So, if this week has proven anything to anyone, it’s that a lot of people love Borderlands. What’s not to love? It’s a smart, addictive game with a personality that is entirely its own. It’s a game that proves that risky new IP can go on to major success, given the chance. Gearbox’s RPG/FPS fully deserves all the love it gets.

I love Borderlands too, but I’m fairly certain that I love it in an entirely different way to the rest of you.

I wrote not too long ago about how games helped me to combat depression, offering an example on how my favourite hobby had a positive effect on my life. What I didn’t talk about is how Borderlands in particular had a bigger, more significant impact; it managed to keep my relationship together over six months that I had to spend away from my partner. Let me start from the top.

Very little is said of games that change their stripes mid-development. Oh sure, they receive tweaks all over the place all the time, but complete overhauls? Shooters, as it turns out, are some of the most tampered with productions in video game entertainment today. Let’s look at some of the biggest stripe-changers — the games that almost got made.

Speaking at a developer’s session at Rezzed, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said the PC elite are fussier than their console-lovin’ cousins.

“What we learned after shipping Borderlands 1 was customers who play on the PC expect better treatment within the game itself,” he said.

“With both BL1 and BL2, the PC version is the best looking, highest fidelity version of the game, but what we’ve learned is that the details are important to you on the PC and we made a strong effort to improve those details in the product.”

Although Pitchford reiterated Gearbox’s commitment to the PC as lead development platform, he did reneg on any possibility of official modding tools for Borderlands 2, which goes multiplatform in September.

“There was a moment after Borderlands shipped where we thought about releasing an official SDK but we found that most of what we would be able to do, was already accomplished by the gaming community,” he said.

“The best thing we could do for the community was get to work on Borderlands 2. Imagine if we’d spend a year working on an SDK for BL2.”

Source: VG247

We all like to reminisce about going to back to the old classics, but it can be hard – old games are ugly, and sometimes don’t even work at all! But with so many sequels coming out this year, Jamie Dalzell has cracked open the vault to show you how to get the most out of Diablo 2, the original Borderlands, and our own GOTY 2011, Mass Effect 2.