Boarderland Sexism? Hardly.

Gearbox Software caused a bit of a stir today with the reveal of the "Best Friends Forever" skill tree for Borderlands 2. How can something with a name lifted straight off a Valentines card cause such a fuss?

Well, dubbed the "Girlfriend" tree by one designer; this particular set of skills specific to the Mechromancer character class, is designed for people that suck at games.

Borderlands 2 lead designer John Hemingway told Eurogamer:

"The design team was looking at the concept art and thought, you know what, this is actually the cutest character we've ever had. I told them I want to make, for the lack of a better term, the girlfriend skill tree. This is, "I love Borderlands and I want to share it with someone, but they suck at first-person shooters. Can we make a skill tree that actually allows them to understand the game and to play the game? That's what our attempt with the Best Friends Forever skill tree is.""

Can't shoot straight? Borderlands 2 has you covered. Sort of.

I can think of a couple of less patronizing terms that don't play to stereotypes that are guaranteed to piss off a cross-section of your gamers... But still, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

In any case, the tree is designed for the noob in your life (whatever their gender/relationship to you), with perks that allow you to shoot without aiming(?) and the ability to summon a large robot whose sole purpose is to sponge enemy fire whilst you scream "which button is reload?!?" at your co-op partner in a blind panic. 

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford quickly took to Twitter to defend the comment, claiming the quote was a "personal anecdote" that was being sensationalized by forum users & the increasingly easy to offend PC Brigade, and that the term "Girlfriend Skill Tree" will not be featured in any part of the finished game.

That's good news for all the do-gooders of the internet as they can put their placards down and go back to harassing pages on Facebook safe in the knowledge that this minor non-injustice never nearly almost existed..

New Assassins Creed 3 Gameplay Trailer Is Awesome!

Unfazed by lawsuits and angry authors, Ubisoft released the first gameplay trailer for Assassin’s Creed 3 today and damn does it look good!

You can clearly see from the trailer below that this is no half-arsed sequel like Brotherhood & Revelations and that claims by the developers that this is the biggest and most ambitious entry in the series yet now seem more than just empty promises.

Yeah, I said it. Brotherhood sucked!
 

Anyway, the clip is chock full of awesome and gives us a peak at new combat, weapons, moves, and free-running tricks that make the previous games look like Tenchu for the PS1.

 

The story takes place between 1753 and 1783, across the American frontier so there aren't going to be many building to climb. Plenty of trees though.

As much of the game takes place out in the sticks instead of the ever familiar busy market places, it looks like you will now have to blend into nature to remain hidden from those pesky Templar's (new stealth system perhaps?). Luckily, Assassin’s Creed 3’s fancy new frontier locations aren’t just cut & paste forests that all look the same, offering little interaction. It looks like Connor can free-run through them just like his ancestors would run across rooftops in the previous Assassin’s Creed games.

Check out the trailer below.

Bad News For Bioshock Fans.

A bit of bad news for Bioshock fans today.

Irrational and 2K Games announced earlier that Bioshock Infinites October 16th release date has slipped back to February next year. Balls. Looks like we'll have to wait a few more months to explore the shiny floating dystopia of Columbia.

In an open letter released today (you can read it in full after the jump), the game's Creative Director, Ken Levine explained that this would give the developers time to fine tune the game, making it, in his own words "Even more extraordinary".

Now, I don't know about you but I think this game already looks incredible, but if 2K Games think they can make it even better, I'll wait as long as they want.

 

Plagiarism Or A Tenuous "Link"? - Author sues Ubisoft

American science fiction author John L. Beiswenger is having a stab at suing Ubisoft over alleged similarities between his novel "Link", and the Assassin's Creed franchise. This isn't the first time someone has tried to call "minesies" on a rather lucrative intellectual property but this guys claims may actually have some weight.

Plagiarism or a tenuous Link?

The main point of the authors suit is that the premise of his novel; that the memories of an Ancestor can be "accessed, recalled, relived and re-experienced" by using a nifty gadget called a "Bio-synthesizer" has been ripped off by Ubisoft, with nothing more than a name change to hide it.

Now I'll admit that that does sound quite similar to Ass Creeds "Animus", but then again I don't think that Beiswenger solely owns the rights to the concept of Memetic Legacy...

Thats Just Creepy... Meet Bioshock: Infinites "Boys of Silence"

2K Games have released info on yet another one of the terrifying mini-boss type enemies you will be squaring off against in Bioshock: Infinite. 

Boys Of Silence
Sounds like a Christian Boy Band...

First it was a Clockwork George Washington with a Mini gun, then the massive dudes with the giant porcelain hands. Both pretty formidable, but BioShock Infinite's latest "heavy hitter", the "Boys of Silence" are definitely the creepiest of the bunch.

Creepy eh?

All Hands And No Manners:- Meet Bioshock: Infinites "Handymen"

 

Today 2K Games released some info on another one of the enemies you will be facing in Bioshock: Infinite when you finally get to explore Columbia - the games new setting, later this year. 

Columbia: A far cry from the cramped city of Rapture.

The info came in the form of a trailer posted on Machinima's Youtube Page & gives a sneak peak at the design process behind "The Handymen" - hulking great cyborgs that tower above the player & make the Big Daddy seen in previous games look like a Little Bitch.

Amazing Steam Punk Portal Gun

This has been doing the rounds this week, and you can see why!
If this is what the gun looks like, I'd hate to see the tests... or GLaDOS...

Impressive, no?

This awesome Steam punk Portal gun (if I lost you with that, Wiki that shit & be ashamed of yourself) was made by Deviant Art user Batman n Bananas over 3 months using random stuff he found lying around the house. I love the prop replicas you see over on Instructables, but not everyone has access to the sort of kit they use to make them so when someone does it using random junk most people have lying around, it makes it that little bit cooler.


According to the dude that built this cake worthy beast, its made up of: 

• 2 Antique clock movements;
• 1 +1/2 Coat hangers; 
• Metal teapot stand;
• Plastic Mechano;
• Plumbing parts;
• 1 Plant pot; 
• 1 Hair gel pot + various lids;
• Plastic tub (those ones you get nuts in the the supermarket);
• Plastic tubing;
• Lots and lots of nuts and bolts;
• Miniature storage box (for the battery compartment);
• Pocket laser disc (you can get them on ebay if anyone's interested);
• 3 light bulbs;
• Cardboard tube;
• Metal covering from an old hairbrush;
• AV socket;
• Tons of odds and ends from my parents garage;
• And of course the usual - milliput, humbrol and Warhammer paints, hot melt glue, and about 6 gallons of super glue.

If you want to read more about the build & check out his other work head over to his Deviant Art Page:- Here. 

If you need me I'll be in the shed...