2K Games and Gearbox Software finally made Borderlands 2 official last week, with an announcement that the game is coming sometime after April 1, 2012. While no real details were revealed the announcement promised info to come soon, both from Gamescom later this month and from the September issue of Game Informer.

Why wait another moment to hear anything about the highly anticipated sequel when the first details from the GI feature are online right now? The game will keep with its predecessors four-player cooperative gameplay, though youll have a new cast of four to play as, Gematsu reports. The character seen on the GI cover is one of the protagonists, Salvador the Gunzerker, whose special ability allows him to dual-wield any weapon. The previous games playable characters will return as NPCs.

The flow of the game has changed as well, with newly dynamic story missions having an impact on the way things turn out further down the road. If you take too long to complete a time-sensitive mission, for example, that failure will be reflected in the story, which will bend and twist accordingly in these situations.

The first games millions of guns wont return, with Gearbox instead bringing out a new millions-strong assortment. Firearms will also now be made to look more unique, with products from individual manufacturers being given a more immediately recognizable visual identity. There are other improvements as well, such a more active NPCs, a wider range of vehicles and a new resource Eridium which doubles as currency and a consumable stat-booster of some kind. Youll have to wait for the GI issue for the full rundown and sweet, delicious screenshots.

Borderlands 2 is the epic sequel to the ultimate four-player Role-Playing Shooter loot fest. Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story. Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora.

2K Games and Gearbox Software are taking this show on the road, and fans and media will be able to get their first look at the game at Gamescom 2011 from August 17 August 21, and at PAX Prime (Booth #3417) from August 26 August 28. Eager gamers can learn more about Borderlands 2 right now by picking up the latest issue of Game Informer Magazine, which has the worldwide exclusive cover story on the title. Readers will find many game details inside the issue, including the first reveal of one of the several new character classes being introduced in Borderlands 2.

The first bit of Borderlands 2 details have come out of the latest issue of Game Informer.

Co-op will stick to four players, the magazine hints. A new set of protagonists will star, with the four characters from the first game becoming non-playable characters. The bearded dwarf fellow (above) is Salvador, the Gunzerker. His special ability allows him to dual-wield any weapon. Youll take on dynamic story missions; for example, during a rescue mission, if you take too long and fail to arrive on time, the story will shape to your failure.
A new element, known as Eridium, has been added. While its not a weapon, it can be applied to other elements, such as guns or vehicle, to improve their stats. Its also used as a form of currency.

Enemies will take on a much more varied form. AIs been greatly improved. Bandits can access their own type of weaponry. Enemies, in general, are more responsive and interact better with each other. Non-playable characters are also improved; theyll be up and about, moving around, offering players interactive dialogue.

Weapons from the first Borderlands will not appear in Borderlands 2. Gearbox is scrapping the weapons from the first game in favor of all-new weapons. Each gun manufacturer in-game will have their own themes unique styling, colors, and personality, that is. Weapons will have custom decals and enhancements, as well. Some pickups will have temporary buffs. such as the cores in the original games General Knoxx expansion. The magazine makes no mention of gun crafting.

Vehicles are back, and with variety. One vehicle shown in the magazine is called the Bandit Technical. Another vehicle was shown with four seats.

The skill tree in Borderlands 2 will be similar to that in the first game. It uses a traditional 3-branch system.

If it wasnt expected, Claptrap is back in some shape or form. On that note, the game is promised to be of epic scale.

One of the new characters is a bearded dwarf named "Salvador," a "Gunzerker" who can dual-wield any two weapons. Salvador seems to fulfill a similar role as Borderlands' Brick the Berserker and at least two of his abilities have been shared: one increases the fire rate of any gun the longer its trigger is held, while the second boosts accuracy when dual-wielding same class weapons or doubles damage when using different class weapons.

Borderlands 2 will address some of the primary complaints about its predecessor by revamping the bad guys. Your foes should prove more challenging to dispatch as they'll be more diverse, responsive, intelligent and coordinated. Some of that intellect will rub off on non-combative NPCs as well, as they'll move around more, perhaps on some form of daily schedule as you find in Bethesda's RPGs -- that last bit is our speculation though.

There won't be any new elemental effects (i.e. fire-enhanced weapons that set enemies ablaze), but there's talk of a new elemental item called "eridium" that will be used as a form of currency or to improve guns and vehicles. Gearbox is reportedly building a new weapon loadout, but there's no word of a crafting system. Customizations will be limited to the eridium-based enhancements, class mods and artifacts you're already familiar with.

However, in-game weapon manufacturers will have new unique themes including various special enhancements, styles, decals and colors. Because of that variety, it's said that no two manufacturers will have the same looking weapons, unlike the original, which greatly rehashed weapon skins. Vehicles will also be improved and Gearbox is reportedly striving to make some if not all of them four-seaters to accommodate co-op parties.

Other random details: characters will again have three skill trees except they'll have more defined abilities instead of simple stat boosts, claptrap (the chatty automaton) will return in some capacity, and story missions will no longer be static (i.e. failing to meet a quest's guidelines may change your story). We haven't read the full 11-page thread on Gearbox's forum, so you might want to skim through for nuggets we've missed.

Each manufacturer will have their own visual styling/theme. The purpose of this is to be able to easily identify a weapons manufacturer and quality by simple looking at it. No manufacturers will have the same looking gun

Gearbox wants to make 4 seating standard on each vehicle

Class mods and Artifacts will be returning

BL2s skill tree will maintain the 3 Branch system and have more defined abilities rather than simple stat boosts. It is unknown how many skills will occupy each branch.

2 Gunzerker Skills were mentioned. One, increases the fire rate of any weapon the longer the trigger is held down. A second, while Dual-wielding, increases accuracy with same class weapons, or doubles damage for different class weapons.

Co-op will stick to four players.

Different vehicle varieties, one of these being called a Bandit Technical.

Eridium can be used to enhance weapons or are the only Currency to purchase the most powerful weapons in the world.

Bearded dwarf guy is Salvador, the Gunzerker. Special ability is dual-wielding, any weapon can be duel-wielded.

The original vault hunters will be support NPCs.

Bandits now have their own weapon brands.

Weapons can have custom decals and enhancements chosen by the player.

Enemies are more responsive, and actually interact with each other much better than previously.

The player will also have interactive dialogues, similar to those you find in Left 4 Dead.

Each Manufacturer will have their own visual styling and theme, this purpose is to simply be able to easily identify weapon manufacturers adn quality by simply looking at it, similar to how we do in real life. No manufacturer will have the same looking gun.

NPCs will be fully animated and move aorund their locations, interacting with not only each other but objects within their locations.

BL2s skill tree will maintain the 3 Branch system and have more defined abilities rather than simple stat boosts. It is unknown how many skills will occupy each ranch.

Despite being over a year away, the Borderlands 2 hype train is in full effect. Game Informer is going to have a full month of coverage on the upcoming title, starting with these two videos.

The first video is a bit more high level and talks more about Borderlands 1 and lessons learned, while the second video is a one on one with Gearbox head honcho Randy Pitchford talking Borderlands 2. The biggest takeaway from it is that Borderlands 2 will be improved across the board. "Everything in Borderlands 2 has has been iterative, and has polish," says Pitchford, "everything has gotten a little bit of attention to a lot of attention."

While that's all well and good, one of the biggest complaints folks had with the first game was the story, or lack there of. While Pitchford defends the story, he does admit that it lacked in a few places. "The ending did not pay off the promise, " says Pitchford, relating that what was actually in the vault at the end of the game was not what people expected. He felt that the General Knoxx DLC found itself closer to the original vision, and that's something that should carry into Borderlands 2. The game will be filled with "more meaningful activities related to the story. Everything will be really connected to the universe and sequence of events."

A few other tidbits dropped were the name of the new villain, Handsome Jack. The fact that the weapons will have a more distinct look and feel to them and a bit more about the new berserker that was revealed recently. He'll be able to dual wield can be any two combination of weapons, but the melee has returned as well.

So what about the game's co-op?

Pitchford stated the a lot of time has been focused on tweaking Borderlands 2 for co-op gamers. Split-Screen gets the biggest upgrade with not only improved menus designed for split-screen play, but the highly requested split screen plus online mode. Right now you can play with at least three players in this mode (2 Split + 1 Online) but Gearbox is unsure if they can get the full four players to work in split screen + online.

Finally Gearbox is hoping to get Cloud based saves working in Borderlands 2, so players can access their characters from any system for easier pick up and play co-op.

The video they're talking about can be found [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Borderlands 2 is opening the option to let players customize their favorite guns with decals and enhancements to increase weapon power. Players have to save up a new type of currency called Eridium in order to purchase upgrades and getting ahold of Pandora's best guns.

Just to make things a little easier for everyone, weapon manufacturers will each have their own distinctive gun designs in Borderlands 2. This means you'll be able to better identify guns from a certain maker just by looking at the weapon. Also, bandits now have their own brand of weapons.

Another change coming to Borderlands 2 is having four new playable characters to choose from, one of which was revealed when the game was first announced. The burly-looking dwarf seen on the Game Informer cover is named Salvador, a Gunzerker who has the unique ability to dual-wield guns. One other ability Gunzerkers can learn is increasing the firing rate of their guns over time by continuously holding down the trigger. Class mods, artifacts, and skill trees are also making a return.

Co-op is still locked to four players in Borderlands 2. Moving around the landscape as a team should be easier thanks to new vehicle types and every ride having four seats to accommodate every member.

As for the four Vault Hunters from the first Borderlands, they're still around though only as support NPCs. NPCs in Borderlands 2 will be move lively now since they interact with the environment instead of just standing around in one place.

Update: If you're wondering about when Borderlands 2 takes place, it's set five years after the events in Borderlands. Some jerk by the name of Handsome Jack has not only taken over the Hyperion corporation and declares himself dictator of Pandora, Jack has the gall to claim he was responsible for opening the Vault and eliminating The Destroyer. Jack has also blotted out much of the light on the planet by having a giant orbiting H-shaped base set in front of Pandora's stationary moon. The new team in Borderlands 2 is tasked with killing Jack and returning peace to Pandora.

While the original Vault Hunters are still present, you won't find them hanging out together. They've gone their separate ways to their own part of the planet and still have a bounty on their heads. Finding one of the Vault Hunters is one of your first missions and you'll learn the backstories of each Hunter throughout the course of the game.

Enemies are not just tougher this time, they're also smarter and more dangerous. For starters, partner foes will communicate with each other to change their tactic. You'll also have to deal with elemental Skags who are capable of buffing nearby Skags. Definitely make it a priority to land a headshot or at least quickly land some critical hits when you find this breed of Skag.

There's a chance that players might pick up one of Borderland 2's more unusual guns. For example, Tediore created a gun that's capable of exploding when thrown (more bullets in the magazine increase explosion radius). The gun will then respawn in the player's hands with a new magazine.

Finally, Claptraps are making a return in Borderlands 2. Interestingly, they're putting the blame on Hyperion for what transpired in "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution" and will deal with Hyperion in their own way.

Each manufacturer will have their own visual styling/theme. The purpose of this is to be able to easily identify a weapon's manufacturer and quality by simple looking at it. No manufacturers will have the same looking gun

NPC's will be fully animated and move around their locations, interacting with objects within their locations

Gearbox wants to make 4 seating standard on each vehicle

Class mods and Artifacts will be returning

BL2's skill tree will maintain the 3 Branch system and have more defined abilities rather than simple stat boosts. It is unknown how many skills will occupy each branch.

2 Gunzerker Skills were mentioned. One, increases the fire rate of any weapon the longer the trigger is held down. A second, while Dual-wielding, increases accuracy with same class weapons, or doubles damage for different class weapons.

Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the events of the first game where our four heroic Vault Hunters defeated the evil Atlas Corporation and shot the crap out of the alien badass. But for all their effort, they were left with nothing and these past five years have seen them split up and scattered across Pandora, simply trying to earn a living. But a new character called Handsome Jack has emerged, and hes claimed the credit for our heros deeds and used the spoils to buy Hyperion, the massive weapon manufacturer. With that hes taken over Pandora and promised to rid the planet of its seedy underbelly, which just so happens to include all the civilians and the four Vault Hunters. Hes a regular, evil dictator. He also happens to have a loving of blood sport and owns his own arena, and its there that the player will pick up his or her controller and get cracking. Youll be forced to fight through the arena to earn the top prize; a pile of loot. But, in true evil fashion, once you get there Handsome Jack denies you whats yours and leaves you for dead on an icy Tundra. Its here that youre contact by the mysterious Guardian Angel from the first game and told its up to you to take Jack down and save Pandora. To do this youre going to have to track down the original vault hunters and get some help.

Because of this, Gearbox is promising a richer back story for the original vault hunters and more personality now that theyre not playable characters. In the first game the only real personality they had was the way they dressed and the one liners they delivered in combat, but in many respects this allowed many players to form a connection with their avatar, because they could slot their own personality into the shell of whoever you were playing as. But this time its up to new characters to take over that role and let out original Vault Hunters show their true colors.

Only one of the new playable characters has been revealed; Salvador, a Gunzerker, is an inane Dwarf whose special skill lets him dual wield ANY weapon for a short period of time. This includes rocket launchers and mini-guns. This ties into the tweaked skill system which returns from the original game. The triple branched system returns, but skills are now promised to be more defined, instead of simply offering stat boosts. One such skills, for Salvador, allows him to increase a guns fire rate the longer a trigger is held. This is great for guns with a slow fire-rate, but it also ties in with his dual-wielding ability, creating an absolutely devastating combination. Gearbox are working hard to ensure that skills such as this will be cross compatible and will offer a wider variety of class builds.

But taking down Handsome Jack wont be easy, despite your dual-wielding skills; that rich bastard has certainly set himself up as the all-powerful ruler of Pandora, even going so far as to create a huge base on Pandoras moon which features a massive Hyperion H that blots out your view of the moon itself. Its not just for show though; the games robotic enemies can be delivered from this orbiting eye-sore directly to the battlefield along with supplies.

These enemies are also going to be providing much more of a challenge thanks to some radically improved AI over the first game. Enemies are now more capable of using the environment to their advantage, climbing up on to metal containers and finding vantage points from which to give you seven kinds of hell. Of course, if youre feeling a bit brutal yourself you can now shoot out their legs and leave them to crawl around the battlefield screaming for help. Theyll also work together now, as proven by a new type of robotic droid that floats above the battlefield deploying bullet reflecting shields and repairing enemy robots.

But the best example of increased enemy intelligence and interaction comes from those pesky Skags. Imagine a group of Skag Pups from the first game; not much of a threat, right? Now imagine them with a Badass Adult Fire Skag. A little more of a problem. But now, in Borderlands 2, that Badass Fire Skag can let out of a stream of fire, engulfing the pups which will then be covered in flame, granting them increase offensive and defensive abilities, as well as resistance to fire damage. Its a temporary buff, but the Badass Fire Skag has been hanging around the battles outskirts, and once the flames down it calls the pups back and re-ignites them.

This improved AI doesnt just apply to enemies, though. All NPCs will now interact more with their environments, move around and generally behave more like real people. Marcus, the shady gun dealer from the first game, will now move around inside and outside of his shop, playing darts to pass the time or commenting on your actions. Brand new mo-cap technology will also ensure that the clunky and stiff animations from the first game are a thing of the past; NPCs and enemies alike will now move like real people, with enemies reacting more naturally to gun fire.

If improved AI and interactions werent enough, you can also expect a bigger and wierder variety of enemies to be vying for your blood. One of the most interesting examples was a new type of Bandit called a Nomad Torturer who carries a shield that covers his entire front. Chained to the shield is a midget who soaks up damage, but shoot the chains to free the midget and itll turn on its torturer, thereby giving you a chance to flank him and gun him down. Another new enemy is the Bullygong; a giant enemy which can climb around the environment with easy, leal huge distances and throw any object it finds at your face.

Youll encounter all these new and terrifying enemies during the games more dynamic missions. Gearbox listened to the fans who complained about rigid and repetitive missions from the first game, and theyve responded by crafted a more dynamic and varied system. The example given to Game Informer was during a mission where the player had to fight through enemies to get to Roland who was being held in a floating prison. Should the player take too long to get to Roland, the cage will get away. Youll then have to deal with the consequences of your failure in later missions. Another example was during a mission where the player has to transport a beacon; the beacons signal attracts a certain type of creature, and should you happen to let one of these irritating buggers eat the beacon youll have to track it down and kill it to get it back. Theres some heavy improvements going on under the hood to make sure that Borderlands 2s missions are more robust and enjoyable for the player.

A brand new element is also being introduced alongside the games returning fire, acid, shock and explosive elements. Its called Eridium, but instead of dealing damage it serves to augment the other elements powers. However, it also serves as a super-currency of sorts on Pandora, and Gearbox has hinted that the games most powerful weapons can only be bought with Eridium. The new element is also the main ingredient in power-ups, a mid-battle item that can be activated for an immediate and powerful buff. Enemies will also have access to this new item, but a precise and keen-eyed player will be able to shoot them out of an enemys hand before he/she/it has a chance to use it.

Vehicles will be making a return to Borderlands, but will also feature some hefty improvements. These new wheeled wonders will be able to power slide around the landscape and will feature more precise hit detection. Gearbox has also emphasised that vehicles will have four seats so that none of your four-player co-op party (yes, its returning) will get left behind in the looting madness. Heres hoping for some sweet vehicle levels.

Class Mods and Artifacts will also be making a return, and like the rest of the game theyre going to have had a bit of a face-lift. Class Mods remain relatively similar to their Borderlands counterparts, but will now offer a wider variety of class tweaks, meaning plenty more customisation choices for the player. Artifacts have gone from being simple things to an all encompassing items that offer a massive variety of abilities. Gearbox have stated that theyre being used to implement abilities and powers that wouldnt fit into other systems. Theres nothing set yet, but examples of possible abilities included giving vehicles a health regeneration aura, or making it so firing a bullet had a chance of not depleting any ammo. Im keeping my fingers crossed for one that gives you a cape and lets you fly.

But Im saving best for last; the patented and hugely successful random generation system from Borderlands that gave us million of weapon variants has been thrown out the window, along with all the old weapons, and completely redesigned. The basic premise of random generation is still there, but Gearbox has responded to fans criticisms that, despite millions of stat variants, the different manufacturers weapons all tended to look the same and feel the same. Many players also failed to realise that different manufactures had different stat characteristics; such as Jakobs offering the most power and Hyperion offering the best accuracy and weapon stability. Now, each company will feel and look radically different. Each manufacturer will have a distinctive visual style, allowing for immediate identification of a weapons make and its characteristics. For example, Vladof assault rifles, SMGs and rocket launchers,, because the company has the highest rate of fire, will feature spinning barrels. A Vladof assault rife will also feature a AK-47 styled build, in comparison to something like a Dahl which will have a military style look.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that these manufacturer characteristics can also play an even bigger part on the battlefield through some rather odd ideas. Tediore guns, instead of being reloaded like a normal weapon, are like the disposable razors of the Borderlands world; when you need to reload you simply throw the weapon away where it will then explode (the more ammo left in the gun, the bigger the explosion). A small, hand-held digi-struct (used in the first game to spawn vehicles) will then create a brand new copy of the gun in your hands, fully loaded and ready to fire. Its an utterly bonkers idea, but one that shows both Gearboxs inventiveness and humour are still intact.

A new material system will also be implemented into Borderlands 2, not only to make guns look even better, but also to allow players to identify their quality at a glance. The new system will allow for reflective patterns, improved textures and transparency on guns. The example used by Gearbox was a wooden Jakobs rife, which was scuffed and had a worn look, compared to a shiny, gold-plated rifle.

A brand new manfacturer is also going to be joining the ranks. The new Bandit brand of guns are unique to the Bandit enemies in the game, and will feature the larget magazines of any company.

Finally, theres going to be wider variety of unique weapons in the game, and these can also come with some rather interesting features like custom decals and accessories. Again, Gearbox gave a rather interesting example; lets say you kill Nine-Toes from the first game and pick up his gun. Now, that gun might have his missing digit strapped to it as a keepsake.

And to top it all off, everyones favorite robot will be returning. Despite the vault hunters thrashing his butt during his Robolution, his view on things is a little different; he doesnt blame the vault hunters for what happened. No, he blames those evil bastards at Hyperion. Therefore, youre not the only one thats going to fighting Hyperion; Claptrap will fighting them as well, and youre going to meet him quite a few times on your journey.

The upcoming shooter to be showcased at Gamescon next week is doing a series of features with Game Informer and the latest details are all about weapons. An enormous part of the first person shooter is collecting, equipping, and ultimately swapping out various weapons and mods. There were a variety of brands in Borderlands and in the sequel, they return with distinct personalities.
.
First up is the iconic Dahl. Some of the first weapons you encountered in the game, the Dahl line will feel more like modern military shooters with their realistic designs. You would see something like these in Battlefield or Call of Duty games.
.
Next up is Bandit, yeah, you know those annoying enemies that turn up everywhere in the game? They have their own weapons line that are straight from MacGuyver featuring glass bottles for scopes on sniper rifles and metal screws for iron sights. Even though they aren't super high tech, they have the largest magazines around.
.
You can be a Russian styled fighter with the Vladof series of guns. If you have ever played an FPS you fired an AK-47 which is the inspiration for many of these weapons. And because Gearbox is awesome, they have minigun barrel attachments for all the gun in this line. Plus they have the highest fire rate of all the weapons on Pandora.
.
The Tediore weapons are highly disposable and destructible. Once you finish a round of ammo from this line of rifles, you can throw the weapon like a grenade! The more ammunition you have left in the clip when you chuck it, the bigger the explosion. You can then reconstruct the weapon with your Digistruct module, sweeeet.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE STORY

- Its been five years since the original events of Borderlands.
- A new megalomaniac leader has emerged from the rubble of the chaos that ensued when Lilith, Mordecai, Roland and Brick wrecked havoc across Pandora: Handsome Jack. Jack runs the Hyperion corporation and their industrial revolution has left a wasteland in its wake across the surface of Pandora.
- Handsome Jack has colonized the moon, you can even see a giant H (for Hyperion) emblazoned across its surface. That asshole. Jacks moon base will rain down enemies and supply crates from orbit directly onto Pandora, creating dynamic combat situations for players.
- The mysterious Guardian Angel is back, this time tasking players with taking out Handsome Jack and saving Pandora.
- Pandora is once again threatened by a wide array of enemies, both human and alien in origin.
- The four original protagonists are still in the game, although as NPCs, not playable characters. In fact, one of your first tasks will be to track down the original cast.
- There will be a huge focus on both story and character backgrounds/development. Design Director Paul Hellquist feels the story was a little lackluster last time around.
- The original four vault-hunters will have their own back-stories fleshed out a little better, and they will share their experiences with the vault and where the last five years have led them.
- Claptrap, for better of for worse (better, it is for the better!) is missing from the fray altogether.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE CLASS(ES)

- The Gunzerker is one of the four new classes: a stout, bearded, dual-weilding drwarf, Salvador. Can he dual-weild any two weapons? Yes. Even two massive rocket launchers? Oh yes!
- The new classes have all-new skill-trees. They will remain three-pronged, however.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE MISSIONS


- The mission-dispenser NPCs are gone. Instead we will now see fully animated, interactive and fleshed out NPCs, both in quest givers and world inhabitants. You can still breeze through mission text and rush through the campaign if you like.
- You can fail missions, and not have to reload, though that will not be without consequence. In one of the showcased missions, you are asked to rescue Roland, the original soldier from the first game. Failing said mission will have consequences in later missions, in addition to upping the difficulty in the current mission itself.
- One mission asks you to activate a beacon at the base of the dam. On the way you get ambushed by a thresher, a land worm who swallows the beacons and runs off. You then have to chase it down, as the mission objective shifts, and even after a climactic battle with the beast, the mission isnt over. You have to take the beacon to a bandit-infested town, and defend it as you deploy it. All of this is a single mission in the game.
- Design Director Paul Hellquist says each mission is three times the size and scope of the cookie-cutter missions of the first game.
- The original Borderlands featured too many kill ten rats, fetch five PDAs type quests. Question structure and objectives are much more dynamic and varying.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE ENEMIES

- Enemies now communicate with one another.
- Enemy AI is significantly improved. They will now strafe, duck, traverse the environments better and even climb obstacles.
- The Bloodshot Bandits are back. These gun-worshiping nutjobs are the source of a lot of misery on Pandora.
- One new form of enemy is called a W4R-D3N, a mechanical monstrosity.
- Another enemy looks like a cross between a Skag and a Pterodactyl. So the wildlife will also expand in Pandora.
- There will be a Tremors-esque land worm.
- The Surveyor is another enemy, a support unit that heals enemies in the heat of battle, and when cornered, puts up a shield that reflects incoming damage. They respond dynamically as enemies call out for help, none of the sequences are scripted.
- A new combat system lights up an icon atop wounded enemies calling for help, so you can make informed choices about what to target next.
- One of the screens depict a massive snowy behemoth, the Arctic Bullymong. A cross between a gorilla and crab, the beast is nearly four times the size of Salvador, the only playing character/class revealed so far. It can use environmental objects and hurl them at the player.
- The Skags are back as well, but they are much more vicious and coordinated. In one sequence, the player is fighting off Pup Skags when a Badass Fire Skag erupts onto the battlefield. Sounds pretty standard from the first game. But then everything changes when the Badass Fire Skag lights the ground in a breath of flame, igniting the Skag Pups and giving them significantly enhanced attack and defense capabilities, thus creating new, interesting combat dynamics.
- The Nomad are another bandit tribe, except rotund, armored with shields and much more menacing. One type, called the Torturer, has a midget strapped to its front as a meat-shield to soak up damage. You can either kill them both, or shoot the chains that holds the midget in place. The midget may then turn on the torturer, allowing you precious moments to flank and take out the preoccupied Nomad.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE LEWTS

- Combat possibilities continue to multiply with new gameplay elements in addition to skills, weapon characteristics, class mods, and a new element, Eridium, which also doubles as the games currency.
- Eridium can be used to enhance existing guns beyond their initial attributes and abilities.
- Eridium is also used in a variety of power-ups, such as temporarily increased health, defense and damage.
- You can shoot an enemy who has a power-up equipped, and pick it up to use yourself after dispatching him.
- Artifacts will no longer be just elemental damage-based. They will work in a wide variety of ways, such as giving you a chance that your shots will not cost ammo, a healing aura around the player, or increased afterburner in vehicles etc.

BORDERLANDS 2: THE GUNS

- None of the guns from the original Borderlands will return. But dont despair, instead, there will be millions of new guns for you to drool over!
- The first game featured a number of gun-manufacturing companies. What most players dont know, is that weapons from different manufacturers featured company-specific enhancements. For example, Hyperion weapons offer reduced recoil and as such better accuracy. Vladof featured the highest rate of fire, and so on. This will continue in Borderlands 2, however, the visual design will also represent the different manufacturers. The gun will visibly look more Atlas or more Torque, depending on its origin. Vladoff rifles will look like AK-47s from the cold war. Dahl rifles look sleek and modern, as if plucked directly from Battlefield or Modern Warfare.
- Some manufacturers will feature truly twisted gameplay opportunities. Tediore guns can be fired till the magazine runs out. The empty gun is then tossed onto the battlefield like a grenade, and much like a grenade, it explodes. A hand-held digistruct (the same device used to construct vehicles at vehicle stations in the first game) then creates a new copy of the gun in your hand with the next magazine loaded. Crazy!
- The guns will look much better, with improved texture, reflections and materials.
- The number of unique guns in the world has been ramped up quite significantly, and they will feature custom enhancements. In the example given, a gun dropped by nine-toes will have his tenth toe taped to the gun as an ornament!

BORDERLANDS 2: THE VEHICLES

- The Bandit Technical is a new vehicle in the game.
- Vehicles will feature much more detail, better textures and personality.
- Some vehicles can powerslide and all offer better collision detection.
- Vehicles will seat four players to support a full four-player co-op.

BORDERLANDS 2: MISC

- Gearboxs recently built fully-equipped motion-capture studio really livens up the game with incredible animations. Borderlands 2 is captured by 24 independent T-100 cameras at 16-megapixels, providing smooth, life-like animations for in-game characters.
- The world areas are larger, more vivid and more detailed; the playable areas are much larger than the original world.

- The beginning of the game starts off with you being a participant in a gladiatorial arena, controlled by Hansome Jack, the extremely rich and oppressive main antagonist of the game who bought the Hyperion Corporation. Of all things, he has a moon base that shoots enemies and supplies down from it via satellite. The moon will be visible throughout the entire game, with a "H" marked on it.




- Your first main mission will be to find the original cast.




- NPC's will be fully functional, unlike the last game. Meaning they move around and interact with their locations, and respond to your actions.




- There will be an actual story in this game, but not enough to hold down people who just want to do missions. "The story missions in B2 are about three times the scope of a single story mission in the first game, and they twist and turn throughout; your gameplay is changing, your goals are changing... it will be a much more dynamic experience compared to last time." - Paul Hellquist, game design director.



- New take on the Berserker class, the Gunzerker class: Salvador, a stout bearded man. One of his abilities is a timed raged mode which allows him to shoot two weapons independently. Accuracy will be decreased due to not being able to use iron sights. You will be able to dual wield all different sized weapons, including rocket launchers and miniguns. "We're just going to let it be overpowered, because we want people to have a great time." -Jeramy Cooke, art director.




- The Bandit brand assault rifle features the largest magazine capacity of any manufacturer. The Torgue assault rifle shoots mini-rockets called gyrojets.



- The game will feature new animation thanks to their state-of-the-art motion captured studio Gearbox just built. All mo-cap is captured by 24 T-100 cameras recording at 16 megapixels. Everything will be smoother, more responsive, and more lifelike.




- AI improvements: Enemies can now dodge fire and transverse more complex environments.




- Surveyor type enemy: This droid floats around similar to the Lance probes in General Knoxx. When alone it deploys an energy shield that reflects incoming fire back at the player. If other robots are with it, it repairs injured allies with it's energy beam. It cannot deploy a shield while it heals another robot. The repair action will not be scripted. Injured enemies will call in for repairs, denoted by an icon over its head. This will give the players clues on what enemy to target. The Arctic Bullymong: A four armed ape-like creature capable of leaping great distances and throwing heavy objects at the player(s). WAR loaders: Quick and lean mech-like robots capable of firing barrages of missles. EXP loader: Self-destructing automaton that runs towards the players. Skags: Amongst the normal skags, the fire skag shoots fire across the battlefield which powers up the normal ones, giving them offensive and defensive benefits. Skags will communicate to one another. Fire skags will call to other skags, which causes them to run up to be lite on fire. Nomad Bandit: Slow and round (fat), they carry metallic shields that protect their entire body. A variant called the Nomad Torturer has a midget chained to the front of his shield to soak up damage. The developers are still deciding on how to make the midget behave (ie defense and offense). LOL.




- New vehicle: The Bandit Technical. Will have higher resolution models and textures, the ability to powerslide, and better collision detection. Four seats will be standard in each vehicle.




- "The class skill trees will maintain the first game's three-branch structure, but feature more defined abilities as opposed to simple stat boosts." One of Salvador's skills makes his weapons fire increasingly faster as you hold down the trigger. This coupled with dual wielding will be devastating. Class mods and artifacts are making a return. They will be aimed at tweaking subclasses by allowing players to activate more skills in their skill trees. There will be much more variety of artifacts. "Possible artifact ideas include a percentage chance that shots don't cost ammo, increased afterburner length in vehicles, and an aura of healing around the player." I think that last line was speculation from the previewer.




- Eridium: One new element is called Eridium, which doesn't add damage to a weapon, but augments another element. Dual wielding an Eridium weapon with another elemental weapon, increases damage. It also serves as a form a currency in Pandora. The most powerful weapons can only be purchased with Eridium. It's also a key ingredient in a variety of power-ups. These new power-ups provide buffs such as increased health, defense, and damage. These are used immediately on battlefield whenever the player wants. Enemies will carry these and use them as well. You can loot them of course.




- The return of Claptrap: After his failed uprising (Claptrap's New Robot Revolution DLC), his view on everything that happened is different from what really happened. He believes it's all Hyperion's fault. He will be dealing with Hyperion differently than you.

While the vault hunters of the first Borderlands may not have featured much in the way of narration, it definitely mattered which of them you picked. Each class came with a different play-style and skill tree, from the proficient sniper Mordecai to the heavy weaponry and brutal melee attacks of Brick. Borderlands 2 will place players in the shoes of four new characters, and Gearbox revealed one of them to us during our recent cover trip. Salvador belongs to the new Gunzerker class, and all signs point to him being a versatile and entertaining character selection. Read on to see what you can expect from this new addition to the franchise.

As you might surmise from the name, the Gunzerker differs from the Berserker in that he focuses his abilities more on shooting than melee attacks. Whereas Brick would toss the guns and go into a timed rage of brutal punches, Salvadors timed ability grants him an additional firearm. Once youre double-fisting two of Pandoras varied weapons, each will be fired independently with the left and right triggers. What inspired some of the original ideas behind him was The Punisher, says art director Jeramy Cooke. He was happy to dual-wield AKs and M16s and everything under the sun. He just had this whole grit his teeth and blast the crap out of everything vibe.

Any of the guns in Borderlands 2 can be dual-wielded during this time, meaning Salvador can simultaneously shoot a rocket launcher and a sniper rifle, an incendiary SMG and an electric pistol, or go all-out with two giant miniguns. Thanks to the new "amp" elemental, you can work some strategy into your weapon selection. Amp-based weapons coat enemies in a goo that intensifies elemental damage, so dual-wielding one along with a fire/electric/corrosive gun will cause it to be much more effective.

Like in the first game, each character will feature a unique skill tree that allows for more play-style customization. Salvadors tree splits into three paths - Wrath, Brawn, and Gun Lust. Wrath features stat bonuses and new abilities tied to his dual-wielding ability, Brawn is focused on physical toughness, and Gun Lust increases weapon stats and grants new abilities like Salvadors aggro turret. Here are some other bonuses on the skill tree that you can funnel your points into:

Divergent Likeness - If youre dual-wielding two weapons of the same type, youll deal bonus damage. Dual-wield weapons of differing types, and your accuracy goes up.

Notes from Paul Hellquist, Gearboxs game design director: This skill is great because it interacts so well with not only the action skill but also with your gear choices. Which pairing of weapons makes me the most effective when using this skill? Should I use low-accuracy, high-damage weapons of different types to get accuracy bonuses? Or should I double-fist some revolvers for max damage but low fire rate? This skill changes the way you think about what you are dual-wielding and which gear will work best together to maximize your power during your action skill.

Down, Not Out - In the first Borderlands, no action ability was able to be used when you were on the brink of death. If you have this bonus activated in Salvadors skill tree, however, he can dual-wield in his final moments.

Notes from Paul Hellquist: This skill breaks the rules of Borderlands. The general rule is no action skills while fighting for your life. This rule is to increase tension and limit a players power while fighting for their life. But in game design, the reason you make a rule is so you can occasionally break it. This skill breaks that rule and changes the way you think about your action skill. Your strategic options for when to use it are very different after purchasing this skill.

Overheat - No matter what gun youre using, its rate of fire will continue to increase as long as you hold down the trigger.

Notes from Paul Hellquist: This skill is awesome because it can result in the most ludicrous fire rates on your weapons. Your low fire rate high-damage weapons become god-like. Your high rate-of-fire weapons fire all of their rounds in the blink of an eye. Its just great fun.

From our early look at Salvador, he appears to be an absolute blast to play. Dual-wielding has been done before in tons of FPS titles, but the amount of weapons in Borderlands 2 should ensure a more strategic and varied experience.

Borderlands 2 furthers the distinct blending of First Person Shooter and Role Playing genres to create the true evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. Team up with up to three other players for four-player online goodness or go old-school with two-player split-screen couch sharing mayhem as you spend hours leveling up your character and equipping them with one of the millions of badass weapons. Borderlands 2 features a new visually stunning array of procedurally generated guns, shields, grenades, artifacts, enemies and more. Choose one of the four new character classes to be taken through a carefully crafted and connected story to all new and surprising environments across the living planet of Pandora. Make new friends, arm them to the teeth and fight alongside them on your relentless quest for revenge and redemption.

Features:
Gunzerker Leads a Cast of All-New Characters and All-New Classes: Step into the role of the Gunzerker, whose highly deadly skills allow him to dual-wield any two weapons found in the game. Not only that, you will build on that skill to do more things with two guns than you ever imagined possible. Dual machine guns? Cool. Dual rocket launchers? Of course! Dual Sniper Rifles? Sure, if thats your thing! Want to try other styles? More tactical perhaps? There are multiple classes to choose from!

Dynamic Co-op online, split-screen and LAN: Share your adventures with friends both online and via LAN. Borderlands 2 features a seamless system enabling you to drop in and drop out of a campaign without ever having to restart the game. On top of that you can even take your new gear from any game to any other!

World Connected Story: You will find yourself left for dead in the frozen tundra of Pandora as you begin your quest of revenge and redemption. Expose the evil surrounding the Hyperion Corporation and take on the perpetrator of a universe-wide grand deception the nefarious Hyperion CEO, Handsome Jack. (Oh, also: hes stolen credit for the opening of the Vault.)

New Badass Gun System: An entirely new take on the groundbreaking procedural system means millions upon millions of possible weapons. The variety and style of guns in Borderlands 2 is staggering, and youll see tons of new and innovative ways to engage foes on Pandora. Fire, electricity, corrosive acid, and much more will all be at your disposal as you fight your way through the Hyperion Corporations forces!

87 BazillionEverything: In addition to the new gun system, you will lust after procedurally generated shields, grenades, Alien Artifacts, class mods and much, much more. And you thought the original Borderlands had a ton of loot!

Brand new environments on Pandora: Hunt through entirely brand new areas of Pandora that are more alive than ever! From the arctic tundra, through the dangerous grasslands, past the mysterious corrosive caverns to beyond, youll be surprised by the unpredictable world of Pandora at every turn!

Brand new enemies: A whole slew of new enemies are out there to kill you in Borderlands 2. Hulking, gorilla-like Bullymongs, vicious predatory Stalkers and the Hyperion mechanical army, run by Handsome Jack, are just some of the new enemies you will be facing off against on Pandora. New strategies will need to be created for every fight, as enemies now interact and aid each other to ensure you dont get far in the world of Pandora.

Borderlands 2 is a sequel that's already looking nail-on to top its predecessor.

Acknowledging that the first game - though brilliant - was chopped and repurposed in many departments, developer Gearbox has moved to rebuild for the sequel, introducing a deeper plot, more iconic and varied weapons, plus enemies and environments that feel more alive than before.

To discuss the studio's thoughts on the follow-up, we sat down with concept designer Scott Kester at GamesCom.


You said in the game presentation today that you feel GamesCom was fundamental to the success of the first Borderlands...


Yeah. It was the first time the game was ever announced and when we came back after we changed the art style it was sort of our second life. This was where we revealed that for the first time and yeah, this was the first time info ever went out on the game and it was received well. We really appreciated that. It was important for us to show this here as well.

Brothers in Arms aside, Gearbox has mostly made its name working on other company's IP (Aliens, Half-Life, Halo...). Does it feel good to finally have another successful franchise to call your own?

We're very fortunate with Borderlands and we're very happy that people accepted it. Maybe on paper it's a bit of a challenging pitch but people took to us and we're very happy that they did. It's very important to us as a company and it is ours. We're trying to care for our baby as much as possible, for sure. All of our games are important to us and all of the publishers we work for but yeah, we just feel really good about the position we're in with Borderlands 2.

Does Borderlands get any extra love then being "your baby"?

There's equal passion for all of our projects. Everywhere in the company I see people working 110% - we're definitely working the same on every project. We put our all in everything we do and this is no exception. It's special in being a sequel to one of our biggest successes and we're doing everything we can to make the sequel that many times better.

Do you think you have an advantage with the sequel going in fresh, where as the first game started off as something very different and was perhaps chopped and changed?

Definitely. So far in to the development of the last game we chose to change the art style. That was when I came in as one of the guys who went, 'this doesn't feel right'. It was a very dangerous decision on our part and we thank 2K for seeing the promise in it. It's made it so much easier leading into this next game because we're not going, 'oh my gosh, are we changing the art style?!'


It's been a big help, even in creating environments where we know better ways to create things. We know the road map for the game we want to make - it's way better than we had it last time.

Is that why the environments in Borderlands 2 look a bit more varied than the original's dusty deserts?

Yeah. There are still desert environments in this game - we're not completely jumping ship. In game development, particularly when you take a risk like we did at that time, it meant something was going to take a hit and one of those things was perhaps the variety in the environments and even gear... all those design decisions were done relatively fast and having a little more time to digest what we did right and what we did wrong -plus listen to feedback from fans and critics - has been very beneficial.

We've learned a lot. We're very happy that people have accepted it and we're going to do that much more to keep giving them something that they're going to enjoy.

One of the core systems shown in your original 2007 pitch was the random weapon generator. How has that evolved for the sequel?

That's actually one of the things that was a really difficult decision as we came in to the second game. It took a long time to create that tech, the way all the different weapon bodies and components come together. I personally don't even understand how it works... it's just a really complex system and going in to this we thought that the manufacturers' identities were a little weak in the last game. You couldn't tell one gun from another.

We've kind of gutted the system. The mechanics of how it works are still relatively the same but we've re-concepted every weapon across the whole board. Our game is about the guns; we have so many more components and attachments. When you take that and the character that we're talking about right now - Salvador the gunzerker - you can have a crazy rocket launcher in one hand and a minigun in the other.


If you take all of those guns and figure out how many different combinations you could create... to us that was a really important thing because this is a gun game and we really want people to understand that, and just see that we've gone all in to do the best we can and give them as many options as our play style will allow. We're doing our best.

For the sequel did you look at what fans liked best about the original and expanding on that, or are you looking to do your own thing?

Both 2K and ourselves both believe in the promise of the project - that's never changed. The core values and the core design... we listen to feedback externally and internally. The publisher really is like, 'we trust you to do what you're doing' and we're doing the best we can to meet expectations on both sides.

Obviously there's some pressure. We want to deliver. We're very honest with ourselves - we didn't want to create just an annual sequel that changed the textures. Very few components from the last game are being reused. We have some staples for certain enemies that we put in for familiarity but it was really important for us to just do more of what we did better, with as many things as we can put in there to keep players interested.

What facets of the original do you feel didn't turn out so well?

We're our own worst critic - I'm never really happy. We know the story wasn't the most amazing thing but we also took the decision to say 'this is about the gameplay' and we didn't want to override that. That's something we're really working on in this, getting the story in to the missions and presenting reasons for what you're doing rather than just fest quests and following your HUD dot.


NPCs and interactions with them are much better. That's one other thing... we're putting a lot of effort in to that to make the world feel alive. I felt the world in the original was a little static and we're now trying to get as much movement in there as possible and creating a little more realised world. And when we're creating an enemy it's about the gameplay first, plus the AI's improved a lot. Some things are appropriately dumb (laughs) but we've really tried to look at that and I feel like we're doing a much better job.

In a genre that's dominated by Call of Duty a lot of developers are now trying to create shooters that are a bit different such as Brink, Bulletstorm etc, but yours is one of the few that's seen success. Why is that?

In regards to us I really do feel it was that we didn't want to go overly RPG and we didn't want to go overly shooter . There was always a constant struggle over how may stats we showed and we tried really hard to make that balance palatable to a player who plays a more standard shooter. We tried to cater to those guys. That was really important to us, it wasn't just like 'oh I saw this feature in another game, let's put it in'.

There was a lot of effort behind those decisions. I also feel the co-op nature of the game really kept people coming back. From the single-player experience to the multiplayer experience it was just something that we really felt... there was just something about getting together with your friends. If you're grinding, doing a quest or whatever there's just this constant conversation. I think that kept people coming back.

And we really tried to support the game when we thought about the DLC. We really wanted to try and do our best, to create quality DLC and show support to the people that bought the game. I would say the multiplayer at the time and the old idea of what we were trying to put together... some of the titles out there do what they do great but we wanted to carve out our own area.


How have you balanced role-playing and combat for the sequel? Did you discover fans enjoyed one side more than the other?

It's relatively unchanged as far as the balance of that goes. There are certain aspects of things where we're looking at the player that's maybe a little more adept or hardcore about 'this is my character, this is my attributes'. We put a lot of depth into the skill tree of this one. If you don't care that's totally fine, but for the RPG player there's a lot of things to fiddle with in this game.

For the person that just wants to shoot things it's very easily spelled out, but the more that you start to dig the gear and how the characters interact with eachother... there's a lot of depth there. It gives everybody a little something I feel.

Gearbox is working on a lot of games at the moment. What would you say to fans worried you might be spreading yourselves a bit thin?

It's something we hear sometimes. We're fully committed to all of our products. We're doing everything we can. Our company is larger than it's ever been and we're putting as much attention as humanly possible into the things that we're doing. Everything has the same quality bar.

To the fans of our other franchises, we're doing everything we can to make sure the quality's there and not playing favourites to one or another. There are priorities at times but it's constantly shifting. We very much believe in our games.

Borderlands 2 is on its way, and weve just learned that itll feature loading times just like its predecessor, but this time around the environments will be much more rich by design.
Gearbox Software Concept Artist, Scott Kester, has decided to speak publicly about Borderlands 2, and offered some new information that fans of the first title may find both exciting and disappointing. Among the details shared were that the environments will be greater in scale, but load times will remain. Scott stated:

Its not fully streaming, its load based. It works best for our style of games. But we have increased the draw distances, the spaces are a little larger, we can populate them more. Everything is a little dense this time around. So the world itself is larger than what was in the last game but there is a lot more options and variety in things.

Load times were one of the major complains for Borderlands, and they consistently halted the otherwise seamless experience. Now that theyre back once again, and the environments are even more vast, we can only hope that the loading times arent even more frequent.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The Bandit brand is a new weapons manufacturer being added to Borderlands 2. Gearbox has said that a big focus for the team this time around is to make each manufacturer look and feel unique, to the point that you'll know who made a gun just by looking at it. This shouldn't be hard with Bandit guns, as they are put together from the random scrap found throughout Pandora.

The concept art for this particular Bandit SMG also hints at the unique decals that Gearbox can apply to guns, giving them more individuality. Although it might be hard to tell with Bandit weapons, the look of a gun also conveys its general value, with less powerful guns looking dingy, and rarer weapons sporting a shiny polish.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
This image of a new Tediore gun doesn't tell us a whole lot about what's in store for the manufacturer, but luckily Gearbox did. Tediore guns are so inexpensive in Borderlands 2 that the players throw them away instead of reloading them (a handheld digistruct gadget will replace it with a new clone of the gun containing a fresh clip). As we revealed in our cover story, a discarded Tediore gun will blow up on the battlefield similar to a grenade, and the more ammo you leave in the gun, the bigger the explosion it will cause.

This already looked like a fun mechanic when Gearbox showed it to us in the demo, and it will serve as an interesting perk for players who use Tediore weapons. They also made me wonder if you can find Tediore weapons that regenerate ammo like in the first game, or a class mod that allows for regenerating ammo. Would this allow you to constantly spawn and throw out an endless supply of explosive Tediore guns? We don't know for sure, but in a more general conversation the Gearbox team told us they are willing to let imbalanced weapons exist in the game if it makes it more fun to play, so it's a possibility we wouldn't rule out.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here is a concept sketch of Pandora. I don't think it's an actual location in the new game, but rather it was created to give an idea of the variety the team is aiming to include this time around. Gearbox fully acknowledges the complaints players had about the world in the original game, primarily that it was one giant desert with little variation in color palette. The areas we saw, which included a snowy tundra and green fields, already exhibited a promising amount of variety. These new environments seem like a perfect fit for Borderlands' vibrant art style, which wasn't really able to pop with the brown color palette of the first game.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here's a fun tidbit: Salvador's character class wasn't even named yet when we went on the cover trip. Gearbox had referred to the new class by a number of names, including Merc and Berzerker, during the demo and interviews, before finally settling on the name Gunzerker. Despite the early uncertainty over the class name, Gearbox knew exactly what playing as the Gunzerker would entail, thanks to his dual-wielding ability.

Of the four characters in the original Borderlands, I never really got into Brick, because I didn't think that punching enemies would be that fun (though I'm sure Jeff Cork would disagree with me on that one). That said, Salvador will be a hard character to pass up, and I hope his dual-wielding ability is a sign that the other character classes will have awesome active abilities as well.

The Characters
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Handsome Jack is the new villain in Borderlands 2, and although we didn't get a glimpse of him in the game, the character art is revealing. It appears that Handsome Jack is wearing a mask of some kind, which has us intrigued to find out what's underneath it (our guess: it's not handsome).

Aside from his aesthetics, taking down Handsome Jack should provide a tangible goal throughout the game. In our recent video interview, Randy Pitchford stated that the Borderlands team learned a valuable lesson from the disappointing conclusion of the first game (i.e. players not getting any payoff for opening the vault), so hopefully besting your foe will be a more rewarding experience this time around.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The nomad is a new class of bandit in Borderlands 2. In the cover story, we briefly discussed a variant of the enemy called the nomad torturer, who has a psycho midget strapped to the front of his shield. Shooting the chains off of the shield will free the psycho, who will attack the nomad alongside you. It is an interesting gameplay twist that should come in handy when you're playing alone and need a distraction to allow you to flank the nomad.

Beyond that example, we also saw one of the normal nomads in the demo, and they are appropriately imposing. The nomads are slower than most bandits, and really sell a sense of girth as they stomp around the battlefield. The new mo-cap studio Gearbox built allows for much subtler animations, which were readily apparent with the new enemy class. The nomads who sport full body shields will be particularly difficult to take down, but I guess that's what grenades are for.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The robot enemies Gearbox revealed to us showcased some of the most impressive AI improvements we saw during the cover trip. Many of these enemies feature jetpacks, which allow them to fly onto ledges and crates in the environment -- a great improvement over the enemies of the first game, who couldn't interact with their surroundings in any significant way.

Gearbox showed us several types of Handsome Jack's mechanical henchmen, including a suicide bomber robot called the EXP loader (or "exploder"). These robots would try to ambush the player and detonate when they got close enough. The player is capable of shooting their limbs off -- another cool addition to Borderlands 2's engine -- but even without legs the enemy will still crawl towards the player, in a style evocative of the ending of the first Terminator. Gearbox has also improved the path-finding of enemies, so don't expect your foes to always run straight towards you -- EXP loaders snuck up on the player more than once during the demo.

Our cover story also outlined a robot enemy type capable of deflecting incoming fire back at the player and healing its mechanical allies. The best part is that these behaviors aren't pre-scripted, but decided upon in real-time by the AI as the enemies communicate with each other. Borderlands 2's zany world and tone give Gearbox a lot of freedom in dreaming up creative gameplay variations like these, and we can't wait to see what else the team has up its sleeve.

Want to know more about Borderlands 2? Next week we'll be inviting you to ask us questions for an upcoming special edition podcast on the game. In the meantime, check out the Borderlands 2 hub for more exclusive features.

With the original Borderlands, Gearbox presented one of the most seamless, accessible co-op experiences seen to date on consoles. It was great fun playing solo, but the addition of a friend (or three) really served to make it something special. It'll come as no surprise that cooperative play will be a large part of Borderlands 2 as well, so we talked to game design director Paul Hellquist and game designer Jonathan Hemingway about their thoughts on the past, present, and future of this breed of multiplayer.

Whats the first co-op experience you have memories of?

Jonathan: Contra. Contra is it. Me and my older brother. I dont think we ever got to the point where we could beat it without the 30 lives. We could totally take it down with 30.

Paul: First co-opI think it was Doom II. That was probably my first co-op.

So you werent a big NES or arcade gamer?

Paul: I did have an NES and I rented everything that our small-town video place had, but my brother didnt play them with me. Jeopardy was adversarial, I guess.

Jonathan: Contra is the one I could get my older brother to play with me. With my friends, sometimes wed play Bubble Bobble or something else.

Did you actually manage to beat Bubble Bobble?

Jonathan: I did! I never beat it two-player, no one would ever agree to Come on, lets play all 106 levels!. No Jon, noyoure insane.

Throughout the history of co-op play, what do you consider the primary milestones? What titles really pushed it forward?

Jonathan: It started out really simple, right? Contra technically had co-op, but there really wasnt much special other than were both on the screen at the same time shooting the same bad guys. Theres a lot to be said for an experience thats very simple like that. Today, World of Warcraft is an example of a big co-op game where a lot of their class design really solidifies what their co-op is. Oh, Im a tank. My job is to stand up front. Oh, Im a healer. Ill keep you alive. Im an AOE nuker, or Im a disabler, whatever. Thats a much more locked-in co-op experience. Very, very different from Contra, where youre just playing together. [In WoW] you have specific roles and you succeed or fail as a group.

Paul: Even though there had been first-person shooters on consoles prior to Halo, I think Halo was the one that sort of made it an actual genre. When they did co-op, it also brought that to the masses. I think Left 4 Dead was another big moment, because they had their adversarial stuff and that was great, but playing against the zombies with a group in something other than a class-based thing was another really strong moment. As the future looks back on us, I hope Borderlands will also be seen as one that really brought co-op to a lot of people who hadnt done it before.

Jonathan: For me, going back, Diablo was another one. I mean, Diablo is the root of Borderlands. I played a ton, ton of co-op on that one.

Paul: Yeah definitely, thats a good one. We played a crapload of that. We had all kinds of LAN parties for Diablo when I was in college. Now that you mention it, that was really one of the ones that I did the most of.

Until recently, co-op play on consoles has been limited to local multiplayer. Before that, you could go to an arcade and play X-Men with five strangers. Do you think something was lost in terms of co-op play with the death of arcades? Do you think online play now is bringing some of that feeling back?

Paul: I think the death of arcades is an interesting one. I think that might have been why it sort of vanished for a while. I do think online has empowered more people to be able to play together, especially as our world gets smaller and people move away but still want to keep in touch. Online stuff allows people to still do that, while you cant really do split-screen with your friend that lives in Los Angeles. Yeah, thats interesting. I hadnt really thought about that. Online is definitely bringing it back, and I think people have started to realize that gaming can be a time just to get together and enjoy being with your friends. I think theres a large segment of our market that doesnt have that antagonistic, in-your-face trash-talking. They just dont want that from their entertainment time. I think thats another thing that co-op is bringing, is hey, lets get together and play a game and not want to kill each other after weve been playing for a while! A more camaraderie-type of experience; I think thats a big part of it.

Jonathan: I remember playing tons of arcades and lots of co-op, and I loved it. I think theres something very civil about having someone in the room with you playing. Also, youre always on the same screen, so its really easy to have this shared experience. Youre looking at the same enemies, so when I say hes over there, my friend knows what over there is. Games sort of moved away from that and moved to first-person shooters, and originally there were some technical difficulties to bringing those co-op moments back. Once you go to first-person shooter, youre almost by definition on separate screens. At the very least, if youre even doing split-screen youre looking at two different things. It makes the indication a little more difficult. With co-op play over the internet, we have the anonymity over the internet and people arent quite as civil. As a culture, weve sort of had that experience. Weve sort of realized hmm...I dont like that. We want a more civilized co-op experience. I think games have kind of opened up to this and the culture is kind of opening up to this. Now people are playing online with extensive friends lists and they know who they want to play with and who they dont want to play with. You see games going on a larger scale of like if other people think youre a jerk, well rate you like this. If youre rated well, you get to play with the nice players. I think there are a lot of things that happened really within the last two or three years that are really creating this explosion of co-op gameplay. Were really trying to surf that wave with Borderlands.

Paul: Were at a moment in this generation where a lot of games havent really done a lot with co-op. People who were enjoying the co-op experiences that the few games that were doing it, they were looking for wheres another co-op game? I want a co-op game. Ok, lets go grab Borderlands and play that together. We were really able to take advantage of that. The other thing thats really allowed co-op gaming to explode is Microsoft putting a microphone in the box. They put a microphone in the box, and you didnt need to set it up, it just worked. That has allowed that communication barrier to get dropped.

Do you think the fact that Sony didnt include a microphone has hurt their overall online experience?

Jonathan: Absolutely. Absolutely. The thing that kills co-op gaming faster than anything else is not being able to communicate with my buddies. By definition, its supposed to be a shared experience. That means communication.

Paul: One of the most heard things when we watched people play Borderlands is Where are you?. How are you supposed to do that when you dont have a headset? You cant even find each other, you have to pull out the maps and all that kind of stuff. The microphone is a big part of it for sure.

Jonathan: Ill call out one more game that I think is doing a great thing in the area of co-op, and thats Portal 2. Its co-op puzzle solving, and they put in a lot of little tools to be able to say hey buddy, look at this!. You need a lot of timer things, and other tiny things that really bring forth this co-op experience that allows people to play together easily without frustration.

Even after Xbox Live and PSN brought widespread online play to consoles, it took a while for really seamless drop-in, drop-out co-op experiences to show up. What are some of the hurdles you have to overcome in developing that?

Paul: It was a huge, huge challenge. We knew it was a super-important feature for having co-op really work. When you have to sort of stop playing and go back to menus and search server lists and all that kind of stuff, we knew it would create such a huge barrier. People would try it once maybe, and if they werent successful in the first two minutes, theyd never try it ever again. We knew it was worth taking on that challenge. Its worth noting that there are some things we could be doing that weve sacrificed in order to ensure that feature works. We basically keep track of the entire world state for each character, so that when I join your game Im playing in your world, but youre not ****ing up my world other than getting to keep the stuff you find here. All these things that a lot of other developers have just gone eh, nevermind. We dont want to go there. Its really challenging and its super awesome that we tackled that and have been successful. Ive had some colleagues at other studios get in touch with me after Borderlands shipped and asked How the hell did you guys do this? Thats one of our competitive advantages, I think, is that weve been able to tackle this kind of thing. Especially in an RPG. How many co-op RPGs can you name? Thats another reason Borderlands has been so successful. We heard all kinds of stories like, I play shooters but my wife likes RPGs. We got Borderlands and weve now been playing for hundreds and hundreds of hours together. It scratches her itch for RPGs and I love the shooting part. Were one big happy family.

Jonathan: I dont want to speak to the technical stuff, as theres a ton of it. Everything you design, you have to keep co-op in mind. I think the reason we were successful is because we made a decision very early on in which we said this is a co-op game. That is the foundation, and then every time a question comes up, you always have to say okay, but what about co-op? Throughout the whole development process, we always spent time and attention making sure all those things worked. I think one of the difficulties is that a lot of games might not start from that foundation, and once youve built 30% of the game you cant think oh, you know what would be great? Co-op! That would actually mean undoing a lot of the work that you did. We were very lucky to make sure that we built that foundation from day one.

Paul: We never would have been able to do the drop-in, drop-out if we hadnt decided that the very first day. We couldnt get a couple months out and have someone say This game isnt gonna do anything unless we get co-op! Thats how you end up with a lot of the half-assed implementations. Im sure thats what happened with most developers. They didnt want to end up there, but they didnt plan on it. That has also been another big advantage that we have.

What do you think is the next logical step in the evolution of co-op?

Paul: Thats a good one. If I had the answer, I might not tell you.

Jonathan: Borderlands 2 is the next evolution in co-op! (laughs)

Paul: I think connectivity is still the biggest thing and its something that were continuing to look at with our own stuff. The easier and easier it is for people to connect, the more people are going to want to play together. We still had issues that we werent able to solve that were looking at this time around. Hopefully well solve them, but theyre tough. Theyre really tough. Lots of people dont go for the things like that. Were always sort of weighing whether the value of getting rid of one problem is worth the potential issue that the solution is gonna cause. Theres never a perfect solution to a lot of these hurdles. But yeah, I think connectivity is gonna be the next thing. Once its super easy for everyone to connect and find games and find people that are fun to play with, I think its gonna grow even more. I think for the most part, people want to enjoy their time with their friends. Get together with friends and enjoy that time, thats what co-op brings. Adversarial - especially online - is more about a bunch of theres a bunch of jerks out there, and Im gonna take them all out, because you rarely find a fun group to play with.

Jonathan: I dont know where the next big leap is. I think Paul touched on it earlier, but the microphone is probably the largest leap within the last decade for co-op play. I dont know when the next big leap is. I know theres going to be a lot of little iterations. I mentioned Portal 2...they did lots of little things that made that experience so much sweeter and richer. I think were going to see a lot of that. But a lot of that is going to come from developers who really understand what their game is, what experience they want to give. I fully expect that someone out there will come up with a co-op experience that is sieging a castle with 10,000 players all working together, and theyll make that work. Thatll be a really rich experience. Someone else will make a really rich two-player experience. Something about two guys really understanding and working well together, and making something amazing happening. Well see a lot of that.

Paul: Another thing that I think is important to mention is, one of the reasons Borderlands co-op works is because we never require it. Our game would fall apart completely if we required two players. As much as its designed to be a co-op game, it always has to work in single player as well. Well often have like yeah, we have this awesome idea for this co-op thing! But then were like yeah, but what happens when youre playing by yourself? Then we gotta solve that, too. A lot of our co-op comes from the interaction between the classes in that WoW kind of way. We have that helping each other up kind of thing, and were doing other things this time around to encourage and reward players more for succeeding in that interaction. I think thats another thing that we can push further as an industry. Getting avatars in the world to interact with each other in more intricate ways. Again, those are difficult challenges and somebodys gonna come up with an awesome design that will push that forward.

Borderlands 2 has only been a reality for a few weeks and its getting a lot of love. Borderlands 1 wont be forgotten as its about to get a patch that will help make its sequel all the better, and one new feature for itself.

On Friday, September 9, 2011, the patch goes live. Borderlands 1 will become Steamworks enabled, so save data can transferred and kept on the cloud. Borderlands 2 should have this feature at launch as well. Theres been no information on whether Borderlands 1 data will provide bonuses for the sequel, what with the gun and character systems being overhauled. But, just in case it does, youll want that data available.

As for the test tech, it will be an information tracker for in-game activity. Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software says it will be a Two-way street, not elaborating on just what that means. Pitchford did divulge what the main purpose of the tech is though. The Gearbox team hopes to track the in-game activity to see how players respond to the various features of the game. Theyll be able to see what guns people are using, what areas they travel to, and other data.

The patch for Borderlands 1 is merely to see if the tech works like they want it and get it ready for active use in BL2. Borderlands 1 probably wont receive any benefits from the tech. The system is meant to help work on Borderlands 2 post-launch, learning where fixes are needed or what to design DLC around (presumably).

Pitchford stated that the system will help them make better games. This could be a clue that they plan to include this activity tracking in other future Gearbox titles.

Currently, the patch is only scheduled to be patched into the PC version. There was no mention whether Borderlands 2 console version will have the same stat tracking or if the BL1 console editions will be patched for testing in the future as well. Borderlands 2 is currently scheduled for release in Summer 2012.

Kotaku - New Borderlands Patch Will Test Borderlands 2 Tech, Adds Steamworks

Gearbox's guided demo of Borderlands 2 at PAX this year provided onlookers with a wealth of new information about the game, ranging from weapon info and improvements to the Psychos' AI, and additions to fights in general.

The optimized demo of Borderlands 2 was running on the PC, on Nvidia hardware. The game's visual direction is similar to that of the original Borderlands, with aliased black outlines surrounding the characters and intro videos for significant NPCs. The UI is largely unchanged, with the addition of a new mini-map to aid with navigation.

A new character named Maya replaces Lilith as the game's Siren character. Like Lilith, she too has the ability to Phasewalk. The new Gunzerker class will not be able to zoom while dual wielding weapons. Players will still be able to equip four weapons, which will be paired this time around for dual wielding.

Some enemies can now pick up and interact with objects in the environment by hurling them at you. Psychos and other human enemies will not run blindly into gunfire, and will instead attempt to dodge and hide behind cover. They can also be tactically wounded. Kamikaze robots, new enemies in the game, will behave and act like zombiescrawling if their legs are blown off.

With regards to the weapons, every manufacturer will have distinct properties. Tediore weapons will allow you to throw guns and magazines as grenades. Torque guns will have exploding bullets, albeit with a slower rate of fire than others. Vladorf guns feature rotating barrels and a high rate of fire. A new manufacturer, called Bandit, will offer very large magazines for increased ammo capacity.

The details are subject to change as the game remains in development, but judging from how far along it is in development, we don't expect those changes to be terribly drastic from what we've already seen.

Borderlands was a game about shooting stuff. Sure, it gave us interesting weapons to shoot and varied targets to fire upon, but that was the long and short of it. Borderlands 2 is still about shooting, but there's much more to it than that. Its gorgeous world, creative set pieces, and ludicrous humor aim to flesh out the blueprint set out by its predecessor.

The demo begins with our character, the new Gunzerker class, on a wintry plain. The pale blue landscape obscured by howling winds and flakes of snow is more reminiscent of Okami's water coloured wonderland than Borderland's brown wasteland. "Imagine that, new colours," jokes Gearbox's Steve Gibson, running the demo. There's a story about trying to rescue your friend in this mission, but it's not important. The priority is on survival.

While the cold doesn't seem to have any tangible effect on you, danger quickly presents itself as abominable creatures called Bullymongs pop out of the icework. All arms, fur and claws, they hop around like overgrown frogs picking up anything they can get their hands on to throw at you, including stalactites, cars, people, and quite innocently, snowballs. Bear in mind that this is still early in the game before threats escalate from elementary school hijinks to astronomical assaults.

As we eliminate the Bullymongs we're introduced to some new guns. First off is the Tediores, which Gibson refers to as "the Walmart of gun manufacturers." They're disposable, so rather than emptying a clip and reloading, you throw them out and grab a new one. If their empty shell collides with an enemy it'll explode, stunning them for a moment.

Next up is a bandit assault rifle; a scrappy contraption of garish nuts and bolts strung together in a slapdash fashion. Its clumsy design shoots weak bullets, but their clips are enormous, so you can burn through rounds before running out of ammo.

After this ordeal is over we take a jeep-like vehicle for a spin. While I couldn't get my hands on the controller, Gibson promises they handle better than in Borderlands and no longer come to a complete stop every time you bump into an enemy.

To demonstrate this the demo rep drives over some smaller enemies as they fly over the hood and we cruise on without bothering to exchange our information. The other change to vehicles is that they now support four players, three of whom shoot while one player takes the wheel. Perhaps the most major change to navigation is the inclusion of a mini-map, a baffling omission from the original.

The UI has been improved in the menus as well. No longer will split-screen require you to go through the headache of scrolling across menus and inventory screens. It's not long before we find an outpost full of bandits. Unlike its predecessor, wounded enemies in Borderlands 2 react to their injuries with knockdowns, staggers, and stuns being commonplace. There's still a slight disconnect between them being shot and their muted jerky reactions, but the correlation between your bullets and their bodies is a step forward at least.

Their AI is more advanced, too. "They can now go anywhere you can," explains Gibson. They'll hop up roofs and give chase, so you can no longer use ladders as a cheap getaway. Different enemies will have unique capabilities like healing, so they'll replenish their comrade's health if you don't eliminate them in time. This should add a greater degree of tactics to the combat than shooting everything that moves until it stops.

Once the bandits are put to rest, we come upon our first boss battle with the Nomad. Adorned in red leather, he resembles a cross between a Tusken Raider from Star Wars and one of Hostel's torturers. Holding up his shield, he reveals a terrified half-naked midget chained to it. Considering the impracticality of maneuvering such defense I'm reminded of what Gearbox creative director Mikey Neumann said when presenting the first Borderlands at E3 a couple years back; "Realism can eat s**t and die." Borderlands 2 appears to be the natural progression of that philosophy.

Shooting the chains releases the midget, who turns on his captor and repeatedly stabs him while we pump the nomad full of lead. During the fight we get to see the Gunzerker's special ability: a dual wielding barrage of bullets.

While it's nice to have variety, neither dual wielding nor extra-power boosts are innovative, but they're fun inclusions nonetheless. More promising is that the Gunzerker can dual-wield any two weapons, including rocket launchers. I almost find myself criticising that being a strong badass shouldn't have any bearing on your firearm's strength, but then I remember what Neumann said about realism and realise I'm over-thinking it.

Crossing through a lush green field, we come upon an outpost at a dam run by Hyperion Corporation. Hyperion was once a mining company but has since changed their focus to creating war machines. Their outpost's technicolour flags and bloody red rafters make this the most colourful post-apocalypse since Enslaved.

Getting to the dam's peak we see an awe-inspiring waterfall on one side and a majestic expanse of plains and a river on the other, with the futuristic metropolis of Hyperion City lingering in the background. "If it looks like you can go there, you can," Gibson emphasises, giving us a tantalising peak at what's to come.

We're now introduced to enemy robots that lack the ability to feel pain, so they behave a lot more aggressively than the organic Neanderthals and creatures we're used to. Even after getting their legs blown off they'll lunge towards you, crawling on the floor before exploding in a shower of sparks.

Eventually, we see Roland from the first game make an appearance. Only something is different about him. For one he seems to be stuck in a blue force field cage atop a giant tank like platform. His robotic base scurries away, destroying everything in its path. As we try to catch up to him we're surrounded by a swarm of robots.

If that weren't bad enough, Hyperion's base on a ghostly afternoon moon starts shooting at us and sending reinforcements. As 30 Rock's Liz Lemon once said while cursing at the moon with Buzz Aldrin, "You dumb moon! Don't you know it's day?"

Borderlands was a proof of concept combining the post-apocalyptic open world of Fallout with co-op first-person shooting of Left 4 Dead and the loot-whoring of Diablo. It simply lost the refinement of some of the shooters it wanted to emulate and its world was a one-trick pony of barren deserts.

Borderlands 2 maintains its predecessor's lowbrow spirit and Gibson himself admits, "we love dumb s**t at Gearbox." Such improvements to the environments, combat, and UI are so promising that this could be Gearbox's smartest rendition of stupid yet.

If you've played Borderlands you know there wasn't too much variation in environments until the Zombie and Armory of Knox expansions were released. Borderlands 2 will change that with new and varied environments. You'll be traveling through snowy tundras, dense jungles and even mountain ranges. All of this presented in a streamlined world. So, no more loading in between each area you visit, which was a huge gripe of mine when playing Borderlands. Of course this all leads to the graphics, which still hold the Cell Shaded style, but feature more detail than before. The enemies in Borderlands, I thought we're pretty creative, but Gearbox seems to be whipping out a whole new set of creativity with Borderlands 2. Everything from the weapons, characters, environments and architecture will all be even more creative than in Borderlands. For example, a new enemy has an enemy strapped to its shield. But if you free that captive enemy they will in turn fight on your side against their captor.

One question that everyone had in their mind is if Claptrap would be returning to the series and indeed he is. Details are scarce on what his involvement in the game would be, but I'm sure we will know soon enough. The AI are said to be much smarter this time around. Enemies will take cover and use teamwork to try and take you down. They are more agile as well as they can climb over different terrains. Before , if you were on a hill the enemies would have to run all they way around the path to get up the hill just to get to your position. Localized damage will also be in place allowing you to strategically take down your enemies by shooting specific body parts. When those body parts are shot they will react to where they are hit.

By no means an official declaration of intent, a comment from President and CEO of Gearbox Software in relation to his experience with the PlayStation Move lights a glimmer of hope for device support in Borderlands 2.


To celebrate the five-year anniversary of the PlayStation 3's launch in North America, the US PlayStation Blog published a collection of "must play" PS3 games suggested by some of the top game makers in the business. Among them, head of Gearbox Software Randy Pitchford was the only one listing Resistance 3 amid his three favorites (the other two being Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls), along with an intriguing comment about his experience with the PlayStation Move.


"Im a big fan of anything Insomniac, but Resistance 3 motivated me to get the PlayStation Move set up with the sharp shooter controller, and its a great way to play this great game," Pitchford said. "Its always difficult to be able to rationalize custom development effort for sub-sets of customers on a platform, but the experience I had with Resistance 3 and the sharp shooter makes me want to see something special done with that interface in our games".


So, there you have it. If (and that's a big "if", mind you) Gearbox Software eventually announces Move support for any of its current projects (Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands 2, scheduled for release in 2012 and 2013 respectively) you know you'll have to thank Insomniac for that.

One of the biggest games on the floor that people are standing in line to see is the sequel to the 4-player co-op futuristic first person shooter lootfest, Borderlands 2. When you have a game that is about as fun of a mutliplayer experience as you can get, where do you evolve from there? What are they changing about the game?

A Billion More Guns:

Gearbox is still pushing out procedurally generated firearms by the truckload, only looking to be more distinctive between weapons manufacturers. Where before, weapons manufacturer were generally interchangable. Now, weapons designed by the Bandits are salvaged together nuts and bolts that hold a ridiculous amount of ammunition, where the Vladof line of guns is all based around gatling gun style spinning barrels.

Catch!

Have a bagful of somewhat useless weapons in your inventory? Not so useless now that you can throw them as exploding projectile weapons, which do explosive damage based on how much ammunition they have left.

A Cast of Familiar Characters:

While the demo showed us Salvador the Gunzerker (the evolution of the original Borderlands berserker class) and the new Siren, Maya, the old cast of characters like Roland the soldier are now non-playable characters who play a large role in the main storyline. Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the original; how have the original four treasure hunters fared over the years? As promised by the demo team, the writing team was locked in the same room with the game development team to deliver a more interesting and integrated storyline, as opposed to it being an afterthought as it was in the first game. Strangely absentwhere was my dancing Claptrap?

That F%cking Hurt!

Improved enemy damage models. Remember hatchet wielding psychos that would charge you mercilessly? You shoot them and have a chance to stagger them. Take them to half heatlh, and they go from suicidal sprint to start limping towards you. Regular enemies who have been injured will now look for cover and retreat if things get nasty.

Im Coming For You!

Improved enemy intelligence. If you see a gaggle of enemies on a floor below you, they will start scrambling up the sides and make somewhat super human jumps as opposed to all funnelling at the stairs for easy slaughter. One of the creatures shown was a Bullymong, which seemed like a type of arctic ape, which ran over, grabbed the players vehicle and threw it at him. Enemy boss creatures are no longer just something you grind a bunch of ammunition into; now bosses will have helpers based on the number of players youre playing with that heal them ,deflect attacks, directly attack the players, etc, forcing the team to think more tactically about the battle as opposed to shoot that guy in the head a lot.

You Are Too High A Level For This Mission

One of the largest hurdles of the multiplayer game was when you and a team of friends would play for two hours. Then Billy would have to go grocery shopping with his wife, and next thing you knew, you were 10 levels ahead of him, and you couldnt really have a great time playing with someone that underpowered. According to the demo team, thanks to a complicated series of behind-the-scenes mechanics involving magic, theyve helped increase the levels that you can play with your friends. Increased spawns, increased enemy health, and a variety of variables that they wouldnt/couldnt go into specific detail about means that just because youre a few levels higher than your friend doesnt mean you cant play with him anymore.

Its still early, it was an unplayable 10 minute demo, and dont expect to see Borderlands 2 before summer 2012, but it looks like they may be doing a great job improving on the original magic that Borderlands had.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Edited
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Original

Please tell me if this gets taken down and I will try find another one. Thanks.
Shows mostly the graphic improvements. They are awesome!
Best so far!!