Borderlands 2 release date and preorder

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Are you thinking of the right game?

Borderlands was a shooter with action RPG elements in the skill trees and guns loot, it wasn't trying to be Mass Effect.

Did you think Diablo, Titan Quest and Torchlight were just "fetch quests" too?

There's a distinct difference between the quests in Diablo and the quests in Borderlands. The main purpose of action RPGs is to plow through hoards of monsters and collect loot. Compare the 6 quests per act in D2 to the hundreds of shitty kill x creatures/gather x body parts WoW style quests in Borderlands. One is much more interesting than the other and it still keeps it's focus on plowing through monsters.

The other big complaint I have about Borderlands is the monster variety is extremely lacking. Palette swapping is expecting in these games, but you still need good variety despite this to keep things interesting.

I'm not saying Borderlands was bad mind you. I just think it's overrated, and I personally couldn't get into it.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I'm not saying Borderlands was bad mind you. I just think it's overrated, and I personally couldn't get into it.

Did you play co-op with friends?

 

[Aikouka]

I'm really looking forward to that game, but I hope they fix some of the problems from the original. I won't get into the story (I actually do below ), but I do hope they fix some of the problems.

I've mentioned this in other places, but I think the largest problem is that the DLC felt like an afterthought in regard to how it integrated in with the game. The biggest problem for me is that there were no adjustments made to talents when they released a new expansion. Now, not all of them required it, but Knoxx provided 11 extra levels (50 to 61) and Claptrap's release included a patch (for all players) that provided 8 extra levels (61 to 69).

The issue you ran into here is that talents are usually designed to limit you to certain amounts of power, but that doesn't happen when you can literally grab almost all of the good talents. Talent choice becomes nearly ineffective.

Then there was also the fact that they didn't include the fast travel hubs in the DLC, which usually led to a bit of an annoyance having to run around and kill enemies (Ned, Claptrap) or drive around and try and avoid enemies (Knoxx). They made our lives a lot better by providing awesome quests like Braaaaaaaaaains, which gave us a reason to kill all of those mobs.

Fortunately, PC modders added a fast travel hub for all of the DLC, which was a bit better. That means nothing for those silly console gamers though.

I'm not saying Borderlands was bad mind you. I just think it's overrated, and I personally couldn't get into it.

I don't think anyone can tell you that the Borderlands quests are good with a straight face. But honestly... I didn't really care about the quests that much. That doesn't mean that I didn't do them, but rather I was giving them the "Wow Treatment" where you just do quests but don't really care about them. I think that's partly because the story wasn't good (or really... it was very non-existent) in the original game.

But I think I said something important in there... the story was probably the worst part in the original game. Gearbox has stated a few times that they are trying to remedy that problem in Borderlands 2. I've been reading the write-ups on IGN about the characters (they've done Maya the Siren and Axton the Commando), and they've mentioned a couple times that they're even trying to flesh the character's backgrounds out.

Out of all of the quest sets, I would say that Knoxx had the best.

 

[OCNewbie]

One of my favorite things about Borderlands was the comedy/humor aspect of the game, which was totally unexpected (I didn't read too much about the game before getting into it). I actually really liked the claptrap robots too, which played a role in the comedy aspect of the game. I had such a blast with this game, and that was 100% single-player. I recently bought a 4-pack of the GOTY addition during a Steam sale and I'm going to try to get 2 or 3 of my friends into the game so we can try co-op together. They've never played the game, so it'll be all new to them.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Will split screen be for PC or with the co-op be kinda MMOish where you can run around together and do stuff?

Hmm, don't really know I guess. I assumed it was for PC since they made a point of it in the trailer, and it is pretty much standard for consoles. But I could be wrong, it might be only for consoles. One thing I thought was great about the first game was that two people could play co-op with only one copy of the game.

 

[Zenoth]

For a moment, during the first few seconds of the video I was actually expecting some sort of a Matrix theme remix (was it actually inspired by the Matrix's theme?). Anyway, it does look very good, looks way more polished than the first just by what is shown in the video, it's promising. All I want as far as multi-player goes is a system that does not force three players of a party (if there's a total of 4) to follow just one guy to the level HE (or she) decided to go to just because he felt like it.

That part of the multi-player in Borderlands pissed me off. You're part of a team, one guy decides to go to another level, all the three others HAVE to follow and whatever you were doing at that point is replaced by a loading screen and BAM... you end up at the start of the level that just one guy decided to go to without ever asking or warning the others about it, frustrating system. But, to be honest though, I barely ever played Borderlands' multi-player anyway, even with friends over Steam, people I actually know well and have played other games with them for literally more than two or three years so far (started back when Natural Selection was still very popular). Even with friends I thought that it wasn't necessarily "better" than just playing the campaign alone, since I considered the game like an action RPG à-la Diablo but in first-person-view and of course, with guns.

I'm not sure how they're going to do it with Borderlands 2 but at least I'll surely enjoy the campaign, pretty sure of it since it looks like the formula was kept intact (random drops, loot, crap loads of guns... that's all I need). The ONE thing I hope is better as far as the campaign goes is the story. I KNOW... I know... action game, doesn't NEED a "good" story but... I just want a little something more to pull me in than JUST loot. I mean Diablo II's story IS good (for an action RPG anyway) and progressing in the levels to wait for the next great cut-scenes (back then anyway) was part of the fun. The ending in Borderlands was... errr... not sure if even the word abysmal would do it justice.

Nonetheless, looks fun and I'll keep an eye on it that's for sure, overall I do really like Borderlands despite a few issues here and there, nothing major, it's a very fun game all in all.

 

[Anonemous]

I like that news!



I've played all 220+ hours of Borderlands as single player, and I enjoy it none-the-less! I think it works pretty well if you're the obsessive type. You know, the type that spends all day farming a certain boss for a certain gun.

Not that I know anyone from here like that. :whiste:

I like the gun farming but was kinda put off at how easy it was to hack the guns to play online. Wish there was more of a Battle.net/centralized server account to keep the hacked stuff off.

 

[CottonRabbit]

I like the gun farming but was kinda put off at how easy it was to hack the guns to play online. Wish there was more of a Battle.net/centralized server account to keep the hacked stuff off.

This, also it annoyed me that people with pirated copies could play online too.

 

[Aikouka]

I like the gun farming but was kinda put off at how easy it was to hack the guns to play online. Wish there was more of a Battle.net/centralized server account to keep the hacked stuff off.

Ah, I never played with random people. The Diablo II method of storing characters online for "Battle.NET" play would be interesting, but also a fairly decent undertaking for a company with no existing online architecture (nor does 2K Games (the publisher for Borderlands 1) that I know of?). I don't know if there are any services (like Gamespy, which was used in the original) that support this.

In some ways, the ability to hack the game did allow us to fix the annoyances that were present in the game. So, at least it provided some sort of benefit. I know one time I used the cheat to get into the armory at the end of Knoxx without setting off the timer, but I messed up and got part of the quest done. Without editing your save, you have to ALT+F4 to avoid saving the bad state.

 

[n7]

I am excited

 

[Aikouka]

This is a nice little recap of all the news released so far:

http://www.gearboxity.com/content/view/828/33/

All profiles have been released for the new characters (Zero the Assassin came out early today). Giving me a Ninja to play? Oh, Gearbox... you surely know what I like!

 

[frozentundra123456]

For a moment, during the first few seconds of the video I was actually expecting some sort of a Matrix theme remix (was it actually inspired by the Matrix's theme?). Anyway, it does look very good, looks way more polished than the first just by what is shown in the video, it's promising. All I want as far as multi-player goes is a system that does not force three players of a party (if there's a total of 4) to follow just one guy to the level HE (or she) decided to go to just because he felt like it.

That part of the multi-player in Borderlands pissed me off. You're part of a team, one guy decides to go to another level, all the three others HAVE to follow and whatever you were doing at that point is replaced by a loading screen and BAM... you end up at the start of the level that just one guy decided to go to without ever asking or warning the others about it, frustrating system. But, to be honest though, I barely ever played Borderlands' multi-player anyway, even with friends over Steam, people I actually know well and have played other games with them for literally more than two or three years so far (started back when Natural Selection was still very popular). Even with friends I thought that it wasn't necessarily "better" than just playing the campaign alone, since I considered the game like an action RPG à-la Diablo but in first-person-view and of course, with guns.

I'm not sure how they're going to do it with Borderlands 2 but at least I'll surely enjoy the campaign, pretty sure of it since it looks like the formula was kept intact (random drops, loot, crap loads of guns... that's all I need). The ONE thing I hope is better as far as the campaign goes is the story. I KNOW... I know... action game, doesn't NEED a "good" story but... I just want a little something more to pull me in than JUST loot. I mean Diablo II's story IS good (for an action RPG anyway) and progressing in the levels to wait for the next great cut-scenes (back then anyway) was part of the fun. The ending in Borderlands was... errr... not sure if even the word abysmal would do it justice.Nonetheless, looks fun and I'll keep an eye on it that's for sure, overall I do really like Borderlands despite a few issues here and there, nothing major, it's a very fun game all in all.

I really enjoyed the game, the loot farming, and the sense of humor, but yea, the ending was a total anticlimax. I am definitely looking forward to the second game though.

 

[Nebor]

This'll be a day one purchase for me. I have over 300 hours into Borderlands multiplayer.

 

[wand3r3r]

Threads got combined nm.

 

[wand3r3r]

The modding was fun and added something to the game for me. Custom maps, modding random guns, it was an interesting way to continue playing/screwing around after playing a couple playthroughs.

Just host a server if you don't like modding and you can kick anyone who's modding if you are offended by that type of thing.

I agree if you mod and just go shoot everything with one shot while playing with non-modders that is pretty lame.

Anyways, my s27a950d is on the way, I can't WAIT to play in 3d!!

 

[slag]

Looks pretty darn identical to the first. This should be yet another DLC pack since the animations, graphics, everything is pretty identical to the first. I liked the first one a lot, but like other posters noted, it does get repetitious. I didn't play the game for the multiplayer aspect though, just for the first/third person shooter aspect.

I'll wait a few months after its released and pick it up for $19.99. Since they reused mostly everything, it shouldn't be a $60.00 game to begin with.

 

[Aikouka]

Looks pretty darn identical to the first. This should be yet another DLC pack since the animations, graphics, everything is pretty identical to the first. I liked the first one a lot, but like other posters noted, it does get repetitious. I didn't play the game for the multiplayer aspect though, just for the first/third person shooter aspect.

I'll wait a few months after its released and pick it up for $19.99. Since they reused mostly everything, it shouldn't be a $60.00 game to begin with.

You must have clicked on a Borderlands 1 video by mistake, because while they're both FPS games and some environments may be similar (i.e. deserts look like deserts), the games have changed quite a bit.

All of the characters are different.
Gun tech has changed quite a bit.
Different environments this time around (this has been a point they've made for quite awhile)
New enemies
Newer and more advanced enemy AI
UI revamp

With all this, it's pretty obvious why I think that you had to have watched the wrong video!

 

[KeithTalent]

I'll stick to the original thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2227988

EDIT* wth, this was supposed to be in the other BL2 thread that someone started with the identical topic
AT forums what's the deal? I'm sure I posted this in the other thread

It's called merging threads.

KT

 

[wand3r3r]

It's called merging threads.

KT

Good, removes duplicity.

Here's a great gameplay with explanation piece. They have certainly revamped it... (a bit fuzzy, but well worth the watch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jQF7GQjTjsM


Lilith (Maya) in real life as well as the guardian angel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMnrjNdW0U&feature=related

 

[slag]

You must have clicked on a Borderlands 1 video by mistake, because while they're both FPS games and some environments may be similar (i.e. deserts look like deserts), the games have changed quite a bit.

All of the characters are different.
Gun tech has changed quite a bit.
Different environments this time around (this has been a point they've made for quite awhile)
New enemies
Newer and more advanced enemy AI
UI revamp

With all this, it's pretty obvious why I think that you had to have watched the wrong video!

I stand by my statements that they look like the same game.

Whereas you could easily tell the difference between quakes 1-2-3-4, these two games look really similar. Oh sure, there are new enemies but there were new enemies in the dlc as well for B1. Different tech (yawn), ok, could be introducted in another DLC.

UI revamp. Yeah, everything is shown diagonally skewed off to the right instead of straight on the screen. OOOOOhhhhhhhh

Different environments. Lessee, we've seen swamps, trees, hills, deserts, deserted towns, populated towns, etc. So they reskinned stuff. Sounds like more DLC.

I hope its fun to play, but from watching and rewatching the link, it doesn't look new or fresh.

 

[Aikouka]

I hope its fun to play, but from watching and rewatching the link, it doesn't look new or fresh.

What were you expecting to change in the game?

Without changing the core formula of the game being "Diablo with Guns", they can't really make the game fresh. They won't be able to pull a Torchlight to Torchlight II transition (which is essentially the same transition that Diablo to Diablo II saw) where the game expands from a fairly basic level traversal to an open world. Borderlands already gave us that from the start.

Ultimately, I would be satisfied if they fixed the flaws with the first game, and provided a more engaging story.

 

[Rambusted]

Love the first one still playing it occasionally. Will definitely buy #2, even though i'm not overly impressed with that trailer. Doesnt look like much of a graphical upgrade.

 

[Aikouka]

Gearbox announced today that Borderlands 2 for the PC will use Steamworks.

 

[Texashiker]

Gearbox announced today that Borderlands 2 for the PC will use Steamworks.

Its offical

http://www.gearboxity.com/content/view/829/33/

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I'm only partially interested. I'll be much more interested if they show that my main problem with Borderlands - that bullets had noticeable travel time at short range. Hard to enjoy sniping if your bullets are as slow as arrows.