Pressing the back button brings up the skill tree, inventory management, quest management, weapon proficiency, and map screens. The map does a decent job of showing you where to go and how to get there. It does lack elevation which can make finding things in a cavernous area difficult and there were a few times that something wasn't where it was supposed to be but they weren't deal breakers. I would guess that a lot like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 the PC side is going to be easier to manage these functions as you have the full keyboard at your command.
Death is a common occurrence in Borderlands and thankfully the penalty isn't that severe. Instead of having to hump back and make a corpse run or restart from a check point you are re-spawned at last Sav-U point which are conveniently scattered around Pandora. Death does cost you some of your money but you get everything back so that usually makes up for it. The enemies in the level will respawn most if not all of their health so don't plan on trying the die and whittle away the health of a bad guy trick that you perfected in Bioshock as it won't work here.
Borderlands also has vehicular combat which is a lot of fun. The controls for driving are Halo like and took some relearning but it was fun to ride around and run things over or blow them up with the rocket launcher. I'm hoping there are bigger vehicles in the final game that four people can ride together in but I can see a lot of fun in having two vehicles causing mayhem together.
I know that Modern Warfare 2 is the top game on everyone's mind for the rest of the year but Borderlands is shaping up to be as good as what Infinity Ward is creating if not a better change of pace. The game isn't perfect but you won't notice the few flaws the game has because you're having so much fun playing the game. I was late to work on at least three separate occasions because of "Just one more mission" syndrome and I have a feeling I'm going to be losing hours and hours of my life when the game ships in October. Of course John will be there with me but at least I won't be orphaning a child when I play.
Page 3 of 3