Wide World Of Protean Grenades
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 01:56
Back in the day, I played a good amount of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. A lot of the multiplayer maps had two story buildings. If you were on the ground and had an enemy gunning for you from upstairs, you had to watch out.
The trick was to come at him from an angle so he couldn't see you. Then bounce a nade off the inside of the window frame. Boom. Problem solved.
Guns need line of sight, nades do not. I've always liked nades in video games because they add another dimension to combat.
The Borderlands grenades might add two or three more dimensions (thanks to Rockabilly and BO5 for pointing this out) . Take a look at grenade item box in this screen grab below the jump. Look closely and you'll see it's not just called a grenade. It's a protean grenade.
Protean refers to Proteus, a Greek sea god. For those of who don't follow ancient polytheist religions, I'll give you a free lesson.
In addition to being pretty cool because he carries a trident, Proteus is even more awesome because he can tell the future. Of course, since he can tell the future everybody wants to bother him with questions all day. How long will I live? Who’s going to win the World Series next year? Is it the right time to buy real estate?
As you can imagine, this gets really annoying. So Proteus spends a lot of time hiding by morphing into other shapes, like a lion, pig, or tree. Thus the word protean's meaning of "capable of assuming many forms."
The point is that your protean nades in Borderlands don't just go boom. You can program them do perform a mix of useful functions.
According to the Borderlands Game informer preview, glove microchips allow you prep the nades to track vehicles, steal health, and "rain down fiery death from above." No word yet though if you can use them to turn into a tree.
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 00:59
#2
Vortex Grenades
I've never played Fracture but that sounds like a cool concept. One of the points they hyped about that game was your ability to morph the terrain and that fits in nicely.
I didn't get to chance to mention above that in the E3 video for Borderlands, the narrator mentions something that sounds like a Merv grendade. He said after you throw the grenade it breaks into pieces, all of which explode indvidually.
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 01:15
#3
Cluster Grenade
Ah like a cluster grenade. It's been quite some time since I've seen that weapon idea put to good use. I remember using those back in Jet Force Gemini...ant parts and green blood everywhere lol.
If you like shooters and/or terrain deformation I'd say give Fracture a rent. I wouldn't advise buying it unless you really like it.
Love,
Fox Makenshi
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 07:08
#4
Vortex grenades
That would be and awesome addition, or at least something with a blackhole effect. With over a million guns with effects that would put a brainstorming session filled with 20 high sci-fi writers to shame.....I wouldnt be supprised at all if a grenade exploded in taffy that attracted a revenous group of Wookies that devoured everything unfortunate enough to come in contact with the candy of doom. After all, did you guys catch the part in the article where a rifle didnt shoot ANYTHING?!?! The target just spontaniously combusts after locking onto the target for 3 seconds......you STARE the target to death.
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 07:27
#5
Wasn't that "rifle" the
Wasn't that "rifle" the pistol that fired the mix between homing darts and rockets? Lock, autofire, tracks, sticks, boom? That's how I remember reading it.
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 09:26
#6
Cluster Grenade
Now that I think about it, he might have actually called it a cluster grenade. It kind of sounds like he says "merv grenade" but I don't think that's what he actually said since it doesn't make any sense.
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 12:49
#7
i think the term is MIRV.Like
i think the term is MIRV.
Like the MIRV fat man launcher in Fallout 3. I think he said MIRV didnt he?
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 13:24
#8
MIRV
Well MIRV is usually a missle but it's the same concept. One bomb carries multiple smaller bombs that disperse before impact.
Love,
Fox Makenshi
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 16:35
#9
Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle
Yet again, you guys prove you are smarter than me, haha. I think you're right on about him referring to a MIRV grenade.
Like Fox said, it usually applies to a missile but I don't why the concept couldn't apply to a grenade.
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Using a MIRV warhead, a single launched missile can strike several targets, or fewer targets redundantly. By contrast a unitary warhead is a single warhead on a single missile.
Sat, 02/14/2009 - 14:29
#10
Good conversation
First off, he did say MIRV, not cluster or anything. But anyway, do you think that you would be able to custom-program microchips? So, you could for instance take the "fiery death" and "vehicle tracking" chips and combine them to make the fireballs fall out of the sky and then home into the different enemy vehicles. It would be a cool idea, but can we do it?
To BorderlandsGuide: Just so you know, lots of people on GameFaqs don't know about this site. It would be good to get them on this to, just to make it a little more lively (not rying to insult the site, just help out). So if I were you, I'd let the new people know about it.
The exact quote is "...and glove microchips that allow you to program grenades to do many strange things like track vehicles, steal health, and rain down fiery death from above."
Let's hope you're right, I mean it does sound like a pretty logical conclusion. The name fits, the info fits, the idea makes sense. This just got my pysched for the game again lol.
Oh if anyone has played Fracture, the coolest grenade I've EVER seen is in that game. It's called the Vortex Grenade. Basically what it does is pulls in anything that's not nailed to the ground into the center of a mini tornado. After a few seconds an explosion occurs in the center of this tornado sending everything, item and enemy alike, flying through the air.
Lets hope Borderlands creates an even cooler grenade effect, and becomes the new game with the coolest grenade EVER :p
Love,
Fox Makenshi