Borderlands 2 Sixth Character is a “Reformed” Bandit

Not content with allowing one spec of dust to hit your copy of loot happy FPS, Gearbox is giving players a new reason to tour Pandora.

Meet your new Vault Hunter: Krieg the Psycho.  Once apart of the psycho bandits roaming the terrain of Pandora — you know, the shouting creeps you have so much fun shooting at — Krieg is an escaped experiment with a love for melee combat.  Controlling him is a game of risk versus reward, where charging the front lines and getting up close and personal to crack enemy skulls actually heals Krieg.

Krieg’s skill trees, below, serve to endorse his unusual and  fantastically brutal play style:

• Bloodlust: Combat bonuses are alotted for melee kills using your Buzz Axe.
• Hellborn: Ups fire damage and, incredibly, increases lethality when you’re on goddamn fire.
• Mania: Take damage and your damage output is bolstered.

This badass addition to the game’s roster will cost you $10 when he arrives as DLC sometime in May.  While Krieg doesn’t seem to be included with the Borderlands 2 Season Pass, a confirmed fourth campaign add-on (scheduled for June) is.

Watch the Playable Psycho Bandit’s Announcement Trailer hereabouts.

THIS DAY IN DLC:

Borderlands 2 Teaches You a Thing or Two About Piracy and RE6 Irrationally Dishes Out Content for Free

Right on the heels of the Mechromancer add-on class that saw early release as a surprise to fans, Gearbox is chugging out even more downloadable content for their highly praised loot-shooter Borderlands 2.  The first of four promised expansions to the game, “Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty” — pause to soak it in — takes you and your vault plunging comrades into a new treacherous stretch of desert fittingly stamped The Oasis.

There, you’ll get to shoot the ever loving hell out of enemies such as gigantic sand worms, collect a valuable new currency, and cut dunes with the new sand skiff vehicle.  You’ll come at odds with the beautiful pirate queen (who is as dangerous as she is one-eyed) as she and the vault hunters battle for none other than illustrious, loot-tastic treasure.  The Captain Scarlett expansion will become available October 16th and cost you $10 — a whole $10 already saved if you spring for the Season Pass ($29.99).

Capcom, on the other hand, doesn’t want your money…Huh…I just got a chill up my spine, as if somebody just walked over my grave or something.  Something’s terribly askew in the universe.  Anywho, some intrepid data miners dug up some insidiously hidden “DLC” locked on the recently released Resident Evil 6 disc, a revelation that almost upended the very meaning of justice for rabid Crapcom haters up until the company announced the content was going to be made available completely free.

Coming to a copy of RE6 near you as a title update, an even harder difficulty than the punishing Professional mode will unlock dubbed “No Hope.”  Along with that, Ada Wong’s solo campaign will receive a new option to include a co-op partner (no specifics on that character-wise but don’t expect any changes to the story a la Dead Space 3).  Ada’s story typically unlocks for players after finishing the three main campaigns but the update will render it selectable from the start.

Capcom also issued clarification that any content stored on disc is very much free (including extra palette swapped costumes for The Mercenaries — skip on over to Residentevil.net for more information on unlocking those threads), and that anything offered outside of the disc will be price-tagged DLC.  Unfortunately, no specifics better than “soon” were given regarding the update’s release window.

Here’s a “scoop” posted by Gearbox’s own Randy Pitchford.  This ain’t some simple cosplaying here.  They look like they’re gearing up some live action Borderlands, if you ask me.

I’m going to have to put a “keep your eyes open as this story develops” right about here, which undoubtedly means: “I don’t know what the hell they’re up to.”

Borderlands 2 (PC/PS3/X360 - September 18th)

As far as my must-have’s list goes, this summer is proving to be, fittingly, a bit of a dry spell.  The air will once more be tolerable by the time Borderlands 2 comes out, but even a drop in temperature will fall short of how refreshing it’ll be to jump right back into Gearbox’s comic styled, gun-crazed, loot hoarding universe.

What Gearbox was happily willing to share over the weekend’s Comic-Con blitz showed signs of a tighter, thought-out sequel that almost seems obsessed in bettering every one of the first game’s ills.  From little improvements like cross-character perks that better your entire cast instead of just one, to big renovations like centralizing where you get and cash-in missions into a single hub.  Having a hub base is going to do you a world of good since Pandora is roughly twice as large as our first visit.

There was certainly a lot to love about Borderlands, but even this early out, there looks like a lot more to love about Borderlands 2 (and I’m pretty sure that’s impossible).

Borderlands 2 (PC/PS3/X360 - September 18th)

Anyone that has trouble with their loot addiction should seek help from Gearbox today as live streams the internet over will have Borderlands 2 in action.  Help is scheduled for you about 9:00PM EST.  Until then, let these screens tide over your shakes.

Borderlands 2 fan art by Ray Dillon

Borderlands 2 Has Some Lootastic Collector’s Editions

I’ve always said that a year where a Borderlands comes out is a year worth living, so for only the second occasion in my life, I’m glad to be alive as Gearbox readies a sequel to their lootin’, shootin’ extravaganza.  Now, you can celebrate the game adequately with a standard copy — which is as financially sound as it is mind crushingly boring — or you could do it up the right way with either one of the above two special editions coming out for Borderlands 2.

The Deluxe Vault Hunter’s Collector’s Edition, pricing in at $99.99, is decked with a Marcus Kincaid bobblehead, a behind-the-scenes book, a Pandoran map, in-game content, and additional trinkets.  It’s all nice enough for your casual collector but still too…sensible.  Either you go big or you’re just spitting in Gearbox’s face (metaphorically).

That’s why the Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition, belligerently priced at $149.99 to test your fandom mettle, is the only edition grandiose enough to sate true blue Borderlands fans.  Equipped with everything the Vault Hunter’s Edition claims stake to, the Ultimate Edition stocks you up on a steelbook case, a cloth Pandoran map, a ‘Creatures of Pandora’ ID chart, and — here’s where the collection goes into God Mode — a scaled replica of the red loot chest consistently found throughout Borderlands.  That’s all impractical enough to make me need it.

Borderlands 2 drops on our heads September 18th for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 with a worldwide release following closely after on the 21st.

From the Borderlands 2 promotion that lets fans submit the most badass t-shirt design they can muster before the awesomeness reaches blinding proportions.  Winners get their shirt printed and a signed copy of Gearbox’s bazillion dollar game.

Borderlands 2 (PC/PS3/360 - September 18th)

Pop in your copy of Borderlands (if you forgot yours, ask the person next to you to lend you a copy). Now compare what you see with these screens here. Gearbox has seriously upped on the visual department.  Not just the modeling or textures but the vibrancy of color makes for a refreshing change of scenery.  Definitely a far cry from the monochromatic desert-pocalypse of the original.

What about the gameplay you ask?  That’s something that barely needed refining to begin with.  If Gearbox has somehow improved on the gameplay in any way — and this is highly unlikely; abhorrently unlikely — then my mind will fracture.