDD, but that could also explain some of the hitching. It’s a big, bold, new seamless world, and I’m sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming.”
Contrary to what people may expect, a lot of PC players play on older hardware. There’s a reluctance among players to upgrade, especially if they primarily play a low-spec multiplayer and/or live-service game. A substantial number of players who played Battlefield 6’s open beta were playing min-spec or below min-spec, according to publisher EA.
Whether Borderlands 4 is well optimised will become apparent when the review embargo lifts in a couple of days. The switch from Unreal Engine 5 and the various technical upgrades present in Borderlands 4 could be the biggest test Gearbox has faced in this area in quite a while. The studio is also releasing a Nintendo Switch 2 version, which can’t have been a very pleasant optimisation experience for developers.
Borderlands 4 releases September 12 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
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