Borderlands 2 is a MASSIVE potato

[Jaesun]

HL is, despite it's raw form and age, still quintessentially a masterpiece of FPS design.

[citation needed]

Have you actually played it?

 

[JrK]

Also JrK you could've had better mousing in Borderlands 1 as well, you just needed the fan-made "Borderlands config tool" or whatever it was called. Let you adjust FOV (Since added to BL2), fine tune the graphics (Mostly added to BL2), and disable the horrible mouse smoothing (Seemingly not even in BL2 or disabled by default). Only thing that program did that BL2 didn't was let me disable the black outlines. Could probably disable that if I wanted to dig around in ini files but I've been too lazy to do so since it's mostly just a minor taste issue for me. I thought the original looked a bit better and cleaner without 'em.

I used that thing and disabled mouse smoothing, still feel like there is something better about bl2, it feels more 'analog'. Maybe I'm fooling myself because the gunplay just feels better. The FOV hack sucked because it 'reset' everytime you started running or drove a car, jumping the screen around constantly zooming. That was uncomfortable.

About overheating: some stock coolers are just shit and you get dust clogged in there in no time. It isn't that expensive to invest in a higher quality heatsink and some thermal paste. I have this fist-size rack with ditto fans but you don't need to go that far. A good dustblasting will probably help anyway.

In my experience the black outlines did also hinder performance, so if you can disable those you can squeeze out some extra fps.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Have you actually played it?

yes, when it was out, but the only memorable thing about it is that i vaguely recall it being too scripted for my taste.
in fact, now that i think about it, wasn't half-life the game that started the whole cinematic shooter bullshit?

 

[ohWOW]

The only things I remember from Boredomlands are op sniper rifles and that fucking constant respawn.

 

[MicoSelva]

level scaled damage

Good thing I checked The Codex before getting this game. This will save me a lot of time and money.

 

[Gord]

Have you actually played it?

yes, when it was out, but the only memorable thing about it is that i vaguely recall it being too scripted for my taste.
in fact, now that i think about it, wasn't half-life the game that started the whole cinematic shooter bullshit?

Now now, don't get carried away there.
Contrary to the average modern-day cover shooter we get today, HL did actually ask some skills and brains from the player from time to time, and it didn't try to ape Michael-Bay-movies.
Plus, it did revive a stagnant genre with a very much needed bunch of new ideas (something that would probably help today, too).

 

[SuicideBunny]

i'm not saying it's bad, but i do think it is directly responsible for the trend to more and more scripted in-game events, much like diablo wasn't a bad action-rpg, but caused a lot of decline in the genre.

 

[Average Manatee]

i'm not saying it's bad, but i do think it is directly responsible for the trend to more and more scripted in-game events, much like diablo wasn't a bad action-rpg, but caused a lot of decline in the genre.

You can't blame a good game because people who made bad games copied stuff from them and still made bad games. Any time you see something really good there will be dozens of horrible imitations.

 

[Brinko]

http://beefjack.com/news/resistance-3-artist-disappointed-at-borderlands-2-box-art-similarities/

The UK artist Olly Moss – most well-known in video game circles for his haunting box art and promo campaign paintings for Resistance 3 – has admitted he’s somewhat taken aback by similarities in the artwork for Borderlands 2 with one of his most well-known pieces of art.
This is the image, as first brought to Moss’ attention by Twitter user Miles Joliffe:

Moss reacted by tweeting “I’m a huge Gearbox fan so I was really disappointed to see this image inside the Borderlands 2 box.”
The reason he’s disappointed becomes clearer when you head over to this page on Moss’ site which shows his original artwork based on The Empire Strikes Back.
Initially Moss was “Not angry, just disappointed. One of my favourite developers. Would have jumped at the opportunity to work with them. Oh well.” and in further tweets noted his surprise and that it “just feels weird coming from such a great dev.”
However Moss then pointed out that “they actually lifted elements straight out of my thing, which I hadn’t noticed…” and posted the following image for comparison:

Moss’ biggest frustration at the rather blatant “homage” to his original work was that “if they’d called I would have just made them something new.”

Oops.

 

[Metro]

Eh, it's vaguely similar. Pretty sure I've seen that style of foreground/borderline/shadow imaging before in many many pieces of art, commercial or otherwise.

 

[Average Manatee]

Picked up a copy from a 4-pack friends bought. Very positive impressions so far (on that note I owe someone $40).

* Level-scaled damage seems significantly lessened. Where enemies there were 4 or 5 levels higher in BL1 would deal something like 5x as much damage and soak up 5x as many bullets, in BL2 it seems more like 2x/1.5x. Much more palatable. No more infinite bullet sponge enemies that require a minute of straight headshots while you go down in 2s while out of cover, at least as long as you aren't severely outleveled. It's still not perfect for multiplayer but at least things don't go to shit just because one player spent 30 mins playing on their own and is now 2 levels above everyone else.

* Item variety is a lot better. You do seem to get less weapons overall and I think this adds a lot to the game. Where in BL1 you wouldn't even look at equipment that wasn't of a very high rarity, in BL2 I've been picking up whites and using them. I'm also seeming to hold onto weapons a lot longer rather than switching them out every 10 mins because I've found something 5% better, which I like. All manufacturers having noticeable quirks is also neat, as opposed to the simple stat bonuses that most weapons in BL1 had. Chucking Tediore weapons is awesome, whoever thought up that idea should have his salary doubled.

* Character diversity is better. A lot of this is due to the fact that you have more incentive to carry different types of weapons. One thing that was lame about BL1 was that each class was fairly tightly coupled to certain gun classes thanks to skills and proficiencies. Proficiencies are out and skills seem a lot better about being universally useful. Skills also seem better at providing character uniqueness early on rather than simply +damage or +shields buffs for the first few levels.

* Badass system is really nice. Encourages you to switch out your weapons, do silly things, and explore areas. The bonuses you get are just small enough that you don't need to feel like grinding them but will let them come naturally as you play the game in different ways.

* Writing is really good. It's entertaining and makes me want to do silly fetch quests for characters because I know listening the the radio chatter will be great. Handsome Jack makes the "enemy pops in to taunt you ever mission" joke and just keeps going with it into delightful absurdity. And that quest that just started changing the name of bullymongs for the lulz was pretty cool, the kind of personal touch to a small part of the game that lets you know that someone really cared about making something silly happen. It's astonishing that this studio put out the travesty that is Duke Nukem Forever when Borderlands 2 has exactly the kind of humor I would have been expecting.

Not worth the full $60 price point IMO but higher than the $15 I stated earlier. I'm comfortable with my $40.

 

[aris]

Agree with pretty much everything average manatee said. I would add that it has some really outstanding voice acting too, which really makes many of the jokes. I remember particularly as I walked into a camp, and tiny tina taunted with something like "<insert bullshit name here> is coming to get'yall!", whereupon one of the bandits yelled "who the hell is <said bullshit name>??". Nothing funny about that when it is written, but the delivery and the comic timing was awesome, and cracked me up like hell! :D

By the way, is it just me, or are extremely few playing this game publicly? I've been having my game open for the entire time, and nobody has yet joined.

Note that gearbox didn't make duke nukem though, they merely finished it. When it was scrapped, it was about 95% done, from what I understand.

 

[HanoverF]

Eh, it's vaguely similar. Pretty sure I've seen that style of foreground/borderline/shadow imaging before in many many pieces of art, commercial or otherwise.

Except the clouds are pretty much copy pasted. Looks like he forgot to remove a layer or something cause it doesn't even add to the composition.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Blasted the dust out of my machine, it was a horror show. Didn't make a MASSIVE difference, but my half-assed testing before cleaning the case out showed the CPU getting up to 80C and my half-assed testing after cleaning the case showed 77-78C, so it made a slight difference. As long as it's cool enough that it doesn't turn itself off while I'm playing I'm happy.

 

[Psquit]

its better than diablo 3, thats good in my book. (cant believe i pay 50 for that game ughhh fuck blizzard money grabbing jews)

 

[Tycn]

Blasted the dust out of my machine, it was a horror show. Didn't make a MASSIVE difference, but my half-assed testing before cleaning the case out showed the CPU getting up to 80C and my half-assed testing after cleaning the case showed 77-78C, so it made a slight difference. As long as it's cool enough that it doesn't turn itself off while I'm playing I'm happy.

80C sounds way too high, what CPU and heatsink do you have?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Core 2 Duo E6850 (3ghz dual core) and the stock heatsink and fan.

Edit: For anyone so inclined, CDkeyshere is selling Borderlands 2 at $26 a pop. Region free so it should just activate and work on Steam with no issues. I've ordered from 'em before and they're trustworthy, only iffy thing would be if the publisher suddenly decides to change it.
Well recommended at that price. Feeling pretty decent with the $40 I blew on the game.

http://cdkeyshere.com/borderlands-2-cd-key.html

 

[JrK]

Eh, it's vaguely similar. Pretty sure I've seen that style of foreground/borderline/shadow imaging before in many many pieces of art, commercial or otherwise.

The zig-zag line seems ctrl+c'd.

 

[Tycn]

http://www.cdkeyport.com/borderlands-2-cd-key.html

20 bucks here.

I'm surprised you're still on socket 775 MHC, seeing as you're quite fond of the new shit.

 

[Humppaleka]

http://www.cdkeyport.com/borderlands-2-cd-key.html

20 bucks here.

I'm surprised you're still on socket 775 MHC, seeing as you're quite fond of the new shit.

I just have to ask opinions before I order anything from there, seems too good to be true.

 

[Tycn]

Haven't used it but people are confirming that it works here.

 

[aris]

high phsyx
radeon

Even though FPS was smooth, I would occasionally get freezes lasting everything between half a second to 3 seconds before the game resumed. After setting physx to low, the problems seems to be resolved. Kind of annoying, I'm going to try medium later, and see if I can play without hiccups.

Game still looks amazing, even though it seems to run on the same engine, they have made a lot of small technical and artistic touches that really are greater than the sum of its parts. Borderlands 2 is clearly completely superior visually to borderlands 1.

By the way, do you know what the season pass entails? I'm tempted to get it, if it can save me money from buying the DLCS one by one.

 

[sea]

Haven't used it but people are confirming that it works here.

Doesn't Valve go after key-selling sites like that and disable the keys users bought, because usually they are stolen etc.? Just wondering if you could end up with a game that doesn't work in a few weeks.

 

[Bahamut]

physix in this game makes a good difference, i set it to CPU and it worked better than on my gpu (9800gtx), it works fine for some time until the ammout of physix stuff gets high (it doesent decay, so its just keeps piling), but damn thing looks better than all those dx10 shit peeps hype about, there was that first miniboss on begining with big canon it really looked awesome how scraps where flying on the sun, casting shadows, it looked really good.

Really they should optimise it better (physix stuff duration etc)

As for the game itself, before playing it, i dusted my old old b1 save and rushed it, then launched b2, i was getting bored after 2h of play. Its more or less same shit really,

 

[Tycn]

Doesn't Valve go after key-selling sites like that and disable the keys users bought, because usually they are stolen etc.? Just wondering if you could end up with a game that doesn't work in a few weeks.

Possible but highly unlikely. Most key sites send you a photo of the box to show that it's linked to a physical product. I'm sure there's a clause somewhere that enables them to remove games for whatever reason but I can't think of a credible instance of games from key sellers being disabled, and Steam is generally quite fair with discretionary matters so it's not something I would worry about. This coming from someone with a Steam account of not insubstantial value.