Stolen Pixels #139: BorderLAN
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Not surprising considering that with consoles the developer has to stick to a set of rules written in concrete or it just wont work. With PC you get so many different choices to screw up and it will somehow still connect, just so buggy it ain't worth trying. I've encountered a few games like that. But there are examples that actually do a decent job. Left 4 Dead and Battle.net as it used to be are a couple. It is a shame that of what I have heard of Borderlands so far that the pc multiplayer stinks, though it's usually inevitable. Too much focus on one aspect leads to crap on another. But that's ok, they'll just fix it in a patch. That's what patches are for, right? [/sarcasm] I tried the Shitspy multiplayer about when it first came out. Was clunky and connections were a test of extreme patience. Plus if memory serves it even tried downloading malware on my system. I'm guessing nothing's changed.Virgil said:
For the original Dawn of War, gamespy never did me wrong. But the complaints about it on the forums were incessant. One thing I noticed, people were quick to badmouth it, but rarely did they detail the exact problem it was bringing them. DoW had robust ladders so it must have been working at least a lot of the time, and generally, there were far more complaints about balance.Lord Krunk said:
So, I remain suspicious of gamespy multiplayer connectivity, but it is not a deal breaker.
On the PS3 we had the same problems with multiplayer for the longest time (a day or two I think). Originally it wouldn't let us play with anyone on our friends list that actually had the game. The voice chat is beyond horrible. If the game is loading it's like listening to the remixed version of whatever your friend is saying. It really made me mad that the thing they were really all excited about didn't work properly when it launched and still doesn't work quite right.
While there are annoyances with the game, if you have a group of friends that you will be playing with then it's fairly painless.
If you're not planning on playing in pub games then you only need to forward a single port (7777) if hosting and none to accept a friends invite. This then allows you to control who joins your game as they can only do so if you invite them from your friends list. This avoids the bug of pubbers being able to join your game once it's running too. Simply use your existing community application (xfire / steam / etc) and favourite chat application (vent / ts) to tee up games and ask for invites.
Without a doubt the fun of the game in co-op with friends makes up for the little annoyances.
Edit: Oh of course go to the PC Tweaks thread on the borderlands forum to fix some of the main annoyances before you start too - http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=79043
If you're not planning on playing in pub games then you only need to forward a single port (7777) if hosting and none to accept a friends invite. This then allows you to control who joins your game as they can only do so if you invite them from your friends list. This avoids the bug of pubbers being able to join your game once it's running too. Simply use your existing community application (xfire / steam / etc) and favourite chat application (vent / ts) to tee up games and ask for invites.
Without a doubt the fun of the game in co-op with friends makes up for the little annoyances.
Edit: Oh of course go to the PC Tweaks thread on the borderlands forum to fix some of the main annoyances before you start too - http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=79043
