Caffeine: Borderlands *50th review*

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Lost In The Void

When in doubt, curl up and cry
Aug 27, 2008
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Good read; still haven't picked up this game because of pure laziness and the fact that all the DLC isn't going to fit on my 120 gig harddrive without needing some shuffling. That and its totally a mainstream AAA title and right now I'm diving more into the indie aspect of gaming right now /hipster
 

domble

Senior Member
Sep 2, 2009
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Lost In The Void said:
Good read; still haven't picked up this game because of pure laziness and the fact that all the DLC isn't going to fit on my 120 gig harddrive without needing some shuffling. That and its totally a mainstream AAA title and right now I'm diving more into the indie aspect of gaming right now /hipster
haha well I strongly urge you to give it a try, just a ton of fun with friends. Also it's kind of a taste of what Duke Nukem Forever is going to be like. If it ever gets released lol
 

DanielBrown

Dangerzone!
Dec 3, 2010
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Great review! It definetly made me want to pick up the game again. Been a while since I played it. :eek:
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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Pfft. Call this a 50th review? Mine had cake, aaand blackjack... and hookers.

Actually there was no cake.

Or blackjack.

Anyway, nice review of a game that I nearly started crying over when I sold it. Keep it up :)
 

domble

Senior Member
Sep 2, 2009
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DanielBrown said:
Great review! It definetly made me want to pick up the game again. Been a while since I played it. :eek:
thanks man :) I haven't been able to stop for ages, the connection in my place is crap before 12am so on game nights we just relax and play coop. Good times.

Stranger of Sorts said:
Pfft. Call this a 50th review? Mine had cake, aaand blackjack... and hookers.

Actually there was no cake.

Or blackjack.

Anyway, nice review of a game that I nearly started crying over when I sold it. Keep it up :)
Yeah? Well I wrote mine in a pimpmobile!

haha thanks for the kind words man. And shame on you for selling it! Go and get it again right now. G'wan, go!
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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domble said:
Stranger of Sorts said:
Pfft. Call this a 50th review? Mine had cake, aaand blackjack... and hookers.

Actually there was no cake.

Or blackjack.

Anyway, nice review of a game that I nearly started crying over when I sold it. Keep it up :)
Yeah? Well I wrote mine in a pimpmobile!

haha thanks for the kind words man. And shame on you for selling it! Go and get it again right now. G'wan, go!
Naaahhh I think I've had all the fun I could have with it. I played all the way through to level 61 twice with a friend and had countless level 40-somethings knocking about the hard-drive. Plus, I needed the money to buy a new PS3 since the god of yellow lighting decided to grace me with his presence. So now the only things on my shelf are Cod4, LBP2, LBP1, Shadow of the Collosus and a large space that The Last Guardian is expected to fill.
 

BENZOOKA

This is the most wittiest title
Oct 26, 2009
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domble said:
snip like a sniper
walk like a warrior
um...
hide like a hippo
I wanted to ask how the leveling works in Borderlands? Do you get to assign any points to stats, choose weapon preferences and stuff like that, or is it just a Ding! and you get more powerful, perhaps unlock a snazzy new predetermined skill and gain access to some more boomtastic weapons?

There was another question regarding Borderlands I wanted to ask as well, but I forgot what it was. If you know, or guess, what that question would've been, please answer to that also.
 

domble

Senior Member
Sep 2, 2009
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Stranger of Sorts said:
Yeahh i think it's safe to say you got your money's worth there, kudos!
Honestly I think that if my 360 breaks again I might go over to the ps3. Well, I definitely would if I hadn't got all my ME2 saves lined up for ME3 (one perfect good, one perfect bad, and now I'm working on getting shepherd killed).

Impressive shelf you got there sir, if you don't mind my saying.

BENZOOKA said:
domble said:
snip like a sniper
walk like a warrior
um...
hide like a hippo
I wanted to ask how the leveling works in Borderlands? Do you get to assign any points to stats, choose weapon preferences and stuff like that, or is it just a Ding! and you get more powerful, perhaps unlock a snazzy new predetermined skill and gain access to some more boomtastic weapons?

There was another question regarding Borderlands I wanted to ask as well, but I forgot what it was. If you know, or guess, what that question would've been, please answer to that also.
A bit of both really; you do become more powerful instantly, but you also dump a point into a specialisation pool that will increase X by Y%, or give your guns healing properties when you shoot allies. And of course the higher level you are, the better weapons you can find and buy find.

And as for your mystery question, here's a bunch of answers that might fit:


  • Usually orange, I guess.
    It's pretty slippery when you're doing it for a while.
    He does make an appearance, but he's wearing a mask so you might not recognise him.
    That's a bit personal, don't you think?


I hope this covers everything you need :D lol
 

BENZOOKA

This is the most wittiest title
Oct 26, 2009
3,919
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domble said:
BENZOOKA said:
domble said:
snip like a sniper
walk like a warrior
um...
hide like a hippo
I wanted to ask how the leveling works in Borderlands? Do you get to assign any points to stats, choose weapon preferences and stuff like that, or is it just a Ding! and you get more powerful, perhaps unlock a snazzy new predetermined skill and gain access to some more boomtastic weapons?

There was another question regarding Borderlands I wanted to ask as well, but I forgot what it was. If you know, or guess, what that question would've been, please answer to that also.
A bit of both really; you do become more powerful instantly, but you also dump a point into a specialisation pool that will increase X by Y%, or give your guns healing properties when you shoot allies. And of course the higher level you are, the better weapons you can find and buy find.

And as for your mystery question, here's a bunch of answers that might fit:


  • Usually orange, I guess.
    It's pretty slippery when you're doing it for a while.
    He does make an appearance, but he's wearing a mask so you might not recognise him.
    That's a bit personal, don't you think?


I hope this covers everything you need :D lol
Cheers. That's just what I was after. And the other question was what color will the game's case be if I immerse it into orange paint? Glad to get that dilemma solved as well.

Not sure yet if I'll get it though. Too many games left with too little attention, I'm afraid... But then again, I'll probably buy it accidentally from Steam. At least if it happens to be on sale.
 

timeadept

New member
Nov 23, 2009
413
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I kinda got the impression that these guys played the game for a whole of 5 min before writing the review. A fair amount of the comments seem to have been misplaced from their context. Other game-play elements went completely over their heads. For example, the spikes in difficulty were in fact there and something i would like to complain about as well, but they were not hidden, there is enough warning for anyone who didn't stop listening to claptrap the second he opened his mouth (at least i think it was him that warns you about enemies who are higher lvls than you). Basically, your bullets do inexplicably less damage to enemies about 3 levels higher than you, and more damage to foes a few lvls lower than you, the same rules apply to your enemies. But it's not like the difference in levels is hard to notice, the enemies names and the quests are color coded, the recommended level of the quest is right there too, and the enemies levels are right there when you're aiming at them. So it's not exactly subtle, or even difficult to tell if you're about to go into a tough fight (actually even after this there are still a small number of quests that are particularly difficult but they are few and far between).

Also more to the point that i don't think these guys played the game very long, they mentioned the 30 bijillion guns the game boasts to have but didn't mention that most of them are small variants of each other. There is still a fair amount if variety to choose from though, between gun types (SMG, sniper rifle...) and then add different firing patterns and then elemental (fire or acid or lightning...) damage and theres a respectable amount of variety, especially compared to most other games. The thing is that a truly exceptional gun will stay with you for 20+ levels until you finally find something better, so you're only regularly swapping out until you find that first great gun, then it's usually that you only swap guns when you find next great gun.

I actually liked borderlands and don't get me wrong, i would still recommend the game, but this review just seems haphazard, like it was written by someone with only a vague idea of what they're talking about.
 

domble

Senior Member
Sep 2, 2009
761
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timeadept said:
I kinda got the impression that these guys played the game for a whole of 5 min before writing the review. A fair amount of the comments seem to have been misplaced from their context. Other game-play elements went completely over their heads. For example, the spikes in difficulty were in fact there and something i would like to complain about as well, but they were not hidden, there is enough warning for anyone who didn't stop listening to claptrap the second he opened his mouth (at least i think it was him that warns you about enemies who are higher lvls than you). Basically, your bullets do inexplicably less damage to enemies about 3 levels higher than you, and more damage to foes a few lvls lower than you, the same rules apply to your enemies. But it's not like the difference in levels is hard to notice, the enemies names and the quests are color coded, the recommended level of the quest is right there too, and the enemies levels are right there when you're aiming at them. So it's not exactly subtle, or even difficult to tell if you're about to go into a tough fight (actually even after this there are still a small number of quests that are particularly difficult but they are few and far between).

Also more to the point that i don't think these guys played the game very long, they mentioned the 30 bijillion guns the game boasts to have but didn't mention that most of them are small variants of each other. There is still a fair amount if variety to choose from though, between gun types (SMG, sniper rifle...) and then add different firing patterns and then elemental (fire or acid or lightning...) damage and theres a respectable amount of variety, especially compared to most other games. The thing is that a truly exceptional gun will stay with you for 20+ levels until you finally find something better, so you're only regularly swapping out until you find that first great gun, then it's usually that you only swap guns when you find next great gun.

I actually liked borderlands and don't get me wrong, i would still recommend the game, but this review just seems haphazard, like it was written by someone with only a vague idea of what they're talking about.
Hey, can't please everyone :)

With regards to your first point, I personally found it easy to wander into situations I couldn't handle. The missions are marked as hard if they are, true, but if you're aiming at an enemy to see what level they are, that means they're within your shooting range, which means in turn that you are in theirs. I would be out in the dune buggy exploring with the turbo boost on, and all of a sudden I'd be in an area I apparently wasn't supposed to be in - it's this kind of exploration I was referring to, but I might not have been clear on that.
Also, if someone does stop listening to claptrap the second they can, that person can hardly be blamed lol

And the gun thing, I don't specify that they are combinations, but I take it for granted people understand that someone didn't sit down and design 3 million unique guns. Most people here are gamers, and I don't need to make my reviews longer than they are by going into minute detail. Almost every game out there has guns, if reviewers talked forever about them every review would be the same.

Shame you didn't like the review but still, cool game? :)
 

timeadept

New member
Nov 23, 2009
413
0
0
domble said:
timeadept said:
I kinda got the impression that these guys played the game for a whole of 5 min before writing the review. A fair amount of the comments seem to have been misplaced from their context. Other game-play elements went completely over their heads. For example, the spikes in difficulty were in fact there and something i would like to complain about as well, but they were not hidden, there is enough warning for anyone who didn't stop listening to claptrap the second he opened his mouth (at least i think it was him that warns you about enemies who are higher lvls than you). Basically, your bullets do inexplicably less damage to enemies about 3 levels higher than you, and more damage to foes a few lvls lower than you, the same rules apply to your enemies. But it's not like the difference in levels is hard to notice, the enemies names and the quests are color coded, the recommended level of the quest is right there too, and the enemies levels are right there when you're aiming at them. So it's not exactly subtle, or even difficult to tell if you're about to go into a tough fight (actually even after this there are still a small number of quests that are particularly difficult but they are few and far between).

Also more to the point that i don't think these guys played the game very long, they mentioned the 30 bijillion guns the game boasts to have but didn't mention that most of them are small variants of each other. There is still a fair amount if variety to choose from though, between gun types (SMG, sniper rifle...) and then add different firing patterns and then elemental (fire or acid or lightning...) damage and theres a respectable amount of variety, especially compared to most other games. The thing is that a truly exceptional gun will stay with you for 20+ levels until you finally find something better, so you're only regularly swapping out until you find that first great gun, then it's usually that you only swap guns when you find next great gun.

I actually liked borderlands and don't get me wrong, i would still recommend the game, but this review just seems haphazard, like it was written by someone with only a vague idea of what they're talking about.
Hey, can't please everyone :)

With regards to your first point, I personally found it easy to wander into situations I couldn't handle. The missions are marked as hard if they are, true, but if you're aiming at an enemy to see what level they are, that means they're within your shooting range, which means in turn that you are in theirs. I would be out in the dune buggy exploring with the turbo boost on, and all of a sudden I'd be in an area I apparently wasn't supposed to be in - it's this kind of exploration I was referring to, but I might not have been clear on that.
Also, if someone does stop listening to claptrap the second they can, that person can hardly be blamed lol

And the gun thing, I don't specify that they are combinations, but I take it for granted people understand that someone didn't sit down and design 3 million unique guns. Most people here are gamers, and I don't need to make my reviews longer than they are by going into minute detail. Almost every game out there has guns, if reviewers talked forever about them every review would be the same.

Shame you didn't like the review but still, cool game? :)
lol, fair enough about claptrap, and yeah you can't really please everyone. I just felt that you had missed the point in a couple places. Like i never felt that the game was about the story, so i'm not sure why you focused so much on that. That may just be me though, because unless the story was a selling point for the game i usually don't look too far into it, after all i bought Borderlands for the mix of RPG and FPS, not because of this story of a mysterious vault.

But i guess this just highlights our difference in priorities. I focus primarily on game mechanics when i'm buying a game, maybe you put more emphasis on story. So when i'm playing a game i spend a lot more time analyzing the mechanics and you spend more time on the story.

I didn't really bother to explore either, i pretty much stayed on my rails but did just about every quest and so eventually saw everything, and saw it when i was ready to. So i never ended up landing in a fight too tough for me, i was always able to pick my quests and pick my fights before i was in them.

You're probably right about the guns thing, but i just don't like the idea of using their claim about having so many guns. I mean when i saw that in the trailer i knew i was dealing with a lot of variants but i also knew that some people would take that too literally and probably get their hopes up and let down when they realized what 30 bijillion guns actually meant. It just seems like a cheap advertising trick to me, the same thing as 9.99 looks like less than 10.00 but monetary difference is negligible where as the psychological difference is massive.

In any case i very much enjoyed the game, it never really worked out with my friends though because gamespy sucks. So i ended up playing it through single-player and still had fun.
 

domble

Senior Member
Sep 2, 2009
761
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21
timeadept said:
Story is a real priority for me - I mean I've been a gamer since the Spectrum, so I've had years and years to master any mechanics a game can offer, and to be honest they haven't changed much since the ps1 (save for 3rd person games being over-the-shoulder rather than through-the-head). I find that the more I play, the more I want a good narrative to keep me hooked. I was trying to get across that, in this case, I didn't mind the plot being a bit lacking because the multiplayer aspect really made up for it, and that it was basically just a lot of fun.

Also, I completely get where you're coming from with the gun thing, and as soon as I heard about how many there were I filed it under "too good to be true." The thing is, even now I find myself excited when I find a weapon chest, or if something falls out of a skag (?!). It might be cheap and easy, but it really worked on me... which says a lot, now that I think about it.

And yeah, the single player mode is by no means a bad experience, but the game was definitely meant to be played with two or more people - preferably in the same room, so one person can have the map open and the other can drive [/no sense of direction]