From: ftookl [#1]
19 Oct 2009
To: ALL
This has to be the earliest I've ever had a pre-order. Thank you postal strike!
Anyway, first impressions: It's exceedingly pretty, sounds superb, is a bit funny, has nice guns and the shooter side is solid. It's nothing special, just solid. It's pretty much what Fallout would have needed to have done to get me to play it. On the downside: It lacks debris physics and.... that's all the bad so far. Other than that it's far too early to tell much, the scale seems appropriately huge but I'm only guessing that the area I'm in is one of many. If it's say one of two then not so much, but I doubt they'd be bothering with vehicles in that case.
So far I've been blowing off bandit heads with a sniper rifle, chopping midgets in the face with a machete and have been torn apart by alien dogs. The last one is significant as there is no way in hell I could have beaten them meaning the level scaling isn't of the oblivion standard where it only throws enemies you can beat at you. There's definite scope to get out of your depth, come back later with a bigger gun and feel more powerful.
Oh, and I also had to restart the training because of a showstopping bug. Bit of an oversight really, but I got to keep all my loot/XP so it wasn't too much of a problem. I get the feeling that the game is about the grind, and killing the same people twice in a row felt strangely prescient of the game as a whole.
Co-op wise I'm not so sure, it seems a bit slow burning for four players to be fun but then I'm still in the early stages. Also how well it scales up the enemies when there's two or more of your will make or break that mode.
Matt, I've said numerous negative things, would you like me to call the Whaambulance?
EDITED: 29 Oct 2009 by FTOOKL
From: y2rich [#2]
19 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#1] 19 Oct 2009
From: pignoli [#3]
19 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#1] 19 Oct 2009
Lucky you. Got this on pre-prder for PC, so have a bit of a wait.
There was an interview with Randy Pitchfork on gamasutra where he mentioned that he liked the 'coming back as a badass' feeling you get in games like this. The Oblivion model makes the whole levelling mechanic seem a little pointless really.
And apparently co-op is where it's really at.
From: ftookl [#4]
20 Oct 2009
To: ALL
Ok, so...
1) It's a grower.
2) Look at the fucking time.
From: sacredbongo [#5]
20 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#4] 20 Oct 2009
I can confirm that it is good, and it is late/early, and I am tired.
Thanks Borderlands.
From: Mattaeus [#6]
20 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#4] 20 Oct 2009
From: ftookl [#7]
20 Oct 2009
To: Mattaeus [#6] 20 Oct 2009
It's like Halo.
See you saturday.
From: y2rich [#8]
20 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#7] 20 Oct 2009
From: ftookl [#9]
20 Oct 2009
To: y2rich [#8] 20 Oct 2009
Wouldn't know. But I think that's something common to single player games as converted to co-op, rather than co-op games from the ground up like Left 4 Dead. CoD:WaW didn't work, Too Human and CoD:MW2 both gutted their four player co-op late in the game because it was too hectic to be enjoyable or plan strategies. But it is something I'd like to try because I think it walks that line between story and sandbox. You're basically tooling around in the desert looking for guns 95% of the time, which doesn't sound to me like something that could be hurt by the addition of more people.
On the other hand the best level by far last night was a close quarters battle through a bandit stronghold that lasted for at least an hour, when there's only one route in that close proximity it's easy to get in each others way, with four it could be worse. That said we're both playing the ranged/defensive classes, the other two (Siren and Brick) are alot more up close and personal so perhaps with the ideal mixed team you wouldn't be occupying the same space so much. Three or four hunters/soldiers would definately be less fun.
From: y2rich [#10]
20 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#9] 20 Oct 2009
That's the exact issue I've read from reviews. For an rpg type game with so much loot type stuff it apparently gets far too hectic to be able to do any of it. RPS said there's also issues with not being able to do anything if a player lags behind a few levels until they grind their way up there.
I'll still pick it up eventually
EDITED: 20 Oct 2009 by Y2RICH
From: Mattaeus [#11]
20 Oct 2009
To: ftookl [#7] 20 Oct 2009
Now y'see, if Rich gets it and I think Eddie mentioned he was going to get it, there's no point me getting it as we'll have the "5th player" scenario.
I also don't want to join a co-op game when you've played a fair chunk of it already, as it ruined some of the earlier missions of Op Fap when you lot knew what was coming up already - whether it was just telling me where to position mines as you knew they snuck around that way, or that night mission where you knew you could get in and out without killing everyone (and telling me about the subsequent ambush near the end when you get in the chopper) - it's not as fun when I'm the only one discovering how to do the mission for the first time.
EDITED: 20 Oct 2009 by MATTAEUS
From: y2rich [#12]
20 Oct 2009
To: Mattaeus [#11] 20 Oct 2009
I'm not getting it for a while. The following games are ahead of it on my to get list (in no particular order)
Forza Motorsport 3
Assassins Creed 2
Modern Warfare 2 (only because its the only thing anyone will be playing for a couple of months)
Uncharted 2
God of War HD
Football Manager 10
Left 4 Dead 2
Army of Two: 40th Day
My promotion/payrise confirmed yesterday should help me buy a few of those fairly quickly though :D
From: Grog [#13]
20 Oct 2009
To: y2rich [#12] 20 Oct 2009
From: ftookl [#14]
20 Oct 2009
To: Mattaeus [#11] 20 Oct 2009
From: ftookl [#15]
21 Oct 2009
To: ALL
This game really is all about the guns. Most things you find will be set on a theme: flame this, electric that; all pretty standard, but just when you think you can't be suprised it throws a curveball at you.
I'm currently rocking an explosive round firing sniper rifle that makes alien dogs pop like meat balloons, a quadruple barrelled SMG that doesn't so much as empty a 40 round clip as it does throw it at your target in one big lead lump, and a ridiculously powerful two shot magnum that fires seven rounds at once. The last one is a particular favourite as it has a completely unnecessary scope on so you can see bandits lose all their shit when you score a hit.
From: ftookl [#16]
26 Oct 2009
To: Mattaeus 26 Oct 2009
From: Mattaeus [#17]
29 Oct 2009
To: ALL
From: ftookl [#18]
29 Oct 2009
To: Mattaeus [#17] 29 Oct 2009
Oops.
Good news though! We started over in playthrough 2 (which is robustly implemented, although by this point I don't know exactly what else I was expecting) and the scaling up is rather fucking ace. This is how new game plus should be done.
Basically all the missions are the same but the world takes a giant leap forward, everything is bigger, more spiky and more hilariously named. We even got shot up once or twice. As before though the difficulty is determined by how thorough you are with side missions. Things at your level are a challenge, things one or two below it hard but very doable and below that are just a breeze. I'll be interested to see what happens when you hit level 50.
The crazy thing is it's still as enjoyable as it was the first time, as it's not about the story but finding guns and then shooting baddies with those guns. Both those elements are still new.
From: Mr_Day [#19]
1 Nov 2009
To: ftookl [#18] 1 Nov 2009
Nowhere near as finished with it as you guys might be, but I am enjoying the game immensely.
I have been playing with the XFire video thingy, and got these wonderful things:
http://www.xfire.com/profile/mrday/videos/
From: Mattaeus [#20]
1 Nov 2009
To: Mr_Day [#19] 1 Nov 2009
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