Borderlands 2 Announced

Today, after Eurogamer spilled the beans earlier than Randy Pitchford would have liked, Gearbox and 2K Games officially announced Borderlands 2, the sequel to 2009's well-received shooter/RPG. It's planned for sometime between April 2012 and April 2013, and will be available on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Windows. Gearbox plans to demonstrate the game in its current state during Gamescom and PAX Prime later this month.

Comments

Spoiler, don't read this

[vlm]

spilled the beans

I have some secret corporate knowledge about this game... Here comes my NDA violation.... wait for it... "you run around and shoot things and people."

My god I can't believe I gave away the secret. Sorry if I ruined it for anyone; can't blame me, I used a "spoiler" tag in the subject. Everyone act surprised when it turns out I was correct, mkay?

Re:Spoiler, don't read this

[PopeRatzo]

"you run around and shoot things and people."

I want to know why Borderlands was ever referred to as a "shooter/RPG". In what way can Borderlands possibly be considered an RPG?

I can tell a lot of work went into Borderlands, but I can't think of a game that was so well-made that I got tired of so quickly. Same thing over and over and over. No incentive at all to do the things you're supposed to do.

I see that there are a lot of these games out now. Games where you get dropped into a world of a lot of characters exactly like you except maybe dressed differently and everybody's trying to kill everybody.

Exhausting, really. I can't imagine what part of the brain a game like Borderlands is supposed to stimulate. Maybe the amygdala, except the amygdala figures out in about .5 seconds that none of it is real so it goes back to sleep.

I don't care for games where there is abundant running around and shooting and screaming and killing and your still waiting for something to happen. But it never does...

Re:Spoiler, don't read this

[Quiet_Desperation]

They called it a role playing shooter. It's basically an FPS with light RPG elements. You level up your character, your proficiency in various weapon types (just by using them), and there's a simple ability tree that grant various powers. Lots of loot in the form of weapons, shields, grenade mods and class mods which give you extras like boosted shields or ammo regeneration.

It was just a tightly coded bundle of fun with a breezy little story and a good sense of humor. Seemed generally inoffensive to me, but I guess some people thrive on being offended.

I loved the game, and I'm someone who also loves deep RPGs where the stats screens look like spreadsheets. I get bored of a genre if I play it too much, though, so I play all sorts of game types. I like RPG. I like FPS. I like platformers. Puzzle games. Whatever. Why limit yourself?

I don't care for games where there is abundant running around and shooting and screaming and killing

Well, some people do, especially in co-op with friends. Gosh, I hope that's OK, good sir.

I guess we should all be playing À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu: The Video Game.

Maybe the amygdala, except the amygdala figures out in about .5 seconds that none of it is real so it goes back to sleep.

Yeah, my brain figures out pretty much every game isn't real. It's good at that.

Re:Spoiler, don't read this

[PopeRatzo]

The same way that Diablo is sometimes referred to as an RPG.

I guess I take the "role" in "role playing game" too literally.

To me, "role" indicates some dramatic arc, some story, some goal. There is a lot that is good and interesting about Borderlands, but nobody can say there is a dramatic arc.

Re:Spoiler, don't read this

[SpryGuy]

I guess I couldn't disagree with you more. For me, Borderlands had more replay value than any other game I've played, save for maybe Fallout 3.

I played through with each character (very different play styles), and then did playthrough 2 with each character (actually, still have to complete one character). Not to mention the four DLCs (three of the four being outstanding).

I played through all of Playthrough 2 and three of the four DLCs with one character in co-op mode with a good friend. Had a BLAST. Laughed a lot too... it's just really fun, and even more fun co-op.

And I just love the collecting. I think it's the same area of the brain that "Diablo 2" tickled... loot!

Anyway, Borderlands is easily my favorite game ever, and I'm eagerly waiting for Borderlands 2.

Re:Spoiler, don't read this

[Xest]

"In what way can Borderlands possibly be considered an RPG?"

Levels, stats, quests. You know, the key elements of an RPG.

I don't disagree that it was a bit boring though, I still found myself playing it a lot, but I think that was more because it was fun to prat around whilst talking to 3 friends, rather than because the game was inherently fun or had an enjoyable storyline. I think if I played it solo I'd have been bored after about 1 minute.

Re:Who cares!

[blair1q]

Where's Duke Nukem Forever?

That hoax release from earlier this year was a good laugh, but, seriously, when's the real one coming out?

PC gamers want real options

[IronSight]

I just logged out of borderlands online play to see this, so it is a good surprise. One thing I hope they do is realize the PC version can be much better than the console versions. The pc version was defaulting to directx 9 mode with none of the special goodies the unreal engine can do in DX10 mode. Luckily someone figured out how to edit the config files to remove the console feel and make it look like a real modern game for the most part. I hope for their next game they put full detail options into the options menu instead of having to make us track down config file switches to make it run like a modern pc game, instead of a straight console port. Also, press to talk on the voice chat would be more useful than keeping my mic on the entire game while you can hear my kids in the background, or phone calls, or the sound of my shooting in the microphone. Hrm, also if you could, fix it so I can buy game of the year edition on steam after I bought it after it first came out, so I can get all the dlc for cheaper than actually buying all the dlc separately or making another steam account just for 1 game. Other than that, Borderlands is a good game for me, I like coop play, and i do like the randomness of weapon drops.

Re:Games Journalism

[Hadlock]

I seriously doubt it was "accidental". Borderlands 2's main competition, Rage is getting shown to the public tomorrow at their big Quakecon media/fan event. Tomorrow. Announcing your product the day before your competition shows off a live demo of theirs? Well I never!

Re:Maybe this time...

[arth1]

By snooping on the traffic, I figured out that the problem appears to be that during the online initiation phase, if there is packet loss, the arbitrator opens up a new connection, which bumps up the port number. This causes it to not work through restricted cone NAT routers, but only through open cone ones. So if you have an ultra-cheap and unsafe router that doesn't maintain port tables for each remote host, it works, but if you have a real NAT router / firewall that only accepts return traffic from the port you connected to, it won't, unless you're lucky enough not to get a _single_ packet dropped during establishment.