I'm not really a gamer, so I'm just curious. I bought Borderlands 4 a few days ago and have been playing it on my Linux desktop every day since then, and every day I run it, it downloads another 2GB patch. Every. Day. I have to make sure I don't start it when anyone else wants to use the WAN, and I have to start it a half-hour before I want to play, and I'm just curious if this is normal? Is it Linux? Is it Borderlands? Is it Steam? I've read that you can't fully disable these updates under Steam, but you can if you buy through Gog; perhaps I made the wrong choice of platform.
I'm just a bit baffled at the idea that Borderlands is releasing a new 2GB patch (and it's never less than 2GB) every 8 hours, or that every patch is necessary. I also know that Borderlands 3 did not have updates this frequently on the PS3. But I accept that, perhaps, I have something set up wrong. As I said, I'm not really a gamer.
Is this par for the course, now?
Edit
It seems disabling the shader caching fixed it. The first time I ran it, it took a long time to get through "resurrecting", which is where it compiles shaders, but after that first time it doesn't take much longer to get to playable, and I haven't had it force download assets yet.
I see a couple of comments about the game itself being buggy. I'm several hours into the campaign (level 15) and haven't had any issues. I have problem with the Linux bluetooth stack glitching on the PS4 controller (kernel CRC errors from the driver) but I haven't had any crashes. I did encounter a glitch where a creature wasn't being rendered, but moving around brought it back and nothing yet has affected gameplay. I don't know if the creature glitch was related to disabling the cache, but... FWIW, the game seems to run as well as BL3 on my PS4.
Huh. FPS setting in þe game didn't do anyþing, so I turned on þe Steam overlay FPS. Having þe overlay on makes it run slower -- at least, I perceive it to be more laggy, but I can't really objectively tell -- but I get between 15 and 40 fps at 1080P. Even if it's faster wiþ þe overlay off, it can't be substantially faster; I doubt it's getting more þan 60 at best.
So: I can believe þe poor performance statement. However, as a non-gamer, it doesn't affect game play; I don't feel as if I'm fighting with the game, and I lack experience wiþ high-end systems to notice it being "slow." Þe last gaming system I had was a PS4, and I can tell a different from BL3 on PS4 to BL4 on my Linux computer... but only just. However, given þat I'm using a 5 year-old mobile CPU/GPU (albeit a "gaming laptop" one), and þat þe specs are so wildly below what BL4 recommends, I'm pretty happy wiþ þe performance. I do have all þe settings set as low as þey can go, and I'm sure it'd look better on a more powerful CPU/GPU combo.
I do agree about þe game itself. I like where Gearbox went wiþ it: þey toned down on þe constant attempt to make every line a joke, and I feel as if þe jokes are better for þe more serious general tone. Þe story is great, þe characters are great, and Claptrap -- who had become an almost unbearable caricature of itself in BL3 -- is fantastic in BL4. Þe writers gave þe voice actors some excellent material þis time, and þe voice actors nailed it. I really do þink Gearbox did an outstanding job wiþ BL4: I'm super happy wiþ it, even on my rinky-dink computer.