Gearbox was humbled by the surprising popularity of Borderlands, and believes its upcoming sequel will make fans very happy indeed.

Back at Gamescom in 2009, Gearbox Software was demonstrating its then-upcoming Borderlands game to small audiences, begging people to give this new, original game a chance amid a sea of sequels. Fast forward to today and that game has been one of the developer’s biggest successes — a fact about which the team seems humbled and genuinely grateful. As such, they are adamant that Borderlands will not end up offering a series of what they call “one year turnaround content dump sequels” — the new game is what they call a “true sequel.”

What does that mean, though? To answer that, Gearbox demonstrated a sequence from near the beginning of the game. The player character, having been stranded and left for dead in an Arctic tundra by villain of the piece “Handsome Jack,” is out for revenge, and the first step in that process is to find a friend whom they know has been captured nearby — a friend who turns out to be Roland, one of the four playable characters from the original game.

Story takes on a significantly more important role in Borderlands 2. Lead writer Anthony Burch sat down and worked with every department and had regular meetings with the game’s creative director in order to ensure that story and game work together in perfect harmony. Burch is under no illusions as to what really makes Borderlands tick, though.

“The gameplay’s leading the story, absolutely,” he says. “We don’t want to force the story down the player’s throat, but we want them to feel like what they’re doing is important.”

To this end, Burch says, the player characters are asked for help by the original game’s protagonists. As badass as they were by the end of the original game, it seems that in the intervening five years prior to the start of the sequel they may have let themselves go a bit, and seem to get themselves into scrapes just often enough for the new ensemble cast to come in and kick ass in their own way.

“The story’s actually designed in an episodic manner like a TV show,” Burch says. “We don’t want people to play for six hours and not be sure what they achieved in the story. We have smaller stories, each with their own three-act structure, to give a better sense of progression through the plot.”

In order to help the storytelling process, the underlying game systems have been changed significantly. Quests are no longer a simple case of “kill/collect this, then return to where you started” — objectives are dynamic and can often change. Quest markers can move, and the whole world feels more “alive” as a result.

It’s not just the story that has had an overhaul, though — the acclaimed random weapon system of the original also has greater depth. Now the different manufacturers of the guns play a role in both the weapon’s visual appearance and the way they behave. Tediore guns, for example, are “the Walmart of the weaponry world,” and as such “reloading” one actually sees your character toss it away like a piece of trash before pulling out another identical weapon. Hitting something with a tossed gun allows you to do a surprising amount of damage, too, dependent on the amount of ammo left in it when you throw it away.

AI has been enhanced too, with the player no longer able to game the system by hopping up onto rocks that enemies can’t reach. Now, enemies will cooperate, work together and behave in more unpredictable manners. On the flip side, though, they all have new injured, staggered and knockdown states, making it obvious that shooting them is actually having a physical effect on them as well as depleting their health bar.

All in all, Borderlands 2 looks like Borderlands, but bigger, better, more so. The game has been refined and adapted to provide a smoother experience with less fiddling around in menus — and the menus themselves have been revamped to work better in split screen and on PC. The HUD is cleaner and simpler, with a much-needed minimap function. And the quests on offer provide a much greater variety of things to do.

In short, it’s looking great so far. Those who played and loved the original will not be disappointed — and neither will newcomers.

Expect Borderlands 2 in “fiscal year 2013″ — which could mean any time from early April next year.

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but Namco believes that its upcoming action RPG offers an even more significant challenge than its predecessor.

Namco demonstrated the punishing difficulty of Dark Souls at Gamescom today, pointing out that yes, it is in fact far more difficult than Demon’s Souls due to the fact that more complex tactics are required to traverse the various areas in the game — not just an affinity for the game’s demanding combat system.

Our hero began the demo locked in a jail cell. The door was unbreakable and the key was nowhere to be seen — or was it? A snake-headed guard standing outside the cell appeared to be asleep, so a swift poke of a sharp pointy thing through the bars made sure he wasn’t going to wake up again, and provided the player with the key. (If I was locking a heavily-armed warrior in a cell, I would have taken his weapons away, personally.)

As our hero emerged from the cell, another snake-headed monster at the bottom of a huge spiral staircase pulled a lever. Octopus-headed monsters started pouring out of a room at the bottom of the tower, and even the snake-headed creatures ran away from them. This suggested that they were not to be trifled with, and sure enough, an unfortunate encounter utterly obliterated the player’s health bar.

This is a key part of the Dark Souls experience, though — each time you die, you, the player, learn something new about what not to do. The player is, in fact, encouraged to explore and take “leaps of faith” off high platforms — sometimes it ends in a bloody mess of broken bones, other times it leads to secret areas filled with items.

Running away is an important strategy, too — the swiftness with which the octopus-headed monsters dispatch the player is proof that they shouldn’t be engaged directly except by the most skilled, well equipped characters. Instead, the player should use the things they’ve observed previously — notably, the lever that the snake-headed monster pulled to release the octopus freaks in the first place. Sure enough, pulling it causes the tentacled beasts to return to their “home” and ignore the player, unless he gets too close. This leaves the player free to ascend the spiral staircase and escape through the door at the top.

Thus runs a typical Dark Souls session — many areas are, in effect, environmental puzzles rather than blind hack and slash affairs. There’s very little hand-holding of the player, so it’s up to them to choose how to take on a particular situation — or indeed choosing whether or not to take heed of the messages that other players have scrawled on the floor.

Yes, Demon’s Souls’ online system is back in the same form, allowing players to leave messages for each other, appear as ghosts for fleeting moments, summon each other as co-op partners or invade each others’ games as PvP opponents. The difficulty-modifying World Tendency feature has been dropped, however. Much like Demon’s Souls before it, the world of Dark Souls is a lonely place, though one where other people seem to be just tantalizingly out of reach in another dimension.

Dark Souls is out on October 4 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Epic Games is all done putting the finishing touches on Gears of War 3, as director Cliff Bleszinski tweets about the trilogy’s completion while having some fun at Valve’s expense.

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Rejoice! Gears of War 3 will suffer no more delays from here on out, as Cliff Bleszinski tweets that the game has officially gone gold.

However, the candid design director of Epic Games couldn’t help but make fun of (rival?) developer company Valve, who is notorious for releasing their own sequels “when they’re ready.” Bleszinski is obviously referring not to just Portal 2, but probably Half-Life 2, which saw its last update (Half-Life 2: Episode Two) back in 2007. In comparison, Epic Games released the first game in the Gears of War franchise back in 2006, and will complete their trilogy a mere six years later — technically less, if you take exact dates into account.

[Source: Twitter]

Capcom officially confirmed two more characters for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, despite the fact that the community has known about the full roster for some time.

“For the last time: It’s. Not. A. Skirt.”

I got the chance to have a play with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 today. Despite the fact that the full character roster was leaked almost as soon as Capcom announced the new edition, the publisher is sticking stubbornly to its PR and marketing plan by revealing the characters a few at a time — even going so far as to keep a number of spaces on the character select screen emblazoned with an “UNKNOWN” sign.

Capcom did officially confirm two more new characters at Gamescom, though, those being Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 and Doctor Strange from the Marvel universe.

Nemesis is, as you might expect, a huge hulking brute. He also has a rocket launcher, which he uses during his Hyper Combo. His range attacks largely consist of tentacles bursting out of the ground and ensnaring unwary players. Doctor Strange, conversely, is a skirt-wearing ponce (though you wouldn’t say that to his face) who makes use of his magical powers to deal damage to his enemies through energy bursts and a variety of other effects.

Any hope of bringing back Mega Man Legends 3 from cancellation is officially deader than dead, as Capcom Japan has reportedly shut down the MML3 Devroom.

If you were holding out any hope that Capcom would bring back Mega Man Legends 3, that the whole thing was really a cruel publicity stunt, it’s time to take those thoughts and bury them with the rest of your dreams.

As reported by 1UP’s Jeremy Parish and The Mega Man Network, Capcom Japan has cut the power to the Japanese Devroom, one site where Mega Mans could register as Servbots in order to support the project. That site is no more, although the American Devroom at Capcom Unity is still up and running. Facebook fan group 100,000 Strong for Bringing Back Mega Man Legends 3 vows to continue the fight, although the main hub for membership never grew past the halfway mark.

On the other side of things, The Mega Man Network reports that the developers are reaching out to Devroom participants personally, arranging for gifts to be sent out to contributors:

In any case, MMN reader Mimi informed us that she received a message on behalf of the developers from Gregaman a few days ago, asking for name, address, Servbot number– all the stuff relevant to receiving the gift from the team. And once they have the information they need, they’ll send them out as soon as they can.

From the letter itself:

“To those whose ideas were selected in Mega Man Legends Developer Room events:

“Thank you very much for your support of Capcom and the Mega Man franchise. On July 18th, 2011, it was announced that development of Mega Man Legends 3 had been discontinued. It is the desire of the entire development staff, however, to send one final memento of our gratitude to those Devroom members whose ideas were to be used in the final game.

“We apologize for any further inconvenience this might cause you, but we request that you please provide your name, mailing address, and telephone number so that we can send out these thank-you items.”

[Source: Twitter via Jeremy Parish, The Mega Man Network]

Massively multiplayer shooter Firefall is launching as a free to play game, and developer Red 5 Studios believes this demonstrates the confidence it has in its product.

Firefall‘s colorful vistas and comic-book characters are somewhat reminiscent of Gearbox’s Borderlands.

Firefall, for the uninitiated, is an upcoming massively multiplayer shooter from Red 5 Studios, who count World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern and lead designer of Tribes Scott Youngblood among their number, with Orson Scott Card consulting on the game’s surprisingly deep sci-fi story. That’s quite a pedigree from both the massively multiplayer and shooter perspectives, so if you’re not yet familiar with the game, that might convince you to take a closer look.

The game was always designed as a free to play title, and the developer argues that this demonstrates the team has “ultimate confidence” in its product. Before you raise your eyebrows at yet more microtransactions, know that Red 5 has no intention of selling “power items” — often referred to as “pay to win” — but will instead be simply offering a combination of aesthetic (hairstyles, armor customization, faces) and convenience (extra inventory spaces, a teleport facility, experience point boosters) items for those who desire them. This means that all players are on a level playing field — no-one can gain a significant advantage simply by having deep pockets.

That’s not the only reason, though — Firefall has been designed to be a skill-based game rather than one which is based on “vertical progression” or levelling. There is a levelling system, but it’s more about unlocking extra enhancement slots on items rather than building up an unassailable pool of hit points. Theoretically a highly skilled low-level player could take down a high-level player with poor situational awareness.

The game is designed from the outset to be flexible. Players can equip one of several suits of armor known as “battleframes” which provide them with a class-specific weapon and a selection of abilities. On offer in the current build of the game are medic, assault, recon and engineer roles, though Red 5 intends to have an even wider selection when the game finally releases. The key thing is that players can equip a new battleframe and effectively change class whenever they find a station at which they can do so. This means they’re not stuck playing as one class for hours and hours — though they may well find a preference.

This flexibility continues into the PvE open world gameplay, where there are no fixed quests. Instead, the game generates dynamic missions and world events — the team cites Red Dead Redemption as a key inspiration for this — and allows players to participate in a more real-feeling world. Cities might get captured by enemy forces, preventing players from using their services and requiring them to work together to recapture the location. Mining for resources may attract the attention of certain enemies. Enemy armies may invade key locations.

In short, the game’s about choice. Players have the choice of whether they want to play exclusively PvE or PvP — or both. They can switch their class at any time. They can choose whether or not to engage in whatever that cool thing that seems to be happening over there is. And they’ll have the opportunity to help shape the future of Firefall’s world, as Red 5 fully intends to drive the game’s future development forward based on community requests and feedback.

Firefall is currently undergoing closed “friends and family” beta testing, with the beta gradually expanding over the next few months prior to the game’s December release. Find out more here.

In a Gamescom presentation, Ninja Theory developers indicated that they’re sticking to their guns on the character redesign for Dante, no matter what.

If you’re part of the Devil May Cry fanbase that isn’t down with the reboot of the series (and the redesigned protagonist Dante) Ninja Theory hears your worries. But they’re not going to change things back. So deal with it.

That’s essentially what was said by members of Ninja Theory in a Gamescom presentation. NInja Theory was directly asked about the changes that the team made to the well-established series, which arguably peaked with the stellar Devil May Cry 3. Fans have been pretty vocal about the changes, especially on the game’s official Facebook page, with a pretty large difference of opinion dividing the lines. Still, Ninja Theory is sticking to what they’re doing, so give ‘em that.

To wit:

“We’ve got our plan and we’re not changing it,” Tameem Antoniades said at a presentation at Gamescom 2011. Talking about character designs, producer Alex Jones claimed that Capcom Japan is just as responsible for Dante’s controversial new look as Ninja Theory. Character design is what Capcom Japan is deeply, deeply involved with,” said Jones. “[Ninja Theory and Capcom have had] dozens of meetings over character design,” he added.

Antoniades claimed that the game “will feel like a proper Devil May Cry game when you have a controller in your hand” and that, “The people who are skeptical secretly want to like it. And our job is to prove it’s Devil May Cry in essence.“

[Source: The Escapist]

GameStop is hoping to start a beta test for a console-streaming service by the end of the year.

According to GamesIndustry.biz (as reported by Joystiq), this beta test would be open to members of GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards program. The service is expected to be in place by mid-2012.

GameStop has made a couple of moves over the last year to shore up its digital offerings. The largest dedicated retailer of video games in the U.S. acquired Spawn Labs, which had created a console-steaming system, in March. They also bought Stardock’s Impulse digital-distribution PC service in March.

If GameStop gets into online streaming, does this mean the end for OnLive? Or is there room in this new market for both?

Constructed out of Post-It notes, this piece of Assassin’s Creed art adorns the windows at Ubisoft Paris’s office. Ezio has never looked quite this awesome before.

A three-story tall Enzio — made out of Post-Its!

[Source: Ubisoft Montreal's Facebook, Kotaku.]

A number of gamers (not to mention media) are looking at the fall as a battle between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. But according to EA COO Peter Moore, it’s more about cutting into Call of Duty’s market share, not outselling it.

EA’s COO Peter Moore maintains that Battlefield 3 doesn’t need to sell more than Modern Warfare 3 to be successful.

In a report at Computer and Video Games, Moore said, “This is really about a long-term strategy in what we think is a very important shooter segment that has driven over the last few years multiple billions of dollars of revenue into the industry.”

Moore notes that last year, “you might argue that Call of Duty took maybe 90 percent of the market share. We think we can knock that down to 70 percent this year. We don’t have to outsell Call of Duty to have a very successful year. This is a long-term strategy to be a major player.”

Moore also says told CVG that EA wants to become “a major player, if not ultimately a dominate player in the industry.”

Does Battlefield 3 stand a chance at slicing into Call of Duty’s dominance of the market? Or does Activision have a stranglehold on first-person military shooter dominance?