Gearbox Adding More Steamworks to Borderlands

[Sir_Brizz]

At PAX this past week and weekend, Gearbox revealed that an update will be released for Borderlands PC on September 9th called 'B-Test' that adds more Steamworks features to the game, including Steam Cloud support. As of yet, there is really very little information about what changes are being made in this update, but, personally, I hope to see Gamespy gone and Steam Community integration. That alone would make me want to play the game more.

 

[Lruce Bee]

I'd also like to know what's going on with Aliens: Colonial Marines - it got barely a mention and it's been in development since 2006 ffs.
Oh and this is just beautiful:

"…inevitable Borderlands 2 downloadable content."--Randy Pitchford, who was promptly mocked by the team for his inability to keep a secret.

 

[nELsOn]

I should really re-install Borderlands... I don't even know why I ever stopped playing it

"…inevitable Borderlands 2 downloadable content."--Randy Pitchford, who was promptly mocked by the team for his inability to keep a secret.

Yeah, DLC a secret. In this day and age

 

[-Jes-]

Cousin and I have actually been playing it these past 3 months..

 

[ambershee]

I'd also like to know what's going on with Aliens: Colonial Marines

Look harder - but not too hard because visually it's very weak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJmJKatHb0&feature=player_embedded

Other tidbits:

2012 release date. Will contain new aliens. WiiU version will posibly use silly pad thing for the motion scanner.

 

[Lruce Bee]

I was thinking back to an old Sega Saturn game I played back in the day - Alien Trilogy.

[M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxFPRTglxog[/M]

 

[shoptroll]

Good move by them. Hoping too they drop GameSpy for Steamworks, even if it's only for the Steam version.

A bit funny that two years ago Pitchford blasted Steam for being a monopoly, but they're readily embracing Steam with DNF and Borderlands.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Good move by them. Hoping too they drop GameSpy for Steamworks, even if it's only for the Steam version.

A bit funny that two years ago Pitchford blasted Steam for being a monopoly, but they're readily embracing Steam with DNF and Borderlands.

I agree but they really have no choice, IMO. There is no other even decent multiplayer/drm/community middleware right now on PC. Gamespy is a POS, GFWL is crap, Impulse is going nowhere... what else is there? And people saying that they should just roll their own are joking themselves. They aren't going to do that. They will use GFWL before they roll their own solution.

 

[ambershee]

Drop the DRM. CD-keys and rolling your own master server ftw.

 

[shoptroll]

I agree but they really have no choice, IMO. There is no other even decent multiplayer/drm/community middleware right now on PC. Gamespy is a POS, GFWL is crap, Impulse is going nowhere... what else is there? And people saying that they should just roll their own are joking themselves. They aren't going to do that. They will use GFWL before they roll their own solution.

Yup. I think the main benefits of GFWL right now are that it's probably easy to port everything from the XBox build and it's distributor agnostic (which might be important soonish if various shops get their panties in a twist like they did with MW2 and Human Revolution).

Steamworks is the de facto standard for PC games. Zenimax is basically mandating it on all their releases (even going so far to retroactively add Steam Cloud support for most of their back catalog during QuakeCon), CoD is using it, and it looks like Gearbox is following suit based on this announcement and DNF. I think Square-Enix is now using it on their PC games too?

I'm going to be very surprised if Arkham City isn't dropping GFWL for Steamworks. Just like THQ did with Dawn of War.

EDIT: At this point, I think the main holdouts are EA, due to Origin, and Blizzard, due to Battle.net.

Actually, it's funny that Valve and Blizzard are basically running similar products at this point. It'd be a major coup d'etat if they could get some co-operation between the two services, but I doubt that'll ever happen

There's got to be some parallel universe where Valve and Blizzard merged following the collapse of Vivendi and left us with this behemoth Steam.net system which just takes over the entire industry.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Drop the DRM. CD-keys and rolling your own master server ftw.

I don't disagree with the ideal. It would even be nice if Steam adopted a model where they were complimentary to this. But I'm just trying to live in reality instead of fantasyland here.

 

[shoptroll]

I don't disagree with the ideal. It would even be nice if Steam adopted a model where they were complimentary to this. But I'm just trying to live in reality instead of fantasyland here.

I don't think we're going back to that model at this point. Train has already left the station. Publishers get too many benefits from digital distribution/drm schemes like Steam to really justify a return to last decade's DRM schemes.

EDIT: And let's be honest here, optical media is on the way out. USB flash drives, "cloud" storage, and streaming are rapidly making it irrelevant, and Blu-Ray recorders/media are still fairly expensive. So yeah, CD-Keys are going to be as dead as looking up codes in the manual in 5-10 years.

What I'd love to see is games from the last 5-10 years making their way to Good Old Games as DRM-free products. Preferably if you can take your CD Key off Steam or another service and get a DRM-free copy from GOG. For free or minimal ($5 or less) cost.

 

[ambershee]

Until flash memory becomes cheaper to produce than an optical disk of appropriate storage capacity (i.e, once you reach the point where you can't fit enough data on a disk), that transition isn't going to happen for physical copies.

 

[LivingPuppet]

Steamworks is the de facto standard for PC games. Zenimax is basically mandating it on all their releases (even going so far to retroactively add Steam Cloud support for most of their back catalog during QuakeCon), CoD is using it, and it looks like Gearbox is following suit based on this announcement and DNF. I think Square-Enix is now using it on their PC games too?

I think SquareEnix has been using steamworks for quite a while now. Just Cause 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are what instantly comes to mind.

 

[shoptroll]

Until flash memory becomes cheaper to produce than an optical disk of appropriate storage capacity (i.e, once you reach the point where you can't fit enough data on a disk), that transition isn't going to happen for physical copies.

I think download-only will take the lead long before USB flash storage becomes a viable solution. Unless, physical distribution becomes a small enough niche.

Although, I'm not sure how big a print run you need to make gold mastering and distribution worthwhile. Even then, pressing DVDs or Blu-Ray discs might still be cheaper per unit than flash.

 

[Maktaka]

I agree but they really have no choice, IMO. There is no other even decent multiplayer/drm/community middleware right now on PC. Gamespy is a POS, GFWL is crap, Impulse is going nowhere... what else is there? And people saying that they should just roll their own are joking themselves. They aren't going to do that. They will use GFWL before they roll their own solution.

Regarding Impulse, that died because Brad Wardell can't plan for crap and won't do anything he personally doesn't have fun with. It's why Elemental was such a bomb when he wouldn't listen to criticism on the project because that's not fun, and it's why Impulse has been a big wet fart of unfulfilled promises. He likes programming AI, which has nothing to do with Impulse. Instead of investing in it like Valve did with Steam, Stardock did nothing with Impulse aside from getting worse and worse customer support for year after year while Steam gobbled up more and more PC market and then threw up their hands and sold the whole thing to GameStop.

 

[LivingPuppet]

Wow I just copped Borderlands:GOTY for $7.49 on Steam. The deal will be over in a few mins I think. Never played Borderlands. Cheap things come to those who wait I guess.

 

[shoptroll]

They're not replacing Gamespy in Borderlands 1

 

[GreatEmerald]

Regarding Impulse, that died because Brad Wardell can't plan for crap and won't do anything he personally doesn't have fun with. It's why Elemental was such a bomb when he wouldn't listen to criticism on the project because that's not fun, and it's why Impulse has been a big wet fart of unfulfilled promises. He likes programming AI, which has nothing to do with Impulse. Instead of investing in it like Valve did with Steam, Stardock did nothing with Impulse aside from getting worse and worse customer support for year after year while Steam gobbled up more and more PC market and then threw up their hands and sold the whole thing to GameStop.

I'm pretty sure he had nothing to do with Impulse Inc. at all. He was just working on Elemental. And he did listen, even if it was after the release, and the later patches of Elemental made it a whole lot better.

But yea, now when Impulse is owned by GameStop, they are becoming a copy of Steam, which is the worst thing - as one person put it, if I want to play World of Warcraft, I will play World of Warcraft, not any of the clones.

As for the fact that the train left - well, they are known to stop at other stations. For instance Ubisoft dropping all DRM from Might and Magic Heroes 6. If that catches on, we might be looking at a new era of freedom.

 

[shoptroll]

For instance Ubisoft dropping all DRM from Might and Magic Heroes 6. If that catches on, we might be looking at a new era of freedom.

That was announced before they reversed course on Driver. Keep dreaming though.

Impulse has always been the younger sibling to Steam. When Valve announced Steamworks, Impulse countered months later with Reactor. GameStop has enough funds to properly back Impulse which is the problem Stardock had with the service in the first place.

As for Elemental, they had the same problem with Demigod when that launched. Over promised, under delivered in certain cases.