BeyondUnreal Previews Borderlands

[Sir_Brizz]

2K Games brought me down to Dallas to check out Gearbox's upcoming Unreal Engine 3 RPS, Borderlands. The art style is unique, the gameplay is fun, and... well, read the article to find out the rest!

Probably my favorite feature of Borderlands is that it is designed, ground up, for 4-player co-op. Players can take on the persona of one of the four available characters in the game; Roland, Lilith, Mordecai or Brick. In addition, when looting, every player shares ammo and money pickups (meaning if someone found 50 ammo, you get 50 ammo, too) but you don't share out of each others piles, so some loser can't grief you by wasting all your ammo on a wall for 20 minutes or spending all of their money at every vending machine along the way (vending machines are basically stores in Borderlands).

I have to agree with other industry journalists that the PC version looks WAY better than the console version (by miles). The crispness of the graphics on the PC make a beautiful world completely gorgeous.

Read the full article!

 

[Sk.7]

Wow Brizz you sure are popular amongst the devs kidnapping you all the way. Good read altho I wish you brought home the Beta build on a pendrive

 

[UBerserker]

Badass enemies! What a cool game.

 

[xMurphyx]

I only saw screenshots of this game before but your preview made it sound like a kind of game my brother and I would enjoy a lot. We don't have pcs good enough to run it so we would have to go with the 360 version but I have two questions about this:
1. Do you know a site that has comparison screenshots? I'm not a graphics nut but the way you mentioned the crispness of the pc version made it sound like teh console version was all fuzzy and I'm worried this might get in the way, especially because...
2. ...because we would like to play the game in splitscreen. Does it have splitscreen? I checked around a bit but it only said "offline co-op" but this can also mean system link.

 

[TomWithTheWeather]

The console versions look great too. It's just that on PC, you can typically run the game at higher resolutions like 1920x1200. That's where the extra fidelity comes in.

 

[Darkdrium]

Thank you! I think this article convinced me 100%!

 

[Sir_Brizz]

The console versions look great too. It's just that on PC, you can typically run the game at higher resolutions like 1920x1200. That's where the extra fidelity comes in.

Oh, yeah, the console versions aren't bad, really. It's just on the PC you can take it to a whole new level. Mostly you can just notice a lot of aliasing on the console, which slightly ruins the "comic book" look compared to the PC version.

 

[Kantham]

I read an article last night. The guy did say he was wondering when the candy carnival (constantly getting newer weapons for pickup) was going to slow down a little.

Did you feel this?

 

[Numb51]

Finally, a game that won't bore me in 20 minutes!

 

[[NBK]Rattman]

I have a question for you Brizz...

I was wondering how the FPS elements in this game are..thats my biggest worry is that the shooting will be an after thought to the RPG elements

I always thought a good FPS with some progression elements in it would be fun but I want the FPS part to be the main focus

So do you think the FPS part of the game is in line with current shooters(UT3,COD4,)

 

[Kantham]

I know you're asking Brizz but...

So do you think the FPS part of the game is in line with current shooters(UT3,COD4,)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x75aR7JdXSs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqS6somk3Y

Everyone whom I've read their experiences with Borderlands said to be feeling at home with the controls. They've noticed the effort Gearbox has done to bring in the good feel of a FPS with all those RPG elements included.

So to answer your question, yes.

 

[Kantham]

Tomorrow (Friday) is PAX turn with BL. Can't wait to see the new stuff there will be.

 

[evilmrfrank]

Can't wait for this to come out

 

[[NBK]Rattman]

Thanks for the links Kantham..that does look pretty fun and fast paced

I guess I'm kinda worried that it will be more fallout 3 and less ut, or cod like..

But that video raises my hopes quite a bit.

 

[Soulwax]

It's an FPS first and foremost, but with alot of RPG elements in terms of gameplay but there won't be any story related RPG elements like meters deep storylines, conversations with NPC,...
Gearbox wants people that are used to CoD, Halo, UT and the like to feel right at home.

Correct me if I'm wrong Tom.

 

[Xavi]

The art is great, the cooperative sounds neat, hope the game is well optimized like UT3 so u dont need to have a super computer to play it a regular resolution 1280*1024 with most things on high. If that is true im in for this game.

 

[Kantham]

Also read this.

Q: I can't wait to play this on the PC, but I fear since it's also being developed for the console demographic that a "dumbing down" might have occurred. You're welcome to change my mind.

A: Randy Pitchford: The PC version is great. The fact that you just said what you did is going to make a LOT of our developers really happy because a lot of them feel that the best version of the game is the PC version. There’s a reality to this business in being multiplatform and if you’re going to get games as big and as relevant as Borderlands on the PC and you’re going to be thankful there are console versions to drive more sales because we couldn’t rationally afford to do what we’re doing if it was only on PC.

I'd say, anyone who likes RPG and shooter needs to buy this and support their effort in being a mostly PC-oriented studio. You'll also get a lot from that 50 bucks.

 

[JaFO]

Do you get bots for support in the single-player ?
Or is it just you against the environment until another real player drops into the game ?

 

[Kantham]

Not sure but then again, would you rather play L4D offline or online? The only good answer is online.
Unless you're WarezMan, this won't happen to be a problem to you.

EDIT: On something really related, Randy (I think) said there would be more enemies as one co-op player joins the game. So bascially, I'm pretty damn sure the game doesn't have player replacement AI - you can go on your own.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

The controls feel nice and tight and tweakable, imo. Much better than many PC releases lately.

As far as the randomness getting dry, I think that only can really happen if you don't progress levels. The thing I had the hardest time with was my inventory getting filled up all the time and forgetting to filter through my weapons. I think that will be hard for many people who just want to drop in and shoot things.