blind-guardian.com

First of all, for those who don't know the game:
Borderlands is basically a Diablo-esque loot-hogging "rpg" in first-person-shooter form, set in a "Mad Max goes Space Western" styled environment in a cool, somewhat comic book-like graphics style, with heaps of laid-back zany humour. All that combined gives it one of the most distinctive feels I've experienced in any game; Borderlands feels exactly like Borderlands, and nothing else. All in all, the game is immensely entertaining, funny and addictive.

Then to my actual point:
I did a search and noticed a few guys here have at least tried Borderlands. I was wondering if any of you have played it any more?

Personally, I think Borderlands is seriously one of the best and most fun games to come out in many years. I've been playing ass-tons of it ever since it came out, and I'm still not even close to getting bored of it. I have a level 61 Soldier I've played the most with, and also a Siren I just got to level 61 yesterday after losing my previous level 61 Siren to save file corruption. I have also played with the Hunter and Berserker, but they're both still on playthrough 1. So yeah, I've played the game for a bit.

So, am I the only Borderlands junkie here? And if not, anyone fancy some multiplayer sometime? There's a dirt simple trick to making it work over Hamachi if anyone's interested.

Hey, don't we have a separate thread for videogames?

But to answer your question. I did play it for a while up until I reached level 25 or so. After that I lost interest in the singleplayercampaign. This was mainly due to the way the pace in which the game moves forward, or actually the lack of it. At a certain point I was running from one quest to the other without a story of changing scenery to make it seem I was actually getting any further. I initially liked the idea of having all those rpg elements, but in the end concluded that those things only effectively work in an rpg. I also found that the game wasn't very clear about what to do next, and the lack of a fast travel (a la Oblivion) dulled the experience of switching between quests. I also didn't like the fact that the game didn't have a music score. The slence made the experience all the more empty.

I can see how the game is fun in co-op, but in singleplayer, I found it rather tedious.

Still, nice to learn that you enjoyed it.

Well there's that console game thread of yours, but I'm a PC man.

But yeah, it can get a bit tedious to have to muck about in the Rust Commons area for so long, but for me the story progression in a game like this isn't as important, but the fights and character advancement and, most of all, looting (either from killed enemies or hidden chests; the latter can be in the damnedest places. Finding one you've missed before feels strangely satisfying). So while I can understand your experience of it, it just works differently for me.

As for the lack of music, I dunno if it's different for the console version of the game or if you had a bug in your system or whatever, but actually the game does have a score, and a really good one at that. Some tracks are pretty western-y, others more sorta ethnic, but they all fit the game perfectly.
Here's a couple examples:
A battle music track http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkU7RYDGgdA
Exploration music from the first area: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4pgSh6_fGc

Sir, you are win, you deserve a medal

Concerning the music: 90 percent of the time it was just a bit of percussion with some meagre soundscapes. Nothing that qualifies as a score that I would actually like.

Oh, and I edited the title of the videogames-thread based on your last post. I never meant to exclude pc-games, so you're welcome to post there too.

It's one of the best games I've ever played. While it is fun in single player, it really shines on online co-op. It's as addicting as crack. Right now I have a level 52 Support Gunner. We beat The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned last week and spend a week levelling up to level 50 and started the General Knoxx DLC yesterday. I'm playing it on the X-Box 360.

"Nailed it!".

Awesome. It's a great addon, even if all that driving back and forth can be a bit tedious at times. In single player, when I complete some missions in the areas furthest from T-Bone Junction, I just exit the game and start a new one to get back to town. As an added bonus this also resets all the loot chests.
Also, the "secret end boss" kicks ass. Let me know if you ever manage to beat him solo, and I'll salute you.

The biggest complaint I have about the game is that the character levels up too fast compared to how much there is to do; eventually you will end up doing stuff and fighting enemies way lower in levels than you, which is a bit boring and never yields suitable loot. Fortunately when you finish the main quest, all enemies and chests get beefed up so even after all is done you can still get your murder on and go find some sweet guns.

I've been playing Borderlands as much as I can over the last coupla weeks. Wow, Mikko, you were right. I should always listen to you with games. I hate being addicted to a game like this, the level grind, the loot grind, the whole Diablo thing. It consumes me.

Anyway, I've got a Soldier around level 34 on the Xbox 360, and a new Siren character on the PC. As if playing with just one character on one platform isn't enough of a time killer. Great game, yeah, but it does get tiring sometimes, and I do get a bad case of fatigue reclearing and reclearing and reclearing the same areas over and over again. Well, I know, that's how it goes. The grind.

I hated the Siren. I erased her at level 9. Phase Walk? Puh-lease. And that voice? Oh, I couldn't take that for hundreds of hours. I started over on PC with a Hunter and he's killer. Fits like a glove. Bloodwing. Snipers. Repeaters. Dats the stuff.

Of course, still got my Soldier on the Xbox waiting for me to return. Riflemaster. Turret. Good stuff. Just killed the Baron Flynt dude in Salt Flats.

Need more time. Have to get up for work in five hours. Gah.

Borderlands PC advantages: precision controls (critical kills and sniper shots are worlds easier with a mouse), higher resolution (1920x1200 on a 26" Sammy) and better AA and textures, much faster loading times, ability to remap key bindings to fit your playstyle.

Borderlands Xbox 360 advantages: easier menu screen navigation (oddly enough), achievements, split screen co-op, played on big HDTV in living room.

Well...heh...about the same could be said about comparing all current ports of PC and console games.

Heh, I love the Siren. Phasewalk is just so damn useful and cool and she has some nifty skills. I don't mind her voice either, actually I find her laugh rather delightful. Probably my favourite class.


I haven't played the Hunter much, but he's okay. My flatmate has one though, and I've seen him in action when we've played together, and I have to say those Gunslinger class mods are pretty wicked.


Yeah, the Soldier is the shiznit. The ridiculous weapon magazine size bonuses he can get is a happy thing, and the turret is pretty rockin'. Also, the grenade regeneration skill is cool. It's just so liberating to be able to keep chucking 'nades around all willy-nilly.


I know the feeling.

Maybe I shoulda given my Siren more time before abandoning her. Heh. How is Phase Walk so useful? I must've missed the concept of it. But no, don't like her voice. Still, I've about had it with the Soldier's "critical bee-atch!" Sound bite. Ugh. The Hunter is cool, however. So when I play as the Hunter I feel cool. It enhances my life. And I'm skinny. And I have a funny little beard. With purple clothes. And a pink dune buggy.

You had me scared about the final boss, but my Soldier (late 30's level) had little difficult "destroying the destroyer" with an assault rifle and skill with that gun around 18 or 19. Now I'm on this island with Dr. Ned--who is totally not Dr. Zed in disgsuise--mowing through legions of the undead. And I never want it to stop. Heh. Then there's the Thunderdome....err underdome, whatever thing...and General Knoxx...and a second playthrough maybe...jeesh, like I don't need to clear the schedule for Starcraft or anything.

Only class I haven't tried at all is the brute dude, berserker or whatever he is. I wonder how how it plays...probably like, "Me Sledge. Me kill you."

It's useful in a number of ways. First of all, while in phasewalk, enemies can't see or hurt you, plus you move super fast (though you can't jump), so it's a good way to get out of hairy situations, or get to an advantageous position to fight. Plus it makes long treks a bit quicker. Also, there is a skill that makes you heal while in phasewalk. So if the fight's not going your way, just step into phasewalk for a little respite, and you're good to go again.
Second, the blast that erupts from you when you enter or exit phasewalk is no laughing matter, with the right elemental artifact (I mostly use incendiary) it can really do a number on a group of enemies. Especially if you get the skill that, if you exit phasewalk with a melee strike, gives you a ginormous damage bonus. Death by bitch slap! That takes quite a few levels though.
So all in all, while the phasewalk doesn't quite have the same brute destructive power as Brick's berserk or Roland's turret, it's probably the most useful general-purpose tactical tool of all the action skills.


Oh yeah, the Destroyer is a piece of cake.
But in the end of the General Knoxx DLC there's a "secret end boss" that you can fight, after completing the main plot. And he's is just friggin' brutal, he WILL murder you to death several times. I have once beaten him alone with the Siren, and it was difficult as hell. And frankly, for the other classes it's even more extremely bloody near-impossible because they can't keep avoiding him with phasewalk.


Transitional zombie apocalypse! I love the zombie island. So much funny shit there.

Well, the underdome is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the arena matches against monsters are pretty fun, but on the other hand they tend to take a bit long and it can get a bit boring. But having access to the item vault alone makes it a worthwhile DLC. Also, the extra skill point(s) you get from it are nice.


Yeah, that's pretty close. When he goes berserk, he can't shoot, but he regenerates health quickly and the fist attacks are damn devastating. Plus the bellowing and roaring and babbling he makes while berserk just never gets old, it sounds absolutely hilarious. Especially when there's two, as my flatmate and I noticed when we played co-op with both being berserkers.
And when not clobbering things to death, the launcher bonuses he gets from certain skills make for pretty effective mayhem, too.

It has a very nice and unique style, but the game play is terribly boring. It is after all a diablo-clone and that is one of the most boring things for a game to be.

No it isn't!

Yes, it is!

I can't imagine the time you must've poured into Borderlands, Mikko, to get multiple characters to 61. My Xbox soldier dude just cracked 50 and my PC hunter is in the late 20's somewhere. This game is horribly addicting still, and it did accomplish one amazing feat: it got me to stop playing MW2, a game I have logged in close to 300 hours.

Hmn...updates...I finished the General Knoxx DLC with the soldier (my soldier's name is Big Dumbass). I found the occasional messages from General Knoxx very funny, cool deadpan humor. I attempted to fight the secret final boss, but I couldn't even make a dent in it. Later on, with my son playing splitscreen, "we" defeated the Big Crawdaddy...well, I didn't really do anything but die repeatedly, but my son had gotten an assault rifle from one of his friends playing co-op and it did some kind of ridiculous 200K damage or something. So... *shrug* where do such powerful weapons come from, and don't they entirely unbalance the game?

I found the seemingly endless driving the same roadways in the Knoxx DLC more than a little annoying. Ugh.

Zombie island I loved, flat out. Atmospheric, funny and fun...and sometimes even a little creepy in a Scooby-Doo kind of way. Heh. Loved the psycho claptrap.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome...not so much. Yeah, it's basically Horde Mode from Gears 2, but not as fun. We played splitscreen enough for us to finish the "Prove Yourself" mission, but that's enough for me. Underdome doesn't give you XP or weapon proficiency progress, which kind of took me out of the whole RPG grind feel. Just felt like pointless work. Like raking leaves in a windstorm. Heh.

I played 99% of the game alone, only doing a few things splitscreen, and nothing in online co-op. I imagine playing a lot with someone else can change up tactics and strategy quite a bit, but it's still a great solo game too.

So the next DLC is the claptrap uprising? Heh. I sense more enjoyable, humorous, addicting grinding ahead. Meanwhile, I'll keep slugging Big Dumbass through playthrough 2, edging him slowly through the last ten levels to 61...

I have a level 19 Hunter. The one thing about him or rather, me, is I always forget to use bloodwing, despite all the points I poured into it. When I do remember, it does a lot of damage. I don't believe in creating more characters unless I have already beat a game, with the exception of having an extremely shitty character.

Don't worry, me neither.


Yes, same here. I especially love the very first ones where he first just sighs and says he doesn't want to be on Pandora because the planet smells like hemorrhoids wrapped in bacon. Also, his log entries where he talks about the five-year-old admiral are a hoot.


Yeah, the secret to fighting him is, first of all, how you deal with his minions. the smallest ones are vulnerable to shock, the green medium ones to fire, and the biggest ones to acid.
The trick is to NOT kill the biggest ones unless you need a second wind. Craw can only have three minions on the field at once, and if they are all those big ones, you'll have a much easier time avoiding them because they're slow. Also, you'll need some form of ammo regeneration. And the best weapons to use against Crawdaddy are those that just spit loads and loads of bullets really fast, because then you can just shoot in his general direction and score hits to the glowing purple critical spots. But even with those tricks, he is ridiculously hard to defeat alone with any class other than Siren.

Well, some people have learned to use editors and whatever to add modded cheating weapons to the game. Yes, it does completely unbalance the game if used, but oh well. You can always just not use them.


Yeah, it can be a real drag. Like I said earlier somewhere, I coped with this by just quitting the game and starting a new one if I had to get back to T-bone Junction. This also reset all the loot chests so the next drive was a little more interesting again.


Yes, me too! I love the Claptraps anyways, so the whole idea of them rebelling is just absolutely hilarious to me. VIVA LA ROBOLUTION!


I actually have the same problem with my hunter. I've started to remember it a bit better though, lately... Guess it's just a matter of getting used to it or something.


Man, I think I'm gonna take a little break from Starcraft 2 now to play me some B-lands.

I've been playing co-op Borderlands with my friend. I'm a level 43 hunter. My bloodwing's pretty legit.

For those who didn't get it yet... there's a GOTY-edition coming out in a couple of months.