Released on October 20, Borderlands is Gearbox Software’s post-apocalyptic, wild-west shoot’n'loot FPSRPG. That’s quite a lot to say – but there’s a lot to like about this game.
 
The game is set in an unspecified future on the distant planet Pandora. Huge numbers of colonists were drawn to the planet by the promise of vast mineral wealth … but Pandora turned out to be largely barren. Those who could leave did so, abandoning everyone else to fend for themselves. Some years have passed, and now the rapidly decaying human society is faced with a new problem: Pandora’s long slow orbit around its sun has brought winter to an end, and the hostile (and hungry) indigenous lifeforms are emerging from hibernation. In the midst of all this, people are still drawn to the planet by legends and rumours of a vault somewhere on the planet that contains a vast cache of powerful alien technology. Anyone who could find and access the vault would be wealthy and powerful beyond the dreams of mortals. 

Borderlands borrows heavily in theme from Mad Max and the Fallout games, but differs in tone: where the Wasteland and its inhabitants are deadly serious, Borderlands is wacky and over-the-top. You’ll save dancing robots from shrieking cannibal midgets, melt people’s faces off with electrically-charged shotgun shells or make a guy’s torso explode like a blood sausage with your fists – and all this in a bright and colourful cel-shaded visual style against a backdrop of more traditionally-rendered backgrounds.  

So how does it play? Very well indeed. Borderlands manages to tap into the best aspects of both the FPS and RPG genres to combine the excitement of rapid-fire death and destruction with the powerful, twin allures of levelling and loot.  

The FPS controls are tight and responsive, though the alternate control schemes are not very good; I for one would have liked to swap the buttons for crouching and melee attacking. Weapons perform very differently from type to type, and enemies are kind-of clever, often seeking cover and being perfectly happy to stay back and let you come to them. They don’t really work together very much, though.  

While Borderlands borrows from Mad Max and Fallout for theme, it’s straight up channelling the ghost of Diablo II for design. Looting, levelling and improving via upgradable skills is alive and well on Pandora. Loot-wise, Gearbox President & CEO Randy Pitchford says it best: 

[...][W]e ask questions like, ‘what’s your favourite shotgun? What should our shotgun be?’ and the programmers and designers will debate this. And we were thinking if we care about choice, why can’t we have all the shotguns? 

In order to make this happen, the game procedurally generates weapons and other loot by combining bits from a vast library of parts and accessories for a half-dozen different weapon types, from revolvers to rocket launchers. But the variance isn’t just aesthetic; weapons vary wildly in power, accuracy, rate of fire and magazine size, and there is a dizzying number of additional modifiers that can apply. As if all that wasn’t enough, some weapons are ‘elemental’, inflicting additional damage over time. At last count, the system had generated more than 17.5 million different guns, so there is literally no telling what you might find. Watching a weapons crate slowly pop open is always exciting! 

The levelling system owes a clear debt to Diablo II and World of Warcraft’s Talent Trees. Each of the four character classes – Hunter, Soldier, Siren and Berserker – has access to a unique Action Skill and three distinct skill trees that enable the character to specialize in certain approaches to combat. For example, Brick’s Action Skill is Berserk; when activated, Brick puts his guns away and flies into a blood-fuelled rage that gives him increased movement speed, health regeneration and damage resistance. Brick’s three talent trees are Brawler (which makes his Berserker rage even more deadly and effective), Tank (which focuses on making Brick fantastically survivable) and Blaster (which focuses on Brick doing damage with guns, especially explosives). Players are free to dabble in more than one skill tree, but the greatest payoff seems to come from committing to a single path over many levels. Action Skills are unlocked at level 5, and players receive a single skill point at each level thereafter. Building a character is a lot of fun and it’s really satisfying to see and feel the differences your skill points make as you progress. 

L to R: Roland, Lilith, Mordecai and Brick

Borderlands uses a combination of NPC quest-givers and local bounty boards to keep players busy, and to dole out experience points, new gear and money. No chances are taken with quest-types, and everything you do will fall under the category of killing someone or something, finding/collecting something, or fetching something and bringing it to someone. It would be easy to crticize Borderlands for a lack of variety here … except that this is the case for pretty much every RPG ever. On the other hand, the flavour of the different quests can be quite different, which keeps things fresh and interesting. Quests do seem to be given almost entirely via text bboxes, which is a shame because it deprives NPCs of an opportunity to develop any character. To be fair, one gets the feeling that NPC interaction was not a major priority for Gearbox when they were putting Borderlands together. Still, when you consider how much personality Saint’s Row 2 managed to inject into a game where essentially every mission is “go kill some people”, Borderlands’ quest-giving mannequins come across as being inadequate.  

Vehicles also have a role to play in Borderlands, though not an especially large one. They are handy for quickly traversing the game world and for running over troublesome enemies. Unfortunately, vehicular combat appears to be limited to simply mashing the rocket launcher button until the other guy blows up and taking on more than one enemy vehicle in single-player can get frustrating.

By far one of the biggest factors in your enjoyment of Borderlands is whether or not you have any company. The game is quite enjoyable as a single-player experience, but it’s in playing cooperatively with other people that the game really shines. Network play allows up to four people to work together, and there are no class limits. If you want to play an all-Soldier group, go right ahead. Xbox 360/PS3 owners can also run two-player coop via split-screen (if you have an HD TV, try changing your aspect ratio from 16:9 to 4:3; that should allow you to split the screen horizontally instead of vertically). The game scales to the number of players, increasing how many enemies you face, and how tough they are. As one of the loading screens explains: More players = tougher enemies. Tougher enemies = better loot!  

I think that one of the reasons that Borderlands works so well is that Gearbox opted to layer the RPG elements on top of the FPS, rather than the other way around. Consider Fallout 3: although it had a strong shooting aspect, it was layered on top of the classic RPG elements like dialogue trees and lengthy bits of story. Borderlands’ plot is paper-thin – and it knows that. But in the end, it’s not so much about the story as it is about the experience. Gearbox have taken the view that getting into deep into elements like NPC interaction and dialogue trees would ultimately create a barrier between their players and what the game is good at. By focusing on the action and applying a tasty RPG icing, Gearbox have created something pretty different.  

For accesibility, presentation, performance and fun, Borderlands is an 8.5-9/10.  Thanks to Rusty for lending it to me for a few days! 

 Bonus: Claptrap channels Christian Bale in a couple of videos!

Waking one morning ready to enjoy a freshly purchased game via STEAM, the client notified me of an update. Reading while it downloaded, the release notes stated yet another fix for the recently released Left 4 Dead 2.

Let me clarify before continuing. This was a STEAM CLIENT update just for Left 4 Dead 2, not a game patch.

Now, there’s been talk of this recently, geared more towards the developer side of things, but the recent string of Valve-game-only client updates have me pondering another side of the question:

Is STEAM “unfair”?

There was an issue with the STEAM CLIENT and how it handled the post-download installation on some recent games, like Bionic Commando and a few others. Basically, STEAM wouldn’t install the game, leaving many not able to play the game they bought. When was Bionic Commando released? July. When did the STEAM client update come out to fix this issue? October, almost three months after the games release. This is just one of the many times a client bug was preventing people from enjoying games that they bought.

But for Left 4 Dead 2, one of Valve’s very own, we’ve had almost a dozen updates for the STEAM client to fix issues JUST with the Left 4 Dead 2 demo/retail game. Just because STEAM is their baby, Valve can tinker with it to add functionality or fix the problems with their games just days(or hours) after they are discovered, while other companies games get client updates on “Valve time“, if at all.

Is my assumption biased or has my thought process ultimately led me next to the previously discovered land of Randy Pitchford?  Do you feel the king of digital distribution is stacking the cards in its favor?

A few weeks ago I contacted Randy Pitchford, co-founder and CEO of Gearbox Software, for an interview regarding Borderlands, the upcoming DLC and the possibility of a sequel. Randy was nice enough to make time in his busy schedule (i.e. playing and making video games for a living – lucky bastard!), to answer some of the questions.

This is part two of that interview and covers the possibility of a sequel, some technical questions, and other random tidbits.

You can find Part I here.

[Sidenote: Read my on-going review/in-character/commentary series on the game, 'The Borderlands Chronicles':

• Part I: “Zed’s Red Baby!” or “Skag Skirmish”
• Part II: “9+3=12” or “Why Don’t They Call Him 3-Balls?”
• Part III: “Vending Machine Tycoons” or “Give ‘em Hell Bloodwing!”

Enjoy!]

:: ON BORDERLANDS 2 ::

Bronte (B): Mike Neumann has all but directly confirmed a sequel to Borderlands. Can you comment further?

Randy Pitchford (RP): I think Mikey just said that he can confirm that there’s a “chance” for a Borderlands 2.  I think he was playing around with the journalist there… He also said, “Obviously, nothing so far is planned. We’re working on DLC.”

B: Come on! You know you want to!

RP: I don’t have anything to announce at this time, but I’m really excited that you’re excited.

:: ON TECHNICAL ISSUES ::

Thank you for not allowing PC to be a bastard-child, secondary-citizen to the console generation. Do you feel a game designed from the ground up on the PC has better cross-platform development? Or vice versa?

RP: I think PC development has become more complicated and tricky over the years. But I also think we can do even more there. We’re looking at sales and looking at forums and we’re prioritizing things in our support of the game and are going to take influence from the data and the experience to affect our future decisions.

B: Halflife, Brothers in Arms, and now Borderlands. Do you feel getting hit IP’s that demand expansions and sequels stagnate a studio’s creativity or enhance it?

RP: We just try to make video games that we think are fun, cool and those we want to play ourselves.  I think that it’s important for us to spend time on things we want to spend time on. Sometimes, that’s new things and sometimes, that’s caring more for things with which we’ve already spent time. I think if we had a magic wand, we could magically create more time for ourselves because there are so many things we want to make and so many things we can spend our time doing.

B: Borderlands, for a lot of people, was a painful experience because of the troubles with online play and LAN issues. What steps is Gearbox taking to ensure these issues are sorted out for the upcoming content?

RP: I think that is the thing I wished was most different… And we’re investing more support in those areas. There are some awesome people here that really care, even after the launch, in correcting the troubles.  We’ve already deployed some updates, for platforms, that have addressed some of these issues and we have more deploying as soon as we’re clear to do so.  I think the connectivity issues that some customers are having will be soon cleared up and I think the experience has taught us and our publishing partner a lot which in turn will make the connectivity experience in our future games much better.

:: MISCELLANEOUS ::

B: Are you aware that your name’s initials also stand for “Role Playing” or “Randomized Pew-pew?”

RP: I am now.  Thank you for pointing that out.

B: Was it really you that killed those play testers?

RP: That was some funny thing that IGN did.  I had no idea that they had even done that, but after the surprise, I was highly amused by it.  I even dressed up like the fake me for our costume party at the studio during Halloween because what else could I be?

B: Are there any plans to bring that madman to justice?!?

RP: MAINSTREAM’D!

Gearbox sign with some dude

If you have never heard of Gearbox Software, insert a witty variation of the crawl back under the rock pun. Halflife: Opposing Force, some obscure title, Counterstrike, I think it my have been, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, a little game called Halo, and more recently Brothers in Arms and Borderlands are just some of the titles Gearbox Software has produced over the years.

If you don’t know of Randy Pitchford, lift that rock you have been living under above your head… higher… a little higher… little higher still. Now let it drop. One of the four co-founders of the company, and the current President and CEO, his vision and leadership has made Gearbox Software a force to be reckoned with. With so many titles under his belt, one might say Randy is a magician. You’d be right, because prior to becoming a developer, he actually was a full-time magician in Hollywood!

I contacted Randy a few weeks ago for an interview regarding Borderlands, the upcoming DLC and the possibility of a sequel. Randy was nice enough to make time in his busy schedule (i.e. playing and making video games for a living – lucky bastard!), to answer some of the questions.

This is part one of that interview and covers Borderlands and the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC. Part II will focus on Borderlands 2, technical issues, as well as some miscellaneous comments.

Enjoy!

:: ON BORDERLANDS ::

Bronte (B): Borderlands is a lonely place. Aside from a few plot advancers and quest givers, even the main ‘towns’ feel devoid of human life. The bandit towns, on the other hand, seem brimming to the rafters with goons. Given the post-apocalyptic feel of the game, and the setting of Pandora, was this an intentional design choice?

Randy Pitchford (RP):  From a story point of view, we did want the place to feel that the lawful side of things had completely degenerated. We wanted the towns to feel as if they once were much more relevant and populated, but when you finally arrive, few are left and their future is bleak.  From a design point of view, we wanted the game to focus on the action and not on reading text or following character plots around. The most fun to be had in Borderlands is through adventuring, taking down bad guys and taking their loot. This is where we wanted much of the focus to be. As far as we felt, we could safely push  that part of the experience so; we downplayed the NPC and dialogue which is often associated with role-playing games.

B: Gearbox has made shooters for a long time. In a prior interview with Xbox Magazine, you said that Diablo’s near-obsessive loot-collection mechanic was a heavy influence for the game. Yet it feels that even the loot that drops from bosses is scarce compared to the loot flood we experienced in Diablo. What was the rationale behind this decision?

RP: I don’t think scarce is the right word for describing the amount of loot that drops from bosses in Borderlands. A typical boss will spew a bunch of things and you will also typically find other valuables locked away in chests nearby. In Borderlands, however, we tried to be careful about finding that right balance; too much loot and you’re spending more time sifting through it and making decisions than you’d like; too little loot and you get bored and lose interest because you’re not having enough opportunities to find new and exciting things.   I’m really confident we achieved the balance between those end points, especially considering how much we iterated the design and how much we tested it with test subjects. Still – there’s always room for improvement

B: Aside from Diablo, Borderlands is compared to MMO’s on occasion. Creatures re-spawn (in a logical manner, not materializing out of thin air, kudos on that BTW). There are dungeon crawls. You can grind the same boss for the perfect loot. It is almost as if Borderlands was an experimental foray into the treacherous waters of the MMO genre. Hint, hint?

RP: Yes, there are some MMO influences in Borderlands.  While we’ve definitely done something in creating the first great shooter-looter, there are certainly things we can do even better through iteration. Expect some developments in the future updates and in add-ons in which we’re heavily invested.

B: ‘Shooter-looter’, I like that term. I also noticed you didn’t really answer the question! Moving on! Borderlands had a very harsh, unwelcoming feel to it. The music especially added to the idea of isolation and the overall mystique. How elaborate was the sound design behind the game and how will you improve on it in the upcoming DLC?

RP: I’m really proud of what Raison and Mark accomplished with the audio design; those guys are incredible. Raison took tremendous responsibility for the music and most of the audio effects in the game. He did a great job capturing the feel of both desolation and wonder, and wrapping it all together which is a difficult task to accomplish.

B: One personal pet peeve: why does my vehicle (at least on the Xbox 360) have two steering wheels? You accelerate with one, and turn with the other. Was there a reason behind this counter-intuitive implementation?

RP: The vehicle control was modeled after Halo’s vehicle controls.  We made the assumption, for the Xbox 360 version, that most of our customers would’ve played Halo and would already be familiar with that method for driving cars. For those customers, who did NOT play Halo but are playing Borderlands, we figured they would be able to figure it out.  Maybe, in a future iteration we will support different methods for controlling the vehicles, however, control is so closely linked to camera and physics which is really difficult and risky to do when doing more than one thing.

B: I understand the game was built using UT3 technology. Some of the levels in the world felt cramped and small, especially given claims of Pandora being a massive planet. There are speculations that the aging technology may have forced the wraparound designs and dictated the size of locations. Your thoughts?

RP: Reading this question, I’m not sure if we’re playing the same game.     First, the version of Unreal Engine used for Borderlands is not aging.  In fact, the engine development team has been supporting the technology with amazing improvements well into the generation to ensure that it is the best engine in the world for this kind of game.  Furthermore, Gearbox built upon the technology with additional new features and lighting techniques that are as cutting edge as you can get; including, support for ambient occlusion on Xbox 360!   Secondly, the huge variety of spaces found on Pandora, from the most open and wide, to the most linear and cramped, are more about variety in the layout than they are about a technology limit.   The maximum size of the game spaces and the number of things within each game space are limited by the memory and performance of the platform.   We decided to break the world into chunks in order to support the cooperative game play so that we can be sure that cooperative players are likely to be playing in close enough proximity of one another.

B: Why can’t we shoot the shit out of Claptrap? He is annoying!

RP: Claptrap is a character, to be sure. Although, a ClapTrap shooting gallery could be fun.

:: ON THE ISLAND OF DR. NED DLC ::

B: Zombie filled DLC a week after Left 4 Dead 2. Ballsy!

RP: Hmm…  I didn’t really think about it like that. I think the DLC is for people who like Borderlands and want to see that experience improve and grow such as killing Zombies, Wereskags, Tankensteins and all kinds of crazy undead critters which have all been rendered like we’ve never seen before. Plus, you can play these 50+ new quests alone or with friends, all the while, collecting a ton of loot, leveling up and having a blast.

B: Dragon Age introduced launch day DLC’s that is only downloaded if you had a unique legitimate key. Would you experiment with something similar, at least for the PC, to ensure the rampant piracy on the platform is somewhat curbed?

RP: I don’t know. I’m not going to comment on what other people are doing, but I am happy to talk about what we’re doing. We released Borderlands worldwide in late October, but had to finish more than two months earlier than that in order to get through the certification, manufacturing and distribution process.  As we finished the game and started going towards certification, the developers at Gearbox had so many cool ideas that we just went all in and started working on DLC in order to add new experiences that could be launched as soon as we get them done.  Because of the passion, the motivation and the intense amount of effort the team has put in – between when the game was practically finished to now- we’re going to be able to launch the first DLC for Borderlands just a little more than a month after the first retail copy hit store shelves.  We think that’s really awesome and we hope that customers who love Borderlands support us and our motivation to make even more DLC.  The value is there! It’s an incredibly cool new campaign and is pretty large for what it costs.  I think people are going to love it. There are some concerns that despite being a great game, at times it felt like more of the same. What are some of the environmental and gameplay elements unique to the DLC?

B: There are some concerns that despite being a great game, at times it felt like more of the same. What are some of the environmental and gameplay elements unique to the DLC?

RP: Check out the screenshots – it’s like an entirely new game with new places that are totally different than the environments in the original game.  There are also new creatures and enemies that are really creepy, cool and just fun to fight and take down.   I love the Tankensteins, especially, the ones that carry loot chests on their backs.  Killing them and then looting the chest is really gratifying.

B: What about structure and storyline?

RP: You’re going to visit Dr. Ned’s Zombie Island, as the title suggests, but you’ll head out there and into the Jakob’s gun manufacturer’s facilities on the planet and get caught up in a cool and interesting adventure. There’s a nice set up for it that’ll kick off when you first fast travel to the area, so I’m not going to spoil anything for anyone. By the way, even if you haven’t unlocked the fast-travel network yet, we let you fast travel to the new area that comes with the DLC, right off the bat.  And, we’ve done some scaling of the content so that when you enter the area you  pretty much have a challenge, no matter what level you are in when you buy it.

B: Is Dr. Ned related to Dr. Zed? Neumann says no. I think he’s lying. That sneaky bastard.

RP: Nope, totally unrelated. They have nothing to do with each other.  It’s all just a big coincidence that their names sound alike.

B: We’ll make that two sneaky bastards then.

(Continued in Part II… coming soon)

GT също пуснаха геймплей кадри от първото DLC за Borderlands – Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

и

Буууууу

Тъй като не успях да приключа с Borderlands преди излизането на Modern Warfare 2 е ясно, че отрочето на Gearbox ще остане за един по късен етап от геймърското ми ежедневие, но все пак няма как да не спомена, че онзи ден IGN показаха чисто нови кадри от първото DLC за играта – Zombie Island of Dr. Ned.

DLC-то ще струва $10 за Xbox 360 и PlayStation 3 и излиза на 24 ноември, а PC версията ще се появи малко след това… предполагам на същата цена. Ето матряла на IGN:

OXCGNs Dual Borderlands Review Debate

With Aaron & Arthur

©2009 Aaron Klein/Arthur Kotsopoulos:

OXCGN does new things all the time, and with Borderlands we’re doing a dual review discussion between two of the top reviewers on the site. There will be a special Borderlands Co-Op review a little later, once the team have given the game a solid workout, but here’s the guys with their views on Gearbox’s new IP, Borderlands.

Aaron Klein: The more I heard about Borderlands the more I got excited to check the game out. The tone of the press had been mostly doubtful, touching on how Gearbox was almost desperately racing to distinguish itself from a saturated release season populated with established gaming titans like Rock Band, Halo, Uncharted 2, Mario, Call of Duty and other anticipated new intellectual properties like Dragon Age: Origins and Brutal Legend.

A relatively late switch of gears in artistic direction to use hand-drawn textures, a controversial portrayal of a stylized suicide as cover art and the inclusion of a catchy, popular tune from Cage the Elephant in advertising trailers combine to illustrate just how badly 2K Games and Gearbox want you to pick up Borderlands.

• Borderlands In-Game Developer Walkthrough

• You want guns, we’ve got guns, Lots of BFG’s right here.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Funny you should say that because before they changed the art style and serious tone of the game I also wasn’t interested. Sure, there were hundreds of thousands of variations in weaponry, but other than that the game offered nothing to really make me want to buy it

It wasn’t until they changed the graphical art style and started to post up viral videos with that comedic touch to them. From this point on I got interested in the game from reading previews, viewing screen shots to watching video walk through of game play, It was a marketing strategy that worked for me.

• OXCGN’s recent 2k Games/Borderlands gig in Sydney meets Lilith

Aaron: And none of this is bad. I agree the roll out has been a masterpiece of marketing and has been as successful as possible at carving out a niche for Borderlands to have success. The big question is whether or not the actual gameplay can capitalize off this attention.

Arthur: I wasn’t expecting much from this game other than it being unique. Having had time to dig into it, I have to say I am loving it! The chance that any weapon I find could be my new favorite weapon is great. You will never find the exact same weapon twice.

Sure the game starts off slow, but this just gets you comfortable with the basics to get you ready for the long journey ahead in the barren wasteland of Pandora in search of the Vault.

How are you in all finding the integration of game play, travel and missions within Pandora?

Aaron: The weapons are awesome, and that is a great observation. Your character is never totally optimized. There is always a better weapon out there somewhere. That keeps it interesting for the exact reason you stated: The next weapon you find on your ground could end up being your favorite.

I get a little OCD about the weapons, though. When new guns are so plentiful I tend to spend a lot of time tweaking my arms and making tiny decisions between the rifle with more power but less accuracy and the one with an increased firing rate but low power.

This is both good and bad. A couple of times I wanted to set the controller down just because this micromanagement was overly taxing. But then I realized, “hey, you don’t have to do this. Just run out there and shoot.”

Arthur: Exactly. It’s has enough RPG elements to keep you swapping out the weapons in your backpack as you level up. Yet at the same time not overly taxing to the point where you have to organize which weapons have this scope, barrel, handle and ammo capacity.

It’s an FPS that’s challenging, yet easily accessible. Borderlands blends the genres in a way I haven’t seen done so well since Bioshock. You have an open, sandbox world, a light RPG skill tree for each of the four character classes and hundreds of thousands of weapons with various stats and augments such as fire, electricity, poison and so forth.

My main gripe with this is the driving. It follows the Halo-esque driving controls except it doesn’t do Halo justice. If you clip a tire on the road or small rock the car just lifts in the air funny like it weighs barely anything. I tried to avoid the driving as much as possible because even when you do master it, it still becomes annoying.

• You want guns, we’ve got guns, Lots of BFG’s right here.

Aaron: I was worried about the driving heading into this game, and my worries were warranted. The driving is not very intuitive. Having the car go in whatever direction the camera is pointing means you can’t look off to your peripheral without driving off the road. Plus the vehicle gets hung up really easily on the environment. And when it gets stuck, it’s stuck. There’s no rocking it out.

Driving just tends to be a pain. Gearbox was already trying to do so much with the role-playing shooter dynamic. The vehicle was the darkest cloud over this game.

The map itself is laid out with different “levels” connected by a common area. It’s open, sure, but it’s also constraining because the map is mostly the land between canyon walls and not a wide open plain, like Fallout 3. I say this type of map is not conducive to the driving.

Arthur: Sure the map isn’t open like Fallout 3, but it is still massive. I’m currently only on my first play through, taking my time, and I have still to enter a few sections of the game. At the moment I’m in awe at how many areas there are and exactly how big each of them is.

Aaron: But you need to have some way to get around the world. And driving, as bad as it is, is still better than walking. And it is more interesting when you team up in co-op mode to have someone in the gunner’s nest.

Arthur: Yeah in co-op, especially four-player co-op, the game really shines. The game becomes much more fun. You receive better loot and acquire more experience points as enemies become harder.

Loot must be shared accordingly though, as any player can take any loot. That can make for frustrating times if you found an awesome weapon and someone nabs it from under your nose.

It is also very hard when you are levels apart from your co-op partners. The game can become quite brutal and unforgiving.

• Meet your characters that accompany you in Pandora – Borderlands

Aaron: I agree, the game is pretty solid as a single player title. But it absolutely shines in the co-op. I’ve been trying to put my finger on why exactly that is… and I think it works so well because the challenge and number of enemies ramp up to coincide with the number of players and their levels.

The fight for loot afterwards also contributes to the fun, as it gives everybody something to talk about. “Check out this sweet sniper rifle, does the Hunter want it?”

Plus, sharing XP and gold means players level up at relatively the same level.

A testament to the different ways to play the game: while you planned and shared the loot, when playing split screen with a friend we were having fun rushing to beat each other to the glowing gun on the ground, and even waiting to revive each other until the other had picked the battlefield clean of ammo & mods.

But I can see how that could be annoying when playing with strangers.

Arthur: Whilst it does feature a form of dueling in co-op with fellow teammates it’s a shame the game doesn’t feature online multiplayer.

I supposed it wouldn’t work seeing as not 1 gun is ever the same so having the ability to take in your weapons from single player to multiplayer would be greatly unfair.

Aaron: I have a co-op cautionary tale to share, too: Make sure any characters your friends build on your system are associated with a gamertag. My buddy was playing without signing in to one, and when we tried to continue the next day his level 11 Hunter was gone.

Luckily I had a level 20 Soldier, and we were able to power level his new character up pretty quickly, but not before he got tired of the game because he felt so underpowered against the enemies we were up against in the current missions

Arthur: Still, I believe co-op is where Borderlands truly excels. Whilst other reviewers think it doesn’t work as well as it should, I believe it works flawlessly as the enemies become more tough and much better loot is dropped.

It’s a battle of who can find the better loot, that battle is always fun, time and time again. What’s even better is the fact you can duel each other at any time by a simple melee attack to see who is the better of the Vault hunters.

It’s great fun to have your team mate bragging about an awesome weapon he just found only to have dueled you then defeated by your awesome level 30 combat rifle with corrosive damage.

It’s satisfying and enjoyable all in the one package and I feel Borderlands is probably one of the most fun and unique games to have been released in the past year.

Aaron: I agree. It captured the “one more level” draw of RPGs and has earned itself a place in my disc drive for quite a while.

• You want guns, we’ve got guns, Lots of BFG’s right here.

“8.5/10

• Other games in genre at discount $’s for ALL OXCGN readers + Bonus Points

От няколко дни усилено цъкам Borderlands, но няма как да пропусна поредният доста забавен трейлър на игрицата

Докато чакаме Borderlands да се появи за PC, благодарение на kainy можем да изгледаме цялата първа мисия от Xbox360 версията на играта.

Инджой:

Източник: kainy-bg.com

PS: Поредното доказателство, че е куцо да се играят FPS-и с джойстик.

GT качиха в сайта си, Opening Cinematic-а на Borderlands и след това го махнаха… Разбира се, краткото време за което беше там бе достатъчно за да може видеото да “изтече” в нета, и да получи достойният си пост
Иначе в GT има доста нови геймплей кадри но то не са толкова интересни, колкото нещата които не би трябвало да гледаме

Доста забавно филмче BTW дано и остатъка от играта да е така…

Както съм споменавал вече няколко пъти, Borderlands е една игрица на която определено съм хвърлил око, и която според мен си заслужава инвестицията.
По случая реших да разгледам и да направя един бързо сравнение на различните варианти и цени при които бих могъл да се сдобия с играта. Ето до къде стигнах с проучването си

Първото място за което се сетих, естествено са Българските дистрибуционни канали, като “топ ъф майнд” асоциацията ми е ozone.bg.
Там пре-ордър цената е 75 лв., а очакваната доставка 23/10/2009. Готиното е, че ако решите да купите от там ще получите и 28 точки което си е бая. За справка, пре-ордъра на Assassin’s Creed II ще ви донесе едва 1 т. а самият Borderlands струва 375 т.
Аз лично съм пазарувал онлайн от тях, и гарантирам че пичовете са точни и проблеми с тях няма. А, и доставката е безплатна

Другият БГ вариант е pulsar.bg. Там цената си е 77 лв. (няма отстъпка за pre-order), не получавате точки и… очакваната доставка е 30.10.2009 г.

За съжаление нямам наблюдения как се справят от Пулсар с доставката, но наистина не знам защо някой би дал дори и два лева повече Иначе в този случай доставката е безплатна и при тях.

Толкова за БГ дистрибуторите. Време е да отправим взор към дигиталните дистрибуции
STEAM – продължавам да твърдя, че от както VALVE решиха че един долар е равен на едно евро пазаруването от тях (освен ако не е някаква бясна промоция) си е безумие. Пре-ордър цената от 44,99€ (към момента на писане на статията – 88 лева) си е живо доказателство. Разбира се както и при другите дигитални дистрибутори една от големите екстри е факта, че няма да бъдете ограничени от малоумно пластмасово кръгче (DVD) и ще можете да си свалите и инсталирате играта когато и където си поискате. И въпреки това 13 лева са си 13 лева

Играта трябва да се появи в STEAM на 26 октомври.

direct2drive.co.uk – за съжаление версията в direct2drive.com e “заключена” само за USA, Канада и Мексико така че ако решите да пазарувате от D2D ще трябва да се примирите с факта, че сте един богат Европеец, и вместо $44.95 за САЩ ще трябва да се разделите с £34.95 (74 лева) което пак е по-евтино от Ozone.
Аз лично съм си купувал само една игра от тях, но съм доста доволен защото:
1. В профила си (получавате го и на мейла) имате сериен код за активиране на играта и далнлоуд линг;
2. Можете да си свалите играта когато и където пожелаете.
D2D обаче май имаха някакво ограничение за това колко пъти можете да активирате играта (може и да бъркам);

Обявената дата при тях е 20 октомври.

gamersgate.com – от тез младежи никога не съм пазарувал така че нямам наблюдения как стоят нещата.
Екстрите там са няколко:
- получавате 250 сини точки – за справка играта струва 66 814 сини точки
- PRICE GUARANTEE – ако през първите 30 дни от излизането на играта, цената и бъде намалена за повече от 5 дни, разликата ще ви бъде върната под формата на “Сини точки”.
- PRE-LOAD – ако сте преорднали играта, ще можете да си я свалите 6 часа преди официалният релииз.

Тези екстри обаче биват “засенчени” от зловещата цена от €44.95 (88 лева). gamersgate са обявили, че Borderlands ще бъде достъпен на 27 октомври.

Диск извън БГ:
Последният вариант за които се сещам е amazon.co.uk
Там цената е £24.99 (53 лв.) което би означавало че в най-добрият случай можете да имате играта срещу около 56 лева, което си е доста добра цена. Лошото обаче е, че:
1. Ще трябва да се занимавате с куриерски служби;
2. Обявената дата там е 30 октомври, което означава че надали ще успеете да си получите диска преди 5 ноември

Весела работа
Нека да обобщим резултатите и да ги подредим ценово и времево (приемам че времето за доставка на пулсар и озон е 2 ден)

1. amazon.co.uk – 56 лева, очаквана доставка 5 ноември.
2. direct2drive.co.uk – 74 лв., очаквана доставка 20 октомври;
3. ozone.bg – 75 лв., очаквана доставка 25 октомври (имайки предвид събота и неделя може би 26-ти);
4. pulsar.bg – 77 лв., очаквана доставка 1 ноември (имайки предвид събота и неделя може би 2-ри);
5. STEAM – 88 лева, очаквана доставка 26 октомври;
6. Gamersgate – 88 лева, очаквана доставка 27 октомври;

Разбира се, датите които са обявили съответните сайтове подлежат на промени.
Аз честно казано още не съм решил от къде да си закупя Borderlands, но фаворитите са два:
- ако избера дигитална дистрибуция – direct2drive.co.uk – прилична цена + за момента изглежда, че при тях имам най-голям шанс да се докопам до играта по-рано;
- ако избера “оуд скул” DVD вариант – ozone.bg.

А вие? Сещате ли се за някой сайт които съм пропуснал? Смятате ли да си купите играта и ако да от къде?
Ето една помощна анкетка за лестно отсяване на резултатите

Надявам се материалът да ви е бил полезен и да ви е помогнал при избора
Ако имате желание, можете да ударите едни глас в svejo.net. 10x

“Το Steam δε μας εκμεταλλεύεται” – Gameover.gr

Διαφωνεί με την άποψη του Randy Pitchford ότι το Steam και η Valve εκμεταλλεύονται τους μικρούς developers ο John Gibson, πρόεδρος και συνιδρυτής της Tripwire Interactive, δημιουργού του Red Orchestra. Σε άρθρο του στο Gamasutra, ο Gibson διατυπώνει μια διαφορετική άποψη, καθώς υποστηρίζει ότι η Valve έκανε στην εταιρία του την καλύτερη προσφορά από όλους τους εκδότες στους οποίους απευθύνθηκε και ότι η υποστήριξή της από πλευράς marketing και οικονομικών ήταν άψογη.[next]

Първият епизод е тук (клик)

ROFL! И все пак, първият епизод беше по як

Exclusive Gameplay footage

by XboxOZ360

©2009 Grant Smythe:

I was somewhat sceptical about Borderlands after it changed direction some months ago.

Though a huge fan of realistic style First Person Shooters, I didn’t like the look or feel of Shadowrun, or other similar ’sylised’ games, so I was disappointed when I saw the huge change in art direction.

I would rather that the shooter immerse me with realism than try and make it a comic book style of shooter. However, I must say, that after attending a recent Borderlands showing, and having some hands on time with the single player and co-op, I’ll be sticking this game in my Santa Stocking this year.

It’s best if Randy Pitchford and crew walk you through the game in co-op made, discussing the little things no one but he could. So do check out both part 1 and part 2, which gives you around 30 mins of Borderlands gameplay exclusive to OXCGN.

• OXCGN Crosses The Badlands Pt 1
done

We attended a function held by 2k Games Australia in the underground club called The Phoenix Bar – it’s a Sydney nightclub which is part of the Exchange Hotel on Oxford Street Darlinghurst. Walking down the stairs it was evident that they had spent a great deal of time setting the place up to impress the media who were going to be attending throughout the day and evening.

I’ve been there before for other events, and it felt familiar, but different at the same time. As you’ll see by the footage of Randy Pitchford presenting the game, it’s not a very ‘bright’ place to do unaided footage in, but I managed to get a half decent amount on what you’ll expect to find on the game when it ships on 23rd October.

Not being a huge multiplayer fan, it was the single player I was more interested in than anything else, so it was great to have the 2k reps having two lots of Xbox 360’s set up for both co-op and single player. Around 8 Xbox 360’s were in use but you could have mistaken it to be midnight outside, as the atmosphere certainly was very “dark”.

Working your way into the game is a nice change from many older FPS, as it follows the trend many have taken of late by forgoing the normal tutorial, and replacing it with an actual interactive scenario where you must work out puzzles to acquire goods, weapons and the like in order to move on.

While some will hate the “Cell-Shaded” style, many will love it, and as mentioned, I was not a huge fan of it originally. But it certainly grew on me, fast.

Not everything is outlined as some cell-shaded games are. In Borderland they merge and loose their outline as things get closer, allowing the gamer to distinguish things that are closer from those that are further away, helping you get your bearings a lot easier than most cell-shaded games have done in the past.

The weapons are basic to begin with but as you move along, working your way into the Badlands, you begin to unlock more weapons and add-ons within minutes. The pleasant knowledge that there’s a possible million different weapons available for you to create, and more according to Randy Pitchford, makes one wonder just what you might end up making as the game progresses.

Sometimes it can be a tad difficult working out where you are, but the map and waypoints help. I felt like I was constantly having to switch back and forth to find my way. As I became more accustomed to it I found myself moving around rather quickly after about 20 – 30 mins.

• OXCGN Crosses The Badlands Pt 2
done

Weapons had a solid feel to them and there is certainly lots of gooey stuff when you hit the villaicns, that’s for sure. Lots of missing heads and limbs when you manage to clock one of the renegades in the head or upper body, or drop a lovely grenade in amongst them.

For those looking for a game that is going to supply a huge amount of replay value, then this game would have to be it. You could wander around all day looking for loot, acquiring weapons and parts to manufacture other creations, or simply follow the storyline and work your way through it reasonably quickly. But don’t expect to get through it even that way too fast.

I’d be surprised if gamers can work their way through the single player in less than 10 hours, more like 15- 20 actually.

Well, that’s how long it could take me … but then again, I’m a snail when it comes to such things.

Lilith is one of the characters you get to both meet and play in the game; a quick little feline who is someone you simply do not want to mess with. She’s your ally in the game, and will help you out wherever possible once she is unlocked. We even had a real live Lilith on hand to help show just how nice your in-game character can be . . . 11/10 for the get up, it certainly looked great.

The storyline allows you to expand into other areas, while still following it through in logical succession. I never felt rushed or pushed to complete what I was playing, although there are times you do have a time limit in which to get things done.

And yes, that infamous Suicide Box Art was there in full swing. I don’t think Borderlands would be the same now without that iconic piece of artwork. It has certainly attracted the attention of many of the game followers.

While I really only scratched the surface of the game, and it’ll take a lot more hard work to move my way through it, it will be a game that will be something that I keep as a game for replay value, that is for sure.

I’m not one to buy games and then trade them in or sell them off. So I try and chose wisely, or as best I can.

We will have a much deeper and darker full review soon, with full online and co-op details, so do stay tuned for that.

My only real concern is if it will it gain the public attention it deserves, seeing that it is being released on the very same day that another HUGE 1st Party Xbox game is being released, which shall remain nameless at this time, but we all know which one I’m talking about.

It’s not a good move to ship it on a date like that in my eyes, as a huge % of gamers will pick the other game over this game – it’s a shame, as they will be doing themselves a disservice if they do. If the game was released even 5-7 days later, 2k games could do better in the shop than I fear they will do, at least at first.

So stay tuned and make sure you keep a look out for OXCGN’s Borderlands Review in the not too distant future. But in the mean time, enjoy the images and the vid.

My thanks to Snez from 2K games who got me in to the event in the very last moment; thanks for that, it was certainly most appreciated indeed.

• Borderland Dev Walkthrough

©2009 Grant Smythe:

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Ако все още не сте тотално хайпнати по адрес на Borderlands, СЕГА Е МОМЕНТА!

Определено смятам да инвестирам в тази игра, само някой сайт в БГ най-накрая да вземе да пусне pre-order

За лека нощ, поредният мега як трейлър на Borderlands

NICE!

След като снощи интернет провайдърът ми (Медиком) ми направи “перфектният съботаж” и срина работният ми процес, отново съм онлайн, и продължавам с започнатият снощи пост.

Ето го, първият епизод, от надявам се много-епизодната поредица, в която симпатичният робот Claptrap ни дава вътрешна информация за играта Borderlands… и изживява своят Крисчън Бейл момент

Borderlands идва на 20 октомври за PC, PS3 и Xbox360!

I’ve never featured the release of an Achievement list before, and don’t plan on making a habit of it, but we now have in-game confirmation of Thunderdomes! Randy Pitchford of Gearbox had already likened the PvP Borderlands arenas to your own personal Thunderdome, but now we have something more substantial: Xbox360Achievements recently posted the Achievement list.

Borderlands’ Achievements follow your standard meat-and-potato fare, however, there are more than a few humorous nods to various genres. Front and center we have the “My Brother is an Italian Plumber” award for killing an enemy by stomping on its head. Earn a million bucks and claim the “Pandora-dog Millionaire” Achievement for 50G. And who can forget my personal favorite, “Can’t We Get BEYOND Thunderdome?” for winning your first arena match. Now it they just have the man-sized rubber bands, then, then I’ll be happy.

There was also a “Face Melter” Achievement that was sadly not what I expected and instead dealt with the use of corrosive weapons.  Live and learn. The full list is available at X360a.org, along with a comprehensive gallery. For even more Borderlands information, check out the gameplay trailer, the reason why Borderlands > Fable II, and the man behind No Heaven.

Въпреки странната си прическа, с това интервю Ранди почти ме убеди, че трябва да си купя тази игра!

I had previously joked that if upcoming game Borderlands included a Thunderdome in their Mad Max-esque world that I would be forced to make a day one purchase. Looks like it’s time to pony up the pre-order dinero…

Giant Bomb not-so-recently posted a video interview with Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Studios. Pitchford details some of the creative process of Borderlands, including the stress of completely changing the art style a year before release, the myth of planet Pandora, the millions of weapons, and, most importantly, the Thunderdome arenas.

“The arenas are like your Thunderdome,” elaborated Pitchford. “Inside these Thunderdomes are the kind of places you’d want to have a competitive fight in. So they’re like a great Quake map … all in the context of this world.”

Players won’t have to find an arena to find satisfaction, however, as free-roaming dueling is available as well. A virtual gauntlet to the face and an acceptance and you can finally put your loot-hoarding friend in his or her place.

What’s arena fighting without great weapons? No worries with Borderlands. While this title may not quite have the 87 Bazillion weapons touted in the trailer, Pitchford detailed how Gearbox’s AI “Gearbuilder System” has generated millions of weapons.

It’s not just weapons, there’s other gear. There’s orb shields and grenade modifications and artifacts and other kinds of class modifications. [There's] all kinds of interesting gear that will make you more powerful, and gear that you can choose between.

For the full interview, check out Giant Bomb’s video here. Also, check out CD-Action’s interview which includes details on class customization, previously unseen concept art, and a great quote where Pitchford calls Borderlands “a cross between Mad Max and Indiana Jones.”

Check Out Understanding Co-op: Borderlands > Fable II

For Borderlands Trailer Visit 87 Bazillion Guns

Hace ya unos meses llegó el rumor en el que Gearbox, productora de Brother in Arms o Borderlands, podría haber firmado su participación en una nueva entrega numerada de Halo con Microsoft. Aunque la compañía sigue intentando no hablar del tema.

La última gran evasión se produjo en una entrevista para Eurogamer donde el desarrollador Randy Pitchford declaró: “No voy a decir absolutamente nada sobre esa cuestión. No podemos hablar del tema”. Esa última frase deja una gran duda sobre si el rumor tiene algo de cierto, ya que se afirma que no pueden hablar de eso, por lo que se puede entre ver que deben saber algo que no pueden decir.

Al parecer deberemos esperar para obtener algún nuevo detalle hasta después del lanzamiento de Borderlands.

So, the internet is abuzz again with rumors that Gearbox Software are lined up to make the next instalment in the Halo franchise (not the Peter Jackson mystery meat game or the rumored Bungie UNSC tactical squad shooter).

So why are we hoping to be able to say “TOLD YOU SO!” in a nerdy voice? Because we posted exclusively in February (beating all the big fish in the games journalism world) that a super-secret contact of ours at Microsoft was able to confirm this, pretty much. Now more details have come to light, that seem to back up our source. More details after the jump.

Way back in b, Randy Pitchford made an interesting post on the Gearbox forums:

“I’ve started a new project. It’s big. It’s, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I’m Directing it myself. I can’t mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you’ll likely agree that I can’t oversell this one.”

At the time we instantly thought Halo, and spoke to our contact at Microsoft, who indirectly suggested that Gearbox was in fact tagged to create the next game in the Halo franchise, and we posted this on dogsounds.com:

“My mind suddenly started ticking over a little. Something big. Something you can’t oversell. Half Life is out of the picture; Valve will do that themselves I would suspect. That wouldn’t make sense. Then I thought…Halo? Nah, MS has that now, they would just do it themseleves through MGS.

Wouldn’t they?

My gut feeling is, no, they wouldn’t. MGS are not really up to speed enough to pull of something that big all by themselves. But you can bet your absolute last bottom-dollar Microsoft will want to milk the Halo cash-cow. No doubt about that. So it would make sense to farm it out. And who better than the studio that already worked on Halo before?

I put out a few feelers, to see what I could find out. My little friend at Microsoft (who, for fucking blatantly obvious reasons, is remaining anonymous here) couldn’t confirm or deny anything, specifically, as very little information is generally available. But of my suspicions, she did say this:

‘…not that there is a lot to tell at the moment, and not that I want to stick my neck out too far, but what you think isn’t…beyond the realms of possibility. There has been a buzz here since the Bungie split that we want to go somewhere with the franchise, obviously. Once the other two are out the door, it would be prudent to have a break for a while before the next instalment. We don’t want to do a Final Fantasy on this franchise; it’s too important for that kind of crap. Too much, and folks get bored. And these games, you know, they take a few years to make. Take from all this what you will.’

The emphasis is hers. And “the other two” are Halo Wars and Peter Jackson’s mysterious project.

My little secret mole, bless her, has not always been on the money, but is good more often than not. And it makes so much sense…”

Now Kotaku and many other gaming sites are re-lighting the fire under this story. Rumors now suggest that Gearbox is set to make Halo 4 for the next-gen Xbox launch, whenever that may be. After this story on Kotaku.com earlier in the week, they have now “received” an internal mail from Corrinne Yu, Director of Technology over at Gearbox:  

Hello, friends.

I am Corrinne Yu, Director of Technology of Gearbox Software.

I was offered and recruited to the position of Principle (Lead) Engine Architect of Halo Franchise Team at Microsoft. I accepted the offer to lead the team to build the engines and games for future Halo’s on Xbox’es and PC’s at Microsoft.

I am staying to simu-ship Brothers In Arms all versions. I will start Halo after BiA starts manufacturing. Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands are more than mostly completed. I assure you I will continue to help Gearbox. I am starting on Halo Team at Microsoft after 09/15/2008. My email after that day will be XXXX@microsoft.com.

I would be glad to introduce my friendly helpful Corrinne replacements at Gearbox to you. I am stoked to program and design and build some awesome Halo’s.

Let’s stay in touch!

after 09/15/2008

Corrinne Yu
Principle Engine Architect
Halo Franchise Team
Microsoft

after 09/15/2008:
XXXX@microsoft.com
XXXX@XXXX.com
XXXX@XXXX.net

before 09/15/2008

Corrinne Yu
XXXX@XXXX.com

before 09/15/2008:
XXXX@gearboxsoftware.com
XXXX@XXXX.net
Director of Technology
Gearbox Software

As they rightly point out, the mail doesn’t directly confirm anything about Halo 4 or a Gearbox link. We know Microsoft Game Studios have the IP rights and intend to milk the Halo cash cow. But it does make it seem more plausible that Gearbox may have some special involvement. We wait to see what comes out in due course, but for now, dogsounds can take comfort in the fact that should it all pan out to be true, we got the official first bit of a concrete scoop before all the Kotakus, Gamespots, IGNs and everyone else

And, of course, we can say:

TOLD YOU SO!!