Remember back in September when Borderlands 2 players were experiencing a reset in their Badass ranks?

Well Gearbox finally released a chunky 360 patch to fix that, and many, many other issues. Your Badass tokens will be reissued to be spent as you choose.

A notable addition that comes with this patch is the ability to reset challenges (not tokens). Tokens earned from those challenges will still be retained, but you can get extras for a higher badass rank. The specifics:

Players can now reset all challenge progress for a character once they've completed 85% of all non-DLC, non-area-specific challenge levels. This will keep the player's current challenge bonuses and rank, but reset all challenge progress to 0 and allow challenges to be re-completed for additional ranks and bonuses. This option will appear as a tooltip at the bottom of the "challenges" screen within the status menu if the player has met the criteria.

G4 is also reporting that the patch landed them 10 shiny Golden Keys. This could be a gift in return for the glitch's hassles, or it could just be a coincidence. Let us know what you're experiencing.

If the Video Game Awards are actually an awards show, and not just a keynote for promoting upcoming games, then the big news from last night was The Walking Dead: The Game. Eminently quotable analyst Michael Pachter said before the show that if this title, a downloadable self-published game, took home Game of the Year, he'd eat his hat. To his credit, Pachter later tweeted out a request for one, presumably to consume.

But the surprises don't just stop there. The Walking Dead won Game of the Year coming out of the Best Adapted Game category. Except for 2003, the first year of the VGAs, when things were very different from today, only two adapted games have even been nominated for GOTY: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, and neither won. This is a different time in games development, with publishers looking for games whose characters and stories they fully own.

Some might look to a licensed or adapted work and consider that the game derives its significance, or at least the attention given to it, because it draws on some other franchise in popular entertainment. So it's strange that a licensed, adapted work reminds us that story, and characters, and choices, and the memorable experiences they create, matters most.

Here's another surprise nugget: The Walking Dead: The Game earned its makers five Video Game Awards. The next big winner? Journey, with three (including a nomination for Game of the Year.) Borderlands 2 also took home three awards, the best haul for a traditional boxed console game.

So if you're thinking this might have been a different Video Game Awards, in its 10th year, you're probably right. Had the show given more attention to that purpose—only a handful of these awards were actually presented in the broadcast—we might be pondering it as a landmark year. The VGAs are often accused of being an industry popularity contest, but maybe this year they acquired recognizable critical heft. We'll have to see what happens next year, and the year after.

So here are the 25 winners of the 2012 Video Game Awards, plus the Game of the Decade. Two fan-voted awards gave Character of the Year to Claptrap from Borderlands 2, and Most Anticipated Game to Grand Theft Auto V.

Game of the Year

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey, Mass Effect 3

Studio of the Year

Telltale Games

Also nominated: 343 Industries, Arkane Studios, Gearbox Software

Best Xbox 360 Game

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored

Best PS3 Game

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored

Best Wii/Wii U Game

New Super Mario Bros. U

Nintendo

Also nominated: The Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles, ZombiU

Best PC Game

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2K Games/Firaxis Games

Also nominated: Diablo III, Guild Wars 2, Torchlight II

Best Shooter

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3

Best Action-Adventure Game

Dishonored

Bethesda Softworks/Arkane Studios

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs

Best Role-Playing Game

Mass Effect 3

Electronic Arts/BioWare

Also nominated: Diablo III, Torchlight II, Xenoblade Chronicles

Best Multiplayer Game

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Guild Wars 2, Halo 4

Best Individual Sports Game

SSX

Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Also nominated: Hot Shots Golf World Invitational, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, WWE '13

Best Team Sports Game

NBA 2K13

2K Sports/Visual Concepts

Also nominated: FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, NHL 13

Best Driving Game

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Electronic Arts/Criterion Games

Also nominated: Dirt: Showdown, F1 2012, Forza Horizon

Best Song in a Game

"Cities" (Beck) for Sound Shapes

Also nominated: "Castle of Glass" (Linkin Park for Medal of Honor: Warfighter); "I Was Born for This" (Austin Wintory for Journey); "Tears" (Health for Max Payne 3)

Best Original Score

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3.

Best Graphics

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey

Best Independent Game

Journey

thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Fez, Mark of the Ninja

Best Fighting Game

Persona 4 Arena

Atlus/Arc System Works/Atlus

Also nominated: Dead or Alive 5, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Best Handheld/Mobile Game

Sound Shapes

Sony Computer Entertainment/Queasy Games

Also nominated: Gravity Rush, LittleBigPlanet (PS Vita), New Super Mario Bros 2

Best Performance by a Human Female

Melissa Hutchison for The Walking Dead: The Game

Also nominated: Emma Stone for Sleeping Dogs; Jen Taylor for Halo 4; Jennifer Hale for Mass Effect 3

Best Performance by a Human Male

Dameon Clark for Borderlands 2

Also nominated: Dave Fennoy for The Walking Dead: The Game; James McCaffrey for Max Payne 3; Nolan North for Spec Ops: The Line

Best Adapted Video Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Best Downloadable Content

Dawnguard for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda Softworks/Bethesda Game Studios

Also nominated: Leviathan for Mass Effect 3; Mechromancer Pack for Borderlands 2; Perpetual Testing Initiative for Portal 2

Best Downloadable Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Fez, Journey, Sound Shapes

Best Social Game

You Don't Know Jack

Jellyvision Games

Also nominated: Draw Something, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, SimCity Social

Game of the Decade

Half Life 2

Valve Corporation

Also nominated: Batman: Arkham City, BioShock, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Mass Effect 2, Portal, Red Dead Redemption, Shadow of the Colossus, Wii Sports, World of Warcraft

The newest Borderlands 2 DLC is an arena-based battle. It's also a set of questlines in a campaign mission to become the biggest, baddest badass of the Badass Crater of Badassery.

Still with me? Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is all about proving you're the baddest dude or dudette in Pandora, because only the baddliest of baddasses will be allowed access to the vault that requires the blood of a coward to be opened.

Have you ever played the Wii's No More Heroes? Where the protagonist faces off against the next rank of assassins to become the number one assassin (and I suppose the only one even alive)? The plot in Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is precisely about that kind of competitive killing. Which means, of course, that you'll be introduced to several new characters, each equipped to fight you in their very particular style, whether that's atop a buzzard or on a road bike.

There's an entire new area for you to explore while bloodily making your way through the ranks of badasses. They're all centered around the large, gladiatorial arena. Some are clusters of bandit camps. Others are dark, up and downhill paths around buildings, giving the impression of an elaborate city (which would be awesome, and I would love to see this idea fully realized in future DLCs). Others still are hazardous walks through lava-laden hideouts. It's neat, but there really isn't a lot to dig up in these new areas. They're nowhere near as beautiful or expansive as the last campaign add-on we got for Borderlands 2.

This isn't like Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty, the last campaign DLC that graced Gearbox's FPS/RPG sequel. There aren't a ton of side quests to plow through. Even the main mission in Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is a fairly fast adventure, something I killed in about four hours. You start off in an arena, fighting off waves of enemies and proving yourself worthy enough to enter the ranks of badassery. Then, after you've defeated each individual up the badass ladder by tracking them down across the Badass Crater, you're back in the arena, fighting for the last win.

Mad Moxxi officially becomes your "sponsor" during this tournament. She and Mr. Torgue make allusions to other fighters vying for the badass title to open the vault for all its shiny loot. So you're meant to believe that this is some sort of championship. That there are other fighters out there apparntly attempting to win the belt same as you. But it never actually felt that way. It felt more like someone gave me a hitlist and I assassinated my way through it.

That's not to say that Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage wasn't fun. It certainly was. But whether that's a product of the additional content itself or simply a matter of the base game being so darn fun that all I really need is a proper excuse to revisit it is something I can't quite put my finger on.

But I'm left feeling like this latest campaign DLC wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. I know people weren't fans of Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, but I still would like to have seen an arena mode unlocked by the end of the DLC campaign. It felt like it was building to it, and just never did. Even the awesome multiple-seater motorbike was never something players could access. Enemy bandits would drive it around, teasing you, but you could never actually drive the thing yourself.

The DLC does introduce a new currency—Torgue tokens that can be spent on Torgue-manufactured gear—and even new items to pick up (like sexy portraits of Mad Moxxi), but this new DLC was simply a series of quests that I was determined to complete and then promptly forget about.

Captain Scarlett is such a chunky, meaty slab of content that I'm still revisiting Oasis to finish sidequests or get through raid-level bosses. Mr. Torgue can't stand up to that depth of content. I often felt that Mr. Torgue was hanging on in the ranks of amazing Borderlands content by the skin of its teeth. It's just not as impressive, not as remarkable.

So what's with the big green "Yes" to the right? I may have had my expectations given Gearbox's track record with Borderlands and DLC in general, but that doesn't mean that this isn't still an entertaining experience that I'm happy to sink more hours into the game for. There are new characters, the return of Tiny Tina (which, as someone who is named Tina and nicknamed Tiny by her mother makes me very happy), and new areas to explore.

Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage could've used the new vehicle it dangled in front of your nose. It could've used a new game mode. It could definitely have done with better loot, because even the vault's burst of new weapons didn't match up with what I already had in my inventory, a scenario that will likely be similar for many of you who have already dug lots of hours into the game. But even with the glaring omissions, it's hard to argue with the super burly dude who has a penchant for inserting curse words into practically every syllable. Seriously, don't argue with him. He yells a lot.

The arena-style DLC that releases on November 20th features Mr. Torgue, one of the weapons manufacturers in Borderlands 2. Our own Patricia Hernandez previewed the add-on, and noted that he pretty much looks and sounds like professional wrestler Randy Savage.

Need proof? Watch the video above.

What do you do when you visit the Badass Crater of Badassitude? You try to become the number one badass. Duh. The Badass Crater and your number one title await you in a new DLC campaign for Borderlands 2.

The world of Pandora is no stranger to zany characters, so it shouldn't be surprising that Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, the second DLC add-on for Borderlands 2, delivers on that front. The DLC sheds some light on weapons manufacturer figurehead Mr. Torgue. Torgue is, as you might expect, batshit insane. But it's a certain type of unhinged—think Randy Savage, who Mr. Torgue kind of looks and sounds like.

That's appropriate, because the DLC reminds me a ton of wrestling theatrics. You know how wrestlers are always trying to win the belt, or become number one? That's the deal here. There are a handful of bosses you have to defeat to become the number one badass. But it's not as simple as killing them, because Mr. Torgue meddles too much—he wants to make sure everything that happens makes for "good TV," so to speak. The (figurative) audience watching you has to feel titillated! Your ascent to badassitude has to be exciting! So don't be surprised if Mr. Torgue pulls antics like suddenly informing you you're about to get betrayed. Gotta put on a show.

I played through one of the main stages, which puts you in an arena where you fight against waves of baddies. Unlike the Mad Moxxi DLC arena, this new area will have enemies fighting each other too. It's every man, freak and midget for himself. That's a good thing, because Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is difficult. So when you're hiding somewhere, hoping to regen your health, you're praying that your enemies become too preoccupied with each other to bother hunting you down.

That is but one of the locations you'll be visiting. I also fought through the densely-packed Beatdown city, and I made a commotion at a bar. The latter, I was a huge fan of—you have to start a bar brawl, targeting only the badasses. I felt like a dick for interrupting one of the few instances where a ton of enemies just wanted to chill. These guys won't attack you on sight, they're just having a drink, hangin' out. But it had to be done: messing the serene scene was how I'd regain the respect that I lost from Torgue after one of the five badasses set me up. (Of COURSE I was set up.)

I was surprised to see a number of familiar faces as I played as well. There's Patricia Tannis right at the start, in a brief appearance. One of your sponsors turns out to be Mad Moxxi. There's also the return of fan-favorite Tiny Tina (who is also a possible sponsor.) You'll have to choose between Tina and Moxxi—a tough choice. Worry not though; there'll be a number of new characters to meet too.

Fascinating to me, though, is just how much of Borderlands revolves around the guns. You're always obsessing over them, always sifting through loot, hoping to find something better than what's currently in your hands. Gearbox has gone on record saying that they've designed the manufacturers with the intention of creating brand loyalty to your guns. Some would argue that you basically ARE your gun. Many of the characters you've met in the past—in the first game, in the DLC, or in Borderlands 2—are involved with weapons distribution or manufacturing.

This DLC follows suit: you're entering the world of Torgue, a weapons manufacturer, after all. You'll also collect special loot drops specific to the DLC, which you buy with special Torgue currency. You use that currency in Torgue-only vending machines. Aside from guns, you'll also be able to collect new heads and skins for your vault hunter.

The awesome thing about the DLCs in Borderlands is that they affect the larger story. You defeat general Knoxx in the original Borderlands DLC, so in Borderlands 2, Atlas is out of business, for instance. But outside the lore, the DLC can be thought of as experiments for Gearbox—testing the waters to see what works and what doesn't. In Knoxx they dabbled with raid bosses and 4 player cars, in Moxxi they played with a bank system—amongst other things. One can't help but wonder what Gearbox is testing with the Torgue DLC, or how this DLC will affect the lore, but it's good to know they're looking to improve and evolve the experience.

Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage drops on November 20th, and you can expect it to last from six to eight hours. Those with the season pass will get the DLC for free. The rest of us can expect to drop less than a tenner.

Gearbox, or rather Borderlands 2's DLC character Gaige, today announced the next chunk of campaign DLC.

Gaige's Twitter account teased the news this afternoon, under the guise of a hacker named Torgue taking over her account.

Here's a picture of Torgue.

This is the second campaign DLC to release, following Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty that released last month.

I've been a fan of the PC version of Borderlands 2, even though it hasn't been without some issues.

Today, a whopper of a patch was released for the PC version, which fixes a ton of various bugs and repairs a grip of broken missions that I didn't even realize were bugged. Here's the full rundown:

- Fixed fast travel stations from downloadable content sometimes disappearing when loading a saved game.
- Fixed an issue where players could occasionally be unable to connect to one another if one of them had recently been in DLC that the other doesn't have.
- Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to pick items up after another player had bulk-picked-up a nearby item.
- Fixed a bug in the inventory UI when quickly scrolling to the bottom of a list using the mouse wheel.
- Improved PhysX fluid rendering quality at high resolutions.
- Improved NVIDIA 3D Vision integration.
- Fixed the "Inverted reverse steering" option not working for clients in a multiplayer game.
- Fixed the player's backpack sort setting not persisting.
- Fixed an issue causing players to sometimes crash or freeze after killing Master Gee in the Captain Scarlett DLC.
- Fixed challenges showing inaccurate completion amounts for area-specific challenges.
- Fixed a bug where the player's active mission would sometimes fall back to main-game missions when completing other missions in DLC areas.
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to lose mission rewards that they had not claimed when switching between Normal mode and True Vault Hunter mode.
- Added a confirmation dialog when opening the golden chest in Sanctuary.
- Fixed Arid Nexus Badlands showing an undiscovered challenge that was not attainable.
- Restored some lost progress to players who have had their profiles reset. To ensure you are credited for as much progress as possible, please load your character, select "Continue" on the Main Menu, and then "Save and Quit" after you enter the world. Repeat this process for each character in your character list.
- Fixed the Mechromancer's Anarchy skill sometimes losing stacks incorrectly for multiplayer clients.
- Fixed a bug causing players to sometimes get stuck zoomed in when in "Fight for Your Life" mode.
- Fixed challenge "For The Hoard!" to work properly after resetting challenges.
- Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause players' skill points to be reset when loading their character.
- Fixed a bug that could cause enemies and missions to be locked to an incorrect level.
- Fixed bug causing Tediore reloads to get Amplify shield damage bonuses for each round remaining in the clip.
- Amplify damage from Amplify Shields is now divided among all projectiles fired from a single shot.
- Balance adjustments to "The Bee":
+ Increased Recharge Delay
+ Significantly increased Recharge Rate
+ Reduced Amplify damage
- DLC raid bosses no longer drop Seraph crystals in Normal Mode.
- Reduced level of DLC raid bosses in Normal Mode.
- Fixed issue resulting in infinite leveling exploit with Fleshstick.
- Increased the health of Terramorphous, Willhelm, and Blue.
- Additional miscellaneous balance tweaks.
- Fixed issues with the following missions that could cause players to get stuck or not be able to complete them:
+ Plan B
+ Wildlife Preservation
+ Mighty Morphin
+ Animal Rescue: Food
+ The Man Who Would Be Jack
+ Get To Know Jack
+ Where Angels Fear to Tread
+ Trailer Trashing
+ Clan War: First Place
+ Stalker of Stalkers
+ The Once and Future Slab
+ Home Movies
+ Shielded Favors
+ You Are Cordially Invited: Tea Party
+ (Captain Scarlett) Freedom of Speech

Dang. That's a lot of patchin'.

Borderlands 2 Update Released [Steam]

A potential game-save erasing bug affecting Xbox 360 players of Borderlands 2 has officially been patched today, according to developer Gearbox.

The bug originated from players who hacked their own games and then played multiplayer games online with others. It only affected players on Xbox 360; players on PC and PS3 did not face an issue.

Today, the patch became available on Xbox Live. The description reads, simply, "Added security to prevent data loss tied to malicious violations of the Xbox Live Code of Conduct through an unsupported third-party program."

Xbox 360 Update Information [Gearbox Official Site]

Here's Borderlands 2's most annoying/funny/funnoying robot, taking you through the first part of a behind-the-scenes documentary showcasing his efforts to "direct" Borderlands 2. Aw, he works so hard.

Also: Tiny Tina's Teaparty of Blood? Yeah, I'd play it.

It's come to the point where I'm getting excited about any opportunity to see more of the characters of the delightfully silly Borderlands franchise.

And apparently Gearbox is heeding my call, because they're bringing back the Claptrap webseries, which, if you're like me and haven't even watched season one yet, you can watch all of right here. Gearbox says that the first episode of season two will premiere on their Facebook page early next week.