Topic: Borderlands: Diablo with guns

[MysterD]

PC gamers who own Borderlands (or looking to do so soon or eventually), start smiling a little bit.

First patch for Borderlands PC is done and in the "certification process" right now - so yeah, 2K is looking it over and making sure it works fine and all.

Cross them fingers, guys!

A patch is now being certified and will be deployed as soon as it completes the process.

[Xessive]

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!

[MysterD]

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!

Sweet!
I still ain't even tested MP - b/c it wouldn't connect as is.

Did it work as is?
Did you have to open your ports up?
Enabling port forwarding?
Did you use GameRanger?

What's the scoop?

[Xessive]

It was just as is. Loaded it up, connected to Gamespy, invited a friend, and in we went. Simple and straightforward.

I have noticed though that LAN game seems to be broken. I installed the game on my brother's PC and tested to see if we could connect but nothing. It doesn't detect the game at all. The Online mode works very well though.

[MysterD]

I'm on Verizon DSL - wonder if that's part of the problem for me.
GameRanger tells me I have a Port-Restricted Cone NAT Router.

[Xessive]

I'm on Verizon DSL - wonder if that's part of the problem for me.
GameRanger tells me I have a Port-Restricted Cone NAT Router.

Never used GameRanger.

You could try opening ports through your routers settings.

I do know for a fact that my ISP (Etisalat) does some shifty shit behind the scene which prevent a lot of stuff from working properly. For example I cannot use RapidShare or Hotfile at all (or any other similar services), they always say "you're already downloading a file, wait till it's done" even if it's the first time I'm visiting the site. I narrowed it down to problem from my ISP because they all work fine when I connect through a VPN that routes through the US or Europe.

[MysterD]

Okay, instead of just booting BL up by itself and going through Gamgspy (which I have set to no auto-log-in)...
...I booted BL up through GameRanger - works fine there w/out changing anything.
MysterD on GameRanger, if anybody wants to find me on there - in case I'm running a MP game.

No wonder I never saw many games going on GameSpy (even though I could never connect or host one)...
They all are here on GameRanger playing BL!!!
There's like 453 rooms going on GR right now, as I type this....

[Xessive]

Installing GameRanger now. Will look for you on there.

[MysterD]

Installing GameRanger now. Will look for you on there.

Cool.

EDIT:
Lost Net Connection for a few.
Coming right back online.

[Xessive]

Ah, I thought it was on my end

That bug was game-breakingly bad though!

[MysterD]

Ah, I thought it was on my end

That bug was game-breakingly bad though!

Good thing my connection kicked me.
Forced me to restart.
When I came back on, gate was unlocked.
Mad weird.

At least my saved character didn't wind up screwed.
That's what matters.

[MysterD]

GameSpot previews Borderlands - Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC.

[MysterD]

Best Week One Sales of A New IP in 2009 = Borderlands with over 400,000 units sold.

Also, Gearbox revealed they "passed" on a chance to do a Blade Runner game.

[idolminds]

Patch released!

Update 1.0.1 Notes:

- Characters that have lost skill points will have the lost points refunded
- Clients will no longer lose proficiency progress upon leaving a co-op game
- Item cards now display the intended five lines of detail text
- Lilith's Phase strike and melee attacks from Phase Walk now function as intended
- Voicechat: users can now control volume and individually mute players
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused CL4P-TP to stop progressing during the introduction
- Server browser population times have been improved
- Server information should now always display the correct plot mission
- Benchmarking feature now works as intended
- Nvidia 3D Vision visuals now render shadows correctly (requires minimum 195.28 drivers, available from nVidia)

For a nearly 200mb patch, I am surprised it fixes so little. Lucky thing I ended up at the library tonight so I can download it.

[MysterD]

Thank you Idol!

EDIT:
Someone asked about why there were no connection fixes for Borderlands PC Patch 1.01.
Looks like Gearbox has fixed connectivity issues w/ GameSpy.
We'll see it in the next update coming, according to Ennui.

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.

EDIT 2:
For any of you guys, if you have flickering shadows w/ PC Patch 1.01, turn Dynamic Shadows OFF, then back ON again. Worked for me.

Other solution - reboot your PC and boot Borderlands up.

[MysterD]

Finished this one tonite, but this time w/ Mordecai.

[MysterD]

GameTrailers TV
Zombie Island DLC - 5 minutes of footage.

MTV Multiplayer
MTV Multiplayer - Interview w/ Paul Helquist of Gearbox on Borderlands - Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC.

Length

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."

DLC is Scaled For Level 10 And Above

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."

More on Scaling

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.

 Focus is on New Region and Plot

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."

Enemies Appear In Bigger Packs

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.

[MysterD]

Official website for...
Borderlands - Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (DLC).

[MysterD]

New interview from AreWeNewAtThis w/ Randy Pitchford on Borderlands and the upcoming Zombie Island DLC.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview.
Part 2 will be coming soon.

[W7RE]

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).

There've been a lot of games lately that I've been counting the days until release (Brutal Legend, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2), and this DLC is part of that list. 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.

[MysterD]

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.

Many games, I would've likely just thrown aside after finishing once w/ any character. But, BL keeps me coming back - and I think it has to do w/ the combat and the plethora of guns.

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.

[Quemaqua]

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.  I'm really looking forward to it, it looks like a ton of fun.

[MysterD]

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. 

That's a good point too, Que.
And probably w/ different characters and at different levels (Since it is scaled Level 10+), too...

[MysterD]

AreWeNewAtThis - Part 2 of the interview w/ Gearbox's Randy Pitchford.

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.

[W7RE]

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.)

[MysterD]

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.)

GameSpy has a lot of issues on the PC version of Borderlands - if you don't have port forwarding enabled and/or open a shitload of ports (which can DMZ your PC, which I don't recommend).

I think GameRanger unofficially has done a great job of supporting Borderlands PC for the MP, as I've had ZERO problems really with it myself (Retail Version). I didn't have open ports or anything - and it works fine for me. A lot of gamers are playing BL on GR currently - as I've seen counts above 300 servers a day going.

Steam BL owners were playing it fine on GR, until BL PC Patch 1.01 came out and then GR put an update out for GR around the same time (last Wed) - then Steam owners had problems w/ it. But the other day, GR did put another patch for GR out and it fixed that issue for Steam BL owners - they can now finally bott the game up again.

I can't speak for the console versions.

[MysterD]

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (DLC) - Official Trailer.

[Quemaqua]

Opening ports is hardly a "connectivity issue".  Few games out there work well behind routers and firewalls unless you get your settings right.  The only connectivity problems were a savegame corruption that could happen when players quit a game (it's been fixed and all the lost points restored) and you have to host a game twice for people to connect for some weird reason.  Which literally means... start room, exit, start room again, you're done.  Hardly a big deal.  Other than that I haven't heard of anything beyond the usual stuff.  It's worked pretty much flawlessly for me, idol, gpw, and pyro.

[Xessive]

I haven't had much trouble playing online, it seems to work quite well with GameRanger too. However, when it comes to LAN the feature just seems  broken (unless loaded by GameRanger).

[gpw11]

Opening ports is hardly a "connectivity issue".  Few games out there work well behind routers and firewalls unless you get your settings right.

Yeah, this. I haven't had to open any ports for a game in years, but pretty much all the online games I've played over the last 5 or so years have been on Steam...which doesn't work in DMZ for some reason.  There are things to bitch about it Borderlands, but the port forwarding isn't one of them for most people (sucks if you're in residence and get actually forward the ports though).

[W7RE]

The DLC was released on Xbox Live and I got it. I started off with my lvl 38 siren on playthrough 2. The zombies were level 42+ and kicked my ass. I got some stuff spit on me and it slowed me, then I got overwhelmed by them. I switched to playthrough 1 and they're like level 35 and too easy lol.

The thing is a 1 gig download. I didn't expect it to be that big.

[MysterD]

Sweet, W7. Sounds good. Keep us informed on the DLC and stuff.

EDIT:
Here's Paul Helquist on (what many felt) was "the disappointing ending" of Borderlands.
SPOILER alert on the Ending of the game.
[SPOILER]

About The Ending

Gearbox On The Disappointing Ending Of 'Borderlands'
Posted 5 hrs ago by Russ Frushtick in Exclusives, Interviews, PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Today marks the release of the first DLC pack for "Borderlands," "The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned." But it's important not to forget that there was a whole game that came before it. An overwhelmingly excellent game, but also a game which had, shall we say, an ending that didn't quite deliver. I spoke with Paul Helquist, the Senior Designer on "Borderlands" to find out just what went wrong:

"We went through lots of different iterations on what the ending of the game was. We ultimately ended up with what you get to play. We didn't know how people were going to react to it. Obviously the reaction hasn't been as strong as we had hoped [laughs]. That's something we're going to be keeping in mind as we do new things, whether it's download content or other games in the future. We're gonna think more about it and try to get more user feedback before the game comes out so we can ensure that we'll have endings that you guys like in the future."

Helquist did see a silver lining to the "That-was-it?" ending of the game, though:

"I think what's great about where we did leave the player is that we have pretty much infinite options of where we want to go next. We aren't currently working on a sequel or anything like that, so that stuff is way down the line, but just from my point of view, it's sort of an open book in terms of where we want to go. We can go in directions that continue to explore the vault mythology or we can do something completely different. The ending of the game, for better or worse, didn't paint us into any corners."

Other Alternative Endings That Were Cut From The Game

Oh, and in case you're curious what the other in-development endings were like, Helquist confirmed that none of them ended up with you going in the vault and getting a bunch of awesome stuff. "They were all pretty much doom and gloom," he said. "We had all kinds of things that we ultimately didn't like and changed. We had things like Marcus [the bus driver/arms dealer] showing up at the end. All kinds of weird things with the Guardian Angel [the mysterious blue woman]."

So, in the end, it seems like Gearbox is left with a blank slate. The upcoming DLC should prove to be a nice chisel.

[/spoiler]

[W7RE]

Ending spoiler (base game, not the DLC ending)
[spoiler]After all the bitching about the poor ending, when I got there I was surprised. I was half expecting something like, "you get in and the vault has already been cleaned out." Or just a boring, "yup you got the treasuer, thanks for playing." I was happy that I got to fight a big cool boss.[/spoiler]


I'll have to put more time into the DLC later tonight. I slept late and got caught up in stuff with the family, and now I've got a WoW raid in 30 minutes. Last night (this morning) I really only played for about 15 minutes because it was something like 7 or 8 am.

[MysterD]

Ending spoiler (base game, not the DLC ending)
[spoiler]After all the bitching about the poor ending, when I got there I was surprised. I was half expecting something like, "you get in and the vault has already been cleaned out." Or just a boring, "yup you got the treasuer, thanks for playing." I was happy that I got to fight a big cool boss.[/spoiler]

Borderlands (Base Game) - My Opinion and Analysis Of The Entire Game's Story
SPOILERS GALORE
[spoiler]First time around, yeah - I thought the last boss The Destroyer was really cool looking, but I thought was too damn easy for me (it barely hit me) and that the ending was a complete jaw-dropper - like it say came out of nowhere. It was like "It's over?" It was like "WTF? We've all been manipulated for nothing and there's too many storyline threads lingering." I still feel that way about the threads lingering (that's there's way too many left hanging), though - but, now I don't think we were manipulated for nothing. I think it's WAY more apparent to me why the game ended the way it did, after playing through it twice already and now working on it for a 3rd time.

I think it was more obvious in the 2nd play-through for me, how much we've all been manipulated by...pretty much everything. I really closely tried to follow it, 2nd time around.

All this manipulation stems from the beginning w/ Marcus on the bus, talking about The Vault supposed to have riches, women, etc etc - it's all hearsay. Who really has seen all this stuff?

Even more so true, w/ the 'Guardian Angel' just being mentioned sarcastically and written in single-quotation marks from Marcus.

But, the best first clue was the Guardian Angel (GA) w/ the Bioshock reference ("Would you kindly...?"). I took it as a nice "side joke" first time around and paying homage, since the game was giving you a Tutorial. No, it's way more than that...

We were manipulated even into what eventually put the events into effect that wound up causing Atlas Corp to basically take over Old Haven - and the GA just let us go ahead and do it and even encouraged it.

I think also Commander Steele was being used so she could be wiped out - causing a major blow to The Atlas Corp. GA really put this all into action w/ her master plan.

GA manipulated us so we could destroy The Destroyer - which probably was the Ultimate Weapon from Pandora's Box (AKA The Vault) and basically get it the hell out of our world. We probably needed The Destroyer; not need to kill it.

Nothing sat right, after this game was over 1st time around - and even more so for me, 2nd time around. Now, I'm in the middle of my 3rd time (with Brick).

I just smell some sort of invasion coming led by The GA. The GA manipulated us and she's probably going to become an eventual enemy to us, in future Borderlands games.

I could be wrong and the GA did this just so we could "Save the world", but something still just doesn't sit right about the GA with me b/c of the way we were manipulated by her...[/spoiler]

[W7RE]

Some good points D, I never thought about that last part that way. Now I'm really hoping for antoher Borderlands so I can see what they decide to do.

It's funny how even in the DLC itself, they mention that "Dr. Ned blah blah blah, oh and he's totally not the same doctor from that other story." His mustache is so obviously fake though, and he has an uncanny resemblance to the IGN version of Randy Pitchford from their "Borderlands is for real gamers" video. (He dressed like that for Halloween too, lol)

[MysterD]

Eurogamer - Borderlands: Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC Review for PS3 and X360
8 (out of 10)

[W7RE]

So far it's a lot of the same, but with a drastically different visual style to it. Yea, it's slightly different in that the enemies melee you and are slow, but that just feels like it makes it easier. I sort of wish the zombies would shamble toward you though. Instead they do like a slow motion run (except for the crawling torsos that... crawl). A lot of the time it feels too easy because the number of zombies isn't enough to make up for the fact that they're slow and only melee you (some do spit/vomit, but it does little or no damage and instead it obscures your vision and slows you). But then I remember I'm playing this alone, and more players = more enemies. Also there are some scripted points where you'll get zerged and it's more hectic.

I can't help but compare to Diablo and Diablo 2's expansions. I don't remember a whole lot from Hellfire (for Diablo 1) other than adding the monk class. In Diablo 2 though, runes were added as a second type of item you could socket into equipment, along with rune words for multi-socket items, new item modifiers were added giving variety to the loot in any portion of the game, 2 new classes were added, and of course Act 4 was added. The big thing about that comparison is that once you bought and installed the D2 xpac, it changed the whole game, not just the new area. The Borderlands just adds a new area to play through, and when you're in the other areas it's as if you never bought the DLC.

I do have a thing for zombies though, so just the creepy atmosphere and the zombie hordes make it worth playing.



I don't think the perfect zombie game will ever exist. I think Left 4 Dead is the closest, but falls short in a lot of ways. If you took L4D and made the zombies slow, added more of them, and then add some barricading aspects, you'd be a lot closer. The only times I've seen anything like this has been in poorly done mods or indie games, and aren't FPS so they lack that satisfaction in shooting the zombies.

[W7RE]

I just skimmed my last post and realized how negative it sounded. I'm really having a lot of fun with it though. There's a lot of humor in it and some cool set pieces. I feel like zombies are lovable enough for all year round, but somehow this has a very Halloween feel to it. There's some pumpkins here and there, and I just came upon a place that was obviously setup intentionally so you'd see the silhouette of the building on top of a hill with the moon behind it. All it needed was a black cat or something to be a Halloween greetings card. I had sort of burned myself out on Borderlands and was planning to come back to it at some point, and this DLC has done it. Of course, now I'm sort of abandoning Assassin's Creed 2, which I still haven't gotten that far in.

[Quemaqua]

C'mon, PC release!

[MysterD]

Que - Agreed 100%.