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[Heavy's Sandvich]

So theyre making alien colonial marines instead?

sounds like they couldn't get the right deal rather than turning it down outright.

 

[Sethos]

Borderlands is an decent enough but the writing is terrible and nothing interesting ever happens in it.

Someone doesn't have friends to play with I see.

 

[BibiMaghoo]

Do we have any idea if it was the Vita game they were approached to do?

 

[Saty]

Maybe they will regret that after Aliens bombs :x

 

[NullPointer]

Someone doesn't have friends to play with I see.

Don't need em. Game is still awesome, and you can appreciate the writing and world design touches more.

Co-op cranks everything to 11 though, and turns every fight into awesome madness.

 

[Tain]

CoD hasn't been shaking things up much iteration to iteration but I'd take pretty much any of the post Modern Warfare games over either Borderlands game.

 

[Sethos]

Don't need em. Game is still awesome, and you can appreciate the writing and world design touches more.

Co-op cranks everything to 11 though, and turns every fight into awesome madness.

Oh I agree, Borderlands 2 is amazing all-round but Co-op takes that game above and beyond so many other games.

 

[morningbus]

B2 isone of the best game this gen and way better than CoD

Nonsense.

BL2 is actually pretty good what makes you say that?

Didn't every critic love that game?

What the F? BL2 is one of the best games this gen..

I'll post what I've said previously about the game:

I'm willing to accept that the terrible gameplay is a subjective opinion, stemming from my hatred of the loot-whore "genre" (and only further exacerbated by the fact that Borderlands 2 has terrible loot), but the terrible writing is basically objective truth, even if we accept the premise of "lol, videogame stories are always bad"

I'd believe the theory of gravity to be no longer true before I accept anything less than Borderlands 2 having some of the worst writing and sense of humor in videogames.

For more expansive reasoning, I'll default to Snuggler's excellent critique:

If I had to shit on a more popular and acclaimed game than RE:ORC, I'd have to go with Borderlands 2. That's a sixty dollar purchase that really burned me.

A game that tries and fails to be humorous and edgy with it's crass and unfunny characters and dialog.

An open world game with a large, but barren map with no incentive to explore.

An RPG with fairly limited and binary character building and predictable, MMO-esque quest design.

A first person shooter with monster closets out the ass and brain dead AI. There's no thought put into encounter design and combat often feels like a mindless slog.

A co-op game that doesn't allow players to work together in any meaningful way.

What is there to like, aside from the loot? And even then, so much of it is junk, aside from the novelty of collecting guns as loot it's not a particularly great loot game.

 

[Dark Octave]

Do something different? With Call of Duty? A property owned by Activision?

I don't think he dissed the game either. I can't find that he said anything negative about it.

Basically saying it's too easy. It'll be a cash grab. We're above it. Let them scrubs fight over the ham sandwich! We doin' bigger thangs! We making wider moves, yo!

But, why should they? They already created their own franchise with their own tech. It's theirs and theirs alone.

Call of Duty is a shared franchise, and the fans don't care that multiple studios work on it. They'd gain little recognition for making a new entry in the series, and any improvements they make will be adopted by the next studio that works on the subsequent CoD.

Unless they need money, Gearbox should never work on the franchise.

Then that's what he should have said. We already have our own established tech that we are familiar and comfortable with.

I can respect that.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Hmmmm.... Now where did Infinity Ward get all that tech from... Thin air, you think?

I don't wanna downplay their work, it's a very nice engine and I deeply appreciate the focus on performance because to me that matters IMMENSELY in a shooter. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Infinity Ward did NOT build that engine from scratch. Lets not deify them just because they're mostly dead.

Modern cities are built upon the foundations of ancient cities; such is the way of life.

I'm just saying: IW overhauled the engine, and made it next-gen (current-gen) ready. Treyarch just built a new district in the city called CoD Zombies. Their biggest contribution to the franchise was the branching single-player; now that is worth praise.

Do we have any idea if it was the Vita game they were approached to do?

No. Treyarch worked on the first incarnation of the Vita game, then it was scrapped and given to Nihilistic.

 

[Toa TAK]

That's good. If they don't earn anything out of it themselves- personally, then I'm glad they turned it down. At this point, people just buy and play the game and don't really care much for the franchise as a whole. At least, if you're going by your average dudebro.

 

[NullPointer]

For more expansive reasoning, I'll default to Snuggler's excellent critique:

Wow. Wrong on every point, although appreciating the writing is subjective.

 

[MNC]

Going into this thread i knew randy would have an opinion like oh were not gonna do standard cod games, were special! Gearbox is a great studios, but they dont really have system sellers, so to speak... i think they couldve done something neat with cod.

 

[morningbus]

Off topic, I know... Do you think it's a lot better than the first? I skipped it because that game lost its luster really quickly for me. Repetitive fights, empty world...

Those elements have not improved at all.

Wow. Wrong on every point, although appreciating the writing is subjective.

It's subjective in the sense that someone can put feces into their mouth and say it tastes great.

In every other case it is objectively terrible.

 

[Ahasverus]

Bad decision. It would had meant zero effort and lots of money for exciting new projects. Probably the best CoD too.

I am dissapoint.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Someone doesn't have friends to play with I see.

Playing it with friends doesn't make it a better game, you're still grinding your way through enemy after enemy without any real strategy or planning. It just makes it's shortcomings tolerable. At least its good at making the player feel good about themselves.

 

[NullPointer]

Going into this thread i knew randy would have an opinion like oh were not gonna do standard cod games, were special! Gearbox is a great studios, but they dont really have system sellers, so to speak... i think they couldve done something neat with cod.

Didn't they have some cartoonish Brothers in Arms spin-off in the works?

In every other case it is objectively terrible.

Sure. But my group did strategize, speccing our classes, loadouts and power usage to attack the problem at hand, while cracking up every few minutes from shenanigans. Some quests can only be discovered through exploration as well, along with loot chests and special bad-asses.

Just going to say the game was not for you, or you didn't find the groove. But to say the game lacks all of these qualities which it certainly has, is incorrect.

 

[The Tofunator]

Off topic, I know... Do you think it's a lot better than the first? I skipped it because that game lost its luster really quickly for me. Repetitive fights, empty world...

It's basically the same game but with more jokes that are only funny about half the time.

 

[yankeehater]

To bad they didnt do it. I would love to see what they would have done with a CoD game. BL2 is one of the very best games this gen and I bet they could have brought some great ideas to CoD.

 

[SpudBud]

Hopefully they end up making a next-gen BiA set during the battle of the bulge.

 

[Atomski]

Ugh... all we need is Activision sucking up more developers to make more COD. Good on Gearhead.

 

[Sethos]

Off topic, I know... Do you think it's a lot better than the first? I skipped it because that game lost its luster really quickly for me. Repetitive fights, empty world...

Miles better. I've tried a few times getting into the first but the gunplay is pretty dire and the overall atmosphere and feel of the game just didn't hit home with me. I only recently picked up Borderlands 2 because me and a friend were desperate for a good co-op experience as that market seems pretty dead and we were blown away.

Lots of fun, really challenging unlike most co-op experiences, gunplay is quite good, love the constant change of scenery which has a nice atmosphere and the humour isn't going to win any intellectual prices but it just hits home when two friends want to relax on a Friday night, have a few laughs. Lots of fun and great missions, love the tactical element in speccing out with a friend and using each others abilities to get through the carnage because it does get hairy sometimes.

Excellent game in my opinion, best co-op game in years and it's nice to play a game that doesn't take itself serious sometimes.

Playing it with friends doesn't make it a better game

Yes it does, you should try it.

 

[Sanctuary]

Are they, though? Borderlands 2 doesn't prove it.

What game did you play? Borderlands 2 had some of the best dialogue of any game released in 2012. Hell, it was worth a purchase for that alone.

 

[Sentenza]

Orrrrr, Activision takes all the money.

That would be my guess as well.

 

[Marcel]

Better than = Call of Duty
Not better than = Duke Nukem Forever, Tiny Tina, chintzy internet comedy writing, loot games

No gain.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Yes it does, you should try it.

I played a bunch of the first game in coop and it felt exactly like the single player except another guy was shooting the enemies as well and we could chat to each other. I didn't feel like adding other people changed the game's dynamic in any way.

 

[morningbus]

Yes it does, you should try it.

I played with 4 very close friends - friends I managed to eek out enjoyment from Revelations 2012 with -- and we all came to basically the same conclusion that the game is boring and a chore.

What game did you play? Borderlands 2 had some of the best dialogue of any game released in 2012. Hell, it was worth a purchase for that alone.

As a thought experiment, let's pretend that everything but Tiny Tina is funny: the game is still the least funny thing I've encountered in at least 2 or 3 years.

Now, bring it back to reality: everything in the game is only marginally funnier than Tiny Tina. It's seriously terrible. If I wanted to have tired memes force-fed to me, I'd go to /r/adviceadnimals

 

[Alex]

If you think Borderlands 2 is just more of the same you have no idea what kind of mechanics make a loot game good. The amount of reiteration, rebalance and polish to the systems was amazing, itemization alone was shot up an incredible degree, before even getting into the skill, effect and character design overhauls. Plus the fact that the actual shooting model is actually good now and top it all off with a much better paced and varied campaign, one with an actual end game and proper difficulty scaling, and it made for a much better experience.

I don't usually go after anyones tastes or bother to argue much, because I usually don't care, but in my mind you have to have some truly fucking weird priorities if you're veering towards BL1 over BL2. Honestly, BL1 was kind of a piece of shit, it worked as a good show of concept but was so bland, so empty, so poorly tuned with terrible classes and one sided item-work it just wasn't that fun to play until the DLC hit.

I slammed on BL2 all year, expecting it to be a bit of a mess like the original, and instead I put more time and came away happier with it than TL2 or D3, that's the mark of a damn good game.

 

[Evolved1]

Their last BiA game was horrid (at least on PS3), Borderlands are pretty boring games held up almost entirely by co-op, and Aliens looks to be pretty shitty.

Maybe they were just afraid of the backlash if they fucked up the most popular gaming franchise in existence.

Especially looking back at the heat they took over the Halo debacle.

Probably just scared of CoD.

 

[Sethos]

I played with 4 very close friends - friends I managed to eek out enjoyment from Revelations 2012 with -- and we all came to basically the same conclusion that the game is boring and a chore.

Which game are we referring to, I'm talking about BL2.

 

[Zaventem]

What game did you play? Borderlands 2 had some of the best dialogue of any game released in 2012. Hell, it was worth a purchase for that alone.

Meme spouting isn't the finest of anything, and it's on par with duke nukem forever.

 

[pedrothelion]

Fixed.

That's like saying Valve's games with the Source engine are actually just using the Quake engine. Just because some old code remains doesn't mean it's still the same engine.

 

[Vilam]

BS. Anything can be a challenge. Instead of dissing the game, do something different with it while still pleasing existing fans and adding new ones. There's your challenge. How about taking it upon yourself to improve on it. There's your growth.

Right, I'm sure that's what Activision would have wanted from them. You know... those people writing the contract, paying the bills, setting the deadlines, and approving the direction of the project at every milestone?

Good for Gearbox. They've proven they can develop their own hit IP, they don't need Call of Duty.

 

[morningbus]

Which game are we referring to, I'm talking about BL2.

BL2.

I tried playing BL1 with the same group, too. But I honestly couldn't keep going (they managed to finish it, however.) So I will give BL2 that: it's gameplay is better than its predecessor's. But that isn't saying much from me.

 

[RionaaM]

BS. Anything can be a challenge. Instead of dissing the game, do something different with it while still pleasing existing fans and adding new ones. There's your challenge. How about taking it upon yourself to improve on it. There's your growth.

What's the point? If they were going to change so much of the game that it'd become unrecognizable, they'd be better off developing a game of their own.

 

[Alex]

Meme spouting isn't the finest of anything, and it's on par with duke nukem forever.

Can you give me an example of all of these meme's that were spouted outside of reactionary
bits and little passive jokes? Handsome Jack was probably one of the best written villains we've had thus far in this medium, in my opinion. Granted, short fucking list, but the game struck a good balance of when to be asinine and when to be genuinely entertaining, I'd say.

 

[RocketDarkness]

Here's the difference I've experienced in Black Ops 2 versus Borderlands 2. In BO2, I can grind for experience and unlock tokens to access better or more interesting weapons. In BL2, I can grind for experience and loot to get a shitty shotgun with a sniper scope. They're both massive grindfest timesinks, but at least in BO2 I'll actually be rewarded properly.

Oh, and the writing for Borderlands 2 is atrocious. Claptrap is physically painful to listen to, and Jack makes a bunch of monkey cheese lolrandom jokes about diamond-studded ponies.

EDIT: Actually, I realized the perfect way to describe it. It's like they wanted to imitate the Portal series without understanding what made Portal funny, resulting in writing on the level of Tim Buckley.

 

[Sethos]

Meme spouting isn't the finest of anything, and it's on par with duke nukem forever.

Memes? Where?

BL2.

I tried playing BL1 with the same group, too. But I honestly couldn't keep going (they managed to finish it, however.) So I will give BL2 that: it's gameplay is better than its predecessor's. But that isn't saying much from me.

Guess we'll agree to disagree.

BL2 is amazing.

 

[MikeE21286]

You'll get no credit for making CoD, only tarnish if you're the guys that fuck it up.

 

[MrCunningham]

Probably the wisest move they've made.



Didn't they like, simply finish that off development wise and didn't it wind up selling like two million copies?

Also Randy Pitchford was an employee of 3D Realms during the Duke 3D days was was briefly part of the initial development for Duke Nukem Forever during its early development. Also quite a few employees from 3D realms ended up at gear box over the years... Even though they did make a profit by "polishing" and releasing the game, I think there was also a bit of a need to finish the game just because of the notorious nature of its development. There was a bit of a novelty to it, I think.

Meme spouting isn't the finest of anything, and it's on par with duke nukem forever.

As much as I enjoyed Borderlands 2, I can't argue with this. Some of that dialogue was rather cringe worthy.

 

[bangai-o]

Good, they're better than that

really? its been over 5 years in development and the Aliens game is looking pretty bad.

 

[Takamura-San]

Are they, though? Borderlands 2 doesn't prove it.

As someone who deeply enjoyed BL1 and finished it solo and Coop. I have to say that BL2 is my most disappointing game of 2012.

 

[lupinko]

Duke Nukem Forever

Most of that was by 3D Realms.

 

[Foxtastical]

I'll post what I've said previously about the game:



For more expansive reasoning, I'll default to Snuggler's excellent critique:

Christ, stop acting like your opinion contains some objective truth. You don't like the game, cool. Totally valid.

I agree though. Fuck BL2's humor. However, while I really dislike the humor, I understand that I'm clearly not the audience that were creating that type of humor for. Oh well. Luckily, I found other things to love in the game.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

It's subjective in the sense that someone can put feces into their mouth and say it tastes great.

In every other case it is objectively terrible.

Do you eat shit?

 

[WrenchNinja]

Most of that was by 3D Realms.

Well its under yhem, so theyre not above anything.

 

[XenoRaven]

Basically saying it's too easy. It'll be a cash grab. We're above it. Let them scrubs fight over the ham sandwich! We doin' bigger thangs! We making wider moves, yo!

Well I think we have a difference of opinion on what the Call of Duty franchise is, and the level of creative license Gearbox would be given.

I DO think it would be a cash grab, and I DO think they're doing bigger things (creatively at least), and I DO think Call of Duty is a great franchise for newer studios to tackle because they can gain experience while sticking to an established formula. There's no point in hiding it if that's the way he feels.

Also, I don't look at the game industry like I do the rest if the software industry. People usually get into game design because they're passionate about games. If Randy doesn't feel passionate about a Call of Duty game and he doesn't think it would be a good fit for his studio then there's really nothing wrong with that.

 

[morningbus]

Christ, stop acting like your opinion contains some objective truth. You don't like the game, cool. Totally valid.

I'm obviously being playful with the terms. I understand what subjective, objective, and truth mean.

Having said that, BL2's writing is irredeemable and objectively terrible.

Do you eat shit?

I did while playing Borderlands 2. I choked the whole fucking turd down while everyone else was clanging their knives and forks together asking for more.

 

[subversus]

Fixed.

yeah, you're certainly right
it's like saying "this car (Ferrari) uses a combustion engine which was developed by Étienne Lenoir 150 years ago".

 

[Acinixys]

Do you eat shit?

But i feel that a lot of others didnt