Topic: Borderlands: Diablo with guns

[W7RE]

I just finished it. Pretty cool overall, with some funny conversations and situations. You could probably play through the whole thing in like 2-3 hours, but I took my time, and had some distractions as well.

There's one quest chain I missed until after I finished the rest, and I really wish I'd found it earlier so I could work on it while doing other quests. I'll try to be vague as to not spoil anything. You'll get a quest early on that takes you south about halfway across Hallows End. When you do that quest, go all the way south to find the ones I missed. I'd do the first couple, then go on about doing the other quests in the DLC.

More specifically (though still avoiding some spoilers):
[spoiler]When you do the quest called Pumpkinhead, go south to the southwest corner of the map and you'll get a series of brain collecting quests (sort of made obvious by the fact that brains are dropping from the zombies you headshot even before you get the quest). First 10, then 25, then 50, 100, and 250. The 50 and up ones will be a lot easier if you can do them as you complete other quests. There's an achievement on the 360 for doing them all, but you PC guys may not care.[/spoiler]

[Quemaqua]

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.

[W7RE]

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.

Yea, the Challenges are in all the versions of the game, but the achievements are all completely different. I can't remember if BL uses Steam, so I thought it might have Steam achievements that match the 360 ones. The 360 achievements are completely seperate stuff, like discover X zone, reach level X, complete all quests in Rust Commons, etc. I think the only Challenge that matches a 360 achievement is 12 Days of Pandora.

I go after the achievements unless they're ridiculous or too out of the way. Like I skipped the multiplayer achievements for 'Splosion Man because no one I know bought it. (unfortunately, awesome game) Usually though, that means I get 50-75% of the achievements for a game and then move on, with the intention of coming back and getting the rest.

[MysterD]

GameSpot Review - Borderlands: Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC for X360
8.5 (out of 10)

EDIT:
Gearbox working on PC DLC and PC Patch.
Gearbox is currently working on a new PC patch and bringing Zombie Island DLC to the PC.
More info coming soon.

[Quemaqua]

Any press release or company statement that ends in "Zombies for everyone!" is a winner in my book.

[MysterD]

Any press release or company statement that ends in "Zombies for everyone!" is a winner in my book.

Can't argue that one.

[Schlotzky5]

I just installed this one today. Seems pretty cool so far. I'm impressed with how nice it looks on my computer. I'm only rockin a core2duo E6750, 8600GT and 2gb ram.

[Quemaqua]

Welcome to the club.  I think there are 6 or 7 of us playing the PC version, so you can hopefully find somebody decent to play with at some point.

[Schlotzky5]

how does the multiplayer work? Is it just the single player game as co-op?

Also, why isnt there a button for health packs? thats annoying.

[MysterD]

how does the multiplayer work? Is it just the single player game as co-op?

Pretty much.

If you do wanna battle it out w/ other gamers online - you can slap each other (melee) and do a one-on-one duel. Or, you can the other gamers can go to one of the arenas and y'all can battle it out there.

Also, why isnt there a button for health packs? thats annoying.

I wish I knew.

[Quemaqua]

It's basically the same, but it gets souped up.  Enemies get tougher the more players there are, and the loot drops therefore increase as well.

Health packs aren't meant to be relied on for mid-combat.  That's what the shield mechanic is for.  It's more for if you can escape and get to a retreat you'll have the opportunity to use one, or if you need to juice up between battles.  They aren't really a game mechanic to keep you in a fight longer.

[Schlotzky5]

I think I'm trying to play it a little too much like I played fallout3. I just don't have the health to go rampaging, especially when I dont have VATS to rely on.

[W7RE]

I use medkits mid combat a lot, but then I also play solo a lot. Wait, doesn't the game keep going in anything but the pause menu, even in single player? I don't know, eventually I got to where I don't really use medkits anymore. I'm playing the Siren and I have the ability that makes me regen health while in phasewalk, as well as the skill to lower the phasewalk cooldown. so phasewalk is up a LOT, and it regens probably 1/3 to 1/2 of my health every time I use it. Add onto that the fact that I've been sticking exclusively to shields with "very fast recharge", so that when I take a few shots, I just have to duck behind cover for a second or two to get my shields back.

Though, I've noticed I'm playing Lilith more like a standard FPS. I use phasewalk for HP more than anything else, and I steer clear of elemental weapons except for my sniper rifle (and I prefer explosions because the damage is instant. Corrosive and setting them on fire take too long to kill). The lack of damage found on weapons with elemental procs seems just too severe to me. Why have an SMG with 40 dmg per shot and x2 corrosive when I can have one with 80+ dmg per shot? (same accuracy and fire rate.) You know the 3 part (3 rounds) quest line of surviving in the arena that you get early on? In my first playthrough I needed to be like 3-4 levels above the recommended level to complete that. On playthrough 2 I did it at the suggested level and it was beyond easy, even with non-elemental "badmutha" skags, which should have been more resistant to my SMG that had no elemental effects on it.

[idolminds]

Elemental is good for conserving ammo. And while 80 damage per shot is good, the 40 dmg and 2x corrosive has the bonus of stacking DoTs. If you lay into someone with an elemental weapon you can get 4-5 DoTs going (dont know if theres a limit), each ticking damage away. So its good to save ammo, and the DoTs will do their work when you're behind cover letting your shield recharge. Set someone on fire and let them be...they'll die all on their own. You can concentrate on the next target.

[Schlotzky5]

I got up to level 17 in the single player game and I think I'm ready to go online. Hit me up if you wanna play.

[Quemaqua]

It should also be noted that corrosive damage can spread to adjacent enemies.  Not sure how that works with the others, though.  And I think the lightning damage reduces shields at a significantly increased rate over standard shots.

[gpw11]

Yeah, all the elemental types have added benefits.Shock kills energy shields, corrosive kills "tanks" and Fire is deadly to a lot of animal types.  Apparently many enemies have weaknesses to one of the enemies according to some hidden class type thing.  Oh, and elemental damage stacks on itself, which is huge.

[MysterD]

"Borderworlds" is a new trademark Gearbox has filed registration for.

Also, Gearbox says they got Borderlands - Zombie Island DLC coming to the PC and a new BL patch coming to the PC - no date determined for these yet still.

[MysterD]

All kinds of factoids about Borderlands.

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.

[MysterD]

For all you concept art lovers, check out this blog of Phil Wohr, who is a concept art designer that worked on these pieces of concept art for Borderlands.

[MysterD]

Time Magazine
Borderlands makes Time Magazine's List Of Top 10 Everything Of 2009.
It's #4 on their Top 10 Video Games List for 2009.

EDIT:
Nominations Galore from G4TV for their upcoming G4TV 2009 Awards.
Holy crap.
Borderlands is nominated in G4TV's GOTY Awards in a whole truckload of categories - seven, to be exact.
Nominated for GOTY, Best Original Game, Best Gameplay Innovation, Best Multiplayer, Best Shooter, Best New Character (Claptrap), and Best Art Direction.


EDIT 2:
DLC #2 = Arena Based maybe?
PS3 version of Borderlands has new trophies listed.
Looks like hints of DLC #2 planned here.
Looks like it might be Arena-Based.

[gpw11]

Anyone been playing this lately?

[Quemaqua]

I haven't at all.  I'm hoping Gamespy got over its shit and we can play soon, though.  I've got to work the rest of this week, but then I've got next week off entirely.  So we totally need to get some late-nite shitkicking going on.

[idolminds]

Yeah, I want to get to Playthrough 2. But with them dropping hints at a patch Ive kind of been waiting for that. The shadow bug sucks and these recent connection problems are even worse.

[gpw11]

Awesome.  I'm fucking swamped this week, but should be good to go starting sat/sunday.

[PyroMenace]

Sweet, Ill be off that weekend too, Ill be down. Plus Im pretty much done with Dragon Age so I'll be looking for something to play.

[W7RE]

DLC out NOW for PC!

Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/8990/

Gearbox Store:
https://store.gearboxsoftware.com/

[idolminds]

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.

Now how about that patch, Gearbox?

[MysterD]

Glad that it's out and all.

But ugh @ 5 installs for a limit - even more so especially for Steam version (which has both Steam and Securom DRM - double whammy there).

Are there any revokes allowed for this thing?

EDIT:
Watch the DRM 5-install limit complaints pile up on Steam's forums.

EDIT 2:
From Ennui of Gearbox on Zombie Island PC DLC's DRM.

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.

[MysterD]

Borderlands - Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot (DLC #2) announced.
Coming December 29th for 800 MS points to XBL; and Jan 7th on PSN for $9.99.
PC version of this DLC is unknown currently.

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.

[idolminds]

Selling storage space in RPGs is the new rage.....FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

[MysterD]

Selling storage space in RPGs is the new rage.....FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

If they want to sell that - fine.

But for $9.99, there better be more than say just 3 arenas and storage space - they gotta' package something else with it.

I expect more campaign quests to make me playing for a few good hours - 5 hours would be fine - inside and outside of the arena areas.

I'd like to see new enemies too, as well...

[Pugnate]

Sorry guys. Stupidly priced DLC is here to stay.

[MysterD]

Sorry guys. Stupidly priced DLC is here to stay.

And if we don't speak up, they'll price DLC even MORE stupidly.

[Pugnate]

Yea your speaking up on OW is definitely going to get their attention.

[W7RE]

Speaking of storage space. When you rescue a claptrap on playthrough 2, you get a random item instead of an SDU (adds inventory slots). Apparently you have a decent chance to get an SDU. So save just before you turn in the quest, and then do it over and over until you get the SDU, and you can expand your inventory a lot more than you could otherwise.

[MysterD]

Yea your speaking up on OW is definitely going to get their attention.

Spoke up on Gearbox's boards - asking if there's anything else to this DLC, basically...
And here, too.

EDIT:
4 page article on IGN on The Making Of Borderlands.
Damn good read, if you ask me.

[idolminds]

So, there is a patch. Though there are no patch notes anywhere that says what it might be fixing other than "adds support for DLC".

[Pugnate]

Hey I have a question regarding the PC version. Do all versions (digital or retail) use steam?

[idolminds]

Nope.