Borderlands Game of the Year Edition

Over the past month I revisited Borderlands cause a few of my friends had picked up the Game of the Year edition that was recently released. Of course, it came at a time when I'd just wiped out my old saves from when I was previously playing, so I basically started over again. The Game of the Year Edition (GOTY) is the main game plus four DLC add-ons on a second disc. It raises the level cap to something like L68 or so, from all the DLCs combined.

I managed to crank a Siren from 1 to 55 or so pretty quickly, but I find myself playing a Hunter more right now, currently at L50. The Hunter definitely dies more than the Siren, but all you really lose is some credits, which you have way more than enough of at the higher levels. The Bloodwing action skill is fast charging even at the start, and very useful for dealing good damage without having to spend time aiming at anything, making for a much more laid back game. The hunter was kind of average until I managed to get enough skill points and the right COM unit to decrease the 28 second action skill recharge to a negligible amount of time, plus get multiple attacks going starting at L36-40.

If you play a Hunter, you probably know that the COM I'm using is a Ranger COM, which decreases the recharge time, increases the number of attacks the Bloodwing has, and increases team accuracy. Also, the mod has a team crit bonus +70% or so, which adds up to some serious extra damage backup from a revolver. I dont have any skill points assigned into any particular weapon at the moment, but I'll probably take the Carrion Call skill to use sniper fire to further decrease the recharge time. Mix in a fast firing sniper rifle, and I could probably fire off that Bloodwing pretty fast even against bosses.

A Ranger presses less buttons to get more done, I find, great for sweeping areas. I wonder how he'll do when he gets to Playthrough 2.5?

Stats for my Ranger COM Hunter at L40

Stats for my Ranger COM Hunter at L50

Anyways, a bit about the DLCs, aka Tall Tales by Marcus - most of these DLCs are presented as somewhat ridiculous stories that Marcus is telling a little kid.

Moxxi's Underdome:
The Bank is pretty useful, but not absolutely necessary, once you know how you are going to play your character. As for the Arena, I played the 4 basic intro level maps on a Siren with LD's Soldier, and found them to be kind of... long. You have to spend basically several hours of no-reward killing and not dying to get to the main levels, which are also XPless. It took LD and I 4 nights, one night for each map, to finish that. We haven't tried the major levels yet, but since we're both still in our 50s, we have a way to go levelling before we should really concentrate on this no-xp stuff.

General Knoxx's Secret Armory:
Knoxx's is a fun add-on with all the driving, new vehicles, and more Crimson Lance to fight. There's a number of new enemy types to fight so you get a little more variety than you do in the basic game - prisoners, midgets, elemental lance, and jetpackers. The armoury itself at the end sometimes gets glitched on the Marcus version of the mission, if you fall through the floor and take advantage of the chests, so apparently my Hunter is screwed until I can join someone's good unglitched version of the Marcus Sweep.

The Claptrap Robolution:

At the end of the main game, the INAC gets activated, and this DLC plays out what happens after it starts a revolution. Fun, over the top as always, though there is an annoying map called Sander's Gorge which can be kind of a maze. There are a number of Achievements in this DLC that are a pain to get, basically you will have to farm claptrap revolutionaries for a few nights until you get the items dropped, they are kind of rare. (Yes, annoying pizza slices, I"m looking at you.)

The Undead Island of Doctor Ned:

This is probably my favorite DLC, the zombies are a lot of fun to mow through. There are zombies, spitting zombies, zombie Lance, big tank zombies, zombie weapon chests, and even zombie claptraps (I'm just kidding about the claptraps) This DLC and it's achievements were pretty straightforward.

That's it, back to playing my Hunter!

Upsen.

Borderlands - Dont get Mad Moxie's until its Fixed.

I was looking through the gearbox forums and there are reports of people losing their gear after playing through a portion of the Mad Moxie DLC on the Xbox360.

not sure if its cause of hacks or mods, but I'm just passing along what I'm seeing.

So I just beat the first three mad Moxxi stages and my shield, grenades and mod disappeared.

I had the same thing happen, grenade mod, shield, and char mod all disappeared, I'd only done 2 of the 3 rounds, then I exited and when I loaded that character again they were gone.

Upsen.

p.s. Also, a lot of people complain about corrupted characters after playing splitscreen, so keep that in mind too.

Gears of War 2 DLC

I had traded in my GoW2 game earlier this summer cause the last time I'd played it was December 2008, but E was saying something about how there is a new DLC pack available for it.

I picked up the game again today, but checking the DLC info, it's difficult to say if the DLC is multiplayer maps + 1 level of one-player only, or multiplayer maps + 1 level of co-op content. After all, in the game, there are sections that have to be done solo. Paying 1600 Gates to get a bunch of maps for Horde isn't really that appealing to me, especially if no one else ends up getting it.

(edit, I bought it.)

Upsen.

Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection (1600 Gates)

"This content pack features all 19 downloadable Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. For multiplayer fans, this pack brings together the complete set of Gears 2 multiplayer maps: Allfathers Garden, Canals, Courtyard, Flood, Fuel Depot, Fuel Station, Gold Rush, Gridlock, Grind Yard, Highway, Mansion, Memorial, Nowhere, Sanctuary, Subway, Tyro Station, Under Hill, War Machine, and Way Station—everything in the Flashback, Combustible, Snowblind, and Dark Corners downloadable packs combined. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."

Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack (1200 Gates)

"This downloadable content pack features 7 new Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. In "Road to Ruin," Marcus and Dom navigate the treacherous Locust highway, choosing stealth or blazing action to survive. For multiplayer fans, the 7 maps include a new War Machine, the much-requested Gears 1 map; Allfathers Garden, a heavy-weapons battle at a COG landmark; Highway, a fight deep in the Locust Hollow; Memorial, a battle at the Tomb of the Unknowns; Nowhere, a firefight in an old motel; Way Station, an unpredictable battlefield with parallel paths; and Sanctuary, a reimagined favorite from Gears for Windows. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."

Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta

This was a short but sweet DLC for Fallout 3 - it took about 3 nights to get through. I even had to ditch a few hours worth of saves to go back for some audio tapes that I'd missed, for one of the achievements.

A few things to remember before starting this add on pack - travel light, and dont bother bringing any heavy weapons. Fights are at relatively close range, and you will primarily be using the energy weapons you pick up from the aliens. You find some earthly ammunition around, but mainly you'll be working with the alien blasters and rifles that you pick up. I ended with a ton of rifles, and more pistols than I could count. I think I picked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000 or so rounds of alien ammunition (with no ammo perks) Its convenient that the alien pistols, rifles, and cannons all use the same ammo.

There are unique versions too - if you find the shooting range, dont forget to poke around and find the unique rifle and cannon. Do the Albino Radscorp shoot for the Xenotech perk.

It was nice not having to think about radiation for a while. There are also health stations that charge you up to about 80% health or so, so dont worry too much about using stimpaks.

Another nice thing is that Somah can repair with a skill of 75 whenever she is around. Good prices too. I don't think she stays around after you complete the DLC, but I haven't checked.

The only bothersome part to this DLC was the Alien Archivist perk - you have to find 25 recordings at special terminals all through the ship. Here's the order to get them in, so you dont miss any. You can check the fallout wiki for more detail.

1. Holding Cells - 6
2. Engineering Core - 4
3a. Waste Disposal (via Maintenance Level) - 1
3b. Cryo Lab and Cryo Storage - 4 and 2
3c. Research Lab (via Cargo Hold) - 2

Insert space walk interlude...

4. Weapons Lab - 1
5. Experimentation Lab - 3
6. Biological Research - 1
7. Living Quarters - 1

Upsen.

Fallout 3 Pitt Glitch

I finally finished the Pitt DLC, and all the achievements for Fallout 3. Well, at least until the next DLC comes out: Mothership Zeta, coming out Aug 3, I hear.


Problem with the Pitt - in the Steelyard, I had a heck of a time with a glitch. Starting from the 2nd trip there, I would always fall through the corrugated rooftop that leads to the upper catwalks. I rebooted the console and the same thing happened. I went back and reloaded old saves on the rooftop, and I would actually just start falling after the game was loaded.

It turns out that this is because I also have the Point Lookout DLC installed - something goes wrong when you have both the Pitt and Point Lookout installed, and sections of that rooftop becomes a hit-or-miss affair. (usually a miss)

So I went into the console memory options and deleted Point Lookout. After loading the game again, the rooftop was solid. The game warned me that I would lose my Point Lookout gear and perks etc though.

I got the steel ingots I was missing, and the achievement after I turned them in.

You can redownload Point Lookout at no cost, if you purchased it online. (Assuming redownloading 400+megs doesn't impact your internet plan) If you installed it from a disc, you'll need the disc again, of course.

I didn't check the status of my perks and gear after reinstalling Point Lookout though, I haven't played the game since.

edit Aug 1 - I loaded up the game and found that the Perks and gear I'd gotten from Point Lookout had all disappeared. After the reinstall of Point Lookout, I got the message that there is a new ferryboat available, as if I had never done Point Lookout before. The location on the Capital Wasteland map is considered unexplored again too. Looks like I get a second romp through the Bogs if I feel like it.

Upsen.

Fallout 3 DLC Pack: Point Lookout

I picked up the Downloaded Content Pack for Point Lookout.

The first thing I did when I got to the ferry was find what options there are for getting passage to Point Lookout.

Bsaically, the only choice is to buy a ticket from the boatman, Tobar.

The most you can really do is sell him enough junk to cover the 300ish cost of the ticket.

Tobar is marked as an essential NPC, so he gets the "unconscious" flag instead of death, so you can't kill him for his boat after he tells you how to get there.

You can't threaten or charm your way into getting there. You can't pickpocket him for a ticket, though I guess that doesn't really make much sense, stealing a ticket to give back to the boatman. If you attack him, he fights back, when you take him down, he just gets back up after a while and wishes you a good day. Same for after you arrive in Point Lookout, he is still an essential "friendly" npc.

So annoying.

As an aside, what is with the super tough foes inside Point Lookout? In the main game, you headshot stuff with a single bullet from a sniper rifle, two if it's a tough one. Here you can throw away the sniper rifle cause it hits like a almost-broken handgun. I'm relying on the TESLA CANNON to kill the hostile axe-wielding, shotgun-toting rednecks. And it takes 3 shots! Enclave soldiers in power armor only took one shot, geez. It's like they are all tough as giant albino scorpions or super mutant overlords.

The speed at which the Tribals hack through power armor with axes puts deathclaws to shame.

The difficulty is not impossible to handle, but it feels incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the Fallout world.