#borderlands 2 loot

[thatdudemaan]

The Helios space-station from Borderlands 2.

[minty-trash]

im so fucking irritated and literally sobbing

i was playing Borderlands 2 with my brothers and we were level 43 having beat the game and we were doing the dlc stuff and my save data got corrupted when it crashed!!!

n now im lvl 30 maya trying to keep up with level 43 gaige and axton with shitty gear n everything we find is at least 5 levels too high for me and i genuinely don't feel like playing anymore

[vox-off]

brandon forgets he has a mini map every five seconds in borderlands 2

he'll be sprinting madly around the battlefield going, "THERE ARE PSYCHOS I CAN HEAR THEM WHERE THE ARE THEY"

while i'm watching their little red dots tailing him the entire time on the mini map like "dunno man, maybe they're invisible this time"

[handsome-jacks-bottom-bitch]

You like Borderlands, right? How about Lord of the Rings? What about Lord of the Rings IN Borderlands? Well, you're in luck, because Borderlands 2 has got you covered.

Welcome to my Borderlands Tumblr blog in 2023. If you're as obsessed with the franchise as I am, then this is the place for you. My first post? Secret Lord of the Rings quest.

If you want the Rakks to fly you Ithillien, I've got some bad news for you. However, they CAN bring you some sick loot. This secret quest is only available once you unlock TVHM, and you gotta get a bit into the game to be able to complete it.

The gist of the quest is this: take the golden gear to the top of Mount Hellsfont. Simple, right? No. Much like Frodo, you have to make the trip on foot.

To start this quest, you need to go to Claptraps place in Windshear Waste, the starting zone of the game. Head inside, and go to the fireplace, where you'll find a golden gear. Once you pick it up, the fun begins.

To do the quest, you'll have to walk this gear all the way from Windshear Waste, all the way to the Eridium Blight. Sounds tiring, doesn't it? Fast traveling, hopping into a car, quitting the game, or simply *dying* will fail the quest, and you'll have to start over.

You'll want to take the following path: Windshear Waste -> Southern Shelf -> Three Horns - Divide -> Three Horns - Valley -> The Dust -> Eridum Blight.

Once you've hit the Eridium Blight, head to the top of Mount Hellsfont towards the top of the map. Traverse the volcano until you find Geary. Under normal circumstances, Geary will become hostile and attack relentlessly. However, if you still have the golden gear, he will only attack you once. He'll snatch the gear, and throw himself into the lava. Once he does, three Rakks will appear, and grant you three chests, one of which will ALWAYS contain purple or e-tech loot.

Make sure you don't kill Gollum- Sorry, *Geary* yourself, or else the quest fails, and the Rakks will never arrive.

If your a compeltionist like myself, be sure to return later to kill Geary yourself, as he will have a chance to drop 1 of 6 head customizations for your Vault Hunter.

And there you have it. You have successfully saved Pandora from the wrath of Sauron, and scored yourself some sick ass loot.

[antrunner]

Hello....... what is Borderlands about..............

HI gayle my friend gayle

borderlands is a multi-game series that revolves around "The Borderlands", which are a group of planets on the edge of a galaxy that are kinda Mad Max-y except everything revolves around capitalism.

Every planet is more or less run by corporations that are large enough to have private militaries. there aren't presidents or dictators, there's CEOs. One of which is Handsome Jack, who is the CEO of Hyperion. (see below)

He's an important figure because he sets off the plot for each of the games, serving as the main antagonist for most of them. The whole point of the games is to find something called a "Vault", which are ancient prisons created by an alien race called Eridians to hold giant monsters, advanced technology, and a shit ton of money/loot. People, aptly named Vault Hunters, search these out in order to earn wealth, power or tech.

When it comes to gameplay, you play as a Vault Hunter. Like most FPS games you have the option of different classes you can play as with different abilities. I love the guns in these games, since they're all unique and feel reeeally good to shoot. Each game also has its own strengths when it comes to the gameplay and guns, plus leveling systems and skill trees.

The only exception to this stuff is Tales From the Borderlands, which is a telltale game that is almost 100% story-driven with quicktime events. It's actually the most popular game in the whole series and that's for very good reason. Because it's awesome. Highly recommend if you prefer story over combat, plus it'll give you some context to the world building without needing to jump headfirst into an FPS.

Though, if you're interested in playing through them all, I'd recommend following this order:

- Borderlands 2

- Borderlands: The Pre-sequel

- Tales From the Borderlands

- Borderlands 1

- Borderlands 3

You can theoretically play them in order of their release, but I personally think this way offers a more compelling story. Plus....... borderlands 1 is really old and doesn't have very good game mechanics comparatively LMAO borderlands 3 is the best for that. the pre-sequel is fun too because it has unique anti-gravity mechanics to spice it up.

All of the characters are funny as hell. There's a lot of toilet humor but also more subtle stuff. I'd also HIGHLY. recommend playing with friends (blinks at you) for a better experience overall. it's 1000x better (you can have up to 4 people in a game)

if you have any more questions i would LOVE to answer!!! this franchise is such a huge fixations its got its teeth and claws in me

[silverantagain]

Finally got around to finishing Borderlands, so ramble! MASSIVE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.

I'm rambling about my general thoughts on the game, it's all extremely positive though because I did enjoy it! A lot! :]

I kind of suspected that the vault wasn't going to house a treasure, but I still really enjoyed the twist. Big ole Eldritch creature or whatever, and as much as I wanna be like "oh haha it could get it", it made me realize how bad I am at fighting still in FPS games. I had to have died at least 7 times to it.

I kind of had hoped that Tannis would betray the player, but her coming back to the player's side in the end surprised me! In a good way. She's a very neat character, very morally grey and I really did enjoy her audio logs. She's just extremely neat to me, you don't find very many women written as multi-faceted as she is and it makes me have hope for the rest of the series. I like series that let the women be just as dark and gritty as the men.

All in all, I'm really happy that Borderlands was the first fps game I played. It was very charming, the sound design was great and the visuals were too, and it had the added benefit of scaring the shit out of me every 30 seconds because I'd be looting and then BAM random enemy firing at me. The side quests did get a little repetitive but I liked the variation in different types. The atmosphere was nice too, it felt so lonely.

Some of my favorite moments was during side quests, you'd come to an area where there SHOULD be bandits, but it's suspiciously quiet, only to find out that something else killed them. It was also cool that bandits would get attacked by non humanoid enemies as well, it added to the atmosphere.

Claptrap is my favorite character still, he's neat. He's also very silly and pathetic (/endearing). Tannis is my second favorite, she's just so cool to me and I want to draw her someday. The lightbulb moment in my mind when I realized that she was the same person as the person who left the recordings for a quest I had done earlier was wonderful. Sorry I'm rambling about her again I just very much love the whole "seemingly random background character is actually a key character" trope.

But yeah! I'm gonna try to get around to playing Borderlands 2 soon and I'll try to let y'all know how I feel about that!

[vaulthunterlands]

You know I'd be willing to argue that the pre-sequel is a better game than Borderlands 2 in terms of quality of life changes and skills if they didn't just randomly remove loot midgets, tubbies, pearls, and any meaningful raid bosses

[qbren]

Borderlands 2: Oasis

https://twitch.tv/qbren Surfing on Sand Skiffs helping out Captain Scarlett & Shade, Oasis hero finds the real mirage! There's water below the earth, rare loot too!

[laurarolla]

And finally done with the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel playthrough of the main campaign and Claptastic Voyage. Boy, that was a long one. The remaining Claptastic Voyage video parts will be up a bit later on, they're all recorded though. And oh boy, I get to have possibly controversial opinions on a long-beloved franchise that just got a movie adaptation and definitely has another game on the way. Hooray!

So, Borderlands has a few things going for it, namely really great characters, a solid atmosphere, narratives that manage to actually drift between serious and silly in ways that don't feel jarring, and so many mix and match procedurally generated weapons that you rarely end up with the same drop twice, which can be good or bad based on your perspective on the game's loot and leveling system. Regarding the story, it's good. The only thing that kinda bugs me is that the story wants to be a story about how Jack became the monster he is in Borderlands 2, but it really doesn't show a change in character or personality, but just how he gains the power to be the absolute piece of garbage he always was deep down. I've seen some stuff from BL3 that actually does go into what pushed him into being an evil bastard, but like Moxxi points out, the darkness was always there and he just needed the power and the opportunity to embrace it. If you just ignore the read of it being the "fall of Jack" and instead go in 100% with the idea that this is the story of the "rise of Handsome Jack," I think you get a better overall feeling for the narrative experience.

In terms of gameplay and mechanics, I honestly kinda hate this game. It's not specifically because I think there are wrong decisions being made in most cases (although a mailbox system like in Destiny 2 or WoW would be great for situations like a legendary drop falling through the damn ground or getting something dropped on it). The issue is in the philosophy of the game, and the fact that what I came to the game for was not at all what it wants to deliver. I like the world, the characters, and their stories. I couldn't care less about being asked to sift through piles of loot, most of which is Grinder fodder or something to sell for semi-useful money, only to realize that the weapons I found that were cool and fun to use are practically useless about an hour or two later. I suppose the thing is that I didn't want another MMO, even if this one is vastly superior in terms of long-term survival due to being unshackled to a live service model.

Part of what made Destiny 2 so enjoyable to me as a persistant game was that I didn't have to spend absurd amounts of time farming, and if I got a good weapon, I got to keep using it because I could upgrade the power level without having to go get another one of the same gun at the higher level. But the issue isn't that Destiny 2's loot drop system is inherently better, because for many people, it isn't. For me, the issue is that, when combined with gunplay that isn't nearly as fun as I want it to be, talent trees that remind me of how much WoW improved over the years by dumping the incremental math for the sake of landmark upgrades at specific levels, and certain damage types and weapons feeling damn near necessary in a system where everything you get is absurdly unpredictable, it isn't fun to pick up a bunch of garbage to sell or trade when I found things that were fun to use. I didn't come here for Diablo with guns and a wacky robot buddy. I have the same opinion about Diablo and other loot piñata games. Being neurodivergent in some way definitely doesn't help me with this, either.

The point is, I love the world and story and characters of Borderlands, but I absolutely fucking hate playing Borderlands. However, after playing the game for many hours, I'm now actually pretty decent at Borderlands. Maybe BL2 will be a worthwhile experience when I eventually get around to it, but I'm not expecting much. I mean, it doesn't even have the Oz kits and boost jump system that I actually did like.

[pretentious-art-love]

Game Reviews #2 - Fallout 76

I love this game to death, and the truth is that while it is not a game without serious flaws, it is overhated by the majority of the player base or at least compared as not even as great as any of the previous entries, but the truth is that while you can compare previous Fallout games, this one give something rather unique in comparison, and while I like this game a lot, I am not a Fallout fan myself, and I would not recommend it to other Fallout fans who are looking for a comprehensive CRPG experience.

The game does offer three types of gameplay loops, each loop being different than the other and it is what has helped keep the game so fresh for me and allowing me to spend so many hours in it, Fallout 4 was designed to be as replayable as possible and this game takes things a little bit further.

The three game loops are:

World Exploration in a vast, huge and hand-crafted Open World like previous entries of Fallout, or Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind (do not confuse it with their previous RPG aspects).

Looter shooter events and sections as well as quests and combat focused gameplay, like Fallout 3, 4 or Borderlands.

Building and crafting in your own bases and without any instances required, you can build on the world itself, like Minecraft, but its building system can be compared more with games like No Mans Sky or The Sims where you are limited to a certain amount of assets.

If you want me to rate each type of gameplay, they would go as this, 8/10 to 1, 6/10 to 2, and 5/10, respectively. My overall rating though, does not add up an average for these qualification, but it represents my emotional connection to the game and how it comes together with the sum of its parts.

There are also several aspects that affect and influence severely these gameplay loops, the main two being

Use of RPG stats to build a character that is better a certain type of combats than others, being faithful to the Action RPG label (Not the CRPG or Western RPG label).

The use of online gameplay. Most quests can be played solo, but every public event will require the participation of several groups of people, like in MMOs, people can visit your camp in the wilderness as well, whether is casually or teleporting there.

I will describe the two gameplay loops that I like less but I still enjoy quickly, and go a bit deeper into my favorite type of gameplay at the end.

First is the looter shooter aspect and the public events. Every 20 minutes a public event will pop up in every player’s screen and anybody can participate, the events range from taking some brahmin to their farms, to collect radiated ore and destroy ghouls and shoot a wendigo colossus monster for around 20 minutes while you get attacked by other creatures in the deep parts of a cave and your character can end up running away from the fear.

The enemies drop loot that varies from junk to build in your camp, to aid items and legendary and rare weapons, as well getting something as a reward for being in the event at all. Legendary weapons can be exchanged into a currency, scrip, to get legendary modules and upgrade your own weapons with effects that you get through RNG like 40% Power Damage or 250+ Damage Resist while reloading, so on and so forth. In this sense I would recommend Fallout 76 as your grind game. The events can be really fun, and can get very intense at times, my favorites being Radiation Rumble and my Test your Metal, but if you keep playing after 100 levels or so the loop becomes repetitive. You cannot pick a specific upgrade for your weapon, you have to collect the currency, either by exchanging the weapons you got on events, or getting seasonal rewards, and use that currency to get modules to roll upgrades for your weapons, every weapon gets 3 effects, getting one effect you want a lot is rare, so to get all 3 affects you want is going to take a long while. There are a lot of rare weapons you will need to pay a lot of caps for or other rare currencies the game introduces, like stamps or gold bullion. I feel this is designed to encourage you play the events over and over and make the game replayable, but if you aren’t into such mentality and want to avoid grind, you might not have a good time after a while. You can minimize the defects and maximize the strengths of your character, but a weapon with the right level and stats can be a long way in efficiency.

The second gameplay loop is the building and crafting part of the game. In this sense, the game excels itself allowing you to build anywhere you want as long it is not close to an already built location, like a place with a quest, a player can go wandering around through the world and simply find your house, which makes building a lot more worthwhile. This is where all the looting for junk comes place since you will use all the resources you find to build your own house and you can unlock a lot of plans to find something that you might like. You can farm and craft resources such as adhesive using vegetable starch, it takes a lot of time but you will find more joy in the craft if you are into building. There is a limit as how much you can build to avoid lag, but you can also build a shelter to build there as well, the difference is that shelters are instanced, and you will need to go through a loading screen to enter to them, which makes them less appealing.

You can also sell items at your camp, from aid items, to junk and even weapons and plans, which are the most purchased items between players. If you get a plan you already knew in a quest, you can sell it to someone else and get caps for it. Some players have reported getting so many caps that they don’t know what to do with them, but from my side I always run out when I buy a resource I can’t find in the map at the mall.

If this game was as great as it was in this sense, I would have rated it higher than the looter shooter section of the game, but the truth is that it gets a 5/10 from me because most of the crafting section of this game is hidden behind a paywall. If you want more than two camp slots, you will have to buy atoms for them. If you see a specific construction set you like, like an organ, haunted house walls, a well, certain type of stairs, if you want a bigger shelter, you will have to pay for it, no way around it, you will be subjected by what you find on the game and what it is on the shop, which makes construction discouraging in a certain sense, and even more when the building system is not as robust as with other games, you can’t make a diagonal wall or build a circle, unless using some very well practiced exploits.

As a side note, there are utility items that you can also buy with microtransactions, like repair kits or experience boosts lunchboxes that last for an hour, which do fall in the category of pay to win, but you can absolutely do without those in the game, and I can say that while I have spent a lot of money on the game, I can calmly say I never paid for any paid to win items at all, and I never needed them.

Now, what I like most of the game is its world. The first game-play loop I mentioned and the third one we are going to discuss. The truth is that most Fallout world building ends up really depressing for me considering all the post-apocalyptic nature of it, but this game is slightly different in its presentation.

I found previous Fallout worlds not that visually appealing, but Fallout 76 has a beautiful map composed of green areas, foggy swamps, radioactive red plain areas, several trainyards, ghost towns, castles, white valleys that look like snow, and zones covered in ash where everything is dark and brown, it is a beautiful world, and it is fantastic to explore it and sight see.

While I understand the point of the public in saying not having NPCs simply didn’t allow for any illusions for roleplay with the story itself, I have to disagree that it made the game boring. I like the idea of surviving on your own, and the environmental storytelling is incrediblyy rewarding. People will call Fallout 76 creatively bankrupt but will never get the chance to learn about all the characters hidden in the terminals and holotapes of this world. There is Lewis, the mad scientist that loved Nuka Cola and created a nuclear alcoholic beverage to continue with his obsession to get Nuka Cola merchandise. There is Shannon Rivers, the former voice actress of a comic character that formed a sisterhood with abandoned girls to fight against the raiders, there is Lucy, the ghoul that was killed by her husband when ghouls just had started to appear and people were still afraid of them, there is Jesus Sunday, who couldn’t deal with the fact that his brother was in love with a woman, and there is Cheryl, who had to escape from the bunker of her husband as he lost his sanity. I can draw a direct comparison with Bioshock, Portal 2 or The Phantom Pain, games that also uses a character that can be heard only through prerecorded audio, and the difference in reception is abysmal. In Fallout 76 you have a world for yourself, and you have to explore to find the tapes and every story, but that's what makes everything rewarding, it is an open world game, and every moment you find is a treasure.

There are just an endless number of wonderful stories you find in the world and make you feel so many things, you feel sadness, because all of the people you are listening to are dead, but you feel at least some happiness, for being at least for a moment in a part of their lives, you feel their pain, and you feel what they had to go through when the world ended in a nuclear apocalypse, it hurts, but it inspires you to survive. There is a beautiful quest where you get a list of places an old grandad wanted to visit for his daughter in her honor, and you find the list on his corpse. You can build a camera and take a photo of every place they wanted to visit. It is really beautiful and soothing in a way.

Traveling is not as impressive, since you depend on fast travel which is not only immersion breaking but also very monotone, walking through the wasteland is not as interesting as using a hookshot in Just Cause 2 and 3, or take a silt strider in Morrowind, but you can get a jetpack which allows you to climb and glide and makes the world exploring a lot more fun, you will still depend of fast travel when you are going to an event or going to an incredibly long distance, but exploring by yourself is still very enjoyable.

Wastelanders and subsequent updates added human NPCs which were the answer to a popular criticism with the game, and while I feel these changes and updates break the world building and atmosphere of the game a little bit, I do not hate them, because you can also find interesting characters in them. There is Lou, the ghoul that keeps trying to kill himself because he is afraid to go feral, there is Polly, the friendly Assaultron that you have to rescue and get a body for, and that might be in a relationship with her human male friend, a character that did speak to me a lot, and there is Sofia, the astronaut that fell from deep sleep before the war and you have to help with. These human NPC quests do have a single purpose though, and is that they are mostly used to create enemies to kill and loot to get, so you will find them limited in a way, but they do serve the purpose of giving the players that like human interaction something to experience the quest with.

After level 25 you can change your special points as you please and reorganize any perks you have picked with, this comes with the side effect of making spell checks useless since you can just leave the interaction and get the points you need to pass a check, but it helps you get a better combat build, you can get a perk card every level, so even if you are at level 500, you will still have a reason to level up so you can get more perks for different builds, or scrap them to rank up your legendary perk cards.

In a way, I do not care about the side effect of making spell check useless, since while I consider the environmental story telling very rewarding, a lot of NPC quest stories are not very good or noteworthy, they tend to me more kitsch in this sense, and long time Fallout fans will only enjoy them in an ironic/self parodying type of way, and either way, it does not focus in the appeal of choice in storytelling, and it is absolutely not a classic Western RPG or CRPG.

I can't blame Fallout 76 for not being like Fallout 1 or 2, after change in several development teams, change in companies, change in gameplay, change in ownership, and 20 years of time. Franchises change just like people do, and a name is just a name, Fallout 76 might not be the Fallout game you are looking for, but it is a good game in its own way.

There is also the seasonal content, like any other multiplayer game, there are updates every certain time, like you can see with the scoreboard of each season, you can complete challenges every day and every week and that will give you a score that will unlock limited and rare items. While it does suck that you cannot get items from previous seasons on your own and that you have to grind experience leveling up to finish it, or at least play every single day to get enough points, it is a great excuse if you want to make of this your grind game, you can learn to maximize as much as possible your build to get that rare item that you want, or you can simply play the story on your own, and let it be after that since the world on itself is fantastic and the soundtrack is sad and cathartic on its own. I do think that since we are doing this with friends, the grind is fun and rewarding.

I heard people don't usually rate live service games properly, and that is also the case here. Massive multiplayer games are often akin to a social experience or a competition and putting them through the same lens as single player games or standalone art pieces is non necessarily appropriate. We as players are part of the content, the people you meet and the players you interact with are part of the content. Sure, you will not find a deep socialization experience, that is for sure, but I do like the simplicity of the interactions when you play in games. It's like making friends like back when we were kids, "You like trains? I also like trains! Let's play together!" or in this case it's like "You like melee combat? Nice me too! Here is a cool gaunlet I found! Wanna do an expedition together? Wanna do Earl? Here is a heavy gun with heavy DPS that will help him melt in no time!" Yes, with small silly pastimes like that, when you stop doing missions, when you stop playing together at school, you will end up stop talking with a lot of people, but from all of those people you can end up finding a few you stay in contact with, you will even find someone that can turn into your friend, that's the kind of simple things where socialization just happen can give to you. In the game you can go together in missions like daily operations or expeditions and having people to do it together gives the chance of make it differently every time, say something different every time or mess around in a new way in every new iteration, and that's what makes the grinding work. In this community interactions are usually positive, there is no lack of negative experiences, but you will always find that person with so many items that will give you a super rare plan you didn’t have, or you will have a reason to pick up and do a new mission so you can continue over and over, this is a give it or take it thing, love it, or hate it.

I would recommend it to play it sooner rather than later, though. Updates also seem to be slow lately with us getting very little new content, probably with the company focusing manpower on Starfield or slowly moving on from the game at all, which makes me a little sad, but with multiplayer games it is hard to determine what is really the cost of keeping servers alive.

What I like about Fallout 76 is the sum of its parts, while the world building was taken over by the human NPCs, the looter shooter has to be taken with a grindy mindset, and the building and crafting is behind paywalls, you will still find new things to do and you can change the activity that you are realizing if you get bored, if you don’t want to do events, you can go explore, if you don’t want to explore, you can build a new shelter or base. If I want fast gameplay I can do fast gameplay, if I want to slow down, I can slow down, and this is all contained in one beautiful world full of eye candy and it is not a lonely experience, it has that kind of endless content I want the most: people. Overall, it just hits a lot of the itches I look in games, but it is not just that, but it is also the fact that it is online.

At first I was dubious about online games, but this game has won me over and I wish a lot more games did this with their campaigns, the ability to play alone if you want, to let you do your own thing, but still being multiplayer enough that you can casually meet others whereas is in the wasteland or in an event, I have had beautiful interactions with others, people that have giving me aid, people we keep killing each other with because is fun, someone who gifted me a Halloween Witch Costume when they saw my Haunted House camp, people getting dizzy at seeing my camp at the top of a monorail wagon, it adds the best elements of casual building gameplay in games like Animal Crossing or Minecraft, but now you can meet each other casually in the game itself, how beautiful is that? Not to mention the world is not cartoonified or simplified in its graphics to make construction more doable or save resources in a portable console. How beautiful would it be if you could meet with others while doing your own quest in other games? There are MMOs, sure, but having 24 people at most in a server, means it is a lot more possible someone will find you and see your camp, and the world is not split in sections you have to go around, it is all one big world you can travel on your own, and that is beautiful. There aren't any games like Fallout 76 anywhere, even when so many companies keep pushing live service games, I feel the only one that has had a chance to gain me over, is Fallout 76, allowing me to speed up and down the gameplay as much as I want, and immersing me the most in a new world I am thrilled to explore, that is why right now I want to give it 5 stars. F76 in a way, its unique, it will give you a pure single player experience with the change of meeting with others, but still not forcing you to, it is the heaven for introverted people that want to make friends in a subtle way! No need to ask someone to add you and start co op the two of you together, alone, without knowing each other. The fact that there is only voice live is an obstacle the game has but it is well complemented with the fan and official discords when looking for groups. Not to mention that this game is really overstimulating with every activity and event and that is really appealing to someone with such attention span like mine. I feel overcharged and I feel great. It is casual, over stimulating, beautiful to explore, it is funny, and it is single player but just multiplayer enough, this game is my jam, it is my heaven and safe space.

The community is really nice, and I can say that of every bad interaction I have had, I have had at least 9 great interactions with others, I love this game because aside of being very over stimulating and massive, it is a perfect casual game to make friends with, there are no leaderboards when events end, you did what you could, and you had fun, and while I know that AI generated content will change how we look this type of endless content genre of games in the future, this game as 2023 absolutely succeeded in being that massive, seemingly endless game I could sink myself in, and escape from the world, without being entirely alone. With Fallout 76 I can submerge myself in the feeling of having experienced the world end, but still finding something beautiful to go on, and a reason to live.

I want to end quoting the holotape of Miguel Caldera, one of the survivor stories that you can find in the Flatwoods.

“Even when you think everything is over… it's… it's not. It goes on. I mean it's awful too, don't get me wrong. All the people dead and hurt. But, well, those are things beyond my control, so I'm making the best of it. So, for all you future people… just know that we lived through something… horrible. But we did it. Somehow, we're alive… And if you're hearing this, then well… I guess at least some of us made it. Right? So hey, chin up, kiddo! You'll be okay. Okay?”

9/10

I'm not playing again until they let me buy The Hills Are Alive, though.

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

Strip the Data, Salt the Misinfo: A Borderlands Fanbase PSA/Rant

TL;DR: The current Borderlands wiki sucks huge balls for anything after and including BL3, but it also sucks for other reasons and the best way to fix it would be just to nuke it and move on to Miraheze.

I am a huge Borderlands fan. It's my special interest, in fact. Everyone knows that. I'm quite invested in the community, though not as much as I would like to be, despite my constant attempts to garner attention in various places that are not named Tumblr. In fact, I am invested enough to frequent various sites focusing on this video game series.

And there is a major problem with one of the biggest sites dedicated to it:

The Wiki.

At first, it seems like a good place to get information regarding the series, both its gameplay and story. But you would be solely wrong.

While it does provide accurate information on the gameplay, guns, loot and boss attacks of every looter shooter entry, it is massively lacking on the story front. Especially after and during BL3.

Let's look at some examples.

This is Krieg's quote page. Not only is every single one of his BL2 quotes displayed, it's also got the audio files for all of them!

But the BL3 ones? It only transcribes the base game ECHO logs he talks in. No audio, and none of his many, many PKatFF lines.

In one of his videos, the youtuber ItzTermx compares Krieg's quote page and Fl4k's quote page in an attempt to showcase the superiority of BL2's dialogue. But in reality, Fl4k has significantly more quotes than Krieg, they are simply unlisted on the wiki. Where are they then, you may ask?

Fucking TvTropes of all places, not the main wiki.

I used the quote pages as an example, but this isn't the only case where this disparity is true. Check the wiki for yourself, and you'll see that every single BL2 and TPS quest, main or side, has a detailed transcript. What do the BL3 quests get?

This. A plain objective list.

And this is not even touching upon the incredibly incomplete - hell, MISSING Crew Challenge pages, and of course... the critical lack of lore/character information.

I will use a youtuber as an example here yet again.

This is EruptionFang's video on Wainwright Jakobs. EruptionFang is widely the most popular Borderlands lore youtuber, if not the only one that actually has a somewhat large following.

In this video, he openly says we don't know how he met Hammerlock. This is a blatant lie! We do know! An idle line in DLC 2 reveals that they met on a hunting expedition!

Of course, getting through idle lines is a slog, since you're likely to get repeats, so there must be an easier way to access this information.

Does the wiki say anything about it? No. But you know what does?

THE LOCALIZATION FILE. WHICH I DATAMINED MYSELF, BECAUSE THE WIKI IS SO INCOMPLETE.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BULLSHIT THAT IS? PEOPLE USE THIS WIKI AS A RESOURCE, AND SAID RESOURCE IS VERY INADEQUATE.

You might ask: "why don't you contribute yourself, then?"

You see, the Borderlands Wiki is well, a Fandom Wiki. The site that's known for being infested with ads and autoplay videos, which are 99% of the time completely irrelevant to whatever you're viewing. There's a reason I use Breezewiki.

Fandom is awful to use, and especially difficult to browse through. It's an accessibility issue, something you definitely don't want in a place meant to provide information. I am not willing to contribute to such a place.

You might ask, then, is there an alternative?

This is Miraheze. It's ad free, community run, and non-profit. It uses the same software as Wikipedia, and provides a similar, accessible look. If this community managed to move there (and toss a coin or two to Miraheze, they're accepting donations!), we could foster a significantly more accessible environment.

I hope y'all enjoyed reading this edition of me malding over something seemingly innocuous. Before anyone asks, yes, I allow sharing of this post to other websites. The Borderlands community deserves to be aware of this.

[spellscarred]

5 Favourite Characters Poll (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @lealdog + @astrangedoor 💛

Rules: make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite.

Tagging @dear-indies @imagine-eragons @oopsydaisyjohnson @svejarph @crimsonphoenix0

Edward Kenway

My man is equal parts charming and whiny, particularly in the first part, and what can I say? I like a little whiny cunt in a charming, competent man. I also like his character arc from opportunistic self-serving lil bitch to solid morals and thinking about others before his own gain.

Morrigan

She's a competent caster, does what she has to do to survive in a world that would rather see her dead, and she's funny to boot (in a kinda mean way lbr, but). I also really love her arc throughout the series, from resentful i-hate-you-and-i'll-let-you-know to abused daughter turned loving mother who genuinely cares for other people, but none above her son. Like talk about healing for your child and breaking the cycle of abuse.

G'raha Tia

Listen, he's my little boy and also my husband, okay? Meeting him over and over and over (basically) was honestly an emotional rollercoaster. He's also the character that made me giddy about hearing Jonathan Bailey in anything else, bc that's Raha 💛 For anyone who hasn't played FFXIV but still wants to, I'm not gonna spoil, but for anyone who has played past Endwalker, if you know you know. I love him.

Handsome Jack

Funny, shitty, and completely unhinged. He made Borderlands 2, and Borderlands honestly isn't interesting to me without Handsome Jack. What, you want me to shoot people and get loot without an unhinged asshole continuously taunting me in the most mind-boggling of ways? I can do that in any game. Any time he contacts you in BL2 is a delight and an absolute mindfuck that leaves you in tears for different reasons.

Lucien Lachance

I was thinking about who my fifth could be, and then I remembered Lucien. Look, I played Oblivion when I was like 14 or 15, and if I remember nothing about the game and the story, I'll still remember the Dark Brotherhood, specifically because of Lucien Lachance. That questline and that character made that game for me. It's why I was excited about the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim, only to be thoroughly disappointed (though the chance to be able to summon Lucien as a spooky follower was a little bit of a balm). He's been in my heart forever, and if I ever play Oblivion again, it'll be only and singularly for the Dark Brotherhood storyline.

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2009 | A Pivotal Year

2009 was the year I went to E3. It was one of the most exciting trips I've ever taken and with it, came a tiny sample of what it would have been like to work in the games industry professionally. The whole idea behind these lists was to fill a gap in my experience before and since I took this trip. 2009 was also a huge year for me personally as it was when I moved back to the Jackson-Metro area and switched careers to my current one (still not in the games industry). So much has happened both in and out of the industry, this post will be a fun snapshot to explore.

Remember, (I say like anyone is reading) this post will be written as if it were published in December of 2009, so all critiques will be from that perspective. LFG!

#10 - Left 4 Dead 2

The original Left 4 Dead defined a brand-new corner of co-op gaming and by no means is it old or boring, so the sheer existence of Left 4 Dead 2 is shocking. It tweaks and improves basically everything from the first game and gives us new survivors and new infected. Valve hit us with the surprise announcement of L4D2 at E3 this year and that surprise likely won't disappear any time soon.

#9 - The Beatles: Rock Band

It's Rock Band, but The Beatles. I kind of wish it was more than that, but having a beautiful tribute to the most celebrated band in history in one of my favorite games is hard to complain about.

#8 - Trine

What feels like a simple platform game is actually an intriguing physics puzzle box dripping with medieval charm. Trine takes familiar concepts and glues them together in a game that borders on the exact right amount of chaos for the genre. More than once my heroes accidentally sent a magic box careering off the screen as my little brain tried to cheese a jump well enough to hit a ledge. Trine earns it's wackiness and is a breath of fresh air because of it.

#7 - Halo 3: ODST

It's Halo 3, but Blade Runner. Ok that's a bit dismissive, but who knew the tried and true formula of Halo would graft so well onto a cyberpunk-esq world. ODST could've just been a pallet swap with Oribital Drop Shock Troopers taking center stage, but the changes were much more game-altering. Most importantly it is has a sleeker vibe than the previous 3 games. OSDT is cool, the way Blade Runner's dark and always raining aesthetic is cool. Will it age as well as the other Halo games, who knows, but today ODST is super dope.

#6 - Borderlands

Part irreverent joke, part Diablo-inspired loot-a-thon, part RPG, part first-person action, Borderlands blends so many different things so well, its hard to believe we haven't been getting games like this for years. Oh and did I mention it's class-based too? Borderlands is the entire games industry in a blender, and then cell-shaded. It's not without its fair share of jank, but there is enough meat on the bone to confidently say Borderlands is one of the best games of the year.

#5 - Shadow Complex

The Metroidvania genre is a storied niche with some of the most fiercely beloved games in it. However, publishers will tell you, while they play well and score high in reviews, they don't sell well. This means they aren't as prevalent as your FPSs or straightforward platformers. Shadow Complex mixes everything you love from the genre and brings it into the modern era with competent puzzles and action and the forever memorial foam gun. Will SC usher in a new generation of Metroidvanias? Who knows, but it definitely has defined what it means to be a modern one.

#4 - inFAMOUS

Sucker Punch is no stranger to great Sony first-party games. Sly Cooper was quite a dark horse of the PS2 generation. inFAMOUS is the studio graduating to the big leagues. Taking their knowledge of open-world design and grafting it onto what is essentially a superhero story, really makes this game pop. Not every open world will keep your attention long term, but inFAMOUS will gladly steal hours upon hours of time stringing together compelling story and non-story activities. I'm not a huge fan of Cole as a character, but the story built around him is more than adequet.

#3 - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum is the best example of a 3D Metroidvania since the Gamecube's Metroid Prime. The puzzle-box nature of getting around the Asylum grounds works on both a structural and narrative level. Detective vision is legitamately a revolutionary mechanic and the visercal feel of the combat, is surprisingly satisfying. All of this being in a licensed game is mindblowning. The odds say Batman Arkham Asylum should suck, but it might just have ushered in a new direction for licensed games.

#2 - Assassin's Creed II

When the first AC game came out it felt like the official beginning of the new console generation. There was a revolution in the way games were being made and AC's potential very much out weighed its execution. AC2 is the realization of all the previous game's ideas. Gone are most of the clunky assassination plots, blown open are the open world maps, Altiar is a much better character and Italy is a much better setting. AC2 isn't just the sequel, but a true 2.0 for a frachise that's just beginning to stretch its legs.

#1 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

So, here's where we are, video games are just movies now. Are we ok with that? It seems like we are, at least as long as the output is akin to Uncharted 2. Like Assassin's Creed 2, Drake's second outing is the realization of what Naughty Dog was trying the first time around. The story and action beats are as good as what you would find in the biggest budget summer blockbuster, and the characters are better. I've herd alot of chatter saying "Sony should make an Uncharted movie" and I say "nah, they already did." Dare I say Uncharted 2 is a perfect game? Maybe, but I will shout to the roof tops how perfect the already iconic train sequence is.

Noteable Omissions

Dragon Age Origins - RPGs and fantasy are not my thing, I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's probably great, but just not for me.

Demon's Souls - Nothing about Demon's Souls sounds appealing to me. A hyper hard Japanese developed fantasy action game that prioritizes frame animation over raw twitch timing? No thank you.

Bayonetta - I'm American, in America Bayonetta was released in 2010. Tune in next time to see if it makes the list.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Honestly, CoD:MW2 almost made the list. If this was top 11, you'd probably see it at the end of it.

Hmmm, I just noticed, there's no Nintendo on this list. Oh well, this was fun! catch you next time.

Cheers

[st-just]

An important Fake Gamer fact about my is that Borderlands 2 is probably the only First Person Shooter or random loot roulette game I've even voluntarily done multiple playthroughs of.

[chronotsr]

Pre-G1 Modules, part 6: Reflections

This isn't a full on post or anything, it really is just random thoughts. This blog has basically 3 goals, in no particular order:

Show off some weird interesting ideas from older modules. This is why the bullet-point sections exist.

Look at all the obscure modules no one's ever heard and don't get discussed so they can enjoy more awareness. This is why it's module to module and not lists of cool things I've found.

Look at how modules grew as an art-form. Their design, layout, styling, writing, et c. This is why it's in release order.

So I'm going to ramble about all 3 in turn.

1. Coolest ideas

So somehow the coolest idea I ran into in this roundup was keep on the borderlands ~in the desert~. The mental image is just stuck in my brain and if you're one of my fantasy age players, you've probably inhaled some spoilers accidentally now. It's gonna show up eventually.

I was also really fond of the really lateral use of animated objects in Tegel Manor, particularly the battlefield painting that spits arrows as the events on-canvas play out. It's very fun and very goofy and I regret the yearly Samhain one-shot being so far away. I will find an excuse to use that random magic statue table eventually.

Third place goes to the pet sea monster of the invincible overlord. It's just really stuck in my brain

2. Coolest Module You Haven't Heard Of

Oh that's easy. Tegel Manor. 100% Tegel Manor. That was easily the most fun I had writing this column so far, even as the pagecount sprawled and sprawled. I think the haunted house is the single best starting location for a new player, it's part of why I'm so ride or die for Ghosts of Saltmarsh (and I do specifically mean the 5e iteration, they did an excellent job realizing Saltmarsh as a location. It's a crying shame people hate because they expect pirates and get, not pirates).

Happily, I don't think the move is actually to just, buy modern Tegel Manor. In fact, a spiritual successor to Tegel Manor would be just what the doctor ordered.

3. The Growth of Module Design

I am telling on myself hard but my favorite part of watching this go on is to see the art of keying slowly evolve and standardize around the familiar model of today. We are far away from the, I know I will get crucified for this, frankly better keying of 5e. Or even the significantly improved keying of 4e. We are in crusty-ass 1970s keying, where if it was typed, it was professional. Honestly Temple of the Frog's keying is a shockingly good first attempt. The keying solution that Vampire Queen went for is, kind of novel in its own way. I kind of wish that this table-style keying had stuck around as a sort of summary page for quick reference, it's…honestly kind of convenient, especially for particularly hack and slashy campaigns.

Watching JG recover from their tailspin of excessive loot was really fascinating. I do keep in mind that weight was a big thing about loot recovery in early DND but what exactly was to stop a party from just going back in and looting the place over and over again, anyway? Sure the monsters could move around, the loot could move, but they still know the layout. I really feel like you have to simply not provide that much treasure, and I get the sense JG worked that out too.

Finally, I am just kind of happy to see the focus on creating dungeons, as in combat rectangles is already starting to be threatened as the status quo. Arneson obviously understood why this was bad, and you can see some designers working it out too. Holmes also had a very good grasp of pacing and dungeon layout that it would take others (including Gygax) a while to catch up to.

So anyway, see you at G1!

[l3rking]

Indie Game Recommendations from a Destiny Player for a Destiny Player

So between the AAA videogame industry being a nightmare and Bungie being on fire I thought it'd be nice to make some indie recommendations if you're trying to get that Destiny fix but feel like stepping away.

RoboQuest

RoboQuest is an FPS roguelike that is currently in Early Access but goes live with its 1.0 release on Nov. 7th. The gun feel and movement in Roboquest should be studied. It feels so good to play. The rougelike elements are pretty bog standard (pick a class, start a run, random items and weapon drops, on-the-go buildcrafting, meta progression via upgrades) and the artstyle, story, and music isn't groundbreaking. But it all ties in so well with the different classes, weapon variety, item vareity, and stellar gunplay that it just works. I've put in ~60 hours with the Early Access build and can't wait to jump into 1.0.

2. Deep Rock Galactic

Because OF COURSE I'm gonna bring up DRG. Everyone knows how it good it is. But if it's the camaraderie and teamwork that you enjoy from Destiny, I can't think of anything better. Every class plays distinctly from the others and meld together in such a way that solo play just can't even touch. The sheer variety of missions, modes, and modifiers has sucked hours away from my friends and I. It's still getting updates and content drops. And it's currently (10.31.23) on sale for $10 on Steam.

3. Deadlink

Another FPS roguelike. This one is moreso for the Doom fans. The movement is a little slower at first until you really get use the movement ability mechanics of the separate classes (grapple, blink, etc.). It reward weapon swapping. Like any other roguelike its loop centers around on the fly buildcrafting, random upgrade and items, and meta progression via upgrades and currency that can carry over into your next run. The music and aesthetic get a special mention. It oozes with style and polish. This one's a little harder to get into compared to RoboQuest but I still highly recommend it.

Honorable Mentions:

Borderlands (any of them)

I love the Borderlands games. I'm currently playing through 3 for the first time and having a great time. It's probably the closest to the Destiny formula as far as loot and gameplay loop goes. It's not an indie title so it gets downgraded to an honorable mention. Seriously, if you've never play one go for 2. I understand the writing is polarizing and the world building is kind of weak. But if you love it you can never be convinced otherwise.

2. Warframe

Warframe is such a unique game. It oozes style. But the economy and some recent dev decisions have driven a few people away. It's also HUGE. Trying to get into it now makes Destiny looks like a 4 hour CoD campaign. There are so many complex systems and currencies that have piled up after years and years of updates. It can feel like a slog but there's a real gem here. Honorable mention because if you're deciding to take it on you know what you're getting into.

3. FF14

Another obvious one. Way more MMO than either Destiny or Warframe. I, personally, am not a FF 14 player but if you're less of an FPS gamers and more into the MMO aspects of Destiny, I genuinely can't think of something better. They also have a very generous trial program so there's literally no harm in giving it a shot.

5. Witchfire

This is an Early Access title only available via the Epic Store so I can't give it a full recc. The devs have specifically said that they've modeled the gameplay straight off of Destiny. The movement, gunplay, and abilities are all very very D2. It feels phenomenal. The artstyle is also incredible. Like if Bungie made Bloodborne. It combines a lot of elements from a lot of different games and right now it feels pretty shallow. Just a couple of distinct areas and weapons/abilities that you choose from before embarking on an expedition. The only thing you bring back after a successful run (which you can end at anytime by finding a portal on the map or beating the area boss) is currency akin to Dark Souls' soul system. You lose them on death but you can reclaim them by visiting your deathspot in the next run. Use them back at your base for meta progression such as leveling stats or crafting new items. Really looking forward to a full release in the future.