Borderlands 2 Message Board older than one year ago

#borderlands The team behind upcoming shooter Borderlands 2 first showed off their fancy loot chest last month at PAX East. The design came from community suggestions, made to look like the in-game loot chests, and they promised it would be filled with as-yet unannounced goodies. More »

Sure, we all ready had a post earlier today detailing the lavishly equipped Deluxe Vault Hunter's Collector's Edition and Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition of Borderlands 2, but what about us average Joes? What about everyone who wants to look at Borderlands 2 packaging, but doesn't want to waste time daydreaming over ornate collector's editions that won't fit in our tiny efficiency apartments? Where's that post?!

Shhhhh, it's okay. It's right here, friend. This is that post. Behold, the regular retail packaging for Borderlands 2.

Good day, vault hunters. Today, 2K Games announced two special editions of Borderlands 2 for optional acquisition for the game's launch in September.

The $100 "Deluxe Vault Hunter's Collector's Edition" includes the game, Marcus Kincaid bobblehead, art book, stickers, digital comic and some unspecified DLC. There's also the "Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition" (pictured), which includes all items previously mentioned, along with actual red loot chest box and other goodies.

Pre-ordering the game in any edition (even the plebby "standard") at "participating retailers" will also net access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club, to download the Gearbox Gun Pack, Golden Key, Vault Hunter's Relic and the Mechromancer character class when the game's out.

PTOM loves shooters, but lately we’ve been yearning for games that go beyond the standard battlefield blastfest. From its unique cel-shaded look to its insane weapons customization to its RPG-esque gameplay elements, our cover-story game, Borderlands 2, looks set to deliver that “next step” experience in spades. Join us as we visit developer Gearbox Software for the inside scoop on the game that’s aiming to redefine shooter-genre expectations.

Our second game feature this month may, perhaps, be even more revolutionary. Dust 514 brings PlayStation players into the immersive world of PC MMO EVE Online. It’s a fascinating concept that has PS3 gamers doing the fighting for, and interacting with, PC gamers as they go about their machinations in their perpetual online universe.

We’ve also got early info on Lost Planet 3 and the coming-to-PS3 franchise debut of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. Our big previews include The Amazing Spider-Man and Aliens: Colonial Marines, with updates on Far Cry 3 and the ever more compelling Dishonored. Personally, I’m pretty excited about LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and its new open-world Gotham City—it’s just the shot in the arm that the franchise needs. And finally, on the portable front, we break down the next 22 PS Vita games that will shape the handheld’s future.

PS Vita also makes its presence felt in this month’s reviews with JRPG Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention, MLB 12: The Show, and extreme brawler Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted, while standout PSN reviews include 2D fighter Skullgirls and survival adventure I Am Alive. And while it’s a slow month for boxed PS3 games, don’t miss our final verdicts on Yakuza: Dead Souls, Birds of Steel, and Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat.

It’s all in the June issue of PTOM, now available on newsstands.

Borderlands is getting the Barbie treatment with its own line of action figures from NECA, starting with Claptrap and the Psycho Bandit. The Borderlands Series 1 figurines are painted in an homage to the game's cel-shaded cartoon style, and while we wonder how the Psycho Bandit's pants can possibly stay on his hips even with that belt, the simple, chunky designs have grown on us.

Claptrap stands 4.5 inches and looks especially canon, featuring an extendable antenna (making him 6 inches), a wheel with shocks, hinged shoulder and eye flaps, ball-jointed shoulders and hinged, swiveling elbows, along with a display stand. The Psycho Bandit stands 7 inches and includes a buzz axe accessory, ball-jointed head, shoulders, elbows, thighs, feet and wrists, a hinged torso, swivel waist and hinged knees.

Check out a few photos here and look out for Series 1 figurines to be available in May, with Series 2 to debut in August with Zero the Assassin and Salvador the Gunzerker.

Borderlands 2 is going to have all the guns. Hundreds of thousands of the things. 87 bazillion! Probably. Gearbox’s unabashed ode to all things projectile will – as it turns out – also have five character classes to wield them. There is, however, something of a catch: the Mechromancer (which I was crushed to discover in no way involves candle-lit dinners) won’t be working its robotic voodoo on day one. Instead, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford is estimating the robo-armed girl and her controllable robo-everything-ed sidekick will be finished “60 to 90 days” after launch. On the upside, she’ll be yours for free if you pre-order and join the shadowy Premiere Club. Otherwise, though, you’ll have to fork over 87 bazillion dollars. Or, you know, a fee “comparable to most DLC.”

(more…)

David Hinkle: So, Borderlands 2. How fitting I would play as the slender female and you the hulking giant mohawk guy, eh? Jessica Conditt: To be fair, Salvador is supposed to be a tiny, muscled man, not the hulking behemoth that I felt like while playing him. Double shotguns will do that to a man. Agreed. And even though you were carrying every single gun in the universe, we ran into a few bottlenecks. I certainly tried to play Maya as a tank, but I don't think that was a very good idea. Skags, man. Skags. And that new, juicy element. Slag, right? We took more damage when they flung it on us, which was an annoying experience. But the phaselock health dump was a saving grace there. You kept me alive on quite a few occasions with that. Slag, man. Slag.

During PAX East this weekend, Gearbox Software revealed a new class for Borderlands 2. Called the Mechromancer, the character will be a mix of human and machine and will be able to control D374-TP (Deathtrap) robots...

The Mechromancer, in all her pigtailed glory.

Gearbox panels at the various PAX conferences each year are usually good for at least one or two good bits of useful new information and/or delightful fan service. At last year's PAX Prime, it was when Randy Pitchford went full Oprah and gave everyone in the audience a free code good for one copy of Borderlands 2 upon its release. At this year's PAX East, the Borderlands 2 crew showed off a new character class that will come following the game's launch.

Dubbed the Mechromancer, this female character is essentially a cyborg. The full-breadth of her human/machine hybrid abilities aren't yet known, but it was stated that she would be able to control a large robot named D374-TP (which translates to "Deathtrap").

This new class won't be day one DLC. In fact, it hasn't even been fully developed yet. Gearbox showed off some concept art for the character, but beyond that wouldn't commit to a specific release day or price beyond "post-launch" and "comparable" to other, similar DLC.

If you're looking for something a tad more substantial than the usual dangled tidbits from industry panels, our man Jeff got himself an extended look at Borderlands 2 at the show, which you can read all about right here.

This weekend at the Borderlands 2 booth, we granted PAX East visitors chance to play with two brand-new characters for Borderlands 2 — Salvador the Gunzerker and Maya the Siren — in a new environment called the Caustic Caverns. The Gunzerker and Siren classes have made great strides compared to their counterparts from the original game. Players who choose to play as Salvador will be able to use his Gunzerking ability to run into a crowd with two guns blazing. If you played the first game, you may recognize this as an evolution of Brick’s Berserking skill. Meanwhile, Maya’s new Siren skill Phaselock isolates an enemy inside a phase bubble for a short time. Once you’ve Phaselocked a target, your primary choice is whether to focus your fire on the helpless foe before it breaks free or mop up any other threats nearby. Decisions, decisions!

Borderlands has a strong history of co-op gameplay and that’s still a core promise of this game. At PAX, we watched as Siren players Phaselocked an enemy, leaving an opening for the Gunzerker buddy to run up, dual-wielding, and take out the target just in the nick of time. I’m also happy to talk about our new setting for this demo, the Caustic Caverns. From the beginning of the project, we’ve wanted to explore a wider variety of unique environments and locales on the planet of Pandora. As different and cool as the Caustic Caverns are, they’re just a small taste of the diverse environments to be explored in Borderlands 2.

We’ve overhauled our user interface, too. The new inventory screen allows for easier comparisons between gear and offers a more streamlined layout in general, and an additional benefit of the change is a more natural layout for split-screen players – no more manual “pan-n-scan”. And by popular demand, there’s now a minimap on screen!

This is Borderlands, so you know we’re aiming to include lots and lots of guns. What’s new about Borderlands 2 weapons, though, is that they’re much more supportive of any given play style. Hate long reload times? Try a Tediore gun. Prefer sturdy, burst-fire weapons? Pick up a Dahl-branded weapon. We’ve made sure that each weapon manufacturer brings something unique and interesting to the table. Finding the perfect combination of gear for each situation is all part of the fun (especially as the Gunzerker!)

Borderlands 2 releases on PS3 this September 18th and is now available for pre-order at your local retailers – keep checking the Gearbox Software Twitter, 2K Twitter, and Borderlands 2 Facebook for more information regarding the game!

On the final day of PAX East, members of Gearbox detailed plans for Borderlands 2, which is set to drop on September 18. The biggest news nuggest is the Mechromancer, a class that will be added to the game as DLC after launch and free to those who pre-order. The Mechromancer is a female human/machine hybrid, which is totally great because we wrote all of this erotic Claptrap fan-fiction that would totally explain -- ahem, sorry. She will also have a friend: a giant robot called D374-TP (Deathtrap).

Game Informer was at the panel - all of us were too busy scurrying back to our respective journalizing holes to attend today - and says that in addition to the Mechromancer, there will be options to customize the look of your character. Costumes and custom gear will be earned when players complete missions and challenges.

Finally, there will be a special edition of Borderlands 2 that will retail for $149.99. It's packaged in a big plastic loot box replete with a Marcus Kincaid bobblehead and, obviously, a copy of Borderlands 2.

#borderlands Earlier today I attended Gearbox's panel at PAX East, where they revealed a badass new downloadable class in the works for Borderlands 2. More »

One part of Salvador's skill tree lets him regenerate health and reduce damage, making him more resilient and ready to get close.

Sometimes you don't really need to know much about a game to know that you're going to play it. Take Borderlands 2, for example. After dumping somewhere between three and four days of time into playing one character in Borderlands and obsessively completing the game multiple times, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be interested in seeing more. Along those lines, Borderlands 2 would have to be a dramatic mess of a game to put me off at this point. And I'm going to just say it right here, now that I've played a little bit of it: Borderlands 2 doesn't appear to be a dramatic mess of a game.

It... actually seems pretty similar to the previous game. It's not a tower defense game now. Or a dating simulator. Actually, there might be some dating sim in there somewhere, I shouldn't make assumptions. We were given the opportunity to play a brief part of the game, which had me playing as Salvador, the "Gunzerker" class while Patrick used Maya, the game's new Siren. And there was no simulation of dating in any of the stuff we played. Oh man, I shouldn't even italicize that, you're just going to think that I'm attempting to insinuate that there's some sort of unannounced dating sim in Borderlands 2. There is no Borderlands 2 dating sim, as far as I know. I wouldn't even want to date any of the characters in the Borderlands universe, since most of them seem to be incredibly unstable. And I've never been one to date cartoon people, to be honest. Does that make me a racist? Crap, OK, maybe I should get back to the matter at hand.

So the characters usable in the Borderlands 2 demo appear to be too busy shooting things in the face to do any serious dating, and their apparent career-mindedness kept them focused on the quest at hand: shooting their way through a menagerie of new creatures and robots while trying to rescue Mordecai's pet, Bloodwing, who has apparently been captured by the game's heavy, Handsome Jack. But I wasn't really there to focus on the story, since it's a pretty brief demo. I was more interested in the shotgun that Salvador was equipped with for the demo, which seemed to fire larger projectiles that seemed like they homed in on targets a little bit. It also ripped just about everything apart, even at a decent distance, making it more fun than even the Tediore-brand weapons, which get tossed out into the field like grenades when you "reload" them. A new version of the same gun quickly appears in your hand after the toss, giving you an explosive reload option that's faster than most other weapons, though tossing guns before their magazine is empty felt like a waste of bullets. More bullets in a magazine makes the explosive effect of the thrown gun more powerful, but it didn't feel like a dramatic difference while I was playing.

The Siren has a new action skill that immobilizes enemies for a bit. Handy.

The game will have more of just about everything, though, not just guns. Around eight different types of shields will appear, giving you new effects to play with. A "spiked" shield reciprocates damage to enemies that get close enough to melee attack you, and when that's equipped, your shield meter grows little spikes to give you a constant reminder of how you're currently equipped. There's also at least one new status effect, "slagged," which increases the damage an enemy takes when it activates while also lowering an enemy's resistance to other types of damage. When playing alone, this means you'll need to slag someone then swap to a different weapon to get the most out of it (unless you're dual-wielding with Salvador's action skill), so it's really handy in co-op games.

Relics and class mods will also return, with more types of relics in place that tweak a variety of numbers. The one I found was focused on melee damage, giving me a 5 percent bonus to my melee ability. Class mods sound like they'll behave in a similar fashion as they did in the first game, giving you bonuses to some of the powers that appear on the skill tree.

To deal with all those items (and, potentially, to have a shot at buying more esoteric gear), the developers have implemented a second form of currency. This was the part of the demo where I started hyperventilating a bit, as the past year of games getting all businessrd up made me worry that the next words I would hear would be that this new black market currency was available via microtransactions. But I heard no such thing. The currency used for this secondary market will be found in the game, but it'll be rare.

Didn't see him in the demo, but this Commando's turret looks kind of rad.

Lastly, the game's challenge system has been revamped, but to what end? Gearbox isn't talking about that right now. But it does have a new look with indicators that pop-up on-screen when you complete challenges. Also, when you finish something up, you earn "badass points." No idea what that gets you. It sounds like they have some additional customization options in the works, too, but again, no details at this time. Maybe you'll use badass points to buy cosmetic items for your guys to differentiate yourself in multiplayer games? No idea.

We were playing the PC version of Borderlands 2, but we were playing with Xbox 360 controllers, so it's hard to say if the menus are better with a mouse and keyboard this time around. But the menus seem fairly similar to the previous game, with the one exception being that it now appears "in-world" as if it's beaming off of a wrist computer or some other projector, sort of like Dead Space. When in a co-op game, other players will see that you're in your menus, though it didn't look like you could actually view the menus on another player's projection.

The original Borderlands wasn't without its own share of issues, and I'm hoping that things like enemy AI--especially for bosses--and overall variety are improved in Borderlands 2. To its credit, Gearbox has said that both of those things are on their list, but it was hard to really get a feel for that during such a brief demo. Is it bad that I'd happily play through another Borderlands game even if those things weren't fixed? I probably shouldn't say that out loud. IF THOSE ISSUES AREN'T FIXED I WILL FILE A CLAIM WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU SO YOU BETTER MAKE IT BETTER THIS TIME OK? There, that's more like it. Either way, I'm looking forward to September over here.

Borderlands 2 art director Jeramy Cooke and concept designer Scott Kester both worked on the first Borderlands, and they shrug off accomplishments such as "made Borderlands" with considerable humility. When Cooke mentioned casually that every piece of DLC for the first title was created in just eight weeks each, we stopped him for clarification.

"You don't understand, those first DLCs, we were literally counting K to try and fit features in there because at the time we hadn't expected it to be such a huge success, so we didn't know that 'oh, we'll have to put all this DLC in,'" Cooke said during a meeting at PAX East 2012.

This development time is impressive considering the heft of each pack, but also because Gearbox hadn't prepared the full game to handle add-on content.

"It was the first time the company had ever done DLC, but we were like, damn it, if we're going to do it, let's do it," Kester said. And so they did.

Borderlands 2 is the second time Gearbox can attempt DLC and it has implemented a robust backend system to support whatever additional content it needs, including patches and support updates. With this improved system maybe Gearbox can beat its previous record and build one piece of 20-hour DLC in just 2 hours.

Maybe.

#development What would games look like if the developers behind them had an unlimited amount of time to work on them? More »

I was blasting past loader robots in Borderlands 2 when a fire thresher attacked. This flaming squid-like beast burst through the ground and whipped its tentacles at me and my co-op partner, then dove underground to reposition. Every time it emerged and murderously flailed its appendages, I fired ba...

And now for the sequel. That’s the trick, isn’t it? If a game is successful the studio need to do it again, and it must be the same, but more so and different. Getting that right can be a peculiar challenge. There’s a stack of shortcuts available, of course, because you’re building on existing technology, fiction, and art, but there’s also the challenge of not throwing away that advantage and actually making something better, or more interesting. That’s the challenge that Gearbox now face with Borderlands 2: to build on the relative success of their left-field post-apocalyptic space frontier, and to carve out wider horizons for one of the most interesting hybrid-FPS projects in mainstream gaming.(more…)

#borderlands What do you do with a sequel to a game that has a huge roster of weapons, quirky characters, and awesome 4-player co-op? You add more weapons, of course. And more quirky characters. And you might as well keep the 4-player co-op. More »

#borderlands During last week's GeForce Kepler Editor's Day event, Gearbox founder and CEO Randy Pitchford appeared in video form to show off what Borderlands 2 can do with Nvidia's GPU accelerated PhysX. It's rather gorgeous. More »

Borderlands 2 may not hit store shelves until mid September, but that doesn't mean you have to wait until then to play it. All you have to do is spend several hundred dollars on last-minute travel and hotel accommodations for next week's PAX East convention in Boston, and you too can get your randomly generated little hands on all that cel-shaded goodness.

The demo, playable at 2K's booth, will feature the Siren and Gunzerker character types and will take place in two zones, "Caustic Caverns" and "Pandora Park." XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization 5: Gods and Kings and Spec Ops: The Line will also be present and accounted for, but only Spec Ops: The Line and Borderlands 2 will be openly playable.

The time: Autumn 2009. The place: My PC, Jim’s PC, John’s PC, Kieron’s PC. The game: Borderlands. The situation: staring at router configuration screens, weeping, screaming, failing to make co-op work.

The time: Spring 2012. The place: The internet. The game: Borderlands 2. The promise: Not to screw up the PC version.(more…)

Borderlands 2 features a PC-specific UI, FOV slider, remappable keybindings for keyboard and mouse, complete Steamworks support, and more. That's all gathered from Claptrap's love letter to future players. Turns out Claptrap has a broader range of emotion than many people we've met in our very popular lives, showing humor, determination, lust, compassion and now -- possibly our favorite -- romance. We're a sucker for roses, candles, compliments and software upgrades.

Gearbox has decided to reveal its innermost PC features in this gushy love letter from Claptrap, detailing the things that many players were upset to find missing in the PC version of the first Borderlands, as listed below:

#borderlands In an adorable letter posted on the Borderlands 2 website today, developer Gearbox Software addresses some of the issues that fans complained about in the PC version of the action-role-playing game's predecessor, Borderlands. More »

If you weren't a fan of the PC version of the original Borderlands, Gearbox is hoping to win you over. It seems Gearbox's dance-obsessed robot Claptrap has written a love letter to PC gamers, explaining what'll be different with this version of Borderlands 2...

Gearbox and Valve announced that Borderlands 2 will be integrated with Steamworks when it launches. That means you'll get Steam Cloud support, Steam Achievements and more. This applies to any that buy the retail version of the game as well...

The Assassin class is basically the ninja of Borderlands 2. He runs around the battlefield with a sword and can slice into enemies from stealth for colossal critical hit bonuses. He's the class of choice for someone that wants to do crazy high burst damage...

If you played the original Borderlands, you're familiar with the Soldier. Like every other class he mostly relied on guns to kill things, but was also able to deploy a turret to help out. At its most basic level the turret let you deal additional damage, but by investing in the skill tree it could be modified to heal and resupply. Gearbox's plan for the Commando in Borderlands 2 is to make the turret a much more modifiable, important part of a battle...

Borderlands is many things, but it's mostly about one thing: pointing your gun at an enemy and firing bullets at it until it dies. You do it again until there's nobody left onscreen, then move to another area and repeat. It encourages a Diablo-like mentality, tossing you into lightning-fast gamepla...

Hope you're ready for a little trailerstep.

When I say that Borderlands changed my life, it’s no exaggeration. It was the way that the game rewarded each and every action that got me. Every enemy I gunned down, every chest I opened brought a feeling of accomplishment and progression. So when I had the opportunity to join the team at Gearbox Software, I moved halfway across the country without a moment’s hesitation. Ever since, I’ve been seeing things that amaze me, things I know our fans will absolutely love. Things I haven’t been able to talk about… until today.

Because today, we’re blowing the lid off of Borderlands 2. We’ve got a new trailer, and if you haven’t already skimmed down and hit Play, let me tell you what you’re in for. You’re going to meet the four new playable characters. You’re going to catch a glimpse of the colorful new environments and areas you’ll be fighting through. You’re going to see what you’re up against, from new enemies like the multi-armed Bullymong and the robotic Loaders to the man with the plan to destroy you and everyone else on the planet, Handsome Jack. You’re going to see a fraction of the new weapons that await. Oh, and you’re going to learn when the release date is. That’s pretty important.

But, enough text. Let’s get this show on the road. Without further ado, Borderlands 2:

And that’s just the beginning. It barely scratches the surface of some of the underlying changes, especially when it comes to the way that characters grow and become more powerful throughout the game. Each character has their own unique Action Skill at the root of their multi-tiered Skill Trees, and as you complete more quests and kill more enemies and gain the necessary experience to start working down those Skill Trees, you’ll come across skills that do more than just add passive stats and perks — they change the way that character plays.

Let’s talk about Salvador the Gunzerker, for example. When you trigger his Action Skill, he’s able to temporarily dual wield any weapons in the game. And if you just want to run and gun and blow everything up and cause as much chaos and destruction as possible, there’s a Skill Tree for that. Or if you want to make him more of a tactician and focus on nailing that one perfect shot for ridiculous damage and money, there’s a Skill Tree for that as well.

And the same goes for the other characters. Maya’s Skill Trees and the way they alter her Phaselock Action Skill likewise enable players to customize the way she plays and the role she takes in battle, as do those of Axton and Zero.

As our Game Designer Jonathan Hemingway puts it, Borderlands 2 isn’t just about making a few big changes and improvements, it’s about making thousands of little ones as well. Everything is being tuned, refined, improved and reworked, and in the coming months we’ll be talking much more about, well, all of that.

We’ve heard your feedback, so now, for example, you can take your split-screen game online. From day one, Lead Designer Paul Hellquist and Writer Anthony Burch have been working side-by-side so that story has a stronger role. Art Director Jeramy Cooke and his team have been working to infuse the characters with more personality, the environments with more color, and the guns with far more badassitude than previously thought possible.

Oh, and one more thing. Pre-ordering puts you in the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club and nets you some pretty handy in-game bonuses, including a set of golden guns, that will help you get a leg-up on Handsome Jack when you’re first starting out. For more on the bonus items and the participating retailers, visit Borderlands2.com/preorder.

You’re going to need a lot of guns — Handsome Jack isn’t going to hold anything back. Neither should you.