Tell me about Borderlands...?

[seawasp]

I've heard some good general buzz about the game, and I have heard that there's a sequel out or coming soon, but I've never played it or seen it played. Is it a game I'd enjoy?

Games I've played and enjoyed:
  A bunch of the JRPGs, with Chrono Trigger and Star Ocean and Persona at the head of the lists
  Fallout 3 and New Vegas
  Oblivion and Skyrim
  Dragon Age

Games I have enjoyed but found I can't play them for long before my aged reflexes betray me and I am filled with fail:
  Action-RPGs like Tomb Raider and inFamous

Games I don't really enjoy are FPSs.

  I've also been thinking about Mass Effect. Is it important to play ME1 before ME2 and ME3 or are they pretty much separate?

Comments

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, what to you makes a game a role-playing game? Because I would have no hesitation in describing the ME series as RPGs.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

In a role-playing game, success is determined by the character's abilities.
In an action game, success is determined by the player's abilities.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I see what you're getting at, although I'd quibble that character advancement management and inventory management and combat tactics and so on are player abilities.

But if I understand you, the difference to you is that in an RPG it doesn't matter how good the player's physical abilities are -- reflexes, manual dexterity, etc. It only matters what decisions the player makes.

I still prefer to describe the ME series as a hybrid of shooters and RPGs, because they are no more pure action games than they are pure RPGs. However, I can see the validity of both "shooter with RPG elements" and "RPG with shooter elements."

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

A player's mental abilities aren't necessarily challenged in most RPGs. A player has the option of copying another's builds and strategies thus eliminating the player's mental abilities from the progress equation. On the other hand, action games often require good perception and situational awareness as well as quick and steady reflexes. These things can't be copied from a guide. So it still boils down to the character's abilities vs. the player's abilities.