We were overwhelmed by Borderlands - once we got past the initial levels and finally clicked into the bizarre, nine-toed genius that merged FPS and RPG with such gleeful disregard. It’s a hard act to follow, but developers Gearbox are aiming to go above and beyond the original with Borderlands 2. Writer Anthony Burch and concept designer Scott Kester chatted with Gamasutra about the upcoming sequel, specifically changes to the setting and characters.

Borderlands 2 has a new antagonist in the handsome form of Handsome Jack, and in the five game years since Borderlands he’s fundamentally changed the game world. He’s taken over the Hyperion weapons company, and claimed responsibility for finding the original game’s vault. In true James Bond-baddy style, he’s built an orbital base near Pandora’s moon - in the shape of a giant “H”, no less. “You can never forget that Handsome Jack is screwing over the moon,” said Burch.

Each of Borderlands 2’s new protagonists is going to have a specific reason for hating Handsome Jack, which will be explained as the game goes on. The advantage of bringing in a new gang of protagonists means the old ones’ back stories can be explained in more detail, too. “You get to learn about who the Vault Hunters are as characters now because you're not controlling them,” said Burch. “So you can see like, ‘Oh, how did Roland bounce off?’, or ‘What's Mordecai's story?’ or ‘What's Brick's story?’”

One of our principal complaints about the first was that no matter how cel-shaded and comic-book-paletted the deserts were, they remained very deserty. The changes Handsome Jack has made to Borderlands 2’s world add much-needed variety. “It doesn't feel like I'm walking into the same desert, on the same bus, and dealing with all that kind of stuff,” said Burch. “You have these beautiful new arctic tundra areas, and these grasslands and stuff, and it feels completely new; all you mostly saw in the first game was just dust and dirt and all that stuff.”

But Borderlands 2 isn’t suddenly going to go all Crysis on our arses. “It's still harsh -- everything around every corner wants to kill you, but it's just to stay true to the nature of what the game is,” said Kester.

Keen eyed players of Borderlands might have noticed that the Steam version recently updated itself, bringing Steam Cloud save synchronisation and something called BTest. According to the update, BTest is a stat tracking system that will record what guns and areas are most popular with players, in order to help Gearbox improve their games. The software also includes a leaderboard at Gearbox Labs, which will let you compare your stats to other players.

With Borderlands 2 announced for April next year, it seems likely the data collected will have some influence on the development of the sequel.

2K have given us yet another reason to be super excited about Gamescom next week (as though we needed one). CVG have spotted a post on the 2K Games site announcing that they will be streaming the first Borderlands 2 footage live from Cologne on their uStream channel. The show kicks off next Friday at 8:00 PT / 17:00 CET / 16:00 BST. Questions from fans will be answered throughout the demo, you can submit your own by tweeting @2KGames or @GearboxSoftware, or by dropping a post on the Gearbox or 2K forums.

If you're sending in a question, don't ask "will I be able to play as a stumpy maniac who can dual wield any weapon in the game?" because we know the answer to that question is already "yes." Borderlands 2 will have four new playable characters, and brand new weapons. It's due out next year, some time after April 1.

The playable heroes of Borderlands 1 will return for Borderlands 2, but only as NPC characters. Game Informer reveals that we'll be taking charge of four completely new heroes when the sequel is released next year.

Gearbox have also decided to scrap all of the weapons from Borderlands 1. The randomly generated guns of the first game gave rise to thousands of mad scope/ammo/manufacturer combinations. New manufacturers will bring their own visual twists to each weapon, and players will now be able to add custom decals and enhancements to their favourite pieces.

Of the four new characters, only one has been revealed so far. He's a stumpy "Gunzerker" called Salvador. He can dual wield any weapon and improve his abilities using the familiar three-branch skill tree of the first game. He'll be able to choose from a wider selection of vehicles (ie: more than one), and use the new currency, Eridium, to buy new items or upgrade his armoury.

Gearbox also promise greatly improved enemy AI and more varied environments. Also, for better or worse, Claptrap's back!

Bordlerlands 2 is due sometime after April 1 n 2012, check out the official Borderlands 2 site for more.

When Torchlight was released in 2009, it wore it’s Diablo influence proudly on it’s sleeve. It’s [..]

The Steam Thanksgiving holiday sale has kicked off. A new selection of games will be on offer every day until November 30th. On top of that, 30 users each day will recieve the top 5 games in their wishlist.


Today's selection of offers expires in seven hours at the time of writing, and includes some pretty fine deals. There's 75% off the Deus Ex Collection and Alpha Protocol, and 50% off Borderlands and Prototype. You'll find all of the deals displayed over on the Steam store. While you're browsing, it's worth putting together a wishlist. There's a chance that you could be among the 30 Steam users picked each day to win copies of their top 5 most wanted games. To be considered for the offer you have to have at least ten games in your list. I've already hastily put together my top ten, but more importantly, what's in yours?

Last week we mentioned that Borderlands was about to receive an update that would raise the level cap, adding even higher level monsters and even more ridiculous loot. The update is now live! If you have Steam the update will apply automatically the next time you boot up the game. If you have the Windows version of the game, you can download the patch manually from the Borderlands site. Now you'll be able to take on level 58 Badass Loot Midgets and battle even harder Skag monsters. It'll all be worth it when that level 58 rocket-loaded shotgun drops.

The next free update for Borderlands will allow players to fight to level 58. Enemies will also scale to higher levels, meaning more powerful loot for veteran Borderlands players. Read on for the full details on the patch.

Gearbox have posted the patch notes on the Borderlands forums. Here they are in full:


Level cap increase for all players of 8 levels. That means that all Borderlands players will now be able to achieve a new maximum level of 58.
Owners of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can achieve a record setting increase to a maximum level of 69.
End game players that have completed playthrough 2 will see enemies scale to the new levels up to the new level cap. That means that if you’ve completed everything, you can play through the game again and again at a challenging level in order to find better and better loot.
Item drops (with the exception of COM Decks) will also scale with higher level enemies to the new level cap. That means that this Title Update features the highest level weapons to date!
Other fixes, including DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users and will be corrected to properly award players for obtaining these achievements no matter which order they were completed in.


The patch is almost ready to go, and Gearbox have announced that the update should land in the next few weeks.

Attention PC gamers! We’ve got a giveaway so momentous that it stands to eclipse epochal moments in history going all the way back to the discovery of fire by an unfortunate troglodyte in a lightning storm about one and a half million years ago. In fact, it’s so spectacularly massive that it may create a singularity unimagined by even Stephen Hawking at his most fanciful after a fifth of bourbon. What could be so huge? How about this: a magical Steam code that will grant you free, permanent access to Valve’s entire catalog—which includes some of the finest PC games ever made—and every game Valve ever will make. That’s right: you can win Portal 2, Dota 2 and even Half-Life 2: Episode 3.* It’s the prize that keeps on giving, year after year!

But wait, that’s not all! Click through to see what else, and how to win it!

Update: Winners have been drawn, and notifications are going out. We'll post the list of winners soon!

Update 2: Winners posted!




We’re also giving away sweet, shrink-wrapped, aromatic Collector’s Editions of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Fallout: New Vegas, Civilization V, Mafia II and Plants vs Zombies. That’s a total of six fabulous, planet-shattering prizes, all up for grabs. Click here to see them all!

But wait, there’s even more! We’ll pick a seventh lucky dawg who’ll receive a copy of Borderlands Game of the Year Edition! The giving just won’t stop!

So how do you get in on the action? Just “like” us on Facebook, then comment on this post on Facebook (not our comment area below) with a list of the three games you’re most looking forward to in 2011 (in order of preference). That’s all! (If you're already a fan, just comment with your list.)

On Monday, November 1 at 10am Pacific time, we’ll draw seven winners from the comments (with the help of everybody’s random friends at Random.org,) and contact them via Facebook. Winner #1 gets first choice. (We suspect they’ll pick the Valve code.) Winner #2 gets to choose between the remaining prizes, then winner #3 gets to pick, and so on.

This contest is open to US residents only. Sorry, rest of the world! We’d let you enter if The Man would let us.

*Provided the sun doesn’t burn out before it’s released.

Our winners are:
Michael Hudak: Magic Valve code
Craig Fender: StarCraft II Collector's Edition
Phillip Front: Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Edition
Jeremy Sanchez: Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition
Darien Sumner: Civilization V Collector's Edition
Justin Anderson: Mafia II Collector's Edition
Zack Jones: Plants vs Zombies Collector's Edition

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Remember those boxy little Claptrap robots that danced a lot and gave you missions in Borderlands? Well now you can slaughter them in their hundreds in this slice of new DLC, called Claptrap's Robot Revolution. Read on to find out what's included, and a picture of a man tearing a robot apart with his bare hands.



The Claptraps are under new leadership. The Hyperion Company, in a bid to wipe out you and your treasure hunter friends, have activated the super-smart Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap. But, like most super-smart robots, the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap turned out to be self aware, and really, really angry about the enslavement of his little robo-chums.



Now it's up to you to fight through waves of armed Claptraps and fight robo-versions of the many creatures that inhabit Borderland's arid deserts. There are seven new areas, packed with 11 boss fights and a slew of new achievements to unlock. The DLC is priced at $10/£6.30 and is available now right here, or through Steam.