Earlier this afternoon, the Wall Street Journal (a newspaper known for investment strategies, stock portfolio options, and other financial planning consideration) posted a review for Gearbox’s latest installment Borderlands 2. Immediately, Twitter and the gaming industry went nuts, including a bunch of personal attacks on writer Adam Najberg. While I personally tweeted that I felt the WSJ had almost immediately destroyed their credibility for writing game reviews, after a lot of thought and consideration I’ve come to the decision that there’s a very real chance that this review could be the best possible thing that could have happened for Borderlands 2, save maybe a boycott from some random association.

Think about it – the WSJ isn’t a newspaper that typically covers entertainment mediums. There’s a good chance that they’re trying to appeal to a younger audience (especially given the multitude of young tycoons and moguls these days) but there’s an entire crowd of people who haven’t considered video games (outside of Angry Birds or Tetris) who are now going to be looking at (and most likely reading) a review for a fairly niche FPS/RPG hybrid that succeeded when it should have failed. If there were a real life ‘little engine that could’ Borderlands most certainly is it. Continue Reading…