mhg83

Finally a full game! Takes place between BL1 and 2. Set On The Moon with JetPacks!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FVSa3PChTw4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Jetpacks, ice bullets, and playable Claptrap!

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is official. The latest entry in Gearbox's shooter looter takes place between the original Borderlands and Borderlands 2, hence the Pre-Sequel moniker. The new game is based on the Borderlands 2 engine as well, and will be sticking to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

You'll be able to play as one of four new -- yet familiar -- characters as you work for Handsome Jack during his rise to power. Oh, and a majority of the game takes place on Pandora's moon. And you get jet packs. And laser guns. And ice weapons. Oh my.

So what's going on this time in the Borderlands universe? Story-wise, The Pre-Sequel focuses on four new playable hunters working for Handsome Jack as he rises to his role you eventually see him in Borderlands 2. Every playable character is someone Borderlands fans should be pretty familiar with too. Here's the breakdown:

Athena, a crimson lance assassin from the General Knoxx expansion. Sheriff Nisha, an NPC from Borderlands 2. Wilhelm, the first big boss character in Borderlands 2 -- but before he became a giant robot. The Pre-Sequel does see Wilhelm evolving over the course of the game as he slowly becomes more and more cybernetic with his upgrades and such. And last but not least, Claptrap! Yup, Claptrap is finally playable. The camera is even positioned much lower than normal to reflect the murderous robot's height too.

For the demo, 2K was using Athena and one of her main abilities was this shield she can pull up to absorb enemy fire. You're still able to shoot while it's up, and once the shield has absorbed enough damage you're able to fling it out at an enemy for incredible damage. An upgrade to the shield will later allow you to hurl the shield to hit multiple enemies, Captain America style.

The biggest change to come to Borderlands with the latest entry is the place all the action is happening on: the freaking moon! Yes, you're finally able to explore the moon and it offers a few major new mechanics that may make playing the older Borderlands games challenging once you experience all the new features.

The major change is that you have an oxygen meter now. You need oxygen to breathe on the surface of the moon, but oxygen also doubles as the fuel for your jet pack. Yup, jet packs are a thing now. Jet packs allow you to double jump, soar even longer through the air on top of the lower gravity provided by the moon, and whenever you're high enough you can even do a ground pound to either get down to the surface faster, or hurt some enemies.

Using your jet pack's abilities does drain oxygen, and it's definitely something you need to monitor as you play now. Oxygen is lootable, and the live demo we were shown had multiple points from which the player was able to refill oxygen so it doesn't look like it will be too tedious of a thing to manage. Note that it's only when you're outside of a base or interior location that you have to worry about your oxygen intake. Otherwise the action inside a base is more akin to past Borderlands games -- except, you know, there's still lower gravity and you have a freaking jet pack.

Borderlands' biggest claim to fame is its billions and billions of guns, and The Pre-Sequel introduces two new weapon types. The first are laser weapons, from guns that shoot out little laser blasts like in Star Wars, to guns that fire out a steady stream of fire power like the Proton packs from Ghostsbusters.

Then there's the Cryo guns, which have the new ice elemental effect. The Cryo guns can slow enemies down, eventually completely freezing them solid at which point you can then shatter them into hundreds of pieces -- an effect made even cooler on the moon as the ice pieces float off.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a collaborative project between 2K Games Australia and Gearbox Software. While Gearbox has a hand in The Pre-Sequel's development, the Australian team has been afforded the creative freedom to add its own spin on the series. "They almost approached it like fans did," Randy Pitchford, head of Gearbox Software, stated when describing the Australian's team take on the franchise.

The Cryo guns are a good example of what 2K Australia brought to the table when creating this latest Borderlands. "I've always wanted ice bullets in Borderlands and it finally happened," Randy told us. "Internally we used to argue about this at Gearbox. The Australian team did not care about our argument. They were like 'Fuck it. We want ice bullets, we're going to make damn ice bullets.'"

Those of you attending PAX East this weekend will want to stop by the 2K booth as they'll be showing off Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel demos of what Destructoid got to see recently. We'll have more to tell you about the latest Borderlands early Friday morning, including why there won't be an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 version of The Pre-Sequel.

http://www.destructoid.com/borderlan...n-272973.phtml

Raul3

I knew this couldn't be from Gearbox. Not coming to the new generation makes me think if this is going to be successful.

uteotw

Right--NOT for PS4 or XB1? Huh?

flashburn

Just a lame cash grab. (I'll still buy it)

Groucho

Fall 2014? A year after the next gen consoles are out and this is for last gen?

mattysemo247

Yep, all they have to do is look back at the last Gears or God of War games to figure that one out. Dumb move since you know Gearbox is working on the true sequel, but now people are going to be sick of the series between this and the telltale games coming out.

wlj

mhg83

Why Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is sticking to last-gen
Randy Pitchford explains their reasoning
57 minutes ago - 10:00 AM on 04.09.2014
0
36
Borderlands Pre-SequelWhy Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is sticking to last-gen photo

Reddit0Share0Tweet0
1Share1

The industry is currently trying to support two generations of consoles at once, which means game publishers have to decide what the safest bet is for their next projects. Some companies are creating the the same content for both last- and current-gen, while others are just focusing on creating experiences against "next-gen" specs.

In the case of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, it's going to be sticking to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Why? Mostly because developer Gearbox wants to release on platforms they feel their customers already have.

"It's more about the fact that we know that the biggest customer for [Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel] is a person who loves Borderlands, and 100% of those customers are on the platform that we're supporting," president of Gearbox Randy Pitchford told us. Pitchford feels that with Borderlands 2 moving well over eight million copies, "there's more people that bought Borderlands 2 than there are installed units of Xbox Ones and PlayStation 4s. Meanwhile there's 150 million installed PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s."

"It's a tricky thing," Pitchford continued, "cause I'm a crazy hardcore gamer and I'm right on the cutting edge -- I have all the new stuff as soon as it comes out ... we're all dying for new content, but we have to remember that our fans, the people that have supported us -- they don't necessarily have the same kind of disposable income that we do and they're not as quick to adopt the new platforms. The idea of leaving any of those guys behind is just something that we couldn't feel good about."

So the question then becomes, why not also do a next-gen version on top of last-gen? "It's not impossible, but it does take time and people," Pitchford explained. "We decided to take the entire amount of people that could be dedicated to this game and actually make the game better with those people instead of spending time on technology, and it costs money to be on the new platforms. We're pretty certain of the people that have already gotten the new platforms, almost all of them have the earlier platforms."

One can suspect that The Pre-Sequel wouldn't look nor feel significantly better on the latest generation of hardware in any case as the new game is based on the Borderlands 2 engine. With the engine optimized already for the platforms of choice, this leaves 2K Games Australia to create some new experiences for players, like the jetpack.

Meanwhile, this leaves Gearbox Software themselves to focus more on their upcoming projects. Earlier in the presentation, Pitchford told us that as much as the studio wants to focus on Borderlands, they needed to dedicate their attention towards new things, including "trying to figure out technologies for new platforms." One can assume another Borderlands is in the works for the new hardware, but until they're ready to show that off Borderlands fans have The Pre-Sequel to hold their attention.

http://www.destructoid.com/why-borde...n-272978.phtml

Decker

Drexl

I have a feeling they're setting up for a "Full HD collection" of the 3 Borderlands games in 2015.

Deftones

On one hand, I get it. They want to try to have the biggest user base in order to sell the games. On the other hand, there has to come a point where you abandon the current gen and go next-gen only. Oh well. I guess this is a reason to keep my 360 around now.

lopper

This feels like overpriced DLC.

Still, I'm mildly interested in the PC version.

Matthew Chmiel

Randy Pitchford: 100% dumbass.

It's a matter of time before I ditch both my 360 and PS3. You know, considering I already have all of the next-gen consoles sitting in my house amongst other media consumption devices. Have fun not getting a dime out of me for this cash grab, especially since I bought both Borderlands games (and the first one I bought on both 360 and PC).

If this doesn't see the light of day on the PS4 or Xbox One, I'll wait for the eventual moment it's on Steam for five bucks during a summer sale if that's the case. Or maybe it'll be for free on PS+ within a year...

Michael Corvin

It's cell shaded. There's no way they aren't prepping a PS4/X1 version. I'll wait 'em out.

Groucho

Gearbox is talking out of their ass. Have they surveyed players of the last two games to get their input on which platform(s) they'd prefer?

Matthew Chmiel

Of course since it's being developed for the PC. Converting that to the PS4/X1 would take a matter of weeks (at the most).

It's 2K being cheap and lazy... which may be the reason this "pre-sequel" exists.

funkyryno

I hope this one has a wider field of view than Borderland 2's console version. I found it headache inducing and could only play for short stretches of time.

Decker

Oh man I so hated that. Felt like I was looking through a peephole.

K&AJones

I don't know...wait and see on this. I got really burned out with BL2. It was great for awhile but something was missing from the first one which was a blast. Maybe playing the same level/missions over and over and over again with nothing really new except tougher enemies.

slop101

Yeah, they should've just made it DLC for BL2.

chuckd21

mattysemo247

gerrythedon

Athena Traverses the Moon in Latest 'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' Walkthrough Footage

Gearbrox Software developers lead us through another 'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' walkthrough, this time taking control of the more laid-back Athena as they traverse the low-gravity Moon and some facilities on the surface. There's even a quick look at the now-playable Claptrap character.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/b4mdQHRMfTg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...-footage/15257

Decker

I won't even consider buying this game unless the developers give me a sworn statement, written in blood that there will not be a "Remastered in HD!!!" Xo and PS4 version of this game coming down the pike in a few months.
One of the most annoying new trends I'm seeing is re-releasing last-gen games in remastered next-gen form to just avoid having to meet a single launch deadline. It has really soured me on buying anything last-gen any more.

edstein

I loved BL2 and all the DLC but I'm a little burned out on this game now. I'll wait for the NexGen version.