jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I Had to Volunteer!

When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I had to be part of it. To hang out with other like minded geeks and talk about some of the coolest things ever made? I had to do it.

Originally I wanted to volunteer up a storm and hang out the entire weekend, but things being what they are starting a new job, I couldn't commit to the full schedule. I had a few hours today(Saturday) and I was able to help out. When I arrived at 8.30 AM people were already lining up and I was excited to see so many people in attendance. I wasn't sure what to expect as it was my first year and I was happy to see so many happy geeks in lines.

My first job was to hold a sign directing people to purchase tickets. There were a few other volunteers holding signs and directing people to will call and other whatnotery. It seems all the volunteers I met had some love for gaming and are involved in it. One such nice person person I met was Clifton. I actually remembered seeing Clifton at PAX this year. As it turns out he is a game designer and is working on a game called Clobbr and you can play it right now @ http://clobbr.com/

http://i.imgur.com/Nca7z.jpg [ because you want to see a fairly blurry photo of the sign I held ]

After the expo opened up and the line cleared I headed to my first major volunteer assignment of answering questions and looking knowledgable at the Auction Booth. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed talking to all the people that came to ask questions or just talk about gaming. The items that got the most attention were the Ps2 & GameCube dev kits as well as a pristine Virtual Boy as part of the entire collection lot that was up for auction.

A few items from the Auction Booth I was extremely happy to be standing around:

http://i.imgur.com/6Vqby.jpg [ Factory Reconditioned Atari Computer System ]
http://i.imgur.com/lcEK8.jpg [ This was one entire collectors lot for auction, no reserve ]
http://i.imgur.com/NUcfI.jpg [ The SNES library from the lot ]
http://i.imgur.com/5vZnD.jpg [ Final Fantasy II & III ]
http://i.imgur.com/DaGuw.jpg [ Chrono Trigger & Earthbound ]
http://i.imgur.com/5hdqt.jpg [ Super Star Wars & The Rest of the Amazing Trilogy ]
http://i.imgur.com/2bkq0.jpg [ A bit of this and that... The Rob the Robot is the Japaneese version. ]
http://i.imgur.com/N0l7U.jpg [ Yep, thats Sunday Funday... ]
http://i.imgur.com/dIGdO.jpg [ A Ps2 & GameCube Dev Kit ]
http://i.imgur.com/Yg3ZY.jpg [ Yes, you are playing with power... ]

At 2pm I had someone relive me and I was able to hit up the show floor and check out the rest of the exhibitor hall. If you lust for all things retro and dream in 8-bit, the Retro Gaming Expo show floor is your heroin. Due to my brain being in an unfortunate state this morning I forgot to bring cash with me and as such suffered greatly as I couldn't buy anything... Oh well, I snapped a few rad photos so I can judge myself later.

http://i.imgur.com/oAsqt.jpg [ One Exhibitor was printing off Level Screen Posters from Games. Earthbound. ]
http://i.imgur.com/rS7zd.jpg [ Super Mario Brothers Level Print ]

Many exhibitors were creating 8 and 16 bit art pieces from a craft supply I have seen but can't put a name on. Can you guys help me figure out what these little plastic bits are you put together, heat up and they stick to form things? That said, the stuff the artists made out of them was stunning:

http://i.imgur.com/WHqjH.jpg [ A Super Metroid 16-bit collage ]
http://i.imgur.com/gyOvv.jpg [ More of the above ]
http://i.imgur.com/XcZAY.jpg [ A large assortment, I dig the Secret of Mana pieces ]
http://i.imgur.com/ukA7a.jpg [ These presentations really looked fanstastic. One day something like this will sit over my mantle ]
http://i.imgur.com/Tu7lY.jpg [ This was hands down the coolest piece at the show. A 16 bit art creation from Final Fantasy II. Fantastic. ]
http://i.imgur.com/h597K.jpg [ Not made from the same plastic, these were made from wood ]
http://i.imgur.com/x9ZxS.jpg [ Wooden tiles make this Boo stand out ]

Oh right and many people were selling The Secret of Mana. I had to take a picture, you know, because... I love this game.

http://i.imgur.com/uigJV.jpg [ The Secret of Mana. Skip you next vacation, play this instead ]

A few vendors were selling other awesome bits from my childhood I never thought I would ever see again.

http://i.imgur.com/6XzSe.jpg [ The Original Nintendo Trading Cards in the packaging. Proof there is a God ]
http://i.imgur.com/pLOhd.jpg [ Super Mario Brothers 2 Disk System. I don't believe this came to the states. I really dig the packaging ]
http://i.imgur.com/5zQbQ.jpg [ Didn't every school have the Apple II? I didn't see any Oregon Trail ]
http://i.imgur.com/mRBZ6.jpg [ This original GameBoy station was for play in the free play Arcade area ]

I talked to many people and made some friends along the way. I'll be posting more about some of the individual booths I found awesome in the next few days. If you have time to hit up the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2012 tomorrow you should, it is awesome. If not pencil in time for next year, you will not regret it. I look forward to having more time to spend time volunteering next year and meeting more awesome people. And, if I am in luck I will remember to bring money so I can something awesome on my mantle.

The full album of all the photos I took is available for you to persue on imgur right here:

http://imgur.com/a/HOPpp

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http://www.retrogamingexpo.com/auction.php

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/30/2012 at 04:06am

Dude these pictures are awesome. I'm sure it cost an arm and a leg, but I really want that game collection. Especially the NES, SNES, and N64 games. :D

That pixel art was really cool and the level prints were kind of amazing! I seriously want an Earthbound and Chrono Trigger print!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:00am

The collection did cost a few gold coins :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:02am

In fact, one vendor claimed to accept Rupees and I considered making a joke about currency from India and the I realized that wouldn't have been funny at all.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/30/2012 at 07:02am

That gameboy station is kind of awesome too. Think the wife will let me put one in the living room? The kids will love it!

BR Supporter wrote on 09/30/2012 at 02:21pm

That collection is HUGE, I wish I could own that many games of any system, not to mention having a collection that large of retro games. I would love to just go through and look at all the games. I would especially love to get my hands on the N64 games. That is one of the first systems I ever played and I loved all the games on it; they were so well thought out. I still have my N64 console and play it from time to time.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 03:09pm

I see no problems with putting that in a living room. Always lights up... Nice conversation starter!

hardeyez wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:15pm

I'm really surprised that the devkits are available. Especially the PS2 one. As a developer/publisher you never actually bought the hardware, you just rented it for $25,000 (the price varied a bit and dropped over the life time of the hardware, and there were eventually 2 models -- the normal model and the Performance Analyzer model which was awesome at showing you an incredible amount of detail about how your code ran on the hardware). I saw studios close up shop and Sony asking for the hardware back... They never wanted anyone not covered by contracts to touch the hardware. I guess some slipped through the cracks.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 06:16pm

Yeah, I didn't know the hardware was so restricted to use. Figured cause you paid so much you'd get to keep it. Apparently not :D

Travis Admin wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:35am

Dude.

DUDE.

I need to fly out there like this minute.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:38am

I didn't get a huge look at all the pictures. I made sure to check out that retro collection though. I know there's probably thousands of great games in there if i look hard enough but what stood out was harvest moon 64! Best in the series and my first one. I was just trying to play some harvest moon recently so it caught my eye. I still own the game cartridge as well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:40am

Awesome. Still trying to figure out with retro game to tear into next. My money is on Earthbound. :D

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 07:52am

Completely old post BUT I just wanted to note. I've been playing through tons of retro games as well. Earthbound is also on my radar. As are the other MOTHER games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:23am

Anyone try the fan translated Earthbound?

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/08/2012 at 06:44pm

I've tried out the fan translated Mother 3 (Earthbound 2). I sunk maybe about 5 or 6 hours into it so I didn't get terribly far into the story, but it was fun. I stopped playing mainly because I got sidetracked with other stuff, but someday I'll go back and finish it.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:11pm

Yep those are the ones I meant. Can't wait to try them. I love translated old games.

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

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

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?

BR Supporter wrote on 09/26/2012 at 02:48am

Hmm, that's a hard one for me. The elder scrolls games and the fallout series are probably my favorite games besides mass effect. If I had to choose I'd probably say fallout 3 because I liked the story much better. Skyrim`s story was alright but didn't captivate me as much as fallout did.

Tungsten wrote on 09/26/2012 at 09:53am

VATS is awesome, and I hope it makes its way into other RPG's. That said, I connected a lot more with the characters and stories in Skyrim.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/26/2012 at 05:40pm

There used to be some rpg's back in the day that let you target body parts individually. It was a lot of fun. VATS was cool to see it in slow motion though.

Missile_Drop_Kick wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:55am

Fallout all the way. I know we've talked about Skyrim in person (face to face). I never went on a wild killing spree in Fallout because I was bored. I did in Skyrim.

Will_Owens wrote on 10/30/2012 at 02:50pm

I've never "gotten" an Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind. I tried to like Oblivion and Skyrim, but just didn't care at all. I'll try Skyrim again sometime since I bought it. It may be because I played Fallout and Fallout 2 as a younger man, but the setting seems infinitely more interesting than the normal fantasy stuff that's been around the block and back a hundred times. Maybe it's just easier for me to relate to a character that's living in the same world as me interacting with people as they would act after a disaster rather than with people who live like Nordic lumberjacks?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/30/2012 at 09:18pm

Nordic lumberjacks :D

I have heard awesome stuff about Morrowind and I owned it A LONG time ago but it never played on my PC well so I gave it to a friend. That said, people speak highly of it and with it being so cheap and the mod communities continuing attention to it it is something I am going to get eventually.

Skyrim is good, but I don't know, something about it lends me to play it less than I did Fallout 3 so far. At some point I imagine ill play more of it, but with Borderlands 2, Doom 3 and now Minecraft(sort of late on this one) I have tons of stuff.

That said, I had some awesome moments with Skyrim and enjoy the world quite a bit, even though it might be a Nordic Lumber Dream! :D

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This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and

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!

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:58am

With everything that's been going on in my life I completely forgot about Torchlight II. Thanks for the write up. I'm going to have to checkout the demo. Once Steam finishes downloading the internet, that is.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 08:15am

Yeah you can nab the demo now and pick up the full game at a bit of a reduced price during the Steam Autumn Sale now.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 05:21pm

Silly me, I failed to note that the Mac version hasn't been released yet. Guess I'll have to boot up the Winders box sometime in the next couple days to check this out.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:31pm

It will get ported to Mac eventually they said. Hadn't heard of an ETA though.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 07:35pm

Yeah, that's what I gathered from the FAQ. I don't mind checking out the demo on Winders, but I dislike depending on it for long periods of game play. Too many crashes.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/26/2012 at 05:19pm

Just picked this up during the sale, $10? Yes please. Hoping for a Mac port at some point. A few expansions might not hurt either.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:12pm

Finally had a chance to checkout the demo. Quite fun so far. Very reminiscent of D2. Not likely to be coughing up the $$ for the full game until I fine a new job, though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 04:12pm

We might have you covered as soon we are going to run a Torchlight 2 contest! Woot.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/04/2012 at 03:28am

Here it is: http://cheerfulghost.com/panickedthumb/posts/781

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File this under first world problems but I have a ton of

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.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/24/2012 at 06:57pm

Lemme see what games I have yet to finish...

Disgaea 2 ('bout half wayish)
Disgaea 3 (I started a game, but stopped because I hadn't finished the 2nd one.)
Final Fantasy 12 (lost my save somewhere along the way, gotta start over)
Final Fantasy 10, but it sucks, so I don't care. :P Same for FF 13.
Mass Effect
Costume Quest
Torchlight
Fallout 3 (still playing off and on)
Borderlands (need to finish DLC)
Borderlands 2 I'm currently playing
Lone Survivor (awesome but scary! I think I'll play this around Halloween time :D)
Portal 2 (co-op)
Breath of Death VII
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Games I have but haven't even started yet:
All the Half-life games (I KNOW! I'll get around to them eventually)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Time Gentlemen, Please!
Cthulhu Saves the World
Hunted: The Demon's Forge

I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Yeah, I have SO many games to get caught up on. It's almost as bad as how many books I have sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to and everything I want to!

BR Supporter wrote on 09/24/2012 at 07:56pm

There are a few games that I haven't completed recently, but most the time I finish games that I enjoy to play. I guess I only finish games that I enjoy the story of such as:

Fallout 3: beat it 3 to 4 times
Fallout New Vegas: 3 to 4 as well
Oblivion: beat this once but logged about 400-500 hours in it
Skyrim: Only beat this once
Mass effect 1: 2 play-throughs
Mass effect 2: 3 play-throughs
Mass effect 3: 1 play-through but I'm going to star another soon with all the new dlc

So I guess my conclusion is that I will play entirely through a game that I really enjoy(multiple times) such as mass effect, which its story is by far my #1.

There are also games which I haven't beat yet, but that is due to something I enjoy more coming along and pushing it aside. Some of these games are:

Dead Island
Magicka
Titan quest

These are games I don't enjoy as much as others and therefore usually I stop playing them and instead play a more enjoyable game to me.

I guess that about sums it up.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 12:49am

Whiteboy: When did you get GTA? Is it the Ps3 version? Haven't played GTA since 2 on Windows back in the day.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 12:49am

BR: Did you play Fallout 3 differently with the multiple play throughs? I could see myself sitting down and playing that again. I beat it originally on the PS3, I could do it again on the PC.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 02:35am

Yeah, I did play as an evil and good character. Although I have played with similar characters through the story. There wasn't many different ways you could go in fallout 3. Fallout New Vegas on the other hand had tons of different endings depending on which faction you chose to follow.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 02:39am

Did you blow up Megaton? I still kind of want to try that :)

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 04:42pm

Did it on two characters and not on the other two.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/26/2012 at 06:48pm

@jdodson: It's the PS2 version, and I've had it for a long time. I sunk a ton of hours into it but the game is HUGE and after while I just started playing other stuff and never came back to it.

I still have just one character on Fallout 3, and I'm a "good" guy for the most part. :) If I ever do get around to playing a second time I'll probably go the evil route. I played through the first Knights of the Old Republic game several times and did both good and evil characters. Playing evil characters is fun at first, but after awhile I start to feel bad lol.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:45am

I agree. Doing the bad thing leaves me with a strange feeling. I imagine the second play through it would be better considering I had chosen the right path I know what the end run of that is.

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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 :)

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/22/2012 at 10:49am

You've mentioned a few times about difficulty. I don't know if you've yet to have a run in with a Badass Pyro Threser but, those are by far the most overpowered enemies up to where I'm at. They can take out your shields AND all your hp in almost a single hit with their pyro shockwave. Getting up on something tall is the trick.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/22/2012 at 10:42pm

I haven't, thanks for letting me know. Incendiary damage so far hasn't been too fun. I don't remember taking elemental damage in the original Borderlands. Interesting they added it for regular players to take in 2.

Missile_Drop_Kick wrote on 09/22/2012 at 11:57pm

Hello from Chicago (currently at least)! I played a few hours like you suggested. It got much better in the 2nd and 3rd hour. I actually figured out the weapon. I ended up putting in another 2 hours and getting a bunch of video. I need to get home to edit it and figure out how to comment on it. However, it was much better. I finally got to use Zero's disappearing powers. Awesome.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/23/2012 at 07:14am

I agree, the game opens up a bunch after your main power unlock. Also when you start getting awesome drops.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 06:49pm

I'll definitely say that once you get some cool guns the game becomes a lot better cause it is fun to just blow your enemies to pieces.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/26/2012 at 07:00pm

I still haven't had too much time in the game, but I've played a little co-op with my wife and now I've done a little solo playing as well. The game is (at least at this point) more difficult than the original Borderlands, but in a good way. The baddies feel challenging without making me feel like the computer is cheating. One thing I noticed right away was that navigating the menu during co-op was better but still not great. It was better once we swapped our split screen to divide vertically rather than horizontally though.

I'm still pretty early in the game on both my characters so I haven't found any especially awesome guns yet. I have to say that starting with the Gearbox gunpack was nice. The SMG and Sniper Rifle were especially useful in the first couple missions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:46am

The guns open up more as the game progresses. If memory serves the original Borderlands didn't have awesome guns right away, but then again I did get a shotgun early on that I kept until the end, it was that awesome.

So far nothing that awesome yet, but some good stuff for sure.

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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/

vdogmr25 wrote on 09/20/2012 at 03:14am

I'll be playing as soon as my PC lives again. :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2012 at 03:20am

What happened to it?

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/20/2012 at 09:56am

What game did you really mean stack up to?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2012 at 10:43am

Torchlight 1. Updated the post, thanks Jacob!

vdogmr25 wrote on 09/20/2012 at 04:14pm

HDD death. New one on the way.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/21/2012 at 02:52am

I have not ever had the chance to try torchlight 1. However, I do look forward to playing some torchlight 2 at some point. Just got a settlement from the FTC. May use that to play it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2012 at 04:36am

Awesome. I am going to pick up Torchlight 2 at some point, maybe when I am less interested in pick up Diablo 3? Maybe sooner. $20 is a really good deal at any time though.

Axel_Mller wrote on 09/21/2012 at 05:24pm

My amazing close friend bought me a copy of it. So far it's definately a lot better than Torchlight 1.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 06:54pm

I'm glad they decided on a $20 price tag. If it was $60 like diablo 3 I most likely would of 100% not bought it. With a cheaper price I will pick it up when I have the extra coin.

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My First 5 Hours with Borderlands 2 Picked up Borderlands 2

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?

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/19/2012 at 07:11am

So I've put in a good chunk of time now as well. Thanks again you guys. I'd like to make a few small comments and perspective points of my own.

The rarity relic is stackable when playing with others. so that's 20% higher drop rates. In an rpg standpoint that can be hugely significant especially since this game does not use MF (or magic find).

The guns are hugely varied especially as the game progress's there's even a new special type of weapons you can get similar to the special alien weapons but i won't spoil them for anyone who hasn't yet gotten to that. That to me makes it feel fresh.

You can pimp your vehicles (+ something extra again won't share on here) now and while the customization of characters is not super special. I still find it highly enjoyable to change around how I look and there are a lot of choices in that respect.

The environments truly are varied. And since i can comment on the PC side of things. The physX is off the charts. I got a grenade launcher assault rifle and when you fire it into the air it literally is a hail of shrapnel that falls down from the sky covering a huge distance.

The challenge to me is much desired. Borderlands even a few days ago I went back and played and I can just run over everything without even trying. In borderlands 2 if i wasn't playing with my friend it would probably be quite the challenge. Very engaging and makes some intense "oh shit!" moments.

Overall while there was a few things that kind of are iffy this is an amazing game. Such as running into your team mate who's with you can cause kind of an invisible barrier to prevent you from running forwards. (even after he's moved) Just a few minor issues. However, the game is extremely well optimized. You can even alt tab about 100 times with no slow down in the performance of the game.

As a final note of criticism the skill trees while better and greatly enhanced from borderlands. I still would wish to see them try to amp it up a little farther. Like multiple skills and skill trees for separate things. Like grenade skill trees. Meele skill trees. Athletic skill trees. (This coming from someone who really enjoys rpgs and customizing my character)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/19/2012 at 07:14am

Your right, a few times I got into some crazy awesome fights I barely made it out of! So much fun ;D

Oh, what are you playing as?

I like the customization to, but aside from making Salvador more red I haven't done much with it. Nice to have though.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/19/2012 at 10:17am

I'm playing as zero right now. But we are starting for real tomorrow with my brother and I'm going to be maya. my bros axton and my cousin will be salvador. Going to make a full speed elementalist build.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/19/2012 at 01:57pm

Awesome!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/19/2012 at 05:48pm

Man, reading everyone talk about the game is getting me really excited. My copy should arrive before the weekend gets here, so I know what I'll be doing in the evenings. :D

Travis Admin wrote on 09/20/2012 at 04:52pm

I'm playing as Maya as well. I loved Lilith in the first game, and Maya is similar. I definitely want to try out the other classes more this time around than I did in the first one.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/21/2012 at 02:56am

True that panicked. I only ever played mordecai in borderlands 1. Going to have to try out all the characters this time. Although I find in ability comparison, zero is the closest to Lilith. Just without the speed. He is able to run through all enemies while invisible. However Maya still feels set around a similar gun set. Especially if you use the elemental tree path. Then it is pretty close to Lilith. Since smg's still seem to be one of the best weapons for elemental effects. Double that by the fact there doesn't seem to be "auto" pistols as much anymore. In borderlands they had some crazy rate-of-fire pistols.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2012 at 04:38am

I know, I had some sick pistols in Borderlands 1. At one point the pistols were better than the sniper rifles I was finding. Then I got some really OP sniper rifles.

This time around I am doing well by incendiary damage pistols and shutguns with the Gunzerker.

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