My favorite game over the last year has been Borderlands1. There are several reasons for this, including fun gameplay, cartoony yet beautiful graphics, well-done multiplayer, different kinds of missions & play (puzzles, action, combat, duels, & more), & the humor. Oh, the humor. I find Borderlands to be pretty darn funny & clever, with a good combination of obvious jokes & sly, you-have-to-think-about-it drollery.

Borderlands 2 is out now, & I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. Everything is bigger & better & more badass, so consider that a hearty recommendation to get it if you don’t already own it. In particular, the humor is just as funny, if not even more clever in several places, especially if you’ve previously played Borderlands. One of the best jokes in Borderlands 2 occurs fairly early on, when Claptrap gives you a series of quests to perform, which you can see in this screenshot (click to make it bigger):

I’ll leave it to you to find out how well those quests go!

  1. Prior to that it was Left 4 Dead & then Left 4 Dead 2, but those particular games have been left to essentially stagnate by Valve, which is weird & unfortunate. No Left 4 Dead 3, Valve? Nothing? ↩