PAX 2011: PC Port of Borderlands 2 Won't Suck

[Greg Tito]

PAX 2011: PC Port of Borderlands 2 Won't Suck

Gearbox wants Borderlands 2 to be the best game regardless of platform.

Sometime over the last ten years, the design of cutting-edge shooters moved to be native on consoles instead of the PC that gave birth to the genre. Whether hearing that makes you cringe like you just heard Gwenyth Paltrow sing while scratching her fingernails down a blackboard, it will only add insult to admit that the PC port of such shooters is often an afterthought. With all the development problems the first Borderlands had [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112628-PAX-2011-Borderlands-2-Is-Bigger-Better-and-Bad-ass-ier], it is not surprising that little thought was given to the UI of the PC version. Thankfully, that is something that lead artist Scott Kester promises won't happen with Borderlands 2.

"We had some digs on the usability on the PC side because it was designed on the console," Kester told me at PAX Prime today. "We're making sure [on Borderlands 2] that it works great for the mouse and keyboard style.

"Whatever [platform] you're on, we want the game to be as awesome as it can be."

Giving the player the ability to play how he wants is a big push for Borderlands 2. Kester is even making sure that the sequel will let you play coop in split-screen, even when playing online. "Supporting split-screen was a really strong [goal] for us," he said. "We're making sure that the new UI works well in split-screen as well."

Kester and the rest of the Gearbox team seem committed to making sure Borderlands 2 pleases as many players as possible. I wonder why? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8949-Duke-Nukem-Forever-Review]

Look for the game in mid to late 2012 on PC and those crazy Xbox 360 and PS3 machines I suppose.

Permalink

 

[Rad Party God]

So we're finally getting a proper port and split screen for the PC?. Color me excited.

 

[Juion]

What was wrong with the PC port of Borderlands? I've only played the PC version, so, I'd appreciate knowing what I missed out on.

 

[Worgen]

What was wrong with the PC port of Borderlands? I've only played the PC version, so, I'd appreciate knowing what I missed out on.

well the menu system was clunky as hell on the pc, it seemed to forget that pcs have mouse wheels and it was just annoying to navigate, not to mention that the multiplayer for the pc was broken for the longest time, it took months for them to finally make it so you didnt have to use a 3rd party system like games radar to actually play it with most people

well this news does give me some hope for borderlands 2 since the pc port of the original certainly was annoying

 

[FateOrFatality]

it seemed to forget that pcs have mouse wheels

Holy shit, this. I actually cannot express how frustrating it was because I couldn't figure out how the hell I was supposed to scroll down through quest description for ages. Who the hell uses page up/down?

 

[EdwardOrchard]

So we're finally getting a proper port and split screen for the PC?. Color me excited.

I didn't know split screen was something that PC gamers wanted... In all the years that I've been playing computer games, I have never once said, "You know, this would have been awesome with split screen mode." What are the reasons for wanting it?

When I first read it in the article, it sounded to me like they were saying, "We've literally directly ported this to the PC from the consoles, without optimization for the PC, and now we're spinning this to make it look like a good thing!"

Anyways, I JUST bought Borderlands as part of this weekend's Steam sale, always wanted it, never got it. Loving it so far, excited for Borderlands 2.

 

[Twilightruler]

I think I can speak for pretty much every PC gamer out there when I say this. Nix the GameSpy...please?

 

[kibayasu]

Didn't Gearbox say the same thing for the first Borderlands?

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

So we're finally getting a proper port and split screen for the PC?. Color me excited.

I didn't know split screen was something that PC gamers wanted... In all the years that I've been playing computer games, I have never once said, "You know, this would have been awesome with split screen mode." What are the reasons for wanting it?

If you have two Xbox pads and a dual-monitor set-up... split-screen is basically the coolest thing ever on PC.

 

[UnravThreads]

What was wrong with the PC port of Borderlands? I've only played the PC version, so, I'd appreciate knowing what I missed out on.

The above post also forgot to mention that the FoV is broken, and it caused a number of people (Including myself) to be unable to play it as it made us physically ill. There's also no official fix for it, and the one mentioned on the Borderlands forum is a temporary workaround that doesn't actually work all that well.

 

[ImprovizoR]

The thing I hated about Borderlands is that iron sights wasn't toggable. I like my iron sights toggable. Other than that it was an amazing and very addictive game.

 

[silverbullet1989]

Didn't Gearbox say the same thing for the first Borderlands?

yup ^^ glad i wasnt the only one who was thinking that

 

[kebab4you]

There was a PC port? Because when I bought it off steam[footnote]thank god for 75% off if I had paid more I would been piss[/footnote] the FOV wasn't even correct, had to go into the ini file and bind the fov button to an extra key so I wouldn't puke every time I tried turning ._.

 

[Metalrocks]

weird. i had no problems what so ever with the first game on pc. i had everything on high with a resolution of 1920x1080 with a ati 3850. also no probs with the controls and i always use mouse and keyboard.
but the game as such dint rock my world. in fact, i found it very boring and the story uninteresting that i pretty much dint care at all for it.
so i guess i will skip out on part 2.

 

[subtlefuge]

Just as long as "Keep Your Insides Inside" doesn't make an encore appearance. Also, the PC version was shit. Not that I didn't love it still, but it is still pretty bad.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

The interface is bollox on the PC, the mouse cursor has acceleration like a thumbstick would, not sure that is even possible to turn off. The field of view is about 40 degrees so its like looking through a welding mask. The menus are crapular including the infamous lack of mouse wheel. The weapon compare system is beyond useless.

Oh and the unforgivable unskippable intro movies.

 

[Sud0_x]

I found the first game thoroughly enjoyable despite it being an obviously flawed port.
That said, I just don't see a sequel having much to offer.

Also, I wish less games slipped anti ATI lines into their settings files these days. I've got a Nvidia card but it is silly, and I know both sides have done it in the past but Nvidia have really been taking the whole "the way it's meant to be played" thing too far in recent years.

 

[V8 Ninja]

An ironic story about the PC version of Borderlands: about 3/4s of the way through Playthrough 2 on my first character the game started working well with my computer. I was able to almost max out everything and get 60 FPS. Originally I would only be able to get 30-50 FPS with everything on low.

A Bit More OT: That's especially nice. I just hope Borderlands 2 really fulfills the somewhat lackingly fulfilled aspects of Borderlands 1.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Regardless i'm still gonna get this for PS3, not PC. It's good to know more people will get to enjoy it though 'cause if the first game was any indication then this is going to be amazing.