Quick Look at Borderlands

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/borderlands-banner.jpg

Here it is, 30 unadulterated minutes of Borderlands from the folks over at Giant Bomb (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-borderlands/17-1498/). This should cement whatever feelings you have about the game be them good, or bad. Take a look (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-borderlands/17-1498/) and report back!

[Kragg]

Let the griefing...BEGIN!

[modeps]

Let the griefing...BEGIN!

Skip to the 9 minute mark to check it out already :D

[The-Builder]

Diablo looting all over.

[pwnophobia]

I really like the idea of the game but he spends ALOT of time looking at the ground picking up ammo. Explain to me why I have to press X to pick it up, again?

[Tintivilo]

I really like the idea of the game but he spends ALOT of time looking at the ground picking up ammo. Explain to me why I have to press X to pick it up, again?

First thing i can think of is, a limited inventory, if you ran over everything you would fill up quick, and instead of spending your time thinking about what to pick up, you would be spending your time thinking at an inventory screen what to drop, but who knows i havnt even watched the video yet :P

[DarkestHour00]

Looks awesome. I love how they say the ammo and money is shared when picked up. Me and three friends are counting down the days till release :)

[Earth Djinn]

I watched this earlier today and its looking excellent. I'm even more excited for its release, and that's saying something.

[shadow763]

That initial menu screen in the beginning looks a decade old.

So all the looking down at the ground to pick up stuff....really annoying.

I hope its good though. I am down for some co op!

[Froggy]

Crazy. Looks fun. Anyone know if there's split screen?

[IveGotThatWiperFluid]

Crazy. Looks fun. Anyone know if there's split screen?

There is split-screen, 2 players I believe.

The video is blocked here at my work so forgive me if this or other media releases have answered this, but:

Can you have multiples of a character in 4-player co-op?

I'm not sure I see myself or my friends preferring to play as Lilith and the three other characters would likely resonate very well with myself and group of friends. I don't have a problem playing as female characters but in the skill tree builder that was posted a day or two ago I couldn't even find a way to spend all her points. Her main strength seems to be turn invisible > run up to enemies > hit them and become visible again. Which, to me at least, seems vastly less fun than brawling out with Brick or shooting people.

Maybe I'm missing something about her and someone can enlighten me on that too.

[pwnophobia]

Can you have multiples of a character in 4-player co-op?
.
Yes, in the video they have 3 Soliders and 1 Lilith

[IveGotThatWiperFluid]

Yes, in the video they have 3 Soliders and 1 Lilith

Good to hear. Sounds like a purchase for me then unless there's a showstopping bug.

[drakkarim]

could only stand 5 minutes of their stupid banter before being distracted by a dragon age video, switched to that, but there was more banter, at least it was about a game i cared about.

[Vulture]

at least half of all multiplayers will be soldiers. maybe even 75%. It's the multiplayer coop class.

[Demo_Boy]

I want to like this a lot.

You cant overfill ammo, theres caps in place.
I dont see any reason why they require you to press X to pick up ammo and money.

They should have autocollect for that stuff and only require you to pick up gear manually.

I didnt see a whole lot of monster variety. Missions seemed to be kill a hundred of these rabid dogs then kill the big rabid dog. In the cave mission, all of the lizards you fight seemed the same. How about fighting lizards and dogs at the same time?

One ability per class seems pretty lean as well.

[Gusj]

I want to like this a lot.

I didnt see a whole lot of monster variety. Missions seemed to be kill a hundred of these rabid dogs then kill the big rabid dog. In the cave mission, all of the lizards you fight seemed the same. How about fighting lizards and dogs at the same time?

Both the areas shown in the video was early in the game though (the latter half on a second play-through), so there's still hope for more variety later in the game.

[Froggy]

I dont see any reason why they require you to press X to pick up ammo and money.


Well, all I have for you is anecdotal evidence:

It worked in Uncharted.

[rulyblue]

Imagine 4 Brick's, all with rocket launchers....

[Deunnero]

Looks like a blast for a $40 game. Can't wait.

[ÜberJumper]

I suspect that the "click X" to pick up stuff is to reinforce that you're getting things from killing bad guys.

If you see a glowing awesome item, and then have to pick it up, it's much more rewarding that not being aware of it and getting annoyed that you had to go into your inventory to find it.

[Anenome]

I want to like this a lot.

You cant overfill ammo, there's caps in place.
I dont see any reason why they require you to press X to pick up ammo and money. They should have autocollect for that stuff and only require you to pick up gear manually.
- I agree. Gearbox, if you guys are reading this, put in an auto-pickup function for ammo and money, ASAP. That should be a top priority for the first patch. And, it should not only auto-pickup, but should have a rather generous detection range.


I didnt see a whole lot of monster variety. Missions seemed to be kill a hundred of these rabid dogs then kill the big rabid dog. In the cave mission, all of the lizards you fight seemed the same. How about fighting lizards and dogs at the same time?
- Monster variety is actually one of the features of the game. Enemies are procedurally generated the same way the weapons and armor are. That means the numbers uniquely different of enemies in the game may very well be equal to the number of unique guns in the game, that is in the tens of millions. Enemies are not only generated on the basis of type, but also in health, armor, and ability. So, unlike WoW, it's likely that each enemy of a type has varying levels of health and armor within a set range for their level and creature-type. You should also find varying abilities and demeanors. Some may attack right out, and some may be more cautious. Some may attack with weapons, some just try to maul.

One ability per class seems pretty lean as well.
- This is a bit misleading I think. Let's imagine the do one day create an MMO, this strategy may be more effective than what WoW's gone with. WoW dev's wanted you to have a ton of abilities within a theme. Borderlands has made the theme the ability. A multipurposed ability that can be repurposed, with several functions within it.

WoW has also painted itself into a corner with its multitude of abilities over and over again. Borderlands' implementation is simpler but may very well scale better without hitting WoW-style dead-ends in the skill trees.

Pure speculation on my part, but I think there's a certain beauty in the simplicity of this implementation, and behind the simplicity is a depth that reminds me of the kind of game design Nintendo builds into their game. It would be like criticizing Smash Brothers for only have two attack buttons and no combos. Ultimately, the Smash paradigm makes for one of the best fighters ever designed and allows for a depth of gameplay and strategy few others can match.

[Anenome]

Lol, one of the vehicles shown in the gamr is called the 'Blaster Master', I love it ;)

[Anenome]

Borderlands DLC announced: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/borderlands-zombie-island-of-dr-ned-dlc-announced/1732/

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned will run you $10 on all three platforms
Picts after the jump. Looks good! :)

Might be the first DLC I buy :P Haha, zombie Frankenstein looks cool ;)

[Anenome]

Now we know what the dev team's been doing since the damn console version went into 'review'.

[GyCot]

For people asking for auto-pickup -
Something this obvious means that the devs HAD to consider it, and they made a conscious decision against it. I'd love to hear their logic, personally, but whatever the reason it looks like one of the cases where the "professionals" think it would hurt the product.

[ldi222]

I hope the big DLC for this game comes in the form of CTF and Blood Gulch Style team based gameplay. I remember as a PC Gaming Elitist holding a controller the first time I played a Halo1 demo asking the dev "you have to hit x to pick this up?" It was about choosing but it seemed alien, I guess it still does to some but to me it strikes of more Bungie style gameplay which the video has also suggested. If this is true it could be a Diablo / Halo style success but team matchmaking will be hugely required for it to have any legs. And maybe this is an over ambitious expectation on my part given Gearbox is largely unproven in this arena. Regardless, I do predict this to surpass ODST which is a good start.

[Anenome]

For people asking for auto-pickup -
Something this obvious means that the devs HAD to consider it, and they made a conscious decision against it. I'd love to hear their logic, personally, but whatever the reason it looks like one of the cases where the "professionals" think it would hurt the product.

I think that depends on a lot of things. They may have had bigger fish to fry, and eventually you just have to stop adding features and tweaking to ship a product. I'm no programming expert, but if pickups are being treated as a class (or w/e), as it appears here, then pickup behavior is being applied to all of the objects in exactly the same way. To create autopickup you'd have to program new behavior in for money/ammo, so it really is just extra work. Currently this is the only thing that keeps this game from looking like pure gravy to me ;) I hope they deal with it. If not, I'm sure I'll love with it. Plenty more to redeem the game.

[Strider]

Regarding auto pick-up.

That's a horrible idea for co-op. As it is, one can leave loot (nice gun) for someone else. Picking everything up automatically ruins this. How would that work? Would you have to throw a gun a few metres so someone else could pick it up :) ?
(And no, there's no trade window -> see official forums (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/).)

Many Questions are answered in the gone gold message (http://www.gearboxity.com/content/view/497/33/), general Borderlands FAQ (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=71934) and CO-OP FAQ (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=71936).

[Anenome]

Regarding auto pick-up.

That's a horrible idea for co-op. As it is, one can leave loot (nice gun) for someone else. Picking everything up automatically ruins this. How would that work? Would you have to throw a gun a few metres so someone else could pick it up :) ?
(And no, there's no trade window -> see official forums (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/).)

Many Questions are answered in the gone gold message (http://www.gearboxity.com/content/view/497/33/), general Borderlands FAQ (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=71934) and CO-OP FAQ (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=71936).
- My god. Everyone else, learn from Strider here and actually try to read posts before you reply.
No one's proposing auto-weapon pickup, only auto money and auto-ammo pickup--two things you always, always want picked up and have no reason to not do so. And if you bring up what happens if your ammo is full I'm gonna have to choke a b!tch.

[Strider]

Hmm... you did consider that people misunderstand things, yes?

But I love you too.

[Anenome]

Well, I'm sorry, it's just exasperating sometimes. My entire post previous to yours was how they would have to program different behavior for money/ammo and guns and that's why it probably wasn't included in the gold release. Every time auto-pickup has been mentioned in this thread it's been 'money/ammo' with gear being specifically mentioned as separate by Demo_boy and proceeding on from that premise. It's like a conversation, it has a context, you need to read it all.

[Anenome]

First thing i can think of is, a limited inventory, if you ran over everything you would fill up quick, and instead of spending your time thinking about what to pick up, you would be spending your time thinking at an inventory screen what to drop, but who knows i havnt even watched the video yet :P
- I like that you can carry a lot of guns too, 12 gun slots. Also useful is the designation of how much a gun would sell for instantly giving you an indication of its relative value as far as the game is concerned. Eventually someone will be able to work out the gun attribute weights based on the gun prices listed. Then there's all the other armor and options, including class gear, and different shield types. It's awesome in that video how the guy spends some $740,000 on a single shield generator with the 20 minutes only deals! Damn cool! And it has native health-regen on it, listed as 'very slow', that's ominous! It's acting more and more like the cybernetic bodies of Syndicate. I do miss Syndicate's ability to fire continuously for minutes at a time before you run out of ammo though ;P But, at level 38 they did have a ton of ammo bonuses and with the ammo regen rate, it was quite nice, and somewhat similar to the ammo regen in Syndicate too.

At first I was worried that they had such large bonus modifiers on weapons, 25% that and 50% this, because I figured they'd point themselves into a corner eventually, as happened largely with Hellgate London's weapon bonus scheme (which seemed to top out at 100% of X). I had preferred WoW's far more miserly bonuses which create very incremental increases in damage and ability which eventually add up into a genuine advantage but gives emphasis to level bonuses over gear. Then I saw that some guns had bonuses running upwards of 600%!!! Ah, I said, 50% to them is the same as 5% in WoW (if that even makes sense :P ).

But, WoW's model is perhaps more necessary to an MMO with PvP. BL's model is much more exciting, immediate, and creates a massive ramping scale, meaning that at level 50 you're going to be a God of War compared to the start-levels. Fine by me ;)

[Strider]

Well, I'm sorry, it's just exasperating sometimes. My entire post previous to yours was how they would have to program different behavior for money/ammo and guns and that's why it probably wasn't included in the gold release. Every time auto-pickup has been mentioned in this thread it's been 'money/ammo' with gear being specifically mentioned as separate by Demo_boy and proceeding on from that premise. It's like a conversation, it has a context, you need to read it all.

I know where you're coming from. I just flew over the first page and thought 'hey, a lot of stuff there is covered in the faq' and posted that when I noticed that auto-pickup stuff and answered indeed without noticing you're indeed talking about the loot you always pick up.

So, sorry about that and thanks for anwering in a civil manner. I hope my links help someone, though :)

[Syl]

Then I saw that some guns had bonuses running upwards of 600%!!!
The loot system has been said to be based around diablo II, where the top-end rare's could easily have damage bonuses of 400% + min/max + elemental + increased attack speed and all sorts of other crazy modifiers.

That's not even counting the insane runewords or unique items which allowed you to use skills only available to other classes, or insane chance on hit and such. I love random item generation, makes finding some items truly unique.

I do wish that they had a trade window.

[Anenome]

There was a place on the official FAQ that said if they saw enough interest in patching in a trade system that they would consider doing it. So, that means, go sign up on the Borderlands official forums and find the thread which has a vote system for patching in trading and loot rules. Currently it's about 92% in favor of patching in a loot system. Make your voice heard. I think ultimately they will do it, and quickly too.