So far I've had trouble getting into Borderlands 2. It's a good game but I felt shafted when I bought the bare-bones edition right when the GOTY version with EVERYTHING came out in the same week. lol. I should at least try finishing the main story campaign though!

Everything in the main story is easy the first time through except for the Terramorphous mission. You'll be looking at that one side quest after everything else is done saying to yourself, "How?".

Yeah, I fell for the preorder hype, and I have bought all the dlc after the fact, don't even want to know how much I have spent. But I love this game, probably my favorite PS3 game. Borderlands is all about persistance and expirimentaion.

I've never gotten into Borderlands either.  Maybe because I had no one to play it with.  It seems like a lot of fun co-op. 

Co-op is what kept me at it because I find the shooting incredibly frustrating in both games of the series. In a way, the shooting in B1 and 2 is more realistic than most with lots of recoil. It's also very unrealistic in that all the enemies are more skittish than someone on two cans of Monster and a triple vente cappuccino. By the time I've got the head shot, four guys are breathing down my neck, and a grenade is at my feet.

One of these days I'll get this game.  I still hadn't played the first one.  

I survived several rage quits before I finally got into Borderlands 1 and started liking it. I survived a rage quit yesterday in B2. I think I still like it.

This definitely looks like a fun game, but I don't think I could get into it. Mainly due to my terribleness at shooters.

I have never been too good at shooters either, but I love this game. Its not you every day shooter.

Normal Mode is not too hard. The bosses can be tricky, but by a large, it's a game you don't have to be a marksman in. My friend and I just blasted through it on Normal. It's not until True Vault Hunter Mode, which unlocks after you beat the game, that the true challenge begins.

Zero was the first character I used too and he is my least favorite. Even at level 50 you have to really focus either on snipes or melee. But its really not to big a deal to respec. If your getting swarmed, a melee build with a Love Thumper sheild and using a bladed weapon can help. Also the Bore skill is the key to getting stupid high gun damage with Zero. Even though I think it says it applies to snipes it actually applies to all guns. Just get you a good singularity grenade and you'll be tearing stuff up too.

I put all my skill points into my sniper tree. I had a nova shield at one point. It was hilarious. It was doing more damage than my shots, so I just ran around with a depleated shield and lit everyone up. I'm actually doing ok with the sniper rifles, but I'm awfully weak at close combat. If I could just keep some distance, I would be fine, mother f'ers.

Once you hit 61 you can usually get a capstone in two trees. The middle tree can give you some skills that modify you deception skill, make it more usefull. My Zero is still at lv 52, becaue I was getting frustrated too. I think I just need to toy with his build a bit. Also if you have not got the mission for the Love thumper, a good Roid shield works for a melee build. Also if the close range baddies are getting to be annoying a Spike shield(I like the explosive ones) can be more affective that a Nova, the Spike shield does not have to be depleted to hurt the enemy. A good Turtle sheild is nice too, ignore the penalty to health, Turtle shields can take a lot before it drops. Good luck!

There are so many types of equipment in this game. It runs counter to the way I think about a shooter. I want to go fast, but then there's so much detail in the equipment, I need to think about every equipment choice. It makes me a little crazy when I'm in a fight and I see a item on the ground. I want to run and pick it up, but then I also want to study it and see if its stats are what I want. I'm pulled two ways in this game. 

It can get overwhelming for sure. Once you start to see the unqie feature of each brand and the types of guns that work with your build or class it gets easier. Like I prefer Jacobs and Togure shotguns to other shotguns because of the raw power. Certain makes seem almost made for certain classes like Bandit made guns with their massive ammo capacity are actually ideal for a Zerker. You don't want to have to reload when you gunzerking, and he has skills that can make up for the lack of accuracy and fire rate that make Bandit guns so crappy. It gets more complicated though, each gun can have parts from other brands that have subtle effects on a guns stats. Like a Tediore grip might give the gun a faster reload, a Dahl stock will give the gun better stability, a Vladov barrel can imprive fire rate. This is what make this game so fun to me is the massive variety.

My friend uses a Torgue shotgun that does crazy, crazy damage. Enemies just explode when he gets near them.

How do you combine different weapon parts? I haven't seen that yet.

You don't, but all the gear in Borderlands is randomaly generated. All gun are have five parts, body, barrol, grip, stock, and magazine. The make of the gun is determined by the body. So if the body is a Maliwan, it can have a Vladov barrol and a Hyperion grip, but it is still a Maliwan gun. There are some very hardcore players who actually hunt for guns that are 100% pure, no mixed parts.lol. You can also see that certain parts will effect the prefix for the gun too. Like guns fitted with bayonets will be called Bowie(Jacobs), Permasharp(Tediore), Close Quaters(Dahl). If if you looking for a sniper with a nice bonus to Crititcal damage you looking for prefixes like Tum Tum(Jacobs), Gentlemans(Maliwan), Razrez(Vladof).This makes figuing out whether a gun is worth keeping or not a lot easier. I wish you could customize then though, that would be really cool. A lot of people have mentioned this would be a cool idea to do in Borderlands 3, when or if that happens,lol.

I never noticed that level of detail in the guns. Man this goes deep.

and thus why when I get the chance I always go for the characters with the guns. No sneaky killing for me in that kind of game. Balls to the wall gun down killing for me please!

Well, I picked the assassin so I could shoot the sniper rifle, but it seems that the game wants you to do a lot of stealth killing instead. I've seen vids where people use a pistol with a blade attachment and then stealth kill everyone with it. It's one of my least favorite gameplay styles.