Video Games: Gears of Borderlands

[Jon AS]

I never got into the X series, even though I bought the first one when it came out and picked up all of them through various bundles and sales. I really shoudl get on that one of these days.

Currently Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is scratching my space sim itch. It's very much Wing Commander: Privateer with a modern coat of paint and some additional mechanics (and rock music). Seriously, it's eery how much the flight and combat mechanics resemble the Wing Commander games. There's even that little bug/feature where your ship never quite reaches the speed you set and instead stays one point short of maximum...

It's also made by a tiny studio and I find the fact that there's not too much stuff to do rather encouraging. For example there are apparently only five different ships (and just like in Privateer, there's not one "best" ship; rather you get to pick one that suits your playstyle) and I've managed to work myself up to the most expensive one relatively quickly. Of course I've completely neglected the story missions so far and so I can't actually say anything about that aspect of the game.

[Toth]

19 hours ago, Jon AS said:

I never got into the X series, even though I bought the first one when it came out and picked up all of them through various bundles and sales. I really shoudl get on that one of these days.

If you do, tell us how well you fare! XD I know it is extremely hard to get into, but when I lended someone my copy of X2 back in my high school years he absolutely loved it. These games are absolutely fascinating.

Which X-games do you have again? I ask that because there is about half a dozen X3's and I still think for a beginner Terran Conflict or Albion Prelude might be the best choice. Then again, I myself have so far only played X Beyond the Frontier, X2 The Threat, X3 Terran Conflict and X-Rebirth. Here my thoughts:

X Beyond the Frontier: The original first game... played quite differently to the later ones. You are nailed to the Terran ship you are stranded in and have to painstakingly restore the wreck to its former glory starting with 1000 credits and nothing else. The beginning is atrociously hard and frustrating. Have I mentioned that saving the game costs 100 credits? The ability to buy other ships was only added in an add-on. Of course the boxy graphics aren't much to look at by today's standards.

X2 The Threat: The first game in which you play Julian Brennan, the son of the stranded test pilot of the first game. You start in a tiny scout-ship and unlike Beyond the Frontier there is a somewhat interesting story campaign (that you are unlikely to finish because of how bugged it is). The different peoples of the galaxy are more fleshed out and their ships start to look different, even though they often still include some eerily similar cockpit parts for some insane reason. It's also the first game to introduce the Kha'ak as a new generic evil enemy next to the Xenon (descendants of a rogue fleet of Terran AI terraforming ships) and the usual pirates. The Kha'ak look awesome with their swarm ships, but can be very frustrating to fight when ganging up on you. Which they always do because that's their thing. The graphics are still a mix of 3D ships and 2D cockpit, but it has quite a charm to it and the galaxy is still small enough that you find your way around very quickly. It was my first X game and I must admit it caused me take notes about all the prices of products I saw while travelling around until I had a grasp on what is profitable and what not.

X3 Reunion: The last game involving Julian seeking Earth. The game had a bit of a rough start and introduces X3's odd decision that ships don't have visible cockpits anymore, which is a damn shame. Otherwise it has the same gameplay strengths as X2 with heavily overhauled graphics. X3 looks decent even today. Every ship is now totally unique (though also somewhat jarringly different... I miss the Argon Titan looking like the ships from Starship Troopers or the Boron Dolphin making swimming motions). In any case, the other X3 versions I can recommend from personal experience far better.

X3 Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude: Two games that have the largest galaxy in the game series to date, what with more than a hundred sectors including Earth. Outside of the major nations it also includes small factions like religious sects, mega corporations or remote independant colonies each with their own story quests that will unlock unique ships and buildings. Unlike the previous titles these ones also have several dozen different starting positions. Choosing your race and biographical background heavily influences how other races perceive you at the beginning, in line with the usual alliances in the game (Argons and Borons are allied and enemies of the alliance of Split and Paranids, while the Teladi merchants like everybody and the Terrans barely tolerate anyone). It's hard sometimes to even get a docking clearance from a race that hates your guts and the Terrans shoot you out of the sky if you try to enter the solar system uninvited. The starting conditions however also make starting out significantly easier if you take someone who already owns a freighter or a heavy fighter for example, skipping the part of having to dart around in a tiny scout ship earning meagre bucks in taxi quests before you can buy a run-down second-hand ship that falls apart when you look at it too sternly. Not that this way of working your way up isn't bringing its own fun of course. Albion Prelude's only (to me) noticeably new mechanic is a stock exchange that pretty much allows instant abuse by ruthless players who want to make money out of nothing.

X-Rebirth: Pretty hopeless game. I played it for a weekend when Steam had it playable for free and it's ridiculously drab. It is a throwback to X1, having you chained to one ship only (though you can own and command others). They have revamped the universe (justified in-universe by the portal network shutting down, forcing every sector to fend for itself) and it looks gorgeous and it allows you to leave your ship and 'explore' space stations (even though they are all empty and look the same), but it just isn't any fun whatsover because never have the feeling to work for something shiny you want to own and every little thing takes forever. But hey, cockpits are back for this one and X4!

Now X4 reintroduces many features that made X3 so great and combines that with a significantly more powerful station editor (instead of dropping stations next to each other on a 2D map and hoping that they don't collide or accidentally block their docking ports before connecting them), even more free movement within ships and stations.

[Derfel Cadarn]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

If you do, tell us how well you fare! XD I know it is extremely hard to get into, but when I lended someone my copy of X2 back in my high school years he absolutely loved it. These games are absolutely fascinating.

Which X-games do you have again? I ask that because there is about half a dozen X3's and I still think for a beginner Terran Conflict or Albion Prelude might be the best choice. Then again, I myself have so far only played X Beyond the Frontier, X2 The Threat, X3 Terran Conflict and X-Rebirth. Here my thoughts:

X Beyond the Frontier: The original first game... played quite differently to the later ones. You are nailed to the Terran ship you are stranded in and have to painstakingly restore the wreck to its former glory starting with 1000 credits and nothing else. The beginning is atrociously hard and frustrating. Have I mentioned that saving the game costs 100 credits? The ability to buy other ships was only added in an add-on. Of course the boxy graphics aren't much to look at by today's standards.

X2 The Threat: The first game in which you play Julian Brennan, the son of the stranded test pilot of the first game. You start in a tiny scout-ship and unlike Beyond the Frontier there is a somewhat interesting story campaign (that you are unlikely to finish because of how bugged it is). The different peoples of the galaxy are more fleshed out and their ships start to look different, even though they often still include some eerily similar cockpit parts for some insane reason. It's also the first game to introduce the Kha'ak as a new generic evil enemy next to the Xenon (descendants of a rogue fleet of Terran AI terraforming ships) and the usual pirates. The Kha'ak look awesome with their swarm ships, but can be very frustrating to fight when ganging up on you. Which they always do because that's their thing. The graphics are still a mix of 3D ships and 2D cockpit, but it has quite a charm to it and the galaxy is still small enough that you find your way around very quickly. It was my first X game and I must admit it caused me take notes about all the prices of products I saw while travelling around until I had a grasp on what is profitable and what not.

X3 Reunion: The last game involving Julian seeking Earth. The game had a bit of a rough start and introduces X3's odd decision that ships don't have visible cockpits anymore, which is a damn shame. Otherwise it has the same gameplay strengths as X2 with heavily overhauled graphics. X3 looks decent even today. Every ship is now totally unique (though also somewhat jarringly different... I miss the Argon Titan looking like the ships from Starship Troopers or the Boron Dolphin making swimming motions). In any case, the other X3 versions I can recommend from personal experience far better.

X3 Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude: Two games that have the largest galaxy in the game series to date, what with more than a hundred sectors including Earth. Outside of the major nations it also includes small factions like religious sects, mega corporations or remote independant colonies each with their own story quests that will unlock unique ships and buildings. Unlike the previous titles these ones also have several dozen different starting positions. Choosing your race and biographical background heavily influences how other races perceive you at the beginning, in line with the usual alliances in the game (Argons and Borons are allied and enemies of the alliance of Split and Paranids, while the Teladi merchants like everybody and the Terrans barely tolerate anyone). It's hard sometimes to even get a docking clearance from a race that hates your guts and the Terrans shoot you out of the sky if you try to enter the solar system uninvited. The starting conditions however also make starting out significantly easier if you take someone who already owns a freighter or a heavy fighter for example, skipping the part of having to dart around in a tiny scout ship earning meagre bucks in taxi quests before you can buy a run-down second-hand ship that falls apart when you look at it too sternly. Not that this way of working your way up isn't bringing its own fun of course. Albion Prelude's only (to me) noticeably new mechanic is a stock exchange that pretty much allows instant abuse by ruthless players who want to make money out of nothing.

X-Rebirth: Pretty hopeless game. I played it for a weekend when Steam had it playable for free and it's ridiculously drab. It is a throwback to X1, having you chained to one ship only (though you can own and command others). They have revamped the universe (justified in-universe by the portal network shutting down, forcing every sector to fend for itself) and it looks gorgeous and it allows you to leave your ship and 'explore' space stations (even though they are all empty and look the same), but it just isn't any fun whatsover because never have the feeling to work for something shiny you want to own and every little thing takes forever. But hey, cockpits are back for this one and X4!

Now X4 reintroduces many features that made X3 so great and combines that with a significantly more powerful station editor (instead of dropping stations next to each other on a 2D map and hoping that they don't collide or accidentally block their docking ports before connecting them), even more free movement within ships and stations.

There’s also X-tension, a sort of standalone expansion/sequel to X Betond the Frontier. You could change to different ships and even go EVA

[Toth]

25 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

There’s also X-tension, a sort of standalone expansion/sequel to X Betond the Frontier. You could change to different ships and even go EVA

Yes, yes. That's what I meant with the add-on to Beyond the Frontier.^^ Sorry if that didn't come across. I was aware that it was a standalone, but it's still often treated as X1 in how it should have played in the first place.

But wait, there were already EVA suits in X-tension? Wow, didn't know that... You see, I had played only Beyond the Frontier. Speaking of which, I got a sudden burst of memory that one of the things I liked better in X1 than X2 was how the docking sequences had you make a scenic tour through the interior of the space station. Despite the old graphics, that was often quite a magic feel since it made the stations feel more alive and busy than X2.

[Ramsay B.]

Anyone playing Fallen Order? I’m a few hours in and having fun with it so far. I’m glad I played Sekiro as they have a very similar combat style, with parrying being a huge part of it.

I ran into my first major glitch that’s annoying as shit. I found the double bladed lightsaber but I just can’t equip it. I read you can find it on other planets as well, but still.

[briantw]

14 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Anyone playing Fallen Order? I’m a few hours in and having fun with it so far. I’m glad I played Sekiro as they have a very similar combat style, with parrying being a huge part of it.

I ran into my first major glitch that’s annoying as shit. I found the double bladed lightsaber but I just can’t equip it. I read you can find it on other planets as well, but still.

Planning to play it as soon as I finish Outer Worlds, which has been exactly the Fallout-style RPG I was hoping for.

[Caligula_K3]

So many good new games I want to play. The Outer Worlds is up there, and so is the Outer Wilds, and if my laptop can handle it, Jedi Fallen Order. 

I finished Return of the Obra Dinn this week. It's a very cool indie detective game (where you're trying to figure out what happened to every crew member on a ship that returns to port empty) with a unique art style and excellent music. I really did appreciate how much the entire game was one interconnected puzzle with a pretty interesting narrative. I highly reccommend  It's by the guy who made Papers, Please, which was another fantastic game.

Now I'm playing Pokemon Sword. This is my first new Pokemon game (aside from the remake of red/blue that came out last year) since the Game Boy Colour, and although a few small things annoy me, like the handholding, it's a very fun and cool game. They've taken out the thing that always annoyed me the most about Pokemon: random battles. The art style is beautiful, there's lots of cute new Pokemon to discover (especially for someone like me who's missed out on much of the franchise) and I really love the Wild Area. This game is not going to be a masterpiece or anything, but it is relaxing and definitely enjoyable, which is exactly what I wanted.

[Jen'ari]

15 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Anyone playing Fallen Order? I’m a few hours in and having fun with it so far. I’m glad I played Sekiro as they have a very similar combat style, with parrying being a huge part of it.

I ran into my first major glitch that’s annoying as shit. I found the double bladed lightsaber but I just can’t equip it. I read you can find it on other planets as well, but still.

I've been thinking about getting it, didn't realise it was out yet, can you choose your lightsaber colour or force powers in it?.

[Rhom]

15 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Anyone playing Fallen Order? I’m a few hours in and having fun with it so far. I’m glad I played Sekiro as they have a very similar combat style, with parrying being a huge part of it.

I ran into my first major glitch that’s annoying as shit. I found the double bladed lightsaber but I just can’t equip it. I read you can find it on other planets as well, but still.

I’ve heard that Sekiro is pretty tough.  What’s the learning curve on Fallen Order?

[Ramsay B.]

5 hours ago, Jen'ari said:

I've been thinking about getting it, didn't realise it was out yet, can you choose your lightsaber colour or force powers in it?.

You can change lightsaber colors(only 2 to begin with). I only have one force power so far but know there is more. There’s a skill tree to choose stuff from also.

5 hours ago, Rhom said:

I’ve heard that Sekiro is pretty tough.  What’s the learning curve on Fallen Order?

It’s more forgiving than Sekiro but is definitely no walk in the park. The main thing is basically getting used to the parry timing, and realizing you can’t just button mash for most enemies. I started out on a harder difficulty and went to a planet that I probably wasn’t ready for, and had a tough time at a few spots. I then put the difficulty down to normal until I get completely comfortable with everything. 

[Inigima]

Fallen Order is real good so far, I'm about 4 hours in. It's much easier than Sekiro, but that will also depend on the difficulty setting, which it has and Sekiro doesn't IIRC. There's a "Story Mode" for people who don't want to deal with any real difficulty, Jedi Knight (normal), Jedi Master (hard), and I forget the fourth one but obviously it's the hardest. It affects things like enemy health and parry window length. I'm just playing on normal since I want to have real combat but don't want anything crazy. I've definitely died but only a few times. It has Sekiro/Souls type checkpoints, but unlike bonfires, you don't have to respawn enemies -- that only happens if you choose to refill your health and stims (the estus analogue). If you don't do that you don't get the recharge, but dead enemies stay dead and the game is still saved. There are also auto checkpoints, plus if you screw up a platforming thing you'll usually restart immediately right before the thing you screw up and just lose a little health. Melee is fine, definitely lighter than Sekiro. Parrying blaster fire with your lightsaber is great fun and the lightsaber stuff in general is just really well done.

You can customize lightsaber color, but I'm not sure if that's true if you didn't preorder. Default is blue and I can choose green or orange as well. I'm not sure if there are others to find. There are all kinds of customization collectibles for the other parts of the lightsaber, including the emitter (handle) style, metal, etc. You can find customizations for your outfit, your ship, and your droid pal too.

No customization choices for Force powers. There is a skill tree, though, which you can use to upgrade what you do have, plus lightsaber skills and general stuff like +health.

Who knows if it'll stay good to the end, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I am not really a Star Wars guy, I like it okay but don't really get the obsessive people. One thing I'm told hardcore Star Wars people will appreciate, though, is the main character correctly pronouncing AT-AT as "at at" (with a short A sound), which is a thing I did not know was correct until told. I always thought it was Ay Tee Ay Tee.

[Inkdaub]

11 hours ago, Inigima said:

Fallen Order is real good so far, I'm about 4 hours in. It's much easier than Sekiro, but that will also depend on the difficulty setting, which it has and Sekiro doesn't IIRC. There's a "Story Mode" for people who don't want to deal with any real difficulty, Jedi Knight (normal), Jedi Master (hard), and I forget the fourth one but obviously it's the hardest. It affects things like enemy health and parry window length. I'm just playing on normal since I want to have real combat but don't want anything crazy. I've definitely died but only a few times. It has Sekiro/Souls type checkpoints, but unlike bonfires, you don't have to respawn enemies -- that only happens if you choose to refill your health and stims (the estus analogue). If you don't do that you don't get the recharge, but dead enemies stay dead and the game is still saved. There are also auto checkpoints, plus if you screw up a platforming thing you'll usually restart immediately right before the thing you screw up and just lose a little health. Melee is fine, definitely lighter than Sekiro. Parrying blaster fire with your lightsaber is great fun and the lightsaber stuff in general is just really well done.

You can customize lightsaber color, but I'm not sure if that's true if you didn't preorder. Default is blue and I can choose green or orange as well. I'm not sure if there are others to find. There are all kinds of customization collectibles for the other parts of the lightsaber, including the emitter (handle) style, metal, etc. You can find customizations for your outfit, your ship, and your droid pal too.

No customization choices for Force powers. There is a skill tree, though, which you can use to upgrade what you do have, plus lightsaber skills and general stuff like +health.

Who knows if it'll stay good to the end, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I am not really a Star Wars guy, I like it okay but don't really get the obsessive people. One thing I'm told hardcore Star Wars people will appreciate, though, is the main character correctly pronouncing AT-AT as "at at" (with a short A sound), which is a thing I did not know was correct until told. I always thought it was Ay Tee Ay Tee.

This is encouraging.  I was worried Fallen Order would be too hard.  I was hearing things about it being like Dark Souls and I didn't like Dark Souls.  My thing is I don't want to spend a few hours fighting the same guy over and over because I might only have a few hours to play during the week.  I don't know.  I'm also not very good so that likely has something to do with it. 

I'll check it out probably tomorrow evening.  I just want a game where I am a character with a lightsaber.

[Rhom]

7 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

This is encouraging.  I was worried Fallen Order would be too hard.  I was hearing things about it being like Dark Souls and I didn't like Dark Souls.  My thing is I don't want to spend a few hours fighting the same guy over and over because I might only have a few hours to play during the week.  I don't know.  I'm also not very good so that likely has something to do with it. 

I'll check it out probably tomorrow evening.  I just want a game where I am a character with a lightsaber.

That’s exactly where I am.  Let me know what your experience is!

[Jen'ari]

19 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

You can change lightsaber colors(only 2 to begin with). I only have one force power so far but know there is more. There’s a skill tree to choose stuff from also.

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to playing it, although I'm guessing a red lightsaber and force lightning are out of the question , still looks a great game though.

[aceluby]

Played Fallen Order as much as I could this weekend, which was admittedly not as much as I'd like.  I'm playing on Jedi Master right now, but could have probably done the highest difficulty as I'm not having any real difficulty managing things.  Will definitely do so on replay.

What I like so far:

- Metroidvania / Hollow Knight level design and abilities with areas that are 'locked' until you get further in the game.

- The map.  Didn't use it much at first, but it's been great to determine where I need to go next as well as areas I haven't explored or are now open due to new abilities.

- Dark Souls-esque checkpoint and death mechanics.  Resting resets enemies and death requires you to go back to where you are to get your xp back.  In the same light, I like how skill points are banked so if you get one you never lose it upon death (like Sekiro)

- Traversing levels is super fun.  Reminds me of the old Prince of Persia game and falling doesn't kill you outright (again, like Sekiro)

What I don't like:

- Reloading can take forever on death.  Sometimes up to a minute of just loading after death.

- Bugs.  Oh good lord are there a lot of bugs.  Animations are weird on uneven terrain, enemy executions will sometimes happen midair, occasionally the game will decide you need to die and you'll just fall through the level for 5 min, there are multiple reports of the dual saber not working, or events to take you to the next part of the level just not happening, which causes you to just be stuck there with nowhere to go, some unforgiving jump areas that require a stupid amount of tries just because the level design, and I've had the last level stop me mid level, multiple times, just to load for 10-30 seconds, which is super annoying.  So yeah, typical EA rush job is apparent.

- Combat could be tighter.  It's no Sekiro, that's for sure.  I'm still figuring out the timing of the parries, but it consistently registers as late even though I'm blocking right when the animation should pick it up based on DS/Sekiro mechanics.  More just me getting used to it I'm sure, but it's definitely not as much of a dance as Sekiro.  DS/Bloodborne tactics of circle strafing and dodging seem to work much better, especially if you abuse the force powers.

Overall I'd give it an 8/10, though I hope they start patching things soon.

[Jace, Extat]

The new jedi game is alright. It looks pretty good except for the fugly ass characters, you have a lightsaber.

The story is some generic Mandalorian garbage that would have been rejected from the old EU, but I think we all saw that coming so I can't pretend to be surprised. Villains gonna villain, heroes gonna hero, but this is definitely a mostly functioning videogame and that is something.

5/10, but since 5 is average don't think I'm putting it down too hard. If you've been hankering for an actual, like, Star Wars game, this will probably do it for you but it's not exactly groundbreaking.

[RumHam]

Just saw they're making a Half Life VR game about Alyx. I'll probably never play it but it's nice the franchise is continuing. 

[Inkdaub]

On 11/18/2019 at 3:54 AM, Rhom said:

That’s exactly where I am.  Let me know what your experience is!

So I've played some by now and so far I'm enjoying it.  Inigima's post was pretty spot on.  I'm playing at normal(Jedi Knight) difficulty and it's been fine.  I can't just run around swinging my lightsaber willy-nilly but I am able to progress at my preferred/usual rate.  Health doesn't automatically refill but you have pots.  Right now I have three health stims so I do have to watch them.  Refill everything...health, stims and force...at the save points if needed but enemies will respawn.  If your health is manageable for the time being you can just save without respawning enemies.  The only problems I've had in combat are due to forgetting my abilities and what button they correspond with.  I find myself using the dodge/evade more than the block but both are somewhat necessary.  I am a button masher at heart so I have to adjust a bit but it's fun and as long as I can keep moving I'm good. 

The lightsaber is great.  I love pets in games and the little droid, BD-1, is pretty good.  The ship is alright.  I'm early in the story yet but, while I'm not totally engaged with it, I'm interested enough to keep going.  We'll see what happens but so far so good.

[aceluby]

One thing I did right away is change the button layout while playing Jedi.  L1 is block, R1 is attack, square is heal, triangle is force freeze, force attack is R2, force push L2, pull is up.  Much more intuitive if you've ever played a FromSoft game IMO.

Played a little last night and have a few more gripes though.  I approached an enemy that the game taught me how to beat, so I went ahead and used that strategy and it just plain didn't work.  Ended up using almost all of my stims and just gave up on that strategy for the typical hack & slash strategy.  Turns out that there are two enemies that look the exact same that have two different approaches to knock them out.  Nothing in the game (until much later) to even indicate that this was a possibility.

Second is that some of the puzzles are stupidly hard to figure out on your own.  Very little visual cues to tell you how to solve them and the 'hints' that BD gives you are in fucking beeps and boops which tells you absolutely nothing.  I had to put it down for the night because I spent over an hour just fucking around before looking up how to solve it on youtube, which happened to be the second time I had to look up how to solve one of the mandatory puzzles.  

So yeah, some very questionable design decisions from the devs

[Toth]

I find it kinda telling that I downloaded X3 Terran Conflict after my big post about it last week and to this day didn't have time to even run it once... Gah...