Borderlands

[Thorondor]

With all the constant background noise and typical "hype-o-matic" surges surrounding "big" games and prospective said "big" games' launches I kindly turned a deaf ear to this one.

 

The general idea I got from cursory glances at early previews was simple: just some shooter with weird pseudo-novel graphics and an excessive amount of weapons, most of which will just wind up being useless filler. Guaranteed post-apoc stereotypical rip-off to boot - like, for all I care...

 

Then, today, a banner on a site jumped in screaming colors at my face...

 

Aggravating pricks! That does it!! Fine! - you think you're so hot and hip I might as well look long enough to give you some properly informed contempt, maggots!

 

*Clicks, page shows*

 

Ooooh, lovely... You miserable, dog-gone, low-life... punks! Please, do waste my time asking me if I still remember my birthday for your inane statistics...

 

*punches the keyboard for randomly generated old fart birthday date and clicks to proceed*

 

Well, I won't spoil what comes next: for those like me, see it for yourselves.

 

::

 

 

p.s.@FullAuto: do yourself the favour in the off chance you haven't already. Me recommends

[FullAuto]

Hands-On.

 

From its unique concoction of ideas plucked from varied influences, Gearbox is hoping to birth an entirely new sub-genre, the RPS, or "Role-Playing Shooter", as they're calling it. In truth, this is really just a catchphrase way of articulating a more general trend in action games that has gained momentum in recent years: combining first-person run-and-gun combat with player-defined character progression.

 

An RPG with guns, then. RPS my arse.

 

At level-up, you earn a single skill point that can be spent on one of 21 ability upgrades, increases to accuracy, fire rate, weapon magazine size and suchlike.

 

Doesn't make a lick of sense, rate of fire and mag size aren't abilities.

 

Borderlands also provide ammunition for the giant spread of weaponry ingeniously, by having downed enemies drop ammo of the type that was used to kill them, ensuring that you rarely run out.

 

Oh for the love of-

 

Apologies, grumpy today.

[Matri]

Yeah, saw this in a mag a couple months back. Looked a lot like an MMO Fallout3, but with working Mad Max-like cars.

 

The hype-o-matic machine hasn't been working hard enough, methinks, cause it still isn't appealing enough to draw me away from Fallout3.

[FullAuto]

It'll turn out to be excellent now, just to spite me.

 

Thing is, I'd like to get it on PC because going back to using a pad after using a mouse or the Wiimote makes me feel handicapped. But my PC will never play it. Not in a million years. I'd need at least ten more hamsters running in their wheels non-stop for that, and there just isn't that much space in the case.

[Thorondor]

It'll turn out to be excellent now, just to spite me.

You know, you could actually be... right?!...

 

*pre-orders*

 

"Doesn't make a lick of sense, rate of fire and mag size aren't abilities"

I was thinking the very same thing. They have an excuse, of course, but it works, unfortunately

 

[from the 1UP preview]

 

GFW: How do you handle ammunition in the game?

(Gearbox Software's) Randy Pitchford: So in this science fiction world, the fabrication of matter is not a problem. You can jam particles together and make something; the trick is knowing what order to jam those particles in. You have this thing called a storage deck, which defines how much stuff you can carry. Really, it's about how much memory -- it's like a little laptop that...imagine your weapons are like MP3s or something. How big is your iPod? That's how many...and then the object itself can fabricate that object by assembling the particles. You can do that for ammunition -- if you know what you want to assemble, a small amount of data can generate lots of ammunition. You can actually generate ammunition for your weapon, and sometimes the weapons themselves can generate ammunition. But a lot of times they have to...you still have a magazine, you just need to create the matter somewhere and it goes into the magazine, which loads into the gun.

 

GFW: What are the main signs of a gun's attributes?

 

RP: The length of the stock affects stability. How heavy the weapon is affects how much it moves around when you're running. There are lots of variables. There are also things with little laser pointers and scopes and sights that affect the zoom when you're looking down the sights -- things like that.

As for me, these guys do score points on a key couple of little things:

 

[FullAuto]

But the rats power the speakers...

 

[Thorondor]

Video review of Borderlands at GameTrailers.

 

General bottom-line is that it's a "grind-fest". Can you tell if that's complimentary?

 

Well, whatever empties your magazine I guess...

 

::

 

When the numbers do the talking: 8.4/10 !

 

 

p.s.@FullAuto: Uh... speaker-rats? That surely gives a whole new meaning to "surround sound" doesn't it?

[FullAuto]

I'm still grumpy, but it might be good.

 

Same blokes who did Brothers in Arms, eh? Wonder if this has the same homoeroticism. I'm guessing not.

[D2theG84]

ent done anJust finished it. I give it an 8.5/10. Would have been a 9.5 if not for the ending.