SpaceInsomniac

Talking about Call of Duty:

@Fredchuckdave said:

If consumers are stupid enough to buy the same iterative product over and over...

few JRPGs, few fighting games

You honestly believe that JRPGs and FIGHTING GAMES of all things are not the same iterative product over and over? Those are your examples? I can see JRPGs to a point, but I would say that COD sequels are objectively less iterative than fighting games.

Next to sports games, fighting game sequels are frequently about as iterative as you can get, but I doubt that you have any posts complaining about Tekken 6 or NBA 2K13 in their respective forums, do you?

@Rotnac said:

Anyone know if they patched up this corrupted business issue? I received another update yesterday.

No, sadly neither a BA rank glitch fix or a character erase glitch fix was a part of the most recent patch. Here are the patch notes:

Update Fixed player first-person arms appearing too far up or down the screen when in horizontal/vertical split mode.

Fixed players losing ammo when reloading a savegame with max ammo and a stockpile relic equipped.

Fixed the vendor UI sometimes showing a count of 1 less item in the player's backpack than is actually there.

Fixed fast travel stations from downloadable content sometimes disappearing when loading a saved game.

Fixed players getting stuck in a white box when two people try to travel at once and one is in a vehicle.

Allowed players to trade with each other when at maximum backpack capacity if they're trading the same number of items with each other.

Fixed clients sometimes losing access to fast travel stations unlocked during co-op progression.

Fixed the favorite/trash icons on inventory items sometimes disappearing when scrolling the inventory list.

Added safeguards against the game getting stuck on a 'Saving...' prompt when a client with a splitscreen player saves and quits the game under specific rare circumstances.

Fixed the "has abandoned your struggle!" message sometimes appearing with no player name.

Fixed mini-map fog-of-war sometimes not uncovering correctly when first loading a saved game as a client. Fixed co-op players sometimes spawning at different places after a level transition.

Fixed an error that could sometimes occur when trying to join a game where the host had recently returned from a downloadable content area.

Fixed an error where clients would sometimes see certain weapons firing in incorrect directions.

Fixed a blocker in the "Do No Harm" mission and repaired users already affected by the bug.

Fixed an issue with savegames sometimes causing the game to stutter / freeze and repaired saves already affected by the bug.

Made the user's inventory not jump to the top of the list when using a customization item.

Fixed a bug with shields that reduce the player's maximum health not displaying the amount of health reduced on the item card.

Fixed a bug where some challenges would sometimes re-complete levels 1 through 5 over and over again, granting the user additional ranks and tokens.

Enemies affected by a Siren's Thoughtlock ability may now be damaged by other players.

Fixed an issue where players could sometimes lose their third and fourth weapon slots. Characters who have already lost these slots will be repaired the next time they are loaded.

Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to pick items up after another player had bulk-picked-up a nearby item.

Fixed an issue where players could occasionally be unable to connect to one another if one of them had recently been in DLC that the other doesn't have.

@dudeglove said:

What platform does this apply to?

For now, it's sounding like only the 360. An official statement has now been made: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?p=3056075#post3056075

Recently a few users have begun violating the Xbox Live Code of Conduct by using an external application to maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players on Xbox 360. Fortunately it’s easy to avoid this scenario.
While we work to resolve this as quickly as possible with our partners, concerned Xbox 360 players of Borderlands 2 should consider playing online with trusted individuals in non-public sessions. This does not affect players on PC or PlayStation 3.
We also advise that before ceasing play, users always select "Save and Quit" from within the pause menu while their character is alive. If after the death of their character players find themselves at the main menu of Borderlands 2 instead of respawning in-game, be sure to immediately select "Continue" to resume playing as that character.
We ask that players report any suspicious behavior in Borderlands 2 to spotted@gearboxsoftware.com and provide as much details and documentation of their disrupted experience as possible to assist us in our investigation.

I'd especially like to call attention this this part: "We also advise that before ceasing play, users always select "Save and Quit" from within the pause menu while their character is alive. If after the death of their character players find themselves at the main menu of Borderlands 2 instead of respawning in-game, be sure to immediately select "Continue" to resume playing as that character."

To be clear, if you don't do this and instead just turn your power off or exit to the dashboard, your character is probably gone forever.

@Rhinox: No, sadly neither a BA rank glitch fix or a character erase glitch fix was a part of the most recent patch. Here are the patch notes:

Update Fixed player first-person arms appearing too far up or down the screen when in horizontal/vertical split mode.

Fixed players losing ammo when reloading a savegame with max ammo and a stockpile relic equipped.

Fixed the vendor UI sometimes showing a count of 1 less item in the player's backpack than is actually there.

Fixed fast travel stations from downloadable content sometimes disappearing when loading a saved game.

Fixed players getting stuck in a white box when two people try to travel at once and one is in a vehicle.

Allowed players to trade with each other when at maximum backpack capacity if they're trading the same number of items with each other.

Fixed clients sometimes losing access to fast travel stations unlocked during co-op progression.

Fixed the favorite/trash icons on inventory items sometimes disappearing when scrolling the inventory list.

Added safeguards against the game getting stuck on a 'Saving...' prompt when a client with a splitscreen player saves and quits the game under specific rare circumstances.

Fixed the "has abandoned your struggle!" message sometimes appearing with no player name.

Fixed mini-map fog-of-war sometimes not uncovering correctly when first loading a saved game as a client. Fixed co-op players sometimes spawning at different places after a level transition.

Fixed an error that could sometimes occur when trying to join a game where the host had recently returned from a downloadable content area.

Fixed an error where clients would sometimes see certain weapons firing in incorrect directions.

Fixed a blocker in the "Do No Harm" mission and repaired users already affected by the bug.

Fixed an issue with savegames sometimes causing the game to stutter / freeze and repaired saves already affected by the bug.

Made the user's inventory not jump to the top of the list when using a customization item.

Fixed a bug with shields that reduce the player's maximum health not displaying the amount of health reduced on the item card.

Fixed a bug where some challenges would sometimes re-complete levels 1 through 5 over and over again, granting the user additional ranks and tokens.

Enemies affected by a Siren's Thoughtlock ability may now be damaged by other players.

Fixed an issue where players could sometimes lose their third and fourth weapon slots. Characters who have already lost these slots will be repaired the next time they are loaded.

Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to pick items up after another player had bulk-picked-up a nearby item.

Fixed an issue where players could occasionally be unable to connect to one another if one of them had recently been in DLC that the other doesn't have.

@Dagbiker said:

@SpaceInsomniac: I assume you are talking about the Xbox?

Only with the line "It won't protect you from the badass rank glitch" when it comes to backing up your save game. On the PC and PS3, you can also backup your profile which should protect you from the badass rank glitch. No such luck for 360 users.

Concerning the character deletion glitch, I believe that's something that is affecting all platforms.

Keep in mind, this is just a "better safe than sorry" type of thing. Lots of people are playing the DLC and main game without running into this issue. Just be aware that it CAN happen.

[edit] A USER ON THE OFFICIAL FORUMS IS NOW CLAIMING THAT THIS IS A VIRAL INFECTION. Read more here:

http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=180735

[original post] Some VERY bad news. The most recent Borderlands 2 compatibly update (the one released for the Mechromancer) apparently contains some glitched code* or something that does just about the worst possible thing a game like this can do. It can permanently corrupt your save file, essentially deleting your character.

It happens like this: You get shot into a downed state, you die, instead of respawning either the camera endlessly floats around the landscape, or you're either booted out to the main menu. Either way, at this point you're most likely completely screwed. This can apparently happen even if you never download the new campaign DLC, but it's supposedly much more likely to occur if you are fighting either of that add-on's two new optional raid bosses.

Because of this, it is HIGHLY recommended that you backup all of your save games onto a USB device.

Here's a thread on the official forums dealing with this subject:

http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=176600

The good news is that the developers are aware of the issue, and are currently working on a fix. As said in another thread:

We are investigating this issue and hope to have this resolved as soon as we can.

In the meanwhile, backup your save games. It won't protect you from the badass rank glitch, but it could still save you from losing days and days worth of progress.

* Note that this was an assumption due to the glitch not appearing until after the update was released. It's now thought that another possible cause could be a result of modding. Read the forum topic for more info.

I enjoyed reading all of those tweets above. What you have to realize is that most of the writing in Borderlands 2 is just there for character and mood. It's designed to be overly wacky, and not every "joke" is really supposed to be something that you literally find yourself laughing at.

There are a handful of really funny moments, but most of it just seems intended to be fun, not some sort of laugh riot.

Some of you are making far too much of the ads. Your ad free customized pins page is one step away from the home screen, and most of the ads on the home screen are usually related to games or things that gamers would likely enjoy, such as action movies. It's not as if there are dashboard ads for Preparation H or something.

More importantly, both the recently played and pins load SO much faster than any section of the dashboard ever did before this update. We're talking less than 2 seconds for the recent section, and just another second or two more for pins. There are loads of other changes and improvements as well, and I am quite happy with pretty much every one of them. This is literally the dashboard update I've been wanting for years.

Perhaps I'm being just a bit of a satisfied pessimist here, but if you REALLY thought Microsoft was going to remove all of the advertising that makes them millions each year, I really would consider adjusting your expectations of multi-billion dollar companies.

And if you want the blades back, there's a good chance you're remembering them with rose colored glasses.

@plaintomato said:

+1 for pinning = about time.

The rest...yeah kay fine or whatever. But:

@TrafalgarLaw said:

Seriously. Here is truth.

That's not truth. They went from three ad spaces to six. That's 100% more ads, not 33%.

But none of that matters, because the latest dashboard is still the best software update that MS has released since the introduction of party chat.

I've not had the issue myself, but I've seen it suggested that this happens if you're using the Mechomancer in an online game and you're not the host.