DiabloFans

Hi guys,

I'm going our on a limb here, but:

In Diablo 2 there were inter-act transitions that were instant. Getting on Warriv's Caravan to scale the pass between The Monastery and Lut Gholein was done in a second.

Adding to story submersion - don't you think it would be cooler if that caravan was attacked along the way? (as it almost certainly was)
What if you had to defend it? Picture this: The caravan trudges along a narrow walkway, or through a huge cave ala 'the mines of moria' - and there's a badass boss like the balrog, you have to kill! I'm not talking about an open world, I'm talking about an after Cinematic boss fight after you click on the caravan/ship/BMW to move along. Maybe as you exit the 'mine/cave' it collapses and you find yourself: On the outskirts of the next town?

I think adding an inter-act game element will bring the story out a bit more and add to the immersion...

Don't you?

ummm... From what I heard (read: read) is that they don't really build the game in a linear fashion. But that the first ACT is definitely the starting point and they spread out from there///

And once the game is 'fully built', they start again... Really.

When I loaded MW2 for the first time the game asked me (and you all) if we would like to skip that level, I remembered an article about the airport saying that a lotta ppl asked Infinity Ward why such a gruesome level. Personally, If they had made that level a cinematic it wouldn't have made the game as cool as it is. It shocks you, being involved in such a massacre- You got pissed off when they killed you, makin you ready for war. Awesome.

for you MP'ers on PC; add me.

once or twice a day. I even 'froze' myself until 2011 in order to stop! But back then it was like 7+times a day. This is my second time today - remember I'm in another timezone...

I have news from 2011... But you won't like it

silent hill 04 the room. F. That. Sh.

Guys i bought it for pc and MP ROCKS!

yeah here's a link for retail: http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/11/05/torchlight-coming-to-retail-stores-in-early-january/

You guys think this will include MP?

true dat true dat... and yeah, i deleted the vids yesterday... Thank gpd.

Quote from "SNowfreak" »

I actually disagree with you and think a 7/10 is pretty harsh. I myself think the game IS great and without a doubt it is fresh. Now i am not about to say the game is perfect because its not, but for the most part it does it right. How you can say the game is not fresh is beyond me. I personally do not know of any other "RPFPS" that is this good...or feels like this. many people will disagree with me, but the gameplay and feel in this game blows fallout 3 out of the water. It actually feels like a shooter and it is intense. fallout was very slow, annoying, and i always wanted to treat it like a shooter but never could as VATS was the best (and slowest most repetitive) way to play the game.

Presentation- 9.5 / 10

Definitely a highlight for this game, the presentation is so entertaining and likable. The art style really makes the game unique and more enjoyable then if it had not been implemented.

Audio - 8/ 10

Good but not too much is done to really set itself apart from other games. everything from music too sound effects are well executed, just not as memorable as games like Metroid.

Graphics - 9/10

Unreal Engine 3 is beautiful but is also loosing its place as the best among today's graphics. That being said the game is rather easy to run and the art style pulls it all together into a beautiful and fresh piece with some bugs here and there.

Gameplay - 9/10

The game does what hellgate, fallout, and others should have done (at least in my opinion). The fighting is fun, and takes skill, but certainly feels as though loot and rpg elements matter. The running, shooting, and other elements are reminiscent of battlefield and make for a great chaotic and tactical experience.

re playability- 8.5 / 10

An awesome game that depending who you are is rather re playable and will last you many many hours. The problem is that character classes are not different enough to necessitate making many many characters (with four being the most you'd ever need to make). The areas in the game are fun, well made, and offer enough variety, but not as much as I would have liked. As to where Diablo II managed to make the progression of tile sets more enjoyable then most. When compared to normal games the re playability is among the best, but when compared to Diablo II (most re playable game every IMO) it falls short.


Overall - 9/10

While the game has its quirks here and there and certainly isn't as re playable as games like Diablo II, it still offers a very similar feeling that any FPS and Diablo II fan will love every second of.

You know what? you have a point... But what I mean is that RPFPS's are a new genre; much like diablo established ARPG's way back when. My point is nobody has ever come close to bettering Diablo. At all. Except Blizzard themselves!
My only hope is that someone, whether it's gearbox or not, perfects the RPS.

But you have a good point.

Hi. Yes I'm back cuz I had some issued with staying away from anything DIABLO RELATED so, you know, sue me.

So here's another review. Like the 'risen' review I did last month this is all purely based on my experience and I disclaim any mistakes I make. It was reviewed on PC that set everything at Full Spec.
Here goes...

Borderlands is a cool game. It is fun, it is surprising, it is graphic, but by no means is it 'fresh'.
Basically after you install you're prompted to make sure you're online so that a release date check can be done. Two seconds later the splashscreen pops up (it is a splashscreen, of course, of a raider mimicking his brains been blown out all along the screen) et voila, you're in the intro. The problem with the startup vids (2k, gearbox, nvidia) is that you can't skip them, yet I'm pretty sure you can delete them once they start boring or irritating the crap out of you - I'll then try that when I get home.

Singleplayer is great. You select your character in the game's introvid (on a bus full of new recruits) which is very upbeaty and badassy, sucking you in. After you select your guy (Roland for me), a story element happens which is kind of a helpline in the game. Then you're thrown into the deepend of a very shallow tutorial. Basically: Kill.
You level up and guess what? No skill points! That's right! absolutely none! You only start getting one per level after level five and you only get one skill you can physically activate. For Roland, It's his turret machine gun.

You then have different columns of skills (buffs and passives actually) which enhance the way your turret performs and supports as well as upping your own personal ante: which is to me the most important because the turret can only be used once every 100secs, and honestly, you occasionly forget you have it but totally go insane when you remember to flip (or accidentally hit) the 'F' key.

The most awesome aspects of the game in singleplayer are: KILLING, LOOTING, KILLING ELITES, LOOTING AWESOME STUFFS and ROLAND's voice acting (eg. a snooty "Elite my ass..." and ghetto-ey "Critical Biyatch") and a couple of other things like the vehicles and there weapons.

Once jumping into the scheme of quests and levelling up you gradually awesomise your character with awesome weapons and awesome mods.
The cool thing about the enemies is that they're random and elites are WAY elite; this one time, at bandit camp, this elite berserker comes out of nowhere with blue-fire eyes and beats the absolute crap out of me. The screen goes dark as Roland goes down on one knee, barely able to hold his gun, then; "FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE" jumps on-screen. I managed to kill the elite in the couple of seconds chance you get to do so and "SECOND BREATH!" jumps on-screen. You could do this forever - if you've got the right weapon and enemy that is.

The vehicles are great. Nuff said. They add to the experience rather than quicken or dull it. With spots for 2players in each, MP becomes like BF2.
The quests themselves are not all "Kill five Bandits" or "Kill five Skags" or "Travel to Leicester Square and come back again" ala HG:L. Because this game is not HG:L and I wish people would stop comparing. I know I mention Hellgate a lot but that game was a disappointment as google describes it: "a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized; "his hopes were so high he was doomed to disappointment"..."

Short of a bug-fixer patch: Borderlands doesn't disappoint.

Moving on... To multiplayer. Most of Everybody who is hosting on Borderlands still have slots left for 3 more players (bringing it to the Max of 4). So all those guys are playing alone with games named like "PLZZZZZZZZ JOIN!!!!" or "HELP PLZZZZZZ GOD HELP!". I promptly named mine; "SOUTH AFRICA 01". Noone joined. I tried to join others but nope. So i checked the forums for reference to any errors and found; port failures and such and no patch yet to fix the issues (amongst others), but useful tips on how to forward your ports. So I did and now I'm MPing. Problem is; not everyone knows how to address the port issues so it is still a little no-go - but the ones I have played are awesome. You don't have to start at the beginning. You can play with your single-player in MP character anytime which is cool.

I've left some stuff out becuz of time constraints but I can assure you It's a good game, not a great game. No new ground has been broken save the fact that It is affirming RPFPS's in the market place... And, as with any young game-genres, It needs work. Borderlands defines RPFPS's but doesn't refine it.
7/10.

Man...

Did I choose the right time to go into CRYOSTASIS!

What the hell is going on on this site?

This automated reply brought to you by North Central Positronics, making the future of cryogenics, today...

HI GUYS!

I didn't know exactly where to post this, so I thought what better place than the intro forums?

I regret to inform that this is goodbye! Owing partly to my mobile bills and constant yearning for D3 info - I have decided to resort to CRYOGENICS <nerd>.
My freeze-time (as we in the industry call it) begins today and we have the latest technology thanks to a certain webite
I have not set the time capacitor to a specific date but will be making an appearance in January of 2011.
I have also added the following google alerts to my FLUX INTEGRATED CALENDER:
"Diablo 3 / III release date announced"
"Diablo 3 / III release imminent"
as well as;
"Diablo 3 / III cancelled / Shelved / Aborted"
"Blizzard Banktupt"
"Blizzard Disaster"

All just in case! (:p)

I'd like to add that it was nice getting to interact with you guys (and the majority of you are very friendly and professional) - I just keep coming back everyday hoping for something new on the bluetracker; thus essentially distracting me from work, life etc.

I know I coulda just gone in peace and disappeared but where's the fun in that?
One more thing! The admin here is so awesome! I've never been on a forum with more friendlier or professional guys; adding to the best D3 website there is!

Bye for now! oooh - it's starting to get chilly!

See you on the other side!

p.s the thumbs up icon is in homage to the terminator...

my guess, obviously is that all names used are placeholders so that devs can identify them easily.

Besides all the fighting, this is a way interesting conversation.

Quote from "kfryklund" »

I think it sucks that Starcraft II is going to be delayed because of B-net...oh well though. btw, this will not affect the release date of D3. I don't know why people are so concerned about the D3 release date. If we're lucky, D3 will come out before 2012, and I'm not exagerating.

You're not exaggerating and I completely agree with you, but I'm gonna throw in my ten cents here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/StarCraft-Blizzard-PC-Game-LAN,8527.html#

This is why Starcraft II is being delayed... And I'd bet a month's salary on it. And, wait for it, It's a good thing - depends on how you look at it.

Starcraft II is enjoyed the most over a LAN connection, true? Now, blizz wants to counter piracy, what do they do? Remove LAN capabilities. But that causes the biggest uproar since the trilogy was announced! So blizzard has stepped back and said, "ok, we'll give you lan, but first you have to authenticate it on BNET."
We know blizz don't use DRM so they'll have to develop a tech that isn't quite DRM. That's what pushed the game to 2010... Agreed?

The good part of it is - at least Starcraft 2 gets to suffer at the cost of BNET. All the problems and ideas will be sorted out thanks to SC2.
Diablo 3 might just have a smoother development thanks to SC2 being the guinea pig of BNET 2.