By John Walker on November 24th, 2009 at 9:25 pm.
Last week you’ll have noticed young Mr Rossignol doffing his hat and offering you some footage of the forthcoming Borderlands DLC, The Zombie Island Of Doctor Ned. Which is a very splendid name, and released this very day. Now you can enjoy the official trailer for the new content should you be so bold as to look below.
If you’re fearing zombie overkill at the moment (is that a clever pun? I’m really not sure any more), it seems from the distinctly sarcastic tone of the trailer Gearbox are at least conscious of this. What’s important is that it looks like a lot of fun.
24/11/2009 at 21:34 Vinraith says:
Hasn’t all the Coverage for Borderlands had essentially that tone? Not that this is in any way a bad thing, I just don’t know that it particularly indicates an awareness of zombie-overload.
Anyway, this is a good time to ask about the state of the game on PC. I’d primarily be buying it to play with one other person via whatever the most expedient form of online connection would be (direct IP if available, for example). Has there been any further patching? How’s the connectivity?
24/11/2009 at 21:57 Jon says:
There’s been one patch, but it didn’t fix the multiplayer connectivity – although it did stop other players from corrupting your character when you joined their game.
Apparently. I haven’t managed to play any multiplayer at all. Definately wait until the next patch comes out if you want this for multiplayer.
24/11/2009 at 22:41 Torgen says:
Ever since the last patch, I haven’t had any problems hosting a game at all. Only the host needs to have any ports forwarded. Before the patch, even though I had ports forwarded on my router, I could only successfully host or join a small percentage of the time. Now, I don’t even have to do the kludge of start hosting a public game, then back out before hosting a private game to enable people to join.
Inviting anyone into a private game requires them to be logged into Gamespy. I make a habit of logging into Gamespy even if I’m just playing single player, because odds are that one of my friends will log on later. That way, all I have to do is accept the invite, or invite them into my game.
25/11/2009 at 06:57 Thermal Ions says:
Frustration currently still remains with online games – Gamespy sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t (a PC restart seems to fix the issue for me more often than not). Others are using general VPN solutions or game dedicated one such as GameRanger to remove Gamespy completely from the equation.
If you’re likely to only be playing with a set friend Vinraith then may as well go for it and utilise the VPN/Gameranger route and start loot whoring today.
25/11/2009 at 11:13 CMaster says:
Honestly, the port-fowarding isn’t a problem at all, only the host need do it and having spent 10 minutes doing it once, it’s done (provided you don’t reguarly swap around IPs on your home network). The fact that port fowarding is necessary in these days of UPnP and so on is shameful, but gearbox are far from the only people to need you to do it (yes Valve I’m looking at you) means it perhaps isn’t suprising. Overall however it is an easy problem to get around and shouldn’t put anyone off buying it. Of course, you could always use Hamachi or Gameranger instead if you are playing with a small group of friends and just treat it as a LAN game.
24/11/2009 at 21:41 Rob says:
Seems interesting, but i dont know if i want to get it until there are a few more patches to the pc version
24/11/2009 at 21:46 Shalrath says:
I think I’m going to shelve the game til it gets heavily worked on. Honestly, the amount of shit I have to go through just to play multiplayer is insane. I had a friend over and in order to play a LAN FUCKING GAME we had to add him to my port forwards.
It didn’t work, so we said fuck it and 3 minutes later had a L4D game ready to go.
Making that choice of future purchases pretty easy, Gearbox.
25/11/2009 at 07:00 Thermal Ions says:
Not had any problems with LAN games here. You need to make sure you start the game as a LAN game however. If you start as a Single Player and then invite someone in it seems to automatically switch to Online mode which definitely won’t work if trying to invite another system on your LAN.
24/11/2009 at 21:49 heartlessgamer says:
Reminds me, I need to finish playthrough 1 yet. Damn lost save file.
24/11/2009 at 21:52 faelnor says:
[z][o][m][b][i][e][space][shift/][home][/shift][ctrl][c][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v][ctrl][v]
24/11/2009 at 21:53 faelnor says:
zombies!
(how quaint)
24/11/2009 at 21:55 faelnor says:
no stupid if you wanted to be consistent that would be [ctrl/][c][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v][v]
24/11/2009 at 22:40 Lh'owon says:
Put down the tags son, it isn’t worth it! We can talk this through!
24/11/2009 at 23:17 PleasingFungus says:
…wait, are you talking to yourself?
25/11/2009 at 16:08 Mark says:
Holding CTRL+V works… and is strangely satisfying…
24/11/2009 at 21:56 TheMuffinMan says:
While I know alot of people have had issues with gamespy, after I fowarded my ports, I have had a very pleasant expirence playing online. I usually host which means I am getting a better expirence fps wise, but I have very rarely heard of complaints with lag. The players are usually friendly and of good skill. I can say though that when trying to connect to other people online it is usually a crap shoot because most people do not foward their ports. I cannot comment on the LAN expirence.
Is this DLC going to be released for pc? Free?
24/11/2009 at 21:59 Shalrath says:
My friend games on his laptop, and it’s wi-fi. He’s the lowest level character. Guess what kind of awesome framerate we get when we join his game.
24/11/2009 at 22:05 Seniath says:
Am I not right in saying that while the 360/PS3 version was indeed out today, the PC version is still without a release date?
24/11/2009 at 22:27 Seniath says:
But fwiw;
“@Seniath it’s on its way – the PC will also be getting the DLC soon!”
24/11/2009 at 22:47 Torgen says:
OMG, they’re watching us through our Borderlands clients! (searches for blkeylogger.exe)
25/11/2009 at 07:03 Thermal Ions says:
And here I thought they were scanning your brainwaves.
24/11/2009 at 22:06 remover says:
I play on the 360,
none of said issues there. I hope you PC people get things worked out. The new DLC is very fun.
24/11/2009 at 22:10 Starky says:
Borderlands, was a fun game, I say fun because I’ve completed a couple of times and now I’m bored.
Would have ben an amazing game, stunningly brilliant had it had 2 things:
1: The quality ease and support of mods that Fallout 3 and Dragon Age enjoy, Borderlands is a game screaming for tons of crazy mods, player created content and such – given it is a UE3 game that should have been a no-brainer.
2: Steamworks (hell even games for windows live would have been better).
The first would have given it single player legs (loads of new content all the time), a bit of depth that it never quite achieved.
The second would have made it a co-op experience to die for… instead of a co-op experience that died.
I’m also going to give borderlands some time… maybe in 6 months they’ll have fixed the bugs, the class balance, the abilities and the online system (though I doubt it, can’t polish that gamespy turd).
Maybe the community will have hacked it open and modded it despite lacking support from gearbox.
Maybe there will be a build up of enough DLC to make it worth a replay.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
24/11/2009 at 22:12 luminosity says:
Not buying anything from Gearbox till they stop price gouging Australians on Steam. Pity, the base game for all its many, many, many faults is somewhat enjoyable.
25/11/2009 at 05:16 Trithemius says:
I got mine when it was cheap in Australia ($45 US on Steam). It’s an absolutely wank that they pulled it and then republished at a higher price. Jerks!
25/11/2009 at 07:04 Thermal Ions says:
Get an overseas friend to gift it to you.
26/11/2009 at 03:28 Trithemius says:
I’d have to get them to gift it to people I want to play with… and that might be convoluted…
24/11/2009 at 22:16 TotalBiscuit says:
You can have my money after you fix your game Gearbox.
24/11/2009 at 23:22 skizelo says:
I’m hoping that you get a black spot tweet from Gearbox. Not because I think you’re wrong (I’ve got no opinion on the matter), but because I’ like a company to issue literal death threats to any and every individual voice of dissent.
24/11/2009 at 23:28 TotalBiscuit says:
Well I doubt they’ll respond to any interview requests let me put it that way :P Not that they were on the list of potentials anyway.
24/11/2009 at 22:20 Dave says:
Am I the only one who is still enjoying Borderlands and is not a bitter, dried-up husk of a gamer?
24/11/2009 at 22:23 TotalBiscuit says:
You mistake caring witn not enjoying the game. I’ve got 40 hours clocked so far, but if you think I’m going to accept a shoddy port with sub-standard support from anybody quietly, you’ve got another thing coming.
25/11/2009 at 05:19 Trithemius says:
I enjoy it! I don’t enjoy trying to get people to buy it and play it with me now it has almost doubled in price over here…
25/11/2009 at 07:02 Wulf says:
I, for one, am totally smitten with the game. It has some of my favourite things; absurdity, surprisingly adorable and memorable characters (no, really!), and the sense of wonder and the drive that surrounds the hunt for the vault.
HOWEVER…
I don’t approve of their business practises. Pitchfork might have a nifty name, he may have an incredible art department that mutinied to make a better game, they might be able to grin smugly and point out that, yes, they made a bloody fantastic game, but… but but but… their business practises ruin it.
It’s like a ghastly, acidic, chemical taste and stench after the finest and most delectable chocolate you’ve ever consumed.
They absolutely should not have made up some paranoid bullshit about Valve paranoia just because including Steamwork would give them slightly more work rather than a straight, poorly handled console port, which would cost more. It was profiteering of them. And that they didn’t address this immediately says that they’re not the community friendly developer I would’ve thought them to be.
The lack of modding is also a swift kick to the crotch, they should have cracked Borderlands wide open to allow talented modders to create fantastic new experiences for players. Borderlands can’t have its Minerva if their code is wearing a bloody chastity belt.
It’s a good game.
I daresay it’s a great game.
I dig it, I dig it lots.
But it’s a console game, and unfortunately due to the way Gearbox works, it could never be anything but a console game. It ignores all the benefits of the PC, things that make the PC great; like having better online multiplayer than consoles, dedicated servers, modding, all that jazz, and that’s why Valve continues to win as another pointed out, because they make PC games.
I want Borderlands to be a PC game, because I bloody love Borderlands, but… if this is Gearbox, I’m going to have to think long and hard before splashing out on anything Gearbox again.
I, like others here, am not a console gamer. Show us some bloody respect, eh?
26/11/2009 at 03:31 Trithemius says:
I am with you on this entirely Wulf!
24/11/2009 at 22:28 Lemming says:
So is this actually out for the PC? The only mentions of it I can find are for the 360 and PS3.
24/11/2009 at 22:30 Vandelay says:
Just would like to take this opportunity to thank RLacey, who told me in this weekend’s Bargain Bucket article that Borderlands was on CDWOW for £19.99. My order is on its way and I’m very much looking forward to it.
@Starky – You’ve completed it twice already and you’re complaining about it? It seems that most of the complaints aimed at the game are for technical reasons, with problems getting the multiplayer to work being the main one. Although I agree that things like mod support and a more reliable multiplayer service would be great (I can’t believe anyone still uses Gamespy,) at least the actual game seems to be getting few complaints.
24/11/2009 at 22:40 TotalBiscuit says:
There are a ton of problems with the game too, it just so happens that the concept and the gunplay are satisfying enough to over-ride that. The PC port is atrocious and needs serious work.
24/11/2009 at 23:32 WilPal says:
It hasn’t been released for PC today, only on 360 and PS3.
Blasphemy RPS!
24/11/2009 at 23:39 Krondonian says:
It’s £16.97 on Amazon if that’ll tempt anyone.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/2K-Games-Borderlands-PC-DVD/dp/B0026IBHII/ref=pd_ts_zgc_vg_h__676427011_8?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&pf_rd_p=472155933&pf_rd_s=right-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=300729&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=11CCP3T7M5272G5N3509
I think I’ll wait to see if any more DLC comes it’s way, and pick up the whole lot in one go. That trailer certainly looks nice.
25/11/2009 at 01:10 Patrick says:
I want to echo what I have heard many people say, Borderlands is lots of fun but still needs a bit of work. Luckily there are many people that have fixed many of the issues with the game on their own.
First, Gameranger supports Borderlands (and while I have never used it to play BL) and from what I have read it resolves all of the port forwarding mess for most people.
Also for people who are struggling with mouse sensitivity, FOV, V-Sync, or other normally customizable things, a GUI .ini editor was created by a community member (I have used this – it works great).
25/11/2009 at 01:12 Patrick says:
Ok so I can never manage to successfully embed HTML links using XHTML. Not quite sure what I am doing wrong. Anyway here they are.
Gameranger thread – http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=81334&highlight=Gameranger
PC Configuration Editor thread – http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=85874
25/11/2009 at 01:29 Patrick says:
I just want to try one more time with the embedded URLs
Gameranger Thread
PC Configuration Editor thread
25/11/2009 at 04:23 Torgen says:
Oh God, yes! I forgot to mention the Borderlands Config Editor. Definately a “must-have” and probably the main reason I can enjoy the game instead of raging about lack of configurability.
26/11/2009 at 00:47 Tem says:
In addition to the ini editor, the tweaks it bases itself off of as well as others that are not implimented yet have been gathered on the wiki page
http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/PC_Tweaks
As well as a page concerning issues hosting and playing games
http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/PC_Connection_Issues
25/11/2009 at 02:27 Joseph says:
I’ve never had any problems hosting or joining games with the correct ports forwarded, including at initial release.
My friends who do have trouble use GameRanger to get around it:
http://www.gameranger.com/
I’ve tried it and it’s easier than forwarding ports and it works.
Yes you might not want to use it, but I’m only trying to help, k?
Last time I tried to help you just complained that whatever method I provided was too difficult, so if you do it again this time I’m not going to reply to any more of your posts, except to insult you about your girly mannerisms (if i ever find that you have any). And, I might have you confused with someone else. So there.
25/11/2009 at 02:28 Joseph says:
Thank god the reply button works, otherwise the above post might not have been a response to this:
Vinraith says: How’s the connectivity?
25/11/2009 at 02:30 Vinraith says:
Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep it in mind when/if I pick up the game.
“Last time I tried to help you just complained that whatever method I provided was too difficult”
When was that?
25/11/2009 at 18:56 Joseph says:
Sorry for all that about not helping or whatever, I can be a complete twat sometimes.
I can’t even remember if it happened or not, and if it did happen, it doesn’t matter.
25/11/2009 at 02:54 gulag says:
Ugh.
Where to start. I played it through once and went ‘ Is that it?’.
A very disappointing game. So much they did right, but no story, no atmosphere, no reason to return to it.
BTW, static boss monsters are something you knock out for a Half-Life expansion, not what you cap your original IP single player game with.
DUNK!
25/11/2009 at 03:13 Nerd Rage says:
This is the most brilliant thing I’ve seen all day. They’re beating TWO dead horses by asking the question, “What if Dr. Moreau had made zombies?”
25/11/2009 at 06:46 Lars Westergren says:
>If you’re fearing zombie overkill at the moment
I hate every new release with zombies in it now. It’s like the WW2 games, but instead of objecting to the lack of diversity the fans constantly demand MOAR!
At least the trend seems to have died in fantasy/sf bookstores. A couple of months ago half the titles on the bestseller list were about zombies.
25/11/2009 at 07:07 Spacewalk says:
Look on the bright side, at least it’s not vampires.
25/11/2009 at 07:12 Jugglenaut says:
I think trends last longer in games, because it’s harder to just crack out a shody game in a timely fashion like book publishers do to monetize those trends.
25/11/2009 at 08:30 Deerhoof says:
I’d LOVE some vampires right about now.
25/11/2009 at 08:58 Dzamir says:
Why no one call a boycott? :o
25/11/2009 at 10:47 Hmm-Hmm. says:
You know, I never really got what people have with zombies. I mean, there’s some good zombie movies out there, but as opponents they are pretty dull. Sure if there are many it can get frantic but that’s fun for only so long (for me, anyway). Me, I prefer my zombies sporadically and only as grunts.
25/11/2009 at 11:18 CMaster says:
I’m in the “not paying for DLC until the PC version works a bit better” group. Not that there are many more things they need do really. Mouse smoothing and vsync in the menu. Stop turning auto-aim on by default. Adjustible FoV. Make videos skippable. I’m not sure there is much they can do about connectivity without launching a dedicated server or doing what Stardock did with Demigod (which incidentally works very well). Also, considering that the fights with Bandits/Crimson Lance were by far the most fun part of Borderlands, encouraging use of cover etc, weras fighting the melee skags and spiderants was a bit dull, the choice of zombies as enemies is a little odd. Something with guns and an AI that favours flanking would be my favourite, as well as some new epic-feeling mission zones like Krom’s canyon and Old Haven.
25/11/2009 at 19:17 Count Elmdor says:
CMaster, get that .ini editor program mentioned above. I got it last night and in just a couple of minutes ironed out a lot of my gripes (with the single player game). Now we just need a usable UI and playable online!!!!
25/11/2009 at 20:56 gobion says:
I’ve played through Borderlands twice – I find it oddly compelling.
Overall I really enjoyed the game. The co-op has been problematic, mainly as if a lower level player joins my group they skip all the intervening missions. I would also love them to release some modding tools – the game cries out for it.
I’m not sure how much the DLC is going to grab me, but I am definitely going to buy it at the very least to feed my complusion for playing :)
I would definitely echo what someone posted above about the Crimson Lance – I went back to OH time and time again to get into fights with them as they were the most fun in the game. I loved the hideout where Sledge’s Key lives for the same reason.
Borderlands is definietly a port, and has more than a few issues, but it grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go! The tweaks for FOV, VSYNC, Voice Comms etc really, really helped.
Gobion
21/12/2009 at 08:58 Video mIRC says:
Eglece
mIRC