Borderlands

We recently got some hands-on time with Borderlands, the hybrid shooter/RPG due out later this month. We played a massively power-leveled Lilith character in two of the game’s later areas: Old Haven and The Crimson Enclave. Old Haven is a ramshackle city setting, while the Crimson Enclave is the high-elevation fortress of the Crimson Lance.

The voice of Gearbox’s founder Randy Pitchford cuts through the air: “These players were coming up to the crest of a hill and this wall of flame shot up. Some dude emerged and had an Alien-style flamethrower under his arm, and I was like: ‘What the f**k’s that?’”

Borderlands’ concept is easy to get excited about: take first-person shooting, add role-playing elements, customizable vehicles and potentially millions of weapons, and our brains could very well hemorrhage. We recently had a chance to stop the bleeding by playing a bit of the game’s single-player and co-op modes, an experience that revealed four important facts - one for each of the game’s playable classes - about the wildly ambitous Borderlands.

What makes Han Solo cool? Why does Mad Max excite us? What is it about Firefly that makes us want to sign up for the interplanetary mercenary lifestyle? It’s hard to say for sure, but the pull of a wild frontier, danger, excellent toys, and rich rewards make for irresistible TV, movies, and games.

The most exciting thing about Borderlands is that its very similar to the ‘80s space western cartoon BraveStarr. In fact, apart from the notable absence of Confederate little people in smocks and sentient, anthropomorphic robot horses, Borderlands is just like it - but with more extreme violence. The second most exciting thing about it is that its a little bit like the ill-fated Firefly TV series as well. With that in mind, let us

Dec 19, 2007 Guns: lots and lots of guns. Millions of them, in fact. Thats the banner feature of Borderlands thats going to embarrass all those other first-person shooters. Borderlands is a mix of open desert buggy-driving and fast-paced shooting thats coming in 2008. You and three friends bomb around a ruined landscape in souped-up dune buggies, chased by angry mercenaries while protecting threatened colonies from cracked-rhino-hide aliens - the Kraytt. You do so with this: an epic selection

Sept 26, 2007 Trees are so last year. The vegetation of the future is the cactus, the succulent plant best suited to arid climates, barren wastelands and Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic deserts. For proof, you need only look at the games revealed during the last six months: first Bethesdas Fallout 3, then id Softwares Rage, and now Gearboxs Borderlands. Road warriors of the world,