PreSequel++;

With Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, I like and dislike different parts of it in almost equal measure. The combat is exciting and the characters are likable. On the other hand, the envi??ronments are a li??ttle dull and it suffers from a host of obnoxious bugs.

Claptastic Voyage, the first and only "big" piece of downloadab??le content had the opportunity to fix a lot of what was broken with the base ??game. For the most part it succeeds in that endeavor, but it still seems like 2K Australia has a bit to learn about making the loot-shooter truly great.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Claptastic Voyage (Linux, Mac, PC [reviewed], PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developers: 2K Australia, Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: March 24, 2015
MSRP: $9.99 (included in Season Pass and The Handsome Collection)
Rig: AMD Phenom II X2 555 @ 3.2 GHz, with 4GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5700, Windows 7 64-bit

With the premise of entering the mind of Claptrap, The Pre-Sequel had a ton of freedom with where it could go and what it could do. As with the Dungeons and Dragons-esque setup for Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, the narrative hook allows Vault Hunters to leave the planet of Pandora (or its moon Elpis) in favor of even more fantastic locales. In practice, Claptastic Voyage takes players from the samey blue-gray moon surface a??nd industrial compl?exes to samey blue-gray electronics (that look a lot like industrial complexes).

At least, that's how the first half goes. It's immediately disappointing that the limitless setting produces such uninteresting environments, but that changes further in. A little ways into the DLC the Vault Hunters can access Claptrap's old memories, revisiting areas featured in previous titles like Fyrestone or Overlook. Eventually, the shooting goes deep enough into Claptrap's mind to find wholly original, diverse environments. The Escherian temple of ??Claptrap's subconscious is particularly fun to explore.

One thing that Claptastic Voyage does especially well is to fill in gaps in the overarching story that have only previously been hinted at. It does this with the memory exercise in Overlook, illustrating the town's deterioration to the state players find it in Borderlands 2. It ends with a direct lead-in to BL2, showing how Claptrap meets Sir Hammerlock in the frozen tundra on Pandora. It even goes so far as to explain Claptrap's penchant for dubstep where it wasn't present in the original Borderlands.

All that said, while the details are cute for fans of the lore, the main plot in Claptastic Voyage has been done several times in the Borderlands series. Perhaps it's intentionally self-referential, but the plot device that introduces the main villain early on as an ally who "unexpectedly" betrays the heroes is tired at this point. He is clearly designed to let the player know what's up, so watching the characters go along and be flabbergasted by the betrayal creates a?? sort of disconnect between player and protagonist.

At a micro level, the writing follows what we have come to expect from the series. Though it isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as Tales from the Borderlands has been, it hits the right notes of dark comedy. It manages to get through its eight-to-ten ?hour campaign without making nearly as many pop culture references as the last few games in the series have done.

Gameplay is largely unaltered from The Pre-Sequel's main campaign. It remains fast and frenetic to moon jump and butt slam between enemies. There are very few zero-atmosphere environments in Claptastic Voyage, so players are ??free to use the doub?le jump without having to worry about running out of oxygen.

Almost all of the enemies are new in some way, with viruses, bugs, and protection software given physical manifestations to explode. Even the old standby enemies like bandits and psychos behave a bit differently, able to phase in and out of existence occasionally since they are computer projections generated by Claptrap's memory. The theme of software given life extends to in-universe advertisement, with foes who do nothing but stream audio to the player until they are destroyed. There are also pop-up ads: chest-h??igh walls that appear from the ground and can either be closed or serve as randomized mini stores for health or ammunition.

The final boss deserves special mention, though not necessarily for the best reasons. It begins as an interesting fight, with a lot of different tasks ?the player has to juggle. There are jump pads, helpful "volatile bits" to trigger, lava to avoid, small enemies to keep at bay and use for revives, and the main boss who can deal some serious damage if he is ignored. It's exciting for the first 10 minutes. Then it keeps going. Then the boss transforms and recharges his shield. Then it keeps going. Then he transforms and?? recharges his shield again. I timed it; it took me 45 minutes to solo that one fight, and that was on my second try. (On the first try, I spent what felt like an hour, made it to his final form, died, and started back at the beginning of the fight. I quit for the night.)

It illustrates how 2K Australia can get some aspects of Borderlands so right, but just miss the mark in other ways that bring the whole experience down a bit. The boss just has too much health, and that one element turns it from an interesting fight into a slog. It's almost as if it is intended to be a raid boss, except that it's required in order to complete the story. In fact, there is no optional raid boss like there have been in past Borderlands DLC packs, which is a little disappointing considering how phoned in the raid boss in The Pre-Sequel's main game is.

That said, 2K Australia does its own thing for high level content. In addition to farming the end boss for Legendary drops, a special arena unlocks after getting through the story. It boils down to fending off waves of enemies in an arena, ??but it allows parties to customize various aspects of ?the battle. Players can increase or decrease the difficulty and add "mutations," like bonus damage for certain gun manufacturers or increased magazine size at the cost of decreased reload speed. Of course, more difficult settings yield more valuable loot. It's an interesting idea that I'd like to see explored further in future installments.

Overall, Claptastic Voyage is an improvement to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It seems like 2K Australia has been listening to a lot of the criticism of the base game. Aside from some invisible walls, I didn't experience any of the bugs here that detracted from The Pre-Sequel. The environmental design starts off disappo?intingly unimaginative, but soon goes to? unexpected places. The core gameplay is as fun as it has ever been.

However, Claptastic Voyage still suffers from some of the problems that plague the entire series. The main plot is average, lacking any real standout moments worth discussing. It exists as a vehicle to get players between gunfights or to the more entert?aining optional missions. This won't go down in history as an example of exceptional DLC??, but it does what it does well and it's worth the time to play through.

The post Review: Borde?rlands: The Pre-Sequel: ??Claptastic Voyage appeared first on Destructoid.

Full spoilers ahead

The first and only big story piece of downloadable content released for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel earlier this week, and I just finished playing through it. As usual, I took a bunch of screenshots as I played through. Fair warning: these screenshots contain general spoilers for the content, including special ?areas, boss fights, and cinematic cutscenes. Peruse at your own risk.

Going through them just now, I realized that I basically only ever use one gun on my Wilhelm. I tried out the new glitch weaponry, but nothing works quite as well as the Moonface for me. Expect our review for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Claptastic Voyage later today.

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Why grind for loot when it's right there in a golden chest?

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is out today. One of the major selling points for those who have already played Borderlands 2 and/or Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel on last generation hardwa?re is the ability to import save data from legacy consoles. However, certain things like items in Claptrap's Secret Stash and Golden Keys cannot be transferred. The former is easy to work around; one needs only to move the Secret Stash item to a backpack or bank. The latter has no user end procedure, so Gearbox is giving out a fat stack of Golden Keys for everybody.

For those new to the idea of Golden Keys, they were introduced in Borderlands 2. Generally, players acquire new keys by following Gearbox/Borderlands/Randy Pitchford on Facebook or Twitter. By signing up for Gearbox's data-trac?king service Shift, players can enter codes in-game for various rewards; usually it's just keys, but there have also been character customizations.

After redeeming codes for keys, the keys may be spent at a Golden Chest. In Borderlands 2 the chest is found in Sanctuary. In The Pre-Sequel it is found in Concordia. Op?ening the chest will generate random pieces of loot at exactly the character's level, almost always of rare (purple) quality or higher. It's a good way to buff up as old gear becomes obsolete but before any good random drops have shown up.

As a bonus, these codes should work with any version of the two games found in the Handsome Collection. Even those without the current generation up?grade can enjoy them. So without furt?her ado, the Shift codes are below. They are good through March 31.

Gearbox Software [Twitter]

PC/Mac/Linux
Borderlands 2: WBK3T-BKW6T-TXTRK-JTTBT-C6BS5
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: KKWBJ-6B5FJ-3JJBT-JBBJB-WWH6X

PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita/PlayStation 4
Borderlands 2: KTKTT-ZSFWS-R3CHC-9BW33-3JW3H
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: 555JT-6TTX5-SFBKT-HTW33-T3F3T

Xbox 360/Xbox One
Borderlands 2: CJC33-KHBCW-FHF6Z-C6JTB-F9395
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: 555JT-6TTT9-KCFJX-CXT33-T3FBC

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From old to current-gen

When you pick up Borderlands: The Handsome Collection later this month, you'll have the opportunity to transfer your old save file for both included titles. It's actually pretty easy this time around, as all you'll need to do is go into the old game, update to the latest version, choose upload save, then download save in the Handsome pack -- done.

Pretty much everything will transfer over,?? and while Xbox owners can only go one way from 360 to the Xbox One, Sony platforms can upload or download saves to all three?? supported platforms (PS3, PS4, and Vita). Also, uploading saves just copies the file without deleting the source data. Sweet!

Now for the bad news. Anything from Claptrap's Secret Stash will not transfer, so Gearbox recommends moving items to your bank first. Also, trophies and achievements will need to be re-earned, and Golden Keys will not transfer. The developer is combating these negatives by granting you bonus badass rank and 75 Golden Keys each for returning Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel players.

All in all that doesn't seem all that bad, especially if you're ?playin??g on Sony platforms and can Cross-Save like that.

Cross-Save ?in Borderlands: The Handsome Collection [Gearbox]

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Zen distilled stories

This week's episode a little late, courtesy of PAX East. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Last week D. Takeshi Nakamura had a little accident, inserting a line with a deplorable six syllables in it, which some keeping track at home noticed is?? neither five nor seven. He has brought shame to his family and his?? name.

In this series, we take a look at the stories that gathered the most attention of the past week, and ??distill each one down to its essence. Here are the topics that the surly D. Takeshi Nakamura takes on this week:

• Cibele is a game about love, sex, and the Internet
• Valve to give a talk about physics o?n at GDC on March 3 at 3 PM
• Review: Helldivers
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection shines in some spots, has problems in others
• We'll need Windows 10 (or an Xbox One) for Gigantic
• We'll never get to play this Final Fantasy VII fan sequel
• PlayStatio?n 4 update 2.50 details have been leaked

The post Game New??s Haikus: Gigantic, Borde??rlands, sex, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Inside the mind of Claptrap

During today's Inside Gearbox panel at PAX East, Gearbox unveiled the trailer for the fourth piece of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel downloadable content.

The story content picks up after the end of The Pre-Sequel and leads into the beginning of Borderlands 2 where the ?player meets Claptrap in the tundra of Pandora. Jack learns that his recently murdered boss Tassiter had valuable software hidden away inside Claptr??ap's mind, so he digitizes the Vault Hunters to go retrieve it.

Gearbox debuted the trailer for PAX East attendees, featuring giant Handsome Jack heads, confetti, and glitched weaponry. The content is described as lasting "several hours," and will release on March 24, the same day as Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.

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That's damn expensive and damn cool

Most high-end special editions of games come with the same sort of?? tchotchkes -- maybe a figurine, an art book -- that sort of stuff. 2K is raising the bar when it comes to limited editions, both in terms of content and price.

Alongside the announcement of Borderlands: The Handsome Collection was the reveal of the Claptrap-in-a-Box Edition which is about as literally named as it could be. That's because the highlight of the package is an actual robotic Claptrap model.

Controlled by an iOS and/or Android app named "ClaptrApp," the little robot roams around on his one wheel spouting off different catchphrases. 2K put out a vide?o (above) of him in action at the publisher's offices. There's even a camera in his eye that streams to your mobile device so that you can control him when he's out of sight.

Of course, something this nifty isn't going to come without a hefty price tag. This edition runs $3??99. Apart from the robot, it also comes with the game (obviously), 12 lithographs, and a steel case. Interested parties will want to act sooner rather than later, as Claptrap-in-a-Box is limited to only 5,000 copi??es worldwide. 

The post Good lord, this $400 Borderlands edition has a Claptrap that’s controlled with a mobile app appeared first on Destructoid.

Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel with cross-saves

Rumors have circulated for months that Gearbox Software's Borderlands would be the recipient of some sort of upgraded port to current consoles. In fact, speculation was so strong that it was more a ma??tter of what titles would be bundled together??, as opposed to wondering if the collection existed at all.

2K Games broke the shroud of mystery today by revealing Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. The package, which is a play on main antagonist Handsome Jack's name, bundles Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel along with all downloadable content ever released for both games. The Handsome Collection will be available on PS4 and Xbox One on Mar??ch 24 in North America and March 27 in other regions, and it'll retail for $59.99.

Maybe the best news to come out of this announcement is that those that have played one or both titles before don't have to worry about losing their established characters. The Handsome Collection will feature a cross-save system meaning that characters and Badass Rank can be carried over from previous-gen consoles. It's important to note that this only works within the s??ame console family (i.e. Xbox 360 to Xbox One). This bundle will also support four-player local co-op in the event that you want to have a meeting of Vault Hunters all on one screen.

It may not be the first foray onto new consoles that Borderlands fans necessarily wanted, but it's definitely the one that was expected. The Handsome Collection is yet another clear indicator of the franchise's importance to 2K. But,?? we'll have to wait a bit longer to hear of the next or??iginal installment on Pandora.

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