This morningwe ran some rudderless speculationconcerning Gearbox’sBorderlandswhich seemed to completely reignite (or justignite) a lot of interest in the highly customizableDune-esque shooter. According to the gossip,Borderlandshad a complete artistic makeover that was suggested to be some form of cel-shading. Gearbox has finally responded to the talk with an official statement.
“Heh! No,Borderlandsis not cel-shaded — it’s a gritty and serious world after all,” said a spokesperson. “But since the game was first unveiled we have made big advancements with the art direction and the technology to support the art and have produced some pretty impressive, even shocking results.
“We weren’t expecting a story about this to break this week, but I’ll tell you thatthe websitewill soon be getting new content that will expose how far we’ve gone with the art. If the story you guys broke today makes too much noise for us to deal with we may decide to speed up when we update the site with media.”
Gearbox also explained thatPC Gamerhas a cover story onBorderlandsdue in the next issue, and that the game will be shown live at E3. We were also informed that although many people have figured out what’s going on with the game, the studio is notquiteready for the full story to come out.
Still, changing the art direction is probably the slickest move I’ve seen a developer pull in a long time. The U-turn that gamers have performed for this game is astounding, going from barely caring at all to suddenly being incredibly intrigued. Well played, Gearbox. Well played indeed.
