A Night With Mad Moxxi

I spent Saturday night in Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, the most recent pack of DLC for Borderlands. I think after playing through about 55 rounds of punishment I can agree with a lot of the reviews circulating out there.

For those of you who don't know, Madd Moxxi's Underdome Riot is Borderland's attempt at a "horde mode" or "firefight" mode. However, they take out any XP progression (though you can still complete the in game challenges which give you XP) and greatly reduce the loot drops. You do earn 2 skill points. There are 3 maps. First you are tasked with tearing through 5 rounds consisting of 5 waves on each map. Once you've completed that, you are given access to the "Larger Challenges"... this ups the investment (and it is that, believe me) to TWENTY ROUNDS. Once you've played through the 5 round sessions, you'll begin to understand how truly ridiculous that is.

Essentially what they've done is create an experience that focuses on just the shooting in the game. I probably enjoy the shooting in Borderlands more than most, but even with that it doesn't quite hold up on it's own. I found as I played through Mad Moxxi that apparently a large part of my love for the shooting was based on the fact that it lead to loot and XP. It was almost Pavlovian. The larger challenges really start to highlight how much you miss the progression. It's a lot of work for a small reward... even for an achievement hunter like me. Even the loot drops you DO get at the end of every round are typically useless if you've played through the game and found some good mainstay weapons.

To make matters worse, if you fail a round you are sent back to the beginning of the previous round. So, even if you're on Round 6 Wave 5 when your party wipes, you will now have to go back to Round 5 Wave 1. This can become incredibly disheartening when you've likely already invested a lot of time by the first party wipe. It's even more punishing in the late rounds of the greater challenges. If players start going down, and you have to drop back a round, the urge to quit is tough to fight off.

Now to give you an idea of the amount of time needed to finish the larger challenges I'll give you a recap of my experience. We first tried it with four level 50 characters. This proved to be idiotic because it made all the enemies level 50 as well. We wiped in the 7th round, dropped back to 6, wiped, then quit (this probably took a little over an hour). About a week later we revisited the larger challenges, only this time the host player used a level 37 character. This made all the enemies level 36 or 37. Our party consisted of a Level 37 Siren, a Level 47 Soldier, a Level 50 Soldier, and a Level 50 Berserker. We managed to make it through all of the larger challenges without wiping... however, it took a total of NINE HOURS. Each one took about 3 hours. We finally shut things down around 4 AM just sick of it... I don't even know why the fuck we did it. I think at some point it was just a mixture of masochism and spite. Or maybe nobody wanted to be the guy to say "hey, this is fucking stupid..." Either way, we did it, and I can't say I'm all that happy about it. I should reiterate here that I LOVE Borderlands.

So, what could have been done differently? I think adding another 5, Mad Moxxi-specific, levels would have helped soften the blow. You don't want this DLC to become a grind farm for players, so you only allow them to gain these five levels within the DLC. You could even make it so that these levels could ONLY be gained in the Underdome. This would make it so that it wasn't a "true" level cap increase (and even if you called it a true increase, would that be so horrible?)... but it would certainly be a great reward for those who powered through all 60 rounds of the larger challenges. They could have also allowed loot drops from enemies... even if they wanted to allow it at a lower frequency it would have helped my motivation a little. Last... why 20 rounds? It just seems like overkill and it stops being fun well before you finish. If they wanted to make it 20 rounds, they could have at least included the option to save after a round so that you could revisit it later (yeah, in case I didn't mention it earlier, there's no way to save your progress mid-challenge)... once you start you're in for the long haul).

So... there you have it. Once again, Borderlands is a game I really enjoy. Mad Moxxi's Underdome riot just didn't do it justice. I'll be keeping an eye out for the next DLC pack... and I hope they wise up and give us what we want: more levels, more skill points, better guns. I'd also like to see the bank from Mad Moxxi patched into the major cities so that you can access your stored items from there as well.

Mechwarrior: Living Legends... ready to make me buy a new PC.

About a week ago, I saw this post over at Kotaku... and suddenly my Mech pants were fitting way too tight. As anybody who knows me, or who reads this site (all 3 of you) know I loves me some Mechwarrior.

Today I took a trip over to the actual Mechwarrior: Living Legends website and found that they had posted a couple of tutorials to run through some of the basics of the game. This only had me further foaming at the mouth. The game is a Crysis mod, so it looks gorgeous... far better, of course, than my fond memories of Mechwarrior 4 (which ran on it's highest setting on my old 400 MHz pentium). From what I can tell by reading around on the site, Living Legends doesn't offer much in the way of telling any part of the Mechwarrior story (it's a multiplayer only affair); however, it does expand into the vehicular combat of the universe. This is something that's never been explored before in Mechwarrior games and I'm interested to see how it works.


The game requires a copy of Crysis (which I don't have) and a computer that can run it (which I also don't have). Actually, I haven't checked out the requirements on Crysis in a while, so it's possible that my new laptop could run it... but something doesn't feel right about playing "sims" on a laptop. If anybody gives this things a spin, I'd like to hear how it works... and of course I'm looking right at you and your fancy desktop computers, Barry.

Mechwarrior: Living Legends is not to be confused with the upcoming "official" Mechwarrior game that released a teaser trailer several months ago... although it does look to be a hell of a gap filler while we wait.

AirstrikeRhino's Complaint Department: Assassin's Creed 2

Assassin's Creed 2 has been around for a few months now... if you played it, you undoubtedly liked it. Everybody liked it right? And why shouldn't you? It's an improvement over the original (so they say) and it's among the last of the big blockbusters for the year. It let you use all kinds of different weapons to slay your enemies... you got to climb around on building, use smoke bombs, use throwing knives... I mean you're an assassin, what's not to love, right?

Well, no game is perfect, and I'll list some of my complaints here. I'll be honest, I found more flaws with the game than the other members of the Axis. I'm toning down my hate in hopes of striking some kind of reasonable debate... or some noble shit like that.

1. Maaaney, Maaaney!

The inhabitants of the city speak a weird form of Italianglish (the Italian version of Spanglish). I'm sure on some level it borders on offensive... but to me it was just annoying. The biggest criminal here was the voice of a citizen screaming "maaaney, maaaney" every time Ezio threw money onto the ground to distract guards and those God-awful lute players.

2. Those God-awful lute players

Yeah, fuck those guys

3. Parkour Learners Permit

Moving Ezio around the world seems like it should be an exciting experience. He's able to climb any building, jump between rooftops, and balance on even the narrowest of beams and posts. This sounds like a formula for greatness... however, for me, it was a formula for utter frustration. I think the last time I even had the urge to throw a controller was at or around the age of 9. I'm 27... and the free running in Assassin's Creed 2 almost brought me back to those 8-bit days of rage (almost... I'm an adult for crying out loud and controllers aren't cheap nor is anything I'd likely hit with it). When moving slowly Ezio was, for the most part, manageable. However, there were many story quests and side missions which required you to move quickly to chase a target or run from pursuit. It was in these moments I would often find Ezio being launch in random directions to fall to his death. I'm still not sure if this was because the controls were too precise or too loose. It seemed like at crucial moments... say, when approaching the edge of a rooftop, the camera would shift ever so slightly. When precision was needed to make a jump at high speed, this would make adjusting difficult. It just seemed to me like the camera rarely stayed directly behind Ezio when free running... which would have allowed for you to simply press forward to hold your bearing when coming to ledges.

Also I understand the desire to show off their physics... Ezio, though super human in his strength, moves much like you would expect a person to move while climbing along walls and dropping from one hanging spot to the next. My problem with this is that I would expect a person trying to perform these super human feats to move very slowly... which Ezio does. He feels more like a lumbering giant... the controls feel very sluggish as you try to climb walls and jump between ledges. Like I said, I understand the desire to show off some realism... but we're talking about a game in which you're reliving the memories of your ancestors via a machine that decodes your DNA (which apparently stores all of your ancestors' memories), you can openly walk around a city wearing a giant assassin's emblem on your belt without drawing much attention even after killing noted city officials, the templars are still an active organization bent on world domination, and wanted signs are placed in locations that nobody but the wanted party will ever see. So, I think we can take a few liberties with the climbing physics for the sake of game pace and frustration reduction.

4. Keep Your Fancy Menus To Yourself

This may be getting nit picky... as I'm sure most of this post is given how well this game reviewed... but one of my biggest pet peeves in a game is slow menus and pause screens. Assassin's Creed 2 tries to add the Animus flare to the menus, but all it does is slow everything down with stylish animations as you click through each page. I don't know much about how these menus are designed, or the programming that goes into the transition from game play to menu browsing. What I do know, is that a lot of games manage to make it seamless so I know it's possible. This is a game in which you bring up the map fairly often to check for mission locations, set way points, and search for treasures. So, a faster transition from game to map/menu would have been greatly appreciated and something I think would have been worth the extra attention.

5. I Didn't Say You Could Keep The Fun

When it really came down to it, I just didn't find myself having much fun while playing the game. The issues with the controls during free running were by far my biggest complaint. At times it left me dreading the next mission for fear of having another chase sequence. I tried to stay away from race mission altogether (though I do appreciate the option of skipping most of those). Walking around the world in general was boring, and having to run back to fast travel stations in order to move between cities, though better than riding that fucking horse everywhere, still seemed unnecessary. I think much of the pacing of the game just seemed too slow for the type of game it's trying to be. Even the parts that were "fast" managed to mess up the pacing with sluggish controls. This made parts that should have been fun, frustrating instead.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! The ending of this year isn't so memorable but here's what the gang has been up to so far. Poops is very busy at work and couldn't even make the party in Houston. Fenris is starting his professional engineering exam refresher course. Rhino had his personal life cut in half and I'm still waiting on this job lead. Hopefully things will turn out for the best in 2010 (pronouced twenty ten) for everyone.

Braaaaaaaains!

I spent most of my weekend achievement whoring in the first expansion to Borderlands, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned. I started off on my own, but was quickly joined by Barry and our friend who sounds like he's from across the pond, Ben (he was born in the states but managed to pillage the accent... well played sir). The easiest way to describe the experience is downright fun and hilarious. From the opening cinematic, to the zombie brains that fly out of your fallen foes, downright to the final battle... The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned keeps you engaged and laughing all the way through.

The story has our adventurers sent off to Jakob's Cove... and island owned by the Jakob's Corporation. As far as I could tell (I admittedly don't read all the quest descriptions... I just want to kill zombies) the Jakob's operation involved turning very very large tree stumps into the fine Jakob's weapons you've all come to know and love. Something has gone terribly wrong, and 97% (this is discerned by the hilarious announcements going on throughout Jakob's Cove) of the population of the island has gone all zombified on us. The adventurers are here to find out just what happened, and to put a stop to the zombie outburst lest it spread to the other 3% of the population.

Much of the expansion has you battling off waves of zombies, of course, as you make your way to different parts of the island. The zombies are often udead versions of other enemies you faced in Pandora, including Lance soldiers, psychos, and midget psychos. There are even zombies who look like giant Frankenstein versions of the Tanks from Left 4 Dead. Many of the zombies will also spit bile at you that slows your walking speed and impairs your vision... also much like a certain special infected in Left 4 Dead. The zombies are much easier to kill than their living counterparts... but this is made up for by the sheer numbers that are thrown at you. However, you'll find killing waves of enemies very satisfying. Head shot kills will reward you with a zombie brain that is used to complete a quest for an undead TK Baha as well as unlock an achievement.

Overall The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a very satisfying and comedic experience. For extra laughs, pay special attention to the announcements made in the small city of Jakob's Cove. It doesn't offer an extended level cap or new abilities... but for those of you looking for a fun new way to grind your character up to level 50... this will more than do the trick. My 2nd playthrough character started the DLC around level 43, as did my buddies. We all ended around level 48. This left us just a few quests away in the main story line from dinging level 50 and satisfying that achievement requirement. Go get this DLC. It's a great excuse to keep shooting and looting, and it will keep you in practice for the new DLC that was recently announced.

What We've Been Up To...

We've been gaming... a lot... probably too much if there is such a thing. I know that Barry has finished Dragon Age: Origins a few time, and Chuck is working on copying that effort. Most of the group has also finished Assassin's Creed 2. I fell behind on that objective because of Brutal Legend and Modern Warfare 2. Chuck and I even dove into Left 4 Dead 2 a little. It's a game we haven't been able to give appropriate attention to, and we hope to remedy that problem as soon as Amazon decides to locate and deliver Barry's copy to him. Below I'll give a few impressions of what I've been playing lately.

Brutal Legend

Brutal Legend was a game I wanted to like. The story is ridiculous, of course, but it's fun and pretty creative. If I hadn't been so late to the Brutal Legend party, the RTS elements would have come as a huge surprise. I used to play a lot of RTS games as a kid on the PC. Consoles can just never get it right, and that remains true in Brutal Legend. The good thing about the RTS battles in the game are also a little bit of its downfall.

In the game you learn guitar solos by finding large statues which teach the solos to you. It's somewhat difficult to tell if this is done by reading the ancient looking text on the statue, magic of some sort, or a combination of the two. Either way, the statues look mean. Some of the solos you learn are attacks, one summons your vehicle... there are even solos that act as debuffs for enemies, buffs for your units, and a couple that help set rally points/call your units to your location.

The RTS battles in the game are referred to as "Stage Battles." This is because you set up a giant stage which acts as a unit generator. The Brutal Legend equivalent of mining or harvesting is setting up merchandise booths to harvest fans. This is where the game kind of forgets the "strategy" element. It's very difficult to select individual units. You have to stand next to them and face them until the "double team" icon shows up in the bottom left corner (the double team function lets you perform super attacks with whatever unit you're facing)... then you hold down Y and issue an order to that unit. It's tedious and can be a real pain in the heat of battle. It seemed like the creators of Brutal Legend understood this... so rather than make unit selection easier, they dumbed down the opponent AI so that you're rarely in any real danger. Most conflicts can be resolved by sending all of your units en masse toward each group of enemies. Even if the enemy manages to destroy one of your merchandise booths (which typically seems to be their primary objective) while you're tied up with another group of baddies, it's typically easy to clean up your current problem, send everybody to the group who took out your merch booth, kill them, and then rebuild. Even with the true spirit of RTS being somewhat stripped by this fact... the battles can still be fun... and there's always something rewarding about DOMINATING your opponent and then over running their stage.

Even with my complaints, Brutal Legend was fun... the side quests are entertaining. The story is funny and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, even when the story has a serious tone. The voice acting adds to the comedic aspect and features the likes of Jack Black, Ozzy Osbourne, comedians Brian Posehn and David Cross.

Left 4 Dead 2

So far I've only spent a small amount of time with Left 4 Dead 2, however, that time was very enjoyable. I only played with one human teammate, so I can imagine that the experience will only get better. We ran through the first campaign mission, Dead Center, and it took us about two hours. I will say that a lot of that time was spent trying to finish the finale as our AI counterparts didn't exactly get the plan we were trying to execute. I really like the addition of the objective based finally as opposed to the first L4Ds method of "just kill a lot of stuff until help gets here." Dead Center has the survivors collecting gas cans to fill the tank of their escape vehicle.

We tried a few tactics, including splitting up to collect cans, but with two AI teammates we found this often left one of us alone and exposed. The AI teammates tended to stick together and only follow one of the human players. Once a few more people we know get the game (and we're lobbying hard) it should allow strategies to be better fleshed out. The AI isn't without merit though. They often knew the quickest way to reach and revive a downed player and were generous with health packs and pills. Even during our attempts to split up, as soon as Chuck or I went down, the AI would immediately set a course to revive.

I look forward to playing a lot more of this game in the near future.


I'll leave my discussion to those 2 games for now. I'm still in the early parts of Assassin's Creed 2, and Modern Warfare 2 has been beaten to death by any and every site out there. Hopefully I'll have more to report soon from our little gaming world.

Borderthief

AirstrikeRhino: Shit guys, that was awesome... I'll pop a turret and everybody heal up.

Humdinger24: Hey check that out... a purple item on the groud.

FenrisWolf82 has received The Most Badass Gun Ever

AirstrikeRhino: I didn't even get to see the stats on that...

PoopsMagee2112: I like pudding.

FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest

Humdinger 24: Josh, where the hell are you?

FenrisWolf82 has received Autoheadshot Head Asploder

AirstrikeRhino: Did anybody else even see that drop?

Humdinger24: Oh shit, what the fuck is that coming for us?

[Skag attacks group]


Humdinger24: Shit, we're getting low on health, Ryan, pop that turret.

AirstrikeRhino: It hasn't refreshed from the previous heal... Josh, use yours.

FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest
FenrisWolf82 has opened a chest

PoopsMagee2112: I like pudding... and health...

Humdinger24: Shit, Josh, what the fuck are you doing?

FenrisWolf82: I'm right here, can't you guys see me shooting that Brute...

AirstrikeRhino: We're fighting a skag!

FenrisWolf82: ... yeah, that's what I said...

Driving Daze

I’ve recently been playing a lot of racing games and I’ve got blurred vision to prove it. The mark of a good racing game is one where I have to remind myself to blink. I’ve played through Dirt 2 and got most of my way through Need For Speed Shift in the past couple of weeks.

Dirt 2 is made by Codemasters who is notorious for long load times similar to that of the Mass Effect elevators. However in this installation, their load times drastically improved. I did install it to my hard drive but it was fast even before that. Dirt 2 has you going all around the world driving every kind of offroad vehicle imaginable. All the car controls are smooth and you can feel how much power you’re giving it when you’re sliding through turns. The scenery is pretty as usual and the dirt and mud effects just as pretty. This game is harder on the brakes. That is, you don’t need to worry about the racing line as long as you’re braking at the right time. Other times you don’t need to worry about the brake at all and hope that physics will do its’ job to keep you alive. The game’s more arcade like than simulation which just lets you care less about your car sometimes. The damage a car can take can be unforgiving and you really want your lights to stay working through some of the night rallycross courses. Overall, I really don’t have anything bad to say about the game. Whether playing online or off, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Need for Speed Shift is a whole different animal. Although the series is headed in the right direction, they still need some work on the playability. A lot of the cars like to sway their back ends and it’s hard for a novice driver to keep the cars going straight. It’s one of those games where you have to buy your car, keep it in your garage, and upgrade its’ individual parts if you want to. There is a slight Forza feel to it but the damage is unrealistic. Once you upgrade the car, it can become too powerful and undriveable. This is a good example of trying to make an arcade and simulation game and getting something in between that is just mediocre. Yes, you have to ease the triggers for braking and accelerating but that doesn’t stop your car’s rear end from sliding. Thankfully you can adjust the downforce but that doesn’t help too much. The idea of the single player is to level up by two methods; precision driving or aggressive driving. You get points for clean passes as well as bumping someone and then passing. This makes the online a joke, filled with drivers who would rather take you out than drive on the road. The upgrading can be pretty enjoyable. You will soon have enough money for any car but the limited garage spaces (which can only be unlocked through leveling up) keep your car buying frenzy in check. The game is $40 now and at this point it’s at most a rental because Forza 3 is coming out in late October.

ODST... Soon.

Tonight's the big night. Halo 3: ODST drops at midnight and I plan to be there. It's been a good long while since I showed up for a midnight release. I believe the last one I attended was with Josh for Halo 2 (Combat Evlovederer?). But tonight, I return to the land of ultimate nerdom that is the midnight launch. I'll be at the Price Plaza Best Buy Location in Katy. I'm hoping to take some pictures and post them tomorrow... which means I'm also hoping for a good crowd to make that possible. Stay tuned... or you know... read this if you stumble across it while trying to look for directions on how to invert your Y axis in whatever game you're playing.

Storm's A'comin.

Well folks, the Holiday season is almost upon us, and it's looking like it's going to be great. I'm not entirely sure what all this talk is about "no games being released"... I feel like I'll already have more than enough to play. Maybe I should even consider finishing up Assassin's Creed before Assassin's Creed 2 hits the shelves... maybe.

All members of The Axis have spent a significant amount of time with Arkham Asylum, and the conclusions about it drawn here are very similar to what you'll read pretty much anywhere right now... that is to say, it's very good. What we can't seem to figure out are the combat challenges. Who are these degenerates scoring high enough to earn the high score medals. Maybe we're not flashy enough... maybe we're just not good enough. Either way, I don't think I have the energy to earn those medals, and I think my friends here are in agreement. However, the game as a whole is a must buy, must play. It been a while since a game has kept me playing that many hours without a break.

I'd say that the game that has me most pumped up at the moment is Halo 3: ODST... I can't even totally understand why myself. I've never been the "fanboy" type when it came to the Halo games. I played them, I enjoyed them. I even spent my fair share of time being called racial slurs by 14 year olds... but I stopped playing Halo 3 about 3 months after the release (and that's a generous estimate). I think what got me most excited about ODST is the new firefight mode... and the moment it hooked me was in Tycho's post over at Penny Arcade. I've become a fan of these non-story co-op modes that seem to be becoming very popular. It started with the Horde Mode in Gears of War 2... I played the SHIT out of that for several months. The best part about it is that if you have a few friends willing to hop in, you don't have to deal with a single 14 year old or racial slur... ok, there are still a lot of racial slurs, but it's from people you know... and sometimes they're even clever! After Gears of War 2 there was Left 4 Dead, which was essentially a Horde Mode all dressed up with a "story." What it really was, was a 4 part Zombie grinder with "get the fuck out of Ryan's way because he will team kill your ass in a heartbeat" written all over it. I blamed all the friendly fire incidents on the fact that I used the old guy... his vision was going to shit. Now, the fun of this non-story co-op trend is coming to Halo... say what you will about the series, or about the community... but there is a lot Bungie has done right when it comes to multiplayer. I'm excited to see what they can do here. Also, and I apologize for making this an after thought, the story sounds pretty interesting. Read this article over at Kotaku for a look into that aspect of the game.

Outside of this we have things like Borderlands, Assassin's Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2 all coming to us in the very near future. I know Barry is pretty excited for a few racing games on the horizon... and I believe he picked up a copy of Need For Speed Shift today. I'll try to get him to say a little something about it later. All this, and I didn't even mention Shadow Complex... I'll just say this: Buy It. Play It.

Aight, I'm out!