Borderlands 2 Plagued With Game-Breaking Bugs on PS Vita

Hardcore Gamer: Borderlands 2 is a key title for the PS Vita. It is supposed to serve as proof that console quality games can be ported to the handheld, and prove that Third-Party titles can succeed on the platform. We've been working hard to bring you a review of Borderlands 2, but at the moment it isn't possible. Borderlands 2 is currently plagued with game-crashing bugs that have hindered our progress through the game.

[ValKilmer]

Wow, so I guess the PS Vita couldn't handle a game of this magnitude after all. What a shame, this could have been the console's saving grace.

[sobotz]

> 2-year-old game that already free on PS+ once. (Why don't they just make the Pre-Sequel version for Vita instead of porting Borderlands 2 which almost everyone already played it).

> FPS drops.

> Ultra low texture (It's bad. Gravity Rush and Uncharted is so much better than this).

> Lots of pop-up too.
> Multiplayer is limited to two-player online.
> Buggy (this just confirmed in this article).

Seriously, PSVita can do better than this. This is just a lazy ass port from Gearbox to make an easy money.

[smashman98]

Incorrect this is a port made by Sony gearbox just lett them do it

[Ghost_Nappa]

You are both wrong, the port was done by iron galaxy studios

[hiredhelp]

Ghost is right confirmed by wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Eonjay]

Gearbox hired Iron Galaxy to do this port. This is an example of poor software engineering on the developers part. Frankly, I am tired of developers shipping broken products. A delay is preferable.

[randomass171]

They outsourced it and apparently it's broken. The Vita deserves much better than this.

[darx]

PS Vita...lol

[pwnsause_returns]

i dont understand why this game was made for the vita... Why not a vita game pertaining to the Borderlands universe from the ground up? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....lets make another port....No wonder the vita's struggling...

[theshonen8899]

@Eonjay I wouldn't blame Iron Galaxy for this. They're a small indie dev who was tasked with porting a AAA title from a home console to a handheld.

[Yodagamer]

It was published by sony, so if it was buggy it would have gone through them and if it didn't it just shows how much they don't care about the vita.

[maniacmayhem]

Iron Galaxy?? Aren't they taking over Killer Instinct?? Uh oh....

[Baccra17]

I thought Vita could stream PS3 games, why port tot he Vita when you can stream to the vita?

[Eonjay]

This has nothing to do with the Vita being able to handle it. It is poor programming.

[randomass171]

^This. The Vita has excellent games, even excellent console ports running on it. It is a very well made piece of hardware. This port was just not well handled. This is very disheartening.

[iagainsti120]

If it can handle Killzone Mercs. It can handle Borderlands.

[OrangePowerz]

And I guess the PC couldn't handle the original demo of Alien: Colonial Marines. It shows the dedication Gearbox has for products that are not developed in house.

Besides it's not like the original release of the game was free of bugs. During my playthrough I had several side quest bug in me and I wouldn't complet them because they broke.

[Codey47]

"It shows the ZERO dedication Gearbox has for products that are not developed in house."

Fixed

[JsonHenry]

/cash-in_initiate

[TimeSkipLuffy]

As much as I love my PS Vita. For these kind of games I believe it is just not powerful enough. It is kinda old hardware compared to the newer mobile phones. More RAM (2GB at least!) would really helped this little beast.

I think it is not always the developers fault. It is easy to say they are lazy, they could do better. But sometimes you have to except that there are limits to what hardware can do. 512MB and 128MB VRAM is not much. I'm happy that Sony didn't make the mistake to include less than 8GB RAM in the PS4! Although much of it is used for useless stuff :D More RAM for gaming would be much better ^^

[Th3o]

Have you seen some phone games? This is an example of poor coding, please don't speak out of your arse.

Look at Killzone, the amount of detail and graphical fidelity they put into it.

I'm sure if they tried hard enough we can expect almost anything from the console. We've seen games like this on PS2 and this is more than capable of matching wits with the ps2.

The PS Vita should have around the power of the ipad 4. Which has some beautiful games on it.

Also your saying 2GB of ram and forgeting that this is a game dedicated device, that doesn't need that much ram to run the games alone. Again this is restricted to the gaming world, and I'm comparing apples to apples and not oranges. It's always better to have higher hardware specs, but being realistic to both cost and yields you work with what's right. So don't argue but ps4 and xbox one have 8 GB becuase you can't compare what market either console targets, and also they are 2 years technology apart.

When the Vita came out it was one of the only quad core handheld devices, the only other being S3 International I believe. Even the Ipad 4 has a slightly toned down GPU. And just now 2014 we're breaking the 2 GHZ max clock of the vita with the S5 and HTC and many others. CPU efficiency has also grown exponentially in the past 2 years. So don't compare a $400+ unit that also needs a screen and power source to run, to a until 10x's smaller, with a built in screen, controller an battery.

The ps3 had 512 GB ram split in 2 and handled borederlands just fine. The Vita has 512 GB dedicated ram and 128 Vram...

This is more than capable of doing Borderlands, we just need a proper port team.

[Foraoise]

This article is a fucking lie. I've beaten the game on two different characters. NO game breaking bugs. Downvoting site, heavily.

[SpiralTear]

Good. YOUR situation is fine. But if you go on many other sites (including ones that are conveniently linked in the article), you'll find out that there are in fact bugs that are preventing progression.

This is not an isolated incident at all, so stop treating it like it is. The evidence is right there.

[Foraoise]

My brother isn't having any issues either. Sure sanctuary is a bit frame-rate-issue-y, and sure there are bugs such as that, but the child who wrote the article is HEAVILY exaggerating. He probably only played for 10 minutes, got fed up with some sort of framerate and went off, exaggerating. Like a lot of kids on the net. And no, there aren't any bugs. You know why? Because I've finished the game twice on my Vita, and my brother's pretty far in his first play-through, without bugs.

So whoever wrote the article is a liar. And you're a follower.

It absolutely pisses me off when people claim a game is HORRIBLE, then heavily exaggerates/lies about the game, or goes off of ONE experience they've had. It's pure ignorance. It IS an isolated incident. Please, tell me it's not. I've finished the game twice, kid.

[extermin8or]

@Foraoise do you have the dlc installed?

[extermin8or]

@Faraoise Do you have the DLC installed?

[MatrixxGT]

Yeah especially when they say their review will reflect issues at launch. Screw this site, seems like click bait. I'm 15hrs in and haven't had a single issue. Frame rate does dip but is most definitely playable and not broken. I say many of these iissues are user ERROR from maybe a bad download. If these copies were physical I bet most issolated problems would dissappear.

Also, if some people are experiencing game breaking bugs then I'm sure a patch will be along to fix it. Writing a decent game off in a review because they had "launch bugs". I'm sad I gave this site a click. Hardcore gamer can piss off.

[stavrami-mk2]

at@postmesmeric - not isolated but seems to be fewer rather than the majority .metacritic has 16 positives no negatives and other stories I've read have all been positive so treating it like its game breaking is not really fair evidence when its fine for most

[GribbleGrunger]

Well, what have we here then. here's a follow up post from one of the guys this article is based on after being informed his quote had been used:

"I wish they would have asked me before using my post. Out of context from the rest of my posts, you would think I don't adore the game."

The author of this article should be ashamed.

And just to balance things, here is another quote from a satisfied customer:

"Needed to come in here and say how overwhelmingly pleased I am with this game. My expectations were reasonably low and this game is blowing me away, it's so much fun! Don't see myself putting this down any time soon, so glad I took the leap!"

Narratives are too easy to manufacture because gamers are so diverse in their tastes.

[MrUndrhill]

Killzone Mercs is about 5x better looking than borderlands and the vita handles it just fine.

[metalgod88]

Killzone isn't a port however. It was made in house and was intended for the vita specifically. That's why the quality is so much better.

[Codey47]

Although I agree...Borderlands has more "real estate" than KZ:M.

[3-4-5]

So glad I just went with PC version instead. This would have frustrated me.

[n1ko_117]

I like that nvidia physx setting haha, yes I still need to get around to beating the game and getting the season pass.

[3-4-5]

Yea The Larger Screen, more enemies, better graphics, physics, & being able to play with a 360 controller all make the PC game a better version to me.

Plus is WORKS, bug free.

* I can't wait for E3 announcements for Vita though, I need a new Vita game to get really excited about besides Tales of

[zepthire]

Borderlands 2 "bug free". Yeah right! Borderlands 2 is pretty full of bugs on every platform.

[Jonny5isalive]

im sure it could, but again they got a b team to port it and it suffered. When actual talented devs put in time and finish a game before releasing we get something like KZ merc, that looks and plays excellent.

[chestnut1122]

LOL, How did You say Vita can't handle it when it handled Killzone Mercenary pretty damn fine. KZ:M is 5 to 10 times better looking than this one FYI.

Pretty sure You didn't played it >_<

IMAO at the people who upvoted You .

[Tei777]

Its not about what the Vita can handle ( a lot more than this lazy port), its about this game being rushed out.Same with the GOW and Jak and Daxter colections... Both the later games looked and ran like crap.

Sony still hasn't learned the lesson that quality matters on the Vita, its not enough to just have a big franchise name on it.

[Cam977]

My Vita is dead. Last night I thought 'ooh let's dust off the Vita', looked at the interface then turned it off and put it back since there's nothing £150 wasted.

[Th3o]

Oh I get it!, so this troll saught out a way to troll the device LOL the post on his on post hahahahaha

He created a Troll situation to troll on, that shows dedication!:)

[Snookies12]

Wow, how are they trying to put out a game like this if it's got game-breaking bugs? I love my Vita, but this is a real shame...

[randomass171]

They must have rushed it. The Vita deserves better software than this. Especially when the game is already a year plus old on other systems.

[Snookies12]

Yeah, I agree completely. The Vita is a fantastic handheld. It's just not getting the type of widespread love it deserves. Although, as someone who enjoys Japanese games, the thing is a goldmine for me personally lol.

[TimeSkipLuffy]

Why is it always rushed when this happens? the Vita might be above all handhelds at the moment but sometimes games need more processing power or RAM to run fluently at a certain fps and detail.

[GribbleGrunger]

Read my post above you.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Damn what a real shame and here I thought I was going to buy , not anymore.

[amnalehu]

Why does everyone take everything that pops up on the internet as gospel? I have not seen or heard of any actual players I know having any issues with it and when I played it myself it was just fine.

[LemonSlice]

They should stop with those ports
and build games from the ground up for the Vita

A borderlands spinoff for the vita would be amazing

[metalgod88]

I totally agree with this. When are we going to see triple A games on the vita? Indie games are great and all but I'd love to see big games hold their own on the handheld.

Also, outsourcing to port a game over is typically a bad idea, but a game of this magnitude... Come on Gearbox.

[Goro]

That's unfortunate. This is a worse port than the J&D trilogy.

[Fixay]

Ah the frame rate on the J and D trilogy was laughable at times haha

[Sheed]

okay, it's not THAT bad

[mydyingparadiselost]

To be fair it was a bug riddled mess when it released on console too, this has become more of an industry expectation over the past 3 years and should unfortunately be expected for most releases.

[zero_gamer]

It should be accepted that the standards have unfortunately lowered. A buggy game was considered a bad game on the NES, but nowadays any "good" game is full of bugs.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Which is why I buy those "good" games months later at a low price and mostly functioning. The industry does nothing but hurt itself by allowing such faulty games to release so regularly. It's certainly a shame...

[stavrami-mk2]

1st bad report I've heard about this game out of about 15 so far .

[Mikey32230]

i dont understand how these games get through sony's super slow game delaying Q&A testing..

There Q&A testing sucks.
This games has been getting bugs fixed for months now. I remember reading articles about it being buggy months and months ago.

[Beetey]

I think the article's title might sensationalize the issue a little bit. While this one issue is clearly game-breaking, one issue does not mean it is "plagued with game-breaking bugs." Based on what I've heard from others, the game runs pretty well up till that point, so it sounds like a quick patch should be all it takes.

I still plan on buying it Wednesday when I get the chance.

[ValKilmer]

There are several bugs that inhibit progressing in the game that are known so far.

[Beetey]

Such as what? I've seen a few people complain about crashing in one spot, but that's it. Like I said, that's still really bad, but nothing that can't be fixed with a patch.

[ValKilmer]

It certainly seems to be something that's fixable with a patch, but that doesn't mean the game is broken as it stands.

[Foraoise]

Valkilmer, while I appreciate your username, this article spreads MUCH false information. I've beaten the game twice on the Vita. (Yeah, I pretty much no-life'd it.) and there are some bugs, but NO gamebreaking bugs. You're spreading false information and you're over-exaggerating, quite heavily. I (along with a few others I know of) have beaten this game on the Vita with little-to-no issue, at all.

Please don't submit false articles. You're making a phenomenal port look horrible.

Look at all the other comments from people who've ALREADY PLAYED IT. They say it runs fine. Look at youtube videos, ask people who already HAVE the game, such as me. It's fine. You're lying and over-exaggerating. I've reported your article.

[extermin8or]

I've seen in a few places that having the DLC installed might cause the issues? Do you have them installed?

[MYDEATH21]

I blame the devs. You can't blame any console for bugs. They are all different and it'sup to the devs to work them out and optimize for that system

[TimeSkipLuffy]

Freezes and sudden closed applications can be bugs, too. Sometimes it is due to the limited power the hardware can provide.

The game could have been tested in more depth though.

[MYDEATH21]

Very true. No system is perfect.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

I just bought the boarderlands vita bundle and I can confirm most of these issues are real. On the bright side I finally got to play soul sacrifice and I must say that its worth buying a vita for. It's a great game with lots of potential.

[randomass171]

Sorry to hear your experience was also buggy. :/ I know I sound like a broken record, but the developers making games on Vita need to step up and stop doing ports of western console games.

[metalgod88]

Soul Sacrifice is amazing. They're actually working on a 2nd one as we speak and I absolutely cannot wait. I'm pretty excited about that one.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Yes its a very good game. Are they bringing the new one state side?

[pop-voxuli]

Wow, this is news to me. I've been playing it on my vita for 3 days straight w/o a single problem.

[nope111]

Hopefully the game will get patched, but seriously though, Borderlands 2 is a massive game, i'm not surprise at the problems it came with.

I remembered the console version being buggy as hell during the first couple months.

[eferreira]

I literally just talked to someone who purchased the bundle and said the game runs great.

[Becuzisaid]

Everyone go watch El the Geek on you tube. He's got about 4 hours worth of video up of direct feed Vita gameplay. It runs great for him and looks like a lot of fun to play.

[metalgod88]

Any idea how to get direct feed from the vita? I've been trying to figure it out for months now lol.

[Becuzisaid]

He has a link to the capture device he uses in the description of his videos.

[cluckey07]

It seriously isn't that bad. Since the game saves all the time you don't lose much and it doesn't take long to reboot it. I am halfway through the game and it has only crashed once. I'm sure a patch will accompany this at some point.

[irishyort]

From all the you tube in game and level videos for this on the Vita, certainly looks like its playable to me.

Is it also possible that they are reviewing a pre-release build like most reviewers get?

As it stands, from the you tube guys alone playing this and showing it off, its a definate buy for me. And im sure patches will fix any problems that are known if they are not already fixed in the retail release.

[psDrake]

The Borderlands brand alone will sell the game and make some profit. That's the point isn't it ?

It's no surprise that the game is not running great on Vita. No need to exaggerate, it runs okay. It's playable.

Let's not forget that as horrendous as COD Declassified was, it still sold around 600-700k.

Borderlands 2 on Vita might not be great but it's still better than nothing. For Vita owners as myself, I don't think we are in a position to be picky these days.

My most anticipated 2014 Vita game is Velocity Ultra 2X :)

[randomass171]

That's a shame... Vita HAS better games on it. It's getting a bunch of them localized. I wish developers would stop this and do more new games for Vita. More exclusives to justify a purchase. I'm tired of seeing the system under perform in the west.

[SpiralTear]

The problem is that there ARE games on Vita that are great games AND they run perfectly fine. If you're looking for a solid Vita shooter, Killzone Mercenary is a fine choice. In fact, Tearaway's a great example of a phenomenal game (your avatar reminded me of that), but that didn't sell too well.

I don't think someone should settle for a buggy, broken game over playing a great, perfectly intact game. The public's taste seems very off-kilter to me.

[vergilxx3]

haha Killzone is not a fine choice..
it's the only choice xD

[metalgod88]

Vergile, there is a COD game for the vita, but from what I've heard, it's really really bad. =P But imo, COD has been really bad for a long time. I would like to see some more triple A games on the vita though, not just ports of games we've already played.

[vergilxx3]

metalgod cod is bad that's why killzone is the only fps on vita I consider as good fps and borderlands 2 i have seen some gameplay one youtube and the game seems like loads of fun

[Blink_44]

Man, I'm tired of these half assed ports.

[IskyInfinity]

Well I traded my 1000 and got the slim bundle and the game is awesome no game breaking bugs yet I have 10 hrs in and have passed the aforementioned areas (3 horns) and not once has it crashed or given an error lets be realistic its not gonna be ps3/360 quality in your hand its not possible sure there are a few framerate dips but thats on all console versions too I am actally excited and invigorated by this game truly an 8 out of 10 experience thus far but maybe im just lucky or perhaps realistic ...you cant judge consoles against handheld devices and imo its more fun then kz mercenary.. I only registered on this site for this one comment so please dont troll me this is truly how I feel and I own all last gen and current gen systems short of Wii U.

[irishyort]

Its comments like this and a bunch of youtube style playthroughs for this game that lead me to believe that the reviewers are playing a possible pre release copy.

I have seen some (2) comments on neogaf but that is only 2 people so far.

It's a close rendition of Borderlands..... on a handheld.... no need to be picky.

Even the neogaf players have not said that the game is broken just one or 2 sections that may cause a lockup. And when it did lock up you got skipped sloghtly past that with the item required. I assume this will be an upcoming full release patch.

[MatrixxGT]

The game plays just fine. Its funny watching all the haters in this comment section that haven't even played it but are quick to believe the author of this article. These people put vita in the position its in. I've played most of the "shit" games on vita and I don't see what the fuss is about.

Anyways I'm enjoying Borderlands 2 just fine. A few frame drops is the only negative I can give it. Solid 8 so far.

[TimeSkipLuffy]

When the publisher of the game goes through all the negative comments for this game in the web, they probably won't try to port any other games for the Vita anymore.

Because let's face it. Publishers can't afford to spend a lot of money in the Vita with that install base. It is cheaper to do ports and since the main studios are busy they give it to smaller studios to do their job.

Without success plans for further ports may end in the trash bin.

I am still hoping for a PS Vita 2 with much more capable hardware. 720p, 3GB RAM and a newer processor would be very very nice!

[r21]

For all you who have said it was a rushed job or it was lazy port, put this fact into your minds.

Iron Galaxy have actually been able to make an open world albeit much smaller size and lower textures running on Unreal Engine 3 on a handheld at a somewhat playable performance. That is in no way an easy feat to do. Even i had doubts this studio could make it on the vita but here we are today with vita owners actually enjoying the game on the go.

While its certain there are issues and a few bugs, its still a pretty stunning port done by iron galaxy studios. Imagine this, it could have gone Ratchet and Clank FFA, that would've be way WAY more horribly.

[Sheed]

The Vita just has bad luck with ports.
I can't say i didn't see this one coming.

[beakeroo1]

The PS3 version was plagued with game breaking bugs but I persevered with that one and enjoyed the heck outta it.

[MrUndrhill]

Man, Gearbox just has no shame. Another piece of outsourced garbage. At least they are consistent.

[Yodagamer]

It was developed by iron galaxy and sony published it. Any bugs should have been seen by sony and if sony didn't see the bugs they need better QA Testing.

[GameDev1]

You don't know the role of a publisher do you?

Google it

[Yodagamer]

@gamedev1 yes i do they pay to publish a game and sony even said they were helping develop the game with iron galaxy. Even if they weren't helpingf developing it they were paying to publish a game that's on their system and they should be looking into any gamebreaking bug because it has their name on it and they're putting money into it. If this was any other game publisher it'd be on them according to n4g.

[Soldierone]

Guess I'll just stick to MGS HD collection and get Killzone instead then. By the time this is fixed, it should be cheaper.

[Jonny5isalive]

either way you should get killzon merc. I havent played my vita in a while but I played that game for like 3 months, the multiplayer is by far the best ever on a handheld. Used to own people, im gonna play tonight now I think. I didnt play the new maps really and will get owned now. if you like FPS online you will really like it, SP is cool too.

[Bytor]

Thiers like 40 excellent user reviews on metacritic and no mention of game breaking bugs.

[Nazzus]

I have the game. I got it with the new Vita.

It is kinda buggy but playable.
Enemies get stuck in things but can easily get out or be killed .
Sometimes bullets just completely miss the enemy no matter how close you are.
Some of the loot boxes are floating to the side or above where they are suppose to be.

Overall I love it. It was free (kinda it is 5.5gb download that takes up most of the 8gb memory card)
Not a huge difference in graphics. It does lag rarely and takes a bit to load between zones.

[Solid_Penguin-64]

Great handheld. Needs great games (they are there just need more).

[etownone]

I have a psvita.

But the future of mobile gaming is on smartphones and tablets.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Honestly not surprised. Every version of this game is plagued with bugs. Hell, there's an update that basically makes it impossible for me to play this game above 30 fps.

[WitWolfy]

Why are people so shocked, have they forgotten that this is the same studio that raped the alien licence too???

[SpiralTear]

This isn't Gearbox who made this. It's Iron Galaxy.

[WitWolfy]

My point exactly Gearbox using the cheapest company to port or recreate a game over for a quick cash in... JUST LIKE THE ALIEN FRANCHISE!!

Dont know why people are disagreeing?

[Drasill]

Vita is basically on death watch anyway.

[WitWolfy]

If you say so bro...

[jay2]

NO game. should have Game Breaking bugs, I'm waiting for it to come out on cartage.

[objdadon]

Haven't been able to enjoy a game on a phone or tablet yet! No physical buttons are a deal breaker! Ps vita can handle whatever devs can throw at it! Every game has bugs when first released. An update should do the trick. It's amazing they got it on there in the first place. I'd never be able to get that game to run on my 3ds!

[Clown_Syndr0me]

after hearing about this bundle I was going to buy a Vita mew, glad I didn't now.
Ill pick up a second hand one in a few months or something, and hopefully this game will be fixed by then although I did prefer the first.

[objdadon]

The oled screen vita is by far the most beautiful anyway. You should get that one.

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Is that the fat one? I havent actually done much research into this, I'm just craving a Vita for some reason.

[Petebloodyonion]

Of course, it's in no way the Vita's fault for poor performance, it's the developers fault.
That is why we have top AAA Hyped games on the Vita like Resistance, God of war collection, Borderland 2, Call of Duty Vita version, etc...

Heck even Farsight Studio seem be to on the crap Wagon with the Vita's version of The acclaim Pinball Arcade cause all versions (mobile to console) run flawlessly except the Vita's version who suffer form frames skipping and slowdowns.

[Scatpants]

I'm still getting it. I'm sure there will be a patch

[sanosukegtr123]

Same here there might be updates for it.

[breakpad]

one advice ..if you want take it ..dont buy WESTERN made games for VIta ...(specially big AAA known games( they dont care to make good games like Japan does ..they just make it for Sony s money

[sanosukegtr123]

Well they tried but there will be updates for the game... hopefully.

[inFAMOUSJakey]

So I asked Iron Galaxy a tweet asking if game will get some patches etc to fix some issues and bugs and here is the reply I got....

@JinPitts: @TheKeits hey I am quite excited to play BL2 on vita. But I have seeing couple freezes and game shutting up here and there. Any patches?

@TheKeits: @JinPitts Sony amd Gearbox will be handling all questions, ive been moved to a different project personally.

So yeah, no patches incoming. Very well done..

[jay2]

People who are saying there aren't issues need to shhhhhhhh. lots of sites are saying the same, it's a buggy mess with framerate etc issues.