Borderlands
For my last post, I will be looking at a game series that has always been one of my favourites - Borderlands. There are currently four games that have been released in the Borderlands franchise - Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Tales From The Borderlands. Tales From The Borderlands and Borderlands 2, though very different styles of game, are my personal favourites based on story, game mechanics and characters. The series are role-playing first person shooter games, set in a space western galaxy, aside from Tales From The Borderlands which was a choose-your-own-story game centered around the Borderlands universe, developed by Telltale Games. Developed by Gearbox Software and 2K Australia, the first game was released on the 20th of October 2009 and being quite honest, I'm really not a fan of the first Borderlands game.
The game's premise is that you are a vault hunter - someone who is hunting for a legendary vault that teleports around and is fabled to contain riches beyond belief - and you must travel around the planet of Pandora doing odd jobs for random people in the hopes that they will assist you in finding the vault. The entire franchise is centered around vaults and trying to locate one but I just thought that this first game was very poorly executed. There were a few mechanical points that bothered me throughout, such as the fact that ammunition and weaponary isn't picked up as you walk over it which is a huge hassle during a battle.
Aside from this, I just felt that the game had a good concept that hadn't really been built around a plot at all, it was almost as if the entire game was composed of side quests. Admittedly, I grew tired of the game and never finished it though I have heard that the final boss is incredibly underwhelming. This all sounds very negative but it did pave the way for the games that followed which I really enjoyed and I paid something under five euro for the game in a second hand shop so I can't really complain.
Borderlands 2 was amazing by comparison. Funny, with a concrete plot and really likeable, memorable characters, it is constantly in the running for my favourite game of all time though it essentially follows the same idea as it predescessor. The only major difference in plot is the introduction of competition - a character known as Handsome Jack who is also seeking out of the vault. I found Handsome Jack to be a great addition to the series and he is one of my favourite characters from any media. Hilarious, harsh and heartless, he constantly appears at tense, stressful moments with a smart or more often than not, idiotic comment.
I'm going to be looking at the planet of Pandora today, which heavily features in Borderlands, Borderlands 2 and Tales From The Borderlands. It became such a familiar and likeable landscape that it's absence honestly put me off of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel a little. Pandora has an incredibly long and complex history with company after company landing on the planet and due to this being a geography blog and the sheer length of Pandora's history, I simply won't be able to write about it without an entirely seperate post.
Firstly, I will be looking at the fauna of Pandora. Throughout the Borderlands series, the player encounters many different creatures, almost all of which are hostile and aggressive, though I imagine this is more down to Borderlands being a first person shooter than down to planetary design. Some of the more commonly encountered creatures include skags, rakks, threshers and varkids. Scientists in game also mention that a number of species of bug inhabit Pandora though none are ever singularly named.
Let's continue on to the flora of Pandora which is very sparse in many areas as much of the planet is rather arid and barren. The vegetation that is present however, is in keeping with what you would expect for each geographical area - occassional cacti in the dry areas, plants resembling mushrooms in the Arid Badlands and cave areas and lily pads, moss-like growths and wild grasses, flowers and weeds in the marshy, swamp-like areas.
Pandora's landscape is greatly diverse with the player encountering snowy mountains, coastal stretches and huge deserts with realistic geographical features such as lakes, ravines and caves.
The game's premise is that you are a vault hunter - someone who is hunting for a legendary vault that teleports around and is fabled to contain riches beyond belief - and you must travel around the planet of Pandora doing odd jobs for random people in the hopes that they will assist you in finding the vault. The entire franchise is centered around vaults and trying to locate one but I just thought that this first game was very poorly executed. There were a few mechanical points that bothered me throughout, such as the fact that ammunition and weaponary isn't picked up as you walk over it which is a huge hassle during a battle.
Aside from this, I just felt that the game had a good concept that hadn't really been built around a plot at all, it was almost as if the entire game was composed of side quests. Admittedly, I grew tired of the game and never finished it though I have heard that the final boss is incredibly underwhelming. This all sounds very negative but it did pave the way for the games that followed which I really enjoyed and I paid something under five euro for the game in a second hand shop so I can't really complain.
Borderlands 2 was amazing by comparison. Funny, with a concrete plot and really likeable, memorable characters, it is constantly in the running for my favourite game of all time though it essentially follows the same idea as it predescessor. The only major difference in plot is the introduction of competition - a character known as Handsome Jack who is also seeking out of the vault. I found Handsome Jack to be a great addition to the series and he is one of my favourite characters from any media. Hilarious, harsh and heartless, he constantly appears at tense, stressful moments with a smart or more often than not, idiotic comment.
I'm going to be looking at the planet of Pandora today, which heavily features in Borderlands, Borderlands 2 and Tales From The Borderlands. It became such a familiar and likeable landscape that it's absence honestly put me off of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel a little. Pandora has an incredibly long and complex history with company after company landing on the planet and due to this being a geography blog and the sheer length of Pandora's history, I simply won't be able to write about it without an entirely seperate post.
Firstly, I will be looking at the fauna of Pandora. Throughout the Borderlands series, the player encounters many different creatures, almost all of which are hostile and aggressive, though I imagine this is more down to Borderlands being a first person shooter than down to planetary design. Some of the more commonly encountered creatures include skags, rakks, threshers and varkids. Scientists in game also mention that a number of species of bug inhabit Pandora though none are ever singularly named.
Let's continue on to the flora of Pandora which is very sparse in many areas as much of the planet is rather arid and barren. The vegetation that is present however, is in keeping with what you would expect for each geographical area - occassional cacti in the dry areas, plants resembling mushrooms in the Arid Badlands and cave areas and lily pads, moss-like growths and wild grasses, flowers and weeds in the marshy, swamp-like areas.
Pandora's landscape is greatly diverse with the player encountering snowy mountains, coastal stretches and huge deserts with realistic geographical features such as lakes, ravines and caves.
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