Surprise! Valve’s just released a massive update to the Source SDK, adding “all” the Team Fortress 2 client and server game code.
Valve said the update lets players build entirely new games from its source code, and unlike Steam Workshop or local content mods, it gives modders access to change, extend, and even rewrite Team Fortress in pretty much any way imaginable.
You won’t be able to sell anything you make with it — which means any mods or spin-off content will have to be released for free on a non-commercial basis — but creations can be published on the Steam Store, “appearing as new games in the Steam game list.”
“Players have a lot of investment in their TF2 inventories, and Steam Workshop contributors have created a lot of that content,” Valve explained via a blog post. “The majority of items in the game now are thanks to the hard work of the TF2 community.
“To respect that, we’re asking TF2 mod makers continue to respect that connection, and to not make mods that have the purpose of trying to profit off Workshop contributors’ efforts. We’re hoping that many mods will continue to allow players access their TF2 inventory, if this makes sense for the mod.”
Valve also added that it was making “a big update” to all its multiplayer back-catalog Source engine titles, too, adding 64-bit binary support, scalable HUD/UI, prediction fixes, and “a lot of other improvements” to not only TF2, but also DoD:S, HL2:DM, CS:S, and HLDM:S.
Back in December, after seven long years, The Team Fortress 2 comic released its seventh and final update. The comics have not only been a great place for fans to uncover new information about their favorite characters and stories, but they’re also a testament to Valve’s own continuing interest in one of its oldest series.
Image credit: Valve.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Annapurna Interactive has announced that its first digital showcase of the year (the creatively titled ‘Annapurna Interactive Showcase’) will be streamed on YouTube next week, providing a peek at the company’s release schedule for 2025.
Arriving on 24th February at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET, the showcase will run for approximately 30 minutes and promises to give us updates on the likes of Wanderstop, Skin Deep, Wheel World, Faraway, Lushfoil, To a T, Morsels and some “surprises”.
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is reportedly in talks to sell its video game division to Saudi-owned Scopely for $3.5 billion.
As first reported by Bloomberg, the sale would likely include Pokémon Go, the hit augmented-reality mobile game that sends players out into the real world to collect Pokémon.
A source talking to Bloomberg under the promise of anonymity said that while the deal was by no means complete, if approved, it could be confirmed in a matter of weeks.
Neither Niantic, Scopely, nor its owner Savvy Games Group were prepared to comment publicly on the reported acquisition.
Savvy Gaming Group also purchased two of the world’s biggest esports companies, ESL and FACEIT, for a total of $1.5 billion in 2022.
“Savvy Games Group is one part of our ambitious strategy aiming to make Saudi Arabia the ultimate global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz said at the time.
“We are harnessing the untapped potential across the esports and games sector to diversify our economy, drive innovation in the sector, and further scale the entertainment and esports competition offerings across the Kingdom.”
This article contains moderate spoilers for the closing events of the Wedding Crashers quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
It’s impossible, I think, to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 without playing a boozer, even if you’re only boozing in cutscenes. The game’s 15th century world is greased by many splendours of hooch, from the wine used in potion-brewing through the finer vintages at banqueting tables to the viral pondwater they sell in seedier taverns. A lot of the time, the writing views alcohol as a means of teeing up some slapstick debauchery reminiscent of Paul Bettany’s character in A Knight’s Tale. It venerates the spectacle of having a large one, with custom dialogue and voice-acting for protagonist Henry when you woozily explain your antics to guards. But sometimes, perhaps despite itself, it expresses something about the culture of drinking and the unpleasantness of being militantly exhorted to drink.
Marvel Rivals developer NetEase has confirmed cuts to its Seattle-based design team for “organizational reasons.”
Overnight, Marvel Rivals game director Thaddeus Sasser took to LinkedIn to announce that he and his team were laid off.
“This is such a weird industry,” Sasser began. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…
“…and were just laid off!
“Oh well! Times are tough all over – Let’s find these incredible people new jobs, because we all need to eat, right? :D”
The video game development community reacted with a mix of shock and anger to the cuts, given Marvel Rivals’ explosive success. The free-to-play hero shooter has seen over 20 million downloads since launch in December, and huge peak concurrent player numbers on Steam.
According to Sasser’s LinkedIn profile, his team focused on game and level design work for Marvel Rivals, “offering guidance, strategy, and design direction over the last couple of years.”
NetEase issued IGN a statement confirming the layoffs, but failed to specify how many people were cut.
“We recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals’ development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game,” NetEase said.
“This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of those affected and will be treating them confidentially and respectfully with recognition for their individual contributions.”
But NetEase was keen to stress that the layoffs won’t impact ongoing support for Marvel Rivals, whose primary development team is based in China.
“We want to reassure our fanbase that the core development team for Marvel Rivals, which continues to be led by Lead Producer Weicong Wu and Game Creative Director Guangyun Chen in Guangzhou, China, remains fully committed to delivering an exceptional experience,” NetEase continued.
“We are investing more, not less, into the evolution and growth of this game. We’re excited to deliver new super hero characters, maps, features, and content to ensure an engaging live service experience for our worldwide player base.”
This is the latest round of layoffs at NetEase, which has pulled back from a number of overseas investments and closed studios in the U.S. and Japan, including Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios. In November, Worlds Untold, headed by Mass Effect alumni Mac Walters, announced a pause of operations after a split with publisher NetEase. And in January it cut Jar of Sparks, founded by Halo and Destiny 2 veteran Jerry Hook in 2022.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The psychology of people who cheat in competitive games remains deeply mysterious to me, but I’ll hazard a guess it stems from a love of ruining someone’s day rather than any real sense of accomplishment. Something I am interested in, however, is the idea of play as transgression.
There is, for example, a subset of people who get very irritated at the concept of speedruns. I suspect this is because, even if we aren’t consciously engaged with a game’s story, there’s an underlying sense of what I’m going to very clumsily call ‘narrative correctness’ that’s absolutely shattered when, say, Leon Kennedy starts shuffling up stairs at superhuman speeds. Glitches, warps, and other exploits expose the shroud of storytelling conjured by every little piece of a game’s design, pulling off the mask so the underlying grey box is painfully visible. They call art a liar.
Competitive FPSCheaters Cheetah initially seems like pure transgression against any sense of fair play or even level design, but the key here is that everyone gets cheats like aimbots, wallhacks, and spinbots. “This creates a unique dynamic,” reads the game’s Steam page, “where everyone knows everyone else’s position, leading to intense mind games and thrilling battles”. It sounds like it’s either going to be a complete disaster or incredibly interesting, probably both.
Following its release in November last year, Mario & Luigi: Brothership for the Switch has now received its first update.
This bumps the game up to Version 1.0.1 and addresses multiple bugs as well as some “other” ones. Here are the full patch notes, courtesy of Nintendo’s official support page:
A new report from Bloomberg claims Pokémon GO developer Niantic is apparently in talks to sell its video game business to the Saudi Arabia-owned company Scopely.
This deal would supposedly be announced in the “coming weeks” and the figure of the sale is expected to be around $3.5 billion. This sale would reportedly include the mobile hit Pokémon GO, but keep in mind there’s no direct confirmation from Niantic at this stage and the information comes from “several people familiar with the discussions”.
Quickly earning a reputation as the face of the looter shooter genre in the years since its release, Borderlands really has become one of gaming’s most recognisable franchises. From its cel-shaded art style to its masked psycho poster child, the foul-mouthed, tongue-in-cheek sci-fi universe is now a staple of modern video game culture. It’s not stopping there though, with the series quickly morphing into a multimedia sensation in its own right, spinning off into comics, novels and even a tabletop game.
This month, that journey reaches its biggest milestone yet, with Borderlands finally making its long-awaited jump to the big screen courtesy of Hostel and Thanksgiving director, Eli Roth. Reimagining Pandora and its vault-obsessed locals for a brand new audience. And while the film did not review particularly well, it’s still a major step for any franchise.
With Borderlands 4 confirmed for release later this year, there’s likely to be a lot of new and returning fans looking to dive back into the games and reacquaint themselves with where it all started. So, we decided to put together a quick timeline of the series to get you caught up on how it all fits together.
In total, there are currently seven Borderlands games and spin-offs that are canon to the series, and two smaller, non-canon titles: Borderlands: Vault Hunter Pinball and Borderlands Legends.
Where’s The Best Place to Start?
While it’s the simplest answer, the best place to start is arguably Borderlands 1, although if you don’t care about the story, any of the three mainline games are a good introduction.
All three entries in the trilogy are relatively similar in style, scope and gameplay, and better yet, they’re all available on modern consoles and PC. That being said, there is a great overarching story that runs through the Borderlands saga, and if you’ve just come off the movie and want to follow it as intended, starting from the beginning is the best way to play.
Every Canon Borderlands Game in Chronological Order
These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Borderlands (2009)
The game that kickstarted it all. The very first Borderlands launched in 2009, telling the story of Lilith, Brick, Roland and Mordecai: a group of four “Vault Hunters” that venture out on the treasure hunt of a lifetime. Arriving on the volatile planet of Pandora, they seek out a legendary bunker known as The Vault, which is said to house unimaginable treasures.
As expected, their expedition quickly turns into a chaotic maelstrom of carnage, with the group facing off against a militia known as the Crimson Lance, contending with the planet’s savage wildlife and taking down hordes of bloodthirsty bandits. From the moment Borderlands hit shelves, it was a huge hit, launching the looter shooter genre into the stratosphere through its compelling gameplay loop of killing masses of enemies, discovering a near-limitless supply of guns and building your chosen character.
The game was also supported heavily after release, getting a further four expansions that took the game from zombie-themed islands to a tongue-in-cheek riff on Mad Max’s Thunderdome.
2. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014)
Developed by 2K Australia with the assistance of Gearbox Software, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel may have launched after Borderlands 2, but it fills in the gap between the first two Borderlands games. The story follows a group of new Vault Hunters, Athena, Wilhelm, Nisha and Claptrap, as they head out on a mission to find a Vault on the moon of Elpis.
The Pre-Sequel was, in a lot of ways, a bunch more of the Borderlands fans knew and loved. Set in a new locale with fresh classes to master and learn, it offered more guns, boss fights, quests and enemy encounters to plough through while the world waited for an inevitable Borderlands 3. However, its main selling point was further fleshing out the story of Borderlands 2, with the game featuring the second game’s main antagonist, Handsome Jack, in a leading role.
Alongside featuring many of the second game’s main bosses and characters years before their roles in the sequel’s story, it also offered a full view of Jack’s descent into madness, establishing the iconic foe’s origins. Much like the other games, 2K Australia added several expansions after the game launched, including the Holodome Onslaught and Claptastic Voyage maps, as well as two playable characters: the Doppelganger and the Baroness.
3. Borderlands 2 (2012)
The official sequel to Borderlands, Borderlands 2 launched in 2012, bringing players back to Pandora with a new squad of ambitious Vault Hunters in tow. The tale begins with our heroes, Maya, Axton, Salvador and Zer0, heading to Pandora to search for a new Vault. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the planet’s overlord, the sadistic Handsome Jack, doesn’t take kindly to brave adventurers seeking fame and fortune by uncovering the latest fabled Vault on Pandora. While riding a train across the untamed planet, Jack attempts to have them killed, leaving them stranded in an icy wasteland.
Left for dead, the team set out on an adventure to discover the truth behind Handsome Jack’s schemes, attempting to stop to him and find the Vault in the process. Borderlands 2 was essentially a bigger, more expansive take on the original game, offering plenty of quests, new classes to master, a charismatic main villain to take down and, somehow, even more guns to find and collect.
It’s still regarded by many as the best Borderlands to date, offering a fun story, memorable combat encounters and a healthy dose of the series’ trademark sense of humour. Much like the first game, it also came with a bunch of post-release support, including four additional campaigns, two bonus playable characters, and several Headhunter missions.
4. Tales From The Borderlands (2014 – 2015)
The first full spin-off of the series, Tales From The Borderlands was Walking Dead developer Telltale’s take on the Borderlands universe, offering an episodic, story-focused adventure set on the surface of Pandora. Unlike the mainline entries, Tales doesn’t centre on a team of super-powered, gun-obsessed Vault Hunters. Instead, it follows a crook and a corporate lackey who unwittingly stumble into a grand adventure.
Set after the events of Borderlands 2, we follow Rhys, a Hyperion employee lobbying for a higher position in the company, and Fiona, a con artist working with her sister, Sasha. After Rhys attempts to one-up a colleague by intercepting a deal to acquire a vault key, he learns the key was a fake in a con set-up by Fiona, entangling the two together and setting off a chain reaction of events that put them on the trail of a brand new Vault.
As with all of Telltale’s games, Tales From The Borderlands focuses primarily on a branching, cinematic story with moral choices that can change the direction of the narrative. In the years following its release, Tales From The Borderlands has been acknowledged as a key piece of the Borderlands canon, with original characters from the game even popping up in Borderlands 3.
5. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (2022)
Gearbox Software’s most recent entry in the Borderlands franchise, from the outside, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands doesn’t look like a Borderlands game. Subbing out futuristic desert wastelands for a sprawling fantasy kingdom, while Wonderlands may have plenty of dragons, goblins and unicorns, it’s very much still a Borderlands game in everything but the setting.
Acting as a fully-fledged version of the beloved Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands once again has you entering the world of Bunkers and Badasses; the Borderlands equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons. With Tina as your very enthusiastic dungeon master, you’ll battle against a range of fantasy monsters, embark on some heroic quests and battle your way to the monstrous Dragon Lord.
As with all Borderlands games, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands boasts a metric ton of guns to find, classes to master and enemies to kill, while also incorporating new ideas to complement the shift in setting, such as an overworld area you traverse between missions and the ability to use spells. It also has its own helping of expansions to dig into, with four separate DLCs featuring new dungeons, bosses and gear.
6. Borderlands 3 (2019)
Seven years after the release of Borderlands 2, Gearbox Software returned for an official third entry, launching Borderlands 3 in 2019. As always, the threequel brings a fresh new cast of Vault Hunters into the fray, introducing players to Amara, FL4K, Zane and Moze, and sending them out on a chaotic new adventure.
This time around, players are tasked with stopping a pair of murderous siren twins named Troy and Tyreen, who are venturing across the galaxy and harnessing the power inside the vaults for a mysterious cause. In a franchise first, players are tasked with travelling to multiple planets to take them down, teaming with an array of familiar faces such as Lilith, Rhys, Maya, Brick, Zer0 and, of course, Claptrap.
As always, you can expect plenty of looter shooter chaos to ensue, with a heap of guns to find, enemies to eviscerate and new character classes to master. There’s also plenty of DLC content to jump into when you’re done, with Borderlands 3’s additional content offering four new campaigns, takedown missions and even designer and director cuts that resurrect a bunch of content left on the cutting room floor.
7. New Tales From The Borderlands (2022)
Gearbox Software’s official follow-up to Tales From The Borderlands, New Tales From The Borderlands is currently the last game on the chronological timeline. Bringing in a slate of fresh characters instead of opting for a continuation of the original Tales game, New Tales has three protagonists: Anu, Octavio and Fran.
The story follows the group’s adventures after stumbling into a vault and finding a precious artefact, which inadvertently puts them in the line of fire of the Tediore corporation and its ruthless CEO, Susan Coldwell. With the relic now in their possession, the trio begins to uncover its true powers, all the while attempting to evade Coldwell as she hunts them down.
Much like the previous game, New Tales From The Borderlands is focused almost entirely on weaving a branching story that adapts and warps based on your choices. You can expect plenty of dialogue options, QTE fight sequences and tough decisions that will impact the outcome of the adventure.
Although that’s all we have to go on for now, It seems as though projects in the Borderlands universe could be more frequent going forward. We learned recently that the franchise will be a big focus for Take-Two following the acquisition, with Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick noting in a investor’s call that the company sees a lot of “potential growth opportunities” for the IP. We’ll have to wait to see exactly what Zelnick means by that, but it appears we could be trekking to Pandora a lot more in the coming years.
Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he’s away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was a real blast from the past back in 2020. We were just the right age to fall in love with the original games back in 1999 and 2000, and revisiting them 20 years later was a joy.
So of course we want to see more classic Tony Hawk games get the same glossy remaster treatment. And it sounds like we might get our wish if professional skater Tyshawn Jones is to be believed.
