ZEQ2 Lite

Friday, October 23, 2009

This game is awesome, both single player and co-bloppity blip bloop. It's all the best bits about FPS games mixed in with all the best bits of action RPG's like Diablo mixed with the best bits of open-worlders all wrapped up in a humerous game which does not take itself at all seriously from the moment the intro starts to play.

definitely the most fun FPS game I've played in an age and probably the most fun RPG I've played since Dungeon Siege 2 and definitely the most fun co-bloppity blip bloop game I've played since Serious Sam 1. Left 4 Dead previously held that honour, but that game lacks longevity compared to Borderlands. A selection of half hour campaigns versus a whole RPG world to explore, no contest really.

I got Borderlands on wednesday, played a couple of hours on my own before a friend came around to play it splitscreen. We ended up playing a good 5 hours solid without even realising, it's just that addictive and we've barely got any where in the actual game yet. It's a very addictive game.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Being as how I was a pretty big fan of the Serious Sam series, Diablo, and Dungeon Siege, I decided to look into the game some.

Sadly, the initial impression that I get from a few gameplay videos is that the objective system is still highly plagued by the same MMORPG numerically driven, one-way absolute resolution device. That is to say that objectives seemed based on killing/collecting/finding/saving/interacting with X objects rather than presenting a situation and letting the player resolve it as he/she sees fit (if at all).

This means of how objectives are presented would not normally become a spotlight for an run and gun FPS, but since the game aims to blur multiple genres, using an excessively mimicked mechanism does take notice.

I cannot yet comment on the degree of weapon variety and character customization and I certainly still WILL give the game a shot sometime (if only to observe the tone/atmosphere itself), but unless I'm sorely mistaken about the inevitable goal monotony of the root gameplay anatomy, I think this may just be one I'll pass by.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

GAH! TOO MANY BIG WORDS!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The game looks great. I agree with Zeth to some degree. The missions have no real depth to them. And that results in a story that isn't really well constructed.

But, I play this game online and that's a load of fun. And that is what it is about.

Oh, and the beginning is such a hassle.

(Not really far into the game, this is my current impression.

(Repost)

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Indeed, the mission "monotony" is hardly something which detracts from the gameplay in any way. The game's been designed to be played purely for fun, it cetrainly wasn't designed to be some revolutionary ground breaking game with features unseen before with brand new ways of playing or even a litterary masterpiece.

Having played tons of Diablo and Dungeon Siege in the past and zero time playing WoW, I can't say how similar the quests are to WoW, but I certainly agree that they're given in a manner that's very very typical of action RPG's like Diablo & DS (talk to some one, get the mission, do it, come back to collect reward) but I can't say the missions play at all differently to an typical FPS, they're just presented in an openworld RPG manner.

Infact very few non-linear mission-orientated games actually stray from the achetypal Kill-this/Collect-this/Activate-this set of missions, it just gets covered up with layers of dialogue and narative to hide the fact from the player and make it feel more meaningful and "real". Borderlands, though, seems to have an attitude of "This is a game, you are playing it, we're not going to hide it" and so does everything to make this as blatent as it can, from the HUD initialisation sequence to the damage numbers streaming off enemies to the "New-You" stations used for respawning.

On the character customisation front, it's exactly the same as Dungeon Siege: you choose a class, can a equipment, have a skill tree you get a point for each level and have proficiencies which automatically improve based on what you do.

They've basically taken the best bits from a handful of genres and made them play very well together. It's a true hybrid unlike games such as Fallout 3 which is an RPG with a half hearted FPS interface or Far Cry 2 which is an FPS with a few RPG elements slung in.

Borderlands definitely has its faults and isn't a game which does anything to push boundaries or anything, it is just a solid, fun game with the best elements from a number of classics. It's lack of percieved depth of narritive and such is actual a boon in my opinion as it takes emphasis off being a game to complete because you want to know where goes and just makes it a game to play because its fun

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The-Kakarotto wrote : GAH! TOO MANY BIG WORDS!

Man, I laughed so hard at this!
One sentence at a time and you should do fine..

Saturday, October 24, 2009

I'm quite tempted to get this game, but my problem is I only seem to like playing games in short bursts, like an hour tops. With Fallout 3 this was a problem for me, because I would often wonder what I was supposed to do next, and waste an hour trying to figure that out .

Is Borderlands good at pick up and play and knowing what you have to do as soon as you jump back in?

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Is Borderlands good at pick up and play and knowing what you have to do as soon as you jump back in?

Hah. The irony! Yes, I'm actually thinking that Borderlands IS, in fact, more of a pick up and go game that you could get into, Dave. It's ironic in that I refrained from posting a lengthy followup saying how I felt that guiding the player excessively through simplified objectives, tutorials, and safe-means has become a trend that plagues most modern games in retrospect to earlier era ones where there was a HIGH emphasis on the player actually connecting the dots together himself/herself.

I won't go into it fully, but I'll cite ONE game and ONE example of indirect and more player-oriented goals alongside an abstract objective solving mechanism in a dated RPG.

Arcanum.

Arcanum is a beautifully crafted mixed-age role-playing game on the computer. While there is an actual static plot overall, it's ANYTHING but linear and there are literally no absolutes in terms of how the story is perceived. I'll not go into the grand nature of the freedoms and capabilities the game implores, but I will give one example situation of how "quests" play out.

In this game, there are really no traditional quests or objectives (at least not in a one-way resolution sense). Most of your actions take part from reactions and resolutions that you yourself decide should be set out. In the starting town of Shrouded Hills, for instance, there is a small gang of bandits guarding the only way out of town. Your goals for leaving the town could range in the dozens if not more, but what's really key to this scenario is HOW you choose to leave the town. I'll list a few possible ways I've resolved the issue :

• Pay the gang their requested 1000 gold toll.
• Performing a little "deed" that involves wrecking the towns attempts to build a new bridge by destroying supplied.
• Pickpocket the leader and steal the gate key.
• Beat the whole lot to death through shear force (not easy)
• Sneak and plant dynamite (or some explosive) on one of the group and run like heck.
• Use explosives as a diversion to sneak by.
• Pick the locks on the gate at night.
• Use poisons or other chemicals to incapacitate the group.
• Use magic to transmogrify the gang in some way.
• Use persuasion/influence magics to control the gang leader and basically have him hand you the key (or even fight the others).
• Betray the sheriff of the town by ROBBING the bank, having your identity uncovered, and then trying to leave town (which results in the good ol' Doc waiting for you).
• And one of the more amusing -- convince the leader that you are actually, in fact, a representative of the thieves guild and that he's violating rules that the guild does not appreciate, threaten and have him actually PAY YOU, have him accidentally tell you where the guild headquarters is on your map, give you the key, and then leave town.

That's but 12 possibilities there and I've heard of and seen MANY more. Every situation in the game is built in this way. The concepts of good/evil or right/wrong are merely up to the player to decide.

It's not so much that the game designers spent an exorbitant amount of time planning EACH and EVERY situation that could possibly occur and writing out interactions with each -- no. They simply create an obstacle for the player and then naturally rely on the game mechanics and handling to allow for dozens of outcomes (much like Portal does).

Back to the matter of Borderlands, no, I'm not expecting it to be anything revolutionary or groundbreaking in any area, but after playing something like Arcanum as far back as 2001 and seeing so many non-linear open-world RPGs (like Morrowind/Oblivion) step in cliche directions again and again, I'm simply baffled why a simple core design change like relying on SOME level of THINKING and problem solving on the player's behalf has not become more prevalent in games overall (yes, even in the more mindless run & gun Serious Sam style ones).

Sunday, October 25, 2009

HahahaIts like Comparing Street Fighter to the NES ET Game.


Street Fighter is easy to pick up a controler and learn the fighting.

ET is about as easy as finding a cure for an AIDS/Cancer Hybrid.

I may have to try this game. It seems to be getting good reviews everywhere.

4.5/5 and 9/10 on a lot of sites. Lowest I have seen was a 8.3/10.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

HahahaIts like Comparing Street Fighter to the NES ET Game.

In both cases, the games compared are open-world with role-playing elements. Even so, comparison of cross-genre, cross-theme games CAN be done when we're on the matter of root design principles that govern ALL games.