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Gaming Borderlands 2 review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by brumgrunt, 18 Sep 2012.

  1. Eiffie

    Eiffie What's a Dremel?

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    Boringlands!
     
  2. SexyHyde

    SexyHyde Minimodder

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    It just goes to show that no one game fits all. I found the first few hours of borderlands a bit tiresome, but that was because i wasnt used to it, once i relaxed and just enjoyed it and played it to my style it became very enjoyable. the humour is some of the best.

    Scores shouldnt be taken too seriously. I never use one review to base a judgement either but normally look at metacritic get a few tastes and see if I personally may like it.
     
  3. whamio

    whamio What's a Dremel?

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    tell me 1 of your favorites, maybe I'm looking at this wrong. online games are full of cheats and baby wise asses..so what ya got n why
     
  4. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    I found this review to be useful and sufficient for this reason. A quick read through the actual review (wait, there's more than just scores and benchmarks?!) made it apparent that my complaints with Borderlands 1 were still largely present and that the main selling points of the game, specifically the over the top and pop-culture fueled mood, likely wouldn't appeal to me enough to warrant a purchase despite your 85% score.

    If I had my little way there wouldn't be scores or recommendations at all. A review should describe basics of the game and what the reviewer does or doesn't like about the game so that the reader can take that information and determine if they'd like to buy the game. A score is meaningless because it's not based on the reader's interpretation of the information and doesn't account for their tastes or interests.
     
  5. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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  6. XXAOSICXX

    XXAOSICXX Minimodder

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    I'm not even sure what that means....
     
  7. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    He's asking what games have you put a high number of hours into. You said because you put in 5-6 ours into Borderlands it isn't such a good game (to you), while he says that because he has put 990 hours into Borderlands it is a good game (to him).
    He is trying to find out what games you like, probably to see if you have bad taste generally (in which case he can dismiss your opinion as worthless) or a bad experience (in which case he'll try to convert you). He also doesn't seem to like online competitive multi-player games and the people who populate them, I imagine the annual COD clones and their clones are what he has in mind.
     
  8. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    Oh dear, links like that should come with a warning. My favorite part:
    1: Okay, fair request but laughable given that throughout the article the author has given CoD as an example of this.
    2: Borderlands 1 did have "scads" of downloadable content and it's fair to assume that Borderlands 2 will as well. Is he seriously asking for day one DLC?
    3: Because what we're all lacking in our lives is a good social networking platform... oh wait.
    4: Couldn't you trade weapons in Borderlands 1? I don't see why BL2 would be any different. Unless he means auction house style or worse: TF2 style.
    5: One of the main focuses of the game is four player co-op. Four controllers on a console, four characters to pick from, four players per world. Must be because it doesn't have a team deathmatch mode.

    I know you weren't linking that for serious discussion but I just had to rant. It wouldn't be healthy going throughout the day with that rage sitting around.
     
  9. XXAOSICXX

    XXAOSICXX Minimodder

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    Thank you!

    Answer: Titan Quest, Civ V, BF2/3, Company of Heroes..and since about 4 hours ago, Torchlight 2 (which is superb, btw)
     
  10. whamio

    whamio What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks, I've played BF2/3 but only the single player...not bad games. I'm going to try Torchlight 2, it's hard to find good games if you've gotten tire of the multi player scene
     
  11. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    This wasn't about getting the review out quickly. I had the game for a fortnight before release.

    There are obviously things I didn't cover in the review for the sake of brevity and so on. I chose to focus on what I consider to be the most important and indicative aspects of the game - the manipulativeness of the underlying mechanics and the overall world design and story.

    Some of the things you point out (mob types) I don't honestly think are worth such deeper consideration - do we really need two or three paragraphs about how the skags are now replaced bullymongs? To me, that's fairly facile and surface-level stuff and if that's the deciding factor for you then you'll be better suited to reading other reviews.

    I prefer to take a more critical and gestalt-orientated look at games, asking not merely 'Hey, what's new here and how cool does the publisher tell us it is?' but more 'What is there in this game that's really worth my time?'

    To be clear, what's worth your time in Borderlands 2 is the overall world design, the script, and the characters - not the underlying and very manipulative mechanics of the game itself.

    Other things you mention (is the storyline immersive / how many hours) are valid points to bring up but ultimately aren't always easy to express. It was meant to be implicit too that because I didn't criticise the length of the game then it wasn't really a problem. The storyline is pretty clearly not immersive nor intended to be if you understand the setting (which is spelled out in the world design section).

    As for the reptitiveness of missions, it seems what you're really asking is whether the missions are worthwhile on the whole. Functionally, no. Stylistically, yes. That's the whole point of the review - that everything in Borderlands is basically a horrible and depressing game-by-numbers design with a fancy, sweary gloss that really excels itself - and I can only apologise and try harder if that didn't come across properly in your reading.

    Anyone who wants to discuss this more fully, as I already do with a number of other readers, can hit me up on email (though I'm actually on holiday right now, so I may be a while getting back to you). Joemartinwords at gmail dot com
     
  12. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    :jawdrop::jawdrop::jawdrop:

    You spent more time playing Borderlands than I've spent playing all the games in my Steam library since 2004. That is 41 days and 6 hours of continuous gaming. Just wow!

    I'll refrain from giving commentary on the underlying reasons why anyone would play a game that much, I'm simply expressing my surprise.
     
  13. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    I know it is the Wall Street Journal, and I know you shouldn't expect much in depth reporting of gaming matters in such a publication, and you shouldn't expect a full time game reviewer, but still...

    He's the WSJ Digital Editor for Asia, not some summer intern. An experienced journalist of whatever speciality, even one writing outside of their experience, shouldn't produce crap like that. That is in no way an informed and objective review of Borderlands 2. It isn't even up to the standard of a blog (which, if you look at the IRL, is what it was).

    In his 2010 review of Halo: Reach he says "I haven’t played a first-person shooter since Castle Wolfenstein came out on 3.5-inch floppy disks". No sh*t, it shows!

    In his 2010 review of Fable III he said "Overall, though, I don’t like games that force you down a particular path. In this game, your every course is illuminated by a glowing dust trail – like emergency aisle lighting on an airplane. While it’s nice to not have to memorize locations or read a map, exploring is often half the fun of adventure and role-playing games." But...but that is what he loves about COD:Blops, and what he didn't like about Borderlands 2! He said he didn't like the big maps and the exploring.

    In his 2011 review of Resistance 3 he once again uses COD:Blops as a point of reference, that is how shallow his gaming experience is. He seems to think that common console controls were invented/innovated by COD or something.

    I don't have a problem with him having an opinion that COD:Blops is better than Borderlands 2, or that he just flat doesn't like Borderlands 2. But he puts himself out there as a game reviewer and he can't even articulate his arguments properly, or even tell the difference between what sort of game Borderlands is and what sort of game COD is. Other than the FPS perspective, there is very little similarity. He can't even tell the difference between the two games multiplayer types.

    You know what I found to be the WORST part of his review? "The game’s opening sequence reminds you that Borderlands’ developers chose to go the animation route, and I don’t like it very much. The game isn’t manga-like enough to be super-hip, so instead, it just feels cartoonish." Super-hip? And manga is the only style of animation that is hip enough to produce games in?

    He obviously couldn't have known how much of a manure storm he'd stir up, as the most comments his previous reviews has gathered was about 100. His Borderlands 2 review has gathered over 3200 and every one of them is negative criticism of his reviewing skills.

    As much as we may agree or disagree with Joe's opinions of games in his reviews, or even how writes his reviews, we at least all recognise that he has the broad experience to be a fully informed and capable reviewer. Although I might nitpick certain details, I mostly agree with what he writes.
    And that is why I don't think I should take him for granted. Or the other reviewers who contribute to Bit-tech.

    Edited afterthought: It really brings into question just how competant journalism and the news stories we read/view are. We as an audience really don't have a broad expertise to properly evaluate the news we consume. I have a field of expertise (other than games and gaming, as I'm sure most or all people here do) and I can say that both politicians and news reports are pretty poor and rather shallow at understanding and reporting on that area.
    All kinds of traditional media outlets are under pressure to maintain profits. Staff are getting laid off in huge numbers, journalists who used to specialise and focus on a single area are being forced to cover multiple areas of responsibility in which they may have little understanding, knowledge or interest.
     
    Last edited: 21 Sep 2012
    Sloth likes this.
  14. gosh

    gosh Minimodder

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    have to agree with the comments - your entire review is about how meaningless and bland this game is, you drop a couple of good points in the last paragraph and all of a sudden an 85% appears when i was expecting you to land it a 50% or so.

    agree with the 85% score, game is very similar to the original (though story is better and you feel a bit more connected to your character and their place in the world, plus the tiny addition of being able to mark loot keep or trash is so useful) but don't like this review - a PC hardware & modding site had nothing to say about the brilliant and highly customisable visuals, you barely touch on the fact that the writing elevates this game so much (script, enemy dialogue, even quest names constantly make me laugh especially jack - amusing yet menacing) and the fact remains it's just a damn lot of fun to play as you explode, melt and loot your way across a really interesting planet full of quirky memorable characters.
     
  15. SexyHyde

    SexyHyde Minimodder

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    Anyone interested in a premium preorder steam code for £22.50 let me know as I have had someone pull out of a four pack.
     
  16. whamio

    whamio What's a Dremel?

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    yeah bit much but then i'm a geezer, and have lived a full life. ... house is always full of teens the neighborhood hang out .....so i play while keeping an eye on things....
     
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