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

I could never figure out with the "gag" guns whether there was some crazy-like-a-fox way to use them really effectively, or if they were just gags. I guess the internet could have cleared this up, but I tossed the bane almost immediately.

It's very effective vs robots but moving at a snail's pace invariably gets you killed.

the bogan gun in the pre-sequel usually is pretty good if you get it at the right time

I was browsing upcoming games and apparently the xbone/ps4 ultimate Borderlands collection thingy has an edition that comes with a remote control Claptrap that talks

It's also like $400 or something.

lol, not surprised

they're gonna make a crapload of money off that. if i were a bigger Borderlands fan I'd probably pony up

Will it have an auto mode where it just kinda wanders around the building singing/rapping to itself? Can that be hacked in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjWAWcx4xdE

any progress on Gearbox fixing the framerate issues in the Handsome Collection?

Recently began playing the first game. Boy, it's hard*. Currently stuck on both the mission where you pick up the dude's seeds in the valley (keep getting eaten by those lizard-dogs) and the mission where you have to take out the bad guy just outside the safe zone.

* Also, I suck.

kill more lizard dogs to level up and suddenly hard missions become medium missions

yeah, I try hard to just grind straight through but the Borderlands franchise is really set up so that some side quests and killing random stuff is essential

I've been playing through true vault hunter mode on the pre-sequel and ended up using the matchmaking to make it past a quest, which may have been a bad idea since everything is now overpowered.

thanks for the hints dudes. i wish it were a little more like fallout and i could talk my way out of trouble sometimes, or be devious.

btw in the pre-sequel, if anyone hasn't done the SHiFT codes, do them! basically you sign up for gearbox's account system, then can just paste in codes they've dropped on social media and that chest in Concordia just spits out purples

SHiFT codes are ESSENTIAL

even if it gives you total crap you can grind them a bunch

I need to get better at this grinding formula thing

worst case scenario all the stuff from the chest sells at like $10k

haha I gave up on the grinder, really couldn't be bothered to figure it out

I have no idea how to use it but it gave me a sweet orange weapon. I think I am on my way to the "get five orange weapons" thing now

yeah the difficulty curve in borderlands 1 is something else ... i do all of the side quests religiously and am always clearing areas out, so i was up to level 19 by the time i got to sledge and it took me like an hour to beat him.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/borderlands-the-handsome-collection-reviewchasing.html

^^ brutal review!

so OTM :(

I think that review is fair/accurate for the presequel but undersells the appeal of BL2

the core dynamic of opening a zillion containers in every room really could use a change-up

Yeah, as addictive as I found this, the satisfaction of not playing it anymore is pretty compelling. Some of the core mechanics are good and have great "feel" but I think I diverge a lot from the standard review that's like "there's guns! lots of guns! BAJILLIONS of guns!" Like, maybe less guns would be better. Less boxes, less guns, and focus on how the combat difficulty could scale better so you're always facing a challenge.

The sad thing is I burned out right before I was gonna start the Tiny Tina DLC, which everyone here was repping for and which I'd figured "ooh, I'll save the best one for last!" The Torgue one had some fun bits and cool environments but somewhere partway through the pirate one I just really started to regret my choices in life (though the watery grotto was lovely).

the only thrill I get from seeing new guns is the possibility of finding a ridiculous special one

It's always such a drag when you find a gun that you really like the feel of, and then it's rapidly rendered obsolete by better stats on something else. Maybe they should consider more of an upgrade-your-gun model, where you could swap in a better scope or whatever, but keep the same satisfying ka-chunk noise. Sort of chasing their own tail at a certain point and I guess it's innate to the whole mechanic... after all, DOOM doesn't have to worry about the shotgun becoming obsolete.

I think it's the pre-sequel that has the Excalibastard and I was so sad when I realized you can only ever pick it up once and it's locked to the level you grabbed it at

It's always such a drag when you find a gun that you really like the feel of, and then it's rapidly rendered obsolete by better stats on something else.

this.

until i cottoned to the idea that Stats Matter, I definitely played with certain guns i had a fondness for much longer than I "should" have

That review is stupid

also, with the guns, it really works against one of the other recurring hype tropes for these games, which is the whole "oh man but wait til you're shooting a gun that fires rockets that split into other guns that shoot lasers!" or whatever. So there are these badass, fun-as-hell high-concept guns...and you use them for maybe an hour or two of play or something because they're level 38 and your more boring but effect level 41 gun just leaves it in the dust. It's hard to really have both, unless there's some way the guns can "level up" with you or get upgraded. Maybe the main damage stat should actually be based on ammo, and you're an alien who secretes ammo that gets better as you level up. (?)

Also the economy is just really silly - I basically never bought anything from the machines because the stuff you have is almost always way better. But meanwhile when you finally do hit a challenging part and die repeatedly, you see all your savings disappear very rapidly. Where I come from, dying over and over is supposed to happen in games! Oddly one of the parts I enjoyed most were the little "survive against wave after wave of guys" arenas, specifically because I died, a lot, and so it was DAMNED satisfying to finally make it through.

yeah i loved the arena battles, so much more satisfying that opening things

also i'd kinda like to run the numbers on how much more money a person makes in the course of the game by opening all the chests vs never opening any. like it FEELS like it should all add up over the course of the game, and that you're DEFINITELY going to MISS OUT on a SWEET RARE ITEM but, like, all the really good shit gets dropped by enemies it seems, and all the mission-related payouts seem to dwarf whatever you pick up.

basically, there's a perverse FOMO that the game seems to require and yet i bet is not actually necessary for fun/advancement. just don't open anything and kill guys and i bet you'd be fine

- opening all the crates gets you a constant stream of cash/things you can sell for cash that supplements the income from killing enemies that you were going to kill anyway; doing so removes cash as a limiting factor from the game unless you decide to make it a limiting factor by buying a ton of shit for a specific reason
- the "shifting goalposts for story conclusion" complaint is really complaining about the quality of the story, as every single narrative game does this exact same thing until you get to the end of the main storyline, otherwise what is your incentive to continue playing? the reason why the complaint seems overblown for BL2 and accurate for the presequel is because the storytelling in BL2 is much, much, MUCH better
- arena battles are terrible and people's enjoyment of them pushed them to make most of the presequel add-on content into arena battles, which meant that I hated most of the add-ons I prepaid for because I didn't know the presequel season pass would just be characters and arena battles, so thanks a lot you big jerks

haha

I wouldn't want the whole game to be arena battles, by any means, and in terms of environment or story they were definitely less engaging (speaking of BL2 here) than anything else the game had me doing. But they involved challenge and the possibility of failure, which so often seemed absent in the main game.

The Farmville comparison works I think because difficulty is streamlined out of the gameplay process. It's like, you feed it a coin and it gives you a peanut and two coins; with two coins you can buy gum and three coins, etc. At its best BL2 disguises this by making the story and environments interesting, and making the act of shooting and blowing stuff up just fun in itself. The story, to be fair, basically had me engaged, barring some bits that I just didn't give a shit about. Certainly the NPCs could have been better actors, visually, but that's secondary.

So hey, that's not bad! But I think the best games do involve something more, like a set of skills that you gradually master so that more and more complex challenges can be attempted, and you feel satisfied at having developed these (arbitrary and IRL useless) skills. This isn't impossible in such games: the skill set could be shooting precisely (in space or in time), dodging behind things, marshalling a limited inventory of powerups or ammo, some forms of platforming, etc., and the nature of enemies and environments could gradually shape encounters that test these abilities more and more. It's just not that kind of game. Maybe it's less Farmville, and more the difficulty track of a JRPG: you eventually will become a god and it'll be awesome that you can do 9999 damage, but the steady grind of getting there would be transparently hand-holding except for difficult battles/dungeons along the way, and a story/characters that you really get into.

i really like the second wind mechanic

aka the AAARRRGGHHHH FUCKING DIE YOU BASTARD AAAAARRRGGGHHHH FUCKING RELOAD FASTER AAARRRRGGGGHHH SHIT SHOULD HAVE SWITCHED WEAPONS SHIT SHIT SHIT AHHH FUCK mechanic

omino OTM

also this is one reason why Wilhelm is so fun in the presequel; the skill that turns him into a nuke during Second Wind has saved my ass so many times

yeah, I have been taking advantage of that but if you are playing and the enemies are a level or two higher than you it doesn't really take them out!

also, some of them are jerks and know what you're doing and move away

Wilhelm's overcharge ability that charges up your whole party when you deploy his drones is fuuuun

the moving away thing is why I started trying to shoot things in the legs

yes overcharge RULES

I guess I should adjust tactics from my "always shoot in the head" strategy

aka the "always use one slot for a rocket launcher to avoid the scenario above" strategy

the optimal one would be that duke nukem homage one, jacked up to level 70

This is reminding me that I need to finish the last of the DLC packs for the first game so I can move on to the second already and then hopefully get to the pre-sequel by the time you guys are talking about the fifth or sixth game in the franchise.

Good to know the DLC packs for the pre-sequel are mostly arenas. Those things have pushed me as close to Hulk smashing a DualShock as few things outside of God Of War have.

aka the "always use one slot for a rocket launcher to avoid the scenario above" strategy

otm

The worst is when you find yourself crippled behind that handy cover you thought would keep you alive and you have a rocket launcher in your hand and a screen full of rock to aim at.

Some strategy guides talk about deliberately using the second wind as a quick and easy way of replenishing your shield in a busy fire fight. Such talk is from people better at dealing with the panic of impending death than I am.

so when leveling up a mordecai rogue: fast hands or out for blood?

also is gun crazy any good?

I can't remember, all the games let you respec for $$, right? I would recommend trying whatever fits your playing style.

just got B2, played through to the first real boss (?) flynt and then failed miserably, dying like ten times before giving up for the time being. maybe going to try again with a different class?

or maybe just resign myself to being terrible at shooters and not playing them.