Borderlands 2

[Lantyssa]

I'm no expert. But those numbers are not the finial output, monitor size and aspect play a large role there are also some assumptions about eye distance from the screen.

It's not expert so much as completely wrong.

Humans see 180 degrees, about 120 of that is our forward vision and the 30 to either side is peripheral.  Binoculars are typically 10 degrees or so, though highly dependent upon the lenses and intended purpose.

The further one sits from a monitor, the narrower the FOV should be to give a "realistic" view.  Unfortunately that's highly dependent upon distance from and monitor size, so no one setting is going to work for everyone.

[Malakili]

The further one sits from a monitor, the narrower the FOV should be to give a "realistic" view.  Unfortunately that's highly dependent upon distance from and monitor size, so no one setting is going to work for everyone.

What I don't understand is why it isn't just standard to allow people to just change it easily from the in game options.  Editing .ini files or opening up the console to enter commands seems awfully archaic at this point.  I guess the animations are designed with a certain FOV in mind, but frankly, I don't care if an animation looks wonky.

[Mrbloodworth]

NVM, its a personal preference unless it breaks intent of the developer.

[NiX]

What I don't understand is why it isn't just standard to allow people to just change it easily from the in game options.  Editing .ini files or opening up the console to enter commands seems awfully archaic at this point.  I guess the animations are designed with a certain FOV in mind, but frankly, I don't care if an animation looks wonky.

The average person doesn't know what it is or why they might want to change it. More so, they probably won't know the difference unless shown, so why bother? Borderlands was probably one of the few cases people cared because the original FOV was disgustingly narrow.

[Malakili]

What I don't understand is why it isn't just standard to allow people to just change it easily from the in game options.  Editing .ini files or opening up the console to enter commands seems awfully archaic at this point.  I guess the animations are designed with a certain FOV in mind, but frankly, I don't care if an animation looks wonky.

The average person doesn't know what it is or why they might want to change it. More so, they probably won't know the difference unless shown, so why bother? Borderlands was probably one of the few cases people cared because the original FOV was disgustingly narrow.

Whenever some new graphics tech comes out that I haven't heard of they just have a nice thing like "This will make textures look nicer, but takes more CPU" or something.  I don't see why a similar explanation would be problematic.  Even something like the TF2 default is too low.  But Valve DID add the ability to change it in their UI, and then capped it at 90 or 95 because they felt any higher was too advantageous or something, a reasonable solution in my opinion.

[Lantyssa]

Because messing with FOV is a great way to make a game look hideous and feel wrong.  I can see it as an advanced option, but to do it properly they should have a calibration which asks how far you sit from the monitor, its size, and has you test looking at a couple of rotating scenes to pick the one which feels best.

[Nija]

Any idea where you would look to tweak that if you grabbed the game off steam?

I think this will do everything you want - http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=85874

[Azazel]

A few things I would like to see:

I agree with almost all of your list. 4 and 5 I'm not too concerned with personally, but overall, good list.

4 and 5 became problematic for me. Four, Because of hosting issues, also, it just felt silly that progression wasn't based on the character rather than the host. Five, Because we "beat" the game before even unlocking the third bounty board, and a whole host of other quests and missions. Now we out-level it and the challenge is removed.

Well, 4) wasn't an issue for me since my playthroughs were with 2 different dedicated groups using 2 different dedicated characters, though I do get your point as far as online PUGs and people/friends just casually playing together.

I thought 5) was fine, especially with the DLC taken into account as well as the second playthrough. There's a lot of quest content in the game even without the DLC, and I found the length to be fine, especially when played in several sessions with groups. I can see you'd rip through it much faster playing it as a solo FPS. Personally, I found the ending to be the most disappointing part of the base game.

I still find the most grating part of the game to be the General Knoxx expansion, which is a shame since some of it is fun and Knoxx himself was a well-written antagonist for a FPS. The amount of driving through dead space to get to the next quest just ridiculous though. The lack of quicktravel destinations as utter BS. Stil haven't played through the Claptrap Red Revolution or whatever it is yet.

[UnSub]

This just strikes me as Gearbox getting to work to fix their budgets after DNF.

How much did they lose?  I thought they bought it up for cheap and it still sold enough copies to make them profit.

Just to follow on: Duke Nukem Forever Proved Profitable For Take-Two

Back-of-the-envelope calculations says that if they sold 1m units at $60 a pop, with half that revenue going back to GameStop / physical stores, then Take Two would have seen about US$30m from DNF sales. So whatever they paid for DNF, plus about a year of development time, plus all their marketing promotions et al was apparently less than US$30m (very roughly).

But again, there is 'profitable' and 'making your profit targets'.

[Mrbloodworth]

4) is likely an issue for me, due to my current dislike of not being able to play with friends due to level. Thats not just in this game.

[Amaron]

But again, there is 'profitable' and 'making your profit targets'.

Yea but it sounds like at least they aren't in financial trouble.   I'd be curious to see how much they actually spent on the marketing.   Looking back at it they really did get a lot of the marketing for free.

[taolurker]

I COMMAND YOU TO ARISE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWJUSulnro&feature=player_embedded

Launches Sept 18 2012

[Bunk]

Ooh, right in time for PAX.

[Mrbloodworth]

Looks sweet.

Though, I had hoped they would increase it beyond 4 players. Not that they gave any indication that they would.

[Fabricated]

Dubstep, really?

[Surlyboi]

Dubstep, really?

More Skills*

(*For the payment of more bills)

[Rasix]

I COMMAND YOU TO ARISE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWJUSulnro&feature=player_embedded

Launches Sept 18 2012

Happy birthday to me.  

96.5% more WUB WUB seems like an under calculation.

[luckton]

I'll admit, the Wub Wub got me to LOL   

[koro]

Slightly disappointed that the only female character is another largely hands-off magey type, but otherwise excited. I loved Borderlands, even though it is like pulling teeth to get people who, despite saying they also love Borderlands, to actually play it.

[Mrbloodworth]

levels are a hell of a drug.

[Samwise]

Thank God the trailer had some gameplay clips in it.  It was so pretty I was actually feeling the pull, and then it reminded me how much I hated the gameplay from the first one.  Dodged a bullet there.

[Ratman_tf]

Man, I want to love Borderlands. I loved the intro and the first few levels, and then got bored and never finished. Running around nearly empty desert zones shooting mutant dogs and dudes just wasn't very fun in practice.

[Ingmar]

It kinda sucks solo, yeah.

[Mazakiel]

I've played the hell out of it solo and MP.  Though not as much MP as I'd like.  Everyone I play with have young kids now. 

Either way, preordered. 

[Yegolev]

The way I play Lilith in the first one is not at all hands-off.

[Kageru]

Confuses me too since she's basically a close-combat character, second best tank and has both melee talents and a short ranged PBAoE. She's probably the most fun to play too given the mobility control of her power.

Whereas the brick characters power (much like Minstrels in LotrO) is to give me a headache through yelling in my ear repeatedly.

[Azazel]

Man, I want to love Borderlands. I loved the intro and the first few levels, and then got bored and never finished. Running around nearly empty desert zones shooting mutant dogs and dudes just wasn't very fun in practice.

Yeah, I played through the base game with 2 friends, and also (almost finished) another playthrough with my wife - just need to finish the claptrop revolution DLC. With a friend or friends it holds your interest pretty well - though the fact that we still haven't finished the Claptrap DLC is telling that the game peters out after awhile. Solo I never got past about the 10th level.

 

[Yegolev]

Well, my wife thought there was something wrong because my money readout was all 9 even after I bought some crap to pass off to my low-level friend.  I told her it was because I had just that much money.

[Malakili]

I bought the first one one release and I liked it, but I think of this more as a Steam sale buy now.  It never materialized as the First Person Shooter Diablo I wanted it to be - mainly due to the fact that there were now "closed" servers, and no randomized levels.   Still a decent game for what it was, but not quite worth a full box price in my opinion.

[Furiously]

I'm a bit disappointed you are still locked into a particular character for a particular "class".

[Shrike]

Yep, day1 purchase on the 360 (and GotY purchase on Steam for the PC). Same as first time around.

If you're not playing this game with friends, you're doing it wrong. It's OK as a single player, but simply rocks with people you know in multi. Have to put the word out to resurrect our original Xbox group.

And...another siren. Since there are six, looking forward to seeing what this one is all about. Phaselock...yeah, looks wicked and apparently a lot of abilities keyed from it (group heal and combat res...yes please). Movement, harmony, and cataclysm. Yeah, I'm sold.

[Miasma]

I liked the first one well enough but your success or failure was very dependant on the random loot you got.  I read that this one is going to have timers which alter the story line, like if you don't rescue a person in time they die for good so fuck that.  I despise time limits, especially in games like this where I like to be slow and deliberate, investigating every nook and cranny for hidden treasure chests.

[TheWalrus]

He really does. We called him the foraging king in EQ.

[Dren]

I still play the first, but I also got it on Steam sale.  Not sure full price would be worth it.  It would probably be fun to play with my son, but buying two boxes is right out.  I haven't splurge to do that for the first even on sale.

[JWIV]

I think I lost a lot by not playing this multi-player with people - of course, the problem is, my schedule is so erratic that I can't really schedule that type of commitment to people to play a FPS.  So I went through it single-player and by the time I got to Old Haven was completely bored of the game and eventually got tired of even trying to grind it out to find the fun.