Borderlands

Firstly, as I mentioned, this is no fallout 3. In fact, the game it reminds me of most is Diablo 2, but with guns and in 3D, and with a postapocalyptic feel to it. The other game that was similar was Hellsgate, but that was a dismal failure, so the less said about that...

Thing is, despite the very simple character development, the diablo-style weapons (even with colout-coded names for the better ones), the wandering around picking up side quests and so on, this game actually works. From the outset, the cartoon-style graphics of the intro (with all the different characteers sat on a beat up old bus, driving across some desert) you know this game doesn't take itself too seriously. The cartoon effect continues into the game, it's very odd and feels like walking around an old warner bros. cartoon, in clearly rendered 3d. Odd, but at least it's original, and I actually like the look.

There are also lots nice little touches. Like the little robot you meet (claptrap) that looks like it's randomly stabbing at the keypad to open the gate, then bumps it's head on the way through.

Finally, unlike many of the games that have been released recently, I installed this with no errors or issues, didn't download any patches, and have not seen a single bug yet (other than one instance of the AI not working well).

I haven't tried the (cooperative) multiplayer yet, but a friend who has assures me it is also well implemented, whether across LAN or using split-screen.

In fact, the only real criticism I had, was that the vehicle controls took a bit of getting used to. Instead of using the keys to steer, you use keys for accelerate/decelerate, and whatever way the camera is pointing, the vehicle will try to steer to point that way. A friend with the PS3 version said he found the dune-buggies odd to control there too, so it's not just that it's a console port.

So, if you are looking for some lighthearted fun, fed up of buggy games that crash and lock up, you just want to blow holes in alien dog-like critters and bandits while waiting for ME2, or just need a break from Dragon Rising, then you could do a lot worse than this. Even the intro made me laugh.

It's fun for a while, but I became bored after completing it and had no desire to play through again. Levelling up in the game makes no sense, since all enemies level up too at the same rate. So relatively you're always doing the same amount of damage, meaning finding better weapons and gaining levels is ultimately a waste of time. Also there are thousands of different guns lying around but the vast majority will be inferior to what you already have, so you end up making endless trips to the shop to trade. It all becomes a bit of a grind after a while. There's zero strategy- just find the biggest gun you can and shoot everyone in the face. The role-playing aspect of choosing different upgrade paths doesn't appear to matter greatly.

The missions are repetitive- go to x and kill y, or find z objects. Lots of running around across large uninventive maps- all desert & rock. The stupid claptrap robot becomes annoying very quickly with its endless nagging about side missions. The boss battles are trivially easy - very often you can just hide behind a rock to reload and they won't touch you- zero pressure. Or some I just ran and found they didn't want to leave the edge of their territory, or just got stuck somehow, so I could retreat further and pick them off easily with sniper rifle.
The game seems unfinished in some ways, like the designers ran out of money or lost interest half way through. Early on you get some cut scenes between missions, but they soon give up and you're left with text messages appearing on notice boards, like some role-playing game from the 80s. Also you can't really interact with ingame characters in any meaningful way. It's an empty, dead world - quite depressing. The ending is also a real letdown.

Having said all that, it amused me for a time and some of the weapons are excellent, so I would say give it a go but buy it cheap!

There have been excellent FPS/TPS games with a comic-book aesthetic, XIII and Armed & Dangerous spring to mind. Unfortunately BORDERLANDS is not one of them. There have been excellent RPG/FPS hybrids, like Fallout 3 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. BORDERLANDS is not one of them either. And, this is not the real problem. The real problem with BORDERLANDS is that it does not even know what it is...trying to be!

The graphics are color-book cartoonish. They did stay inside the lines but they get no brownie points for the end result. Unique designs and creative explosions are nowhere to be found; instead, the environments look like they were designed with a cookie cutter. Loose focus for a moment and you might find yourself hallucinating of having entered a violent PIXAR cartoon - complete with a Wall-e lookalike. One without a real story that is.

For a game that pretends to be an RPG it makes no real difference what "class" you choose to be (the hunter, the siren, the soldier, or the berserker), the "special abilities" fail to offer distinctive flavors. Leveling up is just window-dressing, as the enemies not only they respawn but they seem to match your level. And, on top of that, the quests are really boring (I had not been so bored with an RPG ever since that pathetic sequel to a great game, Dungeon Siege II).

Speaking of DSII, remember how paying to have your weapons enchanted was useless because the items you could buy outright were far superior? Guess what, the quest rewards are far better than anything you can find. Sure, there are different weapons galore but quantity of weapons could never outweigh a couple of well-thought out weapons.

Finally, could someone please explain to me since when do CPUs need...drivers - and what is this stupidly packaged game doing installing an AMD DRIVER on my INTEL i7 PC? And it stays behind, one has to uninstall it after completely removing the game. Honestly!

Now, let's talk DRM. Again, 2K GAMES insists on special, custom-made versions of SecuROM. Using SecuROM as a disc-check is my red line. I can accept it as a barely palatable solution. BORDERLANDS is supposed to do only that but it clearly cannot shake its RootKit ...pedigree.
There have been reports from gamers who managed to buy the game before the official release date and could not activate the game before that. That's right BORDERLANDS requires OnLine ACTIVATION (one can install offline ONLY after downloading and installing a third party LICENSE driver). So much for a simple disc-check...

Bioshock was a good game ruined by its overzealous DRM scheme. In the end its publisher smelled the over-brewed coffee and had the Installation Limits (but not the Activation requirement) removed. At the time of its release BIOSHOCK was good but not good enough to be worth its trouble.

Well, BORDERLANDS is not even good.