Grave Gamer News & Views — borderlands 2

Phase by Drake Tsui

Whilst working the Glitch booth at this past weekend’s A-Kon, the lovely lady pictured to the left (the one on the right lives in a video game and not Dallas) scanned our stock of Borderlands 2 tees, looked up at me, and asked, “Do you have any Ellie shirts?” in a saccharine southern accent sweet enough to charm your pants off.

“No, unfortunately we don’t have a design for Ellie just yet,” I said.

“That’s too bad,” she said.  “Because that’s me.”

Why, yes, this orange haired southern bell was none other than Jamie Marchi, the voice actress behind Scooter’s sister and countless anime characters over the last decade.  Jamie, though I have absolutely no say in the matter, I promise we’ll get you that Ellie shirt one day.

Maya by Melissa Smith

Borderlands 2 Sixth Character is a “Reformed” Bandit

Not content with allowing one spec of dust to hit your copy of loot happy FPS, Gearbox is giving players a new reason to tour Pandora.

Meet your new Vault Hunter: Krieg the Psycho.  Once apart of the psycho bandits roaming the terrain of Pandora – you know, the shouting creeps you have so much fun shooting at – Krieg is an escaped experiment with a love for melee combat.  Controlling him is a game of risk versus reward, where charging the front lines and getting up close and personal to crack enemy skulls actually heals Krieg.

Krieg’s skill trees, below, serve to endorse his unusual and  fantastically brutal play style:

• Bloodlust: Combat bonuses are alotted for melee kills using your Buzz Axe.
• Hellborn: Ups fire damage and, incredibly, increases lethality when you’re on goddamn fire.
• Mania: Take damage and your damage output is bolstered.

This badass addition to the game’s roster will cost you $10 when he arrives as DLC sometime in May.  While Krieg doesn’t seem to be included with the Borderlands 2 Season Pass, a confirmed fourth campaign add-on (scheduled for June) is.

Watch the Playable Psycho Bandit’s Announcement Trailer hereabouts.

Rumor – the invisible force said to actually power the internet – has it that this console generation is coming to a close.  If this truly is the last year of this triumphant generation, a generation that began as any other (with pretty graphics and prettier promises) but evolved into a full blown fusion of home media and dedicated gaming, then it’s all the more important to reflect on the virtual adventures 2012 gave us.

We laughed, we cried, we cried even harder trying to slog through Halo 4 on Legendary…2012 was the culmination of six years of advancement, where devs’ were past their growing pains fumbling with new technology and knew how to fully utilize the tools at their disposal.   2012 was a year in which we reaped the benefits tenfold through the sheer amount of excellent games rapid-fired onto store shelves (or, more realistically, Steam shelves.  Yeah.  Steam shelves).