Borderlands

[StupidBoy]

Lvl 20 now, finished off Sledge. He was pretty easy to take down, my shotgun pwns xD I'll do all the quest that opened now, and proceed to Dahl Headlands. Benji, what's so special about it that you think it's awesome?

@Guillaume, swarms of skags? I just had 3-4 alpha skags and an elemental badass. Still pretty hard, though.

[benji]

When you first drive out of the gate, it's so flat except for random rock formations and seems to stretch forever just desolate. Feels like the American Southwest. Western Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Northern New Mexico/Arizona.

Just feels like you're alone in this horrible place to be alone, likelihood of survival low.

Then eventually some critter comes up and I pull out my rocket launcher or sniper rifle that has explosive rounds and the feeling goes away. But driving out of that gate into that desert does it every time. It's just so flat and seems to go forever. The other parts in the game have felt more like you're in a valley or canyon so far. And there's been enemies all over the place.

[el badman]

@Guillaume, swarms of skags? I just had 3-4 alpha skags and an elemental badass. Still pretty hard, though

Well, yeah, but since you already have to deal with those 3-4 alpha skags, let's say that all the lesser skags that show up don't really help...

When you first drive out of the gate, it's so flat except for random rock formations and seems to stretch forever just desolate. Feels like the American Southwest. Western Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Northern New Mexico/Arizona.

I guess that's also why I like the overall ambiance, it feels like home.

[benji]

I love that you can "take" like ten missions, and yet complete them all as you want without having to reselect them. I was driving to one mission out in the Headlands and completed another in the process without realizing it until i was 2/3rds done with it.

I guess that's also why I like the overall ambiance, it feels like home.

Psch home. I was talking about all that desolate land outside the artificial cities we've stuck out there. You know, the places real men live. Not FOREIGNERS.

Really, Borderlands is the first great Western game. Gun and everything else has been too stuck in replicating the "best parts" of Westerns, without delivering on why the Wild West intrigues so many people. Borderlands does but just has fancier technology. It's part of why Firefly is the same thing just with spaceships involved. (To be fair, in both instances the technology is not miles beyond what we have, it's not like Trek in the 60s. A lot of Borderlands you can plausibly imagine happening your lifetime or even now. And popular Westerns were the same way in "ignoring issues" that were more common in the actual day in favor of bringing in then-modern audiences.)

Still too many human enemies though. I'd rather they were confined to kinds of "settlements" instead of the random outposts they seem to have. I'd rather face more critters when I'm out in the middle of nowhere, than an outpost full of guys with rocket launchers. Every single Metroid Prime went from absolute perfection to "mildly annoying" when they introduced the Space Pirates as the enemy around every corner instead of using "native critters" (Echoes being the worst offender) and Borderlands has the same problem. They make sense in places, but like two sheds in the middle of nowhere, no. NO.

The critters are more unnerving, even if easier to take down, simply because they're "alien" and there's nothing human about them. Skag Gully is better than Arid Hills because you're only fighting Skags and Rakk's, they're weird, creepy, animals, who knows what they might do, they sound scary, you're ALONE with them, etc. In other parts you see and start shooting up some guys, and who cares? The encounters with the bandits would be more relevant if you only dealt with them in certain situations and locations. But running across them every ten seconds makes them boring. Metroid Prime mostly nailed this, Echoes failed at it and I think that's why I prefer the first so much more over the latter even though Echoes has a ton of objective improvements. Same thing here, anytime I run across bandits in weird places I'm mostly "this again?"

[el badman]

I agree, I don't mind so much skags and other beasts spawning over and over in the same areas, because they each have their own type of "nest", and it kinda makes sense, but it's more annoying when it's humans, because it feels very random and unrealistic, especially when you've already slaughtered everyone 5 minutes earlier. I'm not sure what the respawning delay is for humans, but it should definitely be longer at least.

I love that you can "take" like ten missions, and yet complete them all as you want without having to reselect them.

A little bit like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but less confusing, more straightforward. They've handled it well, I wasn't expecting something so well oiled in the singleplayer portion of the game.

[Lean]

I'm having thoughts in getting this game with all the things you guys mentioned here.

[JaoSming]

same, sounds awesome

[el badman]

You guys shouldn't be disappointed. It's tons of fun if you're into slaughtering and looting for the craziest weapons. Not much of a story behind it, but it's not so much the point.

Level 20 right now, and still loving it.

[benji]

There's story there, you'll start getting more of it shortly. Although you might not like the horrific things you have to combat.

At one point last night I literally had 20 missions I was able to do in about 80% of the locations. So awesome.

[el badman]

Level 24 right now and discovering a bunch of new areas. I thought the whole map was relatively small so far but it does get much bigger after a while.
I must say it was nice to find a fairly big populated area (New Haven) where you can sorta talk to people, get new missions and buy/sell stuff without getting attacked by bandits or critters. It felt a little bit like Megaton from Fallout 3, which was something that I was missing so far with Borderlands.

And that giant "mothrakk" was certainly a bitch to kill, I did 3 or 4 times before finding a hiding place where I could snipe him from afar and avoid his attacks...

[benji]

And that giant "mothrakk" was certainly a bitch to kill, I did 3 or 4 times before finding a hiding place where I could snipe him from afar and avoid his attacks...

I used the car port down the hill from where you trigger it.

[benji]

I love when you get a set of weapons you just love. I randomly picked up an assault rifle that has a scope and like X12 multiplier, thing is deadly if I use the first two shots on the head and then no-scope the rest. I'm back to selling off everything because what I have is more brutal.

I like that a lot of the areas are letting me sniper strike from afar, although there are some annoyances with the native critters. It's letting me snipe all the "bandits" otherwise.

The critters are a lot like the Metroid Prime series, you can really just ignore them (especially in a vehicle) and only really take the time to kill them if you want some ammo or if they're high enough level wise.

[Dee.]

Im On to this one.
Playing only two days,On the Lan with my Friend Im lvl 21,And he's lvl 20.
Loving the weapons,the monsters,Everything.
Loving this game.

[benji]

Rakk Hive! Other Giant Critters! Crimson Lance! Salt Flats!

The game has really been ramping up the large scale boss conflicts as it is winding down.

[Lamrock]

Just started playing and am on level 3. Not that into it yet, but I like the premise, and due to the glowing reviews here, I'll keep going with it.

[Dee.]

Just started playing and am on level 3. Not that into it yet, but I like the premise, and due to the glowing reviews here, I'll keep going with it.

Believe me.
The Bigger level you are,the more fun you have.
The Boss Fights are just amazing.
By the way,What's your character?

[Lamrock]

Sniper. Just got to level 5 now with him. Enjoying the RPG elements, and looking forward to new enemies.

[Lamrock]

Didn't go about the game as tactfully as Ben and paying the price. Level 13 was a slight revelation as it opened up some major upgrades, but the Mine Key mission was two hours of hell. Also lost the majority of my small fortune. How are respawn points in the middle of gunfights logical?

Nonetheless, very addicting game, despite me sucking at it, and the lack of a story. Best weapon right now is my vicious sniper that deals 154 damage.

[Dee.]

Didn't go about the game as tactfully as Ben and paying the price. Level 13 was a slight revelation as it opened up some major upgrades, but the Mine Key mission was two hours of hell. Also lost the majority of my small fortune. How are respawn points in the middle of gunfights logical?

Nonetheless, very addicting game, despite me sucking at it, and the lack of a story. Best weapon right now is my vicious sniper that deals 154 damage.

Respawn's are pretty random lol,You might kill a few guys when you go back to the city,complete the quest,and when you're back,they respawn again..
Boss monsters respawn too.And about the weapons,the more you play,the more powerful they will be.Lvl 19~ And you'll get snipers with like 200~ Dmg,and probably some effects,burning,lightning or something like that.Later you can buy items that add skill points to you (i don't remember how are they called).
Driving is fucking great in this game.
P.S. Sniper's Special skill is worth shit.

[benji]

Didn't go about the game as tactfully as Ben and paying the price. Level 13 was a slight revelation as it opened up some major upgrades, but the Mine Key mission was two hours of hell. Also lost the majority of my small fortune. How are respawn points in the middle of gunfights logical?

Nonetheless, very addicting game, despite me sucking at it, and the lack of a story. Best weapon right now is my vicious sniper that deals 154 damage.

You attempted Sledge's Safehouse at level 13? No wonder it was two hours of hell.

Look at the missions thing, don't take a mission if it doesn't say "Trivial" or "Normal" unless you want that brutal sludge through waves of death. Farm areas or take some of the easy missions off the Bounty Board.

[Lamrock]

Level 12 for most of it. It was pretty awesome though, after killing the midgets, I was able to lure the roid rage psycho into the low area just before you enter the arena-type place, then jump out and start shooting him in the head until he died. He couldn't get out.

[el badman]

Level 26 right now, the weapons are becoming pure madness. I gotta a crazy revolver that's pretty much a one hit-kill.
I finished all the missions from the New Haven characters, I was a little disappointed with that, and then what do you know, much more missions pop up here and there... Cool stuff.

[Dee.]

Some Story and maybe Dialogues would make this perfect.

[benji]

Read the details on the missions, listen to the Tannis recordings, examine the world, etc. It's all there, you just have to put the pieces together.

Level 26 right now, the weapons are becoming pure madness. I gotta a crazy revolver that's pretty much a one hit-kill.

I lucked into a scoped Masher around Level 14 that has a base damage of 350. I used it for the entire game until recently, when I've been rocket launchering people to start an attack.

Said pistol was so brutal, that the boss Lamrock mentions, I hit him once with an incendiary sniper round/headshot to start him on fire, then used one clip from the pistol into his head to bring him down.

Considering that when we did co-op, Kaboom tried to fight said boss at level ten and couldn't do any damage to him, it was amusing. (We were down there too early, and I realized it and wanted to leave, but he insisted on being useless.

[Lamrock]

I tried to leave that boss battle, but I kept getting killed by badass psychos. Was so happy I found that little trick. On level 15 now. My brother tried to play co-op with me, but he got discouraged with his paltry level 1 character. Managed to get him to level 9 just with me beating a couple objectives, but he was left unimpressed. Maybe its time to renew the XBL account...

Trying to level up to compete with Sledge. Hopefully I get another good weapon besides my sniper rifle.