What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

[Rynjin]

In a lot of ways I actually prefer 1 to 2. I think its gameplay/character ability variety is significantly better, as are its DLC which are quite fun (with the exception of Moxxi's Underdome Riot, which is kinda lame IMO). And as mentioned I think the sniper character (Mordecai, the Hunter) is significantly more powerful and fun in BL1, with more variety in build (he had a really good pistolero build too that I loved). But Borderlands 2 has the distinction of being the only game in the series with a good plot, even if 2/3 of its DLC suck. With the exception of its godawful plot, 3 beats both though in terms of gameplay.

If you're having fun as Zer0, more power to you. I just recall playing as him being...tedious. Unlike playing Deprived (which in DS3 isn't really appreciably weaker than other characters anyway, it's just not as min-maxed towards a specific build), you're kinda stuck with the character's general power level for the rest of the game. Borderlands is also significantly more stat based than skill based, and the game's "difficulty" (which is just giving enemies more, and more, and more, and moooooore health to slowly chip away at) doesn't really qualify as truly difficult IMO, just as I said, tedious.

[Jasdoif]

In terms of mechanics, he has possibly the worst action skill in the series, aside maybe Brick's Berserker rage from 1.

Brick takes forever to set up, needing most of the Brawler (most significantly Sting Like a Bee) and Tank skill trees as well as getting far enough into the Blaster skill tree for Liquidate); but Berserk is great once you get there. Decepti0n never really gets there.

[factotum]

In a lot of ways I actually prefer 1 to 2. I think its gameplay/character ability variety is significantly better, as are its DLC which are quite fun (with the exception of Moxxi's Underdome Riot, which is kinda lame IMO).

I think the other advantage 1 has is that it's a lot more fun to play single player in it--heck, with the right abilities you could solo Crawmerax the Invincible without too much trouble. They ramped up the multiplayer aspect in 2, and part of that was making tougher enemies ridiculous bullet sponges that take forever to kill while being able to kill you back in a couple of shots. Sniper gameplay is all very well, but when your enemy can easily tank your best shot to the head and, of course, every enemy within 200 miles is alerted to your exact position as soon as you take the shot, it tends not to work.

[Rynjin]

Brick takes forever to set up, needing most of the Brawler (most significantly Sting Like a Bee) and Tank skill trees as well as getting far enough into the Blaster skill tree for Liquidate); but Berserk is great once you get there. Decepti0n never really gets there.

Brick was my second most played character, don't get me wrong, but part of the issue is that Berserk simply does not work in the "true endgame" of the game: farming Crawmerax. You can't punch him, and even worse, Brick's other build (explosion man) ALSO can't hurt him, since rocket launchers can't attack critical points in Borderlands 1. Poor Brick.

At least he was basically unkillable.

I think the other advantage 1 has is that it's a lot more fun to play single player in it--heck, with the right abilities you could solo Crawmerax the Invincible without too much trouble. They ramped up the multiplayer aspect in 2, and part of that was making tougher enemies ridiculous bullet sponges that take forever to kill while being able to kill you back in a couple of shots. Sniper gameplay is all very well, but when your enemy can easily tank your best shot to the head and, of course, every enemy within 200 miles is alerted to your exact position as soon as you take the shot, it tends not to work.

Agreed in how the multiplayer focus affected 2, though I did find the first game kind of unbearable to play alone as well.

[Resileaf]

Little did we notice, we are now nearly at page 50 and must think up a new title.

The new Skyrim re-re-re-release is my inspiration.

What are you playing 5: Released for the fifth time
What are you playing 5: Anniversary edition; including 500+ posts

[Lord Raziere]

Little did we notice, we are now nearly at page 50 and must think up a new title.

The new Skyrim re-re-re-release is my inspiration.

What are you playing 5: Released for the fifth time
What are you playing 5: Anniversary edition; including 500+ posts

What are you playing 5: Yo dawg I heard you like rereleases...
What are you playing 5: "It just rereleases"
What are you playing 5: Nothing New
What are you playing 5: I like replay value but this is ridiculous!
What are you playing 5: That Indie Game You Never Heard Of
What are you playing 5: Old Stuff Now Cheaper On Steam
What are you playing 5: Our Steam Backlog

[GloatingSwine]

Brick was my second most played character, don't get me wrong, but part of the issue is that Berserk simply does not work in the "true endgame" of the game: farming Crawmerax. You can't punch him, and even worse, Brick's other build (explosion man) ALSO can't hurt him, since rocket launchers can't attack critical points in Borderlands 1. Poor Brick.

At least he was basically unkillable.

But if you did go down in Berserk, you were in the skag pile because you couldn't get back out of it again and nobody would be standing next to you to get punched.

Brick is, I think, the mechanically weakest of the original four characters. Launchers didn't really work terribly well in Blands 1 because they didn't crit, were poor at applying DoTs, and on release didn't even hit some enemies (they would pass through, you had to aim at the ground).

And Gage is really fun if you're fine playing on easy mode and ripping and tearing through the game with kind of a "greatest hits" of other characters' skills with none of the chaff. Deathtrap is a fun, meaty action skill and she's great at just providing a power fantasy of a character.

Gaige is a character who forces you to unlearn everything you know about FPS games. Reloading manually? Bad. Aiming at enemies? Bad. She also interacts oddly with some other mechanics, you want to find the guns that have unlisted projectiles because they will be boosted fully by Anarchy stacks instead of the boost being split between listed projectiles. Anything that had an inherent ricochet would also be guided by Close Enough without taking the -50% damage, so getting her a ricochet Fibber was amazing.

[factotum]

Gaige is a character who forces you to unlearn everything you know about FPS games. Reloading manually? Bad.

Oh, yes, I remember that...it just felt so *unnatural* to not immediately hit the reload button after each fight!

[Anteros]

Zero is fine, and sniping doesn't really fall off hard until you hit the number bloat of new game+. Even then, his other 2 builds are perfectly serviceable.

I don't really get where Rynjin is coming from on about half their points. For example: Axton's character being a white washed version of Roland. Roland is a responsible military leader. Axton is a genocidal cowboy only in it for the thrills. They're wildly different characters.

Meanwhile Krieg's "humor" was aged when we got it. Haha. He said meatpopsicle. So hilarious and random. Someone get that man a spork.

Ultimately it's different strokes for different folks I suppose.

[MCerberus]

What are you playing 5: Yo dawg I heard you like rereleases...
What are you playing 5: "It just rereleases"
What are you playing 5: Nothing New
What are you playing 5: I like replay value but this is ridiculous!
What are you playing 5: That Indie Game You Never Heard Of
What are you playing 5: Old Stuff Now Cheaper On Steam
What are you playing 5: Our Steam Backlog

: A Tale of Sales and Libraries Eternally Retold

[Jasdoif]

Brick is, I think, the mechanically weakest of the original four characters. Launchers didn't really work terribly well in Blands 1 because they didn't crit, were poor at applying DoTs, and on release didn't even hit some enemies (they would pass through, you had to aim at the ground).

True on both counts. The simple existence of Prize Fighter speaks to how little development time Brick got, which I guess is slightly understandable since he was added last....Launchers were just sad all around though; elemental revolvers (all of which proc every shot) nearly always outperformed them. Explosive revolvers, in particular, were good with Brick; partly for the obvious "Brick deals more explosive damage" and partly because revolvers' fire rates correspond well to the effective limit on Liquidate's cooldown reduction.

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah, Revolvers were ace in BL1, but then if you wanted to use them, well, Mordecai is right there with a whole build for them and a class mod that regenerates ammo for them.

[Triaxx]

Roland with regen mod plus Regen Turret is flat out disgusting.

[Rynjin]

I don't really get where Rynjin is coming from on about half their points. For example: Axton's character being a white washed version of Roland. Roland is a responsible military leader. Axton is a genocidal cowboy only in it for the thrills. They're wildly different characters.

You're conflating the Borderlands 2 Roland with the BL1 Roland, and they are not in the slightest the same character. He was kinda the requisite boisterous black dude in 1. Always reminded me of Cyborg from Teen Titans.

They tacked on a lot of stuff to Roland that wasn't really there before. Same with Lilith. This serves 2's plot very well, since the two main characters being two-dimensional archetypes doesn't work when you're trying to tell an actual story, but it's not what I was talking about in this case.

Axton has a lot of similar in-gameplay voicelines, but they're very...bro-y, by comparison.

[Sermil]

What are you playing 5: Yo dawg I heard you like rereleases...
What are you playing 5: "It just rereleases"
What are you playing 5: Nothing New
What are you playing 5: I like replay value but this is ridiculous!
What are you playing 5: That Indie Game You Never Heard Of
What are you playing 5: Old Stuff Now Cheaper On Steam
What are you playing 5: Our Steam Backlog

+1 to "What are you playing 5: I like replay value but this is ridiculous!"

[Dire_Flumph]

Ooo, new thread time! My contributions:

What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+
What Are You Playing 5: Legendary Edition
What Are You Playing 5: And Why Isn't it Hades? (change game name as desired)
What Are You Playing 5: Now With Cheaper Loot Boxes!
Super What Are You Playing 4: Hyper Fighting Champion Edition
What Are You Playing 5: 100% Completion

[Taevyr]

Ooo, new thread time! My contributions:

What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+
What Are You Playing 5: Legendary Edition
What Are You Playing 5: And Why Isn't it Hades? (change game name as desired)
What Are You Playing 5: Now With Cheaper Loot Boxes!
Super What Are You Playing 4: Hyper Fighting Champion Edition
What Are You Playing 5: 100% Completion

I like "What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+". Nice and simple.

[Anteros]

You're conflating the Borderlands 2 Roland with the BL1 Roland, and they are not in the slightest the same character. He was kinda the requisite boisterous black dude in 1. Always reminded me of Cyborg from Teen Titans.

They tacked on a lot of stuff to Roland that wasn't really there before. Same with Lilith. This serves 2's plot very well, since the two main characters being two-dimensional archetypes doesn't work when you're trying to tell an actual story, but it's not what I was talking about in this case.

Axton has a lot of similar in-gameplay voicelines, but they're very...bro-y, by comparison.

All of the characters in BL1 are like that. They have almost no distinct personalities. If Roland was white and Brick were black you'd probably be saying the same things about Brick. No one got fleshed out to be an actual character until BL2.

[Cespenar]

I like "What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+". Nice and simple.

This, if only to break the tie and make it easier.

[Ionathus]

I like "What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+". Nice and simple.

Throwing my vote on this one too.

[Man_Over_Game]

And Gage is really fun if you're fine playing on easy mode and ripping and tearing through the game with kind of a "greatest hits" of other characters' skills with none of the chaff. Deathtrap is a fun, meaty action skill and she's great at just providing a power fantasy of a character.

I agree with most of your post, I will say though that Maya makes the best sniper, hands down. You're either lifting an enemy for 3 seconds while they hover still for a perfect chain of headshots, or you convert an enemy and pull a bunch of other enemies to them, keeping them all distracted on your convert while you pick them off. Her ability has unlimited range, and can basically replace sniping altogether once you combine her phaselock chaining with her elemental tree.

Best sniper in BL3 is either Zane for utility, or Flak for pure damage. I always liked Zane more, because you could do some crazy stuff like spawn your clone on a hill, run forward near the enemies, throw out your dome shield, swap places with your clone, and then you could snipe your enemies from behind a bunker with a tank in it. His railgun DLC stuff adds a lot of power to snipers, in case you want a more "classic" sniping experience.

Although the best sniper of all the games, hands down, is Aurelia from The Presequel. Being able to regen ammo with sniper rifles as long as you land headshots is insane once you get that one semi-legendary minigun sniper rifle from a shop. My wife, who plays multiplayer, said it was a terrifying sound to hear when that thing gets rolling. Not to mention that really unique mechanic that adds elemental damage to your shots using that roulette system that locks in that element for as long as you keep aiming. It was nuts, I was just upset that it was weapon-specific (which is a really dumb mechanical trend that I'm glad they got rid of in 3). Her Action Skill literally freezes enemies in place, in a game where frozen enemies take additional crit damage. It was amazingly fun to play to play as a sniper in that game (and sniping usually SUCKS in Borderlands games).

Throwing my vote on this one too.

Same here.

[NRSASD]

Voting for What are you playing 5: "It just rereleases"

In other news, I just won Sir You Are Being Hunted for the first time. It's a lot of good fun, evading the most british of robots.

[Lord Raziere]

Voting for What are you playing 5: "It just rereleases"

Eeeeeeey, your a person with taste. Its not going to win, but hey you made me feel better about losing at least.

Yeah I'm thinking of going Zane for sniper if I ever free up enough disc space for BL3. Fl4k just isn't my style, visually or flavorfully.

[Rynjin]

Eeeeeeey, your a person with taste. Its not going to win, but hey you made me feel better about losing at least.

Yeah I'm thinking of going Zane for sniper if I ever free up enough disc space for BL3. Fl4k just isn't my style, visually or flavorfully.

I never finished a playthrough with Zane, because I dropped BL3 when the game didn't have a way to skip its godawful cutscenes but I did play around with him a bit. He seems super fun.

Amara is just...kinda best girl, all Borderlands. I need to play BL3 again when I get the money to buy it on Steam with all the DLC. The Epic Games version runs like ass and I never would have bought it if I wasn't getting reimbursed for it.

[Zevox]

Guilty Gear Strive's second DLC character, Jack-O, just dropped yesterday, and I've been trying her out. I like her energetic and goofy attitude, as well as her theme, but oh boy her play style is not for me. She basically throws little minions around the screen and can give them orders to attack, block, or self-destruct. Which can do some interesting things once those minions are out, but good luck getting them out and keeping them there, because if your opponent hits them, hits you, or you even block anything they do, the minions vanish. And without the minions out, she just feels very basic, her hits give poor reward, and her moves seem weak. She's kind of fun to goof around with, but it's obvious I'll never be able to use her half as well as my next-best character.

Oh well, my main (May) escaped the first balance patch with minimal nerfs despite being widely perceived to be one of the game's strongest characters, and the rest of the characters I play all got small buffs, so that's nice. Just a pity that neither of the two DLC additions so far have been characters I've liked.

Also, I'm on the fourth case of Great Ace Attorney Adventures 2, and wow, is it set up to be a dramatic one.

Spoiler

Show

The victim is Inspector Gregson, the detective you've been working with since the middle of the first game. So, this is like if they'd made Detective Gumshoe the victim in one of the early games.

The defendant is the prosecutor you've been squaring off against in all but the first case of each game, Barok van Zieks, whom has a... complicated relationship to the games' lead, Ryunosuke. A mix of respect and disgust for how you handle yourself in the courtroom, some casual racism that's fueled in part by his personal history that you're only recently learning the details of, and a reputation that's put him in a position where no other defense lawyer in the country will touch him with a ten-foot pole.

The prosecutor for the case will be Ryunosuke's best friend, Kazuma, whom was thought dead since the second case of the first game, but turns out to have simply been knocked out, secreted away for unknown reasons, and developed amnesia until just recently. The thing is, Kazuma was a defense attorney, not a prosecutor, when you knew him before. His encouragement is what first made Ryunosuke even consider becoming a defense attorney, and it was his apparent death that cause Ryunosuke to finally decide to do so, intending to carry on Kazuma's dreams as a way of honoring his friend. Moreover, your assistant, Susato, also became a judicial assistant because she wanted to help Kazuma, and clearly has a great deal of respect and affection for him. And he's apparently been secretly learning to be a prosecutor for the past few months as Barok van Zieks' apprentice.

Oh, and part of that complicated history of Prosecutor van Zieks' with Japanese people? That's because an infamous mass-murderer in London ten years ago, whose victims include van Zieks' brother, turned out to have been a Japanese man. Whom had worked closely with van Zieks and his brother. And it turns out he was also Kazuma's father, and part of Kazuma's reason for wanting to come to Great Britain at all was to find out what really happened to him.

Just, wow. Ace Attorney has had some soap-opera-esque cases before, but this one takes the cake.

[Resileaf]

I've completed my playthrough of Mass Effect 2 on the Legendary edition. I will now play Mass Effect 3 for the first time!

[Starbuck_II]

I will be playing Wrath of the Righteous Thursday, I'm think going for Lich Mythic Path, so evil Inquisitor (Monster Tactician for summoning goodness)
Not sure what gods are best.

Fallout 4: Finished Kiddie (rads were tough), trying Gulch now, killing those worms now. isn't that bad at low levels (just annoying that they appear out of no where).

We Happy Few (made it past bridge): really liking the story.

[Yora]

I've completed my playthrough of Mass Effect 2 on the Legendary edition. I will now play Mass Effect 3 for the first time!

Some real highlights of the series ahead. Those parts that were given proper time and care to fully develop are amazing.
(Which makes the parts that were clearly rushed and barely finished so frustrating. If the whole game was bad, it could just be ignored. But the other half is just so good...)

[NeoVid]

We Happy Few (made it past bridge): really liking the story.

I was afraid We Happy Few would end up disappointing me after I'd played it for a while, but I ended up glad I stayed with it. Once you're done just wandering around as Arthur and the game starts throwing you into main story missions constantly, the pace picks up a ton, and I counted myself lucky that I went in mostly unspoiled. It ended up with one of the absolute most memorable final sequences I've ever seen... "WE'VE COME TO THE END OF OUR TIME!!! WE'VE COME TO THE END OF OUR TIME!!!"

[Zevox]

I finished up Great Ace Attorney 2 last night, and holy crap, that final case. I am in awe. The first game ending with dangling plot threads and blatant sequel-bait now makes complete sense to me, because that finale could not have been half of what it is without the two-game setup. There's plot threads laid down in I think literally every prior case that come together for it, and it is as beautifully dramatic, over-the-top, and fun as I could ask.* That is almost certainly the best case in the series, and those games might be my favorite in the series by extension. I loved it.
*Well, I guess I didn't get to cross-examine another animal like the Parrot in the first game or Whale in Dual Destinies, but if that's the closest thing to a criticism I can think of for it...

If they do another Great Ace Attorney game, I will be eager to see it. Ryunosuke, Sholmes, and company have more than earned their place alongside Phoenix and his cast in this franchise as far as I'm concerned.