Borderlands 4's lead writer is desperately trying to keep a lid on the toilet humor: "the rejected names for this system would make a dockworker blush"

Mad Moxxi
(Image credit: Gearbox)

One of Borderlands 4's leading devs seems to be struggling to keep a lid on the series' classic toilet humor.

Earlier this week, details emerged about a Borderlands 4 feature that will allow players to replay missions and bosses. Dubbed 'Moxxi's Big Encore machine' after the series' long-running burlesque bartender NPC, it'll offer a chance to farm items and weapon drops without exploit save systems.

Apparently, however, it wasn't always known by that name, and was possibly something that made a bit more of a reference to Moxxi's sordid past. In a tweet, Borderlands 4 narrative director Sam Winkler suggested that "some of the rejected names for this system would make a dockworker blush."

Sadly, Winkler doesn't reveal any of those names - he says they "will not be repeated" - but I can imagine the kind of climactic innuendo that the Borderlands writing team might have come up with. I could probably take a decent stab myself, but I don't fancy getting fired today.

Winkler does seem to be trying to keep the worst excesses of Borderlands' historic tone under control in the new game. After its reveal last year, he said he hoped that Borderlands 4 would have less "toilet humor" and meme references to things like skibidi toilet and Hawk Tuah. Elsewhere, fellow dev Anthony Nicholson said "the tone of Borderlands 4 will evolve," and while there'll be some "over-the-top writing," it shouldn't be all-consuming.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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