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Gearbox=genius

Aside from the obvious that borderlands this one of the most amazing, well put together games ( with a few negatives) of all time, gearbox has done a few things that to me are genius.

No cloth you say?
I dont know if this is a widely used technique or what but Ive never noticed this before. Instead of using actual cloth models for cloth they use stationary geometry with animated maps. I thought that was pretty ingenious, a little sketchy when you look at the corners of the geometry but, genius, nonetheless.

Weapons
There may be some that argue the weapons werent as diverse as one might hope, but the truth is the weapons were great. Who cares if you get the same shotgun with better stats? Its not the gear in between, its the good drops that make it worth it. The problem like I said wasnt the weapons the problems were the unpredictable and unrewarding nature of the gun crates. Theres no way to know wether or not your going to get something worth getting excited over. It sucks opening 12 crates in a row before finding something you want to keep. Then again, if you didnt have to wait and those awesome weapons came constantly it would be less fun and leveling would be all screwy. Youd be walking around one hitting enemies beyond your level, so really its the way it is apparently for the functionality.
Also, it seemed hard sometimes to judge the worth of gear. Some SMGs I picked up had x4 corrosive at level 25 hitting for 60 damage, then pick up an smg without any special damage and just walk through enemies. Maybe a little tweaky but it didnt hinder enjoyability.

(Spoilers!!)
The Vault
It was dissapointing that the Vault was just a boss. It would have been nice to fight the boss then pick through an actual "Vault" of predetermined weapons. The first time I beat the game on solo I think I picked up a pistol at the end and money and that was it. Kind of unfullfilling. I could reason the game was that way because its full of awesome weapons but thats no reason to end on a low note. Still though it was great for the experience.

The characters
One of the weak points of the game for me (although theres a very good reason for it) was the character customization. Its a first person game I understand theres little point for armor and visual upgrades but still it would have made it that extra bit cool. If you can add color choice you can add armor and clothes, especially since theres four character co-op and four soldiers can enter a game and play through, it would have made sense to be able to change the armor. A friend of mine said the characters werent deep enough, but, they only have to be so deep, I thought their personalities spoke volumes, I felt like each character was individual and "Ready to take on the pandora challenge" But it would have been cool to read a backstory, or have some sort of bio attached to each one. I thought Brick was hilarious the first time I used his special ability I laughed so hard! At one point a friend and I were both playing brick, it was early on at the bone head battle, and we had defeated bone head and one of his badass raiders, we were both level six and they were level 11. Everyone knows how the bone head fight is, but we were struggling with that last raider, so I said, "Hey Drago, lets both hit him with our specials at the same time" So our specials charged and we counted down "3,2,1 go" We beat the crap out of that poor defenseless raider, it was the funniest thing I think Ive ever seen, just the sounds were histerical. lol lol lol!!

Why dont you cry about it Trebek?
This may be a touchy subject since this forums is full of employees of various companies and titles, but I think you should if your not already, you should be honored. What am I talking about you may ask? Im talking about the few things in the game that seem to have been taken from other games. The vending machines (bioshock) The claptrap being illustrated in different ways for different things much like the Vault boy from fallout 3. Which, shoot, now that I think about it, is fallout in reverse! In fallout 3 your coming out of the vault, in Borderlands your going to find the vault, interesting, I N T E R E S T I N G !!! But there are a ton of parallels in borderlands between other games. I think its pretty cool, I enjoyed saying "Ha! check that out, thats cool" IM sure there may have been some "Hey guys can we use this idea from your game for ours?" If anything a good idea is a good idea and its hard to be original, for instance I never model in pen and ink but Ill try it because it has a fresh look, doesnt mean Im copying borderlands. I thought it was cool. So basically if the vending machines from bioshock were a good idea, and vault boy was an interesting concept, and COD has a great controller setup etc etc, then all of that in one makes for a great game. Although, theres a lot of good ideas they DIDNT use.

Lets go again
The playthrough system is awesome I love the idea, instead of just picking a difficulty. I had no idea what PLaythrough 2 even meant until I tried it. All my characters stats carried over, all the gear and the enemies were all stronger, much less of a challenge seeing as I started playthrough 2 after reaching level 42. Still though its a great and intuitive way to improve on difficulty.

In Conclusion
Overall though the game was amazing, I think Its a strong contender for game of the year and it been said before "Modern warfare 2 might have something to worry about" Someone told me "MW2 will take GOTY by sheer sales". I would hope its not based off sales. Yes, Mw2 is gonna be great but I dont know, we will see. I feel that Borderlands catered to a wide variety of players, Rpg, MMo a little bit, Fps of course its the kind of game dreams are made of. I give it a 9-9.5 out of ten. Simply because its my kind of game.

P.S.
Also I think theres gonna be a second game. How do you know this you may ask? At the beginning of the game the bus driver says something along the lines of "I dont this will be the last time we do this" meaning the bus ride. At first I thought "Maybe thats the way we go from region to region later in the game, and obviously it isnt so it can mean only one thing. Even though its entirely too soon, Borderlands 2! Then again, maybe the character was referring to the playthrough system.

Quacken out!

Replies

  • Martin Henriksson
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    Martin Henriksson polycounter lvl 9
    Totally agree, really hoping for a second game aswell because imo there is so much potential to add to the game.
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)
  • NoltaN
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    NoltaN polycounter lvl 15
    I agree, really great game. I have been a little bit disappointed with a few things in the game but as a whole its been really awesome. I wish it was harder to find awesome weapons though lol :D...maybe i'm just lucky?

    on a side note. Does anyone know what exactly they did when they changed the graphics so drastically? Was it just the use of a new shader or were most or all of the textures redone? All of the rock textures (which are EVERYWHERE) look as if they were drawn with a pencil. Anyway just kinda curious as to the process that was used here.
  • Snipergen
    For some reason the game doesn't appeal to me at all. I think it was the switch of artstyle suddenly that made me less interested. The game is also what I didn't expect at all when I first heard of it years ago, because than I WAS interested. I know that I'm not the only one that hated the switch of art style here...

    On the other hand I didn't try the game yet, so I might never come to know what I'm missing.
  • bounchfx
    so just go ahead and let me know when they patch the pc version so I can finally play with my friends online :P (yes, we've all tried forwarding our ports, disabling firewall, etc..) (yes I'm bitter. but I do enjoy the game a lot -i'd just like to play it.)
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I wish I could crank up the graphics a bit more, I have everything maxed with just a 9800GT, like some AA on those black lines?

    just hit level 8 last night, don't have too much time to play this right now.
  • imb3nt
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    imb3nt polycounter lvl 14
    I'm having A LOT of fun with this game. Can't wait for more free time to play more :P
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    NoltaN wrote: »
    on a side note. Does anyone know what exactly they did when they changed the graphics so drastically? Was it just the use of a new shader or were most or all of the textures redone? All of the rock textures (which are EVERYWHERE) look as if they were drawn with a pencil. Anyway just kinda curious as to the process that was used here.

    The textures were all redone. The only solution on the rendering side is the black outline that you see around the silhouette of objects.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I found out how to force AA and vsync http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/borderlands--how-to-enable-vsy/951434?page=1

    I couldn't push the game much further on a 9800GT but it was nice to have more options.
  • danshewan
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    danshewan polycounter lvl 8
    ZacD wrote: »
    I found out how to force AA and vsync http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/borderlands--how-to-enable-vsy/951434?page=1

    I couldn't push the game much further on a 9800GT but it was nice to have more options.

    I'll bear this in mind for when I pick this up, as I have the same card.
  • Dusty
    Yes G-Box, you guys totally knocked this outta the park. A few of us at TRI have been playing extended lunch hours in Borderlands! WERE GONNA GET FIRED!
  • mLichy
    I love how the game looks, and from what I've seen and heard, the console versions are much better than PC. I almost bought it, but then after seeing my roommates grinding the entire time and doing the same stuff, I had to pass. I'm going to save my money for Modern 2 and Assassins 2.
  • Wahlgren
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    Wahlgren polycounter lvl 17
    Me and my pal are awesome.

    Notice anything strange?

    borderlandsawesome.jpg
  • bounchfx

    Notice anything strange?

    yes, why are you still in a rocky environment at level 20?
  • Martin Henriksson
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    Martin Henriksson polycounter lvl 9
    what do you mean? there is plenty of rocky environments all the way until the end? rust commons east and west etc. That screenshot is obviously taken at the "race track" in dahl headland. Pretty sure its a lvl ~20 area?
  • Wahlgren
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    Wahlgren polycounter lvl 17
    Played with four guys in the beginning = supermassive super level ups ALL THE TIME! omg!

    I guess we're getting shitloads of value out of our game then :)
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I'm already looking forward to the dlc, hopefully they up the level cap by 10.
  • XenoKratios
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    XenoKratios polycounter lvl 12
    Since what I write wont show up I'll say something to the people who helped make the game..

    I wanna love you, but I can't because I dont have the game to play because I dont have the money.... soo </3.

    Just you wait until a month is over and I will be wif you.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    got borderlands yesterday seems a really solid experience and love how consistent the style is.

    A few niggles

    1. way too many intro movies, really dont want to wait that long before getting to the menu its rediculous. So glad we can edit the config files but thats no excuse.

    2. the join game screen doesnt tell me if the games are local(UK) or what the ping times are so Ive joined a couple of games and had a horrible time due to lag.

    3. no vsync and also the game is quite hard when played in singleplayer

    I dont have any friends that have bought this so I cant say Im getting the full experience but hopefully I can join in with some fellow pcers or something.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    Ged wrote: »
    3. no vsync and also the game is quite hard when played in singleplayer
    .

    You can enable it through a config file.

    http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=79043
  • Quokimbo
    Ged wrote: »
    also the game is quite hard when played in singleplayer

    It is? I have only been playing offline, and have been tromping through it. I played online, and people would join the game and run ahead demolishing everyone and taking MY LOOT! So I moved the 360 to the bedroom where I can explore on my own. The game is not to difficult for me. :thumbup::thumbup:
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    I got just a tad bored playing solo, then I restarted a character with some friends, and we've been having a blast!

    A few nitpicks here and there (some to do with consolisation I'm afraid, such as lack of options), but overall a very nice game. Feels like a mix of Diablo2, Fallout3 and Hellgate London (don't take that as an insult, I thought that game didn't deserve all the shit it got, just some of it :) ).

    Congrats to those who worked on it, hope it's selling ok for you guys.
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    Quokimbo wrote: »
    It is? I have only been playing offline, and have been tromping through it. I played online, and people would join the game and run ahead demolishing everyone and taking MY LOOT! So I moved the 360 to the bedroom where I can explore on my own. The game is not to difficult for me. :thumbup::thumbup:

    This is what I noticed playing pre-release: If you do all of the available side missions before doing the critical path, the game can actually seem too easy at times. If you try to only follow the critical path and skip the side missions, the main story missions can be exceptionally difficult. It's been interesting to see the disparity between people who say the game is "too easy" vs those who say it is "hard."

    Again, thanks for the kind words. I am really glad to hear that so many people seem to be enjoying it despite the obvious flaws and game bugs. :)
  • I_luv_Pixels
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    I_luv_Pixels polycounter lvl 17
    yeah i agree this game is awesome!

    I also love how my lower end PCs at home are able to play the game too.

    So I am able to run LAN here in my house with my workstation and the lower end family computers. My wife is playing on a 3 year old nvida 7600 with 1 gb of ram and a shitty processor...lol. The game being in a stylized art style still looks great on lower and medium settings! Also plays very well too no lag or anything.

    Just another little thing I love about this game.
  • Quokimbo
    If you do all of the available side missions before doing the critical path, the game can actually seem too easy at times.

    The path I am taking...

    I brought cookies to your office when I focus tested Thursday(29th) for you...Did you get one?
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    Haha. That was you?
  • Quokimbo
    Haha. That was you?

    Yes sir...
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    Well thanks. I typically would never consider eating something that someone I did not know brought in to work, but I actually started eating one without thinknig. Thanks for not using poisoning us :D
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    Quokimbo wrote: »
    It is? I have only been playing offline, and have been tromping through it. I played online, and people would join the game and run ahead demolishing everyone and taking MY LOOT! So I moved the 360 to the bedroom where I can explore on my own. The game is not to difficult for me. :thumbup::thumbup:

    Im still getting used to the game and when I took a mission that said tough - collect flower seed, I expected it to be a bit difficult to complete without dying but what I actually found was skags that were 2 levels above me that boxed me in a corner and killed me over and over again. Now that Ive done a few "normal" missions those tough ones can be done with a bit of effort but its a steep learning curve I guess.

    Agree about playing online, I keep ending up on some random german server or something where people are all chatting to eachother in a language I dont understand running ahead and finishing objectives before I can even catch up. I just want an option to find UK servers.
  • Jay Evans
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    Jay Evans polycounter lvl 18
    this thread has kinda changed from the original post but you mentioned animated maps on the cloth. It made me wonder, how would one even go about making an animated loopable normal map for a piece of cloth?
  • danshewan
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    danshewan polycounter lvl 8
    Well, I'm a little late to the Borderlands party, but it was worth waiting for. I just wanted to say well done to all the guys at Gearbox for their hard work on Borderlands. Only level 11 at the moment, but so far it's been different, very funny and instantly enjoyable.

    I don't think the comparisons to Fallout are justified at all - they definitely feel like completely different games, and not just artistically. For a start, actually managing to pull off head shots from the word go was a very nice surprise! At times it feels a little like Red Faction: Guerrilla rather than Fallout, and so far it's been great fun.

    And Claptrap is still making me laugh with his 'hey everybody, check me out - I'm dancing!' lines.

    Awesome.
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    Jay Evans wrote: »
    this thread has kinda changed from the original post but you mentioned animated maps on the cloth. It made me wonder, how would one even go about making an animated loopable normal map for a piece of cloth?

    It's just a tiled, panning bump offset to give the tarps the illusion of movement
  • snemmy
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    snemmy polycounter lvl 18
    Just hit level 30 last night. Enjoying the game and co-op!

    No split-screen and XLB at the same time?! WtF?! Seriously dropped the ball on that one with my group of friends.

    I like the Claptraps but they are a bit too close to GIR from Invader Zim in their expressions, voice and attitudes at times.. -_-;;
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