Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty

Gearbox Software has been crafty as all get out with its DLC.  Mechromancer was released a week early with no warning.  The first full DLC Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty was released Tuesday.  I have to admit, I kind of love being caught off guard by surprise DLC - especially when the content is so damn strong.

I jumped into Scarlett at level 21 and over the course of two evenings bopped up to 25.  I'm really quite pleased with the new areas and all they hold.  Like the rest of B2, there's just more of more.  New enemies (a few of which I actively hate - not because of their models or AI but because of how gnarly they are), new challenges, new characters, and - of course - new guns.  One pistol in particular is a beast.  It's not a game breaker but it definitely dishes out the hurt.  I've also developed a fondness for a particular shotgun (though I've been saving most of the good ones I find for my fellow Vault Hunter Amazonbutterfly) which is just a beast when going up against Hyperion bots.

There are a number of new areas I'm particularly fond of - one is more claustrophobic than Lynchwood though it features a multi-tiered playing field (so does Lynchwood but this section is closed in and there's not as much wiggle room in combat).  A refinery section makes for some intense firefights - though I have to admit I use one of my standard tactics of: sprint into the room, spawn everything, sprint back to a bottle neck, and then shoot the fuckin bejeebus out of anything coming into the bottleneck.  I prefer urban/industrial levels in games because they tend to suit my preferred style of play (stealth/sniper combined with fast paced constant movement).  In open areas I tend to get mobbed and pulled down by weight of numbers (more accurately I end up running like hell and hucking AoE (Area of Effect) grenades in my wake.

Scarlett's story is tailor made for loot hounds and treasure junkies.  Basically, there's a shit ton of treasure out there, go find it.  The treasure hunting side missions are solid and enjoyable, though there were one or two moments where I couldn't find the objective and said some very bad words and made my angry thinking face (it's not pretty, I think my lips turn white and my eyes get this Treasure of the Sierra Madre glint).  The loot is pretty fuckin sweet too, as well it should be considering how hard earned some it was.

Gearbox has also included some top-tier level 50 combat (which I am woefully under-powered to tangle with at this point) with an added incentive of the big bads dropping a unique currency which in turn you can buy...I dunno probably something wicked awesome.  It's also suggested in game that these big bads aren't necessarily easy to take down solo.

I am very, very pleased by this first campaign expansion.  Bethesda and Bioware could learn a lot from Gearbox.

A note (or several) on the level 26 Mechromancer:

All of my points are currently in the "Best Friends Forever" tree.  At 31 I'll pick up the top tier skill of "Sharing  is Caring" which grants Deathtrap (the robot) the same shield as Gaige.  Considering some of the shields I have, I'm kind of stoked.  At first I thought this would be overpowered and with a spike shield it certainly will be but I'm wondering what kind of tactical changes I'll have to make.  I've been sitting on choice electrical damage gear in anticipation of building the "Little Big Trouble" tree.  I'm interested in how that'll work considering most of the time I rely on either fire or corrosion.

I've changed my gaming style with this class.  Oddly enough, probably thanks to the large bonuses I accrued through completing challenges, I've become more aggressive.  I'm not ready for Gunzerker but I've become far less static in my solo play style.  What could conceivably be a very boring class to play has turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun.  The Mechromancer is suited for and allows for a faster style of play than I used with the Commando.  It's not because she's squishier and needs to Legolas out the way of danger, she just plays different.  For example, with the Commando I tend to play a defensive/ranged gambit, using a turret in the way I would use a Bishop (supported by Knight).  With Mechromancer it's more of a Queen/Rook combo (with robot as Queen and Gaige as Rook).  With a full complement of grenades (I finally leveled up enough to have access to my favorites I was using with Commando - Homing Slag Cloud Transfusion x6) and a slew of elemental weapons (a particular favorite is a Dahl assault rifle that carried me through my first play through) I can dish out some serious support fire while Deathtrap is getting stuck in.

I've noticed one good thing about Deathtrap and one bad.  The good is, if my health is full, health bonuses from Transfusion grenades go to him.  That's pretty cool.  The bad is that sometimes Deathtrap is fucktarded.  There have been quite a few times I've been ass deep in combat and numbnuts acts like a Sim refusing to sit at the dinner table (thus earning Deathbot the nickname "Dumbfuck").  90% of the time Deathbot is a Cuisinart of destruction, "snikity-snak Wolverine berserker style" but then - particularly when confronted by a high level enemy - 10% of the time he must be listening to Muzak "Girl From Ipanema".  Deathbot is much better suited for dealing with swarms than individual big bads.  Which I guess is cool, unless I'm crawling around desperately plinking at a boss trying to get a Second Wind.

When all is said and done though, I love Dumbfuck.   Not as much as I love my Maliwan shotgun but close enough.

Borderlands (2009) The Adventure Continues

Back in October 09 I did a first impressions review of Gearbox Software's Borderlands.  It's been almost two years since my last post about the game and I hadn't picked up the final two DLC installments; Claptrap's New Robot Revolution (09/10) and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (02/10).  I recently picked the game up again a little over a week ago from a friend who had it on indefinite loan.  I went over to his place for Christmas cooking and gaming and after a few hours of Portal 2 co-op madness we co-op'd Borderlands.  I had forgotten how much I loved this game and what a joyous mayhem it was to play it co-op.  The difficulty level goes up exponentially the more players you have (up to four) and the gear gets better as well.  I'm also a huge fan of the fact that enemies are based on the highest member of the group so you can't easily power level new characters with your hulking level 50+ character.  It has been a little difficult trying to rein in my urge to bulk up my new character while soloing - in order to keep apace of my friends - but truth be told it's definitely given the game some legs as I revisit areas, loot, work on achievements, and grind weapon skills on low level spawns.  I've been using my main character - the old hunter - to battle through DLC and pick up loot to give to my friends to sell.

I cannot express how impressed I am with the DLC for Borderlands.  After the fails of Fallout 3 DLC (and their game breaking gear) I've been pretty wary of DLC because I've been disappointed and pissed off when I would spend money on new DLC only for a Game of the Year (GOTY) edition to be released with all DLC for the original price point.  I understand the business model but I'd rather just wait for a company to release a complete game.  Part of the reason I don't have my normal whining about DLC with Borderlands is threefold.

1. In the DLC you cannot send in a new character to grab all the high power goodies because enemies start at a higher level, in some cases a much higher level.
2. The DLC story arcs are as good, and in some cases better, than the standard game.  At the same time these arcs build and expand upon the main story.  
3. The DLC actually expands on the game as a whole, with new enemies, vehicles, mods, and combat that requires new techniques.

Sounds pretty simple but why can't Bethseda or Bioware grasp these concepts?

As far as a review of the DLC goes, I've only battled through The Secret Armory which took me a power game day (12 hours+) to get through the main story.  I have in no way shape or form completed all the side quests and frankly some of them fucking hate me.  The difficultly is almost absurd for a single player (my lvl 62 hunter on a second play through).  I'm dishing out thousands of points of damage in some cases and barely being able to hold my own.  Not only that but the DLC spawns different enemies with different strengths and weaknesses so my standard set of weapons often requires switch out (a flaw in the inventory management requires you to enter inventory and switch builds, though truth be told the pause in combat has been beneficial at times).  The secret end boss is a brutal fucker the likes of which I have not seen since Final Fantasy VII.  And I love it.  After Skyrim (as good as it is) the sheer brutality of combat is refreshing.  There's no "I can one shot a dragon" bullshit and it's that challenge that draws me in and keeps me playing.  It appeals to that part of me that's still ten and filled with rage at Zelda II.  That stubborn, vicious true grit, rabid bulldog tenacity which most games don't inspire in me any more.  Hell, when's the last time you cheered after taking down a particularly bastard of an NPC?  I know when I did, last night after I emptied my last clip into General Knoxx's corpse, just out of spite (I also might have quoted The Exorcist, "Your mother sucks cocks in Hell!").  Then feeling full of piss and vinegar I tried to tackle the secret end boss and got my dick curb stomped into the dirt.  Ah, hubris.  But I'm gonna try again (and again).

I am impressed by Borderlands and its DLC.  Normally I power game a release and belch and look for something else to play.  Co-op has definitely given this game legs as much as the DLC.  If any of you folks are looking to play I'm in for a penny.

Add:

I've started playing the Soldier class and also spent enough time Siren to get her to lvl 20.  While I miss the loot bonuses that the Hunter class affords Soldier is a really fun class.  Kitted and skilled correctly Soldier proves not only an excellent support character (one mod allows you to give XP bonuses to team mates and one skill allows easy and rapid team healing) but allows you to exploit the flexibility combat rifles provide.  With extended clips and reduced recoil (stacked with skill and mod bonuses) even the shittiest heavy machine gun (incapable of short controlled bursts) becomes a viable combat weapon in close quarters and at mid-range.  I was lucky enough to come across a S&S with both a reduced rate of fire and recoil suppression and have been able to get more precision critical hits than with a Dahl.  Combined with a 125 ammo capacity and capability to free fire, if I do need to drop the hammer I can do that as well.  Unfortunately reload speed is shite and there have been one or two instances that I've simply swapped weapons instead of reloading.  A downside to combat rifles, is it's easy to burn through a lot of ammo unless you have a Support mod with ammo regen and/or a couple of decent weapons stowed away.  

The Soldier class has a skill (and Commando mod) which grants bonuses to shotguns but in my experience shotguns aren't particularly useful in Borderlands.  The revolver has a higher DPS and accuracy (in most cases) for your money.  Most repeater pistols aren't all that great either.  If you're looking for a high capacity, close quarters "spray and pray" weapon the SMG is a better choice though it's best suited for a Siren character (her skill tree has some awesome bonuses for the SMG).  I haven't really given Brick the melee/explosive weapons (rocket launchers, etc.) character much of a play but looking over his stats he could be a shotgun maestro if that's your style.      

Faery - Legends of Avalon (2010) Focus Home Interactive

So it's that time of year when I've played through most of the games I wanted to play and start digging through the catalog of XBOX Live games and DLCs.  Last night I was wading through demos, some good, some not so good but I stumbled across Faery - Legends of Avalon from Parisian indie designer Focus Home Interactive.  I downloaded the demo and I have to admit that I am kind of charmed and impressed at this little release.  It's a well done classic turn based RPG with a 3 member party system, elemental magic, minimal inventory management, and a "get to the root of the problem" story arc filled with step'n'fetch and puzzle quests along the way.  It's not ground-breaking and it's probably not going to wow a lot of fans of shit that blows up or fans of jabbing plastic instruments with their pudge paws but for fans of classic non-JRPG styled games it certainly fits the bill.

The basic premise is Avalon, ruled by Oberon, is fading as modern man forgets and disrespects the magic of the Old Ways.  The player character is awoken from stasis within a crystal to find out if there is anyway to salvage the realm.  The adventure begins.

Four things really work for me while I've been playing Faery:

1. The art design is brilliant from NPC to level to monsters.  There's a very clever and understated Brian Froud-esque quality to the characters - vaguely menacing and ugly though, in some cases amusingly adorable.  My favorite character so far is Grim who looks like a cross between the Artful Dodger and Jacob Marley.  
2. This is one of the rare games that I would let children play but I would enjoy playing with them.  Hell I think the text based speech would be fun to read out loud to a kid, especially since each character has their own style of dialogue.
3. Though the levels initially seem small the ability to fly from the beginning of the game creates an excellent illusion of scale.  The second level (based around Ygdrassil) was a lot of fun simply because of  zooming through the leaves and branches of the tree exploring.  I am currently on the Flying Dutchman but have yet to explore it.
4. Just because this might be a game I approve for children doesn't mean it's for slack jawed troglodytes.  In fact many of the jokes are only funny if you know anything about mythology and folk tales (no Greco-Roman bullshit either) or 16th-Century French literature (okay I had to wiki one joke in the game to understand it, I think it's a funny joke - now that I get it - but you won't).  It's nice to play something that intellectually amuses as well.

I expect the game to top out at maybe 12-14 hours of gameplay but for the low price point I'm over-joyed at the experience.  Faery is like a meal at a fancy French restaurant.  You may be disappointed by the tiny portions at first but the meal is so delicious and filling and satisfying.

Dragon Age: Origins Return to Ostagar XBOX 360 DLC (Spoilers)

I downloaded Dragon Age: Origins Return to Ostagar last night.  For the price - about four bucks - the content is pretty awesome.  As far as length it's comprable to one of the character origin stories.  As far as loot it's pretty damn cool.  Sure you can recover the late King Cailan's armor but - more importantly - you can recover Duncan's Sword and Dagger.  I started up - yet another - entirely new character who I hope can be my final and all encompassing character. DA:O - RTO is an awesome download for the price.  Well done Bioware.

Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot & the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned XBOX 360 DLC

Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned are the current DLC for Borderlands - the sci-fi RPG/FPS from Gearbox Software that I happen to enjoy the shit out of.  For DLC I have to say that most of the time I feel like the content is hit or miss or maybe I just have a weird concept of DLC. That being said, I had these sitting on the back burner until I got home from the holidays and I needed something to play.  I kicked it off with Zombie Island and had a grand time of blasting the living dead.  I liked the level design and the zombies were actually a threat until I worked out the right combo of weapons with which to make them dead...undead...for reals this time.  An assault rifle with an incendiary mod worked really nicely.  I also got a good deal of play time out of Zombie Island - about eight or nine hours in one go.  I got my money's worth, hit the level cap, and added a few more firearms to the collection.  Very nicely done, oh and the humor in the level is awesomely punny. Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot is on one hand totally wicked hella awesome arena combat.  On the other hand it is a hateful, gruelling Death March of suffering.  Mad Moxxi DLC is a cruel and vengeful bitch, three arenas, each with five rounds of combat...however each round is comprised of five waves of enemies of increasing difficulty.  Add to that, at higer levels a random effect comes into play - sometimes good and sometimes profanity inducing.  Once you are thoroughly castigated by these rounds but manage to complete them a new challenge awaits...twenty rounds.  I've gotten to the twenty round part but haven't made it past round six.  Oh and if you die you get penalized a level.  If you leave to change weapons, tough tittie, you're starting over.  Some reviewers are whining about MMUR being too hard or there's no reward because of the level cap or the wah wah wah.  To those reviewers I say: time to put on your big girl panties.  Video games have gotten soft in some respects.  Do you rememeber when you only had three lives and if you died at the end you had to go all the way back to the beginning?  Or you had to have futuristic Mentat skills (pre-leet ergo no zed) in order to complete some games?  I've never met anyone who fully 100% completed NES Gauntlet and if someone said they did I probably wouldn't believe them.  One reviewer complained there were no achievements...well, too fucking bad, how about pride in one's own self? So if you're not a crybaby and enjoy arena battle royale get this now.

Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta (2009) XBOX 360 DLC

The Lone Wanderer in space! Fighting aliens!

That's the long and short of the new DLC for Fallout 3. I polished it off pretty neatly in a few hours. I used the Chinese Stealth Suit and ghosted through the ship, picking off the little grey bastards. If I had attempted to storm through the aliens would have presented a greater threat.

I think I preferred Point Lookout as far as Fallout 3 DLC goes. Zeta is kind of a one trick pony that doesn't really have any impact - as far as I can tell on Earth or your karma. Meh.

The new weapons are alien tech and would have been helpful at an earlier point in the game but at this juncture they won't replace my stand-by weapons. There isn't any armor - that I could find.

I can't 100% rec this download. It's only 800 MS points so the cost ain't bad but you might want to wait until Bethesda releases a single volume set and you begin a new character.

Released information and date for the final Fallout 3 DLC.

Looks like the folks over at Bethesda Games just released some info about the fifth and final DLC for Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta. Release date for 360 is August 3, 2009. Woo!

Godfather II (XBOX 360) - EA Games

The first Godfather game wasn't bad, hell I played it from start to finish, but ultimately I felt it was lacking. When I found out that Godfather II had more strategic elements - building and defending a crime empire. Personally that's my favorite aspect of any and all crime games.

Godfather II has a good empire building system - I'm only a couple hours into it. You are starting your own family so you have to recruit family members with various skills to blow shit up, heal your troops, be bad ass, etc. I strongly - strongly suggest downloading this character:

• Jimmy Lira: The ONLY recruit who can ultimately be upgraded to have every specialty in the game! Jimmy Lira starts with the arsonist, engineer, medic, and safecracker specialties, and comes equipped with a level 2 machine gun: the MP38. He appears in the NY Don’s office when NY is first unlocked, and in your NY safehouse at all times after that.

You can boost the skills of each Family, making them more effective in combat and the like.

The main problem I have - with most crime syndicate games - is there's not enough micromanagement. That may sound insane but I basically want to play a "Syndicate Sim". I want to control markets, import/export, supply/demand, cost of whores/drugs/guns combined with diplomacy/intrigue/corruption/scandal. I bet that would sell, besides it'd be a lot more accurate in portraying gangsters as businessmen/politicians than goons. Sure there might come a time to crack skulls but ultimately that's bad for business.

For now though I am not playing that game so the Godfather II will have to do.

Pending reviews and assorted good stuff:

There should be a few more movie reviews coming down the pike pretty soon. I haven't played anything new to really jump up and down about. Pretty much kicked the hell out of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and went back to playing Fallout 3.

By the by:

NEW DOWNLOADABLE MEGA-CONTENT FOR FALLOUT 3: BROKEN STEEL COMES OUT MAY 5TH.

I am very excited. Very, very excited. I might even have to start yet another character (It will only be my third character, I have one good and one evil right now). Happy dance!

Oh suck. I have finals right after it is released. Stoopid skool.

Amusing Fallout 3 story: My "evil" character has gunned down, bludgeoned, or incinerated almost every character in the game. In particular - Three Dog. I never really liked Three Dog. Loud mouthed jerk.