Gearbox. Meh.Okay. Let's look at it like this.
Edit: The article says "Imagine Diablo in first person, with guns rather than swords..." Sorry, can't do it.
I don't see how that translates to first person at all. And if this game doesn't have rapid-fire clicking on bad guys, then it isn't like Diablo.With the first-person aspect added to the mix, I think Borderlands sounds more like Hellgate: London -- hopefully, Borderlands will NOT have anywhere near the amount of bugs and performance issues HGL had upon release.
Diablo is about rapid fire clicking on bad guys all over the screenDiablo's more than that -- or else it'd be a click-and-point action game minus any RPG elements. Diablo is also about the constant loot-getting, constant skill-tree upgrading, and constant killing -- HGL had that, Borderlands sounds like it WILL have that, as well.
IGN: This is a game built for co-op. But a lot of people who buy Borderlands will end up playing the single-player mode. How do the two experiences differ?
Randy Pitchford: The single player experience and the cooperative experience are very similar, except that with cooperative play friends can work together to fight and win. Single player and cooperative play mingle seamlessly and your character is totally persistent, so you can get some way through and invite a friend or you can join a friend and bring everything you've earned along with you. It's amazing technology and there isn't a single other game on the consoles that offers the kind of persistent character development in cooperative gaming that Borderlands does.
IGN: You can choose from four different characters, correct? Tell us about them and the advantages and disadvantages that come with each.
Randy Pitchford: You can pick from one of four different character classes and each personalized character will grow as you play the game to have different skills and capabilities from others of the same class.
There is Roland, the soldier. He's an expert with all weapons, though he prefers shotguns and assault rifles. He can deploy a shield turret that can be upgraded throughout the game. He can also buy other skills and augmentations that befit the soldier class.
Mordecai is the hunter. He's agile and is equipped with a sword as a melee weapon. He's expert with sniper rifles. He has a pet Bloodwing, which is, like, a hundred times more deadly than even the best trained falcon. He can send that thing at enemies to rend them apart. The Bloodwing can get tougher and grow in skill too as you play the game.
Lilith is a Siren, which is a mysterious, mystical type that has been touched by alien technology. She has strange powers such as the ability to Phase Walk, which is kind of like when Frodo puts on the ring, except that when she takes it off she can kill everything around her with a shock-wave like nova effect. She's awesome. Finally there is Brick, who is the tank bruiser of the group. He's just as comfortable smashing you to a pulp with his fists as he is blowing you to bits with a heavy rocket launcher. Among other traits he can improve and grow, he has the ability to go into a berserker blood rage which makes him super powerful at close range with his meaty fists.
IGN: As for the RPG elements, how deep is the character upgrade system? What sorts of things can you improve?
Randy Pitchford: We've linked the characters in the game to the classes because the characters are really cool, but you'll name your own character and pick your favorite colors for them and all that. As you play, your character will get tougher and more skilled. You'll level up and get stronger in the usual ways and in some ways that are unique to Borderlands. Each character also has a skill tree where you can develop your character in unique ways to make them more powerful with the play style you prefer. It astonishingly robust for a first person shooter, but we've made sure to make it super accessible and not too complicated. It won't slow anyone down – just add value to the growth experience.
IGN: Last I remember hearing there was a claim that Borderlands features more than 650,000 unique weapons. Are you sticking to that statement? And if so, how is that even remotely possible?
Randy Pitchford: Actually, 650,000 guns is the safe number. We've now got some other new types of weapon classes and a lot of different weapon manufacturers and we have created a bunch of super rare and unique epic weapons and other gear, so the actual number of different weapons in the game is quite a bit higher than that. There are more weapons in Borderlands than in every shooter on both the 360 and PS3 added together. It's an absurd number of guns to the point where talking about it isn't really relevant any more. What's relevant is to realize that you'll be able to find lots of varied and better weapons and gear as you play to become more and more powerful.
Something to note about the fact that it's Gearbox (who did a bad Halo PC port): The demo videos in the first port here is being shown on a console (you can sort of tell by the player's hugely inaccurate aiming, plus the guy keeps talking about "if you press the X button" and such). So can we look forward to the PC version being a shitty port from the 360 one?I hope not.
Otherwise the game looks badass. I love fps games, and I love Diablo, so this (if done right) is a really great idea to me.I agree -- if done right, it'd be awesome.
Did HGL ever get it's bugs worked out? Is it worth picking up now that they've had time to fix stuff?Hard for me to answer that, since I only did MP -- which is currently offline in the USA. I didn't do SP side.
(does it still have that weird subscriber thing where you can't get the best stuff without a monthly fee?)Not anymore. The game's MP in the USA is down, until further notice -- until Hanbit and Namco can work something out.
Huh, that cel-shading is new. I watched the gameplay demo video interview at GameTrailers a couple of weeks back and it didn't look like that at all! I guess they felt the game needed a more stylistic approach.
As the enemies were turned to corpses on screen, a sort of holographic display would appear above each, with a small box outlining the loot available to pillage. This logical addition allows the player to take a quick glance at the treasure pickups without the need for an action-stopping menu.
After offing a few enemies with grenades and sci-fi blasters, a giant "LEVEL UP!" message was slapped diagonally across the screen like a commercial for a Presidents' Day sale. Neumann explained that one side-benefit of the new art style was a relaxing of the game's tone.This, I like. I'm a little tired of every game seeming to want realism. I like over the top crazy stuff! Thats what makes games fun!
"We realized that plausibility can eat shit and die," he said simply. Weapons that at one time seemed silly, such as guns that came loaded with "healing bullets," now fit in the world.
"You guys have heard the shit about our guns," said Neumann, referring to the ridiculous permutations that produce Borderlands' weapons--over a half-million at one count, and now far higher. "What most people don't know is our other content is generated like that."
Neumann described spiders that can spawn as leapers which latch onto a player's face, while another variant has the spiders curling up and rolling like a ball in its attack. There won't be a half-million spider species, of course, but the team is aiming for some pretty wild combinations.
The new look seems to be suiting Borderlands well. While the game is aiming to be an epic adventure, Gearbox isn't taking themselves too seriously. There is a humorous current running through various gameplay elements, from the creature names (e.g. "Mutant Midget Psycho") to the many places you can find loot (toilets, animal scat) to the mission objectives ("fishing" by tossing a live grenade into a lake and collecting the dead fish). This blend of gravity and mirth jibes with the visual style, creating a gritty, realistic world with an enjoyable, video-games-are-fun undercurrent.Hilarious!
According to Gearbox, there are 20-30 narrative missions and 130-140 side missions in Borderlands, plus an untold number of outposts, caves, and other uncharted nooks to explore.
Our demo was a mission from Act I, and we're told the game will have three proper acts, with transitional sequences in between. The landscape will change as players progress. Act 2 will be set amidst towering piles of garbage riddled with trash caves, the disposed remnants of a prosperous Pandora where particularly nasty creatures now lurk. The third act will venture into more thoroughly alien landscapes and will feature snowy landscapes, presumably near Pandora's poles.
Or you could run afoul of a fierce pack of adults with a spitter thrown in for good measure. The pack we saw was headed up by a "Badass Fire Skag." Yes, that is what it is actually called. Each word in the creature's name is descriptive, and "badass" is the Borderlands version of "elite" ("We wanted to call them what they are." - Gearbox).
It's also important to mention that among so many other highly scripted E3 demos this year where the person talking is following a script and the person playing is carefully doing every fight in a way that marketing and PR have signed off on, our Borderlands demo was done much more by the seat-of-the-pants. Sure, we knew they'd finish a quest or two and get into some firefights in a couple of given locales, but the weapons they used were created randomly and the action was chaotic enough in some places that there was simply no way to reproduce it the same way every time. This is a good sign; if doing the same fight repeatedly in a game can result in one of many different outcomes each time you play, it is going to keep your attention longer. If Gearbox can harness that for most of their game, we'll likely have a winner.
Gearbox employees Steve Gibson and Allison Berryman tackled a base full of bandits together, mowing them down with great-looking weaponry that had some interesting effects (including a wicked head-melt gun) and a solid look and feel that put this part of the demo squarely in the cooperative FPS arena. But it doesn't have to always be that way: players can also at any point hit someone else with a melee attack, which in the world of Borderlands, is like typing /duel in a MMORPG. If the enemy hits back with their own melee attack, a dome appears overhead - no matter where they are in the world - and they're locked in a 1v1 fight. Two men enter, one man leaves!
Shack: You can play the campaign co-op, but is there any competitive multiplayer?
Mikey Neumann: Oh yes. Within just the regular co-op mode, you can walk up to any of your friends at any time, let's say I'm playing with you, I walk up and I literally bitch slap you. And then it tells you that, "yo, that guy just bitch slapped you, what you wanna do about that?"
So you bitch slap me back, a dome comes down, and we go into a dueling mode. You use all your skills and all your abilities, and that's just the most basic thing.
Within the world, there's actually a lot of instances, you can walk into these things we call arenas. The arenas are actually fully hardcore, Quake style level design all about fighting your friends. It's part of the universe, not a separate mode.
Shack: Do you actually have to walk into an arena, or can you quick-jump from the menu?
Mikey Neumann: You can fast travel to anywhere in the game. The fast travel off of the menu is actually from the save stations, those are all over the place. You can travel pretty easily.
Shack: With Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, I can get an idea as to how the multiplayer setup will work on consoles. But what about PC? Is Gearbox doing its own thing there? Games for Windows Live?
Mikey Neumann: We are doing our own thing. It's gonna be lobby-based, we're trying to keep it as close to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 [offerings] as possible. We want to make sure that everyone can play our game and have fun, it's gonna be a slightly simpler lobby, we still have all the options you have on the other ones. Maybe more, PC people like their options. We're gonna try to keep it as close as possible.
Mikey Neumann: The stuff we actually cut out of the game was really small. If anything, we're adding stuff. Like, the last time we talked, it was 500,000 guns. Now, it's millions. We're adding as much as we can. We're gonna add new stuff, throw it out there, and be thinking about how to make Borderlands a better and better franchise.
Mikey Neumann: We have downloadable content to think about, we have the future of Borderlands to think about. I can't talk about DLC obviously right now because we haven't released the game yet, so that would be stupid to talk about what we're thinking about. We have a lot of really really cool stuff we want to add to the game, to make the universe that much better.
....
Shack: Can you explain why, even though you're coming up with this stuff now while the game is still in development, you can't incorporate it into the retail release?
Mikey Neumann: We're shooting for October 2009, so you can subtract two and a half to three months for certification time. Certification is what you go through with Microsoft and Sony, and to a lesser degree your publisher.
Certification is to make sure the games are bug free and shippable. Without certification, you'd have games that crash and not work.
Subtract three months off of October and you're, you know, now.
What happens a lot of the time is you finish your game and it's time for cert, and during cert a lot of bugs crop up that you have to fix, and a lot of them are really, really big bugs. You are certainly not adding any content to the game at all. A level? No way.
But, during cert, if you have a lot of level designers who have nothing to do--which is pretty common, you pull level design and art off first--they're gonna be making cool shit and want to make cool shit. That cool shit, that tends to be what DLC ends up being. It's the stuff we couldn't add to the game because we're making it during cert, which is impossible to get into the [retail] game.
Games are hard to make now. I don't know if people are aware of this, but they're really, really hard to make. So we're just coming up with cool ideas and setting them aside so we can do them later.
Let's say I wanted to add an elephant to the game [right now], which I know, your readers are going to be sad, now they just found out there's no elephant.
For the content path of the elephant, you start with the art, probably, do some concept art of what you'd want it to look like. That then goes into a turnaround, which is taking a few pictures of the front and both sides, and putting out a model on top of that. Somebody's gonna go in and make a high poly version, that high poly is gonna get tossed over or go to the same artist to make a low poly version of it with all the normals off. Somebody's gonna have to do the texture maps, and then that's gonna go into the game, you're gonna have to do shader work on that to bring it all together, spec map all that.
While that's happening, hopefully you have an animator rigging it, so that we can now have all the animators working on all the animations. I need the animation list for the programmers that you need handling the AI for that, then that goes over there.
You kinda have the AI and the animation going out at the same time, you're making sure it moves and does stuff. You're gonna have a lot of bugs there, a lot of impolish there. Go into game design, make sure it does stuff like shoot shit out of his mouth.
Destructoid: Right. Get to the action. How is the story told in the game? Is it told through cut-scenes?
Randy Pitchford: A lot of different ways. There’s characters in the game. It’s kind of like how if you play shooters, how stories are told in shooters. It’s a more open-world game, though, so it’s not linear. But the characters will be there, and there’s a couple of cut-scenes. We’re not like a “movie” game where there’s a lot of passive entertainment, but there’s certainly some non-interactive moments to accentuate things.
RP: Yeah, we’ve thought through it. There’s a lot of backstory. We don’t beat you over the head with it, though. It’s kind of like, remember when you saw Star Wars and Han Solo said, “Hey, this is the ship that made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs.” And you were like, “Wait a minute, what’s a Kessel Run? And parsecs, that’s not a unit of speed, it’s a unit of distance. That’s weird.” There’s some thinking there that maybe you’ll discover it, maybe not. But it kind of makes it feel, whether you’re exposed to all of that backstory or not, the fact that it’s there makes you believe in the world, I guess. And you believe in it because the characters believe in it, and I think that’s really important when you’re doing science fiction.
Like Firefly has been a huge influence. Did you see the Firefly series?
Destructoid: Uh, of course. Definitely!
RP: Brilliant, man! The thing that sells that is that those [characters] believe it. There’s things that are part of that world that we don’t need to hear the backstory to trust that it’s there, because there’s references that help us understand that. And it also adds a bit of intrigue, and it’s kind of fun, like, “Hey, I wonder what that’s all about?” Maybe you want to dig into that backstory a little more.
Destructoid: Yeah, that sounds pretty incredible. Are the drops random?
RP: In a lot of cases. They’re random per what’s supposed to happen. So let’s say you’re in an area that’s generally supposed to be for a Level 5 challenge, so most of the creatures you’ll find there are Level 5 balance enemies, and the drops that will come are around that. And they’re randomized; when I say random, it’s using the procedural inputs picking from the possibilities. There are named bosses and named creatures that are more important or more difficult, and those guys we have specific loot tables for. There’s also unique guns, where designers have gone in an custom-crafted them, named them, and given them particular stats.
Cool. I like the seamless drop-in and drop-out system for the co-op mode.
Not only will you have the opportunity to play through the story as one of these mercs, but you’ll also get the chance to work in tandem with other players online in a four-player co-op mode. A group of real people makes for a lot better company and help than a A.I. dog who dies too easily. And if you or one of your companions pulls a dogmeat and takes one hit too many, you’ll at least be given a chance at survival through the Left 4 Dead-like revival system. Essentially, your view goes all wonky like the Matrix drunk on Patron, and you have to ward off assailants as your team tries to rescue you before you bleed out.
Oct 20th is the current release date.
Strategy Informer: Can you tell us more about how the co-op and single-player link into one another?
Steve Gibson: It’s seamless actually. You take your character from single-player and you can go and join friends or have them join your game at any time. Your characters and inventory transfer back and forth, and you can play splitscreen, system link or online and it’s all persistent. That’s something that we found frustrating in Diablo, when you play with your character up to level 20 and I’ve got this frickin’ awesome warrior and I want to go online and play with my friends, but I can’t because it’s separated. We feel like we’ve solved that in Borderlands.
Strategy Informer: Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski has said that the future of the FPS lies in becoming more like RPGs. That pretty much sums up Borderlands, so obviously you’d agree with that sentiment?
Randy Pitchford: Hell yeah, of course. I’ve just spent three years investing in that (laughs), so I’ve been thinking it for three years! I (also) think there’re a lot of vectors, but I think there’s something extremely compelling and compulsive about the feedback loop of RPG-style growth and when I think about how many hours I spent playing Diablo, the skill to play the game is pretty much the same skill you need to launch the application. You put your cursor over an icon, but then why the hell was I so taken with that game? It’s because of the compelling, compulsive feedback loop of growing my character and becoming a bad ass. Then there’s knowing that I can become even more bad ass if I get more gear and then I just can’t stop. No one’s really put that into a shooter properly, and coming from the shooter vector - when you think about it - they’re fast, visceral action.You’ll notice we call Borderlands an RPS - Role Playing Shooter, but we’re not fully RP, so you’re not going to run into a character and do a dialogue tree, which was a conscious decision because it just slows things down. That’s not Verhoeven, that’s like maybe the novel version, so dialogue trees are not a part of Borderlands but growth, levelling up and skill is.
Steve Gibson: Also from the shooter vector is not rolling dice on our attacks, so when you see critical hits, that’s based on your accuracy. Your critical hit on a Skag (Borderlands’ mutated, dog-like scavengers) is if you hit him when his mouth is open. Your critical hit on Spider Ants is when you hit them in the abdomen, or ass sac as Randy calls it.
Randy Pitchford: It is! It’s an ass sac!
Steve Gibson: So that’s much more rewarding as a shooter.
Randy Pitchford: The skill of shooting is about your tactics, your manoeuvring and where you’re aiming on your target that matters. I always hate the games where you’re rolling dice to decide whether you’re effective or not and it’s like, “No dude! I frickin’ shot him!”
Strategy Informer: Are there any differences between the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Borderlands?
Steve Gibson: All of the content will be identical. You obviously have advantages with being able to do higher resolution textures on PC, but the matchmaking will be different for all three platforms. The PC version isn’t much different other than looking better. We’re also still verifying whether we’ll be compatible with Games For Windows.
Pretty sure it doesn't require Steam.I think in some interviews back, Randy said it would use their very own Gearbox servers.
Shack: With Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, I can get an idea as to how the multiplayer setup will work on consoles. But what about PC? Is Gearbox doing its own thing there? Games for Windows Live?
Mikey Neumann: We are doing our own thing. It's gonna be lobby-based, we're trying to keep it as close to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 [offerings] as possible. We want to make sure that everyone can play our game and have fun, it's gonna be a slightly simpler lobby, we still have all the options you have on the other ones. Maybe more, PC people like their options. We're gonna try to keep it as close as possible.
That just means there'll be another account for me to register and another password to remember.Write it on a piece of paper or sticker and stuff that in your game-box! :P Write it in your game manual! :P
If it's reliable then it'll be acceptable. The advantage that Steam and GFWL have are that they are established (relatively), I have my friends on both (though I'd rather just use one and right now it's tough to tell which one is winning in my books, it's a douchebag vs. turd sandwich campaign) and I can link up quickly.As long as they function properly (of course), agreed -- I don't see Steam going bye-bye anytime soon. Same w/ G4WL -- since Microsoft is the one who makes the OS's we all pretty much play games on.
Cauterize: “Shooting team members heals them. The effect also works with grenades and rockets.”
Quick look on Giant Bomb:
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-borderlands/17-1498/
This made me want the game even more. Specifically, he finds a random item on the vendor and gets all excited and blows all his money on it because he HAS TO HAVE IT. That's SO Diablo.
Tasked with keeping the workers of Jakobs Cove alive, Dr. Ned (who is not related to Dr. Zed from Fyrestone) does his job a little too well, creating zombies and other abominations that now run rampant in this region. Players will have to work alongside Dr. Ned as they embark on a quest to cure the inhabitants of Jakobs Cove in this full-fledged expansion filled with new enemies, new quests and rare loot drops.
Damnit I hate DLC. $10? GAH!
But I'll probably buy it. Just look at it.
Borderlands seems to lose me the more I see of it. It's come so far from the first teaser (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50285) we saw at the end of 2007, yet that seems like a steep deviation from what I originally found intriguing about it. It's like it took a wrong-turn into wacky land and lost it.See, that trailer was NOT what I found intriguing about Borderlands at all. What I'm finding intriguing is the whole combo of HGL type of gameplay (first person shooter - if you went w/ a gun-related class) mixed with the Diablo aspect (Action-RPG). I been waiting for another game to try and expand upon what HGL had actually accomplished and learn from HGL's mistakes - another game to take another crack at getting this kind of game perfect. I think Borderlands is headed in the right direction, myself.
I understand Gearbox went for the cel-shading since they felt they wanted something different and they probably couldn't compete with visuals otherwise. Now it just feels like it's trying really hard to be the "awkwardly funny guy at the party," which only makes it come off as lame and unfunny, and it seems to be trying to adopt Team Fortress 2's aesthetic style as its own (with heavily desaturated colour).XIII (2003) had done the cel-shaded look before TF2 (2007).
The only thing I see that's relevant to Diablo now is loot, and it's not like Diablo ever advertised "87 bazillion swords and various stabbing weapons." Sure they added in some role-playing elements like experience and quests, but Diablo didn't create those conventions.No, they didn't -- but I think Diablo really took this style of the ARPG to a whole new level of insanity and popularity.
The one thing that seems to be missing is the sense of a strong underlying story, which was a big part of Diablo (+Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction) for me. Everything about Borderlands just seems to be about a mad romp around a desert planet.If Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was any indication, Gearbox knows how to really tell a story and a narrative. Whether they actually do it or not in Borderlands, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess -- since it really feels like the story has been kept under-wraps purposely.
I'm glad they're not trying to recreate Diablo as a 1st-person shooter but why compare it to begin with and draw so much criticism. The whole "FPS and RPG made a baby.." ad campaign doesn't work either.. Well, it wouldn't be the first baby anyway.I think they are making the comparisons to Diablo b/c of the way the game operates -- kills galore, loot galore, skill-tree galore, level-up galore. Even though Diablo does a great job of telling and presenting its story, that stuff is really not the main part of the game. I expect the same from Borderlands.
99% of the people I played Diablo 2 with (mostly just friends/family) didn't give a shit about the story. I got the impression that most people didn't care about the story. I remember being bitched at to stop standing around and hurry up because I was watching the cutscene and they had skipped it and were already in the first dungeon of the next act.Hehe, I got that a lot in GW, as well -- many people wanted to skip the cut-scene, while I wanted to see more of the story.
While I did enjoy the story of Diablo 1/2, it's far from the first thing I think of when I think of the game. I think of the loot and the leveling up. Pushing through dungeons to get that next checkpoint or hit that next level to use some piece of gear I bought off the vendor. Every time I went to town to vendor stuff I would check the merchants to see if their random loot turned out good this time, and if there's some rare piece I want to buy.Bingo.
To me, Diablo is about lootwhoring and leveling up. Borderlands looks the same, and the style is some sweet icing on top.
Yes, but it didn't have goofy looking, cartoon-proportioned characters, as in TF2 and Bordlerlands. Plus XIII had very crisp imagery to match its comic book style. Borderlands feels like it only has cell-shading because it would look crap compared to its peers if it had a more realism-inspired look (relatively low-poly models, bland and low-res textures, etc.).
XIII (2003) had done the cel-shaded look before TF2 (2007).
Borderlands box art revealed (http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=22013)
(http://www.firingsquad.com/images/pr/borderlandsbox.jpg)
I hope there's more to Borderlands than "loot-whoring" and "mad-gunning." Based on the killing and moving on argument we could say Serious Sam is more like Diablo than most shooters, minus loot and experience, since it's entirely about killing hordes. Or how about Left 4 Dead? They're both playable in singleplayer but that's more for testing purposes than anything else, the core of these games is multiplayer. Is that how I'm supposed to think of Borderlands? As a purely multiplayer experience?I would say that Borderlands is built for MP, yes -- b/c it's really meant for a team of 4. Likely, a team of 4 where one is playing each character class.
I just assume most people play singleplayer for the story and multiplayer solely for the gameplay. That said, I do generally play way more singleplayer than multi. I just hope Bordlerands will not be boring as a singleplayer game, usually story covers that fairly well.Like yourself, yeah -- I play SP a lot more than MP.
I thought Bioshock had a good storytelling convention, with the audio logs and journals scattered about. It made the story available for those who wanted to look for it but not in the way for people who just wanted to gun it.I agree w/ the System Shock 2 and Bioshock audio-log convention -- it's a good option, for those who wanna invest into the story; especially since Irrational was great at telling stories. And if you don't want to invest, then go ahead -- just shoot stuff. It's up to you, really. That's what I liked about Bioshock -- option's there for the gamer.
Story is weak
Every RPG comes with a great story and plot but with Borderlands the story fails. I’m not saying that the game doesn’t have a story because it does, the problem is that it’s shallow because the game is more focused on the action rather than developing a story.
Boy, there's a shocker. What the fuck is wrong with people? Have they even played games before? How do you not completely figure that out before even going in?
Borderlands
Frequently asked questions:
You are here: Home » Support for popular titles » Borderlands
Product information:
Website: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/
Media: DVD-ROM / digital Download
Important: Please note, that the official release date for Borderlands is the 27th of October 2009.
Q: I get a "Security Module not activated (13001)" error message.
A: Please download the SecuROM™ Diagnostics Tool and follow the instructions, to update your application, to solve potential SecuROM™ related issues.
Q: At the end of the installation I get a "Release date check failed" error message.
A: Please note, that the official release date for Borderlands is the 27th of October 2009. If you get the above error message after the 27th, please go to http://www.2kgames.com/borderlands/activation/ for further instructions on how to manually perform the release date check.
Q: The above answers did not solve my issue.
A: Please install our SecuROM™ Diagnostics Tool for further assistance.
You know, stupid shit like that makes no sense. If someone buys the game early because a store breaks street date, why shouldn't they be able to play? They didn't do anything wrong by buying the game. Punish the store somehow, not the gamer.Idol, unless early a finished copy of Borderlands was laced w/ this Securom before the game somehow got into pirates' hands for the PC, I don't see this as a strategy to stop pirates.
Anyone saying its to stop pirates from playing early is lying because pirates download cracked versions that don't do any checks to begin with.
*sigh*...what are we becoming?
Among of the more interesting weapons seen in Borderlands: a spread rocket-launcher firing five shots at a time, a long-range shotgun with scope and electrically-enchanced shells, and a small machine gun with acid-filled bullets.That spread rocket-launcher and acid-bullet machine gun sound freakin' nasty.
PC IssuesYeah, this all doesn't sound like it'll be an issue that will take forever to fix. Nothing a quick patch couldn't take care of.
Though it's easily the best-looking edition of Borderlands, the late-arriving PC edition also falls short, at least in its current form.
At present, voice chat is ridiculously bare bones. You can chat, but that's it. The most basic of features, the ability to turn your microphone off, is missing. There is no way to adjust the booming default volume of another's voice. They can't be muted.
According to Gearbox, that situation should be resolved by an update soon, but there's no word as to exactly when it will arrive and what functionality it will deliver. For a game built around multiplayer, the lack of proper voice chat, or even the ability to disable the microphone in-game and use an external client, represents a ridiculous, glaring and unbelievable oversight.
Who cares, I'll just use Teamspeak. I'm not going to play with random douchebags anyway.
i know it might be a difficult concept to grasp, but when someone says "douchebag", they don't always mean you, D.
So is that what the 'D' in MysterD stands for....?
MysterDouchebag?
There was bound to be some confusion, really. When you have three versions of a game in your storeroom and one has a different date than the others, there are going to be mix ups. Still, it's one of the responsibilities of running a video game store or department, and I frankly don't see the point in blaming 2K or Gearbox for this debacle, as so many of the forum posters seem to be doing.Because its their fault that the game is unplayable. The STORE isn't keeping me from playing what I bought. If the store did something wrong by selling early then thats something 2K is going to have to take up with them. You don't punish the end customer that did nothing wrong.
I thought we already talked about that.
I have no idea what issue that is trying to solve. So the player bought it early...big deal? Why would you stop people from playing the game they already bought for some arbitrary (and obviously already broken) street date?
EDIT
Kotaku is retarded. Because its their fault that the game is unplayable. The STORE isn't keeping me from playing what I bought. If the store did something wrong by selling early then thats something 2K is going to have to take up with them. You don't punish the end customer that did nothing wrong.
But it's not called grinding in Diablo either, that I'm aware of. I've never heard the term outside of an MMO, and while it's become popular recently, I'm pretty sure that's the only context where it actually makes real sense.That's true.. Although I do recall it being referred to in games like FFVII, when your level was too low for an upcoming boss fight you'd run around getting random encounters until you gained enough xp to challenge the boss. That was the first time I heard the term "grinding" used in a magazine's "hints n' tips" section (could have been GamePro or VG&CE).
Big Download contacted Randy Pitchford, president of Borderlands development studio Gearbox Software, who said, "I don't know if something can be done to unlock copies for people that somehow get a copy before the street date ... I certainly can't do anything about it." Pitchford's sympathetic, of course -- which reminds him of, ugh, Valve's Half-Life 2 DRM -- but as a developer there's not much he can do once the game's been handed over to the publisher and surrounded by unflinching DRM.
"I know how that feels," Pitchford related. "I'm sorry it's happening to customers of Borderlands, and I wish there was something I could do about it."
Hey guys,
Yesterday we learned that a fraction of the PC copies of Borderlands were accidentally sold to consumers in some countries but that gamers could not activate their copies yet. Since we learned of this problem, we have been looking into the issue to find the best possible solution for everyone.
I'm going to be completely honest with you guys right now. It is not possible for us to move the planned release date of the game forward. We could not possibly get the games into stores worldwide and out for digital distribution any earlier than planned. Less than 1% of all copies were sold, and if we unlocked the game today, illegal versions would most likely appear on torrents by the evening. I am sure all of you want our PC launch to be as successful as possible, and we simply won't be able to manage that any earlier than already planned.
I want to apologize for those of you who have gotten the game ahead of our release date, and ask for your patience and understanding. The game will be ready in the US and Canada at midnight eastern standard time on Monday, October 26th, and internationally by Friday, October 30th.
-Elizabeth
So I basically picked this up for PS3 because I returned something else and wanted this for the weekend even though I have it preordered on PC and that doesn't hit until Tuesday. Someone else will be getting this copy when I get my PC copy, heh. In any case... it's fucking awesome. Like hardcore awesome. I love this game. If the concept appeals to you, you should absolutely grab it.Que, we've heard a lot of complaints w/ the story and all in reviews - as expected, as this really ain't the strength of most action-RPG's, anyways.
Diablo sort of did the same, but they had the sense to keep everything short and simple and just keep peppering bits of story stuff throughout the game. Even if it wasn't amazing, the CG scenes and everything were great, and it was enough to keep you going since the core action was so enjoyable.Right - Diablo knew how to pepper bits and pieces of story. And by the time you got further along and all, you definitely had something still of quite the value - especially for an ARPG.
This... I don't know. I'll have to put more time into it to say anything concrete, but this is a game that's totally about exploration, killing, and looting. That's what you're here for. As soon as I got control of the character it was tempting to just ignore *everything* and do my own thing. Took me a while to stop looking around during the tutorial and such.That all sounds great, in its own right - just getting lost in the gameworld, exploring, and loot-grabbing. It was one thing that really sucked me in with Sacred 2.
If you really want a story, this isn't a game you should be playing. This is a game for people who love to explore, love to shoot, and love to loot. It satisfies on those levels really well and those are the reasons you should be playing. The rest is more window dressing.I happen to like ALL of the above - a good story, love to explore, love to shoot, love to loot-grab. :P
Still, it's presented nicely when they do go into it, so that helps. Even if the story is sparse, the whole game feels really polished and sexy.Gearbox's BIA: Road To Hill 30 - especially for a WW2 game - did a really good job w/ storytelling, well-written dialogue, and character depth - but of course, that game was heavily focused on that stuff.
solo > retarded friends on coop
I feel like I'm babysitting a 3 year old. I have to tell him everything to do, including killing things, grabbing quest items, not jumping off cliffs, and turning in/picking up quests. Of course no matter how much I bitch he runs past groups of enemies that follow him halfway across the map and he doesn't even realize it. I shoot one, they all come at me, and I have to kill them all solo. Then he's bitching that I'm lagging behind and he needs my help up ahead...
Shack: What happened on the PC with the one-week delay--something about optimization?
Mikey Neumann: Sometimes a week can buy you a lot. I'm not entirely sure what happened there, but we ran into a couple little things.
The thing with PC is that we don't go through certification the same way. We made sure that 360 and PlayStation versions, those are essentially done first, and then anything that's a PC-centric problem we put into a bug queue to be done while we're certing the other things. The schedule seemed like it was going to work out, but it was off by about a week.
Shack: I noticed the voice chat options were a little lacking in the build I got for review. As in, I was unable to turn off voice chat, adjust the volume, or even mute.
Mikey Neumann: Yeah. We noticed that and know what people want there. It has already been under scrutiny here at Gearbox.
Shack: Could split-screen be something that's patched in later on PC?
Mikey Neumann: If we find that it's something that people want, we can certainly patch it in. As of right now, it's not there.
Shack: On downloable content, what's the limit? Have you run into any technical hurdles--no new classes, no rocket ship etc.?
Mikey Neumann: We're finding out some interesting things that maybe we didn't realize before. So far, none of them have been game changers.
To be specific, we are making DLC for all three platforms simultaneously. We don't want any customer to miss out. I will say that our first DLC is an additional story, it's a tight little story that's pretty cool, a whole new area with all-new monsters and all kinds of stuff. It's definitely something that people are going to want, because it's more of what they are going to want to do--explore more, find new stuff, meet people. That's all there.
I think the limitations we're running into are under the hood stuff, that if we're did our job right you're probably not going to notice. Once they start seeing the new stuff, I think they're going to get where we're going with DLC specifically.
Yeesh. Hope my install goes well tonight...
So I stayed up way too late playing this game and thus made myself late this morning, which I am exacerbating by making this post. Awesome. The game went off without a hitch. Really the only thing I felt I *had* to tweak were ditching the 8 billion trademark videos up front and enabling vsync. Was having some bad screen tearing.Curious: did you enable VSync through your vid card driver settings (NVidia Panel or ATI Panel) or through the INI?
Ultimately, though, the thing controls well, doesn't feel uber-consolized (there's some stuff, like how jumping is the same height and distance regardless of your button press, and stuff like crouch and run are all toggles, but mostly it just feels about right, and control is infinitely superior to console counterparts as expected), and it performs beautifully.I don't know if I'm the only one here...but actually, I have always preferred toggles for prone, crouch and run/walk.
Graphics are crisp and clear, there are extra effects I'm noticing over the console version like some volumetric lighting stuff (at least I'm pretty sure I didn't see this when I was playing before, but it's very striking now), and the framerate and load times are all better. On the whole, this is totally worth your money. If you don't have a PC up to snuff the console version is pretty good stuff, but the PC version shines here.Que, I'm guessing you got things maxed out? :P
I don't really see anything unqiue about the gameplay at all. It kinda feels like Fallout 3 without the story elements, especially since the shooting depends on stats; sometimes I'll shoot at something and the bullet will miss because the accuracy stat is low regardless of how well I'm doing.How do you feel about the variety and amount of guns? Find anything you like?
Anyway, the game is definitely fun and it's all about the co-op.
How do you feel about the variety and amount of guns? Find anything you like?I played as a hunter, so not the best choice when aiming is a challenge, but it was managable.
I played as a hunter, so not the best choice when aiming is a challenge, but it was managable.I'm betting that class would be better w/ a KB/mouse.
I like the snipers and pistols. I love that the sniper scopes depend on the brand of rifle too. Much like Torchlight, I like that you're not absolutely restricted to certain weapon types, you can use anything but you're specialized in certain types.Sounds cool to me. :)
I still don't really see how Gearbox are all "The FPS and RPG had a baby..." like they just revolutionized gaming. It's nothing new. It's the same as the Gears of War 2 horde mode being awarded for innovation, that game mode started with classic UT (Monster Hunt) back in 2000-2001. They're not the first iteration, they're not even the second but somehow they're reaping the recognition. It's like winning an award for something someone else did.Hellgate did the FPS/ARPG thing, as well - depending on what class you took on.
I still don't really see how Gearbox are all "The FPS and RPG had a baby..." like they just revolutionized gaming. It's nothing new. It's the same as the Gears of War 2 horde mode being awarded for innovation, that game mode started with classic UT (Monster Hunt) back in 2000-2001. They're not the first iteration, they're not even the second but somehow they're reaping the recognition. It's like winning an award for something someone else did.
It's not about who did it first, it's about who was the most popular. Wolfenstein 3D wasn't the first FPS, but it gets credit for it.I'd agree with that if it weren't for the devs/pubs blowing their own horns. It's like when they say "Never before seen..." or "For the first time..." when they're just reiterating older ideas.
Are you guys playing online a lot, or just a whole lot of sp?
Idol and I just got it going last night for MP, but we're working on two characters now. Up until that I'd just been playing the SP. Contrary to popular belief, this is a fun SP game. Nothing wrong with it at all. It's perfectly analogous to Diablo 2: fun alone, but a bit more fun with buddies (as long as they aren't douchebags, because playing alone is better than playing with stupid people).
Patch fixes for PS3
* Load times have been improved
* Lilith's Phase Strike ability now works as intended
* The introductory quests with CL4P-TP should now always progress properly
* fixed a bug that caused the digger elevator to be unusable after completing the Find Tannis mission
* Weapon mapping to the D-pad should no longer reverse left and right
* fixed a crash when ejecting the disc during the autosave warning splash screen
* Players in a lobby should no longer experience long loading when starting a game after one player leaves
* A bug which caused players and other things in the world to appear incorrectly on clients in networked games has been fixed
* fixed a bug in which players gibbed in arena combat disappeared
* Changed how space required for saves is calculated
* fixed a bug which caused the dollars counter to spin continuously
* various localization and other text and tooltip correction
Patch fixes for 360
* Fixed a bug which caused players and other things in the world to appear incorrectly on clients in networked games
* fixed a bug in which players gibbed in arena combat disappeared
* fixed a bug which caused the dollars counter to spin continuously
* fixed a bug that caused the digger elevator to be unusable after completing the Find Tannis mission
* Weapon mapping to the D-pad should no longer reverse left and right
* various localization and other text and tooltip corrections
* The introductory quests with CL4P-TP should now always progress properly all the time
* Lilith's Phase Strike ability now works as intended
* Load times have been improved
So Idol and I made it to the next area after thoroughly demolishing the first. There are still a couple quests left to do, but they're beneath us, so we just forged ahead. I might go back and do them later just because I'm a freaking completionist.
Loving this game so much. So much cool stuff happens, and just when you think "you know, I might be getting sick of this wasteland," they give you a landscape that feels different. They've done a hell of a job with this. They really just need to get squashing bugs and releasing patches, but other than that this is good times.
Gearbox's Randy Pitchford Gets Mainstream'd
You're not hardcore enough to view this article.
by Jim Reilly
October 30, 2009 - Gearbox Software held a Halloween contest at its offices today. Studio president Randy Pitchford, who is probably the most hardcore game designer on Earth, sent along a photo of his costume to IGN.
Pitchford, if you can't tell, went as Executive Editor David Clayman who dressed as Randy Pitchford in our classic IGN original video 'Borderlands is for Real Gamers,' (http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/957206/borderlands/videos/borderlands_spc_realgamer.html) which is viewable below.
What do you think? Does Pitchford pull it off?
Really? That seems like the perfect example of a reference.QuoteI don't know how much this is a reference. Mordecai is the name of Richie Tenenbaums' Hawk in the Royal Tenenbaums. Since Mordecai is a hunter who uses a bird I thought maybe...Perfect example of what I was talking about. This kind of stuff is a coincidence, not a reference or throw back.
Haha, yeah. They have a "would you kindly" like right after the game starts, too, but it struck me as more of a coincidence than a Bioshock reference. Though it could be one.
STOP IT. ALL OF YOU SHUT UP
Well, I picked it up. I doubt I'll have great ping with you guys but I'll try anyway!
Awesome! Hope you like it and hope to see you online! :)Thanks MyD, I added you to my friend list.. Pending your acceptance, of course.
Well, I picked it up. I doubt I'll have great ping with you guys but I'll try anyway!
Continuing today's theme of "Devs Commenting on Other Devs," here, for a change, is Epic's Cliff Bleszinski weighing in with something polite about Borderlands.
Many have made the comparison of Gearbox's Borderlands to Diablo. Cliffy B certifies it with this unsolicited Tweet (http://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/5456393060): "Borderlands, I adore you. You're Diablo for a generation raised on first person shooters. I want a Claptrap statue."
The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned coming Nov 24th (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176837) for 360 and PS3. No word on PC version....bastards.
Just to be clear, this IS coming to the PC as well. No release date, but it was just confirmed for PC by 2K - just wanted to make sure I got the official go-ahead on that one (we'd said DLCs were coming to all platforms before).
Fuckers. Why can't you figure that shit out and give us some information like... at the same time as the rest of your customers? And can we get a patch, please? I love your game, but c'mon.
I'm telling you, it's because it's not a PC game. The PC is an afterthought to so many people these day. I'm sure it was like, "Oh hey, lets announce the date for the DLC since we know when we'll have it done. What? PC version? Oh... yea that's coming too I guess."
VG247: So this pretty much throws out the PC gamer conspiracy theory that later PC launches exist to somehow benefit console sales, huh?
Mikey Neumann: There’s no conspiracy. We could’ve released [the PC version] two weeks earlier and the console versions still would’ve sold better. That’s just the nature of that economy right now. PC piracy is the most widely prevalent form of piracy in games. That’s gonna bring your PC sales down. People find it cheaper to play on Xbox 360, and it’s more fun to sit on their couch with their TV. That’s also gonna drive down PC sales.
A week delay isn’t going to do anything. Gamers are gonna play where they want to play.
VG247: I guess it’s a bit early to ask this, but Borderlands is really successful at the moment. Is there any chance of a Borderlands 2?
Neumann: Yes, I can probably confirm that there’s a chance of a Borderlands 2 [laughs]. I mean, with anything, especially a new IP, if people want more and you can make more, and everybody can make money and do good business there, it obviously makes really good sense to do that. Obviously nothing so far is planned. We’re working on DLC. We haven’t really had any talks about a sequel, other than water cooler talk like, “Wouldn’t this be cool” kind of stuff.
But yeah, Borderlands is really exciting. Everyone here loves the franchise, and it seems like the public is really coming back with praise and love. So yeah, if everything makes sense, Borderlands 2 seems like a no-brainer to me.
Anyway, that looks awesome. I love how Ned is basically Zed with a mustache.Let's see...I spent $45 on Borderlands PC and took me around 25 hours or so to finish in on run-through; Ned is going to be $10 and offer me 6-10 hours of more gameplay.
GI: Any plans for a locker, so players could store their weapons?
RP: We know that some people are interested in that, and we’re working on that.
GI: Any chance of the level cap going up with future DLC?
RP: We’re working on it. I know that’s something that people really want. You asked me earlier how difficult it was to balance everything, and as a customer I don’t care – I don’t want to hear how difficult things are – I just want what I want. I spend a lot of time making excuses, but we want that too, and we’re investing in that and I would not be surprised if we are able to offer that in the future, but at this point I can’t make any promises.
GI: Let’s talk about The Island of Dr. Ned. Is it like Fallout 3’s Operation Anchorage where it’s sectioned from the rest of the world, or is it more of a worldwide experience where new enemies are interjected into the previous zones?
RP: When you download The Island of Dr. Ned, you’ll unlock a fast travel pass, even if you haven’t unlocked the fast travel network. From any registration station in the game you can immediately transport yourself to the zombie island. From there, a new adventure unfolds. It’s a separate adventure, and a new adventure that has a beginning, middle, and end. In some cases, I think the story is more cohesive and stronger than the main story in Borderlands. The commentary that is there is very subtle. It’s basically a treasure hunt that has a bad guy at the end that protects the treasure. It’s a very simple premise. Now, we’re never very heavy fisted with storytelling in Borderlands. We focus on the action, and the gameplay and the pace. We’re not going to be adding any dialogue trees or cutscenes. Of course, there will be a little something to set it up. You’ll have instant access to it, and really fast you’ll be killing zombies, franken and wolf monsters, and all sorts of cool stuff.
We went nuts with the DLC. The zombie thing kicks ass. It’s a lot of fun, dude. There’s this big Frankenstein looking guy with chains on him, and a chest on his back. So, when you take him down, you can loot the chest. He carries the chest around with him. It’s freaking great. There’s were-skags and stuff and it’s just fun. The setting is really cool. It doesn’t even look like Borderlands anymore. I mean, it looks like Borderlands because of the art style, but it feels like this place I’ve never seen before. It’s gloomy, there’s trees and stuff, and it feels like I’m in a swamp.
A patch is now being certified and will be deployed as soon as it completes the process.
I just had my first multiplayer bout! Man is it fun! Sometimes the level gap sets people apart but you never feel completely useless.
Looking forward to the update!
I'm on Verizon DSL - wonder if that's part of the problem for me.Never used GameRanger.
GameRanger tells me I have a Port-Restricted Cone NAT Router.
Installing GameRanger now. Will look for you on there.
Ah, I thought it was on my end :D
That bug was game-breakingly bad though!
The problems some users are experiencing with connectivity will be addressed in the next update. A fix has been found and we'll deploy it as soon as possible.
I asked Helquist about what sort of scale we can expect from the $9.99 pack:
"We think of it about the same size as one of the smaller zones in the main game. It's probably four to six hours of new gameplay with a lot of new regions, new monsters, that kind of thing. It's probably about the size of the Arid Badlands [the starting zone] and one or two of the doglegs."
Perhaps more interesting is what level the content will be scaled for. Said Helquist:
"As soon as you enter the download content, it detects what level you are and sets the area to about the same level of what you're at. So whenever you buy the DLC, wherever your character happens to be, you can go into Jakobs Cove and you should be good to go."
"I should mention that [level 10] is the minimum level. So if you started a level 1 character and jumped in, the monsters would be level 10. That's because we wanted to be sure that players played the beginning of 'Borderlands' and really understood what 'Borderlands' is about, 'cause there's no training in the download content."
Don't worry about setting the content too low, though. Whenever you return to Jakobs Cove the game will re-scale the enemies and loot, allowing you to play through with a level 50 character and still have a challenge.
Although the draw of "Borderlands" has always been the loot, it didn't sound like that was the main focus this time around, as the DLC won't add any new weapon effects or anything like that. Said Helquist, "The main focus of this download pack is the new region and the new plotline and that sorta thing."
Helquist went on to say that the number of enemies you'll be facing at any given time is a lot higher than the original game, which should give that classic overwhelmed-by-zombies feel.
I sort of lost my steam shortly after starting my second playthrough. I'm hoping to hit 50 with the DLC, or at least get closer. (I think I'm 37 or 38 now) I didn't really lose interest as much as I just got something new and shiny to distract me (MW2, catching up on the original Assassin's Creed for the sequel).I've been through BL twice already - w/ Lilith and Mordecai. Already working on a third time - this time w/ Brick.
Borderlands is great. Zombies are great. Of course mixing the two seems like a shitload of fun, as well as a way to blast zombies without giving money to Valve.Yeah, I love zombies and am really glad to see BL get even more content to add more stuff to the game - even if I have to pay for it some small amount of money. Can't wait until it arrives on the PC. I'm sure the DLC's 4-10 hours worth of content for $10 will give the player the same amount of time a gamer would've gotten out of a $40-60 copy of L4D2.
The nice thing about the DLC for this game is that the game is built to be replayed, so you know you'll end up going through it more than once. Which is pretty cool.
B: Borderlands, for a lot of people, was a painful experience because of the troubles with online play and LAN issues. What steps is Gearbox taking to ensure these issues are sorted out for the upcoming content?
RP: I think that is the thing I wished was most different… And we’re investing more support in those areas. There are some awesome people here that really care, even after the launch, in correcting the troubles. We’ve already deployed some updates, for platforms, that have addressed some of these issues and we have more deploying as soon as we’re clear to do so. I think the connectivity issues that some customers are having will be soon cleared up and I think the experience has taught us and our publishing partner a lot which in turn will make the connectivity experience in our future games much better.
Were the connectivity issues a PC or PS3 thing? I have the 360 version and the only gripe we ran across was that my friend wanted to do splitscreen with his brother and have me in the same game, but it doesn't support that. Splitscreen or online, but not both simultaneously.
Oh and my friend did something to his network that keeps him from being able to go online with his Xbox at the same time a the family friend who lives with them. (everyone else I've talked to that has tried 2 Xboxes on the same net connection has had no problems.)
Opening ports is hardly a "connectivity issue". Few games out there work well behind routers and firewalls unless you get your settings right.
Ending spoiler (base game, not the DLC ending)(click to show/hide)
PC has achievements too. Or at least the in-game milestones you can reach. Those are hard-coded into the game and actually give you XP for completing them. You won't get actual achievements tied to the game system, so those are probably limited to PS3 and 360, but there are enough of the in-game ones to keep you busy for quite a long time.
Any press release or company statement that ends in "Zombies for everyone!" is a winner in my book.
how does the multiplayer work? Is it just the single player game as co-op?Pretty much.
Also, why isnt there a button for health packs? thats annoying.I wish I knew.
Game development often lasts for years. In that stretch of time, studios have their fair share of ups and downs. From humorous game bugs to stress-relieving antics, Game Informer peers behind the curtain of game development. In this entry of Tidbits, developer Gearbox Software shares secrets behind the development of Borderlands.
* There were about 64,000 check-ins to make Borderlands.
* Mikey Neumann (creative director) did the motion capture acting for the intro featuring Lilith strutting and blowing a kiss.
* The dog paw around Brick's neck was his dog growing up. Her name was Priscilla. You can see him as a child with her in the intro cinema to the game!
* Crazy Earl, ClapTrap, Scooter and all of the enemy battle dialogue is voiced by Gearbox employees.
* The player character Lilith went through seven full revisions until the art director was satisfied with the final version.
* ClapTrap was actually the last character added to Borderlands.
* Gearbox uses a proprietary automated build system that runs multiple platform builds nightly in addition to specific builds that are manually triggered by developers. The final shipping build of the Xbox game was number 5,700.
* There was a suggestion to feature midgets attached to cables that other bandits could toss at you.
* A full body explosion will spawn 1 liver, 1-2 kidneys, 1-3 limbs, skull chunks, lots of blood, and other random body parts that have a chance to stick to walls.
* 23 babies were born to Gearbox developers during the course of this game – three of them to a single designer and his wife.
* The Borderlands Official Strategy Guide is the longest strat guide Bradygames had ever written for a single game.
* We had a bug once that Lilith’s voice sounded ‘too sexual’ in the international versions, we let it slide.
* The actress that played VoG appeared in an episode of Las Vegas on NBC.
* “Turtles all the way down” is a reference to infinite regression popularized by Stephen Hawking.
This content requires an internet connection to be installed and is limited to 5 concurrent installations. This software uses SecuROM™ technology.Well thats sort of a bummer. Guess they had to do something to protect it, but I still dislike install limits.
From one of our engineers who is on vacation, but responded to my questions about the DRM anyway (many props to him):
"1) Yes, a single machine can be installed an unlimited number of times. There is a caveat to this: If the user performs a system restore or if the user re-installs the operating system, then that machine would need to be “re-activated” and that would cause them to use up one of the extra licenses."
We're not huge fans of DRM either (as I pointed out Randy having said before). We've done what we can to make it as user-friendly as possible. Once you've activated the DLC on your machine, it knows you're authorized and will be completely transparent from then on and won't require an internet connection again. Even if you uninstall and reinstall, you won't need to re-activate.
Gearbox Software`s first DLC for Borderlands, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, has just been released and Randy Pitchford has already announced a new part
The new adventure on Pandora will be called Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and will have three new Riot Arenas. Next to that several storage spaces will be available where you can safely store all your favorite weapons (probably over 100.000) without having to sell them.
Little is known about the story at this moment but Gearbox did say that the DLC will be available on Xbox Live as of December 29th for 800 Microsoft points while PS3 lovers will have to wait until January 7th to get it from PSN for $9,99. Whether the DLC will also become available for the PC version is yet unknown.
Selling storage space in RPGs is the new rage.....FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
Sorry guys. Stupidly priced DLC is here to stay.
Yea your speaking up on OW is definitely going to get their attention. :P :P
@GearboxSoftware Do we have confirmation the 2nd DLC is also coming out for PC?
@FelixTheCrazy Yep, it is most definitely coming to PC.
UPDATE: Next 'Borderlands' DLC Encourages 6-Hour Marathon Sessions
Posted 34 minutes ago by Russ Frushtick in Interviews, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Borderlands
Just completed a lightning round phone interview with Gearbox regarding the next DLC pack of "Borderlands," entitled "Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot." The initial press release mentioned a focus on arena-based play, and, based on the few arena quests that were in the original release, I didn't think that sounded tremendously interesting. Gearbox's Jon Hemingway, the designer on the next DLC pack, was happy to clarify just what we can expect.
I started off by mentioning the arena quests from the first game, and Hemingway was quick to correct me:
"This is totally different...basically the idea is that we have this character, Moxxi. She's running this underground coliseum tournament arena thing. The best thing you could compare it to is either Horde mode in 'Gears of War 2' or Firefight mode in 'ODST.' But even those don't quite sum it up.
"It's all about this crazy Moxxi character, and she's running these tournaments. You go in and fight waves and rounds of monsters, and then she starts changing it all up. She throws out what are called 'Moxxi Maxims,' these rules that dramatically change the way the game play. She'll be like, 'Vampire Rule!' which makes it so that the player's health is constantly draining, but every time you get a kill you get a whole bunch of health back. Now all the players are like, 'Holy crap, I have to play amazingly aggressive,' so you have to charge in before you basically bleed out. Another example, she'll go 'Shotgun Challenge,' where all shotguns do bonus damage and all other guns take a penalty."
The comparisons to "Firefight" seem pretty apt, but in terms of the scale and length, it seems like these battles will go considerably longer. Regarding the play time:
"There's a small tournament and a big tournament. The small tournament takes probably about an hour, and most people will be able to get through that. The big tournament...one of the things people have been asking for is for something that challenges them, and that's what the big tournament is. I think the last time I went through it, it took me six hours to get through a big tournament. You can't save your progress, you have to do it in one sitting, but you can stop, walk away from it and come back [Ed note: You just can't turn the system off]. It's really hardcore. To get through the big tournament, you'll have to get some friends who are very good and you'll all have to plan out what people are going to do and what weapons you're bringing."
The complaints that "Borderlands" may have been too easy will probably be put to rest once people spend an entire Saturday trying to complete one of these big tournaments. Hardcore indeed.
Oh, and while we're at it, here's official, unedited pitch from Gearbox's Randy Pitchford:
This is an ENTIRELY NEW GAME MODE.
Think ODST's "Firefight" or Gears of War's "Horde Mode".
Cash, prizes and competition!
It's like Smash TV in coop FPS, but in the Borderlands.
This DLC expands greatly on the possibilities of combat as well adding a ton of new rules such as vampire mode or low gravity mode etc. This is not just deathmatch arenas [sic].
These are not just new deathmatch areas.
Yes, he said that twice. His rabid enthusiasm even comes through in email form.
Please find below a list of frequently asked questions we have collected for 'Borderlands: The Zombie Island Of Dr. Ned'
Q: When I try to activate the DLC 'Borderlands: The Zombie Island Of Dr. Ned', I get the error message: 'Too many activations on different PCs or too many reactivations on the same PC have been performed.'
A: Please run the revoke tool, http://download.securom.com/support/borderlands/RevokeDLC1.zip, on the PC where you have originally activated 'Borderlands: The Zombie Island Of Dr. Ned'. After revoking this activation, you will be able to activate your application on a different PC.
Like Zombie Island, you get to The Underdome by fast-traveling to it. Once there, it's clear this isn't exactly the same as the last Zombie download. It's not a whole new zone filled with quests; instead it's a small room filled with multicolored flashing lights that makes it look like a casino. To one side is a claptrap robot dressed in what appears to be a spray on tuxedo, a top hat and a fake mustache. He's the banker, and through him you can store items from your inventory if you want to save them for later. The build I checked out had upgrades for bank space available as well, so I bought one and bumped up the storage capacity to 21 items.
There's also a quest board in here, which initially has one assignment available called Prove Yourself. It's added to your quest log, and requires that you clear 5 rounds in three coliseums to get a quest reward. What's a coliseum? Well, each coliseum, of which I saw three, functions like Gears of War 2's Horde mode or Halo 3: ODST's Firefight. Each coliseum is separated from the main room by a load screen, and the first one is called Hell-burbia.
Jumping into this area kicks off with Moxxie -- a particularly energetic woman with fishnet stockings and a circus ringleader outfit -- screaming through a megaphone as slippery electronic beats pulse in the background. There's a crowd hollering as you're set in the middle of an arena that's built from pieces of the rest of the game world, from rusted metal houses to the lighted pumpkins of Jakobs Cove. Then the action kicks off.
Like in Firefight, the action here progresses in waves. A countdown begins soon after you've started, and once it hits zero you're told what type of wave you'll be facing. The first is called a Starter Wave, and it seems each wave will also have associated modifiers to enemy health and shields, which are also displayed before the action starts. After that, enemies spawn in, which for the Starter Wave was just a bunch of easily dispatched bandits and skags. Once a wave is done there's a short break where health and ammunition pickups will rain down from the sky. You'll need to rush around to pick them up because they'll disappear as soon as the next round begins, and these obviously get important in later waves and rounds where you're forced to expend more ammunition to get to the end.
Overall the Mad Moxxie download seems to offer a distilled version of the Borderlands experience, but with a few omissions. In an odd move, it seems Gearbox has eliminated loot and experience gain in The Underdome. None of the enemies in the coliseums drop items and killing them awards no experience. I still haven't seen all the kinds of rewards you get for completing arenas, but it still felt like a big component of the standard Borderlands experience was missing while playing through.
There is a loot drop after every boss wave right under Moxxi's stage. He was mistaken. Every round, it gets better.I bet this DLC was meant for character who hit Level 50 End-Gamers.
There is no XP gain, because you have sooooo much combat that you'd power level every time you enter the Colloseum and ruin the main game. Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot isn't about leveling up OR the loot. This is about the combat and the challenge.
Of course, if you like loot, it also comes with a bank.
Yeah, that's probably a better description. Otherwise you could easily get the impression it's an isometric action RPG that uses guns rather than fantasy weapons.That's exactly what I thought when the "Diablo with guns" description first came around last year or so.
So instead of "Diablo with guns" its more like "Quake with loot".
2 million served:
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61661
Giantbomb has a quicklook, it looks like epic fun. (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-mad-moxxis-underdome-riot/17-1803/)The first two minutes of that video make this game (or DLC pack) look like a Bioshock ripoff. I'm not judging the game, just something I've noticed thus far.
The second addition is a modest little computer that brings up something called the Gun Scanner. It gives each of the guns in your inventory a QR Code (oh God, not more of those) and an additional string of characters to enter at the Borderlands’ website. What does it do? The website isn’t up yet, so for now it’s still a mystery…
Mad Moxxi is now available for PC and PS3.
This update is similar to 1.1.0, and I do not believe it contains any updates other than those necessary to ensure compatibility with DLC and the game. When fixes are released, so are the relevant notes - you'll note that I've provided notes about changes introduced for updates on all platforms in the relevant technical support forum thread, so I'm not sure where "never gives us notes" comes from.
God damnit, another 200MB patch that does nothing but enable DLC. What the fuck is taking up all that space?
*EDIT*
See, normally this wouldn't be a big deal and I just wouldn't get the patch. But since pyro has the game on Steam and it will force him to update, if I want to play with pyro I'm going to be forced to update as well.
PC Update 1.2.0 has been released. If you have a physical copy of the game, you can download the update here:http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/games/borderlands/. If you have a digital version, your retailer should provide you with the update.
Here are the notes for the changes in update 1.2.0:
* Fixed a bug that kept challenges from unlocking for the rest of a session after visiting arenas
* Fixed some formatting issues with the server list screen
* Fixed an issue causing servers to report the incorrect plot mission
* Proficiency progress to the next level should no longer be lost when leaving a multiplayer game as a client
* Fixed a progression issue in the Find Steele mission - characters affected by this issue should now be able to continue progressing
* Most instances involving character data loss when playing online should no longer occur
* Addressed some exploits involving character level and backpack size
* Fixed a bug that allowed Mordecai to spawn multiple Bloodwings
* Mordecai's "Loaded" skill now increases mag capacity by 20%
* Roland's "Scattershot" skill has had its spread adjustment corrected, and damage now increases at +5 per level
* Improved the refresh speed for the server browser
* Support for DLC 2 added
Borderlands could never stand alone as a pure shooter and the net code was never strong enough to make an idea like this a compelling one. That problem is compounded by the fact that enemies don't drop loot and you don't get experience points for killing them. Beat a set of five waves and you'll get a small set of mediocre loot. Beat a quest and you'll get some XP, but other than that you're just killing enemies.
It feels like Mad Moxxi misses the point. This was always a game about level grinding and loot pickups. You get neither here.
You can still play Mad Moxxi with up to four players cooperatively. In fact, if you don't have a group of friends willing to pony up the $10 asking price, you'd be better served skipping this add-on entirely. The arena battles do not scale to the number of players properly at all. Playing with one or two players makes this series of challenges nearly impossible. Even with three it is difficult.
Mad Moxxi could be a great character, but the Borderlands expansion bearing her name--Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot--is a real dud. Taking the combat of Gearbox's first-person action-RPG and cramming it into a wave-based arena format that draws comparisons to Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode isn't an awful idea. But by stripping away all of the character progression and loot-scavenging that gives the whole game its hook, you're left with combat for combat's sake, which makes for an extremely repetitive and empty experience.
Hey guys!
Sorry, I haven’t gotten to post on the forums in a while! After finalizing Zombies DLC, the team and I began reading the DLC feedback around the forums on the wants and desires. Guess what, level cap increase anyone? Got it and it's awesome.
Hopefully we can get a full announcement out to you guys soon but, man is this the biggest DLC we have made. So don’t worry, we are working really hard right now on both the update (that solves a bunch of issues) and the DLC. More to come guys!!
Gearbox has announced its third piece of DLC for Borderlands today, "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx," slated to hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this year.
The DLC will bring a "huge new environment" featuring new enemies and new weapons. Gearbox is saying the experience is designed "for growth for characters from around level 34 to level 50." Yes, apparently Gearbox will be raising the level cap for this upcoming DLC, although they haven't confirmed by how much.
We hope to have more details soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
That looks badass.
I'm sold.
That looks so kick-ass! Now I've got something to look forward to!
EDIT:
(when I get a PC in a few weeks)
This will be great. I had the shadow/glitch issue, and for the last couple patches we havent been able to easily get multi going. Hopefully this fixes that problem.
Awesome sauce! We'll have to get busy for when that new DLC hits.
Hes not far off on many points. The enemies are repetitive, the locations are pretty drab, the UI is a trainwreck...but damn if it isn't fun as hell.
Damn, that was fast. I still havent picked up the zombie DLC. But that 4 seater vehicle sounds like a blast.
I haven't picked up any of the DLC yet (Zombie Island and Mad Moxxi).
Borderlands update 1.30 is coming, to be released alongside The Secret Armory of General Knoxx!
360: This update will be deployed automatically on 2/23
PS3: This update will be deployed automatically on 2/25
PC: This update will be available on 2/25
Here are the notes:
Borderlands Update 1.30 Notes
Addressed issues:
- Invalid weapons or items can no longer be loaded into the game
- Brick’s Centurion class mods now regenerate health correctly
- Brick’s Bombardier class mods now regenerate rockets correctly
- Roland’s Tactician class mods now regenerate shields correctly and display the correct bonus values
- Roland’s Rifleman class mods now apply damage increase to all machine guns
- Certain powerful legendary item names should now be displayed in the appropriate color
- Opening the bank in the Mad Moxxi DLC no longer prevents other players from moving
- Multiple copies of DLC missions can no longer be obtained
- Corrected some incorrect icons in the ammo vendor
- Fixed a crash caused by killing the final boss while zoomed in with a scope
- The “Careful, he bites” achievement should now properly unlock when playing in French
- Added icons to the server browser that indicate which DLCs the server has installed
- The server browser now displays the name of the DLC a server is playing instead of the plot mission
- Adjusted scrolling in menu options in long server lists
- Added a notification if a player attempts to continue a game saved in DLC that is no longer installed
- Fixed DLC notification dialogs that were not closing properly
- Alt-F4 no longer closes the game if it is not in focus (PC Only)
- Fixed an issue which resulted in corruption in saved games (360)
- Added support for allowing multiple user login on PS3, so that friends can play on another player's system in splitscreen. (PS3)
- Fixed graphical distortion and crashes some PS3 users may be experiencing (PS3)
- Zombie Island achievements and trophies now unlock properly in splitscreen (360, PS3)
Balance adjustments:
- Chests in New Haven have been adjusted to contain more appropriate loot
- The duration of daze effects has been reduced to 6 seconds, and the amount by which it decreases the speed of enemies and their projectiles has been reduced
- Damage from shock elemental effects has been increased
- Repeater pistol damage has been slightly increased, accuracy slightly decreased
- Sniper Rifle critical hit bonus has been increased
Chests in New Haven have been adjusted to contain more appropriate lootThey better not have screwed up my farming spot!
Oh crap, apparently the new DLC is 2GB in size on 360. Thats...you know...huge.
They better not have screwed up my farming spot!
Just finished downloading, yea Knoxx is 1.7GB on Xbox.
And the New Haven chests seems to be a significant nerf (not a buff). One run through (on playthrough 1, at level 43) gave me about half level 22 greens, and half level 16-19 whites. Previously I would get mostly purples.
Now, if they can make the last boss The Destroyer much tougher, I'd be happy....
Fighting that thing's just WAY too easy...
When the prototype was revealed, almost everyone was enthusiastic for the project, including the 2K Games team, which backed the switch whole-heartedly. However, the original art director grew so disenchanted that all her prior work was being discarded, she eventually quit the project, left Gearbox, and got out of the game industry altogether.
:(
I think I'm really feeling the need for Borderlands again. Is anybody with me? I'm thinking of picking up the other 2 DLC packages shortly.Isn't all the BL DLC coming to retail DVD soon?
Is there a retail DVD happening? If so, I'll wait for that.Yes. It was supposed to be out this month, but I think it got delayed b/c of Knoxx.
But yeah dudes, we should definitely finish up the main campaign. Then we can see who has what DLC later on.I've finished the game w/ Mordecai and Lilith.
What character are you playing as Pug? I know when I started my second character and went back to the beginning the shooting did indeed feel like it was missing something. Mainly because I was using a pea-shooter.
EDIT: Also, retail Borderlands DLC add-on pack is available today in North America for $19.99, includes Mad Moxxi and Dr. NedYup, got it for the PC. Been playing Zombie Island. Really digging Zombie Island, I must say. I like that there's more cut-scenes and more story-telling methods uses here than before.
Ohhhh.. Sorry I usually only look for the sig.I got back up, though. :P
Then I suppose "you got knocked the fack out, maaaan!"
I got back up, though. :PAlways a good sign :)
Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution invites single-player and co-op fans back to try to suppress a deadly Claptrap revolution using one of four infamous vault hunters. The foursome find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a deadly civil war between the Hyperion Corporation’s well-armed armadas and the ever-amassing army of homicidal Claptraps led by one of the most eagerly awaited characters in the franchise’s history - the cunning Ninja Assassin. As vault hunters, players must put aside their past differences with the Hyperion Corporation, namely the organization’s repeated attempts to wipe them from existence. For a hefty payday, they will join forces to help beat down the mechanical uprising and thwart the dastardly kung-fu expert, the Claptrap known only as Ninja Assassin.Coming in September.
“A year ago Borderlands was an untested brand that through hard work and a lot of passion, turned out to be one of the best-selling, claptastic and skagtacular games we have ever created,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “A year later, we are releasing our fourth DLC installment, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution, which illustrates our enthusiasm for creating highly entertaining content that enhances a franchise. In addition to serving as the perfect bookend to the original game, what gamer doesn’t love a kung-fu-wielding Ninja Assassin Claptrap with nunchuck skills?”
Like its add-on predecessors, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution offers extensive co-op integration that seamlessly melds single and multiplayer experiences, and incorporates the most explosive role-playing shooter fun imaginable. Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution will provide more than 20 new missions to loot and tons of fresh enemies to blast through, including original boss battles, waves of homicidal Claptraps, well-armed Hyperion soldiers, and local creatures that have been Claptrap-ified - including crab-traps, rakk-traps and skag-trapps. Fans can earn an additional 10 skill points for a total of 71 available skill tree points, and three more backpack slots for additional blood-yielding weapons and many hours of enjoyment.
Hopefully they also do a DLC pack of Knoxx and Revolution.Agreed.
09/28/2010: Borderlands Update 1.40 is now available for PC!
* Certain items, such as loyalty class mods, will no longer be destroyed when loading a map other than the location they were originally found
* Added support for DLC4.
Still hoping for a Knoxx/Claptrap DLC retail box.Same here. I'd be so down for that.
I think I'm gonna wait till the all-encompassing pack comes out since I only have the base game. Also I don't know why I didn't take advantage of the crazy Steam sale early in the summer.I didn't jump on the Steam sale only b/c I already own Borderlands Retail + DLC Double Pack Retail.
each copy of the game will come with a "membership certificate" to the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club, which will give members exclusive access to items in the game, as well as first dibs on a downloadable demo before it's released to the masses.
Yeah, that's always the case. There's hardly any reward for early adopters.
All the more reason to be patient and wait for GOTY/Gold/Platinum packs.
You know, it doesn't bother me that someone can pay $60 for what I got for $100 (game+ all 4 DLCs).That was my exact reasoning for not being very happy that Borderlands PC retail owners probably won't get a Double Pack with DLC 3 + 4 at Retail; AND that Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta (DLC 5) never got released on disc.
What bothers me is that GOTY customers get something that I don't. You would think they would find a way to give this stuff to people who had bought all the DLC (like how a Fallout 3 xbox dashboard theme was given to anyone who had bought all the DLC for that game).
Actually, I'm not sure if the exclusive in game items are for Borderlands or Duke Nukem Forever. The way it was written on GB made it sound like they were for DNF.From what I saw on 1Up (http://www.1up.com/news/borderlands-goty-early-duke-nukem-demo) and Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5656287/duke-nukem-forever-demo-first-access-included-in-borderlands-goty-re+release)...
I do have a friend who was talking about repurchasing Borderlands (he sold his last copy). If I can just convince him to get the GOTY edition maybe I can get him to give me the DNF code.
Includes All 4 Borderlands DLC
Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
Borderlands: Claptrap's Robot Revolution
Special Offer
Purchase Borderlands GOTY and get Pandora pdf Map for free.
Purchase Borderlands GOTY and join the Duke Nukem Forever: First Access Club
First Access Club Includes:
The certificate entitles owners who register their unique key on the Duke Nukem First Access website
Membership grants exclusive access to information and items, including the earliest possible access to the playable demo before it is publicly released.
Game of the Year Edition
The Borderlands Game of the Year Edition retains the same price as the original release, but it includes a whole bunch of downloadable loot. You'll get all four of the downloadable expansions to Borderlands making the game longer and infinitely more entertaining.
The original disc comes with a list of redemption codes that will give you access to download the new content online. If you've already grabbed the four add-ons there isn't anything new included in this package aside from a foldout map of Pandora and a "first access" pass to Duke Nukem Forever. Keep in mind that you will need 4.5 GB of storage space to house this content and each code is only good for one redemption, so you can't share with a friend.
If you bought Borderlands on Steam, go and look at the CD key they gave you (I forget how to get to that. Google it). I read they gave everyone on Steam one of those DNF codes.
Ummm...what about us Retail Box owners? :o
I should've noted that my question in Reply #475 was rhetorical - more to make a statement than anything.Hmm, try putting an exclamation mark with the question mark, making it come off as more an exclamatory statement than an inquisitive one i.e. "What about us Retail Box owners?! Huh?!! HUH?!!!"
Hmm, try putting an exclamation mark with the question mark, making it come off as more an exclamatory statement than an inquisitive one i.e. "What about us Retail Box owners?! Huh?!! HUH?!!!"
Haha whatever, man! Take it eeeeeasy!
I'm seriously thinking about the GOTY edition now.
Btw, patch 1.31 supposedly allows Steam achievements in Borderlands (I think we're on v1.40 right now). Have you tried registering your Borderlands CD key with Steam? It's possible that Gearbox have set up some arrangement with Valve (just like Epic did for UT3).
Oh, D, I knew it was probably rhetorical, I just wanted an excuse to bitch a little again.VERY Understandable. :)
The gun system is really complex and I have a hard time judging a lot of guns for the most part. That said, I'd always lean towards elemental unless the base damage is insanely high or there is some other bonus there. I believe elemental damage stacks, which makes quite a bit difference.Yep, back when I was playing I had a revolver with average base damage but it had "explosive" elemental bonus as well as a scatter effect (shotgun style) which made an insane difference! Just to give you an idea, I got that weapon when I was level 23, I was still using it as a primary weapon for my level 38 Hunter.
Stupid consoles. I with they would just release the PC update already instead of waiting. We know thats not the one holding back the release.
11/02/2010: Borderlands Update 1.41 is now available for PC!Sadly, it looks like you won't see anything different unless you've already played through the game twice or own General Knoxx.
* Level cap increase of 8 levels for all players.
- Original Borderlands players will now be able to achieve level 58.
- Owners of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can achieve a record setting increase to a maximum level of 69.
* Enemies now scale to new level caps throughout the whole game as long as playthrough 2 has been completed.
* Item drops (with the exception of COM Decks) will now scale to new enemy level caps.
* DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users will now properly award players for obtaining these achievements.
Borderlands is 10 bucks today on Steam.
Welcome to the fray. Been playing this heavily since I got it over a month ago. Played with Roland through Level 55. I'm glad you're finding him easy. I didn't. Are you playing on PC? I'm wondering if the game is a lot easier on PC. I see a complaints regularly about the game being too easy, while I find it hard as nails in a quite a few spots.
An easier character is Lilith. Her phasewalk ability lets her escape just about any sticky situation, and regen her shield. I completed the game with her, including Crawmerax in DLC 3 (Knoxx), who no one will call easy. She's level 61. (I'm dodging the 1.41 patch so far, which scales the game world everywhere to your Level after playthrough 2, and lets you level to 69.) I tried Mordecai briefly (to Level 13) but I think his special ability sucks too much to compensate for his frailty. I wasn't having much fun with him, so I abandoned him. I'm now playing through with Brick, who is a lot of fun. He can take massive damage, and deal it out with his fists, using the triggers during berzerk to swing left and right punches. He's Level 35, and going strong.
Hope you like it as much as I do. I'm glad someone other than just me is playing it in our little group here.
Aw, man, I could have told you that. Yeah, extremely lame. This was a heated subject for a while at the Gearbox forums. Also, beware of trying to mix retail and Steam versions of Borderlands stuff. Apparently, that's a no go.
I just picked up a retail copy of Borderlands GOTY and amazingly enough none of the DLC are on the F'ing disc. It's just regular Borderlands with a leaflet that ahs instructions on how to download the DLC from the Gearbox site.. That's nearly 4GB of downloads (if not more).. Lame. So lame.Oh, that freakin' sucks! Bah!
Yeah, that's a convenience I can appreciate. On the other hand, the DRM can be a tiny bit of an issue on PC but I think the DLC only needs a one-time registration and it's set. The questionable part is with uninstalling/reinstalling and revoking the tokens.ALL of the BL DLC has Securom Internet Edition DRM w/ 5 installs + revokes allowed.
I've been thinking about this recently. One of the things that I sort of felt fell a little short in Borderlands, especially when comparing it to Diablo (or any other loot driven game) is the lack of visual variety in equipment. The only piece of equipment you ever see, on yourself or others, is the guns. And the guns aren't even all that varied. There's a pretty small number of model variations for each gun type, so most of the visual variety comes from color.
So what if Borderlands had been a 3rd person shooter, and you could have collected armor? Let's just assume the gameplay was still solid. Do you guys think the ability to see gear changes and ogle at your character would have added much, or is it really just all about the stats?
I think what he meant was that there are only so many models for guns, so even if you get ones with vastly different stats you still sorta end up with similar looking guns.
For a Borderlands 2 I would like to see more armor options. Even if there isnt a 3rd person option, just seeing what other players in multiplayer are wearing would be cool. Also, having a button that will project a hologram of the stats of your currently held gun would be nice so you can show it to someone else without having to give it to them.
WTF @ Knoxx DLC.
My character Lilith is Level 40 [Tempest] and this DLC portion is scaled at 35.
What gives?
Why was the Level Scaled so low and beneath me?
Gearbox Forums - About Playthrough 1 and 2 Leveling and Scaling. (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=118261)Yep, it's the same with BF Bad Company 2 and a few other originally non-Steam titles.
Looks like Knoxx on Playthrough 1 is fixed and you should start that RIGHT AFTER doing Borderlands: Original Campaign.
What good is that for those who did Zombie Island [DLC #1] already? :o
EDIT:
Interestingly enough, BL: GOTY - Steam version did not create a Shortcut to my Desktop.
So, I created a Shortcut of its Borderlands.EXE from the Steam version's game folder - and this version boots WITHOUT even Steam running. It doesn't force Steam to boot up!
For those wanting to run BL: GOTY - Steam version without using Steam, there you go! :)
Interestingly enough, BL: GOTY - Steam version did not create a Shortcut to my Desktop.Of course I would read this after the sale is over.
So, I created a Shortcut of its Borderlands.EXE from the Steam version's game folder - and this version boots WITHOUT even Steam running. It doesn't force Steam to boot up!
For those wanting to run BL: GOTY - Steam version without using Steam, there you go! :)
I may have mentioned this in another thread but you can also install retail versions of games with serials purchased on Steam i.e. I can install Bad Company 2 from my brother's retail disc and use my Steam CD key. My theory is this applies to any game that has a non-Steam edition.Oh, another question - do many of the recent EA Titles you buy on Steam actually allow for you to register their keys on EADM?
That's kinda one of the reasons why I prefer to get my digital purchases on Steam: I indirectly have the option of going with or without Steam.
Oh, another question - do many of the recent EA Titles you buy on Steam actually allow for you to register their keys on EADM?Yep, my BFBC2 registers with EADM.. Although I'm not sure why I'd want to use it, Steam has better overall connectivity and download speed. EADM can download stuff and register games but the EA store doesn't open in it; also it has no connectivity options whatsoever e.g. proxy settings etc.
Probably worth a shot, too - if you are trying to avoid being forced to use Steam.
Some of the EA games that I've bought from say D2D or Amazon to download, they register right on EADM.
Examples:
EADM Games I've bought from D2D/IGN PC that can be registered on EADM - NFS: Shift, NFS: Hot Pursuit, and Medal of Honor [2010].
Yep, my BFBC2 registers with EADM.. Although I'm not sure why I'd want to use it, Steam has better overall connectivity and download speed. EADM can download stuff and register games but the EA store doesn't open in it; also it has no connectivity options whatsoever e.g. proxy settings etc.Since it registers on EADM, you have the option of basically having another version of the [same] game, in case something goes wrong w/ the Steam-version. :P
A new patch coming September 9 for the PC version of Borderlands will add Steamworks support and will begin to test some new systems development studio Gearbox Software wants to incorporate into Borderlands 2.
"This technology, dubbed B-Test for this patch, is about increasing the relationship between you and us, " Gearbox president Randy Pitchford said as he announced the patch at a Gearbox panel at PAX. The new tech will send data back to Gearbox, letting them know "which guns suck", which areas aren't being visited and other info that, presumably, Gearbox can tweak.
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I spoke to Pitchford after the panel and he clarified that the B-test may be used to test a two-way connection between players of that game and Gearbox, the intent is to test that tech so that we'll see it actually work and affect change and interaction post-launch in and around Borderlands 2. Pitchford emphasized to me that it would be a two-way connection but doesn't want to divulge more details or over-promise.
Man there's a severe jump in difficulty once you get to T-Bone Junction. I blew through the claptrap DLC over the weekend. That basement full of weapons you get as a reward is awesome. i'll never be broke again!
You think so? You maybe right, you are pretty psychic with these steam annoucements.