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Battleborn Open Beta thread: April 8 (PS4)/ April 13 (PC/XB1) - April 18

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
I like what I've played so far, but prefer Paragon (on PC) in a direct comparison. Will have to give the PC version a spin when it's out, haven't tried Overwatch yet due to no beta-love, but I'm thinking I'll be playing Paragon and Overwatch in tandem at this stage.
 

Keasar

Member
I assure you, Battleborn sucks plenty without comparing it to a completely different game.

I don't know where you set your standard but Battleborn have been a pretty decent experience to me so far, much better than I thought it would be and much better than other recent big name shooters released lately. Its way far off "sucks" just like that cause there is much worse you can play instead. :p

I wanna give the PC version a shot though together with a more organized group before saying more about it. I mentioned earlier how I thought that the game could definitely be improved (higher FOV, mouse and keyboard, 60fps etc.)
 

gossi

Member
Tried the beta. Didn't like. Won't buy.

I've never experienced nausea playing games before (and I'm a lifetime gamer) but this made me feel sick for some reason.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Tried the beta. Didn't like. Won't buy.

I've never experienced nausea playing games before (and I'm a lifetime gamer) but this made me feel sick for some reason.

same, the only other game i can think of that has made me feel so sick when playing is the original Halo. i feel like it's the FOV and low framerate. i might give it another go on PC to see if i can get 60fps and adjust FOV.
 

SomTervo

Member
Tried the beta. Didn't like. Won't buy.

I've never experienced nausea playing games before (and I'm a lifetime gamer) but this made me feel sick for some reason.

Huh. The only other game I've heard doing this to people recently was The Witness.
 

TheYanger

Member
I wonder why you think you need to assure someone who's clearly tried the game out for himself

"I wonder why" - because he tried to quote my avatar as if that's an explanation for why I'm trying to call the game bad? You're being as intentionally obtuse as he is. Comparisons to Overwatch are stupid, the games aren't that similar. Battleborn is a not good game. If Overwatch didn't exist it would still not be a good game. Ergo, quoting my avatar like it's some kind of console war nonsense is fucking stupid. There, spelled it out for you, but of course you already knew that more than likely.
 
"I wonder why" - because he tried to quote my avatar as if that's an explanation for why I'm trying to call the game bad? You're being as intentionally obtuse as he is. Comparisons to Overwatch are stupid, the games aren't that similar. Battleborn is a not good game. If Overwatch didn't exist it would still not be a good game. Ergo, quoting my avatar like it's some kind of console war nonsense is fucking stupid. There, spelled it out for you, but of course you already knew that more than likely.

But... he likes the game. So maybe you are wrong?
 

Navid

Member
Played the first story level in the beta (PS4) on my own, can't say it left me feeling anything other than disappointed...

First of all the aiming just felt off compared to other FPS's, even after having tuned the X/Y sensitivity multiple times I never got it to a point where it felt natural to me... I was still stopping short or going past the target and had to adjust by moving my character more than I felt comfortable with.

Secondly my weapon felt underwhelming (playing as Oscar Mike) in terms of feedback and the super even more so, was also weird that aiming your supers guidance-laser on someone meant the actual attack would connect behind them where the laser intersected the ground rather than the enemy it was pointed at. Also had a similar lackluster issue with enemy fire, it all just felt a bit subdued in terms of feedback to the point that at times I wasn't aware I was taking fire until a sec later.

Boss encounters were also a low point with them simply being uninspired bullet sponges that simply sit in the middle of the level throwing out the odd area attack here and there while popping out waves of minions to attack you on a regular basis. None of them were either engaging or fun to fight against unfortunately.

Also is there lag in this even when you are playing a single player story mode on your own? There were multiple moments where my character shifted position much like what you might see in a lag heavy multiplayer match where you are suddenly 3 steps further back than you were a moment ago as the server updates your location... Would be crazy if that was the case!

Finally, I felt the character dialogue was grating and could see it being annoying over longer play times but considering the above it is hardly one of the games bigger issues...

Still will try an online match, but currently happy to pass on this one.
 

TheYanger

Member
But... he likes the game. So maybe you are wrong?

What kind of circular reasoning is this? My opinion cannot be 'wrong' just as much as his cannot be 'wrong'. Quoting my avatar to try and dismiss my opinion is pedantic since the games are completely different. Coming in here trying to shut down my opinion by acting like I don't understand how opinions work is....really dumb at best.
 
Huh? I usually go for melee characters in FPS games, is there something wrong with them in this game?

It was just very hard for me to play, because of the field of view and then when everyone just starts throwing down...my eyes can't take it lol. I'm pretty bad at it too. Always die pretty easily. Prefer Mr. Robot (Marquis)
 
I had forgotten about the beta and when I saw it this morning on the PS Store I downloaded it immediately. Played 2 hours and absolutely loved it. Found it to be a lot of fun.

Then I saw reactions in this thread? Have I lost my mind or have we all just gotten past wanting games to be mindless fun? I'm considerably older than most of you (I assume) but at my age, I'd rather just have a game be mindless fun since I can't devote hours upon hours every day to it.
 

Keasar

Member
What kind of circular reasoning is this? My opinion cannot be 'wrong' just as much as his cannot be 'wrong'. Quoting my avatar to try and dismiss my opinion is pedantic since the games are completely different. Coming in here trying to shut down my opinion by acting like I don't understand how opinions work is....really dumb at best.

Jesus someone took it a bit harder than I thought. It was more of a joking jab at having the "rival game" (as people seem to constantly paint it) as avatar while declaring that Battleborn sucks, nothing nefarious intended. :p

I'd like to hear your opinion on why though cause while you did say it sucked, you never really said why, I stated at least why I thought it was so far pretty good.
 

Seijuro

Member
Then I saw reactions in this thread? Have I lost my mind or have we all just gotten past wanting games to be mindless fun? I'm considerably older than most of you (I assume) but at my age, I'd rather just have a game be mindless fun since I can't devote hours upon hours every day to it.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think it's a very fun pick up & play game which hasn't forgotten that games used to be over the top and colorful. I will probably buy it shortly after launch.
But I don't play other MOBAs at all and also generally do not notice dips in frame rates (in any game), so maybe that's where the disappointment is coming from.
I can see though that people are down on the game when 3 weeks after release Overwatch comes knocking, which is a similar experience by a developer known to deliver robust and well rounded games.
 
What kind of circular reasoning is this? My opinion cannot be 'wrong' just as much as his cannot be 'wrong'. Quoting my avatar to try and dismiss my opinion is pedantic since the games are completely different. Coming in here trying to shut down my opinion by acting like I don't understand how opinions work is....really dumb at best.

Oh I agree with you, it's really dumb. That was muy point, saying stuff like

I assure you, Battleborn sucks plenty

when he already played the game and have is a different opinion in pretty dumb. You aren't assuring shit, as you just said your opinion isn't more valuable than his.
 

patchday

Member
I like what I've played so far, but prefer Paragon (on PC) in a direct comparison. Will have to give the PC version a spin when it's out, haven't tried Overwatch yet due to no beta-love, but I'm thinking I'll be playing Paragon and Overwatch in tandem at this stage.

Overwatch is much more polished and pure fun then both BattleBorn & Paragon. This is coming from someone that at least took the time to hit L10 in Paragon and I've gotten Thorn (Battleborn) to something like Mastery 3 at least (3 incursion 1 meltdown).

Paragon- it has the potential to be good if Card crafting ever goes in. But right now it's not there. So it's a really shitty RNG sytem where when you open a card deck you pray for a good card.

Battleborn- samething- it's laced with a really shitty RNG system with no way to acquire the item you really want.

Players new to MOBA-lite / MOBA-clones need to understand there will *always* be an ultimate build. If the developer does not provide a way for you to get the item you want then serious competitive play gets tossed out the window. Both Paragon & Battleborn are gimped and currently held back due to developer greed and being unfamiliar with these types of games. They simply do not understand the hardcore pvp audiences in this genre

I had forgotten about the beta and when I saw it this morning on the PS Store I downloaded it immediately. Played 2 hours and absolutely loved it. Found it to be a lot of fun.

Then I saw reactions in this thread? Have I lost my mind or have we all just gotten past wanting games to be mindless fun? I'm considerably older than most of you (I assume) but at my age, I'd rather just have a game be mindless fun since I can't devote hours upon hours every day to it.

Many of us have been in Overwatch beta for quite awhile. We have been spoiled by 60 fps and not having to worry about random loot grinding (ala Borderlands). This game is just no good for serious competitive play in its current form. Worse- at least Borderlands allowed you to trade for items you were missing. This feature is absent from BattleBorn

I took the time to play the open beta with an open mind. I like the game modes (Incursion and Meltdown). But I firmly believe Gearbox does not understand the competitive scene. We (dedicated, seasoned MOBA players) do not like random loot drops. We need to be able to build the items we need to have a fair play field.

[edit] I'd highly recommend you guys that like the competitive modes in Battleborn checkout a game built proper for competitive play such as Dota or Smite where you can buy items *ingame* to counter your opponents. OR checkout Overwatch which allows you to change your class during the match to counter the opposing team
 

patchday

Member
^^ Really good post. That will help out folks looking to get the game for a good price

(I'm going to pass for now I think though)
 

Camjo-Z

Member
they should just put a big watermark over the screen that says "HEY MORONS IF YOU'RE ON DEFENSE THEN YOU'RE LOSING" because this concept doesn't seem to be getting through to most players
 

patchday

Member
^ I've won all my pvp modes. Don't even recall any being close. I just hopped on Thorn and tear them up from range. And I go do the Jungle camps

I really do like the game modes I give them some props

If they could figure out a way for pvpers to get their items w/o RNG grinding I'd consider getting the game and maybe optimize PS4 version

I never did tryout the story mode though.

Oh right another bummer- I love character Lore. But in order to even look at the lore for a hero you have to grind out challenges or something to unlock. Freakin' lame
 

J_Viper

Member
If for some bizarre reason you really liked this game, there's a pretty good deal going on at best buy (USA) if you have GCU
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/gaming-collections/battleborn/pcmcat748301666198.c?id=pcmcat748301666198

Get the game for 20% discount, if you add the season pass ($19.99 msrp) it discounts an additional 25%, and you get a $10 preorder bonus cert. Makes the game + season pass $63 + tax and you get $10 reward cert two weeks later.
I don't even like the beta and I'm considering this.
GCU is both a blessing and a curse
 

patchday

Member
That's the bummer right? If this were an early beta you'd have some hope the game would improve before launch. But since it's already Gold this is really just a demo or server stress test. And what I saw was fun but really rough.
 

Drewfonse

Member
As much as I've enjoyed the beta, the actual shooting and fluidity suffer greatly when compared to Borderlands 2. Ironically, I happened to be finishing up my second play through of BL2 on the xbox one this weekend, so the comparison is inevitable.

I know they're different games, different genres, but damn, that 60 fps 1080p goodness.
 

13randO

Member
If this game came out 6 months before Overwatch, I would have been in. I really liked what I played so far, but juggling this, Overwatch, SFV and the occasional round of Siege is just too much (and y'know, games are 80 bucks new in Canada...).
 
I had forgotten about the beta and when I saw it this morning on the PS Store I downloaded it immediately. Played 2 hours and absolutely loved it. Found it to be a lot of fun.

Then I saw reactions in this thread? Have I lost my mind or have we all just gotten past wanting games to be mindless fun? I'm considerably older than most of you (I assume) but at my age, I'd rather just have a game be mindless fun since I can't devote hours upon hours every day to it.

Arguably that's not what this is though, for your team to be successful in multiplayer you are going to need to use some element of strategy. As people start to understand the game and coordinate, teams playing it as a mindless shootemup are gonna get crushed.
 
Arguably that's not what this is though, for your team to be successful in multiplayer you are going to need to use some element of strategy. As people start to understand the game and coordinate, teams playing it as a mindless shootemup are gonna get crushed.
I get that, and "mindless" is probably not the best word but I have just for a overly tired of games where you're basically punished for not playing hours a day, every day. Back in the old days of Team Fortress Classic (and even with TF2 still to some extent) you could play every day or you could play once a week and it was still balanced enough to be fun. Now, if I don't grind to lvl30/50 in the Division, 320 light in Destiny or play Dota2 from the minute it comes out there's basically no point in playing because you're going to be demolished. And no matter how old you are, it's not fun to get beat every single time you try to have fun playing a game.
 
i like how ADC is balanced in this game, starting skill set is shit, then you can upgrade them to be useable.
before i tried birdman i wasnt sure how they would work without items.
 
Tried the beta. Didn't like. Won't buy.

I've never experienced nausea playing games before (and I'm a lifetime gamer) but this made me feel sick for some reason.
I had the same feeling of nausea. Only other game that's done it to me is The Witness. I think the FOV and terrible framerate drops are what kill it.
 

Kalor

Member
I played a bit of this earlier and had more fun with it than I thought I would. The problem with the two games I played was that both times two or three people left on my team. In the second game we did quite well with only two of us but I wish I was able to try a game with all 10 people.
 

patchday

Member
I get that, and "mindless" is probably not the best word but I have just for a overly tired of games where you're basically punished for not playing hours a day, every day. Back in the old days of Team Fortress Classic (and even with TF2 still to some extent) you could play every day or you could play once a week and it was still balanced enough to be fun. Now, if I don't grind to lvl30/50 in the Division, 320 light in Destiny or play Dota2 from the minute it comes out there's basically no point in playing because you're going to be demolished. And no matter how old you are, it's not fun to get beat every single time you try to have fun playing a game.

I suspect you're in for a bad surprise. People will get a bunch of Epic loot and demolish casuals

You're better off with something Dota 2 where noobs plays against noobs actually due to their MMR system. Smite is casual friendly (I love it), Overwatch, or basically any game that does not have Random Loot (RNG)

RNG caters to people with endless amounts of time to farm rares. Avoid RNG at all cost if you're a casual like me.

At least Destiny has XUR so its actually not 100% RNG. Battleborn is 100% rng. its gonna be a grindfest straight up
 
Downloaded earlier today and just finished the first story mission. I'm finding it pretty fun. I've only played as three of the characters so far, but I seem to meld the most with Thorn. I died less using her and I was using her to understand the gameplay and controls.
 

Mossybrew

Member
If this game came out 6 months before Overwatch, I would have been in.

Pretty much my thoughts. I've enjoyed the beta more than I thought I would, aside from the super annoying Borderlands-style goof dialogue and having issues connecting to a game - game would fill with players, then reset repeatedly this morning. Not really a MOBA player, closest this reminds me to is good old Monday Night Combat. I've played four online games and admit I don't much get the meta game or even the basic strategy beyond escort your bots, kill them and theirs, but it's fun. Combat does lack a certain punch and I've found especially with melee classes its super easy to lose track of even where your opponent is, its kinda overly hectic at times. Story missions were kinda cool, but a bit long for my tastes at 40+ min each, should be a bit shorter IMO.

Anyway with my game time and money being limited, have to go with Overwatch, otherwise I would have been tempted to buy.
 
Most characters seem fun to play as, I'm not one for support characters, so they're the only ones giving me a hard time so far.

Generally, I'm having a hard time tracking enemy players all the way to killing them. Expecially smaller ones like Orendi. And thought I do forget about it after a couple minutes, initially I do go 'why does that arm have to be in my field of view everytime I run'. So much attention was put into that stuff it makes me think they thought this might support VR at some point.

Edit: Oh also, if I like this kind of game (a bunch of characters, different abilities, low barrier of entry) would I like paragon? Overwatch? Both seem pretty heavy in terms of being able to play them competently
 
Most characters seem fun to play as, I'm not one for support characters, so they're the only ones giving me a hard time so far.

Generally, I'm having a hard time tracking enemy players all the way to killing them. Expecially smaller ones like Orendi. And thought I do forget about it after a couple minutes, initially I do go 'why does that arm have to be in my field of view everytime I run'. So much attention was put into that stuff it makes me think they thought this might support VR at some point.

Edit: Oh also, if I like this kind of game (a bunch of characters, different abilities, low barrier of entry) would I like paragon? Overwatch? Both seem pretty heavy in terms of being able to play them competently

Overwatch will be the easiest one to get into from the ones you mentioned and it doesn't have any sort of RNG for abilities only cosmetics.
 

Pastry

Banned
Most characters seem fun to play as, I'm not one for support characters, so they're the only ones giving me a hard time so far.

Generally, I'm having a hard time tracking enemy players all the way to killing them. Expecially smaller ones like Orendi. And thought I do forget about it after a couple minutes, initially I do go 'why does that arm have to be in my field of view everytime I run'. So much attention was put into that stuff it makes me think they thought this might support VR at some point.

Edit: Oh also, if I like this kind of game (a bunch of characters, different abilities, low barrier of entry) would I like paragon? Overwatch? Both seem pretty heavy in terms of being able to play them competently

It's much easier to track what is happening in Paragon compared to this.
 

patchday

Member
You're more likely to like Overwatch more since the matches are short (and the heroes are EXCELLENT there)

Paragon- the matches are crazy long. Even a bot match can go an hour if you're stuck with newbies

But hey Paragon is f2p so its easy to try it out and see if you like it. All heroes are free. It has the grindy card system right now

Oh wait- Paragon actually costs money to play right now but it goes open (free) soon. By then hopefully it'll have more polish (shorter matches & card crafting / VOIP).
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Rath's ult is so fucking annoying. Comboed with the attack that juggles you in midair and silences you then just does the spin and you get killed in an instant with no getaway since your abilities are locked out.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Didn't they say this had splitscreen play on PS4? When my son tries to log in I get that bullshit message that you must log in with a PSN account. Sorry that doesn't cut it for calling a game "splitscreen" when you have to have a separate PSN account for any second player.
 

Steel

Banned
I'm actually surprised. I quite like what I see. On the co-op campaign side, it's a lot more fleshed out than I thought it'd be. The bosses are complex and require a decent amount of thought to take down.

On the pvp-side, I really like how the characters synergize and that you actually need to coordinate to do particularly well. Being a lone wolf in this game just doesn't work. I find myself wondering whether I should be spending my cash on gear, or on buildables(which also give you exp).

However, I feel like all of the characters could use a speed boost. A few of them are reasonably fast, but the medium characters feel slower than they should be, though the huge character's speed feels appropriate.

Huh? I usually go for melee characters in FPS games, is there something wrong with them in this game?

Nah they're the best part of the game, imo. I find some more survivable than others, though, and having a good support character at your back makes all the difference.

My team:

Me (Rank 20)
R13
R9
R39
R17

Enemy Team:

R1
R1
R3
R8
R12

I know ranks don't really matter much, but goddamn. Lol

An R1 doesn't even have gear, so it makes a huge difference on that front.

Didn't they say this had splitscreen play on PS4? When my son tries to log in I get that bullshit message that you must log in with a PSN account. Sorry that doesn't cut it for calling a game "splitscreen" when you have to have a separate PSN account for any second player.

PSN accounts are free, though. Unless you're saying it needs another PS+ account?
 
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