Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

The creators behind the Borderlands franchise have officially announced the third game in the series. While most thought Borderlands 3, would be the next title, instead we'll be getting Borderlands: The pre-sequel. As the name suggests, the story's timeline will take place between the events of the first and second instalments of the game, essentially making this 'Borderlands 1.5.' 

Borderlands: The pre-sequel will be set on one of Pandora's moons, meaning that a new resource has been added to the gameplay dynamic, Oxygen. According to press releases, the game will also be somewhere between games one and two in terms of the story length. This is really good news. I've invested many days in Borderlands and its four DLCs, and I still have a way to go before I unlock the platinum trophy. Every time I return to the game (like a few weeks ago to grab the viral-type trophy "And They'll Tell Two Friends" before the servers get shut down), I am re-inspired by the graphics, gameplay, and the need to find better loot.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about this release, while still holding out for the local release of the Game of the Year edition of Borderlands 2. Even though I've seen the non-GotY version on sale at quite a few retailers, I'd prefer to get the GotY bundle. This now begs the question; will Borderlands 2: GotY see a local release before Borderlands: The pre-sequel? And, should these two games be played in order of release, or in chronological order? It'll also be interesting to see how the story from Telltale Games own project, Tales from the Borderlands, fits into the Borderlands story-arc, and timeline. 

Lastly, Borderlands: The pre-sequel wont be getting a fancy 'next-generation' console release, instead the developers have decided to focus on the already pretty well established fan base on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. There is always the possibility that it will be released on 'next-gen' consoles at a later date though, pending initial response to the release.

So this is happening... Tales from the Borderlands

So this is happening. Telltale Games, responsible for the successful The Walking Dead series, is making a series called Tales from the Borderlands that will be set in the Borderlands universe.

There has been no information released as to which platforms the game will be developed for, but going on the popularity of the Borderlands franchise, I'd imagine that it'll be playable on every platform available.

I'm pretty stoked by this news, but probably wont get around to playing this until at least a year after it's been released. Hopefully by then Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition will have been released here in South Africa, I will have been able to finish it, and all the episodes of Tales from the Borderlands will have been released on a single disc.

Gaming goals for the rest of the year

I seem to be amassing quite a backlog of games to play. At present I have around seven titles that I either haven't started, or intend to restart because I didn't make much progress with them in the first place. These include God of War III, Far Cry 3, The Resistance Trilogy, and Call of Duty: Ghosts, which arrived yesterday evening. 

I'm still in two minds whether to try restarting Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, or just carry on where I left off a couple of months ago. I never really felt comfortable with the default controls for either, which is why I stopped enjoying the games, and thus stopped playing them.

I am currently spreading my gaming time between three titles; Mortal Kombat, Borderlands, and Diablo III. I'm having some difficulty defeating Shao Kahn, the final boss in Mortal Kombat. I've tried reading a couple of walk-through guides for advice, but none of the tactics discussed in these have worked for me. I haven't given up on defeating him, and completing the story mode yet, I'm just putting it off until later. 

I've managed to finish the main story, and the first DLC, The Zombie Island of Dr. Zed in Borderlands. I played a bit of the second DLC, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, but since no experience is gained, and no loot is dropped while playing these levels, it got pretty tedious playing it on my own very quickly. I dropped the Underdome DLC in favour of the third DLC, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. This has actually been my favourite addition to the main title so far. I've managed completed the main story arc of the DLC, but still have a few of the side missions to to finish, including the 'Secret Final Boss,' which I plan to leave until my character has reached at least Level 50, perhaps even higher. 

I'll start playing the fourth and final Borderlands DLC, Claptrap's New Robot Revolution as a means to gain experience and level-up, and if that's not enough to get me to Level 50+, then I'll replay the main title a second time on a higher difficulty.

To have a bit of a break from first person shooters (FPS) the week before the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, I started playing Diablo III. Like Borderlands though, this game is probably going to take some time and dedication to complete it. This game is great though, and I'll be happy to whittle away hours of the day slaying monsters in Sanctuary. I'll probably play CoD: Ghosts this weekend, and possibly try finish the short single player campaign before the end of the weekend. If I succeed then I'll probably split the rest of my time evenly between trying to level up my Borderlands and Diablo III characters.

My plan is to add CoD: Ghosts, Mortal Kombat, and Borderlands to my list of completed games by the end of the year. Hopefully next year I'll also be able to finish the God of War and Resistance trilogies, as well as Diablo III, Far Cry 3, and a few more games I'm planning on adding to the backlog over the next fem months. These include The Last of Us, Assassins Creed Heritage Collection, Borderlands 2: Game of the Year, Lego Marvel Super Heroes (already pre-ordered), and possibly The Walking Dead: Game of the Year, although it looks as though my brother will be getting this for his Xbox 360. At least I'll have plenty to keep me busy while waiting for all the bugs, and teething problems to be worked out of the next generation of consoles. As an added bonus the price of these consoles may drop a few months after the launch dates too. I'm in no rush however to ditch my PS3 or its games, especially since I'd still like to replay some of the games I've already completed, such as Heavy Rain, to unlock additional trophies and end sequences, and to experience other titles, such as Tomb Raider, and pretty much all the FPS I own, through some online play against other humans. There will still be people playing PS3 games online after the launch of the PlayStation 4/ Xbox One wont there?

Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition unveiled

In May I hosted a little poll to see which was was the preferred first person shooter (FPS) between BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, and Far Cry 3. The result was less than spectacular (with absolutely no votes being cast) and in the end I resolved the matter by picking up a copy of Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (amongst other titles). 

I've spent a lot of my free time the last few weekends playing Borderlands (to the extent that I haven't even given the console version of Diablo III a go yet, but that's also partly due to the fact that I still have four more quests of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction to complete), and had already started making plans to buy the Deluxe Vault Hunter's Edition of the sequel. 

Now that Gearbox Software has announced a Game of the Year (GotY) Edition release of Borderlands 2, I will almost certainly get myself a copy, once I've finished the original Borderlands and each of its four downloadable content (DLC) packs. With the international release date set for 11 October, that gives me just short of a month to find the vault and achieve level 61 status in Borderlands. 

In the mean time, here's a look at what the Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition will contain:

• 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's Upgrade Pack 1

It looks as though the new Borderlands 2 bundle won't include the recently released Ultimate Vault hunter's Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak Challange, nor was there any mention of being granted early access to future releases, such as the Headhunter packs that are due out before the end of the year. 

Regarding the PlayStation 3 version, I'm particularly interested to know if the previous DLC will be included on a disc, or if it will need to be downloaded. If it's the latter, it may be worth me waiting a month or two after the release to see if it is re-issued, in much the same way as the Borderlands: GotY Edition. Either way, this is at the top of my list of games to get right now.

First person shooter poll results

The final result of the 'First person shooter poll' was really a no result, since nobody voted. So I took matters into my own hands, and bought Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition and Portal 2, neither of which were titles in the poll.

I played quite a bit of Borderlands on my brother's Xbox 360 while back home. It was amazingly good fun, especially when playing co-operatively.* The comic book graphics and dark humour are brilliant, and I really enjoyed playing as Mordecai. There is little doubt that I will eventually get the sequel too, but I'll hold out until I've finished Borderlands, or a Game of the Year (GotY) edition of Borderlands 2 is released.

I also ended up buying Far Cry 3 (which was one of the options in the poll) as the price was reduced by a further 25%. So from having no first person shooters a month ago, I now have three, even though Portal 2 isn't a conventional shooting game.

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* Except when my brother (playing as Lilith) ran around looting all the chests, and scavenging dropped ammo from around me, while I was busy taking on various badass bandits, bruisers and psychos; or when he used phasewalk too close to me, inadvertently depleting my shield; or when he ran away from the conflict, waited for me to soften up a couple of the tougher opponents, then reappeared with his shotgun, killed everything with a single shot, and got the experience for doing so.