Worst review I have seen in a long time (borderlands 2)

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Well he listened, at the bottom of the article it now states;

[Note: This article has been modified from a previous version. In addition, the exact release dates for Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 have been added.]

Like that is going to stop the RAGE TRAIN.

 

[Gunner 51]

snip

So, this is the worst review ever and you laughed at it because...?

Because of the way it was written? Maybe.

Because of the comparisons he made to Call of Duty? Probably.

Because you have a huge positive bias toward Borderlands and he didn't enjoy it? Definitely.

---

Yes, he made mention of games like Halo and Call of Duty, but in all fairness those are the top FPS's for a reason. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never personally bought any installment of either franchise and I don't play them at all. But if we're talking FPS mechanics, they're both superior to Borderlands.

I have a feeling if it was written the same way, but he was saying positive things about Borderlands 2, none of the people in this thread would be saying "Aw fail review what a fail review," they'd be saying nothing at all.

---

There are people out there who don't like Borderlands. In fact, with the terrible impression the first game made on me, the review you posted made me slightly MORE interested in Borderlands 2.

Do you know why that is?

...because it seems like it has a freaking plot.

I know Borderlands had a plot, but it was trash. Nothing about the game motivated me to do anything at all. The depressing realization that the game world in Borderlands is so dull, tedious, uninteresting, and pretentious made me less motivated to do anything in the game itself than I do in real life... and that's saying something.

Personally, I'd be generous to say that Borderlands is only in the Top 5 worst games I've ever bought, as opposed to just outright declaring it the worst.

I know people like different things. I know some people like hip-hop and I'm okay with that. Some people like romantic comedies, and that's fine. I don't like either of those at all but people have different tastes.

There is one single thing I really can not fathom that any single soul would enjoy, though, and that is Borderlands. I ache just thinking about playing that game.

Anyway, the point is, it's not a fail review just because you're excited about the game, you're a fan who read a bad review. There are bad reviews for my favorite games, too. Shit happens.

I couldn't have put this better myself.
I never liked Borderlands either, it was a lifeless and depressing slog in my opinion. It shares the title "Nadir of FPSes" alongside Bulletstorm AFAIC.

Besides, laughing at the Wall Street Journal's review of Borderlands 2 is rather unkind - it's a publication for investment bankers and the like. If they want to review the game and have an opinion on it - that's fabulous. It means that gaming is becoming accepted by stuffiest of suits.

But laughing in their faces for simply not enjoying what Borderlands fans like is immature and not certainly not a good reflection of gamers to the wider world.

OK, the reviewer may not come off as knowledgeble on games as someone like Yahtzee or even Charlie Brooker - but I'll give him his props that he not only spends time with his son by playing video games with him - which marks him as a good, responsible parent in my eyes. But he also comes across as more mature and personable than someone like Jim Sterling.

If anything - he was honest and exposed the games flaws as he found them. Now that I think of it, just imagine the review he would make of Dragon Age 2.

 

[yuval152]

There's no palm big enough to express my feelings...

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Handsome Jack and his diamond pony are fucking hilarious.

^ This.

I was crying for about 10 minutes when he was thinking up names for it. "Butt Stallion!"

 

[The White Hunter]

Well this wasn't on the first page so I'm officially disappointed in you all:


Who cares what somebody from the wall street journal thinks of a game? It's not like they;re remotely aware of how a game can be different to their beloved yearly blockbusters.

 

[Smooth Operator]

What is there to say, another peach off the gaming journalist tree... when the only requirement is literacy and ability to play games this is what you get.

 

[Sacman]

Conan did a better job as a game reviewer...<.<

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Meh, I haven't played Borderlands 2, but Borderlands was boring as hell and if you don't like that sort of game chances are you're not going to like the sequel.

While the Call of Duty from 4 onwards are complete shit, at least they're over fast. Borderlands dragged on for fucking ever and by Dog, do I agree that Claptrap is agony in its purest form. Fuck that whingy shitty robot.

And if this guy do indeed expect versus multi player then Borderlands 2 does not deliver, as he said. I'm somewhat confused why anyone would want that though, seeing as most people are tossers.

The humour, if that's what we're calling it in Borderlands was... well, it was not funny in any way, shape or sense, so it makes sense if it's as tedious in the sequel.

As he said, the first game could be excused with novelty for being boring but if he finds the second one boring then he finds it boring.

 

[MammothBlade]

tl;dr, I would say that Call of Duty: Black Ops beats Borderlands 1/2 as far as single player goes, and which one wins after that is...dunno! Haven't played Black Ops' multiplayer, but I imagine that the 'better' one depends on the person and their specific tastes.

I disagree with this.

Even the first Borderlands, with its excuse plot, had better single player gameplay than Black Ops - at least, for me. I got horribly bored halfway through the CoD BO and MW2 campaigns, but BL kept me compelled to go through and play to the end and then go through all the DLC. It depends on your personality, some (including myself) really enjoyed exploring and looting new weapons as a solo player, others were turned off. From what I hear (BL2 not released here yet), Borderlands 2 has a considerably improved singleplayer in several ways. Co-Op is not my first priority, but it has a lot of value for replay here.

 

[GAunderrated]

tl;dr, I would say that Call of Duty: Black Ops beats Borderlands 1/2 as far as single player goes, and which one wins after that is...dunno! Haven't played Black Ops' multiplayer, but I imagine that the 'better' one depends on the person and their specific tastes.

I disagree with this.

Even the first Borderlands, with its excuse plot, had better single player gameplay than Black Ops - at least, for me. I got horribly bored halfway through the CoD BO and MW2 campaigns, but BL kept me compelled to go through and play to the end and then go through all the DLC. It depends on your personality, some (including myself) really enjoyed exploring and looting new weapons as a solo player, others were turned off. From what I hear (BL2 not released here yet), Borderlands 2 has a considerably improved singleplayer in several ways. Co-Op is not my first priority, but it has a lot of value for replay here.

I have to agree with this point at least with MW2 on-ward where they had almost no pacing. BL1/2 have pacing in their battles. It's not just enemies from all sides and explosions everywhere.

 

[RaikuFA]

You guys do know that this is what most JRPG reviews on sites like GI and such are like, right? The whole "It's not CoD so it sucks." mentality.

Still fucking hilarious.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

the 5 "cages" of reading that review.

hilarity

Spoiler

Doubtful

Spoiler

More Hilarity

Spoiler

Sexually Satisfied

Spoiler

Angry-hilarity

Spoiler

That was a baaad review...

 

[Woodsey]

Apart from the wildly off-the-mark CoD comparisons in the first few paragraphs, I don't see anything wrong with the rest of it particularly. I've read far more interesting and technically competent amateur reviews, but I don't really see the problem with the opinion.

A lot of it seems to match what I felt about the first Borderlands, really: dull and meandering.

 

[Krantos]

I found the article absolutely hilarious.

The guys I work with just had a good 10-15 minute laugh at it.

The guy clearly has no frame of reference. I haven't played Borderlands 2 yet, but I know enough about it to know comparing it to COD or Halo is WAAY off the mark.

Borderlands is more akin to Diablo or WoW than COD and Halo. It just happens to have gun play.

I'd love to see this guy review Fallout 3/NV.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Seems like a well written review. I don't necessarily appreciate the comparisons with CoD and likening Claptrap to C3P0, both of which are simply using more well known things for comparison, rather than speaking of them in and of themselves. But it's a well written review by a guy who did his homework and gave it a fair go. He fairly compared it with it's predecessor and those were his findings. He fairly analysed most featured of the game, gave it a go in a SP and MP so it's clearly not a first-impression type affair.

I haven't played the game myself yet to say for certain but am glad for the review and the critique. I haven't pre-ordered it...may just wait a while. Not sure if it's worth £30 on release day.

 

[TK421]

Yeah I read that I laughed. Honestly the guy is perfectly entitled to his opinion and I respect him if he doesn't like the game. I just hope the gamer community doesn't show its usual immaturity and attack the guy personally for it. But that's wishful thinking since at best the gamer community is a bunch of immature prats.

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought too. I wish that the extremists of any culture/religion/group were ignored, and the group was only judged on those of its members that are somewhat sane/mature.

OT: Yeah, that review was pretty crappy. But hey, if that's what he thinks, shouldn't that be what he writes? He could try to make it a lot "cleaner," as in less words would have produced the same result.

 

[Krantos]

*snip*

I think you're misunderstanding what people are finding funny about it. It's not his opinion that's funny, it's the reasons he gave.

To put it succinctly, he seems to have misunderstood what the game was. The fact that he repeatedly compared it to COD and Halo indicates that those titles are the benchmarks he's holding the game up to. The problem with that is they are totally different genres. They may have similar mechanics, but they are not in the same genre.

COD and Halo are action focused FPSes. That's what they do. Thus, they are, by nature going to be more immediately engrossing than Borderlands, because that isn't what it's trying to do. Likewise with multiplayer. COD and Halo are focused on competitive multiplayer. Thus, they have more diverse multiplayer modes. Borderlands is only focused on co-op multiplayer so it doesn't stand up as a competitive multiplayer title.

He compared Borderlands 2 to COD and Halo on their terms, which, of course lead to Borderlands looking bad, because it's not trying to do the same things as they are.

I actually like COD and Halo (I don't like their communities, but the games themselves are good), and found Borderlands a bit dull (I can only have fun playing as Lilith). But this review was WAY off.

A guy in my office put it best, imo. His review was like going into Taco Bell and calling it the worst burger joint ever.

 

[Hyperone]

I got as much of a laugh out of the article as I have my fellow forum goers scathing remarks. While it is true that I do not, and will not begrudge someone their due opinion, they are not sparred from my opinions either.

All I really needed to see is that he claimed CoD had a better storyline. I almost died at that point. Literally. The very fact it was compared to CoD is ingenious in its comedy. Rock on you stand up genius!

 

[Fwee]

Not going to waste too much time or thought on this one but:
He basically admits he hasn't played the first game, and learned everything about it on the internet.
Whatevs, I don't read Newspapers for Video Game Reviews. My local paper tried pulling that shit, and I stopped reading it on Thursdays. I got a third through this review and thought to myself, "Shit, I don't have enough breadcrumbs to find my way back home."

Video Game Reviewers for Newspapers, for the most part, are People Who Either Couldn't Get a Better Job Reviewing Games Or Aren't Good Enough To Cover Real News. It's good practice though. Keep trying!

I do agree that Claptrap is annoying. Not as bad as was in the first one, but I'm not going to warm up to him until I see marked improvement.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

This reads like EA wrote a review... hmmm...

...no. You know what this reads like? Someone who doesn't know how to review games. Or media in general. But, nontheless, someone who holds an opinion. He knows he didn't like Borderlands 2. And he's not quite sure why - he can't connect the dots exactly in his head - so he leaps at the next best thing. It has things different to things he likes. So, of course, he lists the things Borderlands 2 does that... um... Calls of Duty and The Halo doesn't, and vice versa. Oh! I like Call of Duty, and that has online multiplayer and DLC! And I don't like Borderlands 2, and that doesn't have online multiplayer and DLC... so the differences I've noticed just now must be the reasons I didn't like Borderlands 2! Which, fair enough. This is the Wall Street Journal.

It reads like an accountant trying to voice his opinion. What he will have to learn, I suppose, is that... well... he is not good at writing, his opinion is not expressed eloquently, he should have checked his facts and I think he's facing the brunt force of what happens when you put something up in a public space, aimed at people who are already in that space and who have these standards so utterly ingrained in their heads that ignorance will not be tolerated.