After years of silence 2K and Gearbox are going all in on Borderlands at the moment, as the original game gets the remaster treatment.
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When the first Borderlands was released a decade ago it wasn’t expected to be a hit. Especially as it was a fairly low budget shooter from a company that was at the time best known for Second World War franchise Brothers In Arms.
It had a fairly rocky development too, switching its art style to cel-shaded at a late stage, in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. But it worked and the game became a huge success, premeeting the loot shooter concept years before Destiny appeared on the scene.
By the time you read this Gearbox will likely have officially announced Borderlands 3 (or whatever it’s called) but they’ve also revealed that Borderlands: Game Of The Year Edition is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 3 April.
Update: Borderlands 3 has been officially announced and you can read all about it here, along with news of a free Ultra HD Texture Pack for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection and DLC for Borderlands 2 VR.
The remaster boasts ‘brand new weapons, substantial visual upgrades, quality of life improvements, all four add-on packs, and more’.
On Xbox One X and PS4 Pro the game will run at 4K with HDR, but there’ll be improved lighting, textures, and character models on every platform – including in the DLC.
The quality of life improvements include a Borderlands 2 style mini-map, a new inventory system, and the ability to pick up ammo, money, and health automatically.
All that is fairly standard for a remaster but there’s also the promise to improve the final boss, offer proper customisation for your avatar, and the addition of six new, named, Legendary weapons.
Plus, if you were part of the SHiFT rewards programme for Borderlands 2 or The Pre-Sequel you’ll get 75 free golden keys and two of the new weapons selected at random. And if you own the original on PC the remaster is free. Which is nice.
As to why it’s the original getting the remaster and not the more popular sequel, there is the fact that Borderlands 2 got a VR version just a few months ago.
But also, one of the Borderlands 3 rumours from yesterday suggested that the storytelling in the new game would be closer to the original than the sequel.
What exactly that means (if it’s true) is unclear though, as while slightly less fantastical both games had a similar sense of humour, with the original just having less dialogue in general.
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