The *Official* I'm Pumped For Borderlands 2 Thread AKA Here's My Wallet, Randy!

[madmat]

Not sure if serious.

Yeah I'm serious. Leveling a shotgun is about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. It's one of the most basic weapons around, requires very little skill to use yet they think it's something you need to unlock?

Pistols are harder to be accurate with but that's where you start. In essence they put you at a huge disadvantage and leave you there. And all the pistols use the same ammo? WTF?

I sure would hate to send one of their devs out to buy me a box of shells.

 

[Rob Williams]

Alright, you've obviously never played the original. Borderlands, like most aRPGs, has a leveling system. You start at level 1, and within minutes you're level 2. Weapons have level requirements built into them. You can't be level 19 and wield a level 20 weapon - weapon type does not matter. If you can't equip it, the bar color for the weapon will be red. But I admit I'm starting to wonder if this is even your particular problem at all.

It doesn't matter which class you are; if you are level-appropriate for a weapon, you can wield it. And yes, all pistols use pistol ammo... how else should it be?

I've attached a screenshot from the original Borderlands if it helps. The weapon on the ground is level 60, and I'm level 69, thus I could wield it just fine if I wanted to. If the weapon was 69 and I was 60, the weapon level would be red.

 

[madmat]

If you can't equip it why can you pick it up?

As to the pistol ammo, the ammo determines the damage the pistol deals, yeah? a .22 has a weak charge and tiny projectile so it's not as damaging as, say, a .38 or far less damaging than a .45 or .44 mag. The game has the equivalent of a 9mm that you start with and later you pick up something akin to a .357mag, one shoots faster, one slower but more damage per round. If it was a 9mm revolver versus a 9mm semi-auto pistol, well, you'd just be shooting a slower weapon. The damage would be pretty much the same.

Another thing that's annoying is the critical (or not so critical) hits. I'm blasting the bejeezus out these idiots, unloading a full weapon on them, seeing the critical hit XP modifier popping up and they act like I'm not touching them. They hit me 5 or 6 times and I'm making a last stand.

Nah, they can have it, I've already uninstalled it.

 

[Rob Williams]

Dude... just wow, haha. I am not sure how you confused Borderlands for a war simulator, but it's unfortunate. If you went into it open-minded and didn't expect it to be just another FPS, I think you'd come out with a different impression. As for the ammo types, I don't recall playing a single FPS game ever where they actually separated bullet-sizes. The fact you'd expect that level of detail in a cartoony-looking game with a ton of humor just blows my mind.

 

[madmat]

STALKER, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, all the COD games I've encountered, Far Cry, Serious Sam, Max Payne, Splinter Cell, Hitman, XIII...

All of them have different ammo for different pistol types. Granted, a few fall into war sim category but not all.

 

[Optix]

Borderlands is more along the lines here's-a-game-now-blow-shit-up-and-stop-asking-questions kinda thing.

 

[Kayden]

I classify the Borderlands series as "Cartoon War Simulator" it's loosely based on reality and if you expect it to be realistic, you haven't watched enough cartoons!

 

[Rob Williams]

STALKER, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, all the COD games I've encountered, Far Cry, Serious Sam, Max Payne, Splinter Cell, Hitman, XIII...

All of them have different ammo for different pistol types.

I think I'm starting to understand things a bit better, and what originally led you to your shotgun statement.

It seems to me that you were expecting Borderlands to be a straight-forward FPS game, where any weapon can be immediately wielded (like CoD). Borderlands is instead an FPS + RPG. You have levels, random loot, randomly-generated weapons and equipment and so forth. In a game like Splinter Cell, there might be only a dozen or so weapons to use. Borderlands by contrast has about 10 or so weapon types, but potentially billions of each (the stats of each is random upon drop; two similar-looking pistols might in fact have very different abilities). One other thing to watch for is weapons with an elemental bonus. A fire pistol won't work ideally on a fire mob, but it'd work awesome on a frost mob.

While character levels mean nothing in CoD, they work in Borderlands just like an RPG. The higher your level, the more powerful and skillful you are. The fact that you stumbled on a shotgun you couldn't immediately use is part of the beauty here. Should you decide to use it, it means you'd have a great shotgun to use once you hit the required level. Loot a great weapon you can't use or don't need? You can sync up with a friend who might need it and give it to them.

One thing Borderlands does encourage is focusing on one or two weapons, as each weapon class has a skill level. If you use shotguns all the time, you'll level up and improve your skill the fastest. This means that if a friend of yours who never uses shotguns wields one, they'll be less powerful and efficient with it than you would be.

As for your comments though about the different ammo sizes, none of those games to my knowledge that you mentioned force knowledge of that on the player. In Call of Duty, if a friend of mine uses a large pistol and I use a small one, we get our ammo the exact same way. Compared to Borderlands though, CoD is seriously watered-down. In CoD, it doesn't matter the weapon I get, I can loot ammo for it from the same ammo crate that everyone else uses. Or if I have a certain perk in MP, all I have to do is walk over any corpse and get it - even if that person didn't use the same weapon. Borderlands actually has each of the 8 or so ammo types strewn around, so if you are out in the middle of nowhere and run out of pistol ammo, you better hope some is around somewhere.

Anyway, I think the game rubbed you the wrong way because you went into it expecting the usual FPS fare, and I can understand it. Oddly, the reason I put off trying the original so long is BECAUSE I knew of what the game was like, haha. Then I forced myself to try it and ended up being proven wrong about it... I fell in love with the game.

 

[Optix]

Quick thoughts about levels 1-10.

Difficulty - it seems to have gotten a bump this time around. Captain Flynt took me out at least 5 times compared to...well, any other boss from the original. Granted I'm playing a class that I haven't put much time into (soldier) and a new one all together (Gunzerker) so maybe I would have an easier time if I played the ninja since I'm used to being a sniper. EDIT: I just cleared this boss on the first try with a soldier so maybe it's a lack of skill that accounted for the deaths while using the Gunzerker.

Enemy AI - there's some good and some bad here. Good in that they will dodge more, duck behind cover more and if you beat them down far enough, they'll drag themselves along. Bad in that I have had them reset several times as if I had run away from the area. At least the baddies that I took out before they reset stay dead.

Controls - jumping seems a bit too "floaty" compared to the first. I'm just waiting for a stiff breeze to carry my toon away. Other than that it's like I didn't leave Pandora.

Graphics - this is classic BL, but I like the greater variety of the character designs. Compare your average Psycho to a Badass Psycho and they look nothing like one another.

Sound/Voices - typical music that doesn't over power the action and always seems to fit the mood. The sound of the Catch-A-Ride vehicles is much more realistic, as are the screams of the baddies. Aside from the awesomeness that you hear from NPCs and on your Echo I didn't really pay attention to the voices of enemies until there was a Psycho that didn't aggro who went on and on and on. Just crazy rambling.

Anyway, I'm tired from working all night (I actually did work instead of play games) so I'm going to fall over some place soft and pick this up again when I hit 20.

 

[Rob Williams]

Interesting about the difficulty... you're playing solo for the time-being, right? Matt commented on that also, so I am wondering if it really is all about the class you play solo. I only played 20 minutes so I can't comment quite well. Will be putting in some heavy gametime this weekend. I am kind of surprised you had those issues as those classes, though. I'd expect it of Maya maybe, but not the Gunzerker (maybe it's because he's so slow to get away).

Thanks for the thoughts man. Nothing there that will really detract too much from the experience (unless you play as a less-than-ideal class, perhaps).

 

[Optix]

I've never been really good at in your face stuff. The Soldier lets me plan things out a bit better whereas the Gunzerker is run in and BLAM, BLAM, BLAM!

It's kind of the same reason why I prefer Battlefield over COD. The pace isn't as fast (although it can be at times) and I can setup for attacks.

So I have a level 10 Gunzerker and a level 9 Soldier ready to roll if anybody wants to wreck stuff. I'd prefer to save my Solider for the usual group I play with, since we're going to try to hook up as much as possible and it's no fun having to redo quests you've already done just to get people up to speed.

 

[Kayden]

I've been hearing about the difficulty spike as well. I have not heard much in the way of coop in regard to difficulty though. I wonder how that's going to work out.

 

[Optix]

In the original a friend and I had a fight with spiders that lasted about 45 minutes. Elemental badasses popping up all over the place with soldiers...it was crazy. I ran out of ammo for all weapons except combat rifles. The loot was pretty lack luster, but it was fun as all get out. I couldn't imagine that fight with all four slots being filled.

Hopefully that feeling of "Holy shit, ten more!" carries over.

 

[Kayden]

Quick question, when we play Borderlands 2 and if I listen to Pandora radio while playing on Pandora, do you think a paradoxical event will occur?

 

[Rob Williams]

For greater effect, I'd recommend listening to the eurodance artist Pandora on Pandora, purchase a replica of the Greek woman Pandora, move to Pandora Island, Nunavut (because I'm cruel), pick up one of those Pandora handheld consoles, have a copy of the novel Pandora sitting on the desk, and for good measure, have Avatar running in the background.

That should about cover it.

 

[Kayden]

For greater effect, I'd recommend listening to the eurodance artist Pandora on Pandora, purchase a replica of the Greek woman Pandora, move to Pandora Island, Nunavut (because I'm cruel), pick up one of those Pandora handheld consoles, have a copy of the novel Pandora sitting on the desk, and for good measure, have Avatar running in the background.

That should about cover it.

ROFLMAO! You forgot the replica of Pandora's box. (c;

Post 666, could have been more evil.

 

[Rob Williams]

Ahh dammit. And grats on 666!

 

[Optix]

So I rolled a ninja and it took two tries on Captain Flynt. Maybe it was trying to get the hang of the mechanics, maybe I just plain suck or maybe the Gunzerker is under powered in the beginning. I -might- roll a Siren just to complete the set, but we'll see.

So far the soldier is the easiest to kick ass with.

 

[Rob Williams]

Have you been using their special abilities much? What do you think?

 

[Optix]

Zero's skill is a bit hard to get the hang of. You want to wait as long as possible before attacking so you get the biggest amount of damage.

Axton's turret is kick ass. I find it's more vital in single player games right now (can't go wrong with extra damage) until I get it pimped out.

Gunzerking isn't bad, but it's not my thing I guess. It's the hardest to use of the three I feel. Maybe I just suck at in your face ass kicking.

I might roll a Siren tonight just to complete the set, but we'll see. I'm at level 16 with my Commando and might take him to 20 and post my thoughts on the next 10 levels.