Borderlands 2 dev already detailing DLC

Gearbox Software hasn't even released Borderlands 2 yet, and already the developer is talking about the game's first DLC.

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Gearbox Software hasn't even released Borderlands 2 yet, and already the developer is talking about the game's first DLC that will come after the game is released in October. What can you expect? A new character class.

At a PAX East panel this past weekend, the developer showed conceptual images for a new Mechromancer class. The class will be available to everyone when the DLC hits 60-90 days after the game hits shelves, but it will be free to those that pre-order the game, according to Kotaku.

Gearbox also detailed two special editions for the game. The first will be the "Deluxe Vault Hunters Edition" for $99, completed with a bobble-head doll of game narrator and weapons dealer Marcus Kincaid. The second will be the "Ultimate Loot Chest Edition," which offers a Borderlands 2-style loot chest, sans hydraulics.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 9, 2012 7:30 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Borderlands 2 dev already detailing DLC.

    Gearbox Software hasn't even released Borderlands 2 yet, and already the developer is talking about the game's first DLC.

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      April 9, 2012 7:35 AM

      A working loot chest? lol

      I'm still waiting for NECA to release the damn claptrap figure from LAST YEAR

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      April 9, 2012 7:48 AM

      Can;t wait to see the complaints people come up for this one..

      These are the kinds of day one DLCs that I like - free for preorders.

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        April 9, 2012 7:49 AM

        Looks like I misread - it won't be available day one. Still, this is the same plan as Karkand for BF3, and I'm a fan.

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          April 9, 2012 7:58 AM

          Wait until you pre-order a game thats a complete piece of shit. Then you'll be like wow I wish I wasn't enticed into pre-orders and would have instead waited for reviews.

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            April 9, 2012 8:23 AM

            It's happened before (Brink), but in that case I already knew about the poor reviews, and just wanted to try it myself. Reviews usually come the day of release or earlier so there is still time to return it.

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        April 9, 2012 8:39 AM

        This DLC looks OK, however I can understand people not being huge fans of being told what they won't be getting when they pay their $60. When its not a classic expansion pack there will always be a suspicion of "hell, lets just strip out one of the classes and sell it later". This may be unfair on the developers but it should be appreciated that some fans clearly see it this way, especially when the game itself has not yet been released.

        Personally knowing the Karkand maps were coming out helped encourage me to buy BF3 in the first place, so perhaps it is a net gain.

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          April 9, 2012 8:47 AM

          Mechromancer is a totally new character we haven't even started building yet, apart from a few sketches, that the team will be working on after the game is completed and in certification. The Zombie Island DLC for BL1 was crafted in much the same way.

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            April 9, 2012 8:54 AM

            Yup, most of us had no issue with the DLC for Borderlands, it was short and varied and some of it entertainingly hard.

            I'm hopeful you guys keep it up with the good stuff and don't EA all over us with preorder DLC :)

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              April 9, 2012 9:32 AM

              Never purchased them since they had SecuROM installed and had limited installs. Securom with limited installs is the definition of asshatism, I run steam on my home PC, my laptop as well as my work computer and have installed/removed games probably 30-40 times in the past five years (new computers, new laptops, new harddrives.....). Limited installs goes against the premise of steam which allows you to game anywhere as long as you log in.

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            April 9, 2012 8:57 AM

            ^ I am OK with this. Elitist gamer approved!

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            April 9, 2012 8:59 AM

            Interesting, thanks. Hopefully this message gets out to the community. Good luck with the launch!

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            April 9, 2012 9:53 AM

            Bioware have kinda shat in the pool for other developers.

            Their character was cut after being written as a major component of the plot, and still ended up being really important if you were invested in the universe. And they said the same thing about working on him during cert.

            So if people are jaded more than ever, blame bioware.

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              April 9, 2012 10:06 AM

              Sorry, but there's no proof - not to mention even if it was cut content, it was cut for a reason, ie. time constraints, didn't meet quality bar, etc. The argument that it's important to the plot is kind of useless, considering that people would complain about it if it weren't plot relevant.

              It's a shame that everyone thinks the developer is out to get them..

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                April 9, 2012 10:29 AM

                The developer is out to get paid, and I respect that. I think now more than ever, with 0-day DLC and such, developers simply need to keep their mouths shut until the retail product is on the shelves.

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                  April 9, 2012 10:42 AM

                  "...developers simply need to keep their mouths shut until the retail product is on the shelves." agreed i have a hard time buying games when i know i have to shell more money to get the rest of the content.

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                April 9, 2012 11:44 AM

                The leaked script had him as a major character. Its one of the reasons he has so many lines in the museum, you were to need him to uncover the artefact there.

                So not a smoking gun that they cut him to sell him, but if they really want people to believe that he was created in the period between cert and release then they are blowing smoke up peoples asses. His lines and content are all on the disc. The download is the map you visit to recruit him.

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                  April 9, 2012 12:21 PM

                  I don't think they claimed that - Like I said, sometimes content needs to be cut due to time constraints or needs more work. I could understand this line of thought if the game was considered too short - but it felt like it had a good length.

                  DLC on disc doesn't really mean anything, and it coincides with the statement that they worked on it just before cert - there's no way to certify just content that isn't used in the retail release, so they can dump it in last minute, and its less data for people to download the actual DLC. Especially if it's just audio.

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                April 9, 2012 1:11 PM

                [deleted]

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            April 9, 2012 10:37 AM

            I always use borderlands as an example of dlc done right. Meaty and at the right price.

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            April 9, 2012 10:38 AM

            [deleted]

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            April 9, 2012 10:41 AM

            [deleted]

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            April 9, 2012 10:59 AM

            New character DLC is what I've been hoping for ever since the zombie island dlc came out.

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            April 9, 2012 11:04 AM

            [deleted]

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            April 9, 2012 11:08 AM

            Faylor, what's in the loot box?! I need to know how much of my money to give you.

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              April 9, 2012 11:15 AM

              I hope there's a full-size model of a pistol from the game in there, with a giant scope and laser sight and extended mag and some blinkenlights and maybe a grenade launcher attachment and every part of it a different color. I would buy that.

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                April 9, 2012 12:36 PM

                I'd buy two, so I could pew pew with a friend!

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            April 9, 2012 1:25 PM

            Chris the game looked AWESOME at PAX and I think the constant 2-hour wait to get into the booth was probably a good sign of how successful the game will be. I think you guys are going to rock this one. And yeah, the DLC for Borderlands was some of the better DLC which came out.. so I don't see why people would complain.

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          April 9, 2012 10:00 AM

          The sad fact is that a lot of fans don't understand the development cycle - I think most people believe that everyone is working on the project right up until gold, when the reality is its mostly programmers, with maybe a few bugs for designers but not enough to completely occupy their time. So you end up with animators/artists/designers sitting around with nothing to do except wait for the occasional bug. Might as well build more content.

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            April 9, 2012 12:40 PM

            You could try and educate the entire gaming populace, or not be boneheads and wait till the game is out before talking about DLC. I think the latter is easier.

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              April 9, 2012 12:53 PM

              I don't think that would stop on disc DLC complaints but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Although this case is different because it's a pre-order bonus - I guess it would have made sense to not talk about the content and just say when you pre-order the game, you'll get the first DLC release free.

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                April 9, 2012 1:07 PM

                Go DD only and have people download everything, then they can't know if a DLC was content complete at launch.

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            April 9, 2012 1:55 PM

            [deleted]

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        April 9, 2012 1:36 PM

        sure...from GameStop....Is Steam not that popular anymore? I mean, have you SEEN their shipping prices? If you want the physical copy, it's CHEAPER to get it from Amazon.com since they do FREE release day shipping.

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      April 9, 2012 7:57 AM

      Well, at least it isn't stupid cruft like super powered weapons or useless skins. A new character class is worthy DLC.

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      April 9, 2012 10:02 AM

      as long as it's like general knoxx, I'm cool with it. raised level cap, farming uber weapons, uber enemies. SUP CRAWMERAX BRO.

      good content, good difficulty. knoxx was vastly superior to the other DLCs.

      I'm OK with them planning DLC now for the game to extend its life.

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      April 9, 2012 11:08 AM

      [deleted]

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          April 9, 2012 11:39 AM

          I think people (myself included) are just sick of hearing about DLC for a game that's not even out yet. I mean the game is 5 months away, and the actual DLC is 7 months away. Every game has their retailer specific bonuses and DLC options, and it's gotten to the point where you need a spreadsheet to buy video games. I just find it all to be pretty ridiculous and tiresome.

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            April 9, 2012 11:45 AM

            You're over thinking it.

            The preorder bonuses are almost always (like, maybe two exceptions) reskins of shit in the game, or other things largely unnecessary. Ignore it -- most likely it'll be patched in later, or available later as additional dlc.

            Don't even consider other dlc until you get the game, and only if you want to play more of it. The shit doesn't matter otherwise.

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      April 9, 2012 12:06 PM

      Just pre-ordered my copy, since Amazon has it for $10 off at the moment.

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      April 9, 2012 12:40 PM

      haha

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      April 9, 2012 1:20 PM

      I got burned on crummy FOV and controls on Borderlands 1, so I'll wait for the super-duper-Steam-Sale-a-bration X-mas sale with all DLC packs for $10.

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        April 9, 2012 1:29 PM

        EXCUUUSSSEEE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

        "some games rewrite all of the camera code because they have different requirements and thus different features. sometimes things get left out because, at the time, they weren't considered necessary. I know you couldn't possibly fathom this, but there it is. Borderlands method of tracking FOV settings is completely different (and isn't technically considered a "setting" at all) than stock UDK. There are hundreds if not thousands of things driving what the current FOV *should* be at any given time (hence the constant resetting of the FOV you likely experienced). We understand that PC players were very upset by lack of FOV control in Borderlands 1, and thus in Borderlands 2 there is end-user support for changing this."

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          April 9, 2012 1:32 PM

          Like BioShock it reset the FoV after sprinting (iron sights in BS) to the default value, not the current user-set value. As long as they treat the manually set value as the new standard, it'll be fine. But that's easy to do so I'm not worried.

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            April 9, 2012 1:37 PM

            "I know you couldn't possibly fathom this, but there it is."

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          April 9, 2012 1:40 PM

          So what happened to it being the art directors choice?

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            April 9, 2012 1:41 PM

            That was always BS. We tried to "communicate" that but they weren't having any of it.

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          April 9, 2012 1:50 PM

          That's an even worse excuse :( Why don't they just say they fucked up? The only issue was that it reset to the default setting rather than your manual setting after you sprinted or got out of a vehicle.

          I loved Borderlands for the PC (and played about 80 hours), but there was no "technical" reason for them not being able to fix FOV other than not wanting to assign someone to do it.

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            April 9, 2012 1:58 PM

            I can only think of one excuse. "Not a fuck was given" and this is why I won't buy another Gearbox / 2K game.

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              April 9, 2012 7:30 PM

              I've been pretty disappointed with the last batch of 2K games I got on release day/preorder, especially how they drop in price so quick too. So I'm going to balance things out with the future games and wait even if they interest me.

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          April 9, 2012 6:22 PM

          "There are hundreds if not thousands of things driving what the current FOV" sounds like spagetti code right there.

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            April 9, 2012 7:19 PM

            That's what happens when you let the artists write the code.

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          April 9, 2012 8:15 PM

          That comment still doesn't make any sense to me because the standard Unreal fov command works as it does with any other UE3 game, but there's only 2 triggers or camera changes that reset it to the default. Which are sprinting (but only when online as a client, sprinting in single player or online as a host won't revert the custom fov) and getting into a vehicle. So really only 1 1/2 things that needed to be fixed for it to function properly as an adjustable setting.

          Everything else like the scopes and iron sights works as they should and go back to the custom fov.

          What those other hundreds if not thousands of things driving the current FOV are I have no idea.

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            April 10, 2012 1:09 AM

            Randy Pitchford said it, not me. I'm just quoting.

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              April 10, 2012 1:25 AM

              I know you were quoting, and it wasn't Pitchford. I believe it was dopefish. I was in that thread when he posted it too.

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                April 10, 2012 2:20 AM

                Oh my bad, I thought they were one in the same.

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        April 9, 2012 1:46 PM

        Did you read the Claptrap love letter? It talks about FOV (although I understand if you still want to wait to hear what people here have to say.)

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          April 9, 2012 2:40 PM

          dahanese, why should we trust Claptrap? Did he try to kill us in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution?

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          April 9, 2012 7:03 PM

          Yep, and we had "designed for a PC" promises on the first one, too, so that dog won't hunt, monsignor. My price for Borderlands 2 is $10 on Steam with all DLC.

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            April 9, 2012 7:06 PM

            isn't monsignor a dude or am i tired? also is that price with or without the things promised? that's kinda sad if it's got what you are looking for!

            i want to play with you guys

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        April 9, 2012 2:59 PM

        I can forgive the FOV stuff but I could never mouse control to feel proper.

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        April 9, 2012 7:49 PM

        what did you say about me

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      April 9, 2012 3:47 PM

      The movement and lack of tactical choices has me much less excited about BL2. I did thoroughly enjoy the BL1, but if the movement/lack of cover is the same as the first I'll be sad. I get sick of constantly walking/running backwards as the only means of dealing with enemies. That new Syndicate game has a pretty solid cover/movement system, so did RB6: Vegas 2, and the 3rd person system in that new Ghost Recon looks amazing. Now why the the fuck didn't Gearbox try to up the ante for BL2 by adding much needed movement/cover mechanics?

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        April 9, 2012 6:20 PM

        I can tell you now that I wouldn't buy Borderlands 2 if it had a snap to cover system. The first simply wasn't that kind of game and adding it to the second could feel tacked on, anyway very few of the enemies in the first fought in a way that would make sense to include cover systems. I can see myself getting really frustrated getting stuck in cover while being attacked by skags, or not having a clear line of sight for a second chance because that last enemy is juuuuuuust on the other side of that cover.

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      April 9, 2012 5:24 PM

      Hmmmmmmm....

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