Gaming

Here’s Everything We Know About ‘Borderlands 3’

This thing looks extraordinary.

by Joseph Earp  4 April 2019
The cover of Borderlands 3

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The interminable wait is over, my handsome friends — Borderlands 3, the newest instalment in the post-apocalyptic, chaotic series, is heading our way this year.

Borderlands 3 is the first official, main canon release in some seven years. In that time, fans of the series have had to make do with a number of artistic deviations, including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, an Australian made mini-shooter, and Tales From The Borderlands, an episodic point-and-click that expanded the series’ impressively bonkers lore.

But Borderlands 3 is no diversion. Nope, it’s a real deal, honest-to-God Borderlands game. Here’s what we know about it.

Borderlands 3 Is Dropping This September

While the early trailer for the game promised only that it was coming sometime around the American fall, we’ve now been given an exact release date: September 13. On that date, the game will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the PC.

On that last point — for all you PC users, the game will initially be available only via the Epic Games store. It won’t become available via the usual channels until 2020, so that means if you’re a Steam die hard, you won’t be able to get a copy for a whole dang year.

The Game Will Feature Brand New Villains

Of all the zany characters in the Borderlands series, perhaps none is as beloved or as well-known as Handsome Jack, the suave antagonist of the second game. A good-natured sociopath, he has become an icon for the series — a testimony to the Borderlands commitment to stuffing games full of every brand of lunatic imaginable.

Exact plot details for the third game are still pretty much non-existent, but a new statement has identified the antagonists — they’re called the Calypso Twins, and they can be briefly glimpsed in the game’s first trailer.

The statement doesn’t give much more than that to go off, though it does call them “the most ruthless cult leaders in the galaxy.”

There’s A Whole Lotta Pre-Order Options Available

‘Cause this is 2019 and the hype train is unstoppable, you can already lay down a bunch of your hard-earned cash on copies of a game that won’t drop until the end of the year. Should you decide to do this (which you maybe shouldn’t, given the way AAA gaming companies use pre-orders as a way of circumnavigating critics), there is a bevy of options available to you.

You can either grab two versions of the game that come with unique DLC, ranging from guns to missions, or you can splash out on the “Diamond Loot Chest” edition. That one doesn’t just contain all the gaming perks — it also comes in a big ole loot box, complete with ten figurines, including “some of your favourite characters from the Borderlands universe”. (So Handsome Jack, then).

More News Is Coming Very Soon

If we’re not giving you enough specifics on how the game will actually play, or how the story itself will unfurl, fear not — there’s more information dropping exceptionally soon.

On May 1, Gearbox will be hosting an extended gameplay reveal livestream, so all you budding vault hunters will have more Borderlands factoids than you know what to do with. Rejoice!