Just as promised, Steam Trading Cards is now live. The virtual cards can be earned by playing participating games on Steam, trading with other users, or buying on the Steam Marketplace. Complete a set to create a badge, earn rewards and XP, and level up. The user with the highest Steam level at the end of the year gets to high five Gabe Newell while announcing Half-Life 3. In space.

In other true facts, I'm already hearing from users playing the Steam marketplace to profit off the cards' initial popularity. One user I spoke to has been buying low and selling high to pad his Steam wallet, even creating scarcity by buying up low-value cards in quantity. I'll keep an eye on marketplace prices as more users start trading the collectibles.

I was hoping to find a good deal on a 1952 Mickey Mantle card, but unfortunately, baseball isn't a participating game. You can see which of the games you own are participating here.

There are a number of things you could say about Borderlands 2's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, but thanks to this launch trailer we can instead focus on the most important: it contains a gun that fires swords. Swords that impale your enemies and then explode.

That'll do, Gearbox. That'll do.



The tone seems exactly what you'd expect from an expansion that transports Borderlands' cast of lovable psychotics into a fantasy realm. Even this short two minute sample is packed with cheeky digs at fantasy tropes. And setting aside, it's clearly more Borderlands, which is by no means a bad thing.

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep should be out later today, once the goliath that is Steam rouses from its deep slumber.

Yep, you heard it. This is the first five minutes of Borderlands 2's final DLC, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, which releases tomorrow. Be warned, though! There's a Borderlands 2 spoiler early on, so if you haven't gotten around to playing the base game yet, maybe don't venture in. Otherwise, I'll see you on the other side.

Oh, hello again. Wasn't that nice? A lot's been made of the DLC's pen-and-paper roleplaying influence, but this is a nice look at the continued existence of Borderlands 2's shoot-and-loot gameplay. While I'm not sure Assault on Dragon Keep is for everyone—Tina's firecracker of a little personality might grate on some—I'm reminded of why I loved the series so much, and can't wait to get my snipe on again.

Krieg the Psycho became Borderlands 2’s newest playable character a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve seen some fascinating behind-the-scenes info on the homicidal melee artist’s creation from Gearbox.
But did you know that Krieg struggles with an inner voice? A newly released short film for Krieg shows his chance meeting with Lilith and how he became a member of the vault hunter gang. Krieg is already kind of a ridiculous character, but the depiction of the suave inner voice struggling to be heard just makes him even funnier.

Enjoy some truly fantastic lines like "I'm the conductor of the poop train!" and "I have the shiniest meat bicycle!" Krieg is a terrifying character, and not just because of his size and all the killing.



If you’re confused and scared by all these fancy guns and their bullets, simplify your life with a big axe made out of a saw blade. Krieg is ready to go, and he’ll probably be a lot of fun to play in the upcoming D&D-inspired Tiny Tina DLC.

Borderlands 2’s impossibly endearing pint-sized psychopath, Tiny Tina, is getting her very own DLC in the form of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. The new campaign content features the vault hunters playing a pen-and-paper tabletop game while Tina runs the action from behind her game master screen.
In his video walkthrough posted to GameTrailers, Gearbox’s creative director Paul Helquist is diligently cautious about calling this setup what it is: a riff on Dungeons & Dragons. Tiny Tina is instead the “Bunker Master” in charge of “the most coolestest game in the world,” Bunkers and Badasses.
“We are now actually experiencing the adventure that she is creating on the fly for the vault hunters.” Helquist says in the voiceover, “We’re having a lot of fun with the idea that Tiny Tina is in complete control over this universe and this environment that she has created.”
Inside the game, players are treated to a world filled with enemies stolen from fantasy worlds, like skeleton archers and orcs. Tina is a novice game master, and her voiceover narration shows a twisting, changing game world that “smells like butts and dead people.” Unable to create a suitable name for an enemy on the fly, Tina dubs him “mister...boney...pants...guy?” and Mr. Bony Pants Guy is then made real. The environment gets a lot of comedy out of what it looks like inside Tina’s terrifying little mind, and players will get a surreal, hilarious closing chapter to the Borderlands 2 saga.
The baseline level for Assault on Dragon Keep is around level 30, so advanced players should be able to just jump in and enjoy more of the best co-op gameplay around. The newest and final DLC will be available June 25.

Along with today's new Borderlands 2 DLC comes some behind-the-scenes details of newest character Krieg the Psycho's years-long creation process. In yesterday's inaugural post on Gearbox developers’ blog Inside the Box, Gearbox Creative Director Paul Hellquist describes Krieg’s evolution from scribble on a whiteboard to playable psychopath.

“The goal of the session was to throw anything and everything that could possibly be a class for the game up on a whiteboard,” Hellquist writes. “At the end of the meeting that board had everything from the classes we shipped to completely wild ideas like ‘Barber,’ ‘Farmer,’ and ‘Combat Mortician.’ Of the many ideas on that board, one of them was ‘Psycho.’"

I’m just going to stop for a second and think about how much fun “combat mortician” might have been. OK, I’m back.

Krieg’s class skills follow the trend set by adorable hellion Gaige the Mechromancer with more complicated rules and a greater possibility for new play styles. Just as Gaige’s Anarchy skill tree created a potential for “insane” levels of damage at the expense of accuracy, Krieg’s skillset encourages the players to eschew personal safety and get hip-deep in a pile of roughed-up corpses.

Krieg specializes in melee weapons, so being up close and personal is really in his wheelhouse. His burned-down, gutted wheelhouse of death.

The Borderlands 2 Psycho Pack is now available, and you can check out Krieg's full skill trees right now. If you’re ready to get your hands dirty, he can be yours for $10.

I've never considered 'being on fire' to be a particularly useful skill, but after seeing the following video I'm coming around to the idea that the fire department might be part of some great conspiracy to stop us achieving our full, fiery potential. Borderlands 2's latest DLC character, Krieg the Psycho, certainly seems to benefit from setting himself alight - but then he does have a handy mask to keep one small part of his body safe from harm. He also has a knack for melee weapons, thwacking them and chucking them, making him most unlike the game's current crop of gun-obsessed weirdos. You can see Krieg in action below.



Ol' psychotic Krieg will be available to download for $10 on Tuesday 14th May, and as VG247 report, he doesn't come as part of the Season Pass. As revealed by a picture of a sleeping writer, the next (and final) piece of DLC proper will involve Tiny Tina, and will be out on June 25th.

Poor Anthony Burch. We're not sure if the next Borderlands 2 DLC was supposed to be announced today, but thanks to the lead writer's hilarious tweet of his pal passed out on a couch at the Gearbox workplace—with promotional material for something called "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" displayed prominently in the background—the studio's had to go and confirm that yes, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is indeed the next, and final, piece of DLC planned. It's out June 25.

The tweet's since been deleted, but eagle-eyed readers at StealthyBox made sure to screencap the photograph for posterity. Sorry, sleeping dude, but you've got nothin' on Tina.

If you thought that DLC name sounded rather fantasy-like for Borderlands 2's gritty world, you're right—it's actually Pandora's take on Dungeons and Dragons, as teased at back at PAX East. The original game's vault hunters play a game of B&B, retelling their adventure as part of Borderlands 2. With Tiny Tina as dungeonmaster, it's bound to be an amusing take on post-apocalyptic nerdery.

If you've already owner of a season pass, good for you—you'll receive this DLC on June 25. Everyone else can buy it for $10.

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.