A new project bearing the signature of Gearbox was recently announced by Take-Two Interactive's 2K Games publishing label. We're therefore certain that Randy Pitchford's team, which made a name for itself over the last years with the Brothers in Arms series, is currently working on at least three ambitious projects - Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, an Alien shooter, and the newly announced Borderlands.

The latter presents itself as the first in a new sci-fi action franchise, combining classic first-person shooting, with character customization, and with vehicular combat. Vaguely resembling Mad Max, you can see a few such combat vehicles in the first images from the local Borderlands gallery.

The interesting thing is that the way in which all these are combined will not be pre-defined, or at least the game's content will not always be the same. Thanks to a new technology developed by Gearbox, Borderlands will be based on a revolutionary - they say - content generation system, allowing for "near-endless variety in missions, environments, enemies, weapons, item drops and character customization". Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, adds:

"Borderlands creates a universe of gameplay that goes far beyond anything anyone would expect. We're tapping into every bit of Gearbox Software's experience with the biggest science fiction video game franchises, then taking everything way past the next level. The team at 2K Games shares our passion for pushing boundaries in gameplay and storytelling and are absolutely perfect partners for Borderlands."

Not least of all, Borderlands also prides itself with an extraordinary online cooperative experience, with players being able to join and leave matches as they please. The release of Borderlands is planned for the end of 2008, on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)