Borderlands

[Rob]

My wife and I will be purchasing copies of Borderlands through Steam in the next day or so. Right now, we can pre-purchase for $44 a piece, however, they have a four pack going for $134.97, which is $33.75 a copy. So, if I can get two other people interested and are willing to send me $33.75 through PayPal, I will gift a copy to you through Steam and we will all pay the lower price.

Borderlands video review (http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/957205/borderlands/videos/borderlands_vdr_101909.html)

[Joe Cool]

Dam, Rob, I just booked flights to go over to see Claire. If not for that I would go for it, looks like its gonna be a good one.

PS, I demand to see pics in Show and Tell!:):

[Rob]

PS, I demand to see pics in Show and Tell!

Will do.

[Gary V.]

I'm in if I can pay you on the 27th. PC version, right?

[Mitch]

Darn. I am interested but I just set up a Paypal account and it says it takes a week or so to add a bank account to it. Do you know of any other faster way?

[Rob]

Needs to be PayPal, but as long as you say you are good for it, I can wait.

Yes Gary it is the PC version, but it must be through Steam, so no physical disk. Not sure if that matters to you or not.

[Edit] I just bought the four pack, so if you two want them, just make a definitely yes and what day you can pay. The 27th is fine. The only thing is, when you send with paypal, you must send it as a gift, or they will take a cut from me. Learned that the hard way in fantasy football and had to cover the difference myself. Sending as a gift should not cost you extra.

[Mitch]

Alright I'm up for it. I added a credit card so I'm hoping there's no hold on it or anything. I'm pretty new to paypal. So all I need is your e-mail and I'll give it a try at least. I download most of my games through steam so I don't mind not having the disk.

[Rob]

I am liking Steam a lot so far. They have good sales, so if you are patient you can get games for dirt cheap, and I no longer have to worry about finding a working no cd crack.

[Mitch]

Yeah I know what you mean, I just bought Saint's Row 2 for 8 bucks, and right now Assassin's Creed is on for 5 bucks! I already have it, but it's almost worth buying just for a gift. Have you found another person to go through with the preorder?

[Rob]

Looks like Gary might be on board. I already ordered it, and now have three gift keys. The game will be out on Monday.

[Mitch]

Okay sounds good. If you give me your e-mail I'll try sending you the money with my credit card through Paypal.

[Gary V.]

I'm in. Paypal sounds good. Gotta be the 27th or wife will freak. Thanks, Rob!

[Rob]

That is no problem Gary.

Everything sounds good. Thanks for the help Mitch and Gary, you saved me $22.

[Mitch]

No problem, you saved me some cash too. I might even be up for some more of these deals in the future, Steam is great.

[Rob]

I received the money Mitch, though your wacky Canadian conversion rates shorted me a penny. :p:

[Artman]

I don't know anything about the game, but my friend who owns it said "Borederlands?! More like BOREDerlands!"

I chuckled.

[Nyghtfall]

I don't know anything about the game, but my friend who owns it said "Borederlands?! More like BOREDerlands!"

Yeah, watching the video review, it seems to me that the only thing going for it is its art style. I understand that the devs wanted to do a complete 180 from what other games have done in terms of creating photo-realistic environments, and basically had a brain storm of an idea to use the concept art they'd sketched for it create its visuals. Otherwise, it looks like a pretty run-of-the-mill shooter. Granted, the number of weapons it's going to have is mighty impressive, but I can't help wondering just how many of them will prove utterly useless.

[shizakapayou]

I saw it described as something you'll like if you're a fan of games like Crackdown. It's sort of a thing you either get or you don't.

I'm interested, but given the heavy multiplayer slant, I'll wait till it's cheaper and we can round more of the forum into it L4D style ;)

[Rob]

It reminds me of what Hellgate:London wanted to be, a FPS/RPG.

Granted, the number of weapons it's going to have is mighty impressive, but I can't help wondering just how many of them will prove utterly useless. Exactly like Hellgate: London and Diablo 2. They even said that in the review, not specifically calling out Diablo, but that many weapons are useless until you find the right one. You are not going to go from pistol straight to a BFG, but that is part of the fun.

Speaking of L4D, this past week has been The Suck. I recently got over the plague, but then my four year old had it, and we spent many nights up with her. Throw in two major school projects due and my life hasn't been mine. However, daughter is feeling much better, projects will be done. The wife and I are going to a Ren Fest on Saturday, so I should be refreshed, relaxed and ready to do some zombie fighting.

Need to go witch hunting.

[tonofclay]

Gonna be firing up Borderlands after I finish up this last episode of season one of The Wire.

Won't be able to play with you guys on Steam though ;)

[Rob]

I was able to play for two hours and quite enjoyed the game. Unfortunately, this week is not the best week to get a new game due to school. I am looking forward to the weekend, so my wife and I can play some multiplayer.

I also bought Left4Dead 2, which isn't out until November, but if anyone else gets it, let me know so we can get some games together.

[Mitch]

Well I gave Borderlands a shot last night and I have mixed feelings. Some things I really like are the interesting enemies and the art style, of course. I get a strange feeling of clunkiness when I play it, though, but it might just be because I've been playing the same game non-stop for weeks now and I need time to adjust. I haven't gotten very far into it but unless I accidentally skipped a part of the intro, the story doesn't really make any sense yet. So far I've only played single player but I might give multiplayer a shot tonight. Anyway, the game looks promising so far and I'll probably get a few hours in later on tonight.

[Joe Cool]

If you guys can, give indept(ish) review. I might pick it up whe I'm in England next week.

[Rob]

I had some screen tearing problems when I first played, but if you go into the .ini file and turn on VSYNC, it got rid of the problem. I also had to turn mouse sensitivity all the way down so it wasn't so disorientating. After that, it has played quite smoothly.

I stopped after beating the first boss, and the story has been a bit sparse. It does start to open up a bit as you go move on, but clearly the focus is on gameplay and not the story. I earned my first skill point, which unlocks the class special and grabbed my first sniper rifle, which is quite nice. As my character says... "oooh, his head exploded!"

I need a few more hours to put in the game before I give it a review, but I will definitely post something for you Joe.

[Gary V.]

Screen tearing is bad; I will def be fixing that. I also am going to have to adjust the mouse sensitivity; at times I became very disoriented. I don't see how folks could play this on a console.

Art style is cool.

[tonofclay]

Only played for an hour or so, I think I might be right at the first boss now but I'm not sure. I picked the Hunter, sniping people is pretty cool. I died once trying to snipe those dog like things that run around, turns out I couldn't tackle the biggest dog things at the time and they ran up and destroyed me in one hit pretty much.

I'm digging the graphics so far, its a refreshing style. The music and sounds are all well done too.

If you like finding tons of loot you'll definitely enjoy this game, theirs loot everywhere.

I'm about to fire it up and take on the current quest which is hopefully the boss.

Also Rob I have my L4D2 pre-ordered so I'll definitely be up for some games when it comes out.

[Rob]

Here's a quick guide on how to fix some of those things. Do back up your .ini files before messing with them. Copy and paste to desktop works just fine.

Disable Voice Chat

Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.i ni

Find: Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=True

Change To: Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=False


Enable V-Sync (Stops screen tearing)

Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.i ni

Find: Code: UseVsync=False

Change To: Code: UseVsync=True


Disable Intro Movies
Original:
[FullScreenMovie]
StartupMovies=2K_logo
StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
StartupMovies=NVidia
StartupMovies=Loading
SkippableMovies=2K_logo
SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
SkippableMovies=Attract
SkippableMovies=NVidia

Replace with:
[FullScreenMovie]
;StartupMovies=2K_logo
;StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
;StartupMovies=NVidia
;StartupMovies=Loading
;SkippableMovies=2K_logo
;SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
;SkippableMovies=Attract
;SkippableMovies=NVidia

Adjust the FOV (Field Of View)
Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.in i

It's Important that you find:

[WillowGame.WillowPlayerInput]

Add Below The WillowPlayerInput Section:

Bindings=(Name="F11",Command="FOV 90",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

You can experiment with different FOV figures to find a field of view that suits you.



Disable Mouse Smoothing
Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.in i

Find: Code:

bEnableMouseSmoothing=true

Change To:
Code:

bEnableMouseSmoothing=false


Ports Required To Host Multiplayer Game
Quote:
To host an online game, the following ports need to be opened / pushed to the host's internal IP address:
Code:

7777 (TCP/UDP)
28900 (TCP)
27900 (UDP)
28910 (TCP)

[Ojnod]

I was able to play for two hours and quite enjoyed the game. Unfortunately, this week is not the best week to get a new game due to school. I am looking forward to the weekend, so my wife and I can play some multiplayer.

I also bought Left4Dead 2, which isn't out until November, but if anyone else gets it, let me know so we can get some games together.

I also bought borderlands and also can't play it much this week because of school. And I bought Left4Dead 2 ..... are you my doppelganger Rob?

I did manage to slip in a few hours yesterday and played to Lvl7 with 2 friends. This game is right up my alley and I think I'll have a lot of fun with it.

[Rob]

My wife has put in quite a few more hours than I have. She found her first vehicle a few hours ago and was enjoying blowing stuff up with the heavy weaponry. She is at level 15 I believe. I am not sure what level she was, but I was in the bedroom studying when I heard her shout down the hall that she grabbed her first purple weapon or something.

And no, not doppleganger. I have more wins than you in fantasy football.

[Ojnod]

Psshh that's only because the match we played each other was so close!

[DavidP]

I heard her shout down the hall that she grabbed her first purple weapon or something.

I feel your pain man

[Mitch]

I feel your pain man

You guys are lucky, my girlfriend wouldn't touch a PC game if her life depended on it. :mad:

[Rob]

I am lucky in that regard, she is a big gamer. She plays The Sims mostly, but we have put in lots of time together playing WoW, Diablo 2 and others, and she is really digging Borderlands. I walked in the door an hour ago and before I even got a hello, it was "look at my new rocket launcher, it blows people up." Got to love her. She also is big into D&D, Magic: The Gathering and we are starting to play Munchkin. Trust me, it makes life so much easier to share gaming.

[DavidP]

You guys are lucky, my girlfriend wouldn't touch a PC game if her life depended on it. :mad:

PC game???? Oh right the "purple weapon" is a gun, I get it now, i apologise for my dirty mind :blush:

[Joe Cool]

You guys are lucky, my girlfriend wouldn't touch a PC game if her life depended on it. :mad:

Same as that. Though she does do a bit on the DS.

[shizakapayou]

If it's not Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones, I probably haven't succeeded in getting my wife to play it. Some of the Wii games get some playtime, but not much. But at least she generally puts up with my 360 time - I haven't used it much lately so I can hog the TV when Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect hit ;)

[OldsterHolster]

I'm still keeping up with this thread, because I'm almost done with Red Faction-Guerrilla, and I need to be thinking about what to play, next. Borderlands sounds like it might be OK, to me, and, after reading the review, I just may order it. Even though they say playing solo is a "lonely" experience, it sounds like it might be entertaining and long-lasting, and I'm easily amused. Heh, heh. After I solo through it, I might even consider some multiplayer with you folks, since the review kept stressing how much more fun it is to play it that way. Let's see some shots and comments over on the SHOW&TELL thread. Edward.

[DavidP]

Just bought borderlands, and after 5 PC crashes i have now had to disable SLi to get it running. I find it unbelivable that a deleloper can make a game that will not run in SLi. Other than that its a great game and funny, the bus ride at the beginning is the B**locks, love Cage the Elephant, watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2y6L6A-Mrc . I have now started the game using all 4 characters, and am preferring the hunter.

[Ojnod]

Just bought borderlands, and after 5 PC crashes i have now had to disable SLi to get it running. I find it unbelivable that a deleloper can make a game that will not run in SLi. Other than that its a great game and funny, the bus ride at the beginning is the B**locks, love Cage the Elephant, watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2y6L6A-Mrc . I have now started the game using all 4 characters, and am preferring the hunter.

I love the intro! It is so simple but probably one of my favorite game intros of all time.

[Ojnod]

My thoughts...

So I've played the game quite a bit now and I am really liking it so far. I rolled a Hunter as my first character and got to level 20 by the weekend. I played the first 7 levels with 2 friends but since I've been really busy this week and they haven't been, they are nearing level 50 on the characters that they made that day. So as a result, I've been playing levels 7 through 20 all by myself.

When people ask me what I think of a game, I generally try to compare it to two or three other games by saying "Borderlands is like if _______, ________ and ________ had a baby." In this case, those blanks would probably be Crackdown (X360) and Auto Assault (PC). This game is a loot whore's dream as you'll be finding new weapon and shield upgrades almost every level. It's like Christmas morning every 30 minutes for people who are in to that kind of thing!

The Good

-The graphics are interesting and I really enjoy them. Hopefully I'll remember to put some screenshots up in Ed's screenshot thread this month.
-I like the talent point system and the fact that you can change things around if you realized that you are headed in a direction that doesn't cater to your playing style. I started picking up some sniper stuff early on but later realized that the more generic skills in the pistol tree are better for me when I'm playing solo.
-The NPCs have some funny anecdotes. I don't really pay attention to the story but Scooter is hilarious and there are some robots that remind me a lot of WALL-E.
-The vehicles are accessible fairly early (I think I got to drive one for the first time at level 11).
-The default key map is set up just as you would expect and I could just press the buttons that games like WoW have imprinted in my muscle memory over the years. (L for quest log, M for map, O for social things like friends list)

The Bad
-A mini-map would be really nice, I miss that some times.
-People who have dumped a lot of hours into MMORPGs may find the quest tracker to be lacking. You can only have 1 quest tracked at a time and sometimes you may be working on 3 or so that are in a similar area.
-If you thrive on monster diversity, this may not be your thing. It seems like they just keep popping up as bigger versions of something that you already fought. The game has "elites" like many RPGs with titles like "Alpha" and "Badass" signifying that this version of the enemy is stronger than usual.

The Ugly

I haven't fought a boss so far that was "tough". Maybe it is just my class but I can kite circles around everything that I've come up against so far. I accidentally engaged a lvl 21 boss when I was lvl 18 and I was still able to kill it even though it took me probably 30 minutes of running in circles.



Well that is all for now, maybe once I get to be a higher level some of the negatives will turn into positives.

[Rob]

I haven't fought a boss so far that was "tough". My first character was a soldier, and 9 Toes (with 3 balls) :lol: gave me a lot of issues. When I started my hunter, I two shotted him with crits to the head using a sniper rifle. My wife is playing the phasing chick and is doing quite well with her. From my understanding, the second play through has the difficulty ramped up quite a bit.

Other than that, I agree with what Donjo said, and my wife and I have thoroughly been enjoying the game.

I also like the customization of weapons. Yes, they are the standard fair, pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles and the like, but with the mods, you can really customize your weapons. I also like the ingame achievement bonuses and the weapon level ups, i.e., use pistols, and after awhile your entire pistol skill will level up and you can earn faster reloads, more damage and so forth. So, it pays to stick to a few types of weapons, though you are not tied to them.

[gridiron whirlwind]

I just bought this game today at wal-mart....I may get startted on it tonight.

The art-style graphics really grabbed me when I saw them....then I read it was a RPG-Shooter that had co-op and that was enough for me to buy it.

[OldsterHolster]

I just ordered Borderlands from GoGamer.com, today, myself. I keep finding little missions to do in Red Faction-Guerrilla, and it's still fun, but I'm ready for something different. I'd probably prefer a pure shooter, but it sure seems all the new ones are just ridiculously short, and I just can't afford big bucks for six or eight hours of gameplay. My preference for single-player doesn't help, either, and it seems multiplayer is more the focus on a lot of the newer games.

OK, last time, I promise, but I'll say it, again. Red Faction-Guerrilla is over fifty hours of simple fun, for cheap! If you like fast driving, shooting bad guys, beating stuff to smithereens with a big hammer, and floating around with a jetpack, then you can't go wrong; and I really had fun playing every bit of it. Edward.

[Rob]

My wife and I have been putting more hours into Borderlands, but I think I would have a very hard time starting over and playing alone. Starting over and playing with others is fine, but there are other games that are better suited for single player imo.

With that said, my wife and I are still having a great time. When you get the first vehicle, one person drives and the other shoots, she loves driving, I hate it. I love shooting, she hates it. So in the end the vehicle works out well. We tried multiplayer death match, but I had better weapons then she did, so it didn't last so long.

There is already an expansion pack coming with more content, not sure if it extends the level cap or not.

[gridiron whirlwind]

I have started Borderlands, and so far I really like it.

My son and I are going to be playing co-op over our home lan, but for now I started a single player game.

It is a post apocalyptic world, but I for one like that .

In the short time that I have played this, I have found these things that I really like.

The game world graphics reminds me so much of Fallout & Fallout 2....except it is done in a FRS format and not isometric...I am really diggin the graphics because I loved the graphics in the first 2 Fallout games.

It is a nice change of pace to play a game where the graphics are not meant to be real looking.

I love the fact that while it does have RPG elements....it is pure shooter fun and realism of what could really happen in life are thrown out the window for some pure FUN!

I am early on, but I can see alot of DLC content coming for this game.

One of the best things I like is ALL THE WEAPONS :yes:

I can't wait to play this in co-op with my son...there are alot of laughs in store.

Rob, my wife watched my son play alittle and I think she too is going to give it a try.

[Rob]

I have found quite a few areas where playing multiplayer is almost necessary. Not that it can't be done single player, as my wife is farther along alone than we are together. Last night we fought a boss, hitting him in front did 24 damage. Hitting him from behind I did over 1000. You can see how this would be difficult with one person since they will always be facing toward you.

Co-op is a blast, and we put in a few more hours last night. She is playing the siren, who can phase walk and I play Mordicai who specializes in sniper rifles. She gets their attention, phase walks, I snipe them and then she blasts the hell out of them when she exits the phase walk. Works very well. If you have three computers on the LAN, you will be in for quite a treat.

[gridiron whirlwind]

Well Rob, we only have 2 pc's on our home lan....but I am still looking forward to it....plus we may hook up with a couple of my sons friends, if they can host....i will let you know how that goes, if we can get it done sometime.

[gridiron whirlwind]

My game is crashing at the same place everytime

Right when I hit the dynomite lever to unblock the baricade....it crashes.

Anybody else have this....my game is patched

[Rob]

No, neither my wife or I have experienced the issue and we have been there multiple times. Might want to check the official forums to see if they are experiencing the same thing. Have you tried the game on both PC's?

[gridiron whirlwind]

Fixed it guys....diabled AA in my Nvidia control panel and problem is solved.

[OldsterHolster]

I'll remember that. GoGamer sent me my shipment notification, today, so I should get it tomorrow or the next day. I'm looking forward to a new game. Edward.

[Rob]

My wife and I are up for rolling new characters if we can all get together a few nights a week and play. That goes for anyone who has the game.

[gridiron whirlwind]

I would be up for it Rob

[Rob]

That would be great Gridiron, especially since the college semester is just about over. What is a good time for you?

[gridiron whirlwind]

I am in Ohio and would be free in the evenings around 7:00 PM

Maybe available at other times also.....it just depends

[Rob]

We are in KY, so that works out well for us.

[gridiron whirlwind]

Just found this...looks like a blast.....glad to see this for the game.

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

[shizakapayou]

Just picked this up, Steam had a decent price at $33. Hopefully I'll get to play it this evening, downloading now.