Just in case you are in need of more Borderlands 2 DLC, a new one is coming including some Valentine stuff as IGN reported.

Gearbox has announced its final cuts of Borderlands 2 DLC - including a Valentine's Day-themed add-on that will launch next week.

Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre will be available on 11th February.

2K Games and Gearbox have released a new celebration trailer for Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition.

It's been a year of shooting-and-looting out in the Borderlands, and there are still vault hunters dropping into Pandora every day! Now with the Game of the Year Edition, new players can grab the base game and tons of add-on content in one package. As a thank you to our fans, 2K and Gearbox created this compilation trailer for your viewing pleasure.

2K and Gearbox Software today announced that the Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition is now available on all platforms in North America, and will be available internationally on October 11, 2013.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2K and Gearbox Software today announced that the Borderlands® 2 Game of the Year Edition is now available on all platforms in North America, and will be available internationally on October 11, 2013. With over $100 of gameplay content for only $59.99, players have never had a better opportunity to get their hands on the critically acclaimed Borderlands 2, all of the Season Pass content, two additional character classes, plus more for such an outstanding value.

The Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition gives players the ability to take each of the six playable Vault Hunters to new levels, enjoy hundreds of hours of shoot-and-loot mayhem, and play each of the four highly popular add-on campaigns, all in one action-packed bundle. The Game of the Year Edition includes:

• Borderlands 2 main game;
• Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty;
• Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage;
• Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt;
• Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep;
• Creature Slaughter Dome;
• Premiere Club Content:
  • Gaige, the Mechromancer Character Class;
  • Gearbox Gun Pack;
  • Golden Key;
  • Vault Hunter's Relic;
• Krieg, the Psycho Character Class;
• Collector’s Edition Heads and Skins;
• Contraband Sky Rocket Grenade;
• Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 1.

“The passionate support from Borderlands 2 fans continues to blow us away and allows us to offer the most value-packed Game of the Year Edition we have ever published,” said Christoph Hartman, president of 2K. “Our friends at Gearbox Software continue expanding the world of Pandora, and together we will continue bringing gamers the best shoot-and-loot mayhem possible.”

Gearbox Software announces a new Borderlands 2 Loot contest that begins in a few days. Visit this link for more information.

Fame, fortune, and loot -- both real-world and in-game -- are up for grabs when the Borderlands 2 $100K Loot Hunt begins on October 11, 2013!

Here's how it works:

- Register to participate on Borderlands2LootHunt.com
- Beginning October 11, play Borderlands 2 each day to complete the Daily Target for your chance at in-game and real-world loot totaling $100,000 in prizes!

After you're opted in, all you need to do is wait until October 11 and make sure you're connected to the internet whenever you play Borderlands 2!

In addition, Borderlands 2 players around the globe will reap the benefits (and loot) of the Daily Target as well as updates to make certain weapons more powerful -- all you need to do is make sure you're connected to the internet when you boot up Borderlands 2!

Paul Hellquist the Creative Director for Borderlands 2 has the next post on inside the box talking about the Evolution of Loot.

Hello everyone, Paul Hellquist, creative director for Borderlands 2 here again.  A few weeks ago I wrote about how the loot system works on Borderlands 2.  I encourage you to read that first here if you haven’t since I’m writing this under the assumption that you know what is covered there.  At the end of that article I asked you guys to send in your questions about loot so I could figure out what tell you about next.  You guys were very vocal and I got a lot of inquiries from all channels.  Thanks to everyone who chimed in!

The questions covered a wide range of topics around loot.  I had originally thought that I would do an FAQ style article with quick answers to a lot of questions.  Once I saw what the questions were it became clear that there were a couple of questions that were the most common and to fully answer the questions I would really need to dig into them.  Thankfully their stories are all related so I should be able to get you some answers.

The most common questions were:

• Why don’t the enemies in Borderlands 2 drop what they are carrying like they did in Borderlands?
• Why are the drops rates in Borderlands 2 different from those in Borderlands?
• You told us how chumps work, how do bosses work?

Anthony Burch has a new post on Inside the Box about Handsome Jack.

A couple of people have asked about Handsome Jack – how we came up with him, why he is the way he is, and other stuff like that – so for this week’s Inside the Box, I’m going to talk about Handsome Jack. I will also use all my self-restraint to not call this article Handsome Jack In The Box, as twitterfriends Eric (@Souzetsu) and Jim “Dungeonmans” Shepard (@madjackmcmad) suggested.

It is, of course, always difficult to talk about your own work without coming off as a self-congratulatory douche (for me, anyway), so apologies in advance.

From the getgo, creative director Paul Hellquist and I knew that Borderlands 2 needed to be a “villain story.”  The first game’s story had a strong and clear goal (“Find the Vault,”) but no central, driving force to lead you to that goal beyond your own curiosity and greed.

Paul and I are huge fans of villain-centric game stories like Portal, System Shock, and BioShock (which Paul was lead designer of). Villain stories are great because the goal is simple (“kill this bad dude,”), intrinsically has personality, and gives us a really simple vehicle by which to remind the player of their ultimate goal.

Digital Trends interviews Randy Pitchford who wants you excited for the new Borderlands 2 DLC, just not too excited.

Randy Pitchford wants to keep your expectations in check. The Gearbox Software president, CEO, and founder is excited to bring more Borderlands 2 content to fans that, nearly a full year later, still seem ravenous for more, but he wants everyone to be clear on one thing: this is not a second “season” of content.

“We’re doing more beyond season one,” he says, laughing nervously. We’re sitting in Pitchford’s Plano, Texas office, a modest space packed with vintage consoles sitting on pedestals, various awards, and other bits of ephemera. There’s even an Oculus Rift dev kit case stashed in a corner, a brand new toy to play with. It’s an inviting office for a serious gamer to step into and a generally relaxed space overall, but Pitchford seems tense when the subject of a “second content season” comes up. Why wouldn’t he be? Borderlands 2 has a very large and very vocal fanbase. When information is miscommunicated – it happens, that’s life – the scale of the community gathered around the game makes damage control very tricky. Just try Googling “Borderlands 3 release plans” for an object lesson in conflicting reports.

Steam announces that Borderlands 2: Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2 is now available for download.

Borderlands 2: Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2, all new content for Borderlands 2 is Now Available on Steam

The Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak Challenge adds 11 more levels of character growth, new legendary gear, and the challenging “Raid on Digistruct Peak” map offering even more high-level play. For players who want to get the most out of their Borderlands 2 experience, the first Ultimate Upgrade Pack and Ultimate Upgrade Pack 2 can be combined for a max level cap of 72 , even more legendary gear, and new over-leveled modes!

Gearbox has released a massive update for the PC version of Borderlands 2. The new patch will update your game’s version to 1.6.0, and will be auto-downloaded from Steam.

Anthony Burch the Lead Writer of Borderlands 2 has a new post on the Gearbox developer blog. The topic of the post deals with inclusivity.

Hi, I’m Anthony Burch, lead writer of Borderlands 2 and its DLC. And today I’m going to talk about inclusivity.

I went to the #1ReasonToBe panel at Game Developers Conference this year, and something Mattie Brice said stood out to me:

“…[developers] are not explicitly saying “you are welcome here,” and because not, we assume we aren’t welcome. That is such an easy thing to correct.”

Upon hearing that, I wanted to clearly state the following: you are welcome here. Regardless of your race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, I personally want Gearbox to be an open and welcoming place to you. I can only speak for myself, of course – I'm just a jerkbag writer who's been in the industry for less than five years – but I believe that you can see evidence of attempts at inclusivity throughout Borderlands 2.

A WARNING: It's entirely likely that this article will come off incredibly arrogant, self-congratulatory, and condescending. You're going to see a lot of "I wanted to do this" and "I feel that this is important," not because I want to take credit for all of the things mentioned in this article (the vast majority of coolness I'm going to discuss comes from our artists and the voice actors), but because I don't want to speak for anybody else. Discussions about inclusivity can get pretty hairy pretty quickly, and I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth. Again: this may all come off as irritating and self-congratulatory, and I'm sorry about that.

2KGames has released a new short film for Borderlands 2 about Tiny Tina.

All chained up and nowhere to go? Watch this new short film from Gearbox Software to see how Tiny Tina began her badass fantasy adventure, Assault on Dragon Keep.

Well it seems IGN was right as Gearbox has officially announced the Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition.

2K and Gearbox Software today announced that the Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition will be available on all platforms in North America on October 8, 2013 and internationally on October 11, 2013, in celebration of the success of Borderlands® 2. With the Borderlands 2 Season Pass now complete, this is the perfect opportunity to get all of its content as well as the base game, Premiere Club content, and more in one mayhem-filled package.

With the Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition, players can experience every epic boss battle, increase the level for each of the six playable Vault Hunters, play all of the additional campaign content, and enjoy hundreds of hours of shoot-and-loot mayhem at an extraordinary value. The Game of the Year Edition contains over $100 of gameplay content for only $59.99 and specifically includes:

• Borderlands 2 Main Game
• Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty
• Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage
• Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt
• Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep
• Creature Slaughter Dome
• Premiere Club Content:
  • Gaige, the Mechromancer Character Class
  • Gearbox Gun Pack
  • Golden Key
  • Vault Hunter's Relic
• Krieg, the Psycho Character Class
• Collector’s Edition Heads and Skins
• Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 1

IGN claims that Gearbox is planning to release a new Game of the Year Edition for Borderlands 2.

Gearbox Software will release a Game of the Year Edition for Borderlands 2, a GameStop source told IGN today. The release date is unspecified now, but we've reached out to Gearbox for more information.

The GOTY Edition allegedly includes all of the game's released DLC to date, including:

• Creature Slaughter Dome
• Psycho Pack
• Captain Scarlet’s And Her Pirate’s Booty
• Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt
• Mister Torgue’s Campaign Of Carnage
• Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep
• Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade
• Mechromancer Pack

Gamespot has two video interviews talking about,"The Past, Present, and Future of Borderlands 2.

GameSpot presents an exclusive look at the process behind the creation of the Borderlands games. Watch the team at Gearbox Software as they dissect one of their most popular game franchises at a special presentation which took place at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Find out why the art style changed so dramatically, and how they pulled it off.

Ausgamers interviewed Gearbox's Anthony Burch, and Paul Hellquist on the future and present of Borderlands 2.

AusGamers: Anthony: from a writing perspective, can you talk a little bit about where the game began and where you’ve taken it. Because obviously with the first game, one of the criticisms was that it was a little bit barren. The story was quite good, but you’ve filled the world up now with a much richer cast of characters, and a richer background. Can you talk about the evolution of that?

Anthony: Sure. We kind of came from a place of really specifically knowing peoples responses -- like you said -- and going “How can we alleviate that problem?”. If the idea is that they like the world, and they think some of the characters are cool, but they’re saying that the story specifically is lacking, then what can we do to give that some more focus.

So we thought “Ok, well maybe it’s about focus in the narrative; that maybe just going after the vault was maybe a little bit too vague for them; maybe they need something more direct to hone their attention”. So we thought: “Ok, what about a really strong central villain? What’s something that can mock you the entire time you’re going through the game, and constantly be there as both something that’s reminding you that the story exists verbally (because they’re a character), and as an end goal, because you’re always thinking in the back of your head “Oh, I can’t wait to shoot that guy in the head”.

So it really started there, and then became “Ok, if the whole game’s just about kill this one guy -- really simple plot -- what else can we do that makes this character-centric world all revolve around that”, and then it was like “Ok, we’ll set it five years later, so we can have this impact on the world, and we can have you meet the original four vault hunters as NPCs, and then show how they have been changed by this one villain”, and just try and expand on that one nugget of an idea that this game is about a villain that you’re trying to kill, and try to make it all work around that.

Polygon has a small article about Gearbox having no plans to offer a new season pass for the next wave of Borderlands 2 DLC.

According to Gearbox, the company has "been clear from the beginning" that the Borderlands 2 Season Pass would only include four add-on campaigns. There are no current plans for a second season pass.

"In April we celebrated the success of Borderlands 2 by thanking our most passionate fans, the Season Pass holders, by including the first Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack in the Season Pass," Gearbox said. "We were excited to give Season Pass holders $45 of value instead of the original promise of $40. Through the course of our grand experiment, we've also learned that fans are happy with an a la cart menu for DLC because they can pick and choose the content that they most want to buy and really customize their Borderlands 2 experience."

The developer will continue to release content beyond that original pass because fans have asked for it, Gearbox said. Additional content is expected after the Vault Hunter Upgrade, including additional heads and skin packs.

"They're voting with their wallets — and we are grateful that there are enough of them asking that we can justify the cost of developing the content," Gearbox said.

Forbes has an interview with Gearbox Sound Designer and Composer Raison Varner talking about video game music.

For Borderlands 2, the sound team designed a system to “measure the intensity of the experience for the player.”

They used the data they gathered to ramp up the intensity of music during truly challenging moments in the game. Interestingly, this didn’t include all combat scenarios, just ones that were actually threatening to the player.

“We wanted to ensure that players only heard aggressive combat music when they were being challenged,” Varner says. “If the player is killing monsters but is not experiencing a challenge, then we wanted to hold the music back and reserve it for the moments that count the most so that we are maximizing the impact of those moments.”

As Varner points out, games are an interactive experience, and the music is a big part of that interaction.

Polygon has a new article style interview with Gearbox talking about the lack of personality in playable characters.

The biggest annoyance for the creators of Borderlands 2 was the lack of personality in the playable characters, writer Anthony Burch and creative director Paul Hellquist told Polygon at PAX Australia.

When asked about what he would change in Borderlands 2, Burch replied that he would "probably add more personality to the player characters."

"That was a big one," agreed Hellquist, who previously told Polygon that working on Borderlands 2 allowed him to fix what annoyed him about the original Borderlands.

"We didn't know that anybody wanted personality in the characters until super late and we really didn't have enough time to react fully," Burch said. "I hate it when characters talk in games. I like my Gordon Freemans. So I just wrote them that way and I was like, 'HAHA I'm so clever, it's less work and it's better!' And it turns out they really wanted to know why all of these characters are all on Pandora."

"People really seem to want to know who their characters are and actively participate in the story rather than just these faceless entities," Burch said.

It became especially apparent that players were interested in players personalities and stories was when Gearbox released the Kreig the Psycho video and it received a positive reaction from the game's fanbase.

As a followup to yesterdays post BluesNews posted an update for the Borderlands 2 DLC announcement.

Gearbox made their promised announcement of new Borderlands 2 DLC at PAX Australia, revealing plans for an Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak coming "soonish" to raise the game's level cap to 72, add a new training course, and provide an object lesson in the dangers of calling something the "ultimate."

There are details on IncGamers where they also have word on the announcement of another pack called Headhunter Pack: T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest, saying that will come some time before Halloween, befitting T.K.'s newfound status as a zombie. The second Ultimate Vault Hunter pack will be $5.00 while pricing on Bloody Harvest is TBD, and while they specify the first DLC will not be part of season passes, they do not address this for the second pack, though as far as we know the season's pass has been fulfilled now.

Bluenews has word of a new announcement about more DLC for Borderlands 2.

Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford tweets that tomorrow is when they will be announcing the new DLC for Borderlands 2 they recently teased. We love mocking announcements of announcements, but this was simply a reply to a twitter follower asking a direct question about their plans. Presumably this announcement is taking place at this weekend's PAX Australia gathering.

PC Gamer has word from the Nerdist Podcast where Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford mentions they are building a new original IP for the next generation. He also announces that there will be more Borderlands 2 DLC.

"Everyone has this expectation that those would be the four DLCs and then that’s it," Pitchford said. "We’re going to do more. We’re going to do some other things. We don’t have details yet about it exactly."

"We’ve got more stuff in the hopper that we’re planning and that we’re getting pretty excited about. So if you are a Borderlands fan, you don’t have to be afraid that that’s the end of it."

Here are a bunch of reviews for Borderlands 2 Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC.

Joystiq - No Score

As the culmination of what's undoubtedly been a wild ride as far as the Borderlands 2 downloadable content packs are concerned, Tiny Tina's adventure ends with a bang. There's even a link to what could eventually blossom into something bigger at the end of the line, but that's not for me to spoil here. Just know that the grind is certainly worth it, especially if you've been on board from the very beginning.

From the Pixie who adds special buffs as long as she's not provoked to the snarky commentary from the Vault Hunters and malevolent wizards, Assault on Dragon Keep is a playful nod to tired fantasy tropes permeating the world of RPGs, simultaneously playing to them and turning them on their head. It's a surrealistic trip through the imagination of a manic little girl who can't quite grasp the fact that for some of her friends, there's no coming back.

IGN - 9.2/10

Like Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is an example of how DLC can match, and in some ways surpass the quality of the original release. With eight to 10 hours of brand-new enemies and locations that have been built from the ground up to look like nothing else in all of Borderlands, it offers a great value, especially to those who can appreciate the cavalcade of nerd culture references it makes. Sure, the loot rewards are a bit light, but the chance to give a virtual King Joffrey a proper smack in the face with the butt-end of a rifle will be reward enough.

Eurogamer - 7/10

Is Dragon's Keep fun but lacking surprises?

Almost, but not quite. Woven into Tiny Tina's narrative is something that actually feels like a bit of a reach for this series - an attempt to add a little more heart and soul to the characterisations as this strange game of B&B builds towards an unusually emotional climax.

Without spoiling anything: does it work? Not entirely. But it is, unsurprisingly, just the kind of trick one of those special long-running TV shows might try to pull now and then - a bit of heavy-handed schmaltz to break up the glib anarchy, a lunge at tonal variation to bring depth to some increasingly harshly delineated cast members.

Nice try, Borderlands. Where next?

Destructoid - 9/10

Looking back, although I did enjoy Captain Scarlett and Mr. Torgue, neither of them were nearly as in-depth as this DLC, which is a benchmark for future Gearbox add-ons. Although they could have stood to have gone a little farther with the concept, if you can only choose one campaign, this is easily it.

Digital Trends - 9/10

Gearbox Software ends its run of Borderlands 2 DLC on the highest note possible… assuming of course that it’s really all done. The four packs attached to the game’s Season Pass have all now been released, but the story wrap-up definitely leaves a door open for at least one more romp with your battle-hardened Vault Hunters. Whether or not there’s more to come, the stuff that’s here is the best we’ve seen yet, no question. If you’ve been looking for a reason to head back to Pandora, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is it.

Finally there is a video review at GameTrailers thay gives the game a 8.8/10.

2K Games announces the release of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. The game can be bought for $9.99 on Steam.

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep features the popular Tiny Tina as she takes on the role of Bunker Master in a game of “Bunkers and Badasses.” Players join the vault hunters on an epic quest of revenge and redemption through dynamic and fantastical settings filled with castles, dungeons and magic forests. Borderlands fans will also fight off more new unique enemy types in Dragon Keep than in all three of the previous add-on campaigns combined, including sorcerers, wizards, orcs, dragons and more.

“The Borderlands franchise has set a high bar for the quality and value of add-on content,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “Today, that bar is raised even higher with the release of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, the most substantial add-on campaign in the franchise’s history.”

“As Bunker Master, Tiny Tina can change the game scenario however she wishes, making Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep the most dynamic add-on campaign Gearbox Software has ever produced,” said Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software. “The Borderlands 2 development team here at our studio really pulled out all the stops to create what we think is the best value in DLC ever offered.”

GamersBliss has a new video interview and preview with the lead level designer at Gearbox for Borderlands 2 Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC.

A new trailer shows off the first five or so minutes of gameplay from Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep the next DLC for Borderlands 2. The DLC is due next week.

Check out the first five minutes of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, out June 25th, 2013.

2K Games released a new Q&A video hosted by Borderlands 2 writer Anthony Burch, creative director Paul Hellquist, and Gearbox VP Steve Gibson. The five and a half minute video answers questions from fans about characters, gameplay and future releases.

We asked you for your questions on Borderlands 2. Here are some of them answered by Steve, Paul and Anthony from Gearbox!

Games.On.Net has a two part interview with Borderlands 2 Anthony Burch.

When we learned that the final piece of Borderlands 2 DLC saw players jumping into a D&D game narrated by Tiny Tina, we knew that we had to sit down and speak to the man behind it all — Anthony Burch.

GON: When you’re making a D&D borderlands game do you have to take into account any of the meta level of play that players will be experiencing? I mean I don’t think Borderlands is a necessarily very serious game to begin with but if you’re going to run a game inside a game you’ve got another meta-level of concern to deal with. Does that mean you’ve got to be really careful with how the DM interacts or are you just balls-out and Tiny Tina changes things on the fly?

Anthony: The exact thing you just said. The balls thing. It wasn’t something we had to worry about, it was an opportunity. Because now when you’re in a world that is completely under the control of a character you suddenly can do things you couldn’t do before because you would have had to explain them. Like “Oh suddenly this boss fight changes from one boss to another one just because Tina got bored halfway through” or “Oh there’s no bar in this little village — well now there is because one just appears”. It’s really freeing to actually just do stuff like that and have it be explained by Tina’s whimsy or whatever the hell.

And not only that but it also allows you to surprise the player in a number of ways, like we have a quest “Oh solve this riddle, roll this insight stat to see if you can solve a riddle” and Brick rolls his dice too hard — and in front of the player the person who asked them the riddle gets crushed by an enormous ten-foot tall D20 that kills him because Brick threw his dice too hard and broke the miniature. Being able to play around with the meta-level influencing the game you’re inside was a real strength and something that I think will hopefully keep players surprised. It’s what I was talking about before with the idea that Tina is dealing with this death so she’s bringing in characters from the meta-level, her real life and her memory, into the game you’re playing as a way of coping with it. I think that’s one of the things that makes the experience kind of really interesting.

I mean we could have just said “Okay you go to an island on Pandora that’s got orcs on it” and that would have been kinda boring. But I think the fact that you’re within a fictional fantasy world that Tina is controlling give us all these crazy options in terms of gameplay scenarios.

Borderlands 2 Tiny Tina's Assault DLC marketing is in full gear. Today I have a few previews, and a playthrough video. Also fair warning the video might be a spoiler to some.

Destructoid

Dragon Keep will also have its own circle of slaughter, not unlike what was seen in the main game. There is round-based arena combat, though these will have traps and badass level enemies for some rounds, among other changes. And as always, you can expect new raid bosses.

All told, there are plenty of reasons to look forward to Dragon Keep. Tina's story of recovery looks genuinely interesting, the fantasy world is truly unlike anything the series has seen before, and it's all wrapped up in that trademark Borderlands over-the-top humor. Vault Hunters, we've got one last tour of duty before leaving Pandora.

Shacknews

Tina's quest isn't itself all that revolutionary. Helquist describes it as "generic fantasy," but the twist comes from the conversation at the table changing the game world on the fly. You'll be exploring a setting different from the others on Pandora, complete with trees, clouds, and a brighter color palette. Even the vending machines have gotten a makeover, and the DLC introduces new class mods with titles like "Lawful Good Ranger" and "Chaotic Neutral Sorceress." A new pixie enemy is a series first, as it only attacks you if you attack it first. If you instead hit the action command, it can follow you around for buffs.

"There is a line at the end of this DLC that implies something very definite but I don't know if we're going to follow up on it or not," Burch said. "We leave the door open for a couple of very specific things at the end of this DLC but this DLC is hopefully going to be the epilogue to the Borderlands 2 tale. So there's a little something to maybe look forward to in another adventure. There's something in there but it's not an explicit promise."

And here is the video from VideoGamesUncovered.

Gearbox Software has started their promotional campaign for the fourth and last downloadable expansion for Borderlands 2. They have released a special piece of artwork that depicts Roland and Ellie fighting off hordes of skeleton warriors.

The Twitter EchoCasts account is also currently under the control of Tiny Tina. Expect to hear some more details in the near future.

Take-Two annouced their sale figures.  Borderlands 2 is shaping up to be 2K's best selling title with close to six million shipped and sold.

Borderlands 2 is sneaking up on the 6 million mark for units shipped, and well on the way to exploding 2K Games' sales records. Speaking in yesterday's financials call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the rambunctious shooter was the company's biggest earner in terms of digital sales across the fiscal year.

"Building on its extraordinary launch in September, Borderlands 2 continues to expand its audience and remains on pace to become the highest-selling title in 2K's history," said Zelnick. "It has also been the largest contributor to our digitally delivered revenue this year, driven both by strong sales of full game downloads, and high attach rates for the title's add-on content, especially the Borderlands 2 Season Pass."

The Gearbox-developed sequel had shipped over 5 million back in October 2012. While shipments aren't the same as sales, it's worth noting the original Borderlands sold 4.5 million copies as of August 2011.

IGN has a new video with Lead writer Anthony Burch. He walks you through Borderlands 2's new Psycho Krieg, and all the carnage he is capable of.

Gearbox tweets that May 14th is the release date for Krieg the Psycho.

Introducing the new vault hunter and playable class, Krieg the Psycho!

Krieg will be available May 2013 as a character add-on pack!

The next bit of DLC for Borderlands 2 is called Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, and it will be released in June. The news comes from VG247 and IGN.

Gearbox Software has released a trailer called Mayhem Approaching, thus teasing a new DLC. This new DLC will be announced at PAX East this year.  You can watch the trailer here.

 Gameshampoo has reviewed this dlc giving it a score of 8.5/10 . A snip from the review:

Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt represents perhaps the biggest shift in visual tone for the game since it has been released, and that's much appreciated. It goes a long way towards making the game's enemies and weapons feel new and fresh again, something that does the heart well after pumping over 100 hours into the massive game. Clearly, a lot of effort was put into the design of the new enemies. Facing down the tribally terrifying Witch Doctor or the tricky Floating Spores is always a blast.

Metro has also reviewed this dlc, score is 7/10 . A snip from the review:

The new area called Aegrus is based on a sort of ’30s Hollywood view of Africa, but although it’s all clearly meant to be a joke – an attack even, on the romanticising of colonialism – it doesn’t quite work. At the end of the day you’re still shooting stereotyped natives dressed in loincloths and voodoo masks, which is not the same sort of distasteful we usually expect from Borderlands. The add-on’s best jokes are still all smutty innuendo and pop culture references. And so rather than purposefully trying to make you feel uncomfortable it instead feels more like the developers themselves started to get cold feet halfway through.

Eurogamer's review for this dlc concludes with a score of 8/10 .  A snip from the review:

What they are entirely comfortable with, however, is creating another memorable guest star in the shape of Professor Nakayama, an evil scientist in the making who's both cripplingly aware of his own shortcomings and woefully unprepared for the task of world domination he's given himself. An enthusiastic acolyte of Handsome Jack, the dark Disney prince of Borderlands 2's central campaign, Nakayama's hit upon the idea of cloning his psychotic hero, thus taking control of Pandora. The storyline that unfolds is fairly compact compared to those of the previous two add-on episodes, but it's still stuffed with a series of decent boss battles, a truly stellar final joke, and an armory to raid that, for me at least, offered some of the best loot I've ever netted in a single session.

These three websites have also posted reviews for this dlc:

Crave Online, 6/10

Complex Gaming, 9/10

MTV Multiplayer, scoreless

IGN has reviewed the DLC Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt for Borderlands 2.  The score is
6.9 and here's a snip:

How different can it really feel? The answer is "a lot," and in this case different doesn't mean better. Big Game Hunt manages to stay just enjoyable enough to get a pass, but it's still easily the weakest add-on Gearbox has put on the table for Borderlands 2 thus far.

Courtesey of Gamebanshee comes news that the dlc Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt has been released. A snip then, from the press release which you can read it in full here.

Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt takes place in Aegrus, the uncharted territory deep in the swamps of Pandora and features new appearances by familiar friends like Sir Hammerlock and Claptrap. It also introduces some all-new characters, like Hyperion Scientist Professor Nakayama, who wants nothing more than to derail your hunting trip. With Borderlands 2's cheeky adventurer as their guide, vault hunters will explore the all-new environments of The Sun Swamps while on memorable quests to collect irresistible new loot and fight devastating new bosses, such as the cave-dwelling beast Thermitage.

Eurogamer reviews the latest Borderlands 2 DLC, Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, with a score of 8/10:

The storyline that unfolds is fairly compact compared to those of the previous two add-on episodes, but it's still stuffed with a series of decent boss battles, a truly stellar final joke, and an armory to raid that, for me at least, offered some of the best loot I've ever netted in a single session. (It's worth noting, incidentally, that although the narrative takes place after the end of Borderlands 2, you won't need to finish the game to access it. You will need to have at least a level 30 character to have fun, though.)

The campaign might be ever so slightly on the short side, but more than any previous DLC, this one's about the side quests. These send you racing around the game's new areas tracking down legendary creatures to kill, collecting giant eggs and even cleaning up pools of animal urine. There are a couple of bosses who come with neat gimmicks - one's bulletproof unless you turn your back on him, for example, while another has to be finished off in under a minute - and there's also a high-level monster who will require a party to take down.

Here is a brief collection of previews of the thrid Borderlands 2 DLC Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt.

IGN

Big Game Hunt brings back Sir Hammerlock, the prissy gentleman of Pandora who serves as your guide as you venture boldly into harrowing new environments. You join Hammerlock on a hunting adventure, and many quests involve tracking down and killing beasts. Sometimes this might be a familiar enemy type, but Big Game Hunt is full of new creatures to battle, such as long-legged insectile behemoths and floating spore enemies that break apart and harm you with elemental damage.

GameSpy

Now, for the question you've all been waiting to have answered: does Big Game Hunt raise the level cap? Sadly, no. However, Producer James Lopez said Gearbox has heard the fan outcry for a level bump, and it has major plans to do just that. He shied away from sharing any specifics, other than that the additions will be "considerable," and give hardcore Borderlands fans reason for a third playthrough. Not a second, mind you, but a third. Gearbox will have much more to say on the matter in early 2013.

Destructoid

One of the things this add-on gets better than its predecessor is the combat. While Campaign of Carnage's enemies were just re-skins of the core game's enemies, Big Game Hunt bring an entirely new, fresh batch of baddies. The core of combat is spent fighting Savages. If Aegrus is a spoof of Skull Island, then Savages are caricatures of Skull Island's natives. These guys are fast and ferocious, but aren't too much of a challenge if you know how to deal with melee-focused enemies.

GameTrailers has a video preview up.

According to VG247, the next Borderland 2 DLC will be titled Sir Hamerlock's Big Game Hunt:

In more Borderlands 2 news, it looks as though the next DLC to hit the game will be called Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt. The DLC was outed on Gearbox’s forums, and the title of the DLC was confirmed to Polygon by a representative for the developer – although no additional information was provided. Get more through the links. 

SaveGame must be one of the latest to review Borderlands 2, but still here it is with a score of 8 out of 10.

The old engineering maxim of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” hold true for Borderlands 2; from a narrative and gameplay perspective not a lot has changed since the original. If you played the first game or any FPS with light RPG aspects you’ll get the hang of this pretty quickly and be slaughtering your way through Pandora’s terrifyingly dangerous and aggressive flora and fauna in no time.

Is there anything that isn’t dangerous on Pandora? Some of the Claptraps perhaps, but I digress…

While I truly doubt there’s as many new guns as advertised, the range on offer is pretty damn mind-boggling. I kept away from the more esoteric fair and still managed to kill most things with a trusty revolver. Borderlands 2 proves the old maxim that if you put enough rounds into anything, eventually it’ll go down. Even if it is a giant laser-belching skag…

The new player classes are familiar archetypes, but there are some tweaks to make them different enough to the original game’s classes. Character wise though they are new and entertaining characters, and Gearbox has wisely put in ways to learn about the other new Vault Hunters even in a single player game to make you want to play through each of the classes. A fifth class is available at time of writing, which I hope to check out at a later date. The only noticeable difference in the RPG elements is the Badass Ranking system; completing challenges grants perks for various player stats. The challenges keep within the spirit of the game, being either violent, ridiculous, or both.

Here are 3 more reviews of the Bordelands 2 DLC Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage.

ThumbActive, a 'mint' score:

How much you get out of Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage really depends on your relationship to the existing game. For players still enjoying the Borderlands experience looking for new content to scratch that itch it is a welcome addition. However for those perhaps starting to tire of the game this DLC really doesn’t offer anything new or fresh to spice things up. Of course, the issue is moot if you have purchased the season pass, which is why the little cynical voice in my head is ringing imaginary alarm bells. Such a promising first start to the 4 content packs for Borderlands 2 will have inspired many to invest in the season pass to save some money, but to see the Gearbox team seemingly running low on ideas this quickly is a little disheartening.

Dusty Cartridge, 8:

Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is a great addition to the Borderlands franchise. Fans of the series will love the extra content and will be extremely satisfied with the continuation of its great writing and comedy. Its greatest strength is also somewhat of a weakness, the DLC plays it too safe to be truly great. You're not missing out on too much of the overall Borderlands experience if you don't pick up this particular DLC.

Metro UK, 8:

Another meaty chunk of downloadable content for Borderlands 2, with a great mix of play styles and some wonderfully OTT quests and characters.

VG247 talks with Borderlands 2 writer Anthony Burch in a video interview about writing comedy in games:

With games becoming more comedic, Sam Clay asked the lead writer of Borderlands 2, Anthony Burch, what his thoughts were on the subject. How difficult is it to write comedy for games? Easier than a stand-up comedian?

Borderlands’ tongue-in-cheek comedy could be compared in humour to a stand-up comedian’s gags or a radio sketch. How’s it done? What’s the key to making the player laugh? And what actually is funny in a video game?

Here is a next overview of reviews for the Borderlands 2 DLC Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage.

• Gamer Syndrome, 7.5
  Mr Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage was overall a fun ride. Lasting around 5-6 hours, you get exactly what you expect: an arena with boss battles and a few quests. From a gameplay point of view it’s the Borderlands we all love, so no problems here: my only gripes were with the repetitive subquests and the sudden difficulty spikes. If you loved Borderlands 2 you must get this new DLC, if you feel kinda burned out on the game I recommend waiting a bit before getting this DLC: all the shooting included may worsen you Borderlands sickness.
• GameReactor, 8
  In the end, it is easy to recommend Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage to all Borderlands 2 owners. This is a fully-stocked expansion that differs radically from Captain Scarlett's, even if it skimps on the good humour we're used to by now. It's well worth paying a visit as Gearbox continue to prove that they best understand how DLC should look, function and cost.
• About.com
  "Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage" promise 8-10 more hours of gameplay for what was already one of the biggest, most replayable games of the year for only ten bucks. And it comes to gamers not merely as more quantity but more explosive action with its own distinct personality. This is how DLC is done.
• Eurogamer, 9
  As with all DLC of this type, Campaign of Carnage is more like a house extension than a new build, and as such it benefits from all of the rhythms and systems of its overarching game structure: experience points, weapons and cash earned here feeding into the broader Borderlands 2 economy. As such, Gearbox has been able to focus on the narrative elements, on the characterisation, on finding the most outrageous tasks for you to perform at the behest of Mr Torgue. Lean, crafted, memorable, enriching and funny, the Campaign of Carnage is yet more evidence that nobody does post-release game expansion better than the Borderlands team. Essential.
  
  
  

Here is an overview of reviews for the recently released DLC for Borderlands 2, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage.

• Crave Online, 8.5
  Overall, I enjoyed this DLC but have some concerns about the uneven difficulty. For a game that normally does such a great job giving players a heads-up when tackling an enemy beyond their skillset, it's disappointing to run into this brick wall. Fortunately, the storytelling and several hours of new gameplay make this a must buy for anyone who’s finished the main storyline of Borderlands 2. For the rest of you, what the hell is taking you so long - finish the game, dammit!
• DealSpawn, 7
  The biggest problem with Mr. Torgue's Campaign Of Carnage is that it doesn't make the most of its setting. The idea of actually participating in a tournament was interesting but underused. Motorbikes plague your every step... but why can't we drive one? As mentioned, the amount of genuinely new content is fairly small and the uninspired environments usually fail to impress. Captain Scarlett And Her Pirate's Booty arguably spoiled us with its sense of adventure, grand scale, new enemies and hovercraft, making the latest DLC pack feel just a little bit limp.
• Coin-Op.tv
  Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage provides plenty of the signature over-the-top action and personality that fans have come to love and expect in the series, adding about 6-8 hours total gameplay in this single content pack. This DLC is a far cry from the Mad Moxxi content it will inevitably be compared to, with far more interesting characters and bosses to battle. Featuring the improved narrative quality of Borderlands 2 as compared to its predecessor, Mr. Torgue’s is a welcome treat for fans of the series that should not be missed.
• Gamer Euphoria, 9
  Mr Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage is exactly as the title says; absolute and utter carnage. This new DLC from Gearbox brings back everything that made Borderlands 2 what it was but ramps it up into a crazy explosive frenzy of guts and glory. The writing is, as ever, hilariously off the wall and sometimes makes you question the sanity of the developers and writers. If you loved Borderlands 2 you’ll not want to miss out on this DLC.
• Kotaku
  Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage could've used the new vehicle it dangled in front of your nose. It could've used a new game mode. It could definitely have done with better loot, because even the vault's burst of new weapons didn't match up with what I already had in my inventory, a scenario that will likely be similar for many of you who have already dug lots of hours into the game. But even with the glaring omissions, it's hard to argue with the super burly dude who has a penchant for inserting curse words into practically every syllable. Seriously, don't argue with him. He yells a lot.
• IGN, 9.2
  If you want to know what Borderlands 2 is all about, Campaign of Carnage is the perfect crash course. It takes the satisfying shooting action, the well-tuned loot hunt, and the inimitable character of the core game, amps it up, and beams it straight into your brain without ever stopping to breathe

WE have a bunch of reviews of Borderland's 2 latestt DLC Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage collected for you, but first the official annoucement:

Get ready, Vault Hunters -- Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, the second downloadable campaign add-on for Borderlands 2, is coming your way next week!

This story-driven expansion challenges players to conquer all that the titular Mr. Torgue has waiting in his newly-constructed Badass Crater of Badassitude, complete with a new storyline, new areas and environments, new bosses, new guns, new character customizations and more. In addition, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage features appearances from fan-favorite characters like Tiny Tina and Mad Moxxi!

Available for download on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 beginning next Tuesday, November 20, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is the second of four add-on campaigns announced for Borderlands 2 and will be available for $9.99 / 800 Microsoft Points by itself or as part of the Borderlands 2 Season Pass which bundles all four campaign add-ons for $29.99 / 2400 Microsoft Points.

And now to the previews:

• IGN
  The basic story of Campaign of Carnage revolves around a new vault discovered in Pandora, buried in the center of a large crater that will only open “once the champion of Pandora feeds it the blood of the ultimate coward.” Your introduction to Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage comes via Mr. Torgue himself, screaming at you like a terrifying mix of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage with a deep love for explosions.
• Gamespot
  A video preview
• Kotaku
  I played through one of the main stages, which puts you in an arena where you fight against waves of baddies. Unlike the Mad Moxxi DLC arena, this new area will have enemies fighting each other too. It's every man, freak and midget for himself. That's a good thing, because Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is difficult. So when you're hiding somewhere, hoping to regen your health, you're praying that your enemies become too preoccupied with each other to bother hunting you down.
• Eurogamer
  “The Campaign of Carnage takes that same style of horde mode,” says Burch, “but that's only about 50 per cent of the DLC. The other 50 per cent is the campaign, the plot. The first game was like, 'Here's a horde mode, do it over and over again.' This is more of a campaign that, if you want to treat it like a horde mode, with repeating rounds and increasing difficulty, we have those side quests there. Some people thought [Underdome Riot] got a little too repetitive.”
• Gamespy
  Gearbox says we will see some new enemies and boss fights, including a monster truck rally-inspired fire-breathing robot, and there'll be some new heads available for character customization. There are also new Torgue vending machines that only sell Torgue weapons and only take Torgue tokens earned in the arena fights, but will always offer a powerful legendary item as the deal of the day. And of course, there will be some new legendaries added to the mix.
• Digital Spy
  As with the core campaign itself, one of the major highlights is the characters you find along the way. Without divulging spoilers, two familiar faces make a welcome re-appearance to help train and sponsor you to the top of the leaderboards.
  But the star of the show is Torgue himself, the muscular and loud tournament organiser who helps advise with your current objective throughout the expansion.
  
  

The next DLC for Borderlands 2 has been announced and is named Mr Torgue’s Campaign Of Carnage. Mr. Torque (a wepaons manufacturer in the game) has his own twitter account where the DLC was kind of announced:

ARE YOU A BADASS ENOUGH BADASS TO SURVIVE “MISTER TORGUE’S CAMPAIGN OF CARNAGE”? I’M LEGIT CURIOUS CAUSE I DUNNO YOU THAT WELL #BADASSITUDE

On this account he also gives us the video below about Torque guns and this image.

The DLC will be equally priced at 800 points.

Gearbox Software announced that Borderlands 2 will get a Mac Version. It is being developed by Aspyr Media:

"Aspyr prides itself on bringing the best in gaming to the Mac audience,” said Aspyr vice president Ted Staloch. “Borderlands 2 is definitely among the best. Most sequels have a hard time living up to the first, but Borderlands 2 manages to improve on every cool aspect of Borderlands, and still finds a way to wrap the player up in a new story with a new experience."

It'll be released on November 20th 2012.

A video review of Borderlands 2 is to be found at AlloySeven. They have divided the world of RPG players up in to 10 different types and give advice to each type of player on whether this game will suit them or not.

Here is the overview of those who will enjoy it accorind to AlloySeven:

Action Junkies - Borderlands 2 is one high-intensity combat sequence after another. Toss in the excellent, spot-on controls and button-mapping and the improved inventory interface and you've got a game that no Action Junkie should pass on, period.

Collaborators - This game is definitely better when played with friends. Gearbox clearly made Borderlands 2 to appeal to collaborators--they've provided incentives for friends or even strangers to play the game together. The game increases the difficulty level, gives you more money and drops better loot in proportion to the amount of people you have in your squad. On top of that, Borderlands 2 cooperative play is completely seamless. No ridiculous pre-game menus to sift thru. Just find a game, jump in and all your progress comes with you. This edition even gives you the option to skip over portions of your single-player game that you've completed with friends their games.

Explorers - Many people refer to the Borderlands games as "open-world" or "sandbox" titles. While this assessment is not incorrect, I do want to make a point to you more enthusiastic explorers out there. The world in Borderlands 2 is not completely open. It's a collection of decent-sized maps tied together by travel-hub loading screens and navigated by a stationary fast-travel system.

So don't think Elder Scrolls openess where you have the freedom to basically walk to anything you can see or immediately fast-travel to any location you've already visited. Don't let this discourage you, though. The real feeling of exploration comes from how the game allows you to approach enemy locations and combat situations with a large degree of freedom. Bottom line--Exploration is Borderlands 2 is open enough for most explorers to at least be satisfied if not blown away.

Audiophiles - I believe Borderlands 2 should be seen as the standard for how to execute a dynamic soundtrack. Not only is the music itself amazing, but the way it adjusts to what you are doing in the game is absolutely on point. The music, voice acting and sound effects all had a direct positive impact on my game experience. Extreme Audiophiles that need a dope soundtrack to pull them into their games should not be disappointed here.

I'd like to note that the voice acting is also handled dynamically. When I would encounter a battle with enemies around the same level as me, they would taunt me and talk a lotta smack. When I would either beat them down or encounter enemies much weaker than me, they would whine about me leaving them alone or at least ask that I don't loot their equipment once I killed them. Very well done.

Builders - The builder or customization elements of Borderlands 2 were what initially hooked me. However, by the time I started my 2nd playthru on true vault hunter mode, I was a bit burnt out because of the slow leveling progression. This game starts out significantly more difficult than the original (at least that was my experience playing as the Assassin). This makes it all the more sweet when you level up, enter skill points and return to an area where you got your ass handed to you to whoop some ass of your own.

With that said, if you are like me and plan to put in many hours of play beyond simply beating the game, be aware that the repetitive nature of Borderands 2 might begin to wear on you. Also, leveling from 40-50 seemed like an absolute chore--especially considering the sweet level-50 loot I'd been holding and could not use. EXP gets way too scarce too early in my opinion.

Achievers - For you completionists and achievement junkies out there, Borderlands 2 offers quite a bit to do. And aside from a few tedious achievements, most of it is a whole lot of fun.

Borderlands 2 has been patched taking the version to 1.1.2 on both PC and on Xbox 360:

A quote from the PC update:

You can download the latest Borderlands 2 update by restarting Steam. All updates are cumulative; you only need to install the most recent version to receive all updates. Update v1.1.2 (Released 10/17/2012) Prevents data instability when launched with unsupported commands.

And a quote for the rather lengthy changelog for Xbox 360

0/22/12 Update

Fixed player first-person arms appearing too far up or down the screen when in horizontal/vertical split mode.

Fixed players losing ammo when reloading a savegame with max ammo and a stockpile relic equipped.

Fixed the vendor UI sometimes showing a count of 1 less item in the player's backpack than is actually there.

Fixed fast travel stations from downloadable content sometimes disappearing when loading a saved game.

Fixed players getting stuck in a white box when two people try to travel at once and one is in a vehicle.

Allowed players to trade with each other when at maximum backpack capacity if they're trading the same number of items with each other.

Fixed clients sometimes losing access to fast travel stations unlocked during co-op progression.

Fixed the favorite/trash icons on inventory items sometimes disappearing when scrolling the inventory list.

Added safeguards against the game getting stuck on a 'Saving...' prompt when a client with a splitscreen player saves and quits the game under specific rare circumstances.

Here is a fresh list of reviews for the recently released Borderlands 2 DLC Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty.

• Gamespot, 7
• GameTrailers (video review)
• GamingExaminer
• Hard reset, 4.5/5
• IGN, 7.5
• Just Push Start, 4.5/5
• Metro, 8
• Newbreview, 4.5/5

Here is a collection of reviews for the Borderlands 2 DLC Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty:

• Destructoid, 8
  As seamlessly as Captain Scarlett fits into Borderlands 2 proper, it's obvious to me that this was clearly designed to be post-game DLC. Quests, loot, and enemies of course scale to the current level of any wayward adventurers to stumble into Oasis (indeed, the town is immediately accessible from any Fast Travel station), but my advice is to nevertheless wait until you're finished with at least your first playthrough.
• Forbes (part 1)
  It also points to Gearbox’s strategy going forward, which is to make Borderlands 2 a time-suck that lasts long into the future with regularly spaced new content, bosses, and loot – something the folks at Blizzard need to pay close attention to when thinking about the future of Diablo III, a game in desperate need of its very own Captain Scarlett.
• Gamespy, 4/5
  Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty gets Borderlands 2's four planned DLC expansions off to a very good start, and it's well worth the asking price. I just hope there's another Handsome Jack on Pandora somewhere, twisting his mustache while plotting his grand DLC entrance.
• Eurogamer, 9
  Captain Scarlett gets so much right that it's hard to squeeze criticisms past its formidable shield. Some of the later missions become a bit too fetch-questy, perhaps, as a horny old hermit sends you scavenging for ECHO recorders then sends you off again to collect a special ore.
• G4
  Pirate’s Booty won’t be a game changer, but it gives players more than enough to chew on until the next DLC comes out. 
• GameKicker, 8.5
  With its pirate theme, Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty is the most novel of all the DLC in the series so far. It does fit with the Borderlands 2 universe, especially when this design doesn’t come at the expense of the series’ core gameplay. In all, it’s a solid start to what is to be a promising roll out of Borderlands 2 DLC and it’s an especially manageable adventure if you’re level 15 or higher in your current playthrough.
• GamesBeat, 8.5
  Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty offers almost everything a Borderlands 2 fan might want in their DLC, but it all ends up being a little too expected to truly achieve ground-breaking status.
• Kotaku
  The first campaign DLC is a hefty serving of more of that crazy humor, creative enemies and glorious loot from the main game.

We received the following press release from 2K Games:

Get Tons of New Loot and ‘Pirate Booty’ with First Add-On Content Campaign for Borderlands^® 2 - Now Available Worldwide

‘Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty’ immerses players in an all-new storyline, expansive environments, and hours of additional shooter-looter action

New York, NY – October 16, 2012 – 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced today that the first add-on content campaign for Borderlands® 2, Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty, is now available for download worldwide on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. In Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty, up to four players cooperatively enter the hostile sand dunes and wastelands of Pirate Bay in search of ancient treasures. The add-on content campaign features new characters, including the eccentric and eager Shade; locations such as the town of Oasis; enemies including the Sand Pirates and Anchormen; and special weapons and loot that make it a must-play experience. No trip to Pandora is complete without a stop in Pirate Bay.

Captain Scarlett and the Pirate’s Booty is the first of four add-on content campaigns for Borderlands 2. These four add-on content campaigns will be available individually or as a combined purchase of the Borderlands 2 Season Pass. This special offer, available now, includes nearly $40.00 of add-on content and is available for $29.99 (PlayStation®Network) / 2400 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network) / $29.99 (Windows PC). Once purchased, the Borderlands 2 Season Pass enables gamers to download all of the announced add-on content campaigns as they become available on the PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE and Windows PC. All four add-on content campaigns are scheduled to be available by June 2013.

Also available now is a fifth playable character class, Gaige, the Mechromancer. This mechanically menacing teenager summons a giant robot she named Deathtrap that, through various devastating ranged and melee attacks, helps Gaige and her fellow vault hunters clear the battlefield of enemies. The Mechromancer character class is a separate piece of downloadable content and is free to all customers who pre-ordered Borderlands 2 at participating Premiere Club retailers and is available to anyone else for $9.99 (PlayStation®Network) / 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE online entertainment network) / $9.99 (Windows PC).  Customers who purchase the Mechromancer will also be rewarded with other Premiere Club bonuses including a free Golden Key and Lucky’s Relic.

CBS Springfield has news about this DLC for Borderlands 2. It will be released on October 16th 2012 - a snip from the press release:

The new campaign tasks players with battling new enemies like sand worms, hovering across the terrain in the new sand skiff vehicle and collecting a new currency called seraph crystals. Pitchford said the new campaign was designed with all players in mind - from those who haven't finished the game to the elite who are replaying it again to discover more swag. The add-on campaign is the first of four that Gearbox Software plans to release over the coming months. Each campaign will cost $9.99 each or $29.99 for a season pass that includes all four levels. Pitchford said other "Borderlands 2" downloadable content, such as the recently released Mechromancer class character Gaige, would be separately available.

The achievements and trophies that were added in the Mechromancer DLC indicate that the next DLC might just be all about pirates called: "Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty." Check out Kotaku's website for more information.

Gamespy invested time in the Mechromancer DLC for Borderlands 2, concluding it is not worth the $10.

Back to the question at hand: is the Mechromancer Pack worth $10? Right now I would say no -- at least not unless you're already sick of playing as the four existing classes. And seriously, if you've played 160 hours in the past three weeks (which would be roughly seven hours per day since release), turn the PC off for a little while and go hug a human. Maybe in another few weeks, if your love of Borderlands 2 extends that far and long, then I would say yes, go ahead and relive the adventure again with a new character. Who knows? It might even go for cheap during the Steam Holiday Sale.

In a Twitter message Gearbox's Randy Pitchford announced that the Mechromancer DLC will be available a week earlier, which in effect is today.

So - here's the surprise, Mechromancer for Borderlands 2 is ready about a week earlier than I promised. Oct 9, all platforms.

Randy Pitchford is interviewed by rawDLC on Borderlands 2 in this video interview:

In the odd case that someone actually reads all this stuff, here is a new (probably incomplete) collection of Borderlands 2 reviews from the last 48 hours.

• The Play Vault
• Press2Reset, a tech review
• The Escapist, a video review
• G2PO, a video review
• Old67
• Blast Magazine, 9
• Talking About Games, B
• GameStooge, 4/5 stars
• Robots Gone Bad, 9
• Rocket Chainsaw, 8
• Zero Puntuation, a video review
• Loadhouse, a video review
• Press and Guide, 9.5
• PSAddiction, 93%
• Cheatcodes, 9.8
• Gamerscoreaddicts

Planet Xbox 360 interviewed Jesper Kyd and Cris Velasco on the music and other Borderlands 2 stuff.

AMANDA DYAR: You're clearly one of the best composers in any industry, and we were lucky enough to talk with you about the amazing work you did on Darksiders II earlier this year. With the numerous games you've worked on over the years, do you find that you can take anything from one experience to the next, and also more specifically, will we hear any of your songs returning from the original Borderlands for Borderlands 2?

JESPER KYD: Yes, I think it’s natural that you take a lot from one experience to the next. I’m always interested in finding new ways of creating music. And when you explore a certain style for one project, you often learn something new that you bring with you for the next project, even if it’s a completely different music style. As a composer you are always learning and challenging yourself.

The “Fyrestone” theme makes a return with a new arrangement to reflect the more industrial-developed feel. However, there are so many new areas in Borderlands 2, compared to the first game, that the vast majority of the music is brand new.

For those who are looking into discovering the differences in the Borderlands 2 reviews we have a new overview of reviews that showed up in the last 24 hours (and probably still missing some).

• Front Towards Gaming, 9.5
• 4Player, 9.0
• Saving Content, 4/5 stars
• The Devil's Gameroom, 9.5
• Examiner
• Tech2, 8.5
• Gaming Illustrated, 9.0
• 248am, 4.5/5 stars
• Split Screen Gaming, 4/5
• PC Advisor, 4/5 stars
• EVGA gaming
• Empire Online, 5 stars
• Entertainium, 4/5 stars
• GameFacePlus
• NZGamer, 9.0
• In Motion Gaming, 4.something stars
• The Vine Life, 9.0
• PSRGaming, 9.5
• Active Respawn, 9.0
• Game Judgement, 9.0
• Original Gamer, 10
• Glitch Cat, 9.5
• Nisute
• Vortez
• Hardlocp

Here are some new reviews of Borderlands 2 that showed up in the last few days.

Parable Games gives the game a 9.1:

In similar vein to almost the entirety of Borderlands 2, the mission system is exactly like it is in Borderlands, but bigger and better. Quests are activated by either a Bulletin Board or by one of the various NPCs dotted throughout each location, with missions ranging from generic fetch and collection quests to storming an enemy fortress. It’s what we come to expect from Borderlands and it accomplishes its goals well. The humour and memorable NPCs characteristic of a Borderlands title are back in force with their hit and miss humour and original quips, though this time a lot of old characters make a comeback, hitting those nostalgia switches hard.

The Truth About Guns 5/5 stars:

The gameplay is fantastic. The art is beautiful. The guns are insane. And the characters and dialogue is well written. But the real yardstick for how well a game is designed is how long it holds the player’s attention. Half-Life (the original) was an 8 hour game for me. So was Half-Life 2. Medal of Honor (the latest installment) was only a 4 hour game. Sniper Elite V2 was only 3. But Borderlands 2? So far, 30 hours. Beaten only by Fallout New Vegas at 33 hours, but I haven’t finished all the side quests yet in B2. Add on top of that the downloadable content that’s coming and you’ve easily got yourself 40 solid hours of gameplay.

Fruity Games with no score:

The least said about Borderlands 2 the better the experience will be for you, because everything will come more as a surprise to you. But if you've played Borderlands expect more of the same, just much more improved. The plot is a lot more focused resulting in a better all around experience, the customizable skill tree is a lot more advanced. Pretty much every feature from Borderlands other than the novelty as that's been scrapped, has been heavily improved upon. Is Borderlands 2 worth spending your hard earned cash on? Simply yes. Borderlands 2 is an amazing game that is easily up there with the best games of 2012 so far and will be in contention for game of the year at the end of 2012.

And finally OnRPG has some impressions:

Maya is a Siren, females born with innate elemental control that allows them to be the witches of the gunslinger outer-worlds. Though a certain man named Handsome Jack that we’ll talk about later is making a sport of removing their kind from existence. Playing Maya was quite a twist from her older counterpart, Lilith. No longer can you simply run through a group of bandits invincible doing passive lightning damage to dish a powerful final strike on the weakened badasses. Maya’s ability, phaselocking, adds an interesting dynamic to combat since one can either use it to temporarily disable the strongest opponent on the field or target trash to receive on-kill bonuses. Both approaches can be extremely effective, though your skill tree will dictate which is more ideal.

There is no shortage of Borderlands 2 reviews so here is a new list:

• Aggrogamer, no rating but they are positive
• Gamer Euphoria rate it 9.5
• Techno Buffalo, 9.0
• Gamer Nation, a video review
• Green Man Gaming
• CL Gamer, 9.0
• Major Spoilers, a video review
• Gamertag Radio, a viedeo review combined with a review of MoH.

Here are 4 reviews of Borderlands 2 and one review of a review of Borderlands 2.

Techland rates it 4 out of 5.

Pushsquare feels it being worthy a score of 8.

Frost Magazine has it at 85/100.

Gamesbeat are trying something new, called a threeview where a critic an analyst and an academic each review the game (all rate it above 90%).

And as a last entry there is a review of a review. Remember the odd review of Borderlands 2 by The Wallstreet Journal? Gameranx have analyzed that review and provide their thoughts on why someone could write somethink like that.

The author fills the piece with claims that he makes no attempt to back up, uses nonsensical unrelated images in the article's body and cites wikipedia for a plot summary; this last point is particularly odd, because it portrays events that were set-up narrative before the previous game began as if they unfold whilst you're playing. Most egregiously though he makes direct comparisons to features in entirely dissimilar titles with different production focus in order to suggest a fault on Gearbox's part for not including them. The game is not on par with a Call of Duty due to lacking a huge multiplayer, despite that not at all meshing with the kind of experience that it actually is; a co-op RPG with shooting mechanics.

Digital Foundry at Eurogamer has an editorial about the performance of Borderlands 2 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. An snip from the conclusion:

By comparison, the home console versions can't compete in the graphical arena, but they do have one benefit: split-screen mode. The performance may be on the erratic side at points, but it's a feature well worth having in a co-op orientated shooter. Much like the original game though, it's unfortunate that the UI still isn't scaled to fit the halved real-estate available to each player. After all the looting is done, it's still necessary to pan across the menus with the right analogue stick, making the process a tad more tedious than need be.

The Escapist has a scoreless review for this game.   A quote on combat:

This time around, more enemies require thought to defeat, ranging from something as simple as matching elemental damage types to preventing a thief from permanently absconding with valuable items from your sorely-limited backpack. One of the most interesting additions is the Goliath, a new, hulking, bandit-style enemy that flies into a rage when decapitated (and who wouldn't?), attacking everything in sight - other bandits included.

This game has now been released in North America. Courtesy of Gamebanshee here's a quote from the press release:

New York, NY – September 18, 2012 – 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced today the much anticipated Borderlands® 2 is now available in North America and will be available internationally on September 21, 2012 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. The four-player cooperative shooter-looter already has critics raving, with review scores of 9 out of 10 from IGN, 9.75 out of 10 from Game Informer and a perfect 10 out of 10 from PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

Here is a variety of newsbits on Borderlands 2, which could be more or less interesting to you.

GamesRadar lists 21 must-know facts on Borderlands 2:

Several companies vie for control of Pandora’s weapons supply by the time the Vault hunters arrive

Hyperion, Eridian, Jakobs, and, of course, Atlas and Dahl are but a fraction of the many gun makers whose weapons you’ll find on Pandora. Some of these companies play a major role in the game’s story, but all of them imbue their weapons with a unique flavor. Maliwan, for example, manufacturers weapons with elemental properties, such as fire or electric damage, while Tediore guns feature supremely fast reloading times at the expense of damage and accuracy. Nearly all of these manufacturers return in Borderlands 2.

Gamasutra interviewed level designer Carl Shedd on the culture of Gearbox that makes Borderlands 2 work.

To understand a game, says Shedd, "You have to play it. That's something with Borderlands 2 that we're always doing, we're always, constantly playing it. Really, you have to do that -- experience it and understand where it's at, so you can get an understanding of where you stand."

The practical upshot of this is that "we all know what our goal is when we build the space. We understand what this space was created for. We understand what story beats we're trying to hit with it, and then it's just that kind of tug of war -- a friendly tug of war -- in accommodating combat, gameplay, and then the visuals." The team tries to be as collaborative, and accommodating, as possible.

G4TV has a beginners guide:

Whether you're a veteran of 100+ hours in Borderlands or you're totally new to the world of Pandora, you're going to want to prepare for Gearbox Software's latest adventure. Borderlands 2 presents a much harsher existence for the now-hunted Vault Hunters, and for all the bajillions of new guns that you can play with, there is also a wide assortment of bigger and nastier baddies to shoot them at.

More Reviews on Borderlands 2 are available, with one sticking out!

The Wall Street Journal compares Borderlands 2 with games like COD and recieved a lot of criticism for it, as the comments on the interview show:

And Borderlands 2 misses on enough counts so that I not only didn’t joy puke, I didn’t even get a tiny bit of mirthful bile in my throat. It may be the game for you, but if you’re in the market for a new FPS, I’d at least counsel waiting to compare it to Black Ops 2, due out Nov. 13, or Halo 4, which is slated for a Nov. 6 release.

G4TV gives it the maximum score of 5 ot of 5:

Gearbox has evolved the way that the game deals with any progress you make in someone else's session. Say you jump into a friend's game after their first hour, and then proceed to play in co-op together for another four hours. When you start your own save for that character, you'll keep whatever level you were at and any gear you had, but you'll also be at the beginning of the game. Play through the first hour that you didn't do in co-op and you'll then be presented with a Yes/No prompt asking if you'd like to skip previously completed content. Choose yes, and the game will automatically whisk you ahead to wherever you were at when your co-op session ended.

Maturegaming also rates it with 5 out of 5:

Overall, Borderlands 2 is everything you ever wanted in a follow up game.  Borderlands 2 engages the fan, keeps the original features in tact that pulled fans in the first time around as well as expanding on and improving other areas without detracting from what made the game great in the first place, something that other studios may want to learn from.  Your time in Pandora will again be a memorable one and the crazy ride that it entails as well as the wacky characters, comedic storylines and over the top humour will firmly cement Borderlands 2 as one of the, if not THE Game Of The Year.

The Verge does not go with the flow and rate it 7.5/10:

Co-op and excellent writing make Borderlands 2 worth checking out, but it can't escape occasional bouts of fatigue and repetition. It creaks somewhat under the pressure of needing to be more without the lightning-in-a-bottle newness that propped Borderlands up. The shooting still lags behind other first-person frontrunners, and combat too often feels like an afterthought in Borderlands 2's enormous world. It's often mired in the design problems of the genres it borrows from.

Borderlands 2 has been released in the US (check out the launch trailer) and the reviews are pooring in. It looks like a critical success, with most reviews ranging from 8.5/10 and up. The loot, story and action are all praised in the main, though some of the side quests are criticised.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun lament the slow start - but then this:

But when it gets going, it really puts the pedal to the edge-shaded metal. When the thunder starts to roll, this game reveals itself to be a supercell of a storm.

Borderlands 2 is a minor masterpiece.

Running for cover, under a hail of gunfire, I systematically looted my way down a corridor, and under a canopy, suck ammo from cases and lockboxes as overhead flying enemies tried to blast me with electrical weapons. Bombs were going off, and robots were whirling and stomping towards me. I looked out ahead of me, to where the next slalom of gun-violence would take place, and I realised that the game was singing. Sure, the song was a familiar one about the explosive ending of men and monsters, but the melody was perfect. And more importantly, it had hit a rhythm. I had hit a rhythm, and I didn’t want to leave it.

Kotaku feels soloing is a challenge (though other reviews vary on this):

The commando’s turrets make that class probably the most ideal for a solo experience, but power in numbers is heavily emphasised here. You’ll certainly be facing off against an overwhelming swarm of enemies at once, so you might as well come packing. The swarms sometimes feel endless. Having a friend or three at your back can mean the difference between getting through a quest in an hour or getting through the same quest in 20 minutes. Even with skill points spent towards increased critical hit percentage, deadeye aim and some wildass smartbomb talent, it’s still preferable to play with friends to get through it all.

GameInformer - 9.75/10, the game is improved across the board:

While the new classes and focused narrative are the marquee bullet points when it comes to this sequel’s improvements, that’s barely scratching the surface of the multitude of smaller upgrades. Inventory management and the user interface are much better, allowing for simple buying, selling, and comparing of items. Character customization allows players to alter their classes with different heads and skins. A new token system rewards players for completing challenges by granting stat bonuses that carry over to any character on the same profile. Enemy characters are more varied, including both appearance and behavior. It’s now possible to crawl to safety while waiting for a partner to revive you. These may not all be blockbuster features on their own, but they all add up to a noticeably superior experience.

Joystiq - 4.5/5, on fedex quests:

Some of the quests are still hit and miss – fetch quests run rampant, and chasing down bandit caravans for scrap metal and jugs of booze is boring busywork – but the good far outshines the bad. It's certainly easier to recall some highlights: a pizza delivery mission involving some sewer-dwelling ninjas; a birthday party for a fan favorite character; or a quest to help Moxxi get even with an ex-boyfriend.

Destructoid - 8.5/10, on the PC version:

PC players will be happy to know that the game comes with some great customization options and looks stunning with settings maxed out. I was able to run the game at a very smooth framerate, despite having everything turned up high. The UI and controls are much kinder to keyboard/mouse players than thy were the first time around. Due to hand cramps, I switched between keyboard and controller but preferred the added accuracy and shortcuts that the keyboard/mouse combo offer. My only complaint is that there is no offline co-op, but that has more to do with Steam than Gearbox.

Eurogamer - 9/10, on gameplay:

The added complexity ensures that battles are utterly relentless in Borderlands 2, and the campaign focuses the chaos brilliantly, delivering the hectic precision of an FPS with the churn and pace of an MMO. Story missions are now a little more dynamic, with your agenda often changing over the course of a set-piece and your hand-ins offering a choice of outcomes and rewards, but the side quests are where it's really at. They step aside from the straight-ahead menace of Handsome Jack and allow you to revel in the dusty corners of this gloriously ramshackle world of hicks, palookas, tool-heads and reprobates.

GameSpot - 8.5/10

AtomicGamer - 10/10

Giant Bomb - 4/5

1Up - 'B'

IGN has completed their Borderlands 2 review, awarding a score of 9/10:

The main story’s good, but the best writing in Borderlands 2 comes from the side quests. If you played and enjoyed things like the General Knoxx or Claptrap DLC from the first game, then you’ll be in for a real treat throughout Borderlands 2’s more than 30 hours of game time. Each time the main story starts to slow down, you’re almost always given a number of sidequests to jump into. Mechanically they don’t do anything all that different from typical RPG “kill this” or “collect that” fodder quests, but the writing, presentation, and acting turn them into some of the most memorable content the game has to offer. For instance one mission has you fighting off a “splinter group” of ninja-like bandits who just so happen to live in a sewer, eat pizza and talk like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Another side quest tasks you with collecting body parts for a robot who wants to become human, and his take on humanity, as well as the way he talks, turns into genuine comedy. Not many games manage to make me literally laugh out loud, but Borderlands 2’s mixture of gutter humor and sharp wit did so repeatedly. Even when I had far out-leveled the sidequest content I couldn’t help but return to it, lest I miss out on something awesome.

While we're on Borderlands 2, Eurogamer has a piece about Gearbox' offices titled How Gearbox Broke the Bank for Borderlands 2.

IGN has started one of their multi-part work-in-progress reviews for Borderlands 2:

Outside of guns, Borderlands 2 presents ample opportunities to let your stats-obsessed side come out. Some of the most enticing drops end up being shields and class mods. Even the most boring shields have varying stats that affect their recharge rate and time before they start to recharge, but rarer pieces of equipment do cool things like explode in a burst of fire when depleted, which can be a huge boon when you’re surrounded. Class mods too have a dramatic effect on the way you play, with randomly generated stats that directly augment your talents and can give you dramatic boosts to important things like reload speed or damage with a particular weapon type. They can even give you boosts that apply to anyone else you’re playing with, making them particularly useful and great loot for the more party-oriented among you.

Gearbox Software has set the releasedate of the Mechromancer DLC for Borderlands 2 to October 16.

Mechromancer class will be FREE to Borderlands 2 Premiere Club members. Borderlands 2 Premiere Club membership is free to customers who pre-order Borderlands 2 with participating retailers. Check www.borderlands2.com for details. Mechromancer class will be released simultaneously for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points for customers who are not Premiere Club members.

Gamespy fired up their anti-hype machine and came up with 5 questions and concerns about Borderlands 2 labeled as critical of which this is one:

Still No Level Scaling

This one, sadly, is confirmed: if I have a level 30 character and you have a level 10, we can join each other's co-op game, but it's not fun. If I join your game I'll be one-shotting every enemy; if you join mine, every enemy will one-shot you. Just like last time, the only way to play together effectively is for everyone in your group to start a new character at the same time and not play unless the whole group is together.

Gameinformer has collected everything they could find on Borderlands 2 in a lengthy 6 page article.

Furthermore if you watched the Sunday NFL kickoff you probably saw this Borderlands 2 commercial.

Lastly you can play with the skill trees for the different Borderlands 2 characters: Gunzerker, Siren, Commando and Assassin.

I'm not sure when these went up but you can play with the Borderlands 2 skill trees at the official site. There's the assassin, commando, gunzerker and siren.

The first review of Borderlands 2 is a magazine review with a hefty score of 95%. As it is a magazine there is little to link to, but the guys from Fancensus have a snapshot.

Welcome to the Gun Show takes a (pictorial) look at some of the guns in Borderlands 2. Of course, these are dropped as random loot so the actual results in your game may vary

Gearbox has told Kotaku the Mechromancer class for Borderlands 2 will launch on October 16, well ahead of the original schedule:

The Mechromancer class DLC will be released on October 16, Gearbox revealed at their PAX Prime panel today. It will be free with pre-order, but $10 to those who do not.

Gearbox also dove into the Mechromancer's skill trees, distinguishing two contrasting modes: one that lets skilled players stack abilities in combination with her robot companion, and the other that helps less-skilled players with automated assists.

A preview of Borderlands 2 showed up on the site of Xbox 360.

"If you're an artist and I ask you to draw me a wasteland, it's natural to draw a desert," explains senior producer Sean Reardon. "It was important for us to be thinking about the feeling of a wasteland and what it means to be in one, but not to trap ourselves in 'yet another brown game'. Each environment needed to be legitimate and beautiful."

The expanded colour palette and variety of styles is the first thing you'll notice about Borderlands 2, but art director Jeramy Cooke argues that it's the impact this has on the game that really matters. "The art style and the story all come together, which allows us to be free to explore stuff in a way that a lot of titles don't. If I do a mechanic about throwing away my guns - that won't make sense in the 'traditional shooter' universe."

2K Games has kicked up a video overview of Borderlands 2 narrated by "Sir Hammerlock" and offering neary 7 minutes of footage:

Join Sir Hammerlock on an introductory tour of Borderlands 2 as only he can present. Discover all of the new locations, characters, enemies and oh, yes, weapons and you prepare for your journey. The Borderlands are waiting.

NZ Gamer has an interview with Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox Software.
He talks about the game's humor, the chance for a Borderlands version with motion controls, the possibility of a Vita version and the equipment in the game - and much much more.

A quote about what the fans most likely will like:

Borderlands 2 is about to come out; what do you think fans will like the most about it?

I think if you’re fan of Borderlands 1, you’re going to be surprised and excited by the new experience; all the new places you’re going to explore, the villains you’ll be dealing with, the challenges you’ll face, and the adventure you’ll go on. You’ll also be able to get excited about all the new tools that you’ll be able to use - the weapons, the skills, the capabilities, the gear that you’ll find, and the characters that you’ll meet and get help from along the way.

And a question about dual-wielding:

And a final fan question: Dual rocket launchers, ARE YOU CRAZY!?

 [laughs]. We’re not crazy! We love fun. We thought about it when you’re playing as Salvador the gunzerker and the idea of “gunzerking” - being and enraged lunatic with weapons. There have been games in the past that allowed you to dual-wield but they’ve also limited you to small things like pistols or two submachine guns. Why not dual-wield anything? In Borderlands when we say anything, it’s a lot of anything. So we did it. You could have a chaingun and a bazooka. Go for it! It makes for some really interesting combinations since you can stack elemental effects. You can have one weapon that electrocutes a guy, and another that lights them on fire. You can have a lot of fun with it and I’ll let your imagination take it from there.

This Borderlands 2 video is really an nVidia PhysX promo but it compares some of the special effects with and without nVidia's features:

Check out this preview of Borderlands 2 running on a GeForce GTX graphics card with all settings on max.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

Loaded with NVIDIA's GPU-accelerated PhysX technology, the video shows you the incredible effects you can witness in Borderlands 2 when gaming on a GeForce GTX system. Creatures, such as the Crystalisk, spew simulated fluids comprised of hundreds of thousands of particles, allowing explosions and physical interactions to manipulate them after the fact, rendering an unprecedented level of detail previously unseen on any platform. Our GPU-accelerated PhysX technology enables the dynamic, realistic movement of flags, banners, and tarps that react and tear realistically when taking weapons fire, and weapons generate particle fluids, sparks and debris that add extra explosive action to your visceral gaming experience.

IGN has interviewed Anthony Burch, Lead Writer for Gearbox Software.

A quote about the script:

So what’s in that gigantic new script that makes Borderlands 2 so much better?

 “Pretty much every new character we have,” he says, giving nods to Tiny Tina and Ellie. “We gave them three to five sidequests to say what their backstory is, what their personality is.” This is especially true of the returning characters – in particular, the Vault Hunters from the first game. “You spend a significant amount of the main plot getting to know who they are now,” says Burch. The Borderlands heroes were about their class, not their character, and most players remember their skill trees more than their personal qualities.  “We have this scary opportunity to give them personalities and have them play off one another,” he continues. Burch and Gearbox spent “a great deal of time” considering “what are their relationships like with each other? How do they treat each other? What have they been up to since the first game ended?”

Polygon has an interview with Randy Pitchford, the CEO for Gearbox Software. They talk about the game's narrative and how the story is told in the game. A quote about why they labeled Borderlands both rpg/fps:

"The RPGs we were borrowing from were like picking a character, levelling up, selecting loot, skill trees, things like that," Pitchford says. "What we specifically did not borrow from, in fact we made a very purposeful decision not to do, was things like the choose-your-own-adventure side of it with dialogue trees where you'll meet the character and there will almost be like a cut-scene presentation, then you'll be given a choice that you can respond with. And this goes back and forth with questions and answers. We very specifically did not do dialogue trees. They're cool, I like those games, but if that means RPG to you, then I think that's a mistake to blend with a first-person shooter (FPS) because the nature of that loop is completely different to that of an FPS. "You can't simultaneously have a dialogue tree with a FPS, so we borrowed from RPGS the things that you can simultaneously do with an FPS that aren't mutually exclusive."

Gamespot Australia has a podcast interview with Randy Pitchford. It is over an hour
long, so sit back, drink some coffee and listen to what he talked about with the
OZSpot; why he thinks Borderlands hit the perfect mix of FPS and RPG elements and wonders why no one has copied it yet, sexism in videogame and why the budget for Borderlands 2 was double the original's budget, and much much more. 

Two new previews for this game have been penned, the first hands-on preview
comes from G4:

A quote on the Mecromancer class:

First up, the Mechromancer, a riff on the Necromancer class seen in other games. Borderlands 2’s take has her summoning a ‘pet’ as her action ability, however that pet takes the form of Deathtrap, a devastating robot that rips enemies to shreds and can be upgraded to cause explosive area attacks. While the Mechromancer’s skills are still to be honed, expect to see skill trees dedicated to boost Deathtrap as an offensive weapon, as well as other non-pet skills that yield different gameplay styles.

Stuff has the other hands-on preview.  A quote on the skills and abilities:

Borderlands' range of skills and abilities has also been expanded for the sequel. Our new favourite is the Thought Lock, a tricky little number that turns your enemy against its teammates. When the enemy dies, the Thought Lock travels to the nearest live one, who will then also turn on its own kind.

From VG247 comes word of the ESRB rating; M is the word here; M for Mature and a
17+ Rating. A quote from the description:

“This is a first-person shooter in which players join rebel forces to take down an oppressive corporation on the fictional planet of Pandora. As players explore open-world environments, they complete missions to gain experience and increase their characters’ skills/abilities. Players use machine guns, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, explosives, and weaponized vehicles to kill human-like characters and hostile aliens in frequent combat. Firefights contain realistic gunfire/explosions; injured enemies scream and emit exaggerated splashes of blood.

You can read the other part of the description for youself, since they are not nswf.

Randy Pitchford tweets that Borderlands 2 has gone Gold in time for the official release next month:

Borderlands 2 is now GOLD (360, PS3 EU, PS3 NA, Win PC)! PSN, PS3 JP + others imminent. Official statement to come when all ballots are in.

A couple of Borderlands 2 items via Joystiq. First, there's a mock advertisement for the "everyman's weapon", the Tediore, plus news the Mechromancer might ship earlier than expected:

The Mechromancer, a fifth playable class free in pre-orders of Borderlands 2, was initially announced to launch at least 60 days after the full game drops on September 18. Gearbox, apparently, is ahead of schedule.

"We're going to beat that estimate," producer Randy Varnell tells Joystiq at Gamescom. He is unable to specify a new release window for the new character, but he is confident the team can complete its build faster than previously thought. Gearbox finished Borderlands 2 and sent it off to certification in July, which is when it began focusing on the Mechromancer herself.    

A new trailer for Borderlands 2 titled "Come and Get Me" has been released offering a little under two minutes action.

While we're on Borderlands 2, Eurogamer writes about nearly invincible bosses:

There is a boss in Borderlands 2 so tough you probably won't be able to kill it. But there's a quest to kill it anyway. It's called 'You.Will. Die. (Seriously.)'

The boss is called Terramorphous the Invincible, and he earns his name. This gargantuan thresher serpent thing emerges from the rock with a roar that echoes throughout his cliff-side home, Terramorphous Peak in the Thousand Cuts area. Its knock-back attack sends you flying high into the air, probably to your death. It hits hard enough to kill you outright. Its tentacles, many of which protrude from the ground, nag at your already frayed concentration. And the number of hit points it enjoys... well, let's just say, there are enough of them to make the player feel very, very insignificant.

...and the game's "girlfriend mode", which upset some people on the internet:

 During a studio tour of Gearbox's Dallas offices, the developer showed us a work in progress build of the Mechromancer, planned to launch around 60 days after the game releases in September. Currently, the Mechromancer uses assets lifted from Maya, the Siren, for her arms. But her design and one out of three skill trees is complete.

The skill tree is called Best Friends Forever, what lead designer John Hemingway dubbed the "girlfriend mode". 

Edge Online serves up a preview of Borderlands 2:

We’ve elected to play as Maya of the Siren class. She possesses a Phaselock special ability, trapping a single enemy in a hovering vortex so they can be used as target practice; think Mass Effect 3’s Singularity biotic power. The section we’re playing takes place in the midsection of an adventure Gearbox VP Steve Gibson tells us will last roughly 60 hours should you choose to rinse all the side quests.

...while IGN talks about the Mechromancer DLC:

It’s easy to understand why the Gearbox co-founder really digs Borderlands 2’s first DLC character, Mechromancer, first revealed at Pax East in April. She’s a gadget fanatic, a maker of things, pulling together the usual lawless-land detritus to fashion useful stuff, like a killer robot called Death Trap (D374-TP).

Clearing the computer gear out of our way, Pitchford explains, “The idea behind her is that she's really good with technology and good with equipment and machinery and stuff.”

Lugging the box and the cables to a spare corner of his office, he adds, “She's built this horrific giant robot that's called Death Trap. She can digistruct it into existence wherever she is, and send it to do stuff. Death Trap's kind of like this crazy pet for this little girl that's survived out in the wasteland.” 

Gearbox' CEO Randy Pitchford answers questions about Borderlands 2 from the VG247 community in this video Q&A.

2K Games has commented Borderlands 2 is the 3rd highest preorder title for them of all time, with only two Grand Theft Auto titles in front.

Both G4 and BuzzFocus have video interviews for this game. They both talked to Jasper Foreman about enemy behaviour and the improved AI. In the interview with BuzzFocus, Jasper mentions a new type of enemy the Goliath that likes mutated midgets apparently:

For instance, two enemies have a slight romance that can cause big trouble for players. The mutated midgets we saw in the first game, will now interact with one of Jasper’s favorite new enemies, the Goliath. Foreman told us: “If a Goliath and a midget get in close contact with each other – they kind of like each other – the midget will hop on his back and be an even more powerful enemy.” Regarding gameplay, Foreman warns us that we should expect tougher challenges. A battle with a Goliath can quickly turn into a mini-boss battle depending on how you attack it. “He Hulks out,” Foreman says.

Borderlands 2 can now be preordered on Steam for a hefty $69.99 , though you get a "free" upgrade to the Premiere Club Edition.

Gamasutra has a lengthy 4 page interview with Randy Pitchford, the CEO for Gearbox Software. A quote on the funding then:

You just said "we can't afford a miss," which is a state of a lot of developers of PC and console games -- big games -- are in. The sense is that the business of it is a very tough business. How do you hedge your bets there, or control that situation?

 RP: You don't want to take that comment out of context. That's in the context of, like, if I were to -- I always go into something where I would have the means to finance it through if I need to, but if I did that and it missed, that could be it. But that's a very singular point of view. If I'm actually getting financing from other sources, some other places, and I have the capital to see any of it through on my own if I needed to, now you actually have a lot of liquidity and a lot of strength that makes it comfortable for you to take risks. Where you can then afford to miss. It's only when you can afford to miss that you're not afraid to take a risk. And, in fact, if you fail to take risks, you might have a higher chance of missing, because the nature of entertainment and the nature of technology. You need to take risks if you're going to have a chance of succeeding. You need to try things that no one else has done before.

GameSpot is offering a video preview of Borderlands 2 titled Midgets and Teenagers.

While we're at it, Mashable has 12 Small Touches That Will Make Borderlands 2 a Big Hit:

9. Skill Trees to Go Nuts Over

Characters can also specialize their skills for single-player or co-op missions. As a bonus, they still have great names, like "Come At Me, Bro!"

Want to wreck your enemies with a firestorm of elemental power, or take them down with turrets packed with rocket launchers? These kinds of over-the-top skills are accessible once you've cleared the higher levels of Borderlands 2. Internally, the developers refer to some of the skills as "game changers" — they increase your power enormously.

Borderlands 2 has gone Gold and is heading to certification, while the team shifts attention to DLC:

Today, we have some exciting new to share about Borderlands 2 -- the game is headed to certification!

This means that the game’s on-disc content has been locked down and will be thoroughly tested to ensure it is ready for release -– in other words, the game is finished and we cannot make any further changes to the game. As such, the team is now shifting their focus towards post-launch efforts, including the Mechromancer: the new character class that will be released as FREE downloadable content to members of the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club roughly 60 to 90 days after launch.

While we're on this game, IncGamers has an interview on bringing a story to this type of open-world action-game. Here's Gearbox’s chief creative officer Brian Martel:

IG: Tiny Tina as an example, there seems to be a focus with Borderlands 2 to make the characters much richer and more interesting. Why try to engage with the player through that element more than you did in the original game?

BM: That was one of the pieces of constructive criticism that we took from the first game, players wanted the world to feel more alive. We found that the best way to achieve that was to prevent the characters feeling like cardboard cut-outs that just stand there and deliver information to you.

In Borderlands 1 we had a system that would allow characters to feel more alive, but it was very rudimentary and nowhere near good enough to achieve the vision we wanted. So, before we shipped we cut it from the game. With the second game we came back to it and put a lot of effort into the animation system, the mission giving system and how the missions link into each other and with the bigger story.

I think that those bits make it a much more interesting experience, and if you’re playing in co-op it’s that bit better.

It looks like Borderlands 2 will feature a meaty campaign, with an interview at Gamerzines revealing people making the game guide clocked it at 58 hours for one character:

“What we like to think about it is, Borderlands is a hobby. Some guide guys just did a playthrough of Borderlands 2 and they reported back to us that it takes 58 hours to play through the campaign – and that’s just one playthrough with one character,” Steve revealed to us proudly.

“So the depth with which people can get into that…Yeah we look at it as a hobby, and that isn’t even counting the new Badass Points system and how that’ll affect every character you do. We want it to feel like you get more for your money, we’re happy for people to pay their money once and feel that they get ongoing value.”

Randy Pitchford chats with Rock, Paper, Shotgun about Borderlands 2:

RPS: I noticed you picking it up and playing it yourself earlier, and thought ‘that’s probably a good sign’.

Randy Pitchford: That particular build we had today, we were running the PC version, and I was checking some things. We have a custom version we’ve developed with NVIDIA, so if you have an NVIDIA card, especially one of the newer ones, you can get crazy awesome physics simulations, cloth simulation, fluid dynamics, really cool stuff. Mostly cosmetic but still rad to look at nonetheless. And then once I was in there I started looking at other things. I hadn’t looked at the full day/night cycle shading in that corner of that environment yet, so I was watching the moon turn.

I actually created the physics for the way the planet works, and the planet has this elliptical orbit around its star. The habitable side of the planet actually faces against the star, so you don’t actually see the sun, ever. Meanwhile the moon has this sort of geo-synchronous position in the sky, so it’s always in the same spot in the sky. The moon has a crazy fast rotation, it takes about 20 minutes for it to spin. One side of the moon is a furnace, like a nuclear furnace, where it’s reacting and it’s super-hot, and it splashes a lot of extra light onto the planet. On the other side it’s very cold and dark, and so when the moon spins, when the hot reactive side warms up the atmosphere and it gets hot, it feels lighter outside. When you get the cold side it’s not dark, because you’re getting the ambient light from the nearby star, but it gets dim, with a sort of cold feeling, and you can also see these beautiful auroras in the sky. From that particular position I hadn’t actually looked at the light cycle from the moon spinning, and I was checking that out, so that’s what I was doing down there.

Interviews and several previews has surfaced fort this game on various websites.
The first interview is at Metro who also has a preview: 

A quote from the interview about the first Borderlands game:

GC: How confident where you that the original Borderlands would be different, and why did it succeed where so many others have not? ...........The bet that we made, the bet that we believed in, was that the fun of a first person shooter - a genre we are very expert in creating games for - that moment-to-moment fun is not mutually exclusive with the kinds of elements that are very engaging from RPGs. The choosing a character and growing that character over time, levelling that character up, becoming more powerful as you progress and collecting and finding loot. And having that loot become the gear that you use that makes you more powerful. That loop, those RPG kind of things that I just described, works in games even where there is no skill to play it.

 A quote from the preview:

Although Borderlands 2's different areas are now much more firmly connected - if you can see it in the background you can visit it - it's still not quite open world and exiting the town and going outside does involve a brief loading sequence........What was also explained before the demo started was the idea of badass experience points, which work on a meta level beyond any one character or game save. The idea is that your build up these points so you can instantly buff up any character you subsequently play as, even if it's brand new. There's no level cap for this so Gearbox are hoping it will reward those fans that put in the most hours.

The Guardian also has a preview:

Borderlands 2 is set a few years after the events of the first game and it sees Pandora in the grip of a scrappy war. A nefarious conglomerate called the Hyperion Corporation has landed on the planet and seems intent on securing all of Pandora's best assets for itself. To that end it has deployed a charming sociopath called Handsome Jack to drive off the players – now known collectively as Vault Hunters. In the build I played, the characters from the original Borderlands are spearheading the Vault Hunters' efforts against Hyperion.

Destructoid has a video preview

V3TRO also has a preview

Digital Trends also has a preview 

CVG also has a preview

Gamespy also has a preview

Joystig also has a preview

Finally Digital Spy has an interview with Brian Martel, Chief Creative Officer

A quote from the interview about the narrative in Borderlands 2:

There appears to be more narrative in the second one, with a prominent antagonist and way more dialog than before. What inspired you to go towards that direction?

 "If you look back to some of the DLCs that we did - like ['The Secret Armory of General Knoxx'] - then you can see where we were going. We wanted to start exploring story more. It's just one of those things where we knew we wanted to tell a better and more engaging story. "We've put a lot of effort in the mission system so that you would feel like missions were continuing and more than just going out there and coming back. And from there, we knew it was a great place to play around with the story and also to inform the player of what's going on.

A hands-on preview for this game can be found at GamersHub:

The quote:

Whilst it was incredibly fun blasting our way through a never-ending stream of enemies and picking up a whole variety of whacky and powerful weapons, it must be said that the demo really didn’t offer anything new. Of course with Borderlands that’s no bad thing by any means, but it really did just feel like I was playing a tighter version of a two-year-old game. As none of the new characters were available to play – with everyone taking on the role of an ‘Assassin’ class from the off – it makes it hard to judge exactly what to expect. The fact that it didn’t show off any quests or reveal any story also makes it hard to really know what to expect, after all Borderlands’ crazy quests and storyline was what made it so appealing to keep playing.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun also has a hand-on preview for this game:

In everything from UI to dialogue to death animations to even the skies above, it’s cranked up, unreal – a sort of contained madness, the result of an anything-goes design philosophy butting up against mechanical limitations. I got the sense it’s essentially providing a framework for play, a tombola of chaotic vignettes rather than any sort of logical series of events. We’ll have to see, of course, but I think from afar that this is absolutely the right thing to do. With even Blizzard admitting that Diablo III struggles for purpose in the end-game department, the key to replay value is providing a packed toybox to rummage around in rather than simply seeing the same situations with escalating difficulty.

Gearbox and 2K have released a new ultra-violent shoot-y trailer for Borderlands 2 titled "Wimoweh". I must admit, I smiled:

A short preview for this game can be found at Next-Gen Gaming Blog.

The quote:

We played a section of the game set in a neatly cordened off plaza in co-op mode, where the mission was to get a robot operational that would routinely zip about the area and take down self-promoting statues of the game’s lead bad guy, Handsome Jack. Less than pleased about this, Jack was trying to take down our handy de-construction bot, and routinely leaving us messages that provided a chuckle or two whilst we carried about it.

Making the Gunzerker, Part One is a new series by Gearbox Software where they look at how Salvador, the Gunzerker in Borderlands 2 was created. Concept designer Scott Kester, creative director Paul Hellquist, and game designer Jonathan Hemingway discuss how they made Salvador - from concept art to how he looks and acts in the game.

A quote about the gameplay and skills from Jonathan Hemingway:

My role in the character creation process is to be the “skills/gameplay” guy. I’m the guy who designed and built his skill trees. I’ve spent a lot of time creating skills that nudge the player down a particular path of gameplay to create the experience we want for the Gunzerker. For example, a lot of what the Gunzerker is about is aggression. Get in there and start shooting. Every first person shooter player knows that having to reload is can get you killed, but for this character I wanted reloading to not break the aggressive gameplay so I added the “Locked and Loaded” skill. If you have “Locked and Loaded” then after reloading your gun you get a Fire Rate bonus for a few seconds, effectively increasing the damage you can dish out. This allows the Gunzerker to change reloading from something that would normally slow him down to something you use to plow through enemies faster.

VG247 has a look at Borderlands 2 from E3 with input from game director, Jeremy Cooke. The article is titled subtitled "like and unlike Diablo III in all the best ways". Apparently PC players are being looked after this time:

Also added to the PC version are a number of refinements courtesy of Nvidia and the latest Unreal 3 tech.

There’s no insane DX11 tessellation, but there’s all the PhysX destruction you could ask for. You’ll tear up cloth, shatter windows and splinter wood. Cooke says he’s even seen a corrosive skag barf corrosive liquid which then rolled downhill breaking into smaller puddles along the way. That’s the type of thing you’ll only see on PC, and it’s pretty damned cool.

There’s even radiosity lighting, day-night cycle support (finally), next-gen pixel shading and loads of other new UE3 stuff we’ve seen being added of late. As Jeremy pointed out, the team got the budget to do things its own way this time around, and making a proper PC version was certainly part of Gearbox’s plan for Borderlands 2.

Better yet, as Jeremy says, “The UI is now a proper PC UI.”  You can use your mouse to do almost anything on every screen and also rebind all your keys. There’s even G series LCD support for you Logitech fans out there.

We haven't seen a lot of press on Borderlands 2 from E3 but here's a short preview courtesy of Destructoid:

Pandora -- or at least the specific region we were able to romp in -- is far more alive than on our last visit. The cities of Borderlands were ramshackle in their construction, built from scraps of metal. By contrast, this locale was sleek and futuristic, with planters full of greenery and winding paths. That sense of life extended also to the enemies, particularly the humans who would drop chuckle-worthy quips as they collapse to the ground or melt into a puddle of goo.

This preorder page on the Borderlands 2 site offers two special editions in addition to the "standard" preorder version:

The Deluxe Vault Hunter’s Collector's Edition (MSRP $99.99) includes a copy of Borderlands 2; authentic Marcus Kincaid bobblehead; Inside the Vault: The Art & Design of Borderlands 2 hardbound book; collectable sticker set; map of Pandora; digital comic download code; and bonus downloadable in-game digital content. The Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition (MSRP $149.99) includes all of those items, plus a collectable scaled replica of the red loot chests found throughout Pandora in Borderlands 2; steel book case; Creatures of Pandora wide-format ID chart; lithograph postcard set; field notes from Sir Hammerlock; cloth map of Pandora; and a numbered certificate of authenticity. Both of the special editions will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PC.

Gamers who pre-order the Deluxe Vault Hunter’s Collector's Edition, Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition or the standard edition of Borderlands 2 from participating retailers will also gain access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club, allowing them to download the Gearbox Gun Pack, a Golden Key, the Vault Hunter’s Relic and an all-new fifth character class - the Mechromancer. The Gearbox Gun Pack is a collection of unique guns to help players begin their journey on Pandora. The Golden Key is used to unlock a rare in-game item in the mysterious Golden Sanctuary Loot Chest found in Borderlands 2. The Vault Hunter’s Relic is an in-game item that boosts players’ gear-hunting fortune while playing solo or teaming up with friends. The Mechromancer character class will be available following launch when development of the character is complete and is free to those who pre-order Borderlands 2, and will be available for purchase for those who do not.

If you're following Borderlands 2, check out almost 20 minutes of gameplay video at IGN:

Tired of reading about why Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 is so good? Well, now you can check out all the monster-splattering, loot-showering, giant fiery land squid tentacle action yourself.

Below you’ll find two gameplay videos showing off the Gunzerker and Siren classes as they chunk enemies with explosive shotguns and trap monsters in glowing, hovering energy bubbles in relentless pursuit of the perfect gun.

There's an interview with Gearbox's Steve Gibson about Borderlands 2 at IncGamers:

IG: Loot is a massive part of Borderlands. How do you expand on that? Increasing the number from however-many-million to however-many-million-plus-a-million isn't really going to cut it...

SG: There were a couple of goals in terms of loot.

One was that we wanted to improve the visual communication of loot.  Whenever you pick up a weapon we want you to be able to immediately identify who the manufacturer is, what kind of effects it may have and also what class of weapon it is - i.e. is it a shotgun, a sub-machine gun etc.

Each manufacturer has a unique look. Jakobs has an old-world Western vibe with plenty of wood graining and detailing on the metal sections. A Maliwan, on the other hand, has a very sci-fi and futuristic feel. Those manufacturers concentrate on different results for their weapons so you should be able to know what you're getting just by looking at it.

The other thing is that we took the procedural generation of weapons idea and applied that to other items such as shields, grenades and relics. So there's now millions of possibilities with those kinds of items as well.

Kotaku reports from PAX that an additional class will be added to Borderlands 2 as post-release DLC. The "Mechromancer" will be available free for preorders, though it will be released to everyone around 60-90 days after the initial launch of the game:

In a panel at PAX East, Gearbox Software just revealed that Borderlands 2 will add a new class—the "Mechromancer" sometime after the game releases this October. The class is in the conceptual stages only and will be developed once the game goes into its certification stages later this year. Concept art for the character was shown during a Gearbox Software panel at PAX.

In other Borderland 2 news, Joystiq has a co-op preview.

Borderlands 2 has been previewed at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Skimming through the article, it looks like the hands on time was with multiplayer:

For this hands-on event, which would take place through two quite different sections of the game, we hit the ground running at level 20, with a wealth of skills and weapons available to us. Having spent some points and headed into the first map’s landscape – a sort of rocky grasslands military complex in which weird creatures were imprisoned – to fight outlandish beasts. While the mutant-mouthed skag things from the original game made a prompt return, we were also immediately inundated with a swarm of all-new flying, leaping, stealthing waves of alien unhelpfuls. Carving our way through this vibrant bunch revealed a much colourful palette this time around; both literally in terms of the colours used, but also in the range of imaginative plots enemies are now endowed with. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.

...and there's a second article at Destructoid:

While there is a bigger emphasis on story in Borderlands 2, don't expect it all to unfold in a barrage of cutscenes; you'll still be fed information on the fly more often than not, but it will be more fleshed out than usual. Some of the missions also offer varying paths and endings. Senior level designer Zack Ford said there will be times where ending a quest at one point as opposed to another will offer a different result. 

IGN has a list of the PC-specific features Gearbox is providing for Borderlands 2. Here's the list, minus the blurb:

• FOV Slider
• 100% Mouse Useable Menus / Mouse Wheel Scrolling
• Remappable Key Bindings for Keyboard / Mouse
• PC-Specific User Interface
• Native Multiplayer Matchmaking
• Push to Talk
• Logitech Keyboard Support
• LAN Support (Including Offline Mode)
• Control Pad Support
• Integrated V-Sync Option
• Support for Higher Resolutions
• Mouse Smoothing Option (Can be Disabled)
• Cloud Save Support
• Achievement Support
• Friends List Support

Joystiq has an interview with writer Anthony Burch and concept designer Scott Kester from Gearbox about Borderlands 2:

Gearbox is focusing on the single-player campaign as well -- in the first title Pandora felt empty if players roamed through it alone, but Burch has put particular emphasis on providing a central, ever-present story in Borderlands 2, he said. NPCs will communicate with players while they travel the world, cut-scenes will advance the gameplay directly and the story will be more continuous, as demonstrated by the Roland rescue mission. If players fail the mission in one spot, the enemies leave for another location and they must be hunted down and fought again.

Kester and Burch call Borderlands 2 a role-playing shooter, and say the magic is in the balance between a Fallout-esque RPG and straight-up Call of Duty-style shooter. Different elements of the game will resonate with certain players, without having anything jammed down anyone's throat.

VG247 also notes the official FAQ has been updated with details of a "Premiere Club" - which is a preorder incentive- and gets you in-game items etc:

Press release from 2K Games, announcing Borderlands 2 will use Steamworks:

2K Games' and Gearbox Software’s Borderlands^TM 2 Shipping with Steamworks

Game will be available on September 18, 2012

New York, NY, February 29, 2012  – 2K Games, Gearbox Software and Valve today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Borderlands™ 2 with Steamworks when the game launches on September 18, 2012 in North America and September 21, 2012 internationally. Currently in development by Gearbox Software, Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed four-player cooperative shooter-looter that combined intense first-person mayhemwithrole-playing gameplay.

IGN takes a look at the Commando in Borderlands 2:

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. 

Previews for this game can be found at IGN and Chicago Tribune. First IGN where we learn about the new playable character Maya:

By leveling Maya and earning more skill points, you can customize the advantages of phaselocking. Paul Hellquist, creative director at Gearbox, explained more. "She's got support trees so she's also kind of a mystical healer and she uses her ability to grant health bonuses to herself as well as the team. If the team or yourself kills the person who has been phaselocked then it grants health to the party. She can use her phaselock ability to revive another player, which is an exciting one so you don't even have to be near somebody to get them up – she can revive people from across the battlefield. Then in some of the other trees she has things that allow phaselock to affect more people. She has an ability that the phaselock sphere shoots out these additional projectiles that then lock those characters in their places as well so she can go into a more control-oriented role."

And then Chicago Tribune

Like the original game, "Borderlands 2" is dubbed a "role-playing shooter" because of the way you can level up. Each battle brings experience points, no matter how big or small the enemies you face. From there, you can apply said points to your character by heading to automated kiosks and purchasing items or properly leveling up, becoming even more powerful in the process. As you gain levels, you also get to branch out using a pre-set skill tree, improving your certain talents and becoming a more effective hunter in the process.

IGN has news of the renewed siren class.

There's also the storyline of the new Siren. While it may not be as exciting as the many ways to kill things, Gearbox has pointed out that more substantial story development is a focus for Borderlands 2. "What we wanted to do with the Sirens this time around was to have a kind of a different flavor," said Cooke. "There's some Siren lore that says that there's only a certain number of Sirens around at any given time in our universe and we wanted them to all kind of have unique back stories. [Maya] knows a bit about where her power comes from. We kind of patterned her a little bit after Indiana Jones to some extent. You know, she's the adventurer, roving the universe trying to find the secrets of where she came from and what the Sirens are all about."

And here's a concept art of hot the Siren looks now, thanks to Gamebanshee.

Gearbox has released a new Borderlands 2 trailer that reveals the launch date - September 18 for NA and Sept 21st internationally.

A lengthy, but good interview can be found at Now Gamer for this game.   The interview features Paul Hellquist, Creative Director and Jason Reiss, Lead Level Designer. They talk about
expanding the co-op offerings, renovating the loot design, "digging down" in the RPG department and fleshing out the NPCs. A sample:

When you look back at what Gearbox did with DLC for the original Borderlands, you really were getting a lot of additional content for your money – more so than most. How important is it to really nail the balance between value and content?

PH: DLC has been maturing as the console cycle has continued on, and you will remember back to the earliest days when Bethesda released horse armour for Oblivion, and it was like, “Horse armour? Are you serious?” (laughs) But at the time, no one knew what people were going to go for and what they weren’t going to go for. I kind of feel bad for those guys because everyone teases them about it. But they didn’t know, for all they knew it might have been exactly what everyone wanted. So when the first Borderlands was finished and everyone was thinking about DLC, it was still in the middle – in terms of how much value and the kind of experience gamers wanted from DLC – and we just decided, ‘let’s just keep making the game that we’ve made’. In the end, I think we’ve been influential in the DLC market, and people look at us and think, ‘these guys are really bringing a lot of value for the money’, so we’re very proud of what we did with Borderlands, and that is something we’re always thinking about.

Hooked Gamers has a preview of Borderlands 2, though it sounds based on existing information rather than any hands-on time:

Much like the original, Borderlands 2 will have four playable classes, which Gearbox say will be different to those available in the first game. The only solid announcement so far has been Salvador, a Gunzerker, who was shown in a teaser trailer last year. You can infer just from the name that this is likely to be a big, angry dude with a love of guns. Surprise, surprise - it turns out that he is. He will be similar to Brick, the Berserker from the first game, except Salvador will be able to enter a state in which he can dual wield any two weapons. That's right, any two weapons, and in a game that boasts millions of different weapons to choose from, there will definitely be some interesting combinations. The craziest suggestion so far (and my personal favourite) would be dual wielding sniper rifles. I'm not sure how that would work exactly, but it certainly sounds dangerous...I'm in!  

IGN looks at the Gunzerker clas in Borderlands 2:

Every class can shoot guns, but they're distinguished by their primary action skills. The Gunzerker, for instance, can temporarily wield two guns at once. Build around these primary skills are elaborate trees that modify how the primary skill works. Gearbox's lead writer Anthony Burch and lead designer Jon Hemingway explain how.

So what does dual mean aside from being able to output more damage? According to Anthony Burch, "I can combine a shock machine gun and a fire shotgun and charge with my machine gun firing to drop [enemy] shields and then light them on fire with the shotgun at close range and melt their face." 

IGN has an interview lead writer Anthony Burch and lead designer Jon Hemingway from Gearbox on building a better story for Borderlands 2:

IGN: How would you say story differs as a focus in Borderlands 2 as compared to the role that story played in Borderlands 1?

Anthony Burch: Story is going to be a much more essential component of the experience. When you're going on an average mission you're going to be constantly getting objectives told to you by the [non-player characters]. The vault hunters from the first game are going to be guiding you through the world of Pandora. Let's take an average mission in the first Borderlands. Most of the story is just in the text before and after the mission. If you want to sit there and read all the sections you'll get a cool story but there's a fairly good chance that if you're like me you won't.

In an average mission in Borderlands 2 you're going to have people constantly telling you not only what you're going to be doing but why you want to do it. Things are going to be happening in front of you as a part of the world. You're going to see Roland getting captured and you're going to have to actually chase him down while the guys from Hyperion and the bandits that you're fighting are yelling at you. The scale of everything is much bigger and your involvement in it is more a part of the actual gameplay rather than something just relegated to mission text. 

CVG has penned a preview for this game.   Here's a tidbit:

For example, the enemy who has a midget strapped to a shield on his chest - you can shoot the tethers to free the midget, and he'll temporarily fight on your side to get revenge on his captor. It's clear that the game's sense of humour hasn't been lost, although the risible Claptrap robots are back. The community inexplicably loves them, but we can't say we're massively overjoyed to see their return. One of the biggest complaints about the original was the shonky car handling. This has been addressed, and you're now able to traverse Pandora in vehicles with responsive controls and the ability to drift around corners. In other words, it'll be fun.

Edge has a piece on Pandora, the setting for the Borderlands series:

Pandora is arid, ramshackle and only faintly fantastical. If this is science fiction, it’s of the TV show variety rather than the big screen – the kind of fraying melodrama that’s tugged together by a tiny crew working with puppets in a quarry. The backstory, however, legitimises most of the rough edges: Pandora’s a place where nobody would choose to live, where much of the fauna has either sprouted teeth or sharp spines. Halo dropped you into a misty world of pine trees and green grass; Borderlands invites you to enjoy the sagging stalk of a giant sunflower that’s grown monstrous beneath a busted sewage pipe. This is a planet where everything’s been crated in by a network of rival mega-corporations – a neat justification for some bold asset reuse – and the only reason to stick around is a legend of an alien vault housing unspeakable riches.

Gearbox is asking for feedback on features to support Borderlands 2 on the PC, which is welcome. Here's the story from Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

So their UI lead has posted on their forums asking for suggestions for PC-specific features and interface whatnots, claiming “rest assured we’ll be putting a lot of effort into properly supporting our PC customers for Borderlands 2.” Given the messiness of BL1′s networking at launch, this is fine news indeed.

Obviously it’s only vox-popping for now rather than anything concrete, but it’s good to know they’re listening – throw your non-crazy thoughts into the ring here.

Eurogamer has a Borderlands 2 preview based on a short demo session that focuses on the combat and what they saw:

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.

Alec Meer has kicked up a preview of Borderlands 2 at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

Speaking of the game world, it’s apparently a whole lot less dependent on smoke and mirrors now: “It’s frustrating to see a cool looking place that you can’t actually get to. So stuff you can see in distance, you can get to these places,” explains Gibson while gesturing at distant valleys. “It’s all geographically correct, what you see to the West and East is actually there now.” This will include snowy (which I saw a bit of) and grassy (which I didn’t) climes, meaning Borderlands is escaping the wasteland game ghetto it was til now a major member of.

In the wake of GamesCom, a few previews has been penned for this game. I'll quote from two of them and list the others.

The Guardian has a short preview:

But the enemies can be just as resourceful. Improved AI means they'll look for higher ground to gain an advantage in any fire fight, and they'll flank you – apparently it's going to be important to figure out how they work together. Shooting the nearest guy isn't always the smartest option. Everyone is more resourceful this time round. Bullymongs will even pick up great handfuls of ice to chuck in your general direction. Gearbox says it wants the player to feel like they're an intruder in a living world, so in Borderlands 2, every one is doing something: bandit factions are fighting each other, Hyperion troopers are fighting bandits... it can all work to the player's advantage.

Gamespot also has a preview:

Getting around from quest to quest looks to be easier thanks to reworked vehicle physics. Gibson promises that your car of choice will no longer freak out when it clips the slightest rock, reacting more smoothly to bumps along the road while adding more variance to the previously zero-sum game of trying to run over enemies. (It was either you killed them dead, or they stopped your car.) Speaking of navigation, Gibson also boasts that views of the gameworld from high-up vantage points are now "geographically correct" rather than a faked skybox, meaning that you can now spot someplace you'd like to go and simply head in that direction until you get there

Games Radar

Metro

Video Gamer

also have previews.

CVG caught up with Borderlands 2 concept designer, Scott Kester, for a GamesCom interview:

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.

A 30 seconds trailer from Games Com for this game can be found at Youtube. No gameplay, though we got to see one of the characters duel-wield.

The Gun Peddlers of Pandora at GameInformer looks at the weapons manufacturers in Borderlands 2. For example:

Tediore

Tediore manufactures Pandora’s equivalent to a disposable Bic lighter. Once you’re done unloading a clip full of ammunition from this brand’s rifles, it can be thrown like a grenade. The more ammunition you have left in the clip when thrown, the more powerful the explosion will be. After it self-destructs, the weapon “reloads” by constructing a new firearm out of your character’s Digistruct module. Using Tediore weapons allows for interesting strategic decisions - do you utilize every bullet while taking out your enemies, or do you leave half of them in the clip for a bigger blast?

IGN has some brief snippets on Borderlands 2:

Another change is inclusion of dynamic story missions, in which the story will shape to fit your success or failure.

A new element, Eridium, will also be present. It's not a weapon, but can be combined with guns and vehicles to improve their stats. And it's also used as a form of currency.

Enemies also promise to be more varied and more intelligent.

If you got attached to a particular weapon in the first game, it's time to say a tearful goodbye. Gearbox is scrapping all the weapons from the first game in favour of a new-look arsenal.

Well, one day after the rumours, Borderlands 2 has been officially announced:

2K Games and Gearbox Software Announce Borderlands^TM 2 in Development

Fans can get their first glimpse of the bold evolution of the Role-Playing Shooter at Gamescom and PAX Prime 2011 this month

Windsor, UK – August 3, 2011  – 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced today that the sequel to the extravasplosive breakout hit, Borderlands™, is currently in development at world-renowned developer Gearbox Software. Coming to the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2013 beginning on April 1, 2012, 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.