Corpse Run 269: Teamwork
Quick update on that Kotaku Comic contest thing: the voting is still active, so if you haven’t voted yet (and would like to), why not click this link and lend a vote to my little strip? It’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Or it might not, I’m not really sure.
LIVESTREAM UPDATE:
Alrighty folks, after a mini hiatus last week, the livestreams triumphantly return! Cool! The next stream will be this Friday, December 14th, 2012 at 10pm est! If you have something you’d like to see doodled, come on down and I’ll try to mix as many suggestions together as I can! As always, I’ll be answering questions and having a drink or two.
The stream can be viewed by clicking here or here. I hope to see you there!
END LIVESTREAM UPDATE!
Woah, what’s this? A video game strip that isn’t Zelda related?! Why, that can’t be!
Seriously, things have been pretty Zelda-y lately. I’m still running through Twilight Princess (slowly, it would seem) so there’s probably another Zelda strip or two in the near future, but I’m glad to be out of the Zelda groove, if only for a moment.
Tuesday night I went to Rich’s place, and, as you might be able to guess, we played Borderlands. I’ve never really played that game too much in the past, so I was thrilled to sit down with it for a solid couple of hours. Seriously, this game is fun as heck.
Considering that Borderlands came out in 2009, however, you might already be aware of that.
Well… it’s new to me.
As great as Borderlands is thus far, there is one part of the game that can be pretty frustrating. If you take enough damage, you crumple to the ground and enter “fight for your life” mode, where you have a set amount of time to kill an enemy while lying on the ground. If you are successful, your character pops back up and the game continues as normal, if not, you die and respawn.
Rich was playing as Mordecai, a skinny hunter fellow who’s special ability is tossing a bird around that damages enemies. According to Rich, the bird can be called back quickly, allowing him to throw the poor thing over and over again until it actually has an enemy to take on.
Rich, as I would myself, was tossing the bird every possible time available.
Chances are you know where this is going.
We came into a situation where I was down in “fight for you life” mode, and there was an enemy in front of me with a tiny fraction of health left.
“SCREEEEEE”
The friggin bird comes in and kills my only ticket to salvation. I died shortly thereafter.
Now, I wouldn’t accuse Rich of any malicious activities concerning my death, as he was constantly healing me whenever possible (and suffice to say I presented him with plenty of opportunities to do so). That said, it was mildly frustrating that one of the few times I was in a position to rescue myself, the stupid bird flew in and more or less sealed my fate.
Curse you, bird.
This situation is hardly unique to Borderlands, however. Think of any co-op game you’ve ever played, and I’m sure the following things have been said:
“You didn’t need that health, I did!”
“You aggroed all those bad guys and made me die!”
“Stop taking all the potions!”
“Stop pushing me into the bad guys!”
“Stop leaving me behind!”
Other goodies, although not necessarily related to dying in games include:
“The only reason you’re doing better is because I have the crappy controller.”
“You have the bigger screen!” (when playing three player split screen)
“You’re just using the best characters!”
“You’re doing the same move over and over again, YOU’RE SO CHEAP!”
These are but a small few of gaming related outbursts, feel free to drop your own favorites in the comments.
Think of any co-op game you’ve ever played, and I’m sure the following things have been said:
“I’m beginning to suspect all those “accidental” bazooka hits aren’t quite as accidental as I’ve been led to believe.”
Borderlands 1 and 2 are some of the best co-op games ever made.
The FFYL things sounds awesome but it needs some serious work. I could write a paper on how it tilts gameplay.
1) You friends steal your kills (as shown here)
2) It sucks when you kill a weak enemy and seconds later you go down, wishing you had kept him alive.
2.5) Numerous times where I stand around waiting to get shot so I can get back up after killing a weak enemy.
3) Makes it impossible to recover against 1 strong enemy, but you are invincible to multiple weak ones.
3.5) You are happy to see weak enemies instead of, you know, hating them since they are evil.
4) Accuracy sucks so you HAVE to have a rocket launcher. Worse in BL2.
5) In BL2 some characters can activate their skills while down. If Axton can toss his turret before going down he has nothing to worry about.
6) Boss fights have weak minions running around so you can kill them. They distract you from the awesome fight you should be having though.
7) Really annoying when an enemy just walks around the corner.
8) Favors CQC players over snipers. By a lot.
Accuracy sucks you say? Sorry bro, that must be you. I have no problem killing most enemies with pistols, shotguns or smgs. As for the other kinds, I hate assault rifles so I don’t use those, and I don’t even know how you can miss often with a sniper rifle unless you have an extreme case of Parkinson. I also never use launchers, except when I’m down with only strong mobs close.
Which brings me to some of my own annoying experiences:
-You almost downed a powerful enemy but just 0.1 sec before you finish him you die.
-Same as above but the reason for it is running out of launcher ammo/having to reload. And no time for weapon swapping either.
For a lot of us extreme range-nuts, even the highest-accuracy sniper rifles miss more often than hit from really far away.
I personally got in the habit of using revolvers more, and eventually picked up one of those Dahl full-automatic sniper rifles and started using that at medium to close ranges
No, I mean accuracy sucks when you are in FFYL mode.
Normally my sniper rifle and Dahl AR pop heads like they were balloons. And that’s playing with Roland.
But in FFYL mode you can’t aim down the sights so you are screwed. The only guns with any accuracy while in FFYL mode is a rocket launcher. And in BL2 they made rockets even more powerful. I stopped using rockets in combat and treated them more like med kits. And most enemies are never close enough to hit with a shotgun.
Ahh I see what you mean. Yeah, that’s right.
However, in BL2 you CAN move around in FFYL mode so I still think it’s easier there to get back on your feet.
Oh and I forgot shotguns. Obviously those work better at close range.
Bah, disregard that last post, it’s getting late here =P I did say shotguns *slaps himself in the face*
And while I’m at it, I’m not sure if this is because I mainly played BL2 instead of BL1, but I also totally disagree that accuracy is worse in the second. But meh, I’m done nitpicking at your post. Peace out!
P.S.: Borderlands ftw.
“Stop looking at my screen, it’s cheating!”
In FPS the worst accuse would be “You were ghosting on my screen!”
*half a second before you die / as you die* “Watch out!” <–I dunno why my friends are amazing at this…but they are
Playing gow 3 on jacinto
Me: He’s there behind you. (i say this as g/f turns around)
G/f: Where…..(in the process of turning round listens to my advice and returns to her original view position…)
Me: The other behind you….(she dies)
G/f: …(bans me from the bedroom)
Holy sh!t, you just played Borderlands. Borderlands 2 at the Spike’s VGA got best shooter, multiplayer, character of the year (Claptrap), and best male performer (voice of Handsome Jack).
Seriously, Alex, I suggest you try Borderlands out. 1 may not be story-filled, but two fills in a lot of the gaps.
Things I I have to say way too much:
“stop killing our allies.”, “those are our allies!”, “stop killing me, we’re on the same team!”, “This is the 15th time we had to start over because you killed the guy we were supposed to protect.”, and so on.