Borderlands 2

[VKhaun]

Like the total idiot nerd that I am, I bought another shooter game while playing PS2 and CSGO.

Having a lot of fun with it so far and am looking forward to beating it twice but the price was high (59.99) and I'm giving them the big benefit of the doubt. I'm expecting it to be longer and more fun than BL1, but we'll see. If it's not good to the last drop they won't get that kind of cash from me again.



Story is funny again. Handsome Jack is obviously inspired by Archer. He sounds just like him a lot of times and has the same kind of style. I had to check the voice actor to make sure it wasn't the same guy. Lots of returning characters including the vault hunters of the first game, Zed, Tannis, and Marcus. Scooter sounds very different, probably a different voice actor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...nzO_w3w#t=250s




The weapons have accuracy issues again, and now the view sways more noticably with some weapons. I had a semi-auto assault rifle with decent stats that was damn near useless as the tall thin iron sight swayed up and down and all over like a 10x sniper scope or something. Many more weapons seem to drop with slow projectiles than BL1 as well. Not only rocket-like projectiles but HG:L-like dart guns that strike then explode a moment or so later, and some weapons just have really slow bullets for some reason.

This is made up for by the overhaul of the specialization system. Instead of having to use whatever weapon type to improve that weapon type alone, you earn 'badass' points as you complete achievements which can be spent on overall improvements at an account level. When you click to spend a point it gives you five or so options (at random?) to pick from which will then recive a tiny increase (0.2% or so) So far at a meager lv13 I already have around +3% to accuracy and damage, and a few other small bonuses from when those options weren't present. These will all apply to my current character and any I make in the future. My plan is to pick accuracy and stability every time I can to increase the variety of weapon drops that are viable.



Enemeis are 'meh'. They put in a bunch of new types that you just have to shoot the shit out of. Yeti with no armor that hunch over with their head/crit hit box right in the center of them. Big bandits with lots of HP but no head/crit hit box at all that will rage out if you pop their fake head. Stuff like that. Regular bandits are more interested in staying alive and will duck/roll when shot at, but Psycho's don't path as well as in BL1 and often run around on the ground letting you take shots at them if you get the high ground, rather than run up steps. I'm still in the shallow end of the pool though, and haven't fought any robots yet.

[Draconian]

Been playing with a friend of mine over Hamachi we're level 18 I think. I was a bit disappointed at first too with the enemies, but lately it has gotten more difficult. The guys with the riot shields that you need to flank are starting to get beefy enough to matter, the badass versions of the flying things in that one zone (so specific!), and the lab rats I just met for the first time in a survival wave arena mission... those things hit *hard* with their eye beams.

So, I do think it is starting to scale up somewhat nicely, but enemies are harder the more people you add so if you aren't playing with others that might be the best thing to notch up your challenge.


I've also had some issues with weapons and slow ammo, especially explosive type damage guns. I had an absolutely amazing pistol but I had to fire it more like a rocket launcher as far as leading people and aiming at their legs, etc. Seemed weird in a pistol. :P

[wowzer]

I picked it up for ps3 on Friday. I beat the main story after a weekend power session. Overall it was less than 20 hours. I might have done 5 or 6 sidequests, but nothing serious. I mostly played solo, but let randoms join my games. I played as Axton, which made the game too easy. I beat Jack at lvl 28, with a lvl 29 Zero helping me.

I really like that they varied the environments this time around. I was happy with the variety in enemies. Just like BL1, I felt that the game started out difficult, but got much easier after level 14 or so.

The second playthrough should be much more challenging. I'll probably start it up sometime tonight.

[VKhaun]

Getting frustrated with the weapons.

I just found an absolutely RIDICULOUS purple sniper rifle, but it made me realize that it was the first good drop I'd ever encountered. Everything I've been using so far has been specific quest rewards and crappy greens just to throw another ammo type out there. I very rarely find blues, but they tend to be formats I don't like. Fire based rocket launchers, slow projectiles, etc. And an assault rifle is completely absent from this game. I see whites and very bad greens from VLADOF occasionally but the rocket launching and semi-auto rifles out number them easily 8:10:1.

I basically run around switching between a shotgun and a sniper rifle trying to pick the better one for medium range, wishing I could just find an AK-47 already.

[Valec]

Reminds me of the first game. Seems like it'd be a great game. Marred by absolutely shitty weapons and dumb classes that really don't matter. I know that my opinion is the minority here, but I just can't get around those two things.

[Draconian]

If you're in Sanctuary, go tip Moxxi a bunch for one of her custom weapons (pretty damn good SMG purples, fire or corrosion verison). Cost my buddy 10k he said or so in his teens, cost me like 15k at 22, and I just paid I think 19 or 20k for a level 27 upgrade. It's a source of a guaranteed level appropriate mid-range weapon - they're SMGs though, not rifles. After getting my 4th slot I always have 1 flame, 1 corrosion, 1 shock and a rocket launcher or sniper in the 4th slot which I switch out when needed. Playing a Survival Spec Commando, currently level 28. My buddy and I have been doing lots of side quests, but not all of them... we just got to the portal-esque Angel encounter. Not sure how close that is to the end.

Also, I've gotten a couple oranges and quite a few purples from the slot machines. The oranges were both sick and lasted me a loooong time, the purples are about half half, some good some meh. There was also a quest called "Find Bane" I think, which gave a blue SMG which is absolutely silly damage for its level but makes really annoying sounds and slows you to a crawl when wielded. Mine was a level 23 corrosion version and I used it still at level 27 fighting BNK-3R (or w/e) the flying weapons platform, and it was absolutely the best DPS even compared to a 10k delve rocket since the thing is armored. Annoying gun, can't be used as something for moving, but when you need a second chance kill or to eat through a beefy armored target, its fantastic.

Anyway, Moxxi and slots are what I dump most of my cash into. I will agree though that drop rates on blues are super low, and I've never gotten an orange in the wild only through slots. Plenty of purples come along though, and are easy to get from slots and Moxxi. Also agree that Assault Rifles are a bit scarce or not quite up to par with their counterparts in other categories, although I've been using a blue assault rifle that fires shock rounds in an arcing grenade-launcher type pattern for quite a few levels, I love it. There is a shitload of trash loot, but my backpack was the first thing I upgraded to maximum slots with Eridium, so I could loot all greens throughout a mission and even expensive whites. Then I sell and use that cash to gamble for a good weapon.

I'm still enjoying it, my main complaint is each class only having one active ability and a whole tree full of passives or weird complementary skills. The skill trees really needed some more actives in them to spice up the different specs. Besides that, I feel like most of the problems are fixable via tweaks in patches, although the first update's patch notes for 20mb was "Minor bug fixes.", end of notes. Lil light on details.


I never played the first, so perhaps this being my first BL experience is making it all a bit more bearable. Personally I'm surprised you like the shotties in this game, I haven't found one yet I thought was worth taking over for my SMGs, and I'm specced for tankiness and death avoidance, so I get in close plenty - even then, the shotguns don't compare, from what I've found.

[VKhaun]

Shotguns can be useful in two very different ways. You can use one with fantastic accuracy (75+), a decent clip (7+), and a reflex sight or scope as an assault rifle. The shotgun choke narrows considerably when you use the iron sights, it's just the iron sights on most shotguns blow. Combine that with your accuracy and you will out damage any other gun type very easily.

That is however a very specific combination of parts and bonuses. when unavailable, you can also use them for frontloaded damage. I grew out of my AR-Style shotgun and so I went back to my BL1 standard where #1 key = the most damage I can get in an instant. I have a triple barreled shotgun that will fire all three barrels at once, and can do that twice in a row as fast as I pull the trigger. A double tap from that instagibs a badass gun loader around my level.
DPS? Terrible...
Range? Terrible...
Badass Gun Loader hot drops next to you? WIN...




http://steamcommunity.com/id/vkhaun/screenshots

Found a sweet slag assault rifle with bayonet. I tested stabbing stuff that was/was not slagged and found that even though the bullets are 'slag' damage type (and don't get the slagged effect's damage bonus) and the bayonet glows purple it does not actually convert the melee damage! I can charge enemies and as soon as they go purple I stab them for ~13K damage.

[VKhaun]

Reminds me of the first game. Seems like it'd be a great game. Marred by absolutely shitty weapons and dumb classes that really don't matter. I know that my opinion is the minority here, but I just can't get around those two things.

I wanted to argue this, and my one golden key gave me two really stupid grenade mods, so I went and did the 255 key thing. Turns out the rifle I like is THE rarest thing in the game. After 510 keys I found FOUR vladoff assault rifles that were not rocket guns, grenade spitters, mini-miniguns, e-tec random blasters, or any of that other crap. Of those four only two were actual full auto regular damage weapons. In 510 tries (1,020 items) I got TWO assault rifles that were actually assault rifles rather than MG's and gimmick guns. I didn't even find enough of them to compare stats to know if my two are good or not.

le *sigh*

I saved my profile before fooling with any of it. Put it all back as if I'd never used the keys except for three items, and I'll most likely grow out of them before I even beat the first play through. Probably just give up on assault rifles and use SMG's. Lots of good SMG's out there with good direct fire and accuracy.

[neino]

Although the price of Borderlands 2 is high, I think it deserves. I like the graphics of Mabinogi 2 Arena very much, and I have downloaded all the new 2013 wallpapers from the MMOWood site. I will share them with other players.