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I'm honestly really excited for this. I loved the art style in the first game and the screen-shots and videos I've seen just make it look like an eyegasm waiting to happen. I'll be interested to see if they re-tool some of the original classes. I've always played as a Siren so I'm hoping to see more powers and abilities in that regard. That and a clearer way to organize your inventory and understand the guns a bit better. Let's face it, with a million-whatever guns in the game it can get a little overwhelming sometimes. Also, more Claptrap. | |
It sounds like they know what they're doing. I hope they can follow through. The problem with surprise hits is that sequels are hard to get right, because making it better sometimes means changing mechanics or ideas that end up changing the whole game. It doesn't mean it will be bad, but I can only hope this will be as good as the first. Counterpoint: Gunzerker. That is one hell of a counterpoint. | |
Something about these screens just, rub me the wrong way. I know what I'm looking at IS Borderlands, but somehow without the charm. I love Borderlands, it was my personal GOTY, but the sequel... I just can't say I'm excited. | |
I seriously cannot wait! Im still putting hours into Borderlands. I WILL GET ALL THE PEARL GEAR DAMMIT! So glad to see Roland in it, he was always my favourite... I have 2 Soldiers atm too, one for Damage and one for Support. | |
Pretty much this, but me and a friend have Borderlands sessions each week. Unfortunatly to this day, neither of us has a pearl. Crawmerax WILL drop one before Borderlands 2!! | |
Weren't those exact words used when Cliffy B was announcing Gears of War 2? All I can say is that I hope it is less awful than the original. | |
Holy fuck that looks crisp. Thats it, new video card for me. Btw, who do I have to kill/rape/torture/murder/blackmail/execute to get access to that damn demo? XD | |
Whatever you do, please bring back Mordecai, that little Truxican Wrestler moonlighting as a Dominatrix has really grown on me. | |
I'm really really REALLY excited about this! The only shitty part is I can't play as Lilith, I really liked that character... But I do hope the loot and guns will be just as good as the first one, and I hope to GOD they fix the vehicle sections because fighting in those things sucked. | |
I enjoyed the first game a lot, so if they can put together a decent ending this time I'll likely be more than happy with the results. | |
It's all sounding like an amazing improvement over the original, I just hoped they've fixed the thing where guns have more than 4 special effects but only list 4 of them. All of those valuable guns... I spent ages trying to I.D the good ones. | |
It sounds like there really fixing the few issues I had with the otherwise amazing first game mainly the lack of story and the random and mostly bad quests ie all of thos kill x number of enemies quests that you had to grind through to get to the ones that were interesting or had some characters involved that was the biggest letdown for me you had all of these crazy characters but only ever heard a few lines from them while the rest of the world were non interactice npc's. Between then hopefully fixing that and the other advancements I'm looking forward to another romp on Pandora hopefully MP is easier to connect to this time around I always had issues. | |
And I just completed the first one yesterday... If they plan to make a third installment I might finish this one before that one comes out... | |
Still no rest for the wicked, I see. I hope the single-player experience is a bit more substantial - I hate being railroaded into playing with friends to get the real meat of the game. | |
Please make sure that the multiplayer voice chat includes a push-to-talk option this time around. My poor ears... | |
The important question to me is, will I still be shooting enemys that act like brick walls? | |
Whoa, there's colors! I might can enjoy this game. Now if NPCs can act like people and not paper mache quest boards. | |
If you didn't like the original, in what way do you think you will like a sequel? I can't wrap my mind around it. It's going to be the same basic game. | |
Really looking forward to this. Kinda sad that my beloved Siren won't be playable anymore, but then again, that's what sequels are for, right? New characters, new challenges... I like how they've changed the color palette, but kept the same style, though. Yeah. Definitely looking forward to this. | |
It's not fundamentally flawed. It could be a very good game if the developers didn't execute every element of it in entirely sub-decent fashion. | |
Colour me exited. Loved the first one to pieces and I'm certain this one will be no different. | |
Get em Blood! Seriously hoping i can still get my Mordechai on, that lanky little goggle wearing weirdo always made me happy, especially kill stealing from my melee happy housemate. Pretty sure i'll be getting Borderlands 2 on preorder. The only things it needs to improve on the first is an ending that lives up to the rest of the game, and a world that feels slightly more populated. As a side note, while i wont dispute that the vehichle mechanics were a long long way from perfect, and making those mechanics better could make it easier and more intuitive to get used to. Cruising around the dessert and trying to take out badguys in those clunky dune buggys and flying off cliffs is easily some of the most fun i've had driving anything in anygame. I dont know how to explain it properly but driving those things, after a while, those vehichles felt just the right weight to do and go exactly where i wanted. Captcha: Objective acklett. pretty sure im some kind of sleeper agent. | |
Looks absolutely incredible. Can't wait. | |
The first one was awesome... but I had no idea the first one was a "sleeper hit"... I was wanting it from the get go. | |
I was hoping that I could carry over my Brick character Mass Effect style because punching a 10 foot tall enemy and watching as he explodes from the impact never gets old :D | |
I'm actually really happy to hear that the sequel is going to feature all-new characters. I enjoyed the first game immensely, but bringing in new ways to play seems to be exactly what's needed to prevent sequel stagnation. | |
I liked Borderlands, but there were some small things that really annoyed me/I missed. At some time I got a massively overpowered revolver, which allowed me to fight groups of enemies a few levels above me like "click and gone". Online I was often called a cheater for that. Besides that I'd like to construct my own weapons with weapons/parts I have. I'm not talking about "super-weapons" here, but I had a pistol (I never used) with a knife and a revolver (which I always used) which would need one. Or I had a shotgun with a scope, and a very accurate assault-rifle with none. I think you get what I'm trying to say. And last but not least, in Borderlands I just felt plain alone (when not playing online). In Fallout I did not have this problem, because there always was "something". An abandoned house with a Diary from somebody that used to live there, a small village, a bigger town,... All of those things had a reason to be there, while in Borderlands it was just a big, uninteresting map, that was only interesting in the places the game wants you to be (e.g. where you do a mission). There was no exploration. Well, at least not in such a degree I know from Fallout. | |
Is that Markus's head latched onto a giant, fat robot with guns? I love this game and it's not even out. | |
From Brown to Brilliant? Because the cell shading made it less brown and monotous? Bwahahahaha! Anyway, the succes of Borderlands kind of depresses me. The fact that gamers are willing to look over a bland art style, awful AI, NPC's that were non-characters, a bad ending, extremely little variation overall, all that and more for the sake of Skinner Box-style loot spam. *deep sigh* Ah well, at least the sequel seems to fix at least a few of those things | |
omg the colors! Basically all they have to do to make me enjoy this game is just MORE add more everything. | |
Oh god. I sooo want this game. I missed out on the original Borderlands. I don't want to miss out on this one. It's looking like a great contrast to the upcoming FPSs that are... honestly starting to put me to sleep. | |
Funny how the weirdest looking thing in these pics is the MCs body build in pic 4. Hes like a super, punk, lumber jack IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. I cant wait to blast me some space yeti's. | |
love the art direction still, and the awesome weaponry...but now I need an incentive to keep playing after it all gets a bit old but the sequel seems explosively awesome enough so far! | |
O.O Hmmmrrmmmrrmrmm. Hope it be good, I do. And not in need of so many fucking DLCs. | |
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PAX 2011: Borderlands 2 Is Bigger, Better, and Bad-ass-ier
Borderlands 2 is no herp-derp sequel; there's a lot more going on in Pandora this time around.
The first Borderlands was almost a surprise hit for Gearbox back in 2009, especially considering the characteristic art style was an 11th hour change. In talking to Scott Kester, I found out the cell-shaded style freed up the design team to pet their true wackiness come through in both the gameplay and the dark humorous tone. Borderlands 2 gives Scott and the Gearbox team the chance to deliver on a solidly designed game with a distinct voice and vision from the onset of development. From what I saw of the hands-off demonstration at PAX 2011 today, Borderlands 2 might exceed its predecessor when it comes out on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC sometime in 2012.
For one, the color palette is a bit more varied this time around. "You may remember brown from Borderlands," quipped the woman narrating the demo. "We have more colors than that now." Indeed, the demonstration began in a white and blue icy area before traveling to a more temperate zone beneath a dam and then climbing that dam to get a more bird's eye view of the world of Pandora.
"We feel visually that [Borderlands 2] has really leveled up," Kester said, whose role is overseeing the art. "Variety is something that we're really focusing on: variety in the environments, variety in the enemies, variety in the gear."
Having a clear vision from the start has really helped development. "We had a bit of an identity crisis in the first game," Kester admitted. He said that the shooter mechanics and RPG-style random loot were always solid, but there was something missing in Borderlands - until the art changed and the game coalesced into something that clearly resonated with gamers.
Now that that is out of the way, Kester said the team could focus on making it all work better. Narrative will play a bigger role in Borderlands 2 with a completely overhauled mission system. "We really want to drive home a story through missions that keep you engaged rather than 'Go here and pick this up, go here and pick this up,'" said Kester, referring to how the missions sometimes felt in the first game. "Whatever it is you're doing [in the sequel] actually has importance and is driving the plot forward."
The demonstration played through such a mission with the player battling mining robots converted into warmachines by Handsome Jack, all to rescue "a friend." Upon reaching the dam, the friend is revealed to be Roland - the soldier from Borderlands - which is a nice way for players to feel there is a continuity while still providing that variety. None of the characters from the first game will be playable in the sequel, but they might just show up as NPCs.
The new class showed off at the demo was Salvador the Gunzerker - a take on the berserker class that doesn't have to rely on melee. This heavy duty guy can dual-wield any weapon in the game, including double rocket launchers. I could immediately see how ripping off a few thousand rounds with a gatling shotgun in one hand and a Torgue gun that fires mini-rockets could get addicting really fast. "If you think this looks fun," said the narrator of the demo, "I can tell you it's a million times more fun when you actually play it."
Concentrating on character and creature concepting, designing the look and feel of Salvador is Kester's baby - the thing he is the most proud of in the game so far. "Salvador is the epitome of what Borderlands is: hardcore gun-porn," he said. "There's millions of guns [available], and now I can hold two of any of them."
There's a lot more to Borderlands 2 that I'm sure we'll hear more about in the coming months including a revamped vehicle engine that allows up to 4 passengers, improved enemy AI that will retreat if critically wounded and can *gasp* climb up ladders, and fun new enemy creatures like the lumbering bullymong that can rip up rocks from the ground and chuck them at you.
It was also nice to see that Borderlands 2 hasn't lost any of its dark sense of humor. The demonstration ended in a climactic firefight atop the dam against a monstrous robot. The big badass war loader unloaded a massive assault that ended up tossing the player character off the dam and the gamers that waited in line for hours to catch a glimpse of Borderlands 2 were left helplessly looking up as Salvador fell to his death - but not before he flashed two meaty middle fingers at his murderer.
The gathered nerds laughed and then cheered. Yeah, the chrome might be improved, but the sequel still has a Borderlands chassis.
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