360 Rant Rave Forums

Alright, so I have to be honest with you. I wasn’t too stoked about Halo: Waypoint, because I’m really not that big a fan of the franchise. Sure, the little I know of the mythos is pretty cool and I am decent with old school sticky grenade tagging, but I definitely don’t count myself one of the diehards. This is probably why I opted to sleep before scoping out the new Halo Waypoint channel that just went live for the Preview folks.

I woke after a small portion of sweet sleep that followed hours of SMG hunting in Borderlands, hygiened up, pet the dog and the girlfriend, started the last load of laundry, and plopped down in front of the Xbox. Still eager to patch Borderlands before anything else (Lilith needs love!), I bit the bullet and downloaded the Waypoint channel.

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Halloween is inching its way closer, bringing with it promises of “fun size” candy bars and inevitable Michael Jackson costumes. In order to keep with the spirit of things, I’ve mixed up the news today with a Trick or Treat theme! I know, how very Martha Stewart of me!

TRICK: XBL got a mandatory update today, but it probably isn’t what you think. Instead of opening up to the public the features being tested in the XBL Update Preview, this patch instead adds WPA2 support for the Wireless Adapter.

TREAT: Avatar accessories! Take a gander here to check out some clothes and props from LucasArt’s Lucidity, as well as some new additions to the Halloween section of the Avatar Marketplace. Sadly, these aren’t free. If it’s free treats you’re looking for, you’ll be able to find them as Avatar Awards in Valve’s upcoming survival horror title Left 4 Dead 2. Six of the nine awards have been revealed: two L4D2 shirts unlocked through 10 Scavenge mode wins, two Depeche Mode shirts (!!!!!) for saving Gnome Chompski in Dark Carnival, and two zombie hand shirts from killing 10,000 Infected.

Alright, maybe I’m the only ’80s freak here, but I would totally rock the pink Depeche Mode shirt.

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.

Kudos to Xboxhornet’s find that the fairly recent XBL title Splosion Man has been updated to include Avatar Awards. While simple events can trigger reward (breaking glass, for instance) others are more rigorous, to the tune of conquering co-op mode. I think I speak for everyone when I say that it’s about time that we got some avatar accessories that we didn’t (directly) have to pay for; wouldn’t you agree?

Also, here’s a spot from gamerdeals regarding video game deals currently active. Stock up for the holiday season! It’s better to give than to get, so why don’t you give to yourself?

Dust off your Hyper Vipers, friends, ‘cuz Cable is comin’. The time-hopping, baby-saving, MvC2 EZ-Mode beast is coming to Ultimate Alliance 2’s DLC, falling in with Black Panther, Carnage, and Psylocke. There are some pix here.

If it’s more violence you’re wanting, you’ll find plenty in the new Left 4 Dead 2 trailer. Savages!

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!”

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XBox Live Update Preview, or How I Learned to Love My Xbox Just a Little More
So just a few hours ago Jolly, Bender, Vash and I finished the Borderlands campaign in co-op (look for Jolly’s and my upcoming tandem review) and waded into Playthrough 2 with our seasoned bounty hunters. Foraying into a tougher (and suitably more lucrative) Pandora busied us nearly until midnight, when those who have early work decided it was time to end the session. I exited out of the game in order to save my progress, returning to the Dashboard to check for any missed Xbox news while I continued to speak to my companions in Party Chat. I immediately lost connection. I assumed this was due to my wireless connection (as I’ve been able to achieve a weak signal at best between my wireless router and Xbox wireless adapter whilst at home), but this was refuted when I was informed that I had an Xbox Live update to install. Thinking nothing of it, I accepted the somewhat lengthy install, busying myself with internetting until the update finished its nigh 8-minute installation. When I signed back into XBL, however, I initially noticed that my XBox Live channels looked…different.

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A few months back, Microsoft started offering full Xbox 360 games for download via the Xbox Live Marketplace.  This new feature was dubbed ‘Games On Demand’ and offered gamers a way to expand their game library without having to head out to their local retail outlet. 

The idea was sound - and we all know that digital delivery is the future.  We already use it for music and movies; and even for some games prior to G.O.D. (Arcade games, for example).  The problem with these offerings, however, has been the price point.  Let’s look at the prices for the latest games released for G.O.D. as an example:

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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!