Friends that know me, know that I am picky, I am specific, and I am critical.
Being critical and being a fan are two hard to add ingredients to a dish. (see what I did there?)
To that statement, I try to just enjoy the games I play regardless of their flaws. Something, however, that I cannot ignore are critics that give good scores to games that are not deserving and bad scores to games that are. Namely to this argument is the recently released Borderlands 2 by Gearbox.
Borderlands 2 is the follow up title to the original hit game, Borderlands, also by Gearbox. But I'm sure you knew that; considering all that seems to ever release are sequels. The original Borderlands, which launched on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, had some serious issues post-launch. For instance one issue was that the PS3 version of the game's ending was completely cut off. Cutscene and credits. That happened to almost everyone. It was basically a universal problem. Another issue was the character Lilith. Her ability was called "Phasewalking" and during this she was able to move faster and deal an excessive amount of melee damage. When players got a hold of the game and played Lilith they discovered that her Phasewalk ability worked but that no melee damage was even dealt, regardless of if the player was directly in front of an enemy pressing the melee button.
Issues like this are unacceptable. Most games undergo a playtesting stage of development. Entire departments called "Quality Assurance" generally put products through rigorous testing before shipping them to consumers. Yet Borderlands was welcomed to "8 out of 10"s all over the board. How can a game that has a broken character, dead ending, and bad framerate get an 8 out of 10?
Let's review what a 10 point scale consists of.
1 out of 10: Broken out of the box. Failed everything.
2 out of 10: Mostly unplayable, zero production value, gameplay is lacking and broken.
3 out of 10: Playable but filled with technical, graphical issues. Bad story, ect.
4 out of 10: Good creative direction but poor execution. Playable, somewhat enjoyable to the right player.
5 out of 10: Solid Product. Neither good, nor bad. Some issues, playable, lacks creativity.
6 out of 10: Great direction, good execution, bluntly noticeable technical flaws, decent story.
7 out of 10: Great game. Playable, some noticeable technical issues, enjoyable story. Anyone should be able to play.
8 out of 10: Knock out. Everything was done up to par. Promises met, and more. Fully enveloped game.
9 out of 10: Near perfect. This game went above and beyond. Innovative but stuck to a recognizable formula.
10 out of 10: Perfect. No technical, graphical issues. Flawless story with no loopholes. Innovative gameplay that changes a genre.
If Borderlands was truly given the score it deserved it would fall under the 3-6 range. Yes it was creative but it was broken from day one. Post-launch patch is not the game that shipped. Not everyone has access to the patch making the game a generally unpleasant experience for some consumers.
Okay, so after that rant I am going to get back onto my original point: Borderlands 2.
Borderlands 2 average score on Gameranking.com is 90%. Its average score on Metacritic (don't ever use Metacritic) is also 90%. That would insist that Borderlands 2 is a "Near Perfect" title.
IT FLAT OUT IS NO WHERE NEAR PERFECT.
It has bugs galore; similar to its predecessor. Playing Borderlands 2 splitscreen is an extremely hard experience. The framerate is so choppy that in some instances the game is barely playable. It also suffers from major issues such as the Badass Tokens Glitch. These issues do not (ever) merit anything above a 7.
A friend of mine gave me this as a good example. Halo Reach, as well as every Halo before it, is capable of running up to four players on one screen, with no issues. Why is Borderlands 2, a game that doesn't even use high res textures, as well as being cel-shaded, lag its ass off in splitscreen?
If you want to see an example of how bad the console versions really actually look check out THIS video done by Gamespot.
My score for Borderlands 2? Considering its technical and graphical issues, as well as the complete lack of originality (literally this feels JUST like the first game), I would give it a 6 out of 10. If it wasn't so damn fun it would be a lot less.
Thanks for reading!
Vanilla ^.^
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