jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2755 Posts

I think I have finally hit a good note with my Gunzerker.

http://i.imgur.com/vNTml.jpg
I think I have finally hit a good note with my Gunzerker. My strategy is to hit every side quest before I continue the main quest line. This means I get some great guns from the missions but I also get other loot as well. For instance, I just completed a quest line called "Eternal Flame" where these cultists worship Lilith, the Siren from Borderlands 1. It's a fun, messed up and quirky quest and by the time you finish it you get an amazing shield. The shield has a fairly high armor rating but it has an awesome ability in that when it depletes it creates 4-6 massive fire explosions around you. It took a few times to remind me "oh right, this is a good thing that is happening" because when it starts I strafe around thinking I am being hit with a rocket or grenade. Beyond the fact that I am not entirely used to its ability, it is a fantastic shield.

I haven't sunk a ton of time in Borderlands 2 but I have put more time in the last few days and I am now level 14. All the guns I currently use have elemental damage(yay) and have to keep a fairly varied arsenal because of a pretty awesome addition to Borderlands 2. Enemies have elemental types such that if there is a fire enemy and you hit him with a fire gun it barely does anything. I really enjoy this as it requires you to switch up guns a few times in a battle if there are multiple enemy types.

With that, I am getting much more savvy to which weapons to use against certain enemy types in which situations. Corrosive to drop an armored enemy quick, fire against unarmored and shock if you want to drop a shielded enemy fast. No idea why, but during the original Borderlands that never really sunk but it does now. I imagine because it matters more now?

I enjoy the loot drops in Borderlands 2 more compared to any other grind loot game I have played, save perhaps the original Borderlands. You don't go too long without finding a few great weapons and I find that it is really hard to part with certain guns over others. I mean, its a great problem to have, but compare to say... Diablo 3 where the majority of stuff you get is trash, Borderlands 2 shines.

As I opened the post with, I think I have hit my stride for the Gunzerker and as such I don't die too often. I enjoy the difficulty and having to adopt different strategies for different situations. Looking forward to playing the game more and digging deeper into the other classes.

The above image is a picture I snapped during my PS3 play through. It is a skeleton of a huge fish covered in snow I found just wandering off somewhere.

I want to love the Wii U. My passion for video game started
I want to love the Wii U. My passion for video game started with the original Nintendo and continued to the Super Nintendo. Nintendo has been a large part of gaming for most of my life. That said, the Wii U isn't catching my excitement.

The always amazing video game YouTube celeb boogie2988 has a new video rant as Francis, a character he does on his channel about the Wii U(video above). After a hazy start the rant is spot on with much of how I feel(warning, it is an intense video with some colorful humor that may offend some).

I like the end of the video, where he whimpers to the camera that he will get the Wii U because he loves Nintendo so much even with all its shortcomings. It was a very apt ending to the video, sad in a way because I think its possible Nintendo is leaving a high place it once had in my life, as the epicenter of all my awesome game experiences.

What do you think, are you excited about the Wii U? Does Nintendo rule your world as it once did? Do you lament Nintendo's pivot away from your video game world or does it not phase you too much?

I was thinking something today I wanted to hear your
http://i.imgur.com/oRh2k.png
I was thinking something today I wanted to hear your thoughts on.

Skyrim or Fallout 3? I have been making my way a bit at a time through Skyrim and whereas its a great game, I think I liked Fallout 3 a bit better. At least, so far I do.

Skyrim has had some amazing moments, but I guess I prefer the end of the world games where you are born in a vault.

That said, what did you like better Skyrim or Fallout?

This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and
http://i.imgur.com/jLrWd.png
This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and decided to give it a shot. Right away I noticed that the menus were pretty different from the original Torchlight. Not a huge deal, but it wasn't immediately apparent how to exit the game the first time I launched it. Its the upper right corner and is greyed out, I didn't see that the first time through.

I created an Ember Mage and liked the character customization. After creating my character I was quickly in the game killing things. I was surprised how differently it played from the original Torchlight. One main difference is that your character moves very fast around the screen. Its very smooth and I like the character pacing much better than the original Torchlight or Diablo 3 even. Which is another thing about Torchlight 2, the game is really really smooth. Compared to Diablo 3, which lags the first few minutes in game, moving through Torchlight is like butter.

I like that you are not merely relegated to dungeon crawling in Torchlight 2. The outdoor environments are a welcome addition to my style. After I made it to town I got a few quests and headed out straight for the first one. After taking them down one by one I noticed the enemy and game difficulty ramp up considerably. My third quest in I met up with something like 5 champion mobs protecting the quest ending. They didn't pose a huge challenge but they did take a while to kill and all in all it was very fun.

I stopped playing around level 8 (before I stopped I snapped the pic above) and really enjoyed the game. I would say largely, Torchlight 2 is a big improvement over Torchlight. That said, I had a few nits with it as I felt the graphic style of the original was a bit better than Torchlight 2. As with the first game occasionally my character was behind the forefront graphic and the ghost/outline thing is hard to play through. Again, small things because overall the game was very fun.

No reason to not check it out as it will play on most under computers and the demo is out now on Steam!

File this under first world problems but I have a ton of
http://i.imgur.com/omXHr.jpg
File this under "first world problems" but I have a ton of video games. Oh wait, Cheerful Ghost to the rescue, how many games do I have? According to my handy dandy games list... http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/games I have 242 games. That's quite a lot of games. Now some of those are on my old NES and I don't really pull those out too often. But many of those are PC or PS3 games and lately I have noticed that if I stopped buying games I wouldn't be done with what I have for months. I have enough content to possibly keep me busy well into the next year.

Wondering that with Steam and as many Free to Play titles that exist if we will all will be perpetually swimming in more games than we can reasonably chew through?

Just a few games I have yet to complete:


  • Skyrim

  • Fallout: New Vegas

  • Borderlands: Have yet to finish all the DLC

  • Borderlands 2 [Playing this now]

  • Age of Empires Online

  • Left 4 Dead / 2

  • Rage

  • Diablo 3: Highest level is 51, haven't yet made it to Nightmare.

Humble Bundle 6! Humble Indie Bundle 6 features six
Humble Bundle 6!

"Humble Indie Bundle 6 features six fantastic titles and five breathtaking soundtracks. Name your price and dive into the critically acclaimed action-RPG Torchlight; the rugged sci-fi action platformer Rochard; physics-based brick breaker Shatter; top down space combat sim Space Pirates and Zombies; and steampunk puzzle platformer Vessel. Customers who beat the average price will also get the incredible frantic acrobatic platformer, Dustforce!"

I will pick this up a bit later when the average has been settled and a few more games become available. I missed the Torchlight 2 pre-order so I will be getting this primarally to add Torchlight to my Steam account(I picked up the box copy originally).

I have only played Torchlight in this bundle, does anyone know much about the other games? Are there any stand-outs?

http://www.humblebundle.com/

The one benefit to playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3 is
The one benefit to playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3 is split-screen multi-player with friends. Tonight one of my friends came over and we played a few hours together. He went Gunzerker and I went Commando. It was a good pairing but it took me a bit to get the hang of Axton. Was used to run and gunning with Salvador so it took me a bit to get used to dropping a turret and staying behind it. Axton's skill tree isn't my cup of tea, but I found one path that was interesting.

As we were playing it went like this: See a group of bad guys, I drop the turret and he pops into Zerk mode and runs in. Clean up. It broke down a few times when we were not working together but overall it was really fun.

This time around I started with the DLC Gearbox weapons and that REALLY helped the beginning difficulty. Fighting that Bullymong boss with a sub-machine gun really helped out. Knowing where to go a second time helped a bunch as well.

He really digs the Gunzerker and I am warming up to Axton. He isn't bad by any stretch, but I hope in later levels he is a bit more fun. Its not bad playing a support character, but it is different and something I am getting used to.

Split-screen multi-player on the PS3 went beautifully. No lag and the game looked as good as in the normal full screen mode. The difficulty was fair but not terribly over-powered. I noticed a few more bad guys but generally speaking they were just more difficult.

Really looking forward to playing more Bl2 multi-player and have played with random folks online already. Borderlands is one of those rare games, like Diablo 3 where the co-op is so good I don't mind playing it with total strangers.

Looking forward to more split-screen friend sessions and online play. A bit jealous of my PC compatriots, but Ill pick up BL2 on PC during a Steam Sale. Of that I am certain :)

Torchlight 2 launches today! Are you getting it? If so
Torchlight 2 launches today! Are you getting it? If so what do you think? How does is stack up to Torchlight 1? Can't beat the $20 price tag!

Recently Runic released the full Torchlight 2 soundtrack for download by Matt Uelmen, you might remember Matt from sucks soundtrack greats as Diablo, Diablo 2, Starcraft, World of Warcraft and Torchlight 1.

http://torchlight2game.com/news/2012/09/18/the-torchlight-ii-soundtrack/

My First 5 Hours with Borderlands 2 Picked up Borderlands 2
http://i.imgur.com/hPI7M.jpg
My First 5 Hours with Borderlands 2

Picked up Borderlands 2 today and started making my way through Pandora after Handsome Jack. My character is Salvador, the Gunzerker as I was most interested in playing him from the other new classes. I have quite a few thoughts about Borderlands 2 and am not really sure where to start. From a high level my first 5 hours were very fun with a few nit picks.

Stuff I Loved

I really like that the game has settings other than desert. So far the game has all been snow for me, but I have heard it has quite a few new settings beyond the snowy mountains. The art style of Borderlands 2 seems pretty much like the first game but much much more detail in the design of areas. The original Borderlands had some really creatively designed zones but you really didn't see them until the later portion of the game. In Borderlands 2 they showcase some really fun stuff right away.

Borderlands 2 seems to pump boss fights at you faster than the original game did. In my first 5 hours I came to something like 6 bosses, which helped the pace of the game quite a bit. Perhaps I took my time in the original game but it seemed to take me much longer to get to Nine Toes than the first boss in Borderlands 2.

After getting used to how it works I really like Salvador's Gunzerking ability. Gunzerking allows Salvador to dual wield weapons but also immediately refills half of his health bar and also regenerates ammo and life. If I am not in a fight and have Gunzerking available I just hit it to replenish my ammo supply. I am currently sinking my skill points into the Brawn side of the skill tree.

http://www.borderlands2.com/us/skilltree/gunzerker.html

The guns in Borderlands 2 feel better this time around. The skins are more creative and they just feel better to use. I found a few shotguns with explosive damage and a boss dropped a great pistol with fire damage. Overall I found another pistol with a bit more elemental damage but the boss drop has a larger ammo clip.

Everything seems like a refinement, from the menus to the auto drop pickups to the shooting. The game is very polished and compared to other game launches Borderlands 2 isn't laggy and I didn't notice any bugs to mention.

The game has more chuckle moments and the writing is better. Lots of funny lines in Borderlands 2 I enjoy quite a bit. As my wife was listing to a bit of it she said it sounded like Portal 2 but less funny to her. Handsome Jack does try to grate at you in the same way GlaDos does and if my wife didn't say anything I wouldn't have thought about it.

Stuff I Am Unsure About

Don't get me wrong, Borderlands 2 is fun... but well. This doesn't seem like that much of an upgrade from the previous game yet. I mean, the game might open up and kick my ass in spades later on, but it just seems like more Borderlands. Which again, is totally awesome it just didn't floor me with its Borderlands 2 newness. I had a ton of fun and am looking forward to playing more of it, I was just expecting more I guess.

Borderlands 2 is much more challenging that the original. At the start I was pretty unhappy I was getting destroy as hard as I was. This may be due to me going back to the PS3 controls from playing so much on the PC. Regardless, the increased difficulty is something i've heard from a few people online. After a few hours I was adapting to the increased difficulty. I am completing all the side quests as I did with the original and that is making progressing easier. I wonder how hard the game is for people that skip the optional missions?

Stuff I didn't Love

Overall I am not sure the DLC is worth that much. If you pre-ordered Borderlands 2 you got:


  • Vault Hunters Relic: Increases your epic drops by 5% | This doesn't seem that useful to me.

  • A few Gearbox Specific Weapons: I forgot to put in the code right away and a few hours in put in the code and the weapons were pretty weak compared to what I found. They might be good right away to give you some variety but for being a few hours in, they were not.

  • A Golden Key to open a special chest in Sanctuary: No idea how useful this is, I haven't made it to sanctuary yet.

  • Creature Slaughter Dome(Gamestop only DLC): No idea if this is cool, haven't found where it is yet.
  • A special Gunzerker head where Salvador has dreadlocks: I prefer the default.
  • The Mecromancer Class when its launched: This seems like the best bonus of all.



You unlock a few things if you have a previous Borderlands save and all told that stuff seems cooler to me. The Mecromancer is the best bit of the DLC by far for pre-ordering but she hasn't been released yet. I have high hopes for her character.

A Few Things I Noticed

It seems that there are no ammo capacity upgrades. At least, the vending machines so far don't carry them yet. Have you found any? I imagine they are present in some form.

You get elemental weapons much earlier in the game than I remember getting before. They are also much more varied too after a certain point.

When you first start out, you get a handgun. Takes a bit before you get a good gun and then its not a great one. The game takes a few hours hours before you start getting useful weapons.

Closing Thoughts

My first 5 hours with Borderlands 2 were fun. I loved Salvador a lot and upgrading him through his abilities will really open the game up for some more varied and fun play. I really like the new guns and am enjoying the loot system. The game is challenging, but its not impossible, overall I like how hard it is after I figured things out.

I watched the review of Borderlands 2 by the Totally Rad Show. The guys had mixed thoughts about it and after playing it for 5 hours I understand why they would.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bUOOjt3hA

Ill post more of my thoughts as I continue with the game in the coming days. What do you think, how is Borderlands 2 playing for you? What class did you pick? Did you customize it much beyond the default?

It was the night before Borderlands 2 launch and all through
It was the night before Borderlands 2 launch and all through Pandora... Not a creature was stirring except for a bad-ass Skag wearing a Fedora! 50 bazillion guns were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that would use them to light up the morning air!

@panickedthumb and I were nestled all snug in our cots as visions of loot danced in our XBox(1). @panickedthumb as a Commando and I ask a Gunzerker had just settled our Borderlands game saves for a long nights overture.

When out in the tundra there rose such a clatter I sprang from my cot to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash and blew it open with a shotty that does fire and acid damage... Totally messed up that window and in retrospect opening it would have been fine too...

The moon on Pandora that showed the new fallen snow gave the lustre of treasure chests seen far below. When what should my wondering scan should appear, but Handsome Jack and a midget wriggling with fear.

A crazy dude with a face stapled on, I knew in a moment I wanted to beat his face with a baton. More rapid than eagles from his Moon base they came, twas a crap ton of robots that all looked the same. But @panickedthumb had an idea to call all our friends by name:

On Claptrap, on Zero on Axton and Maya! On Brick, on Salvador, on Roland, Lilith and Mordecai(these names are hard to rhyme ok?). Get ready my friends, we will not take a fall! Now shoot away, now shoot away now shoot away all!

-

Hope your first few moments of the game go well. Let us know how it goes, ok? :D

(1) I am playing this on the PS3, but that doesn't rhyme with cot. Nor does PC.