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The other large area of difficultly for PC users enjoying Borderlands resides in the game's menus. Their bulky and bright designs were clearly optimized for large screen displays where players were expected to be sitting across their living room. Though this isn't a big issue for PC gamers, it does look awfully bulky, especially when running the game at a 1080p resolution. More importantly, however, is the menu interaction. Many screens with say "press [ Enter ] to confirm or [ Esc ] to cancel". As you fear for your wireless keyboard battery life, you'll soon notice that the hardware isn't to blame, but rather the simple fact that key input doesn't control the in-game panels as advertized. This makes menu navigation quite a bit more cumbersome than it should be, which is a bit of a pain since so much of Borderlands involves you managing your inventory, selecting skills, and configuring powerups. Even something as basic and mouse-wheel scrolling is partially supported at best. Several beneficial options can be seen on the PC version of Borderlands, however. The addition of a right-click context menu that allows players to compare weapons, drop items, or sell gear based on which menu they are in is particularly useful and does smooth out some of the UI interaction that PC Borderlands fans will experience.
Perhaps the biggest frustration PC gamers are experiencing is the ability to play Borderlands online with friends.The standard port-forwarding required to host games or connect with others is not too much to ask, but many players are reporting additional issues with the Gamespy service and that they need to log in twice in order to be visible online. It would be great to see the Borderlands multiplayer interface get a little facelift to help players connect with each other and invite friends to their games with less hassle, preferably only using their Steam login.
For a game that is supposedly dedicated to the multiplayer co-op experience, many Borderlands dwellers are also disappointed with the lack of team-based options in the PC version. Poor microphone support is near the top of this list, as there is simply an "enable" or "disable" option available in the configuration .ini files located on the users hard-drive. No volume indicators, voice channels, or push-to-talk options are even available. This is a massively embarrasing matter, especially considering the robust voice chat support that the Unreal 3 Engine has to offer. A lot of gamers may easily overlook this issue and default to using a third-party application to carry on their vocal communications, but it's a real disappointment to not have any kind of in-game chat log for teams and enemy factions to trash-talk each other in this post-apocalyptic wonderland.
The lack of a team-based UI interface is also something we were hoping for when creating a friend faction. The ability to trade and compare inventory with nearby players would be very useful when teaming up against tougher missions. It would also allow for bartering between teammates so you'd know when to hold on to a nice weapon or shielf versus selling it off in favor of a better one.
We don't mention all of these matters to condemn Gearbox Software for porting Borderlands to PC from a console. Rather, we hope that the community will soon see a patch that helps deliver the higher standards that PC gamers expect. Borderlands is without a doubt a game that belongs on the PC platform due to its strong focus on multiplayer combat and stunning visuals powered by the Unreal 3 engine. It only requires some dedicated attention from Gearbox to get ready for the big leagues.
Games mentioned in this article:
| Borderlands (PC) | Borderlands (PlayStation 3) | Borderlands (Xbox 360) |
| Left 4 Dead (PC) | Left 4 Dead 2 (PC) | Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) | Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) |
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