After having Borderlands for the past week I am happy to give it my own little review. The game has really pulled me in and captured me. This is a first of its kind for me; a FPS RPG. I continue to get the urge and play the game to search for loot and complete quests. I even started a second character to try the game from a different perspective. My initial character is a soldier and I just finished all the quests in the Arid Wastelands. There just feels like so much to do in the game and it doesn’t feel old or boring at all. The amount of variety in guns, shields, items and the whole online coop experience really puts this game above the rest. For a game I just decided to buy on the spur of the moment last week I feel I made a great choice. It really makes me feel like I am back in the Diablo 2 days where I would play for hours and hours online dungeon crawling and questing. If you still haven’t heard of the game yet I urge you to look it up and check it out. Come find me online and it will be a lot of fun. I would give it a perfect score for sure.
If you still can’t find the game (I know there are more than a few of you), keep looking and don’t give up this game is worth it. I have been checking for the past week and it has been crazy. In Regina, Saskatchewan, there were no copies at Best Buy, Future Shop, Wal-mart, Zellers, EB Games, HMV, Toys-R-Us, Blockbuster, and Rogers Video. Talk about short shipping a game (or incredibly amazing sales). There was even a response from Gearbox (developer) in regards to the shortages. I hope they can get their supply chain issues sorted out because this is a real winner they have on their hands.
On the spur of the moment given the opportunity to save I picked up Borderlands for the Xbox 360.  As had already been seen once before with the launch of Batman : Arkham Asylum, Borderlands was introduced at a very cool $39.99 (Canadian Dollars!). Wal-mart Canada appears to have started off this (limited time/limited quantity) pricing strategy but have been matched by Future Shop and Best Buy. This kind of launch will not only spur a whole lot of sales but may also bring about a new way to release games. The traditional model of the past has always been to release the game for a lot, and then after a long while slowly bring the cost down possibly in the form of a greatest hits packaging. With the huge commercial success of Batman, which is sure to be followed by Borderlands, a new model has been created.  Reports are coming in across Canada about the game selling out and stock moving very fast across store shelves.
Lets not forget about the real winner of the day, Borderlands! The game is actually very well done and seems fresh. The game can be quickly described as a Action FPS RPG. The game takes the shape of the traditional FPS but puts together a string of tasks and weapons that follow the structure of an RPG. The game is said to contain 100’s of thousands of unique weapons. The game can be played solo but from most opinions it is best played with 4 friends in online coop. Early reviews are giving the game an 8 – 9 out of 10 which is fair. I won’t make any critical remarks about the game until I can put a little bit more time into it but from what I’ve seen so far I have enjoyed.  If you can still manage to find the game for sale before October 27 at the sale price I would say to go for it. Even afterward I am sure the game would be worth the full price at $69.99.