Borderlands 2 Preview

One thing is clear, Gearbox Software is really enthusiastic about their fans. Really, really enthusiastic. Oozing gratitude and humility for the success of Borderlands, the team presenting at PAX was eager to show their love and affection for fans - from free copies of the new game to live demonstrations geared towards showing players of the original all the changes made in response to fan feedback, as well as all the good stuff that’s staying the same.

Like guns, lots and lots of guns. Outdoing the sheer quantity of firepower from the first game comes down to dual wield (in any combination) and unique manufacturers. Emphasis was on the Tediore brand, which are highly disposable. It’s encouraged to toss them away (preferably at an enemy, since they’ll explode) after ammo is depleted. Of course, the explosion is bigger if there’s some ammo in the gun, and the more ammo, the bigger the bang! A replacement Tediore gun? Oh that’s just instantly delivered in its place. Vladof guns warm-up slow then fire in a steady stream, AK-style, and Bandit guns have huge - really huge - ammo clips and seem to be pieced together from pub detritus.

This early it’s difficult to judge the success of their efforts in areas like storytelling, but that Gearbox so clearly recognizes the shortcomings in the first game inspires confidence. For Borderlands 2, writer Anthony Burch and creative director Paul Hellquist worked together so that the story and gameplay would complement one another, instead of having the former relegated to lengthy cut scenes wedged between gameplay (and miserable fetch quests). Still, they want story to be something that players can scale to their experience, so whether the player is following closely along or largely ignoring it in favor mission focus, story will be there in a more palatable way.

Characters (you know the crew - Mordecai, Lilith, Brick and Roland) from the first game will be appearing as NPCs with tie-ins to the sequel storyline, and Salvador the Gunzerker and Maya the Siren were shown off in the demo. Beardy Salvador is a fan of dual wield and can easily be a more brawn than brains type of dwarf, but the presenters are quick to point out that he still has a deep skill tree including Overheat, which grants a faster fire rate the longer you hold the trigger. Showing off his skills in the tundra (where Handsome Jack left him, maybe there’s some revenge on the horizon?) the Gunzerker rescues a buddy and sets about disposing of a giant robot.

AI movements are improved, and enemies can (and will) go anywhere in the environment that you can, as well as make use of environment features. The enemy AI improvements amount to squad-based behaviors with commanding units, those that wait for reinforcements after taking too much damage, and units that can repair/heal others. While the AI is a bit savvier it can also be stunned and injured in addition to just plain blown to pieces. Bullymongs, monsters of many arms that like to chuck ice at you, were encountered. There’s still Psychos, and a Nomad Torturer enemy made memorable use of a Psycho midget bandit as a meat shield. By freeing the midget you create a bit of a distraction: the midget picks a fight with the Nomad Torturer (granted, with no great success).

Environments are larger, and make use of a newly discovered color: green. The characteristic wastelands of Borderlands could, after all, get a little monotonous. Now with an arctic icescape and use of that aforementioned “green” color, the team took inspiration from areas like Iceland and the Scottish Highlands in their level design. Perched atop a level’s vantage point, the team was eager to point out that the green you can view in the distance (and everything in between) is someplace that you can walk to - or maybe drive to, as there is a new driving system (including a four-person party wagon) with new wheel physics. Getting where you’re may not be such a struggle, either, with the new mini-map in the upper right and new user interface. The menu screen has been redesigned with the player and split-screen MP in mind, and the quest system revamped so it’s easier to co-op.

Borderlands was a refreshing addition to the shooter genre - the weapon generation, unique art style, RPG elements and solid shooter mechanics are a winning combination. Borderlands 2 is an iterative take, with expanded environments, improved storytelling, and redesigned interface. It follows that if you like Borderlands, you’ll like Borderlands 2 - and if you were on the fence about the series this may well be enough to sell you.

Want more? Check out my interview with Borderlands 2 Art Director Jeramy Cooke! http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...

HaloFest Review

My trip to PAX Prime 2011 was instantly made more complete with the announcement that they were also going to celebrate 10 years of Halo at PAX. I remember the days of playing countless hours of Halo in college and still can't believe it has been 10 years since the launch of Combat Evolved. Getting the opportunity to experience all that is Halo at HaloFest was a dream come true and a great bit of nostalgia.

As I ascend the 2 escalators up to HaloFest, I am greeted by a life-size Warthog replica and the familiar music from Halo: CE. The music sends chills down my body, and I could feel the energy from all of the other Halo enthusiasts in the exhibit. They had tons of LAN setups for everyone to try out the new multiplayer and firefight maps. Within 2 seconds of starting up a free-for-all match on the remake of Prisoner from CE, which is my favorite multiplayer map, I felt at home and quickly recalled the positioning of the catwalks and where the rocket spawn point is. I also played a round of Firefight on a remake of the “Halo” level from the CE campaign. I had never seen or played this re-made map before, but immediately I knew the layout of the map and where the enemies are dropped off because it is exactly like the original. From the brief glimpse of the multiplayer that I experienced, I can only imagine what sort of memories everyone will have the first time they jump into the game.

I attended a panel about celebrating 10 years of Halo with the actors who did the voices of Master Chief, Cortana, 343 Guilty Spark, and Captain Keyes. The panel starts off slowly with Marty O'Donnell talking about each actor and how they worked on old projects like Myth and Oni. He finally discusses Halo, and eventually the huge news came out that Steve Downes (Master Chief) and Jen Taylor (Cortana) had never actually met and been together in the same room before this weekend at HaloFest. The rest of the panel focused on each actor’s feelings about the job, and how surprised they were at how things turned out. Another tidbit that was revealed was that Pete Stacker (Captain Keyes) is also the voice in the Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" commercials, and prepared a special "Real Men of Halo" song about terrible Warthog drivers to perform for everyone (It can be viewed at the 47 minute mark: http://www.ign.com/videos/2... ). It was a funny treat for the audience and shows how the actors are extremely huge fans of the series. After the panel, Marty O'Donnell and the voice actors for Master Chief, Cortana, Captain Keyes, and 343 Guilty Spark signed my copy of Halo: Combat Evolved. This was a one of a kind moment and now I have a rare collector's item to always remember this.

Another panel was about the re-imaging of the campaign for Halo: Anniversary where they discussed how they were working hard to maintain the campaign that everyone knows from their childhood, with glitches, easter eggs, and all. ‘343 Guilty Spark’ is demoed for those in attendance and they began the level in "classic" mode, which looks exactly like the Halo from 10 years ago. After a few minutes, at the push of the "back" button, the dreary gray fog and bland brown trees transform into a bright, florescent purple and green jungle exploding with life. It was amazing to see the huge difference between the exact same game in a split second. You can switch back and forth any time you want, even in the middle of a grenade toss or while reloading. Hitting the "back" button changes the priority of the different graphics engines, which makes for the ease of switching back and forth on the fly. Later, I viewed a short behind closed doors demo of the same level with the newly announced 3D feature that can be enabled anytime from the options menu. Although obviously not viewable in classic mode, it takes a few seconds for the full effect to kick in, and you can still switch back and forth to classic mode on the fly. I've never seen a game in 3D before, but the effect was pretty impressive. Reloading the Needler causes the spikes on the gun to jump off the screen and everyone watching the demo ducked during the first reload, and all of the leaves from the lush jungle create a great depth of field. The 3D graphics seem a little shimmery and I'm not sure if that is normal for 3D tech, nevertheless the game looks to be way more than a simple up-res'd HD remake.

Sunday morning brought the penultimate panel for a Halo fan as 343 Industries hosted a 1 hour on Halo 4. They were coy on obvious story details, but revealed that the next Halo trilogy will be called “The Reclaimer Trilogy,” and showed lots of concept art detailing Forerunner architecture. It also sounds like the Flood will no longer be an enemy since they seem to want to tell a new story in this trilogy. Sotaro Tojima, the audio director at 343, then showed an interesting video about how his team went to dangerous lengths to capture unique sounds. Halo has always been synonymous with great music and sound, and I hope Sotaro can live up to the big shoes Marty O’Donnell has left behind. Next up was a question and answer session, and everyone seemed to focus on story related questions, which obviously 343 were not going to answer, so it was a somewhat wasted Q&A. Someone did get a good nugget of information out of the team when they said that there will be destructible environments, but they didn’t want to make them fully destructible because that strays too far from the Halo gameplay that everyone knows. If I had a chance to ask a question, it would have been about whether they were building an engine from scratch, or modifying the Halo: Reach one. The panel ended with the team showing a new animated video of the different concept art that seems to focus on large, grandiose structures and environments to try and capture the epic feel of Halo. Overall, it sounds like 343 Industries is trying extremely hard to capture the feel and magic that Bungie had when making Halo, and between 200 employees and 3 years of work so far, I think they are well on their way to making a masterpiece.

Chinese Couple Sells All Three Kids to Play Online Games

A young Chinese couple has sold all three of their children in exchange for money to play online Nick jr games at Internet cafes, reports a southern Chinese newspaper.

According to Sanxiang City News, the couple met in an Internet cafe back in 2007 and bonded over their obsession with online video games.  A year later, the parents — who are both under 21 — welcomed their first child, a son.  Days after his birth, they left him home alone while they went to play online agame at an Internet cafe 30 km away.

In 2009, Li Lin and Li Juan welcomed their second child, a baby girl, and came up with the idea to sell her for money to fund their online game obsession.  They did so, receiving RMB 3,000 (less than $500), which they spent entirely shortly after.  The couple then proceeded to sell their first child and got 10 times as much for him — RMB 30,000, or about $4600.

Upon having their third child — another boy — the parents followed in their previous footsteps and also got RMB 30,000 for him.

They were finally turned into authorities when Li Lin’s mother found out what her son and his girlfriend had done.

When asked if they missed their children, the parents answered, “We don’t want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money.”

Sanxiang City Newsreports the couple didn’t know they were breaking the law.