BORDERLANDS - like Fallout 3 but with cars and MAXIMUM PWNAGE OMGWTFLOLNEWB FPS combat

yeah, it's definitely a save v. spawn point thing---but there's really no good way to know which is which aside from context ("I'm in the middle of a mission"). generally speaking, fast-travel points seem to indicate a hard save point, a save-machine (or w/e) encountered as you go around the corner or something is likely just to be a spawn point

it is possible that i have not noticed this because most of my BL2 sessions tend to be the sort where i endlessly play until horrible late night hours until i am nodding off with the controller in my hand

Anyway having not progressed all that far (just met some low cut siren lady and had a long drawn out fight with a load of overpowered psychos) I think I'm fed up with it. I don't know how much randomness there is in the weapon drops, I'd imagine quite a bit. And maybe I've just been unlucky. But I can't find anything I enjoy using, they're all either too weak or too slow or too short/long range, I dunno, I'm just finding it frustrating - while I'm levelling, and the bad guys are levelling, it just feels like my weapons aren't, so it's getting tough in a way that's not much fun. Plus gunzerking gets a lot less enjoyable once you have three weapon slots and have to do tricky micromanaging to make sure the two of those three you actually want are the ones you get when you activate your power up.

I played Borderlands 2 basically nonstop all weekend.

How was it? I'm holding out picking up either this or Skyrim on the last day of the steam sale.

Will probably go for Skyrim as I want to wait for all the Borderlands dlc to be released.

only had the xbox for a couple months but skyrim and B2 are my #1 and #2 faves. skyrim's engrossing and elaborate, B2's just berserk addictive nonsense... but you knew that already.

i like borderlands 2 a lot, but man, it's fucking hard! i guess i don't play a lot of FPS' so maybe i'm just terrible.

I found it really hard at first until I figured out that gun switching was key. get the right weapon and you can blow through a lot of stuff, but you've got to pick up and drop guns to figure out what works best for you. some parts you have to research online - never would've gotten past boom bewm without looking it up. aiming with the left trigger is important too, as is getting your special power. can't remember exactly when I got it but it was early on (hammerlocks?), as axon I can throw out a mini-howitzer that fires itself at enemies, it's almost like having a second player on yr side in a firefight.

The multiplayer matchmaking is a bit broken. You'll often find people just using the game as a chatroom, or playing slots or dueling or whatever, and the more people in your session the harder it is, so without the help of those guys you might as well just find another session if you're trying to progress within the story. But I find the game a bit boring on 1p so it's a necessary evil for me.

i'm playing as a siren, and i have the feeling i'm in a weird purgatory in terms of difficulty. i have the superpower, which lifts a single enemy up in the air and freezes them for a few seconds. it's really useful in some situations, but if there are multiple enemies and the shit's hitting the fan, it can leave you exposed because you end up ignoring the battle around you for a few seconds to concentrate on the floating target. later on, i see that skill upgrades can be unlocked that allow the superpower to impact multiple enemies. but right now...

The most important thing to know, in my opinion:

Each skill tree has two five point choices in the first row, two five point choices in the second row, and three choices in the third row. The skill in the middle of the third row is the key skill in that tree. Since there are three trees I recommend that you put all your points into whichever of those three skills interests you the most. It's worth mentioning that reassigning your skill points is relatively cheap in the quick change machine. Also I recommend putting all five points into one skill rather than splitting them 3/2 or whatever.

As far as the siren is concerned I have the third-tier skill that makes her power like a black hole, sucking in nearby enemies and taking some power from them. It's nice. I haven't tried the other two third tier skills for her though.

So here's a dumb question: where do the DLC missions fit in story-wise, and what levels are they appropriate for? It seems like I can access them whenever...

The DLC missions have level numbers just like the main game. I think that if you play through the game and start a new game plus, they will level up the mission difficulty/bonuses just like they do for the regular missions, so if you think you're going to level up to 50 then it's a good idea to save them so you can get the best possible guns (if that appeals to you).

B2 is worth twenty bucks right? I think i'm going in.

where is it 20 bucks?

PS+

i wish this game kept stats (kills, dmg done) during co-op so u can brag

psn was down and i'm a bit ill so i picked back up the first one and puttered out right around the same place: when car combat becomes a thing and all the fetch quests begin to grate. is the second one that much better?

i haven't gotten bored of the second one yet

I put a ton of time into the second one, never bought the original.

The game is much better with multiplayer. The world is pretty open, so combining powers and flanking and etc. is very fun. A little boring by comparison as a 1p experience.

okay, i got hooked on doing the original in multi hour runs and just beat it... a little disappointing? I think I'll wait on the second one for awhile and instead transition to backlog. Still got to play arkham city for instance!

yeah, the ending is pretty anticlimatic for Borderlands

the storyline's wafer thin anyway, don't think I'll be disappointed cuz this game is all about finding hueg guns and marching into battles. this is the first FPS I really got into, there's something weirdly fun about it. more to do with art + physics + gameplay than story arc, in a way its pleasures are very in-the-monent old school, like smash TV on steroids.

i've only tried B2 with multiplayer once and the other ppl were so stupid and bad that i assumed it sucked, and went back to soloing. maybe i should reconsider?

the dlc made up for the ending of the first, i felt

except for the battle arena one, that sucked

okay, i got hooked on doing the original in multi hour runs and just beat it... a little disappointing?

Same here. I've got all the DLC as I got the GOTY edition but I think I'm a little burned out on it so I'll leave it for now.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-BL2/borderlands-2

TEN BUCKS

anyone for 360 multiplayer? No headset. Polyphonique

still waiting on GOTY

Not bad, not bad. Will probably be up for playing some multiplayer/co-op when I get home later this week.

i do not understand how saves work in this game.

That's the thing, there are loads. And if I just die and respawn then fair enough, it always seems to bring me back at the most recent. But if I exit and save then comeback later, I think it's bringing me back at the spawn point nearest to the start of whatever quest I'm on at the time, rather than the spawn point I triggered most recently. And some of the quests cover a lot of ground, geographically. So eg that early mission "best minion ever", I'd played right up to the bit where I was about to fight that Flynt guy, had to shut down, so triggered a save point right before that boss fight. Then when I came back later I got birthed right back at Hammerlock's cabin, which meant it'd undone maybe an hour of play for me.

― JimD, Wednesday, December 5, 2012 2:05 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is basically what i'm dealing with and it's frustrating because i don't really have time to sit down and play for an hour and half straight to get to the next real "save" point.

If you're on a story mission, you can't save and quit and pick up your progress later. For other missions, like those where you're killing 10 bullymongs or whatever, your progress will be saved if you save and quit. I think the idea is so that if you're playing multiplayer it increases the likelihood that you're starting from the same place so it's easier to play through the game with randoms. There are checkpoints but they only work within a session.

Also, if you play through a second time on the harder difficulty, the checkpoints are fewer in number and much farther apart.

took me forever to figure out the whole janky saving thing, definitely had some moments of nerd rage when i realized that i'd lost what seemed like hours of my life after making the mistake (several times! w/o figuring it out!) in the middle of Where Angels Fear To Tread.

eventually, though, this just spurred me to play in a more aggressive style. less creeping around trying to snipe, more kamikaze. made it more fun, in a way, though i was bummed to learn that the game doesn't really do a good job of encouraging true thief/assassin style game-play. maybe it does if you max the bloodshed tree, but that only seems feasible as a multiplayer role---it'd be impossible to take down, say, BNK3R as a pure melee character

urgh that's annoying. basically means i can't play it unless i have a big chunk of time available.

You can always play side missions! :-)

i have neglected this game so much because i have it on 360 and my ps3 is too much of a shiny new toy to ignore. this tiny tina dragon quest thing looks appropriately BATSHIT

Yeah I don't have any of the other DLC but I want this one.

Yeah I don't have any of the other DLC but I want this one.

Ditto

I'm up to the Hammerlock DLC on my main character and it's a huge dud so far; it's like a big chunk of the first Borderlands as far as level design is concerned, with incredibly irritating healing enemies. The closest thing to a bright spot is the villain, which is basically some dude doing a James Urbaniak/Dr. Venture impression.

HOWEVER.

I started a second playthrough with the downloadable Psycho character (super cheap as part of the Steam sale), and it is just stupid fun. Everything's geared toward encouraging you to just rush headlong into melee range (I don't think a single one of his skills gives is oriented toward shooting, except for one that give melee and shotgun damage bonuses simultaneously) and soaking up damage. I'm dying constantly, but the very first skill point I got at level six went toward a hilariously dickish Suicide Psycho grenade-drop that almost always gets me back up on my feet immediately. So much fun!

have you done the Dark Souls DLC? Any good?

maybe ask in the dark souls thread?

there's a Dark Souls mission in the Borderlands 2 DLC: http://kotaku.com/borderlands-2-gives-a-pretty-elaborate-shout-out-to-dar-591952962

Waiting for next massive DLC sale on steam to stock up

Oh that's pretty cool! Didn't know that.

that was an xpost

yeah looks good dunnit

so it seems that the tiny tina dlc is hard as balls huh? i think the first dudes you run into are level 30 or some shit

so it seems that the tiny tina dlc is hard as balls huh? i think the first dudes you run into are level 30 or some shit

Yup. And there's def some situations that require (as a single player) total avoidance. Which is alluded to by at least one place name (something like The Village of Quick Passing Through).

It's more fun than the main game imo.

so it seems that the tiny tina dlc is hard as balls huh? i think the first dudes you run into are level 30 or some shit

The 3rd and 4th DLCs (Sir Hammerlock, Tiny Tina) are meant to be played after the main game, I think. I can't say one way or the other about Tiny Tina but Hammerlock certainly takes place after the end of the main game and starts out with enemies in the 30+ range.