Borderlands 2 Interview

There’s a quick interview with Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Anthony Burch, and Matt Charles up on Digital Trends, during which the interviewer quizzes the team about both Borderlands 2 and the state of the video game industry. A snip:

How has the AI design changed from the original game to the sequel?

[AB] Like pretty much everything else in the game, the AI has undergone a massive improvement since the first game. Enemies now have much more complex interactions with one another. Our robotic enemies will heal one another, players can trick our bandit enemies into fighting amongst themselves, and our elemental creatures are off the chizzo, for rizzo.

Like, say you’re fighting a Fire Skag. He’s immune to fire damage, shoots fire at you, the whole deal. But midway during your fight, some non-elemental Skag Pups come in to help him. Suddenly, the Fire Skag roars, sending out a fiery AoE blast that transforms all of the Skag Pups into Fire Skag Pups, with the same elemental strengths he had.

…

How do you see the health of the gaming industry in general?

[Randy Pitchford] In sum, the game industry is stronger than ever. The best of the premium game makers are reaching more people than ever before and entirely new markets have opened up with casual games, digital distribution and mobile gaming over the last few years and all of this adds up to a very exciting climate for creators.