Gear up and take on Pandora next month, in Gearbox’s acclaimed shooter
Hello Vault-hunters! It’s been a while since we’ve given an update on Borderlands 2 on PS Vita and I’m sure some of you are anxious to get shooting and looting. We’ve been working with Iron Galaxy Studios, Gearbox Software and 2K to make sure that we can bring the best experience to PlayStation Vita, and I’m excited to say that the game is looking great! For those of you with calendars… now’s the time to pull it out. Borderlands 2 will be hitting the street in May!
Gio Corsi, Director of Third Party Productions at SCEA had the following to say about the upcoming release:
“We’ve been working hard to jam pack the endless looting and mayhem of Borderlands 2 into the palm of your hands, and we’re committed to porting over the heart and soul of the console original without compromising the gameplay you know and love. Soon, Vita owners can chase down Handsome Jack on the go, alone, or with three of their Vita-toting friends via online co-op play. Huzzah!
“Now if you are like me, some of you would have already poured hours into Borderlands 2 on PS3. Because Cross Save is supported, you can easily continue your existing adventure on PS Vita. Just got done with a long Vita session out on the road? Pick up right where you left off on PS3 when you get home. Easily transfer your saved game from PS Vita to PS3 and vice-versa so you don’t miss one second of the shooting and looting mayhem. Pretty cool!
“When you pick up Borderlands 2 on Vita, you’ll also get six add-on packs. Extend your experience with Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty, Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage, the Psycho and Mechromancer Character Classes, as well as the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 1, and Collector’s Edition pack. As if the core game wasn’t already packing hundreds of hours of entertainment, this bonus content seals the deal, helping Borderlands 2 on Vita rank exceptionally high on the handheld-bang-for-your-buck-o-meter.
“As production wraps up, we’ll post more info about the game. We can’t wait for you to get your hands on this epic and action-packed Vita version of Borderlands 2. The look, the feel, the style, the characters, the weapons, and the co-op gameplay with its countless hours of shooting and looting – it’s all here! Prep your gear, Vault Hunters, we’ll see you back on Pandora!”
Get ready to gear up and take on Pandora. Mayhem awaits. Bring friends.
Looks pretty cool, but the graphics are a bit watered down. Still, I’m pretty sure it will be fun.
Try to remember the resolution in relation to the Vita’s screen size (these are blown up screenshots after all)… Crikey, you could fit 6 (or 9) Vita screens in one screenshot!
Sorry to burst your bubble iamthelloyd, but you are completely and totally wrong there… These screen shots are in 960×544.. The EXACT resolution of the Vita screen. They haven’t been blown up at all. And if you could fit 6 vita screens in that image then the vita would be a pathetic 160×90 resolution.
The game just looks a bit poor because they are essentially porting a PS3 game to a console with no where near as much power. The textures look a bit bad because they are low resolution. Hell with the visible aliasing showing it tells us it is actually running in native res, (possibly with a dynamic buffer) which is surprising given so many vita games render in a much lower res resulting in a blurry aliasing effect all over the screen and lack of detail that native games usually have (uncharted runs in about half the native res). I’m guessing the framerate will be quite poor too unless they also cut back the render distance among other things to get it to run on such slower hardware. There is no filtering either which is why textures at an angle, like the floor, look like a blurry mess as soon as they are farther away from the camera.
Naquadah – My point was that the screenshots you see (whilst possibly native as you say) are physically bigger than the Vita’s actual screen, so you have to imagine how it will look at 1/4 (or 1/6, or 1/9) of the size. It could potentially look as good running in 544p on a 5″ screen, as it does at [sub] 720p on a 32″[+} TV…. My only real [technical] concern is the framerate which is why some concessions have been made, but some of those things [on a 5″ screen] might go unnoticed until it’s pointed out to you (eg. Digital Foundry face-off).
depends on the size of your screen. some folks might be looking at this on phones or tablets. I suppose if you wanna get a feel of it, copy the pics over to your vita. the game in motion and with the higher dpi than a big monitor might help its look.
I’d rather have technical details for this port. Resolution, framerate.
Looking at the screenshots this seems to be running at native resolution (960×544) without any scaling, so the game should appear extremely crisp on the Vita screen. The only downside to this is an apparent lack of anti aliasing.
The framerate in the off-screen footage from GDC appears to be smooth, probably close to 30fps at most times. This is really looking impressive.
IGN’s hands on indicates a consistent frame rate which runs between 28 and 33 but generally smoothly at 30.
Excited! There were a lot of negative comments on the footage shot at GDC but I thought it looked great. Sure, not as good as PS3 but then some accommodations have to be made. Cross Save is a HUGE bonus! A must buy for me :D
Would it be safe to assume that the digital release won’t be a cross-buy. I have a digital copy of borderlands 2 on PS3, i assume i’m not going to get it for free on vita?
Andy day 1 discount for owners of the PS3 version? I have this on PS3 and PC and would buy it on the vita as long as it’s priced well
also why such random DLC and not have all the current story DLC?
So pumped for this! :D
I think they should do a bundle with all dlc as many people would have got all the dlc like I have all the dlc on pc. Because I would love borderlands on my vita but don’t have/wanna spend another 40 quid on dlc for a game I’ve completed 6 times. Also the graphics are fine the style of borderlands still looks awesome I play on low on pc using a dualshock 4 and it is still awesome :)
Jaysus dude! Use some punctuation. That was a mouthful to read.
Ha sorry I tried :)
Not all story dlc due to 3.4gb max cart size I am guessing. Have this pre ordered, looks great.
My only concern is whether i would have to pay for ALL of the remaining dlc again. It would be a bitter pill to swallow to have to buy it all over again. If that is the case i’d chop & change between the PSV & PS3 versions.
Will the game get cross-save?
Second paragraph (in italics)…
Try reading the article. It says it supports cross-save.
Great. I’m excited.
So no exact release date for the UK then?
And would I be right in assuming that we carry over our Badass Rank?
It’s pocket Borderlands. POCKET BORDERLANDS. With the season pass already added. What is there to debate? With cross-save I’m already there…
That’s the spirit!
looking forward to this, especially as it’s cross save enabled!
I still can’t believe this is a direct port of BL2. I simply have spent too many hours on this storyline to justify buying the same game again. If this was an prequel/sequel, especially Vita exclusive release, I’m sure I and many others would preorder right away.
However, to sweeteen the deal – could crossbuy of the DLC be confirmed – perhaps releasing a special offer super cheap sale bundle of all “deluxe” skins for both PS3 and Vita would be a great marketing strategy. :)
Sounds good =) what will cost digital copy?
How much for the physical copy?
The game will not be cross buy but it will be cross save and you will get 6 dlc packs for free
Borderlands 2…amazing game!
2 questions 1. will the Vita bundle come to EU? and 2. When will the New slim Vita come to EU?
1. Don’t think so.
2. The PSVita slim is already out.
Of course my one of my favourite games from last gen gets a release date the week my Vita breaks. It can load games from my memory card fine, but it can’t download or copy anything.
Given how much I’ve played Borderlands 2, having all characters at the very least finished playthrough 2, not sure if I can go buy a brand new Vita just to replay this, especially when I don’t have any Vita owning friends to play it with.
It’s unfortunate that my Borderlands 2 copy is on the 360 … cross save is pretty awesome. I got it with PS+ for PS3 I believe … but I would need to buy a PS3 for that. It would have been really awesome if t was crossbuy though haha. Anyway, will get it on release.
I don’t even care about graphics or frame rate, every game that’s big and they manage to port it to Vita is a buy for me.
Geez I hope is priced well for NZ. We get smashed on cost here. A 25 Pound game is $60NZD here! How about some price love for NZ PSN store all round. ;)
I want this and the Bl2 pre-quel, borderlands and playsttation i love you foever
Can you play online multiplayer with people playing the PS3 version (or even over LAN, but I don’t think that this will be accounted for)? Our couch coop sessions would be much better with that!
As far as i can recall (and having a quick look on t’interweb) it’s online co-op with other Vita’s only…. No cross-play with PS3, nor local (ad-hoc) play on Vita either, JUST online (over PSN) co-op… But cross-save between PS3 & PSV is still appreciated.
I know this is Vita Version but… NO SHADOWS?? Without this game look like on BEAT stage :-/ Please make some simple shadows for this game! Then this game will be looks much better :-D Also fix the (texture) water, this looks ugly. Game looks like from PS2 with that water. And why we don’t see any screens with LOD distance??
Why include only half the DLC? What happens to cross save characters who last saved in an area that no longer exists (Dragon’s Keep locations, for example)? How about the reverse? If you save on Vita, does my Swordsplosion (which the Vita won’t have data for) just disappear for ever?
Really should have been at bare minimum the GOTY game, but realistically should have included all DLC to be worth buying all over again.
All the screenshots look square to me, so either they’ve accidentally saved them incorrectly just for the blog post, or they’ve inadvertently revealed they’re rendering in an anamorphic aspect ratio to save processing power, and then horizontally de-squeezing for display on the Vita’s screen.
If it’s the latter then horizontal resolution will suffer, and whoever posted the ‘raw’ screenshots will probably be getting a stern talking to…
This is going to be pretty nice
One question – what if i have vanilla Borderlands 2 on ps3 and i play DLCs on Vita? Could i transfer my save on ps3 and play tiny tina assault and such?
Look, this looks the bee’s knee’s and all, reading about framerate, anti-aliasing and that other stuff though, surely there’s going to be a demo?, if not the usual trial and unlock that is the norm these days, am not really sure i have much need for this, love both ps3 versions, will buy it just for having it kinda thing, but only after i get to try, and approve.
Since the NA date for this is the 13th May, will we be getting this on the 14th? (or 16th in the UK) or will there be a longer wait? (or earlier ;) )
As my PS3 gathers dust despite being only a few months old (I know late to the party). Despite having a large collection thanks to cross buy and lots of ps plus free titles (thank you web store) I enjoy playing games on my vita. In fact I didn’t game from between the day my N64 died until I got a psp go at huge discount with ten free games and I have loved handheld gaming ever since. So I love ports, ports and more ports. Bring it on!
“Soon, Vita owners can chase down Handsome Jack on the go, alone, or with three of their Vita-toting friends via online co-op play. Huzzah!”
Does this mean that we’ll only be able to play with other PSVita owners and not with PS3 owners?
I would have got it but i dont like the style of games that are not “true” , i mean that shooting monsters on mp isnt sht i would pay for .If the game was sth like Killzone mercenary i would buy , right now kzm is my main game!
I’m looking forward to this. It seems like Iron Galaxy really know what they are doing. :)
Seems like a perfect portable to me : FPS and co op. Won’t get it on release at full price but definitely picking it up eventually.
I didn’t expect much from this port but Iron Galaxy know their stuff. Looks good
Is there any update as to exactly when in May the game will be released. One website has it down as 1st May, which is way earlier than the US release date. Also, will we be getting the bundle that the Americans are getting? Its been on Amazon for a while but they have no details, and they seem to be the only place that have it listed.
I really want to get a vita and Borderlands, but if there isn’t going to be a bundle, I’d prefere to get the vita now and Borderlands later.
I have high hopes for Borderlands 2 on the Vita. I doubt the images above are the actual graphics to the finished product. I’m was Playing Final Fantasy XIV ARR on the Ps3, before switching my game over to the ps4 and the graphics are just insane beautiful. Anyways ps4 crossplays FF XIV very well on the vita and the graphic quality of the game on the vita is pretty much 100% on par with the ps3. FF XIV has far better graphics then BL2, more stuff happening on the screen, more players and a much wider open world. Its just hard to imagine BL2 having the poop graphic as shown above, Maybe if it was on the psp but on the vita? No way. Honesty if this game has the on par with the ps3 graphics and cross play with friends who own the ps3 it will be the first good/perfect game that Vita has to offer, cuz so far the game selection with the vita is garbage. Ive had the vita since it came out and just got my first game for it the other day (which i enjoy). Be nice to have another to go with it.
I’d rather have a release date for the UK version.