Borderlands is the latest game from Gearbox Software, the team responsible for the original Half-Life expansions and the Brothers in Arms series. Billed as a shooter-RPG the game combines cell shading, drop in and out cooperative play, randomly generated items and lots of explosions to entertain players for hours.

Check out our feature for a price round-up, DLC competition, details for playing with others this weekend as well as my first impressions after spending an evening with the game.

Price Round-Up

Playstation 3:

• GAME - $79
• JB Hi-Fi - $89
• EB Games - $99.95
• Dick Smith - $99.96

Xbox 360:

• GAME - $79
• JB Hi-Fi - $89
• EB Games - $99.95
• Dick Smith - $99.96

Online Stores:

• CD WOW - PS3 $72.95
• CD WOW - Xbox 360 $72.95
• Fishpond - PS3 $77.97
  
• Fishpond - Xbox 360 $77.97

Trade In Deals:

• JB Hi-Fi - Free when trading 3 games on the same console (exclusions list)
• GAME - $29.95 when trading in 1 eligible title (eligible titles list)
• EB Games - $19.95 when trading in 2 eligible titles (eligible titles list)

Playstation 3 DLC Competition

We are giving away a code for the Mercenary Weapons downloadable pack to one lucky PS3 owner. Click here for more details.

Community Game Nights

We will be getting together on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game this Friday and Saturday night. To find a group to play with drop by the community forum thread and trade your online details.

First Impressions

Interestingly, the closest equivalent to Borderlands on the market would have to be the Diablo series. Item collecting, story progression, mission structure and even the atmospheric music are all elements that I fondly remember from Diablo 2. I'm not typically one to enjoy the level grinds and equipment quests of other online RPGs, but from my combined 5 hours of solo and online multiplayer I am confident Gearbox have nailed the most important factor. The game is fun from the start.

Single player and multiplayer were both equally enjoyable and locating Australian games to join is easy to do. Its hard to say if Borderlands leans more towards the shooter genre or if it is a role playing game, but I think fans of both will enjoy it.

The title boasts 'bazillions of guns' thanks to its weapon generator. Most of these weapons will be very, very similar but last night during a co-op game with fellow Economical Gamer member Klevster, it became apparent this system has extremely high potential.

One of our weapon drops contained a sniper and a shotgun. Playing as the weaker female character who can phase in and out of reality I chose the sniper, which had a 150% better chance of delivering a critical hit and setting nearby enemies on fire. Continuing on our mission we were having fun as packs of distant hounds burst into flames and charged at us. The ensuing battles were filled with constant rocket explosions that Klevster explained were the result of his new shot gun. 'It fires rockets!' according to the item's own description.

Much like Diablo you collect missions from NPCs, or from the Bounty Board in town and then head out into the wilderness to complete them. Outside the towns you will find stations that will teleport you to new locations, many of which are story driven dungeons filled with loot, even more quests and a boss or two. There is also the odd vehicle station, enemy outpost and versus arena out in the wilds.

On the surface Borderlands looks like a terrific game with plenty of hours in it. I'll have a review for you after putting considerably more time into the game. As a fan of cooperative video games I'm pretty keen to review this one.