>> ^Croccydile:
So after last weeks post should we talk about Borderlands now?

Fuck no, now we talk about Mass Effect 3!

So after last weeks post should we talk about Borderlands now? (I kiiiiiid! Shit, wait he referenced it in the review anyways)

I was hoping he was going to notice the rash of conveniently placed chest high walls scattered throughout any battle scene after giving Gears of War the same berating.

I think the amount of talk about ME2 in this thread says everything that needs to be said about Borderlands...

But just in case it doesn't, one play through was enough and even that was fucking tedious. But who cares about that, back to ME2!!

Whelp, should get around to buying it at some point I guess... =\

I actually LOVED borderlands even though he is absolutely right about the repetitiveness, but its incredibly FUN repetitiveness. When i finished it i went through the second play through and did it again, and i went through the expansion pack also.

So, don't listen to him.......try it, its REALLY fun.

>> ^cybrbeast:

I wish they wouldn't have simplified this game so much to please the console generation.


AFAIK some game developers are doing this on purpose because apparently they would much rather develop ONLY for consoles than continue making PC games or ports. At least last thing about Mark Rein from Epic I read...

It's pretty dumb either way, and the planet scanning is just how they can claim say "30 hours of gameplay" while putting in 25 of real gameplay and 5 hours of a repeditive subgame. Yeah I know the mineral scanning does not take THAT long, but if you try to do all the systems I imagine it will take you 5 hours.

>> ^xxovercastxx:
I still enjoyed ME2, I just found it rather light. I wanted ME2 to be Mass Effect Extreme, not Diet Mass Effect.
I was surprised to find out people had such problems driving the MAKO. I had a blast with that thing. I loved that you could land on any planet and drive around, I just wish more of those planets had something on them to discover. To me, they "fixed" planetary exploration completely backwards: they removed the fun part (exploring) and featured the boring part (there's nothing on any of the planets). If you didn't like the handling of the MAKO, that's a separate issue, IMO. I would have been fine with a completely new vehicle so long as the exploration was still an option.


I've heard that the MAKO was really tough to control on the consoles, where the MAKO followed the turret, while on the PC you can move the MAKO and turret independently. I do agree the MAKO was fun, though the things you encountered were a bit bland and generic. This mineral scanning thing is terrible, why not have the onboard AI EDI do in a microsecond what takes you minutes. Instead of ditching the MAKO thye should have just improved the variety of planetary exploration.
I also hate that they removed the weapon statistics and that there are only something like 20 different weapons. Also you can't customize your squad's armor anymore. I wish they wouldn't have simplified this game so much to please the console generation.
Still I'm having fun with it, but I doubt I'll buy the third one.

Last thing I really can't stand how game review sites always praise overhyped games to death. Just look at the metacritic site. A third of the ratings are a perfect 10 and another third 9+. Same thing with Dragon Age
Are there any honest review sites?

Really enjoyed ME2... best game I've played in a while. As for Borderlands, I finished probably about 80-90% of it before losing interest, and I have no idea how I made it even that far. It's not a bad game by any means, but I'll never go back and play it.

>> ^Krupo:
I got ME1 for five bucks on sale through Steam. You have all confirmed I might as well wait for ME2's five buck sale as well - at least I'll feel like I'm getting my money's worth.


Just to clarify, I think ME2 is a great game, and a must-buy for anyone who liked the first one.

I'm mostly expressing my disappointment that it didn't meet my outlandishly high expectations for it, and that I personally preferred the story elements and nearly linear progression of the first game.

The combat mechanics are vastly improved -- it's now basically on par with a real 3rd person cover-based shooter, and that's a plus. They've ditched a lot of the RPG elements (no inventory, and no base weapon skills to level), but I found that to be a plus as well. I hated inventory management in the first one, and hate needing to level up a skill to make my aim steady with weapons. They do still have some decisions to make as far as which of your skills you level, but it's basically a base +dmg +health skill, or one of your activatable powers.

The classes also all got revamped to make them more unique and distinctive, and having tried a Soldier & Vanguard I can say that they've definitely succeeded on that front.

They ditched the Mako, but now the exploration missions are actually interesting, instead of being bland and somewhat pointless. They also went from the 4 multi-hour missions of the first game to literally 30+ sub-hour missions that you could do in almost any order (or not do if you so choose), punctuated with 3 or 4 mandatory missions at certain intervals to move the main plot along. Supposedly they'll be releasing a hovertank as DLC, but I have no idea how that will work.

I haven't played with how many ending scenarios there are yet, but I'll mention as a minor spoiler that I'm essentially certain that every single member of your team can die in the last mission, including Sheppard himself...or you can come away without losing anyone.

I personally felt the story wasn't up to the standard set by the first game, but it was a joy to play, and I'm already well into my second playthrough, and I think I'll probably do a third run -- I wanna try out the new Infiltrator class!

Well NetRunner mirrored pretty much what I thought about ME2, it is a good game although I did indeed spend most of my time on the first play-through recruiting or loyalty missions. The game is a bit disappointing if you don't do any side missions!

I think Yahtzee missed what really kicks ass about Borderlands, and why I bought it. The game ROCKS for LAN parties. Yeah, laugh all you want, I still go to them. All of the little nitpicks he mentioned does not make an ounce of difference for the total blast you and three others in the same room(s) experience. As far as single player, oh god yes it sucks horribly. Total polarization of how you interpret the game depending on how many people are playing it.

Your video, Zero Punctuation: Borderlands, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

I also really loved the world of Fallout 3. The map was so large and the exploration so much fun that the poor quality of the main story didn't bother me that much. All the side quests and exploring was more interesting and took longer than the main quest anyway.
I really love some turn based games, and I actually liked the turn based elements they put in the combat system. It gave you time to think about your strategy, take nice shots, and I even liked the slow motion parts.
>> ^mentality:
>> ^cybrbeast:

You're right that's a bit bizarre. But I didn't say I loved Torchlight, only that it was more entertaining than DAO. I really liked the setting and atmosphere in Torchlight for a while. However I also didn't finish Torchlight.
Concerning Borderlands, first-off it has bad FPS mechanics, for example when trying to shoot enemies you encounter a lot of invisible walls through which your bullets can't pass. All the moving around between and after missions wasn't much fun. Your inventory was too small. And while they tried to implement it the weapon comparison system was shite. Also the UI was as is almost always the case badly ported to PC.

Yeah you're right. Torchlight was charming when you first step foot in it. I feel the same way about highly acclaimed games being disappointments, except with me it's Fallout 3. I've always loved the Fallout setting, and Bethesda did a wonderful job with the art and the world, but I just couldn't get past the terrible writing and the poorly implemented combat system. After reading about how the game ends, it seems like I didn't miss out on any great plot anyways =/

>> ^cybrbeast:

You're right that's a bit bizarre. But I didn't say I loved Torchlight, only that it was more entertaining than DAO. I really liked the setting and atmosphere in Torchlight for a while. However I also didn't finish Torchlight.
Concerning Borderlands, first-off it has bad FPS mechanics, for example when trying to shoot enemies you encounter a lot of invisible walls through which your bullets can't pass. All the moving around between and after missions wasn't much fun. Your inventory was too small. And while they tried to implement it the weapon comparison system was shite. Also the UI was as is almost always the case badly ported to PC.


Yeah you're right. Torchlight was charming when you first step foot in it. I feel the same way about highly acclaimed games being disappointments, except with me it's Fallout 3. I've always loved the Fallout setting, and Bethesda did a wonderful job with the art and the world, but I just couldn't get past the terrible writing and the poorly implemented combat system. After reading about how the game ends, it seems like I didn't miss out on any great plot anyways =/

>> ^mentality:
>> ^cybrbeast:
Wow, so true. I played this game for 6 or 7 hours and it really becomes stale and boring.
I'm starting to feel more and more like Yahtzee in that most large and usually highly acclaimed games are becoming large disappointments. Dragon Age was barf to me (Torchlight was more entertaining). Currently playing Mass Effect 2 which seems of much lower quality than 1.
My only memorable games of recent time were Fallout 3, Dead Space (though I didn't complete it), Dirt 2, Prototype (also didn't complete), bit of GTA IV.

And the click LMB and kill a bajillion enemies in Torchlight with no actual plot didn't become stale and boring for you? Weird. At least Borderlands has multiplayer.


You're right that's a bit bizarre. But I didn't say I loved Torchlight, only that it was more entertaining than DAO. I really liked the setting and atmosphere in Torchlight for a while. However I also didn't finish Torchlight.
Concerning Borderlands, first-off it has bad FPS mechanics, for example when trying to shoot enemies you encounter a lot of invisible walls through which your bullets can't pass. All the moving around between and after missions wasn't much fun. Your inventory was too small. And while they tried to implement it the weapon comparison system was shite. Also the UI was as is almost always the case badly ported to PC.

I got ME1 for five bucks on sale through Steam. You have all confirmed I might as well wait for ME2's five buck sale as well - at least I'll feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

Same thing with Borderlands... maybe.

>> ^Abel_Prisc:
Wow, I didn't realize I'd be of a minority on the sift who absolutely loved Mass Effect 2. I have a love affair with Bioware, and think that the Mass Effect universe is so refreshingly original and creative (not to say it's not influenced by other sci-fi brands in some ways, but what sci-fi DOESN'T borrow from other properties?), and I was fine with the fact that they stripped down the RPG mechanics of the first one.


I don't know if we're still a minority, but no... you're not alone on that one. Dragon Age nearly topped my top spot (Half-Life) for best gaming experience I've had, and I too really like the ME series.