Borderlands

Sephiroth_dude

This is out this week for the consoles.

TomCo

The sole PC only review I was able to dredge up:

http://www.atomicgamer.com/article.php?id=899

"Overall, I'm impressed with the unique features that Borderlands offers PC gamers. It works nicely on Steam and its GameSpy-based online play may turn off some gamers initially, but remember that GameSpy's middleware usually only falters when trying to browse and filter thousands of servers. Here, you've got a friends list, can invite people to your games directly from your single player session, jump into either public or private games, and you're hosting smaller-scale cooperative games for four players on your own machine. For that, GameSpy works perfectly fine, and it's a hell of a lot less intrusive and annoying than Microsoft's Games for Windows Live.

Beyond that, Borderlands on the PC is by far the best-looking version with great dynamic shadows and advanced features like ambient occlusion that, visually, give Pandora a bit of extra depth - if your video card can handle the challenge, of course. LAN play works great, and just about the only thing I can think of that's missing over the console editions is split-screen action (which PC gamers generally don't care for anyway). Gearbox has included achievements, denoted in the PC version as Challenges instead, although for now they're only visible in-game and do not show up as Steam achievements."

Looks like Gearbox managed not to mess up the connectivity, an example I wish some other developers would follow.


Cheapest price so far for the PC version is at thehut:
http://www.thehut.com/games/platforms/pc/borderlands/10048149.html

Can anyone find cheaper?

Fnz

TomCo wrote: »

Cheapest price so far for the PC version is at thehut:
http://www.thehut.com/games/platforms/pc/borderlands/10048149.html

Can anyone find cheaper?

Cheers for the review link.

It's cheaper on Blockbuster.co.uk. [Link]

I cannot find whether or not they ship to Ireland, though.

Tyrant^

Fnz wrote: »

Cheers for the review link.

It's cheaper on Blockbuster.co.uk. [Link]

I cannot find whether or not they ship to Ireland, though.

I preordered it ... they ship to Ireland for free apparently

Stercus Accidit

I'm hoping there is more to the game than a large number of weapons, namely some other items like armors, upgrade chips etc. something to add depth, guns are all well and good but the atmosphere of a random living world will be lost if there are say, 4 vehicles, no armor, only skills and weapons.

I hope to get the game this friday, being a fallout obsessive I will be quite critical of flaws, but saying that this genre is under serviced and I tend to enjoy its offerings regardless. Survival oriented sandbox games, with scavenging and some luck involved are great fun.

Sephiroth_dude

Tyrant^ wrote: »

I preordered it ... they ship to Ireland for free apparently

Did you order for the pc?will you have it on the day its released or before it do you think?was thinking of ordering it online for the pc but places like play.com never deliever on time.

Vyse

I pre-ordered mine from sendit.com (for the 360). They posted it last saturday so I expect to have it tomorrow, two days before release. In saying that this is far from the norm with them. Usually get them the following monday.

oceanclub

RockPaperShotgun have a 4-man review/conversation about the PC version:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/20/the-rps-verdict-borderlands/

I've gone from a "not interested" to a "tempted" (especially as its available for £19.99 on sendit.com)

P.

Sephiroth_dude

Eurogamer gave it 8/10.

Vyse

Playing it at the moment. Nice game. LOve the visual style. Not much depth yet but I expect that to change as I progress.

grizzly

Vyse wrote: »

Playing it at the moment. Nice game. LOve the visual style. Not much depth yet but I expect that to change as I progress.

I wouldn't hold your breath.

da ax murderer

i heard hmv are having a midnight launch thursday

KilOit

Anyone recommend a place to pay for it and download it, my cd rom is bust and i really don't feel like getting a new one.

Gunmonkey

KilOit wrote: »

Anyone recommend a place to pay for it and download it, my cd rom is bust and i really don't feel like getting a new one.

Direct 2 Drive has it for about £31 incl VAT, cant be more than €35 if my math is right.

Steam also has it but their BS pricing policy has it for €45 AFTER they cut 10% of for pre-ordering.

WolfForager

Hmmm...Might rent it tomorrow at some stage, don't have the money to make a gamble on a game i may not like. From what i've heard it's like marmite, you either love it or hate it.

Shryke

I was hoping this would be a nice immersive experience but most reviews seem to be saying not to bother if your not going to co-op the whole thing. Gamepots review especially. They basically said, just don't buy it if your playing alone. I love the style of it so that's a pity.
I hate developers for pissing on the single player experience. More effort is put into multiplayer than into campaigns these days. For me the actual game is the campaign. I want narrative ffs.
I'd like to hear thoughts from people actually playing it though. Worth it? Or should I just get Fallout GotY edition.

PirateShampoo

Is this Warcraft with Guns?

Mantel

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Is this Warcraft with Guns?

Some people are saying it's Diablo with guns (and first person) or you could call it a good Hellgate: London.

Fnz

Shryke wrote: »

I was hoping this would be a nice immersive experience but most reviews seem to be saying not to bother if your not going to co-op the whole thing. Gamepots review especially. They basically said, just don't buy it if your playing alone. I love the style of it so that's a pity.
I hate developers for pissing on the single player experience. More effort is put into multiplayer than into campaigns these days. For me the actual game is the campaign. I want narrative ffs.

Games aren't a one-size-fits-all, though. How irritating is it when people complain from the other direction, that there's no multiplayer in otherwise excellent games? Things cut both ways. This just so happens to be balanced towards coop play. Time and resources dedicated towards refining the single player experience may have negatively impacted the multiplayer.

Wanting a good narrative in games is like wanting good saxophone solos in dance music. Sure you might find a good example every now and then but, based on past examples, you're kind of looking in the wrong place. Try a book/TV show/graphic novel/charity collection leaflet for generally superior saxophone solo narrative than that found in games.

Stercus Accidit

Shryke wrote: »

I was hoping this would be a nice immersive experience but most reviews seem to be saying not to bother if your not going to co-op the whole thing. Gamepots review especially. They basically said, just don't buy it if your playing alone. I love the style of it so that's a pity.
I hate developers for pissing on the single player experience. More effort is put into multiplayer than into campaigns these days. For me the actual game is the campaign. I want narrative ffs.
I'd like to hear thoughts from people actually playing it though. Worth it? Or should I just get Fallout GotY edition.

Fallout is absolutely brilliant, this may be new but if I could buy fallout all over again I would, borderlands at best from reviews, looks like it may tide me over until the next fallout as a stand in.

Get fallout anyway, regardless if you get this thing.

Shryke

Chances are I will get Fallout anyway.

As for not expecting good narrative in games, bull****. Games are a perfectly fine medium for story telling. Just look at Half Life as an excellent example.
I might add you'll find the majority of books/TV shows/graphic novels or whatever are utterly useless also. It's the good stuff I read and watch, and also play.
The fact that this is a FPS RPG made me think it would be a good single player experience. The fact that it seemingly could have been if it wasn't skewed for the multiplayer market disappoints. And it's a valid point if you ask me.
And I'm not big on the sax, or dance "music".

Fnz

Shryke wrote: »

As for not expecting good narrative in games, bull****. Games are a perfectly fine medium for story telling. Just look at Half Life as an excellent example.

Yeah the medium can, and has, been used to tell good stories but going from experience 99% games with a narrative, have depressingly average ones.

Shryke wrote: »

I might add you'll find the majority of books/TV shows/graphic novels or whatever are utterly useless also. It's the good stuff I read and watch, and also play.

Yeah, I rarely watch TV because a lot of it is utter crap. I'm not disputing that there is a lot of chaff out there in all mediums. I still know that if I'm after a gripping narrative, games are the last medium I'd turn to as theirs is generally of a lower standard than can be had elsewhere. They have other priorities and strengths. Imo, there are a lot of "5h1t eaters" out there who will praise a games narrative even though the same narrative would be seen as mediocre if it were used in, say, a novel.

Shryke wrote: »

The fact that this is a FPS RPG made me think it would be a good single player experience. The fact that it seemingly could have been if it wasn't skewed for the multiplayer market disappoints. And it's a valid point if you ask me.

Not to be overly sarcastic, but it's a shame it isn't all things to all people. I'm guessing with finite resources they had to choose certain aspects to focus on and it looks like the single player experience is what suffered.

Gummy Panda

So this is basically a loot game that you need friends to play with?

Zapp Brannigan

Gummy Panda wrote: »

So this is basically a loot game that you need friends to play with?

It would seem that way. Also apparently there's no loot priority in the game so if you play with randoms you might get all your loot ninja'd! Reckon I might give it a bash.

Sarky

Sounds more like Diablo with guns. Perhaps with a touch of Painkiller. Where WoW makes hacking your way through a hundred enemies a really boring exercise in clicking, Diablo and Painkiller made it a hilariously fun hacky-slashy bloodsoaked maimathon. They used similar mechanics, but the difference in how they approach the subject made all the difference.

I'm intrigued enough to pick it up next week.

Ziggurat

Whew! Well, I'm just back from the Gearbox forums and let me tell you it's not pretty.

Basically, the PC release date was broken both in the US and EU. As such, people were enquiring as to whether the activation servers would now be switched on (apparently there were advertisements stating that all versions, 360/PS3/PC, would be released on 20/10/2009).
Long story short, they're not going to.

I'll be buying this anyway. After watching some gameplay videos it's exactly the kind of thing I'm after.

Stev_o

Ziggurat wrote: »

Whew! Well, I'm just back from the Gearbox forums and let me tell you it's not pretty.

Basically, the PC release date was broken both in the US and EU. As such, people were enquiring as to whether the activation servers would now be switched on (apparently there were advertisements stating that all versions, 360/PS3/PC, would be released on 20/10/2009).
Long story short, they're not going to.

I'll be buying this anyway. After watching some gameplay videos it's exactly the kind of thing I'm after.

Christ some people are stupid (directing this towards the people complaining) mean seriously it's a game wait like everyone else for a week it's not going to kill you or impede your life in any shape or form.

Gunmonkey

Stev_o wrote: »

Christ some people are stupid (directing this towards the people complaining) mean seriously it's a game wait like everyone else for a week it's not going to kill you or impede your life in any shape or form.

Aye it is quite sad, you think people would understand the term "Release Day" at this stage, if some store puts their order of a game up early to try beat out the competition it has nothing to do with the developers/publishers, they stated the date the store should have sold it. Do people whine and complain as much when they buy a housing development and its not built when they sign the contract and have to wait?

Its all coming out since Gearbox made a post about how legitimate early release players will get to play but pirates will be SoL, dunno if it stretched to the PC version though. Is there as much complaints when Valve let ya pre-load a game on Steam but its locked till the release date??



Stupidist thing is, most will claim "I payed for it, you owe me a game, I can play it whenever I want, its mine now"......would be funny to see their reactions to reading the EULA on Borderlands

Zapp Brannigan

40 quid on release in shops doesn't exactly fill me with confidence but I reckon I'll pick it up on sunday!

Fnz

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

40 quid on release in shops doesn't exactly fill me with confidence but I reckon I'll pick it up on sunday!

Local Gamestop says it will be €35. Direct 2 Drive has it for the same price