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Borderlands: The Handsome Collection brings Jack's full story to Xbox One/PS4 in March

Those looking to experience Handsome Jack's entire saga in full will be able to do so on next-gen consoles in March with The Handsome Collection, which will include Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and all of their DLC (including the Season Pass content that isn't out yet).

Ozzie Mejia

January 20, 2015 5:00 AM

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Over the past five years, 2K Games and Gearbox Software have come together to tell the tale of an ambitious, charismatic, and ultimately sinister soul known throughout the galaxy as Handsome Jack. For those that are still unfamiliar with the dashing scoundrel's legend, they're about to get a chance to live out his full story with a new compilation called Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which will collect both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel into a neat and tidy Xbox One/PlayStation 4 package.

The Handsome Collection will bring the Borderlands universe to next-gen consoles for the first time (minus Telltale's story-based offering), remastering both Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel for next-gen consoles. Furthermore, the improved specs for the next-gen machines will allow for the series to allow four-player split-screen co-op for the first time. In a phone call with Shacknews over the weekend, Borderlands franchise director Matt Armstrong and Gearbox content editor Andrew Goldfarb both noted that split-screen will run at 1080p and 30 frames per second. Single-player will run at 1080p and is approaching a consistent 60 fps.

"What guys around here really wanted was to be able to play four-player split-screen, all four players on one machine," Armstrong told Shacknews. "The last generation of consoles wasn't strong enough to really support that and, frankly, most people didn't have the television with the resolution to support it. In order to support this, we had to be running at 1080p, so we got it running at 1080p on new-gen. So we've got four-player co-op, 1080p, four-player split-screen, and our target framerate is around 30 frames per second for four players. When you're playing single-player, we're up around 50-60 frames per second."

The package will contain all DLC for both games. This includes the Borderlands 2 DLC that was issued post-GOTY Edition and also the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass content that has not been released yet. Recall that Gearbox has promised four add-ons for The Pre-Sequel with only two released so far. Handsome Collection owners will also get the new Pre-Sequel DLC for no extra charge as it is released.

"We've said before that the [Pre-Sequel] Season Pass has four things, two of them are out already," Goldfarb added. "There's still two more coming. All of that Season Pass stuff, which does include a campaign add-on, that stuff will be in the Handsome Collection."

Those that already adopted The Pre-Sequel for previous consoles a mere three months ago won't have to kick themselves too hard, since the Handsome Collection will allow those users to carry over their save files and Badass Ranks to the next-gen console versions. Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel save files can move from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, as well as from the PlayStation 3/Vita to the PlayStation 4. Gearbox is also discussing the ability to move those same files back to their previous-generation counterparts, but cannot confirm anything at this time.

Those into bombastic collector's editions will also find one of Gearbox's biggest offerings to date. The Claptrap-in-a-Box Edition will include the game, a collectible steel case, 12 lithographs, and a genuine remote-control Claptrap. This Claptrap stands at 10.8 inches (15.79 inches, if we count his antenna), weighs in at 2.42 pounds, and is controlled entirely via a smartphone app. The app will allow users to see out of Claptrap's eye, which doubles as a video camera for live streaming video. And of course, it wouldn't be Claptrap if he didn't talk... a lot, so yes, he will recite lines from the Borderlands games. Only 5,000 of these robots will be made available worldwide and it'll come with a hefty $399 price tag.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection will arrive on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on March 24 for $59.99.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?