VG24/7 has a great bit of gameplay footage here as well as an interview with Gearbox Studio Vice President, Steve Gibson.
Of course the co-op experience was one of the big reasons Borderlands was so great, and it’s great to hear Gibson assure that co-op is at the forefront of the developers’ minds for the sequel. It sounds like they’ve addressed every one of the glaring issues with co-op play from the original, specifically: level and quest mismatch between players was a headache to overcome, but a new quest reset option should fix that; a new trading system (seen in the IGN videos linked below) will make trading with random people online far less sketchy; and drop-in split screen means your buddy can come back after stuffing himself on EasyMac and drop into your game without having to quit out to the menu. Wunderbar!
And this is an old one, but in case you missed it here was the very first (I think?) leak of gameplay video from GamesCom 2011 last September. You get a great look at some of the different gun aesthetics, and some of the new AI tricks including the Nomad bandit using a psycho midget as a meat shield.
Finally, IGN just released a pair of gameplay analysis videos–one of them is our first look at the new Siren, Maya, in-game–and as far as I know, these videos are currently IGN exclusives. If you’re really hungry for information you could even pause repeatedly at the beginning of the video as they scan through the skill trees to get an idea of what’s in store for these two classes.
IGN Borderlands 2: Almost 20 Minutes of Gameplay Footage
Even though Borderlands 2 looks (from a pure gameplay perspective) like it won’t be all that different from the original, personally I couldn’t care less. As someone who still plays Borderlands regularly, I’m completely happy with what appears to be a significant upgrade, even if it’s not a full tilt change of pace. The team at Gearbox really seem to know what they’re doing here, improving on everything we loved, fixing all the things that drove us crazy, and continuing to encourage co-op play both online and local. And in an industry that is moving further away from local co-op by the day, that means a lot to me.
[What are your thoughts on these videos? Are you chomping at the bit? Or do you think it looks like just more of the same? Let us know.]