360 Rant Rave Forums

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dyin’ time’s here! The first expansion to the roleplaying shooter Borderlands introduced the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, a healthy helping of Halloween leftovers that debuted closer to Thanksgiving. The ample serving of new enemies, new locations, and new storyline was enough for one or more bounty hunters to tackle. The new content, however, is geared a bit more towards group play.
Read more

In a previous article it was mentioned that Gearbox might have let it slip that the second DLC to their roleplaying shooter was already formulated. It was rumored that the new content for Borderlands would deal primarily with the arena battles that only briefly appeared during the initial story arc. That rumor has now been confirmed by Gearbox itself.

According to Jon Hemingway, Gearbox’s designer for the new content, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot consists of jumping into three new Riot Mode arenas and beating back waves of enemies in conventional shoot-em-up fashion…at first. Then Moxxi steps in with her “Maxims” that stipulate wacky variations that completely change the game, like a “Vampire Rule” that drains your character’s health, but refills it after a kill. Another Maxim by the name of “Shotgun Challenge” boosts the titular gun’s damage while other firearms’ lethality is lessened.

The trophies listed in the earlier article had mentioned small and big tournaments. Hemingway proposed that the small tournaments would take approximately an hour to finish, whereas the bigger, more challenging tournaments would require a whopping six hours or so of playtime. What’s even more rigorous is that progress cannot be saved intermittently, but you can walk away for a breather and come back to it.

Also in this expansion comes the answer to many prayers, to be sure. A bank feature was vaguely mentioned, providing more storage for Pandoran packrats. Instead of SDU, how about skill points? Players can become even stronger, unlocking two more skill points through quests.

Much like Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the new DLC carries a $10 pricetag, and it is due to hit the Xbox 360 on December 29th. Gather up the Christmas card cash and call a few friends, boys and girls…dyin’ time’s here.

Introduction:
Last week while everyone was focusing on how they would digest all that turkey, Gearbox said thanks by revisiting Halloween in the first DLC for Borderlands. The expansion, entitled “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned,” continued with the frantic tempo established in Borderlands. Inviting Vault-hunters to pick up their guns and shake off that Pandoran dust, the new content sets hordes of zombies against the treasure hunters as they get to the bottom of what happened to the once industrious Jakob’s Cove.

Read more

In a Shacknews interview posted yesterday, Gearbox’s Mikey Neumann addressed issues such as the current looting system, DLC, and firemen.

When asked to address the free-for-all loot system (or as I like to call it, that-which-bitchslaps-WoWheads), Mikey touted the honor system that has not seemed to fail him in his own experiences with the game. He admitted, however, that if there is a large enough demand for it then even this can be addressed. “There’s some technical hurdles there that we’re going to have to look at, but obviously whatever people are clamoring [for], we’re gonna try to make it all better.”

In more gamemaster-friendly news, Bioware gave us a little insight into the Dragon Age: Origins Toolset, and it seems pretty deep. While this may be familiar to those who have played games like Morrowind that came with such an extra disc, Bioware’s teaser video seems to portend the capability to tweak even storyline and voice acting elements. If the company’s boast is true, you really can build your own adventures with the Dragon Age Toolset.

By the time we got in with Mikey Neumann, Creative Director for Gearbox, he had whittled his way through 40 or so of the XBL gamertags on his list of preorder pals. We didn’t ask many questions, as he sounded exhausted from constant loot grinding; he told us he’d probably have Randy [Pitchford, CEO/president of Gearbox] handle the PS3 preorders. We joked around a bit in the starting areas of the game, and he even called my gamertag weird (but not as weird as a tag that sounded like “balsamic gorilla”)! Vash shot off the Leviathan (a quest-rewarded rapid fire rocket launcher), surprising Mikey, who apparently hadn’t played much with that particular weapon. He asked Vash to show him the stats on it, and he dropped it to the ground to do so…only to have Mikey ninja it! After handing over the Leviathan, our Pandora guide brought us to the yet unexplored and more dangerous parts of Pandora – the endgame.

In our time with Mikey, we scoured the later levels of the game in attempts to find superloot. He answered a few questions I had, like why Lilith’s Phase Strike was so weak. Maxed out, the ability at the end of the Siren’s Assassin tree should do +800% damage, but that doesn’t seem to yield the big numbers that, say, Mikey’s Mordecai could do with his 17k-30.7k damage critical melee strikes. He assured me that this was most certainly a bug that was going to get patched. It was also refreshing to know (as we were still near the end of just our first playthrough ourselves) that the game’s enemies seem to scale well, redlining Mikey himself a few times.

Before long our time with Mikey was at an end. We didn’t have much loot the first time through, but other members at 360RantRave who made his esteemed list managed to snag him for one more opportunity that proved more fruitful. The weary but good-humored dev allowed those who were still in party to tag along for a second, more successful attempt. With Mikey’s help, we gained a good bit of loot, one particular item being a rocket launcher with close to 1k damage!

We thanked Mikey for his time and for making a great game, making sure to save so we kept our loot drops. We then giddily returned to the dusty wasteland of Pandora, newly equipped with a fresh armament with which to bring pain to the denizens of the Borderlands.

Introduction

Pandora awaits you in this genre-defining RPS, or roleplaying shooter. It’s not often that games can mix and match a variety of genres like spices from an Iron Chef’s signature line, but Gearbox and 2K games have made quite a tasty concoction with Borderlands. Released on North American consoles on October 20th, 2009, Pandora’s denizens bring the pain to your door in the form of acid-spewing creatures, gun-toting psychos, and, to use Mikey’s words, “laserd***” guardians. The Vault is calling, so as Zombieland’s ass-kicking Tallahassee would say, “time to nut up or shut up!”

Read more

With just 2.5 hours left, we’re all anxious to get our itchy triggerfingers on our pre-ordered copies of Borderlands! We’ve been overdosing on spoilers and promos as we count down the minutes ’til midnight. Wanna get in on the action? Here’s a list of US Gamestops holding a midnight release tonight. If you’re not able to get your hands on this gem to play with Jolly, Vash, Bender, or me tonight or in the days leading up to the upcoming Saturday Night Rave, you can pretend you’re awesome by reading up on G4’s launch primer.

Two hours and twenty minutes left!

BORDERLANDS
With a $10 price tag and a scheduled release some time later this year, Borderlands’ first DLC pack, apparently entitled “Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” will introduce new enemies, quests, and gear. Giantbomb.com posts, “Tasked with keeping the workers of Jakobs Cove alive, Dr. Ned (who is not related to Dr. Zed from Fyrestone) does his job a little too well, creating zombies and other abominations that now run rampant in this region. Players will have to work alongside Dr. Ned as they embark on a quest to cure the inhabitants of Jakobs Cove…”

Speaking of Borderlands, XBL Gold members will be able to play with devs on Friday, October 23rd, during the window of 5pm-8pm EST. A list of gamertags to watch for can be found here.

Magic: The Gathering Gets New Content
October 21st will present the first DLC for Duels of the Planeswalkers…finally. By coughing up 400 MSP, you’ll get three new decks, three new unlockable cards for each of the original decks, new Two-Headed Giant levels, three new puzzle levels, a new single-player campaign, and two new unlockable Planeswalkers decks. Being an old Magic: The Gathering player, I found MtG:DotP to be a decent foray into the XBox 360 world, held back by its limited card library and numerous bugs. I might grab this DLC, since it sounds like a good bit of extra content. That depends, of course, upon how many of my friends will still be interested in playing cards on XBox.

GameStop’d?
According to Gamervision, company director Leonard Riggio cashed in 2.3 million shares in GameStop, the equivalent of a cool $60 million. Is this a sign, or is that just paranoia talking? With electronic distribution and other companies peddling used games, is GameStop going to have real contenders? Or did Mr. Riggio just feel like buying a small country?

Buy 2 Get 1 Free!
While I’ve made a couple attempts at finding the supposed 3-for-2 Platinum Hits deal recently uttered by Microsoft, my efforts have not been in vain. Amazon and Toys R Us have buy-two-get-one-free sales running until at least October 17th! I might be a bit too distracted with Borderlands, but sales like this are always worth checking out!

Borderlands
While we anxiously count down to the October 20th release, we can’t help but count ourselves fortunate to have made “Mikey’s List.” As I’m sure you’ve read, Gearbox’s Mike Neumann issued the bonus of being able to play with him if you preorder the game. Not only that, but he’d give you free loot, and playing with him should unlock one of the Achievements. Not bad for putting a fiver down a little early, eh? Well it’s a bit of a setback for Mikey, who is really taking one for the team here. He expected maybe a few dozen, perhaps up to 40-50 players to send in proof of purchase as well as a gamertag so he would know who to look for that first week of release. What DID happen, however, was more along the lines of 200+ gamertags, and a few hundred extra followers on his Twitter, @mikeyface. The rub is that Mr. Neumann isn’t just going to spawn a Supersoaker3000FaceOwningShotgun…he has to farm the loot he’s giving away. Talk about taking one on the chin. My hat is off to you sir. Not only was this an awesome task that you’ve taken upon yourself…but I am not that great at FPS. You’ve got your work cut out for you! Source

Achievement Statistics
Official Xbox Magazine interviewed Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, who claims that easy Achievements can push 10,000-40,000 units. This translates to about $2.4 million in sales just by catering to the Gamerscore fiends. Knowing a few said people who grind out their scores…I’d have to agree with that. Source

Avatar NFL Jerseys
At the (some might say) hefty cost of 320 MS points you will now be able to fit your avatar with a brand-spanking-new NFL jersey. While I think this bit of merchandise is long overdue (as I’m more a fan of football than soccer), it seems a bit too fitting that these jerseys come out on the Avatar Marketplace as purchasable content under the Madden NFL 10 banner. I’d love to don a digital Saints jersey each game day, but I’m not quite ready to let my MS Point bank take that big of a hit if I am only getting a virtual shirt in return. But to each his own.

Joy Ride for XBLA Due before Christmas
Joy Ride, the Avatar-friendly racer debuted at E3, will be f2p (free to play), though customization will be powered by microtransactions. This is similar to what we have seen in Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine’s hybrid f2p/p2p (pay to play) MMO that is catching on as of late. Speaking of Turbine, the company has spent more than $20 million in efforts to develop a 2011-release console-based MMO. Regarding Joy Ride, however, new content (including animations) will be available as purchasable DLC. I guess if you’re willing to shell out a few hundred or thousand MS Points for Avatar clothes, you’d also be willing to do the same to pimp your digiride.
Source

Hydrophobia to See Episodic Release
This XBLA title, developed by Dark Energy Digital, will be broken down into five-hour segments, to be distributed over the course of a year. The number of episodes to the water-based puzzle/action game will depend upon players’ feedback. Anyone got an eye out for it?

IL-2 Sturmovik DLC
The first DLC for Birds of Prey is now live. This content grants six more single-player missions, and it also puts the player in the cockpit of a new set of wings, the American P47D. Set at 400 MS Points, this could help make the skies a little friendlier. Well, I guess if you’re on the right side.

Last.fm
Here’s a bit of news on Last.fm, the radio accompaniment to the new social networking-friendly XBL additions coming this year. Gold users will have unlimited free, albeit ad-supported access to the radio service, while Silver users will have to sit through video advertising for their limited access of 3 hours a month. There will also be a premium subscription service that will be commercial free and highly customizable. Current Last.fm prices are $3/month, so there’s a good bit of variety here.

As always, stop by the forums to rant, rave, or win goodies, like a Fallout 3 Premium Theme or a PAX Avatar shirt via referral bonus!

So Gearbox’s very own Mikey Neumann made a promise to play borderlands with anyone that preorder Borderlands today. Well that promise has been extended to anyone who has preordered Borderlands by 10PM Central time tonight.

You might be thinking to yourself now, ‘Jolly how can we play with Mikey?’ You are in luck friends the way to get to play with Mikey is simple. Just take a picture of your receipt and send it to him and your gamer tag via twitter @mikeyface. Its that simple. You can use any hosting site, such as imageshack to upload the image, and tinyurl to shrink the url and do it.

For the official discussion of this event and all of its hilarity check out the official Gearbox thread here and our thread here.