Who told you that Adult Swim cartoon characters, ditzy cyberpunk robots, and a cuddly rabbit-and-dog detective team couldn't live together in harmony? Because if today's Poker Night 2 release is anything to go by, they totally can. Well, as harmoniously as a bunch of wisecracking jerks can get on while competing ruthlessly for assorted unlockable items, anyway. Check out the new cast of players in the trailer - and we've got a list of the prizes up for grabs, too.



Brock Samson from the Venture Bros squares off against Borderlands' plucky Claptrap, while Ash Williams from Army of Darkness and the notorious Sam and Max are all plotting your defeat. Oh, and just to make your "Omaha Hold 'em" losses against these fictional smartasses all the more devastating, your dealer is the soul-crushing GLaDOS.

The prizes are based on your platform of choice, so us PC gamers will be aiming to outfit ourselves in these stylish Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress 2 items. Because look: you're nowhere near striking fear in your foes' chests unless your Mechromancer is wearing a perpetually grinning Max Mask. There are also numerous in-game unlocks to be had, such as themed poker tables and chips. I hope Max's face is slapped on everything.

For just a fiver, Telltale's Poker Night 2 is available today on Steam.

Telltale has dusted off its green, felt battlefield of chips and difficult-to-remember card combinations for Poker Night 2, and it's calling up another quirky cast hailing from games and TV/film to humorously overreact whenever you're dealt a superior hand. You'll practice your poker face against Borderlands' Clatrap, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. show, the beady-eyed Sam from Sam & Max, and the always-groovy Ash Williams from Army of Darkness.

Telltale explains the stakes: "Poker Night 2 will offer the chance to win Bounty Unlocks: rewards for use within other games when special goals are achieved. With cunning and skill, players will unlock prizes, including exclusive skins and heads for use within Borderlands 2 and character accessories for Team Fortress 2."

I'd also advise against any shady movements, because Portal's very own GLaDOS is Poker Night 2's dealer, and she has a tendency to fire up a flamethrower or two for dishonesty. And for possessing flesh. In any case, you'll be able to grab the game near the end of this month.

Gearbox has posted a list of what to expect in an upcoming free update for Borderlands 2 that prepares Pandora for its incoming Ultimate Vault Hunter DLC and a level cap increase to 61. Somewhat confusingly, a new Ultimate Vault Hunter mode will arrive in the patch everyone gets, but the similarly titled $5 DLC is where the extra levels, skill points, and weapons all reside.

Here's Gearbox's breakdown:

Changes in 4/2 Software Update (Free)

Adds new items to the Black Market:

One additional ammo upgrade for each ammo type at 50 Eridium each.
Two more backpack storage space upgrades at 50 and 100 Eridium respectively.
Two more bank storage space upgrades at 50 and 100 Eridium respectively.


Increases the maximum amount of Eridium players can hold from 99 to 500.
Adds a new playthrough balanced for top-tier play: Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.
Various bug fixes.

Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack (Free with Season Pass or $5 separately)

Raises level cap to 61, allowing characters to gain 11 additional levels.
Characters gain a skill point with every level from 51 to 61, for a total of 11 more skill points.
Powerful new "Ancient" E-Tech relics and rare Pearlscent-grade weapons can be picked up in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.

Gearbox also delved into the specifics of Ultimate Vault Hunter mode in a separate post:

Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode is unlocked for a character once they have completed the main story missions in True Vault Hunter Mode and reached level 50.
Unlike other playthroughs, Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode can be replayed multiple times with players able to reset their overall mission progress at any time from the Main Menu.
No more tutorial missions—characters in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode begin in Southern Shelf with the "Cleaning Up the Berg" mission.
While playing in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, enemies and bosses will scale according to the player's current level or, if playing with others, the highest-level player in that party.
Gameplay changes in UVHM:

Enemy health generally increased 4x.
Enemies now have a moderate amount of health regeneration.
Increased duration of slag damage multiplier effect.
Upped the damage that slagged enemies take from 2x to 3x.
Weapon swap speed increased to better facilitate slag use.
Enemies now more likely to drop ammo.
Loot Midgets are now "Legendary Loot Midgets" that can drop Legendary and other top-tier gear.



Both the free patch and the DLC releases on April 2. The next DLC hits one month later, when that scary Krieg guy will jump down from his hiding spot and rip everyone's arms off.

Borderlands 2 received a big DLC info-dump at PAX East this weekend. First up, the game's sixth playable character has been introduced. His name is Krieg the Psycho. He seems nice. Primarily a melee class, Krieg's skill-trees are Bloodlust (combat buffs), Hellborn (fire-based elemental attacks), and Mania (er, being manic?)



The Psycho pack is due in May, and will cost $9.99. Before that, on April 2nd, Gearbox will release the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade. It's a $4.99 DLC pack that ups the level cap from 50 to 61, enabling a third playthrough in "Ultimate Vault Hunter mode."

Finally, Gearbox teased the fourth DLC expansion, Bunkers and Badasses. It looks to be Tiny Tina heavy, as seen in this brilliant teaser, captured by Polygon.



Thanks, Joystiq.

The off-the-wall Borderlands games wouldn't feel out of place as part of some alternate-reality, sadistic, Saturday-morning cartoon lineup, but both Gearbox and 2K want to make that scenario a reality. Partnering up with the Academy of Art University, the companies are launching a Borderlands Cooperative to invite the school's animation students to storyboard and produce an animated Borderlands short film for release later this year.

Teams of students will submit story ideas for the consideration of a judge panel made up by 2K, Gearbox, and university faculty. The winning group gets to work on the film as part of an internship at 2K, so it isn't quite the "get cracking, crowdsourced content slaves" scenario that I initially thought.

It'll be interesting to see what zany plot the students will think up in the already zany Borderlands universe—perhaps a Mr. Bean-style comedic adventure entitled "Salvador goes out for a haircut," except with lots of screaming Psychos instead of a befuddled Englishman. You're welcome, students.

The Borderlands 2 character Tiny Tina came under fire last night, as a Twitter discussion between the game's lead writer, Anthony Burch, and some of the game's players raised the question of whether her characterisation was racist. In the game, Tina - an explosives expert, and child - speaks using African American lingo, in a way that one Twitter user compared to "verbal blackface".

It began when Mike Sacco, creative developer of Cryptozoic Entertainment - a creator of trading card and iOS games - sent Burch the tweet, "Hey. I really like BL2's writing, but Tiny Tina's trope of "white girl talkin' like them urban folk!!" has got to go."

Others agreed, tweeting responses like, "Its exaggerated stereotypical low class "black" lingo that with Tina amounts to verbal blackface." Another user pointed out that, "She equates stereotyped ebonics with wacky." To that, Burch conceded, "Hrm -- that's an interesting point. I meant to make her a mishmash of stuff (ebonics/fairytale/naivete) but I see what you mean".

But many sprang to Tina, and Burch's, defence. Gearbox head Randy Pitcford claimed, "Tina is not racist because you are not racist. You're a pillar of tolerance and inclusion."

Burch finished by saying, "The last thing I want to be is exclusionary or prejudiced, so if Tina truly is problematic I'll change her," but added, "I'm just not convinced that a character using lingo like badonkadonk/crunk is inherently racist. If I'm wrong I would like to know why."

He also confirmed that any potential change to Tina's character would only apply to future content. When asked if he'd re-do her sections, Burch replied, "That's not actually feasible within the technical constraints of the game, but I'd alter her dialog in any future BL stuff."

Thanks, Kotaku.

The debate over the relationship between violent games and violent behavior continues inside and outside the United States. In its initial response to the tragedy in Newtown, CT, the US government said it intends to ask the Centers for Disease Control to “study the root causes of gun violence, including any relationship to video games and media images.” Critics cite studies that link aggression and violent games, claiming that interactivity as a component of games makes them unusually potent. One politician labeled games as "electronic child molesters."

It's an enormous and serious topic—one that we believe gamers shouldn't shrug off, but take it upon themselves to engage critics and fellow citizens on. In the interest of that, Logan, Evan, and Tyler hopped into our podcast studio (inappropriately, the room that most makes it look like we're inside an insane asylum) to talk about their personal relationship with violence in games.

The latest adventure for Borderlands 2's Vault Hunters involves knocking the loot-stuffing out of Pandora's deadliest creatures in the Sir Hammerlock DLC, but why stop the madness there? Gearbox has been talking about a level cap increase beyond 50 for some time, and speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Producer James Lopez said we'll see more levels sometime during the year's first quarter which ends in March.

As Lopez explained, picking the correct moment to make everyone more powerful came from poring over player stats tracked by Borderlands 2's SHiFT system. "SHiFT allows us to see a lot more about the way players are playing the game and see what they’re doing. We wanted to give people enough time to get at least one level 50 and then see from there. We also didn’t want to wait so long that people were no longer interested or felt like it wasn’t coming."

It's unclear how we'll get the added levels—perhaps included in a future DLC pack or as a separate patch. Heck, with how wacky things get on Pandora, we wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Zed just randomly decided to shoot a strength-boosting syringe into our eyeball one day.

Lopez previously told Polygon the issue of ability balance and power-creep weighed heavily on Gearbox's decisions for adjusting character levels. "We try to find ways to balance it out and we also need to adjust the enemies so they are still challenging at the higher levels. It's one of those funny things where people assume that whenever they hit level 50 they're going to steamroll through everything."

Borderlands 2's dapper gentleman hunter Sir Hammerlock was always around to aid the struggle against Handsome Jack from his remote safehouse, but now he's getting more involved by inviting the Vault Hunters on an expedition they can't refuse. Or maybe they can. If they do, they'll be skipping Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, the next DLC for Gearbox's loot-tastic RPG. It releases on January 15 for an expected price of $10/£6 or free for Season Pass holders.

The hunt promises "Danger! Excitement! Mustaches!" and the new swamp-filled continent of Aegrus on which to show the creatures of Pandora what for. The DLC also includes five story missions and 12 side-missions filled with new enemies, Seraph items, and the driveable Fanboat er, boat. The story, as the trailer suggests, seems to involve a jungle tribe of feral, Jack-worshipping psychos and a Stalker raid boss. At this point, I'm inclined to believe a day doesn't pass on Pandora without someone shooting something really big. Or just shooting anything.

Valve kicked off its epic Steam Holiday Sale today, offering heavy discounts, flash sales, and catalog clearances lasting until January 5. And before we start drifting dangerously into wallet-pun territory, know you'll be able vote for a select game every 12 hours to go on sale.

Here's a sampling of the sales and flash deals (if you can call a 15-hour timespan a "flash") available for purchase right now:

60% off Natural Selection 2 ($10/£6)
50% off War of the Roses ($15/£9)
50% off Borderlands 2 ($30/£18.50)

The current nominees for the Community's Choice sale are Limbo, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Braid. The winner gets 75 percent taken off its price. And if, by some small chance, a specific game deal you're seeking isn't there, Valve can notify you when it shows up if you add the title to your wishlist. Wonderful.

Ready to get shopping? Deep breath, and go.