2009
08NOV
Borderlands
Title: Borderlands
Platform: 360/PS3/PC
Genre: FPS/RPG
I marked this one as "Play", and it's true; I had fun playing it. However, there are some stipulations. Read on.
If you aren't "in the know," Borderlands is a first-person shooter with a randomized weapon system a la Diablo. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, that's about the only remotely original concept I can find in this game. The setting is ripped wholesale from Fallout/Wasteland. The graphics consist of about 10 different textures and objects - 9 of them brown - repeated ad nauseum. The story relishes in its non-existence. But the worst, most disheartening feature is that the quests, dungeon designs, bosses, "enemy camps" and flow, NPC interactions, and complete dearth of varied enemies are copied straight from any MMO you can name. It's a small-scale MMO with guns; that's about it.
Oh, and the robots. The fucking robots. I can say with a straight face that they are the single most annoying addition to any electronic media in the last twenty years. They make Navi look like Time's Man of the Year.
Despite all this, it's still a simple and effective formula that keeps you hooked; at least until you completely max yourself out in a few hardcore sessions and resort to "farming" weapons and cash to pass the time, in which case you're a god damn tool. It's repetitive, and it gets grindy, and there are some shittacular bugs as with any good MMO (such as getting stuck in a death-respawn loop with an unkillable mob right inside the very first city), but if you're the type to swallow that flavor of bullshit (I'm not), then give it a whirl.
Platform: 360/PS3/PC
Genre: FPS/RPG
I marked this one as "Play", and it's true; I had fun playing it. However, there are some stipulations. Read on.
If you aren't "in the know," Borderlands is a first-person shooter with a randomized weapon system a la Diablo. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, that's about the only remotely original concept I can find in this game. The setting is ripped wholesale from Fallout/Wasteland. The graphics consist of about 10 different textures and objects - 9 of them brown - repeated ad nauseum. The story relishes in its non-existence. But the worst, most disheartening feature is that the quests, dungeon designs, bosses, "enemy camps" and flow, NPC interactions, and complete dearth of varied enemies are copied straight from any MMO you can name. It's a small-scale MMO with guns; that's about it.
Oh, and the robots. The fucking robots. I can say with a straight face that they are the single most annoying addition to any electronic media in the last twenty years. They make Navi look like Time's Man of the Year.
Despite all this, it's still a simple and effective formula that keeps you hooked; at least until you completely max yourself out in a few hardcore sessions and resort to "farming" weapons and cash to pass the time, in which case you're a god damn tool. It's repetitive, and it gets grindy, and there are some shittacular bugs as with any good MMO (such as getting stuck in a death-respawn loop with an unkillable mob right inside the very first city), but if you're the type to swallow that flavor of bullshit (I'm not), then give it a whirl.