By Lewie Procter on August 19th, 2011 at 5:11 pm.
I just saw over at VG247 that the Borderlands 2 livestream over at Gamescom has just started. Now. Let’s kick back and watch it together. I’ll go stick the kettle on. Right now they are talking about guns. GUNS!
Update: It’s now over, read on to find a summary of what you missed.
First, here’s some of the community-driven changes they’ve talked about implementing for the Borderlands sequel. Apparently they’ve taken on feedback from a wide range of sources (presumably not any shoddy journalists though) and brought in the most requested features and fixes.
New in the sequel are:
- Splitscreen online.
- You can trade items with other players in a “reasonable way”.
- The UI have been “nearly entirely reworked. The splitscreen skill tree is way better”. There’s lots of talk of columns!
- There are now “no problems with eligibility for multiplayer”. From the sounds of things they’ve come up for a way for players of different levels to easily play together but keeping things balanced for everyone. Sounds mathsy.
- They’re aiming to have a lot more diversity in the environments. I heard one of them say “Tundra”.
- There will be a New game+ mode.
They also spoke of “refined” vehicle controls, with power-sliding and “independent suspension”. Randy Pitchford also suggested that they might try to support both Halo style point and go controls, and direct steering: “As a gamer, I want both.”
More on Borderlands 2 as we are given access to it by the publisher.
19/08/2011 at 17:17 Jim Rossignol says:
Those guys are a fun time.
19/08/2011 at 18:43 xavdeman says:
Hey it’s that HAWP guy, Anthony Burch :) Wait. Didn’t he write some storylines before? OH GOD NO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXEVshbmxN8&feature=related This game is going to be so gay.
19/08/2011 at 21:40 Dances to Podcasts says:
When people call something ‘so gay’ I always hear it in a very over-the-top gay voice. With hand gesture.
19/08/2011 at 17:19 kalidanthepalidan says:
It’s Mr Burch of HAWP!
19/08/2011 at 17:37 Mr_Day says:
I love that guy!
19/08/2011 at 18:12 westyfield says:
Yeah, he’s awesome. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go watch some old episodes of HAWP.
19/08/2011 at 18:17 kalidanthepalidan says:
He is the best. :)
19/08/2011 at 17:21 Knufinke says:
Ironicaly the stream is blocked in Germany.
19/08/2011 at 17:24 CMaster says:
“If anybody is awesome at UI we might have a job for me”
Because we all know that gearbox don’t have anybody with a clue as to what they are doing there at the moment.
19/08/2011 at 17:25 Stijn says:
Aw, can’t we be nice for once?
19/08/2011 at 17:29 CMaster says:
Maybe, but that’s literally all I saw before it ended.
19/08/2011 at 17:24 Evil Otto says:
off air?
19/08/2011 at 17:26 Untitled says:
That didn’t last very long :(
19/08/2011 at 17:28 Keymonk says:
Is it not possible to see it after it’s gone off air? I’ve seen other streams that were later made available as non-live afterwards?
19/08/2011 at 18:00 Askeladd says:
I found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8ISo1vlD4
and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6sRtlsG54k
and this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbRl_lZ1IR8
19/08/2011 at 18:05 Keymonk says:
Thank you!
19/08/2011 at 17:30 coledognz says:
fake reveal is fake.
19/08/2011 at 17:34 Burning Man says:
That was…. disappointing.
Question: “Will there be new guns in Borderlands 2?”
*rolls eyes*
19/08/2011 at 17:40 Jono00 says:
INVISIBLE PONY RIDE.
Where’s the .gif?! You know you want it too!
19/08/2011 at 17:53 Xocrates says:
Did they even show footage of the game?
19/08/2011 at 17:54 Lewie Procter says:
No, but they did reenact a scene from it.
19/08/2011 at 17:56 Tei says:
The good news is that Gearbox can identify the weak points of Borderlands 1, acknowledge about these points, and say Borderlands 2 is built to have these points fixed.
The bad news is that Borderlands 2 looks like Borderlands v1.9.
The good news is that Borderlands v1.9 would be hysterical fun to play.
The bad news is that since Gearbox has this rude exclusive with Gameinformer, we are spoonfed with littel bits of meaningless information, puts to look at artwork and said “Imagine a awesome game”,”Now Borderlands will be like that”.
The good news is that Gearbox achievements deserve this hype.
The bad news is that Gearbox is a console games company. Wen gearbox thinks about a good interface, probably thinks the Halo gui.
The good news is that theres not much to fuck, except having a small fov, and not showing the ammo count.
19/08/2011 at 18:02 Bodminzer says:
Tei should have got the RPS writer job.
19/08/2011 at 18:17 Burning Man says:
He probably still can. They haven’t said anything yet, mind. Though why they’re taking THIS LONG is making me wonder too…
19/08/2011 at 18:29 Tei says:
The awesome thing about RPS is that you can sit here, and read all the news about the gaming world, and you don’t even have to do anything!. You can even lurk in background, and never post anything, and the good stuff come automatically.
19/08/2011 at 19:58 BeamSplashX says:
@Tei:
Then you should be credited as Official VIP Commenter.
19/08/2011 at 22:41 DigitalSignalX says:
The Good news is: Lurk
The Bad news is: *stiffens* awe yeah baby. That’s the stuff.
19/08/2011 at 17:58 20thCB says:
anthony burch yay! XD
19/08/2011 at 18:05 Bodminzer says:
Loved the first (Probably cos I didn’t have to pay extra for any of the DLC due to goatee edition) and all I’m hoping for is not having to pres butan to pick up dosh, and also no more of those fucking batcrows that attack you at waist height in impossible swarms and oh god they’re in my eyes
19/08/2011 at 18:10 Vagrant says:
The important questions are:
Can we have a playable FOV in the PC version?
That was the absolute biggest complaint I had. The FOV was useless, and if you ‘fix’ it in text files it had a ton of problems.
Will the mobs not continue to attack for almost forever?
It takes way too long to clear a spiderant spawn, especially. And those slugs? forget it.
19/08/2011 at 19:40 Starky says:
FYI, there is a borderlands setting program that will auto fix the FOV (by biding it to directional buttons) and a bunch of other useful tweaks.
Borderlands config editor I think.
19/08/2011 at 19:43 UnravThreads says:
It’s not a fix, though. That’s a workaround, and everything I saw when looking into it suggested it’s not perfect.
19/08/2011 at 20:14 Vagrant says:
You have to bind it to a hotkey, and it resets on entering/leaving vehicles as well as on changing areas. What’s more, it warps heavily on the edge of the screen, especially when running, and it will randomly make bullets not go where your crosshairs are until you reset the FOV back to default.
So no, that’s not a real solution, and I still used it for a long time. The not being able to hit things aspect made me quit in the end.
19/08/2011 at 18:12 Lambchops says:
Tundra?!
Will we also have forest, lava, underwater and space?
Time for developers to get imaginative. I propose a game with zones such as:
Lidl zone
Knitting factory zone
(Welcome to the) Danger zone
Duck pond zone
19/08/2011 at 18:18 mrbungle says:
I believe Lidl zone features prominently in Riot Manager 2011.
19/08/2011 at 18:25 Jake says:
I’d like to see more levels made up of sweets and chocolate, like in Robocod, or a level where you ride a sponge across a kitchen sink like in Micro Machines. But I will settle for tundra, tundra is cool too.
19/08/2011 at 19:14 Vagrant says:
Don’t forget Green Hill Zone, Casino Night Zone, Chemical Plant Zone…
19/08/2011 at 19:46 Hedgemonster says:
@Jake: “tundra is cool too.”
Ha! I see what you did there, if it was intentional.
19/08/2011 at 20:49 BeamSplashX says:
Hidden Palace Zone, because it had those sweet green organic bridges that lit up as you ran on them. Though running on water in Hydro City was cool too.
You hear that, Gearbox? I want light-up green water to run on in Borderlands 2!
19/08/2011 at 20:58 Peter Radiator Full Pig says:
(Scrunches up face) Danger Zone!
20/08/2011 at 00:23 banski83 says:
@Jake: Like Zool! Recently dug it and my old Game Boy out a couple of days ago. Need more Haribo Zones in games…
Fry Up World would be a good one too.
20/08/2011 at 01:42 Lambchops says:
Ah good old Zool. Chupa chup sponsered platforming excellence!
20/08/2011 at 02:14 Ammike says:
The second level of (Welcome to the) Danger zone would be called WoooooHooooo DANGERzone.
Edit: Massive reply fail. Please manually insert this comment into its appropriate space.
20/08/2011 at 11:50 Vermintide says:
Scrap Brain Zone.
/obscure thrash reference
19/08/2011 at 18:21 Jake says:
I have to admit I love the Halo way of driving vehicles, cruising around in both Halo and Borderlands is great fun and oddly relaxing. Well, until you have to drive for literally five years to get anywhere in the Secret Armoury DLC.
20/08/2011 at 00:26 Angel Dust says:
Yeah, I’m glad they are keeping the old way as well because while it was a little odd initially, once I got the hang of it I found it much, much easier to run down enemies than the usual driving controls.
19/08/2011 at 18:32 Shooop says:
Don’t forget the invisible pony rides. Disappointingly absent from full game.
19/08/2011 at 19:37 Starky says:
I always thought that as Lilith or Mordecai you should have been able to jump on bricks shoulders and ride him around like a war horse.
Maybe with a small QTE to stay mounted when he went berserk.
19/08/2011 at 22:25 Teddy Leach says:
The alt-text joke is brilliant. I laughed. I cried. It changed my life.
19/08/2011 at 22:36 Pointless Puppies says:
That’s all fine and dandy, but I want to know about the PC version itself. Will it still use the horrendous GameSpy system? What about anti-aliasing? Will it finally support it without completely killing the framerate? Will navigating the UI still be terrible on the PC, requiring Pg Up/Pg Down keys, etc.?
20/08/2011 at 02:31 xavdeman says:
EDIT: nvm wrong thread.
21/08/2011 at 02:21 Wozzle says:
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but “split screen online” doesn’t sound like a good feature at all.
21/08/2011 at 10:59 Keymonk says:
I think they mean that you can play splitscreen locally, but play with online friends as well, at the same time you play with a friend at home as it were.
21/08/2011 at 16:01 Lewie Procter says:
Correct.