Borderlands

[Bod]

Piece of advice now mate: do every single sidequest you can muster before going after Sledge. Don't even think about taking him on until you're level 19, if not level 20...

or ...

Spoiler: show

If you have a decent sniper rifle, you can quite easily lure him out of his domain (the doors don't lock when you enter) into the corridor and then pick him off at your leisure whilst stood next to the ammo & health area. I used this method on both play through 1 & 2 and it worked a treat.

[Meow]

Piece of advice now mate: do every single sidequest you can muster before going after Sledge. Don't even think about taking him on until you're level 19, if not level 20...

or ...

Spoiler: show

If you have a decent sniper rifle, you can quite easily lure him out of his domain (the doors don't lock when you enter) into the corridor and then pick him off at your leisure whilst stood next to the ammo & health area. I used this method on both play through 1 & 2 and it worked a treat.

I find that a lot in this game that the AI is pretty dumb and will often get stuck or find some such hiding place or corridor they can't get threw.

[The Captain]

You know, it feels really good to play a proper 'game' game - I never find myself thinking of the AI or the like at all - just like if you're playing Duke or Doom or somesuch. The baddies are there as, to quote the Vortigaunts, 'grim pinata' - meat-loot bags. And BANG it feels good to take 'em down. It's one of the things that makes the game accessible and fun.

If the recent pseudo-AI atrocities like Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising are where it's going, I'd rather the Borderlands approach of 'who gives a shit? Let's shoot!' holds sway again, to be honest.

Sniping dumb bastards just makes you feel smarter and snipier, even if you aren't. Developers, pay attention....

[PVB]

I find that a lot in this game that the AI is pretty dumb and will often get stuck or find some such hiding place or corridor they can't get threw.

I've found the opposite, with Bruisers especially always trying to get behind cover, then moving to more when I move around the side and start shooting.

[CarlBillen]

Man, Krom's Canyon is a hard place! I'm not even going after Krom yet, just doing the "Earl needs food badly" and "Kill Reaver" quests, and those Lvl. 26 bandits are quite hard. I spent a good half hour trying to manage to get the claptraps repair box there, jumping from here to there, and I couldn't manage to get into reach. So I stood on a roof, aimed my gun carefully so that when I jumped I would grab the box. I reloaded my gun first (as it is the same button as the "pick up" button), I jumped and then hammered my "pick up" button and managed the grab the bloody thing. The things I do for a bit more storage space!

I have been trying out different elemental weapons, but I haven't found anything yet which I really really like. For the moment my Glorious Havoc combat rifle with extra large clip and a lot of non-elemental damage simply kills enemies faster than any elemental thing. And that "The Spy" SMG with 60 raw damage and a big clip and scope is such a good head popper.

For the spiderants I switch to my big shotgun. And I am still keeping my nice yellow sniper rifle with 96 x 6 damage... And I found my first light orange gun (a revolver) which looks nice and has a nice zoom but I am not too fond of these small-clip weapons. It reloads pretty fast though.

[PVB]

I find that a lot in this game that the AI is pretty dumb and will often get stuck or find some such hiding place or corridor they can't get threw.

I've found the opposite, with Bruisers especially always trying to get behind cover, then moving to more when I move around the side and start shooting.

I take that back, as Marley & Moe were dumb fucks.

Cleared all the skags around their area, then kept my distance and used my Colossal Destructor rocket launcher to wear them down.

I think I was so far away (could barely tell if I hurt them or not) that they never came after me.

One died at that range, then the other one came towards me slowly, but the turret and a few rounds from my explosive SMG got him.

[chub]

Just finished my first playthrough! I thoroughly enjoyed that. There's something so satisfying about collecting loot to build up a great arsenal, then finding loads of test subjects to try it out on.

I ended up with a level 36 soldier and a completely awesome set of weapons and equipment. I especially liked my orange SMG with x4 fire elemental, which was great for some of the later enemies even though it's base damage wasn't that high. However the shotgun I was using was my favourite for most things, as it was fast, powerful and had a larger magazine than most. The bandits may have had loads of comments about my imminent demise, but after saying hello to Mr. Shotgun, they had a different opinion. Sometimes I even managed to separate the top half of a guy from his bottom half! That must have hurt.

One of the toughest parts of the game I thought was Old Haven. Man, that place is dangerous. I got through it in the end though, and got some great loot as well, so it was worth the hassle.

Did anyone have any glitched achievements? I had two which should have unlocked but didn't. It seems from what I've read it's happened to other people too, but on a variety of different achievements. Mine were of the 'kill a certain number of enemies with a <insert weapon here>' type ones, so hopefully if I use a different character I can get them.

However, I'm going to have a break from it for a bit and play something else. I will be back though for playthrough 2!

[Mayhem]

My soldier still has "The Spy" in his armoury, I haven't found anything better to replace it yet (even though I'm on playthrough two now). I really could do with a purple or orange SMG, as I was generally just using the assault rifle for the last parts of the game because the magazine was almost as big (boosted via skill points), the scope was almost as big, the recoil was infinitely small and the damage obviously was massively greater. The Spy just couldn't cut it damage wise against some of the last enemies sadly, so it was mostly rifle and shotgun, with some corrosive revolver action in between. Hence I would like a new and better SMG to plant itself in my lap shortly for him, because taking on spiderants is a lot easier with one!

Having said that, I did get one tonight playing as my berserker; purple colour, very high damage (for an SMG), decent accuracy and zoom scope, but my brother wanted it off me for his hunter. I relented, given he was struggling for a decent SMG himself and he didn't really use the assault rifles yet. I've been trimming up my assault rifle specs instead because of that even though I still have my "The Spy", along with boosting the monster launcher power and having a stupidly powerful shotgun with a high shot rate (2.8!).

Old Haven was okay for me as the soldier, given the points above. I could repeatedly critical headshot a lot of enemies from distance, and lob out the turret to distract a few while I came in from the side with the shotty or grenades. Took a while to progress through given the amount of enemies in there, plus they respawn every so often when you move location within the city.

As for glitched achievements, yeah I suffered that. I only got the corrosive and shock ones with my soldier; it took a new game and playing as berserker to get the fire, explosive and 12 Days Of Pandora to register.

[chub]

Old Haven was okay for me as the soldier, given the points above. I could repeatedly critical headshot a lot of enemies from distance, and lob out the turret to distract a few while I came in from the side with the shotty or grenades. Took a while to progress through given the amount of enemies in there, plus they respawn every so often when you move location within the city.

I was in the thick of it, and they just kept coming. I was wondering if it was ever going to end! One problem I had is that they kept using their turrets too! As I found out later though, they don't like fire.

As for glitched achievements, yeah I suffered that. I only got the corrosive and shock ones with my soldier; it took a new game and playing as berserker to get the fire, explosive and 12 Days Of Pandora to register.

The ones that glitched for me were the corrosive one and 12 Days Of Pandora.

[betamax]

Level 48 reached last night when disaster stuck- I committed the unforgivable sin of nudging the xbox gently while the disc was spinning. One hideous noise and frantic ejecting later and my Borderlands disc has a perfect circle scored on the underside. I'll send it off to a disc repair place, but thats my level 50 achievment on hold for at least a few weeks, Hey Ho.

[Mayhem]

Ouch... I assume you hadn't installed it to HDD then?

[The Captain]

Beta, they tend to do disc repair in most game shops now, like CEX and Gamestation, and you might get lucky if the scratch isn't too deep. Is there anywhere near you that might fit the bill? Seems a shame to have to spend a couple of weeks away from the3 game for something so arsey. MW2 not permitting, of course.

[Orangy Tang]

I found an awesome weapon last night - an SMG which does good base damage and a x4 fire effect. Combined with the fact that it's super accurate and has a x4 zoom it works really well not just as a close to mid range SMG but also as a sniper rifle. With the Siren bonuses for elemental effects it's surprising how quickly someone will die once they've been set on fire.

I've been avoiding shotguns as I've found them a little meh - has anyone else had the same experience?

[Mayhem]

Now that's an SMG I could do with... the one my berserker currently has is a x4 with excellent base damage but the accuracy is like 30% and there's no zoom. Just for closer encounters. I suppose that's how he SHOULD be, given he is a tank and can absorb damage like Pampers absorbs... you know what. I have the long range assault rifle for zooming but unlike the soldier (who can hoist the stats on that to god-like proportions) I have to make do with a 12 magazine size and having him reload it quickly instead. Actually I need to check, I almost think the rifle my berserker has currently is BETTER than the one my soldier has...

You just need to find yourself the right shotgun. The soldier is a natural because he can boost the shotty's abilities. The berserker is a natural because he's a tank at close range. So it's a question of whether a shotty or pistol is better for the siren (haven't tried her yet). The shotty my berserker has currently does 86x7 damage with an accuracy of 58 and a fire rate of 2.8, so it's a bit of a beast. Oh, and did I mention it has a large zoom? I can part headshot bandits with it from 50 yards

I do think in part that the characters you play affect what weapon types appear. Given it's a berserker and hunter in co-op (between my brother and myself) then we do find more rocket launchers and sniper rifles than anything else, followed by pistols and shotguns.

[PVB]

Been having some weird dreams the last week or so, all with Skags involved.

Guess I'm scared of them or something.