All the sausage rolls are gone and the attractive people have paired up on the dancefloor; All that remains now are the fatties, the ugo’s and a tray full of tuna sandwiches… on brown bread.
Touted by the developers as a ‘funner’ alternative to Fallout 3, Borderlands was fairly well hyped, and received favourable reviews.
I really like both games, Fallout 3 for it’s storytelling and fictional world, borderlands for its mindless violence and co-op.
But upon completing Borderlands I realised that Fallout 3 wipes the floor with it in almost every respect.
Now although both games require you to run around the respective game worlds, each game has some quick-travel features. Fallout 3 lets you warp to any previously discovered waypoint on the map as long as there are no enemies nearby and Borderlands has cars and warp points. The addition of cars is nice but the physics on them is ropey at best, poor collision detection, the handling isn’t great and they just don’t feel as fun to drive as they should. Also the warping isn’t very well thought out, some locations have more than one warp-point but it’s hard to remember which one is closer to where you need to get to. Fallout 3 shows you on the map where you actually need to go (rather than where the transition zone to the next area is) and lets you warp to the nearest waypoint. A much better, more intuitive system.
On the subject of transition zones, Fallout 3 seems like one large play area. The only times you have to sit through loading screens are when you enter a town area or dungeon. Borderlands doesn’t have one contiguous overworld, it’s split into areas connected by what are essentially big warp pipes. It makes the game world seem a lot less immersive.
The ‘gazillions’ of weapons in Borderlands was a massive exaggeration. It seems like there’s a lot but in reality there’s only the elemental/levelled versions of each of the weapon types. Fallout 3 has less weapons overall but they’re a lot more varied and are a bit more satisfying to use thanks to the VATS targeting system. Although, getting headshots with the revolvers in Borderlands is a lot of fun.
The main issue I have with Borderlands is how it handles the story. i.e. it doesn’t. A lot of it is told via audio recordings that you collect in various missions. But I found myself not listening to them most of the time while I made my way to the next one or I would get distracted by enemies. I got the gist of the plot but there’s absolutely nothing to help the player engage with or be interested in the story. And the arbitrary way the bulletin boards dole out missions isn’t that fun, you start to think “why should I do these missions for some random person that I never see?” and what’s worse is getting missions from the actual non-playable characters, the missions are only displayed as text that I never read. You see “kill so-and-so” and close the mission window and go and kill them. The NPC’s just seem so static, you’ll see them stood around but they’ll only say one line to you unless they have a mission and it pops up with the block of text.
Fallout 3 always kept me engrossed in the story, perhaps it was because it used scripted sequences more and showed your avatar as a baby and child. Perhaps it’s the better interaction with the NPC’s; actual voice-acted dialogue with a good choice of dialogue trees. Perhaps it was just better. The characters were a lot more thoroughly developed and I actually cared if some of them lived or died. The voice acting definitely keeps you more involved than textboxes, and when you enter a conversation the camera view changes and you can’t move till you’ve ended the conversation which, while inconvenient some of the time, means you actually pay attention to what’s going on.
Most of all, it was the ending to Borderlands that disappointed me. I was fighting my way through what I assumed was near the end then all of a sudden there was a really short cutscene (bearing in mind there hadn’t been a cutscene since the beginning of the game) and an ensuing boss battle. I Killed the boss far too easily, there was none of the ARGHAHRA FINAL BOSS fear that I usually have in a game, it wasn’t even as nerve-wracking as some of the earlier bosses in the game.
Perhaps it was because I hadn’t followed the story properly but the final boss seemed to come from nowhere and was a massive anticlimax, literally. You’re sat there getting hot and heavy with some armoured soldiers and aliens then all of a sudden you’re at the final leg. But the game can’t take the pace and blows its pixellated load all over the place.
It just sits there; pants round ankles, covered in cum, cock rapidly diminishing. The feelings of hopefulness and exhilaration now replaced with disappointment and regret.
Another cocktease of a cutscene plays and you’re rewarded with one tiny extraneous dribble of a mission that requires you to take an item to someone AND THAT’S IT. Game Over man, game over. Nothing left to do but play it again. CBA TBH TTYL
SO YEAH, overall I much prefer Fallout 3. That’s not to say Borderlands is a bad game, it’s just not as great as it could have easily been. I’ll assume some of its shortcomings were because it was a new title and perhaps wasn’t afforded as big a budget as Fallout 3, (the follow-up to Bethesda’s massively successful Oblivion and the 3rd in a well established franchise)
“We have much more freedom than she has and I don’t see the need for a major label unless you want instant commercial success and go straight to No.1 with absolute drivel, like Cheryl Cole,” Purvey insisted.
“I don’t mind pop music but her record was rubbish. Pop has its place but that single was pathetic.
“The only reason she got to No.1 was because she is on The X Factor every Saturday and Sunday.
Everyone knows that Cheryl Cole is shit and that the major labels are evil, horrific, money-hungry corporations. Nobody cares about the charts any more, it’s just filled with commercial shit like X-Factor contestants and N-Dubz.
How do “major” labels get so big if they’re not needed? They throw money at artists to make commercially accessible songs and videos; whether they’re new acts or one’s that have grown in popularity. Independent labels don’t have the resources to support massive worldwide marketing campaigns and extravagant tours that pop musicians usually have.
You’re usually not going to sign straight to a big label unless your sound like other tried-and-tested musicians. If you’re actually a credible/talented musician then of course you’re going to need the freedom independent labels can give you because they’re more specialised and don’t need to rake in as much money. Bands that are unique obviously won’t be picked up by major labels because they appeal to the (more intelligent?) minority of people. Maybe some bands are content with getting nowhere with absolute drivel, some people like to be able to afford food though.
It looks like they’re just trying to pad-out a shit interview with a shit band by asking them shit questions. If the band were worth writing about then they wouldn’t need to fill the interview with tired old “music industry is shit” statements. It’s just as bad as the record labels; cashing in on the popularity of The X-Factor.
Purvey is the latest rock frontman to attack the TV show’s dominance of the pop scene but he denies he is anti-pop.
He said: “The Cheryl Cole song is absolute rubbish. It sounds like she recorded it in her bedroom on her knees.
“But I do like pop. It has its place. Beyonce can dance and sing. Cheryl Cole can do neither. Beyonce is my favourite pop artist.”
I will let this video do the talking for this part:
The rest of the article mentions that The Law are performing at the Homecoming Live concert at the weekend and links to the fantastic acoustic performance above. A few quotes about other acts performing at the event and the ticket sales phone number.
It seems like it’s just an advert masquerading as an interview disguised as a pile of shit.
Looking at some of their music videos, they’re not an entirely terrible band. They’re just entirely generic and bland.
The only thing worse than an attention whore is a hypocritical attention whore.
Why does the media always have to blame the actions of mentalist kids on videogames all the bloody time!
Recently in France, police foiled an attempted shooting spree in a school when the a boy’s parents reported his suspicious behaviour (and their missing rifle).
Bastien was said by friends to have been devoted to World of Warcraft, the hugely popular online game in which the player takes the role of a fantasy warrior from the Middle Ages. Christian Sadowski, the Mayor of Allonne, said that he knew the family well and that the boy was a fan of computer games. “Many young people end up finding it difficult to tell the difference between dream and reality,” he told The Times.
This was taken from an article on The Times’ website with the headline:
It describes the game as being set in the middle-ages, apart from being pretty wrong, they don’t seem to grasp the fact that there weren’t any rifles in the middle-ages. If the boy had marched into school with a suit of armour, broad sword and spell book then I might be more inclined to believe that WoW was what made him want to kill all his teachers.
Obviously the writers didn’t want to bog down the reader with any boring facts or foundation for these accusations so left them out completely. Well done
‘Boy Urinates; Murders 16′
Of course it’s not his parents’ fault. Oh heavens no. It’s not their fault that they’re didn’t take proper precautions to secure their rifle and ammunition or that they were irresponsible enough to let their 13 year old son play games “up to one or two in the morning”. No, that’s not it at all. And the article rightfully skipped over these facts.
‘Pjamas Blamed For Tragic Shooting
So this is more sensationalist journalism with completely unfounded and incorrect facts and attention grabbing, meaningless headlines to add to the pile. Shame.
‘”Coco” Boy Kills parents: Cereal Withdrawn From Shelves’
This is probably the subject that pisses me off the most. Media outlets that just blindly blame things on video games because they can’t blame TV or Rock & Roll for them any more. When our generation grows up and everyone realises that games have shit-all to do with crazy peoples’ desire to stab and shoot others what will jornalists blame then? Fridges? Pavements? Socks? We all use them, their must be some sort of causal link between them and murders.
If somehow I become a journalist, I’m going to write articles on recent murders and blame them on evil spores from Mars.
They coast along, easy job to the next. Maybe they go to college maybe they drop-out. Perhaps their parent’s give them everything they want over what they need, perhaps they don’t
But for whatever reason, the blocks of their lives just fall into place.
They get opportunities seemingly from nowhere, while others work and work and get nowhere.
They have the money and the free time to enjoy life while others have to strive and toil just to scrape by.
They may claim that they make these opportunities for themselves, when from the outside, these opportunities seem to be afforded to them by happenstance and luck.
I guess I’m just jealous.
I’ll keep trying regardless. I know what I want to do with my life. That’s all that matters.
For those of us who have to keep working at it; it’s fine. Our time will come. And when it does…
Party at my place.
I never was very good at Tetris. But I’ll get better with a bit of practice.
The sooner the next 4 weeks are over with the better.
I have more work this week than I have in the whole 3 years of University.
1500 word report for Thursday, 5000+ word report for Friday, Presentation next Tuesday, Programming coursework for the 17th. Exam on the 26th.
Thank god I only have one exam this semester. Degree Project though. Scary shit.
And I’ve not even started considering what to do for my honours year project.
And I need to find a job.
And a flat.
And I need to make sure the party for myself and GC is organised.
The cunt in the flat below me continues to play shit music at all hours and smoke weed with his mate from across the way. I want them to go away. Or at least share the weed so maybe it’s more bearable.
I realise that taking the time to write 200-odd words on this is eating into report writing time. But alas, tonight, the beta of Battlefield Heroes has been demanding the majority of my time. It’s quite fun. The baddies seem to win all the time though.
Seriously, how do they afford so much weed.
But then….
Turn 21, Center Parcs, new flat away from cunts, summer, earning money, Spain.
wtf, there’s literally clouds of marijuana smoke billowing out from his window.
RT @scottishgames: Make games? Based near Glasgow? Want to find some way to fund your ideas? Free funding session http://bit.ly/asOA23 ... >>12 hours ago
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