Gearbox and 2K will be releasing a retail disc for Xbox 360 containing the two Borderlands DLC packages of “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” and “Max Moxxi’s Underdome Riot” for $19.99 on April 6, 2010. Oddly, the disc will not be coming to the PS3, but both content packs are available individually via the PlayStation Network.

It’s been little over a week since The Secret Armory of General Knoxx graced hard drives across the globe, but news of even more DLC for popular RPG/FPS hybrid Borderlands has already surfaced.

The news was revealed by Ben Feder, president and CEO of Borderlands publisher, Take-Two Interactive. Speaking during the company’s quarterly financial earnings call he said:

The third downloadable add-on for Borderlands will be making it’s way to the Xbox 360 and PS3 this week.  Titled ‘The Secret Armory of General Knoxx,’ it will be the first content pack to increase the level cap.  The increase brings the level ceiling to 61, from the previous cap of 50.  The content will feature new areas, missions, vehicles, a new weapon class, as well as some crazy new enemies outfitted with some serious weaponry.

If you’re like me, ever since you played Borderlands, you have wanted a claptrap of your own.  Well, it looks like that dream may be coming true sometime in the near future.  A tweet from NECA Toy’s Randy Falk revealed this fact.  It goes a little something like this:

“thanks, Borderlands, Splinter Cell, & loads more to come. Toy Fair showings only cover thru June.”

I personally don’t own any video game figures, but I would love to have a few to populate and add a little charm to my desk.  If a claptrap figure becomes available, I’ll be definitely be among the first to pick one up.  Man I love those little machines.

Gearbox Software and 2K Games fantastic co-op FPS/RPG hybrid Borderlands is getting bundled together with its recent DLC for a disc-based release. The package, titled Borderlands: Double Game Add-On Pack, will feature both The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Max Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, but won’t include the forthcoming content The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.

Nathan Drake might pick up a bit more treasure next month.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, netting 15 nominations including game of the year.

In the game of the year category, Uncharted 2 is up against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2, Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

If, like me, you are looking for a good reason to revisit the wastelands of Pandora -  listen up, as some early details of an upcoming DLC pack for Borderlands have recently emerged.

A designer at Gearbox has confirmed on the studio’s official forums that a third downloadable content pack is on the way, finally raising player level cap above level 50.

The nominees are in for the 10th annual Game Developers Conference Awards and… they really aren’t all that surprising.

All of the big players are there: Uncharted 2 with seven nominations, Assassin’s Creed II with four, and other recognizable titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Borderlands also receiving nominations.

Another Thursday, another update to the Sony PlayStation Store, and another Game Rant Weekly Update.

Momentum is starting to gather in the highly anticipated Q1 bonanza of titles that were pushed into 2010, but overall this week is relatively quiet, that is to say with one exception – Army of Two: The 40th Day.

Gearbox employee “ennui” has announced on their forums that there is a new patch available for the Xbox 360 version of Borderlands.

I would like to note that the update is for the Xbox 360 only. The Ps3 and PC versions of the game will be updated sometime in the near future.

He lists the following fixes made to the game:

For console gamers, Borderlands DLC arrived in November with The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, but PC gamers were left waiting. However, Gearbox has now announced that The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is available for computer version, and can be purchased for $9.99 from the official Gearbox website. If you bought it through third-party distributors (like Steam), you can find them in their respective third-party stores as well.

Gearbox has been preaching how excited they were for DLC, and has stated that they hope to have numerous future DLC releases – so expect more where that came from, and for $9.99 to be a relatively consistent pricing for the additional adventures.

Gearbox has a run away hit with its latest game Borderlands and of course they aren’t going to let that license get away from them. It would appear that Gearbox has filed for the trademark “Borderworlds“, which could mean that Gearbox is just covering its bases with this particular trademark or it could mean that Borderlands is getting a sequel that seems to expand on the multiplayer brought fourth in the original. I mean worlds are a little bigger than lands. What exactly that means for the new IP beats me, but odds are it’s going to be awesome!

Every year, publishers push to get their high-profile titles into gamers’ hands before Black Friday, leaving a quality-title dead zone until the beginning of Quarter 1. The end of release season also signals the official beginning of Game of the Year speculation. Every big-budget, large-scale, game is now available on store shelves which means players should have a pretty good idea about which 2009 title they enjoyed the most – unless you are holding your breath for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, which most of us aren’t.

Instead of relying on the outcome of the upcoming Spike VGAs, which in 2005 nominated 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game for awards, Game Rant has decided to put together a list of our nominations, along with a bit of commentary, for our Game of the Year choices. As usual, we’re interested to hear what our readers think, so make sure to vote in the poll on the home page, as well as sound off in the comments.

In the interest of avoiding favoritism, our nominees are listed in alphabetical order:

If you’re a gamer and a follower of industry news, you need to check out the Inside Gaming Awards, a huge new gaming awards show from Machinima.com.  If you watch trailers and previews online, then you’ve no doubt come across Machinima’s widely popular YouTube channel for which we’ve used ourselves here at Game Rant to share trailers with you.

Up until December 7th, voting will open for everyone for the Gamers’ Choice awards.  It’s a very unique and cool (if not first of its kind) voting mechanic: there is one video for each nominee, and each video view counts as a vote.  Each video contains clickable links to easily navigate around all the categories and nominees.

The awards will take place on December 11th 2009, the night before the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and offer another way for gamers to participate and celebrate a great year in gaming. Machinima’s new awards program is the first of its kind and we have the nominees for the awards listed below.

It’s no secret that Gearbox Software’s new original title Borderlands is a huge success. With massive sales and rave reviews (Metacritic averages it out to 84%), the game is flying high and even creative director Mike Neuman wasn’t anticipating it:

Man, I don’t think anybody was. Those don’t happen in the videogame industry very often – where people can’t find your game. Like, even today, I’ve been seeing reports of shortages. We’re shipping as many out to retailers as we can. Some retailers have restocked three or four times already. So we’re loading in as fast as we can. But it certainly doesn’t suck to be the people who made the game you can’t keep in stock.

In an interview with VG247, Neuman answered questions relating to downloadable content, the chances of a sequel, and why there was no demo.

About a week ago, fellow Game Rant writer Rob and I organized a Borderlands LAN session with a couple of other friends. We had two Xbox 360s linked up and we were ready to play. We booted up the games, set up a room and to our surprise, system link did not allow guests. This boggled my mind considering the game supports two player split-screen locally. So, in order for us to play we would have needed four Xbox systems linked and four copies of the game. I don’t know about you, but I do not own four television sets and to have four friends with a copy of the same game is rare. We ended up playing two separate games on two TVs and it is safe to say our night was ruined.

Gearbox has announced that the first downloadable content for Borderlands will be coming out November 24th.  It is titled “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” and will cost 800 MS points on Live and $9.99 on the PSN. As the name suggests, the new content will add an island to the map that will be littered with zombies. Don’t worry though, skags aren’t being left out of the island. In addition to the zombies, gearbox is adding ”Were-Skags” to the mix.

My question is why wasn’t this in the original game? To have content come out less than a month after the games release suggests that the content must have been almost complete. It seems like Gearbox is following what seems to be a trend in video games in recent days; Release the game and then release downloadable content shortly after to get the most money out of gamers. With the availability of selling overpriced DLC, they have an incentive to release incomplete titles and charge for it later.

Just over one week since its release and Borderlands has been patched for the Xbox 360. But there’s one major issue it fails to address, arguably the most important…

The following details of the patch were posted on the forums at gearboxsoftware.com:

If you planned on using your level 20 character online in Borderlands, you may want to rethink that decision. Joining or leaving an online game can erase your action skills, advanced abilities and weapon proficiencies as discovered by many gamers. There is no word on how wide spread the issue is or what exactly causes it. All that is known that it is effecting all platforms. Gearbox is aware of the bug and is working on a fix for it. One Gearbox employee had this to say,

“Your report has been heard and we’re working on it. Unfortunately there isn’t a fix just yet, but when one is available we hope to be able to repair as much of your character data as possible”

If you already have read my preview coverage of Borderlands, the you know about the basics on controls, leveling and the health system.

Now, after dozens of hours logged into the game all I can say is that it’s excellent. This is exactly what I have been waiting on for a very long time. Borderlandsperfectly blends an action FPS with an action RPG. I can easily say it is one of the best games of 2009, and one of my personal favourites on the Xbox 360.

Check out Game Rant’s full review after the jump.

According to redflagdeals.com, Wal-Mart will be selling Borderlands for $39.96 CAD compared to the $69.99 CAD other retailers are selling it for. Of course this is not the first time Wal-Mart has had such a discounted price for a new release game. A couple of months ago Wal-Mart was the first to announce they would be selling Batman Arkham Asylum for $39.96 causing other retailers such as EB and Best Buy to follow suit.

The promotional price was a huge success and it is great to see it return for such a great title. Do yourself a favor, go out and grab yourself a copy of this excellent action RPG FPS. To find out more about Borderlands head over to my preview on the game.

Source: redflagdeals.com

Welcome to Part One of Game Rant’s Preview/Review of Borderlands which hits shelves tomorrow. I’ve been playing this a ton recently and here’s my impressions of the games from the first few hours of play. Check back soon for Part Two soon for a complete review of the title.

The game opens up with a little story about a vault that treasure hunters have sought out to find for years. It is rumored to contain riches, alien technology and gorgeous women. That’s all I’ve ever wanted out of a vault, hell I would search for it as well. The problem is the vault is located in Pandora, a vast wasteland full of creatures, bandits and mutants wanting to kill anything in site.

The opening credits introduce the character classes you will get to choose from. The credits are done with a very cinematic quality and very enjoyable while they last. Right away, I fell in love with the cell-shaded graphical art style which looks fantastic. The characters are on a rundown bus on their way to Fyrestone depot. They are treasure hunters and are in search of the loaded vault. If you play through the single player campaign, you have to choose one of the four character classes available.