Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There’s been a lot of people asking questions about Borderland’s intricacies over in the Co-op impressions thread yesterday. Specifically, how much of an RPG it actually is. Well, the what-is-an-RPG always opens a particular can of debate, but in terms of character development, that they’ve lobbed the character skill tress online can give you a handle of the whole action/RPG mix. Here’s sneaky-lady Lilith , heavy-frenzied mouthbreather Brick, camping-bastard Mordecai and the hilariously inappropriately named Roland. And some further explanation follows…
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This week we’ve had a chance to play through the beginning of Borderlands, courtesy of 2K Games. What follows are some preview impressions of that co-op experience. We expect to unleash a full RPS Verdict on the game later this month.

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The latest Borderlands trailer is turgid with game footage: terrain, buildings, vehicles, bad-dudes, ‘splosions. It also takes an opportunity to introduce the four characters, with the soldier seemingly being all about guns, the siren doing stealth and area-of-effect stuff (possibly?), the hunter doing headshots, and Brick having some bolt-encrusted fists. Four-player co-op is the new two-player co-op, it seems. And I’m firmly in the pro camp on that art style. I even wrote an article about it.
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Looks like Gamespot managed to get first dibs on the new Borderlands trailer – I’ve posted it below. Lots of splattery monster killing, some bits and pieces of game footage, and plenty of random post-apocalyptic carnage. There also appears to be a comedy robot. Borderlands is, as someone pointed out in the previous release-date post, being sold as a role-playing shooter: an RPS.

Does that bode well? Go take a look.
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Gearbox big chief Randy Pitchford was grabbed by GameTrailers and he unloaded his explanation of Borderlands, which you can see below. What’s interesting about this is how the pitch for the game has subtly changed. Originally it was much more “co-op shooter with loads of guns”, and now it’s “concept art shooter with RPG elements”. Pitchford flags up Fallout 3 and Bioshock, but the game footage that accompanies his chatter demonstrates that the game is nothing like either of them, in fact it’s got more of a multiplayer feel going on, and I wonder to what extent the FPS-Diablo-with-guns principles of it are actually going to make the game into a kind of co-op dungeon crawl. The persistent character stuff still intrigues me, and although I’m less excited about this game than when it was announced, I’m looking forward to the October release.
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Continuing the coverage of the E3 event in Los Angeles, which somehow seems to have started on the internet almost a week before it’s due to start in the real world, we have the Borderlands trailer. I rather expected them to remake the original trailer in the new engine, but they did not. Shame. And I am totally doing a trailer poll at the end of all this, and not for the best one, for the worst. Who made the biggest waste of corporate airtime this year? You can decide. I think this will be somewhere in the middle, because it does at least show fragments of game footage. And don’t get me started on this increasing footage-free teaser-trailer trend! (Chokes on pickle sandwich, oh God, must post before unconsciousness…)
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Beneath the cut is the launch trailer for Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, which shows some of the game’s Unreal 3.0 prettiness, although of course none of the solid level design and splendid tactical puzzle-solving that actually makes it so satisfying to play. I can say that with a level of certainty because I’ve had lots of time to play the preview version of the game, and I suspect it’s a better campaign that anything else so far. One thing that’s probably worth mentioning at this stage is that it doesn’t have co-op, as was reported earlier in the year. A little disappointing, perhaps, especially when the co-op skirmishes in Earned In Blood were so solid. The game is out on PC in North America on the 30th of September, and in Europe on the 3rd of October.

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This latest trailer for Hell’s Highway is long and detailed, with loads of commentary and explanation from the development team. It covers the change in tactical balance to make the player-commanded squads more powerful, the destructible scenery, the gore, and the tweaks in detail that make the game more realistic. I’ve been lucky enough to play an early version of this, and I’m enormously excited. Not only because it’s clearly going to be a splendid game (and like the best BIA so far) but also because it proves just what a mature, competent studio Gearbox are now. It bodes very well indeed for their other title, Borderlands. Anyway, you’ll want to watch this trailer, after the jump.

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There’s nothing more fun than helping a friend shoot some Nazis, and I happen to know that to be factually true. Lucky for all of us, then, that Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway features nothing but the teamwork required to gun down the 1940s’ naughtiest nationalists. The following trailer shows off some of the action from later stages of the game. If you happen to be a reader of PC Gamer UK you can read my thoughts about the Gearbox game in the forthcoming issue. (The Spore review cover, which is spilling over with general excellence.) Anyway, trailer:
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This week we had a chance to put a few questions to the producer fellow from Gearbox’s upcoming sandbox science fiction shooter, Borderlands. Simon Hurley, for that is his name, talked a little about the game world, the vehicular combat, the four-player online co-op campaign, how the story will unfold in a non-linear environment, and the testing nightmares involved with having half a million weapons…
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Gearbox bossman Randy Pitchford says: “One of the things about videogames and story-telling is, well frankly I think the entire industry in the Stone Age.” The evidence from this trailer suggests that Gearbox are pushing for more of a Bronze Age with their new game, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, which is yet another game this year that I’m actually really keen on playing. Not sure if I really give a damn about the story though, and the idea that Gearbox have based its soldiers on the lives of real soldiers who fought in Market Garden, well that makes me feel a little uncomforable. I’m not even sure why. Interview-heavy trailer after the jump.

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