Recently-abandoned games Page 263

  • Rogueywon 28 Jan 2020 10:46:13 12,387 posts
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    Put me in the BL3 camp. TF2's campaign was ok, but it didn't really stick with me. Some of the movement tricks were fun, but otherwise it was a fairly standard 2-gun shooter interspersed with vehicle bits. As a shooter, I rated it below Doom 2016 in every significant respect. BL3 is a much deeper and more enjoyable game, with far superior gunplay.

    It does have two big weaknesses. First, the writing, which plays things much safer than BL2 (no more letting the player do really morally dubious quests as you could in BL2) and has much weaker villains. Second the vehicle sections, which are pretty poor (though less prominent than in some of the earlier games). But overall, it's still one of the best shooters of the last few years.
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 10:47:43
    @JamboWayOh
    JamboWayOh wrote:
    DrStrangelove wrote:
    waggy79 wrote:
    @DrStrangelove Except gunplay, movement and campaign? 😉
    Hmm movement is debatable, the rest is an easy win for BL3
    This is the Witcher 3 all over again...
    Didn't know TF2 is sacred too. If so, I apologise. Just keep in mind that I'm in a minority again but still I'm right, like a modern day Galileo

    Edited by DrStrangelove at 10:48:08 28-01-2020
  • JamboWayOh 28 Jan 2020 11:00:28 25,238 posts
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    Ha.
  • Decks 28 Jan 2020 11:17:09 31,014 posts
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    Borderlands is the most overrated game franchise of last 20 years. Discuss.
  • Gruff 28 Jan 2020 11:25:18 3,940 posts
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    Dunno, had a blast with BL2 in co-op, not bothered with any of the others. Despise Gearbox, more specifically Randy Pitchford.
  • wuntyate 28 Jan 2020 11:29:30 17,494 posts
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    I thought BL2 was enjoyable enough for the first 6-10 hours then I couldn't really be arsed and never went back to it.
  • Mola_Ram 28 Jan 2020 11:35:55 26,196 posts
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    They don't require much brain power or twitch reflexes. The story is a bit crap and the humor is hit-and-miss, but they're fun enough. Especially in co-op.
  • richarddavies 28 Jan 2020 11:39:10 8,312 posts
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    wuntyate wrote:
    I thought BL2 was enjoyable enough for the first 6-10 hours then I couldn't really be arsed and never went back to it.
    I've probably tried to play 1 and 2 at least 3 times each due to the hype, get about as far as you and quit. It's just the same shit to me, over and over for 40 hours. Not to say there badly made games, they're not. Just not my cup of tea.
  • JamboWayOh 28 Jan 2020 11:46:57 25,238 posts
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    I tried the trial of BL3 for about 3 days, combat wasn't really that amazing with enemies just shooting you while standing there, or running at you with no kind of hit reaction from you shooting them. Yeah the weapons were nice but I thought the missions were frankly a bit shit and promptly turned it off when a mission asked me to do a fetch quest then asked me to fetch more stuff when I returned to mission giver, 3 FUCKING TIMES. TF2's campaign shits all over BL3s tired campaign structure which amounted to go here, shoot something, return back or shoot waves of enemies. Like most things it's infinitely better with coop.
  • Bichii 28 Jan 2020 11:53:44 4,672 posts
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    Bl is over rated but it is at least pretty good unlike some other popular franchise's. 2 is definitely the best one but the gameplay and mission structure is all very vanilla, the characters of 2 elevated it somewhat. Without the excellent characters and dialogue it would be pretty average.
  • Mola_Ram 28 Jan 2020 11:55:39 26,196 posts
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    I liked Mr Torgue and Hammerlock, and... that's it? Tiny Tina is annoying as fuck, though I know a lot of people like her.
  • creepiest-lizard 28 Jan 2020 12:12:07 2,978 posts
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    Tales from the borderlands was good. Everything else Borderlands related is shite though
  • Gruff 28 Jan 2020 12:32:20 3,940 posts
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    Agreed, Tales is the best thing in the franchise
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 14:06:10
    Mola_Ram wrote:
    They don't require much brain power or twitch reflexes.
    Talking about speed and twitch reflexes, depends on how you play it and then there's a ton of optional challenge/arena stuff that's a whole different story to the campaign.

    As for brain power, mechanics, skills, items and all the interactions are pretty complex actually. If you're serious about it, you'll need to learn a lot, and there's a lot of maths involved. The enemies aren't smart (nor should they in a game like this), but if you want to master the real challenges and dig deeper into builds and mechanics etc. it's actually the brainiest shooter I know. You probably think I'm joking again, but I'm not.
  • JamboWayOh 28 Jan 2020 14:08:38 25,238 posts
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    Yeahhhhhh... No.
  • Mola_Ram 28 Jan 2020 14:17:54 26,196 posts
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    Me calling it brainless isn't really meant to be a criticism. Sometimes that's exactly what I want!

    To me it hits the same buttons as something like Diablo 3. Yes, there's complexity in choosing builds and such, but the moment to moment gameplay is just going around shooting millions of bullets and rockets and shit everywhere.
  • macmurphy 28 Jan 2020 14:18:50 4,448 posts
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    I finally got round to playing Titanfall 2 over Christmas.

    I thought it was amazing.

    Single player and multiplayer. I can see why the franchise probably won’t continue - all the wall jumping and grappling probably deters a lot of casual players.

    But I’m loving it, easy to find a game on Xbox still. I think I got it for buttons too, I’d recommend it to anyone.
  • JamboWayOh 28 Jan 2020 14:18:54 25,238 posts
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    #brainiestshooter
  • Tomo 28 Jan 2020 14:25:30 19,566 posts
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    Decks wrote:
    Borderlands is the most overrated game franchise of last 20 years. Discuss.
    Broadly agree. First was fun for 15-20 hours, but why you'd play them beyond that amount is lost on me. Not played the other two mind, but they basically look like more of the same.
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 14:30:41
    Mola_Ram wrote:
    Yes, there's complexity in choosing builds and such, but the moment to moment gameplay is just going around shooting millions of bullets and rockets and shit everywhere.
    I understand what you mean, but that's really not how it works if you're going for high difficulty endgame. You'll simply die all the time with that approach.

    But I understand that it doesn't seem like that, or maybe even appealing, in the earlier game at lower levels. Like a good wine, it needs some time to really shine. You can criticise that, but that's why this series has such immense long term playability. It's not made for quick consumption like most other games.
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 14:32:25
    And the BL games are very underrated actually. BL2 has a preposterously low ~90 on metacritic. Don't get me started about BL3.
  • monkman76 28 Jan 2020 14:33:43 18,987 posts
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    DrStrangelove wrote:
    Mola_Ram wrote:
    Yes, there's complexity in choosing builds and such, but the moment to moment gameplay is just going around shooting millions of bullets and rockets and shit everywhere.
    I understand what you mean, but that's really not how it works if you're going for high difficulty endgame. You'll simply die all the time with that approach.

    But I understand that it doesn't seem like that, or maybe even appealing, in the earlier game at lower levels. Like a good wine, it needs some time to really shine. You can criticise that, but that's why this series has such immense long term playability. It's not made for quick consumption like most other games.
    Why put such a braindead, ADD wrapper on it then?
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 14:39:50
    Cause it's fun
  • monsieur-Cosmo 28 Jan 2020 14:52:00 652 posts
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    People who don't enjoy Borderlands have no soul. It's a scientific fact.
  • Rogueywon 28 Jan 2020 14:54:38 12,387 posts
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    I actually admire "smart" games more when they aren't afraid to be loud, brash and fun rather than going for the hipstery oh-so-clever style. Doom 2016 had all kinds of smart mechanics going on, but wasn't afraid to be about running around shooting demons in the face with a rocket launcher.
  • JamboWayOh 28 Jan 2020 14:55:42 25,238 posts
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    Rogueywon wrote:
    I actually admire "smart" games more when they aren't afraid to be loud, brash and fun rather than going for the hipstery oh-so-clever style. Doom 2016 had all kinds of smart mechanics going on, but wasn't afraid to be about running around shooting demons in the face with a rocket launcher.
    Yeah but, you know, Doom was actually good.
  • Deleted user 28 January 2020 15:01:06
    @Rogueywon

    Yeah, like that. It's not pretentious, it's brilliant but it doesn't show off so it hides it beneath psychos and poop jokes. I think understatement is the word.
  • Rhaegyr 28 Jan 2020 15:07:12 5,499 posts
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    Is there no middle ground?

    I thought BL3 was consistently good - often great, occasionally annoying/dull. Gunplay was indeed great but the story/characters were worse than 2. The quests were pretty standard (go here, fetch/kill this, repeat) but I had some great moments on some of them.

    Again, I think its' worst failing (considering the amount of time it's been in development) is that it's barely any different from 2 and didn't bring anything new to the table.
  • Rogueywon 28 Jan 2020 15:18:16 12,387 posts
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    @Rhaegyr I'm at the positive end of the spectrum on BL3, but as I said previously, it has flaws. The biggest is in the writing, which is limp compared to BL3. It feels like Gearbox felt they had to dial things down a bit. Previously gleefully-amoral characters like Tannis are rewritten as saintly, very few of the sidequests have any real sense of naughtiness to them (no more "murder" in objectives) and the plot lacks any degree of subtlety. BL2 is smarter than it gets credit for - yes, Handsome Jack is a villain, but he's not wrong about everything (Pandora is, after all, a bandit-infested hellhole) and some of the Crimson Raiders' actions are pretty questionable. BL3 smooths all of those rough edges.

    The vehicle sections, as stated above, are pretty miserable. Nothing much else to say there. Vehicle weapons feel underwhelming, the handling model is poor and they're just not fun.

    And several areas feel like they needed more design work and maybe some judicious trimming. Eden 6 goes on for far too long and some of its sub-areas, particularly Ambermire, feel like "big, uninteresting swamp that was quick and easy to make".

    But the gunplay is superb. That doesn't necessarily shine through in the first few hours, as low quality guns aren't much fun to use. But once you've got guns with decent punch and your TTK on trash mobs has plummeted, the game feels incredibly satisfying in a way few other shooters can manage. Doom 2016 is really the only other shooter from the last 10 years that I can think of that outright beats Borderlands on gunplay (and Doom 2016 is a smaller game with less replay value).
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