Borderlands Review

What would happen if you mixed W.O.W. with Fallout 3? Why, you'd get Borderlands, the dark horse this year of first person shooters! I didn't expect much of this game, just a Fallout ripoff, but damn, did it deliver.

On with the good of this game: The gameplay. It's nothing face-melting, but it's got solid shooting and a god damn huge amount of weapons, I think over 200,000. So far I've used maybe 300, and still collecting. Of course, you have a backpack like Fallout with which you carry everything in, so you'll only be able to carry I think 12 items at the start of the game, but I can now carry 21. The loot collecting is much like W.O.W., finding big chests filled with randomly generated guns and ammo, hoping to find an Orange-level rare gun.
There are 4 classes to pick from, each having there own special skills. One lays down a turrent, the other becomes invisible, the other uses his fists, etc. You can level and customize your powers starting at level 5, in a very skill-treeish way.
The graphics in this game are really cool, being cel-shaded. It reminded me a lot of Crackdown, so for you people who liked that, here's your next CS game. The character models look really cool, and so do most of the environments. I would have liked a few more enemies, as you're fighting pretty much the same dog-like Scag creatures for the first maybe 6 hours, along with psychos and steam punk bandits.
This is a game you're going to want to play with a friend, online or not. (Luckily it's one of the few new games out there with split-screen!) I spent the first 2 hours with a friend, and had a blast. It would've been even more fun if that bastard hadn't kept stealing my fu**ing loot.

The Bad: The game is glitchy, particularly in this one boss battle with a creature called Scagzilla. He was floating in the air, stopping randomly, and got stuck in a spinning motion, leading me to an easy kill. I encountered small glitches maybe twice or three times and hour, and a big one like Scagzilla's maybe every 3 hours. So there's my estimate.
The bad side of the graphics: The textures. Up close they look... just awful, especially on the ground and inside walls. They're really pixelated, and there are also some really bouncy, pixel-y shadows every once in a while.
The driving is a steaming pile of horse-sh**. I despise drive-fights in this game, because of:
A.) The awful physics. If you collide with another car (which happens a LOT due to the wonky controls), you usually end up on top of them of them on top of you, and you have to get out of your car to fix it. Almost always by then they've escaped and kill you when you get out.
B.) The bad controls! It has Halo style driving, but there's a delayed turn so when you aim to turn somewhere it turns maybe a second later. It gets really annoying when using nitrous, and often causes collisions with small objects, which usually make you COMPLETELY STOP.

Okay, so. It's a good game, but with some glitches and driving issues. It'll offer you dozens of hours of awesome pillaging and looting fun, so go rent this one or pick it up if you're a fan of Fallout and/or W.O.W.

Final Rating: 8.4