Gaming Borderlands 2 preview

I was just wondering (not "wandering", hint hint ) whether or not those images in the article are supposed to be in-game shots or (more likely) conceptual artwork.

As for the game itself, I'm looking forward to it. Had great fun playing it. I probably won't be buying it at release though. If for no other reason than my huge games backlog on STEAM.

 

I'll wait till the price drops. I'm a cheap ****er.

 

My point about me not reviewing Skyrim was that you didn't know my opinion of Skyrim. I don't think I've ever actually written about the game.

Skyrim IS mainly fetch quests, you're right, but it's redeemed by the freedom you have to circumvent them. There's lots to explore, lots to do...that's not as true in Borderlands because this isn't an RPG in the same vein as Skyrim. It's an RPG in the vein of Diablo 3 and, like in Diablo 3, the storyline isn't what's important to most players - it's the loot and the moment-to-moment feel of it.

The whole point I was trying to make in the article was that Borderlands 2 seems to be full fetch quests and filler content, but that there's maybe enough wit and panache around it to make it interesting some of the time, etc.

It is just gun porn and gun porn isn't inherently meaningful or worthwhile in any real way - but it can still be fun or novel up to a point. The question is whether that point meets expectations for value. Because this is only a preview and I haven't seen the full game, I obviously don't have an answer for that yet.

As for providing information about Borderlands 2, this is all the info they gave me. I played it for about two-three hours and this preview gives the gist of everything I experienced in that time. So, if you want story details, Gearbox didn't provide any (and a repeating claim for ARPGs such as this is 'who cares about the story anwyay?', right?)

I spoke to Randy Pitchford for a good 20-30 minutes about Borderlands 2 and at no point did he even mention the storyline. From what I saw, I'd suggest that if the plot is the major reward to you? You might want to look for a different game. Borderlands 2, like the original, doesn't seem to be huge on the story. It's about the mechanics, the variety of weapons, the zaniness of the setting - and little else.

Apologies if that sounds overly defensive, by the way. I don't actually mind that haters gonna hate, as you say - I really enjoy having ongoing discussions like this and having to defend my viewpoint a bit more thoroughly.

PS.

Opinion on Skyrim:

Spoiler

I actually did like it, up to a point. My issue with all Bethesda RPGs is that they seem to rely overly on modders to fix issues and supply the most interesting content. I always play their games for about 30-40 hours, then I slump into a trough where I just feel like I've seen everything - which is something I don't think a lot of reviews successfully point out.

Instead, most reviewers play the game for 20 or so hours and write about how awesome and endlessly replayable the game is without realising that that opinion will rapidly fade shortly afterwards.

Skyrim is like an MMO in that sense - at first it seems huge, varied and tremendously overwhelming...but get into the mid-game and you quickly realise you're actually grinding through fairly transparent content. It's the mods that fix that and I think they deserve a bit more of the credit for it, rather than critics labelling Bethesda as being amazing for things produced by the fans.

 

They are probably staged to look cool, but they are representative of how the game looks on PC.

 

love that it has splitscreen, more PC games should have this.

and namco should release tekken 6 on PC too!

 

Thanks for clarifying that. Have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. Graphics seem to have taken quite a step forward since the first game, which I actually thought already nailed that particular cell-shaded look perfectly.

 

Playing through Borderlands again with some mates, it's fun. But the game has always been cripplingly reliant on co-op to make it fun, and it doesn't implement the co-op especially well. The game as a single player experience is and has always been absolutely crap.

The problem with the co-op is the logistics. For example, you really want to have a team of four people playing it for it to be properly challenging, and in this way it is great. Four players, end to end, it's a really fun game. But you pretty much need to keep that play through synchronised to get the best out of it. Means it can be quite a tough game to get a really enjoyable play through out of it. It's a common problem to a lot of co-op games though, and why the format tends to work best in a mission-by-mission format like Syndicate or Left 4 Dead than an extended open world thing.

 

Looking forward to this, not worried that BT has given it a weak preview (that might actually be a good thing)

BT has been weak on reviews since Shattered Horizon scored less than MW2, what a joke.

No BT reviewers, Romulans do not forget!

Yours in Eternal Assessment Plasma,
Star*Dagger

 

I loved the first game. The art style is great, I don't like the whole trying to be ultra realistic style much. it always seems to look dated so much sooner to me. Cell shaded graphics are timeless, I mean XIII still looks great (only other artistically similar game that sprang to mind sadly) and has scaled fairly well through time and hardware advancement.
I don't really look on Borderlands in an rpg way at all. I see it as a FPS with some rpg crap that I can totally ignore. I could care less about the 'quests' as long as there is good level design and action on your way it is all good.

 

Loved the original, have preordered this. I get the boring fetch quests criticism but it's the character of the game and the quite-frankly-retarded chaos of getting each bit that makes it fun. Like Diablo - the same weapon with random stats is addictive. It's a game that always wants more more more.

I'd argue the set pieces are the weakest points of the game. With the exception of 9-toes (and has 3 balls) none of the boss fights....wait were there even any boss fights?

 

9-toes, sledge and the tank driver were pretty fun.

That said, some of the setpeices were admittedly boring. Nonetheless there were some awesome environments.

 

Have pre-ordered this as the previous borderlands was great so hopefully the second one will live up to its reputation

 

Yes, sledge! and his shitty shotgun reward......can't remember tank driver.