Borderlands 2 Preview
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One of the main pet peeves of Borderlands fans was the uselessness of the fragmented '˜area' maps. This vocal fanbase will be pleased to learn that the world map is now a cohesive whole, with each area being its own section that can be zoomed-into and scrutinized at will, and each section will relate to the others geographically when zoomed-out to the overworld view. Getting lost on Pandora will be a thing of the past when Borderlands 2 ships on September 18th in the US (September 21st for international markets).
User-interface-wise, the skill menu has been split to emphasize the three separate disciplines and level-up bonuses available to each character; whereas the weapon/backpack inventory screen and spin-off gun-comparison windows are almost completely unchanged. The menus are now displayed in floating 3D boxes rather than flat pages, and do feel more dynamic and interesting to look at on the whole, so gun-comparison-aficionado's will have a grand time driving the menus when they get their hands on it.
Ultimately though, there was little shown that can be considered new. Indeed, the only aspects of Borderlands 2 we saw that set it apart from its predecessor were the abilities of the characters themselves, the skybox, which now sports an enormous space station in low orbit that is shaped like the letter '˜H', and the souped-up menu design. Everything else we saw could quite easily have been a secret area from the original, and we wouldn't have known any better.
