Borderlands 2: Reviews and Impressions

[Arctic Blast]

Arctic Blast FUN FUN FUN until daddy takes the T-Bird away! That brings me to a question. In BL1 the vehicles were fun to drive but the weapons were way underpowered. Driving was mainly to get from one place to another and to avoid enemies.

I haven't got a vehicle yet, haven't played in a few days. Tell us about the vehicles in BL2...there speed, handling, and guns.

Thanks for being our BL2 contact person.

There are the standard vehicles from last game, with an option for straight machine guns or one with the guns and a rocket launcher. Critical hits seem to me to generally be a bigger deal than they were in the original, so the guns can be pretty nasty this time around. W and S are forward and reverse, and steering is done by using the mouse to turn your view...the vehicle will swing around in that direction.

They've also added the Bandit technicals to the game after a certain point. There's one model with machine guns and a launcher that fires what can best be described as gigantic throwing stars. The other has no guns and instead packs an explosive barrel launcher. They can't quite go as fast as the standard cars, but they have more armor.

I'm hoping that the new Bandit aircraft open up later on...

[son_of_montfort]

I haven't got time to play Borderlands 2 very much, but I did want to post this:

Glad to have you here FC! You are an asset in any thread you post!

[FrontierCybrarian]

Gusington, it feels like home here. I certainly will let you know if I have significant articles to present to Grogheads.

Arctic Blast, thanks for the details on the vehicles. I'm glad the weapons are better and more powerful. It sounds like I'll be comfortable with the handling of the cars if it's the same system as before. I finally picked up a powerful sniper rifle. I'm a distance fighter with high magnification a must...so now I'm a closer step to nirvana.

Son of Monfort, and a howdy to you, friend. Looks like you've found a home here at GrogHeads, also. Thanks for the kind greetings and well-wishes. We in deed shared many a thread/post also respecting one another and offering support and understanding. I'm glad you're a moderator...you certainly have the skils, intelligence and knowledge to assist in the successful functioning of GrogHeads.

Hope your schooling is going well...maybe you're already finished. Haven't heard for awhile.

[Bison]

I'm enjoying the game, but the framerates I'm getting are horrendous.  I spent quite some time messing around with the options but it doesn't seem to matter the settings I get some serious moments of slideshow action.  The only thing I can think that would be causing it is the new AMD catalyst drivers.  How's this playing for everyone else?

[FrontierCybrarian]

Bison, not good at all you're having the graphics problems.

I'm using two SLI Geforce Nvidia 560 cards with framerate set at 72fps, V-sync enabled and 8 anti-analizing. Very crisp, clean, and fantastic framerates. No problems so far. The game is optomized for Nvidia but should work with AMD drivers as many gamers use non-Nvidia cards.

Let's hear feedback from AMD (not AMT) card holders about Mr. Buffalo's predicament. Kidding aside, let's help Bison remedy the framerate issue. How about it? Could his problem be more than a graphic driver deal? What about cpu, memory? We want your expertise.

[Bison]

It think its a little from several columns.  I'm running older GPUs which is part of the issue and I'm pretty sure AMD had dorked up there last few driver updates.  And yes in this case dorked up is a techincal term for what AMD has been doing lately for driver support.  On the brightside I've got a brand spanking new Nvidia card in bound in a few weeks!  Yay!

[Bison]

On topic:

I'm playing a sniper class dude and I cannot find a new sniper rifle to save my pathetic hide.  Other than I die alot, I'm still having a good time.

[FrontierCybrarian]

Bison, hope the Nvidia card solves your graphic problems and you receive it soon.

It seems to me I didn't find a sniper rifle until level 7 or 8. The "Bad Hair Day" side quest given by Sir Hammerlock at Liar's Berg will net you a sniper rifle if you get the # of beast furs he requests (wound the beasts with gun then finish with melee attack to get the hides). Return the furs to Sir Hammerlock in Santuary at the Moxxi's Bar. Don't give the furs to Claptrap or he'll give you a cheap shotgun.

Also be sure to tackle every enemy hideout..blast away even if the enemies are higher rated. Some hideouts and dead enemies yield nice high power weaponry...even some sniper rifles.

Go Forward Wanderer...Vault Hunter!

[Bison]

Yeah that's the rifle I'm still using now.  I've read that the drop quality is not very good on the first play through and playing solo.  We'll see though I'm off to slay me some more baddies.

[Bison]

Pulled my first purple weapon this evening.  Some sort of flame submachine gun thingy that kicks some serious ass.  I also bought a sniper rifle upgrade still looking of a green or blue and wishing for a purple one to drop at some point in time.

[Arctic Blast]

Yeah that's the rifle I'm still using now.  I've read that the drop quality is not very good on the first play through and playing solo.  We'll see though I'm off to slay me some more baddies.

Every time you enter a new area, you'll notice drop quality jumps up in that region. For example, I just snagged a 530+ damage sniper rifle with a 96% accuracy rating. And that's kind of candy ass compared to the rest of my arsenal (4000+ damage rocket launcher for the win).

Of course, the baddies get pretty goddamn brutal, too. I've spent the last few hours fighting a lot of Threshers. They're burrowing beasts with tentacles flying around that spit crap at you. I hate them. I want to exterminate their race.

[FrontierCybrarian]

Bison and Arctic Blast you guys are rocking.

I just completed two more areas. I still have a 142 hit point sniper rifle and a nice shotgun. In BL1 it didn't seem to be that significant in getting a higher color weapon. Is it better in BL2?

Also where does one turn in the eridium to get better gun mods? Am I missing something?

[MikeGER]

FrontierCybrarian, i saw your excellent decision making article in another forum, so i venture to quote you here to be seen by a wider public... 

BL2, to buy or not to buy

....it depends on your circumstances, IF YOU:
- Haven't finished playing Borderlands 1 completely through a time or two and reached a high level then I'd say NO to BL2.

- Got bored with BL1 then I'd also say NO.

- Found BL1 quite fun and you would like more but with a few new characters, weapons, refinements then I'd say YES.

- Have limited funds and are waiting for the one or two ultimate games of the year then BL2 MIGHT NOT be the one.

  BL2 is currently about $60. You may want to WAIT until the cost goes down $20 or so.

- Are primarily a hardcore wargamer and first-person-shooting/rpging is secondary in your playlist then it's a MAYBE.

- Have very limited time but usually want to play a game to it's conclusion. I've heard the 10 main missions and about 100

  minor quests will take a good chunk of time to complete.

FC, you definitively saved me some (impulsive buy -please help me i'm addicted-)money... i first have to get the most out of BL1, and then maybe with next but one  Steam 'whatsoever' Sale i may get it.

THX :)   

[FrontierCybrarian]

MikeGER, thanks for the post and kind of you to indicate it helped in a purchase decision. I was worried the post was way too philosophical.

The DLC conntent for BL1 (Zombie, Mr. Knoxx, Claptrap) are quite good and the Moxxi Arena is okay. They also provide many more hours of usefulness to the original.

I definitely like BL2 alot with it's improvements but I believe it's main supporters are those who played the first one to death and are READY for the sequel.

You can still be THE MAN in BL1. "Take it to the limit one more time."

[Arctic Blast]

Near Level 31 in the game, and I'm still loving it.

2 quick warnings about the Bunker mission (can't remember what it's actually called, but it involved bringing Claptrap along to get you through a shield wall and taking out a bunker) :

1. Don't even start this unless you have a good hour to hour and a half. And it's straight up combat basically the whole way.
2. The story takes a really unexpected turn towards the serious during this mission. Not a complaint, because I think it's done REALLY well, but...holy crap. Some things emerge that I didn't really see coming.


Also, I heartily recommend doing the Treasure Hunt mission. It involves a lot of back tracking through a monster infested region, but good grief so you get some really bad ass guns out of it! I ended up with the most over the top shotgun I've ever seen, which pairs nicely with my 1,575 damage sniper rifle.