2k Games’ Borderlands series has had tremendous success on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation and Lionsgate is hoping that success can translate into a role on the big screen. The movie studio announced in a public statement that they’re working on formatting the FPS for a live-action, feature-length film.
The Creative Director at Marvel, Avi Arad and his brother Ari Arad will be leading the project and both had very positive things to say about the Borderlands franchise in a recent public statement.
“Borderlands has a unique story-driven narrative energy and rich multi-dimensional characters that position it to become a singular motion picture event.”
Two chairmen with Lionsgate, Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger expressed their own positivity as well claiming they have “the right partners” and the “ideal creative team” to lead a Borderlands movie to success.
The positivity is warranted with the success that Avi Arad and his brother have had in the past working on the Ironman, Spiderman, and other Marvel movies.
Two of the most definable characterisitics of the Borderlands games are the cell-shaded art-style which compliments the exaggerated personalities. Both will be a challenge for Lionsgate to adapt for a live action film. The correct use of special effects as well as the best actors to portray whatever story they’d like to present will be crucial in representing the Borderlands universe fairly.
No release frame is yet ready, but the movie is likely at least 2 years away from word on a release.
With so many games attempting to do their best at recreating reality with detailed like-like representations of human faces, and a natural environment, some developers have proven that having a unique art style that stands out can be just as graphically incredible as the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, or other top AAA games today.
The designers behind these titles often don’t get the praises they deserve — when more often than not an art style can make or break a game.
Bioshock
An advanced city among the clouds during the Progressive Era in the United States. (Bioshock Infinite)
Bioshock’s fantastic story meshes perfectly with the art deco style. The story of American-exceptionalism is told extraordinarily well, and the series stretches across two contrasting settings, but the developers at Irrational Games/2k Games are able to make it work very well.
With all games taking place back in the early-mid 1900s and Bioshock infinite being the earliest of all of them (1912) the style of both the art and the game strays from hyper-realistic graphics and instead goes for a re-envisioning of world designed in the 1940s-50s art style.
Rapture is one of the most iconic settings in all of gaming.
When the first Bioshock hit it was known immediately for its incredible graphics and visuals in Rapture, and after a relatively underwhleming second release the franchise came back as strong as it could in Columbia.
The two settings offer so much creativity to any designer with Rapute being an entire advanced city under water and Columbia, a city floating among the clouds.
Valiant Hearts
Valiant Hearts provides perfectly balanced emotional stories in a beautiful 2D comic book style.
Valiant Hearts tells such a heart-felt story with deeper characters than many triple-A games, but with a 2D art style that looks a bit silly at first glance, but ends up being a very fitting contrast for how dark things could get at times.
The comic style is entirely hand drawn and matches well with no in-game dialogue. Speech and thought bubbles with simple pictures display to help the puzzle aspect of the game become a bit clearer.
The director of the game, Yoan Fanise, had spent 14 years with Ubisoft working on games like Beyond Good & Evil, Assassin’s Creed, King Kong, and Rayman Raving Rabbids. Valiant Hearts ranks on the same levels for him as it brings “the whole range of emotions that you feel in your life, from real sadness to really joyful moments.”
Borderlands
Borderlands alternates between a bland base environment and bold pops of color.
Borderlands is another game with a comic style, but the developers at 2k elected for a cel-shaded design to make a “flat” 3D world. The franchise offers an off-beat and crude humor that many other games simply don’t have. The open-world planet of Pandora is host to rundown encampments outside of the mineral mines, but also to other locations that display more environments.
Perhaps the best part of Borderlands’ creative direction is the variety of character models. With playable characters ranging from a hulking giant in Brick and a slender rogue in Lilith. And, of course, who can forget the fan favorite, Clap-trap? All those characters and their stand-out styles help Borderlands stand out from the rest.
Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead & The Wolf Among Us
Telltale Games’ great success with The Walking Dead has led to even more great story-driven games from the developer.
Over the last few years the Telltale Games’ art style has become one of the most immediately recognizable in the industry. Exaggerated contrast and thick character outlines approach gives both The Walking Dead games and The Wolf Among Us a unique look.
With both games originating as comic books, Telltale Games was able to evolve that medium into an interactive form while maintaining everything about the style of the IPs. Even the way the game plays combines extremely well with the way the story is illustrated. While Telltale has explored more variations of their art style in the Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands games the way their art style meshes with the comic books IPs is still superior to all else.
Though the pre-sequel has already found its success on the PS4, those who haven’t picked it up yet will have some more incentives as Gearbox Software plans a March 24 (March 27 internationally) release of a Borderlands 2/Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel combination.
The Handsome Collection includes an HD iteration of Borderlands 2 on top of the Pre-Sequel, both on a single-disc (or download).
This release will be the first taste new-generation owners will get of Borderlands as the Pre-Sequel was held to just the Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, and PC when it was released October 14, 2014.
Also included in the $60 package will be all the DLC ever released for both games. That’s over 50 individual DLC add-ons.
One of the biggest additions to the entire series in general is the four-player local co-op mode that will be incorporated into The Handsome Collection.
And for those who have played the games on the old generation will also be able to keep their character progress and loot with cross-save functionality.
Coming in 2015 to Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC, Gearbox prefers to call their newest upcoming FPS a “hero shooter,” and with the variety of powers in their main characters it certainly seems fitting. Comprised of 20 unique playable characters, Battleborn promises a great deal of variety of abilities and personalities that players will take on as their own lead character throughout the triple-A title.
These characters abilities and traits will change the way you approach the open world from the start and will enhance the game even more through a co-operative multiplayer experience. Though not all the characters are revealed so far, Gearbox’s official forum posts reveal a few specifics about their capablities.
“…Rath of the Jennerit Empire wields swords and is a melee specialist who scoffs at other characters, like Oscar Mike, who uses guns and calls in airstrikes. Meanwhile, Thorn of the Eldrid is deadly accurate with her magic-infused bow and arrow and is strong when paired with Miko, who can heal and buff allies in between ninja-like attacks with deadly Kunai.”
Though their presets are determined from the beginning, each character is cosmetically customizable.
“Keep in mind that each Battleborn hero can also be customized both cosmetically and through game play builds that span various play styles or otherwise enable you to adapt to the very dynamic game play that unfolds.”
These characters and unique personalities team up to take down one main antagonist, Varelsi — “an unstoppable menace trying to destroy the last star in a dying universe.”
With a 5 player online co-operative campaign (along with a competitive online multiplayer) Gearbox has an emphasis on teamwork and utilizing all of your unique abilities together to progress. It will also include local split-screen multiplayer as well.
Battleborn is sure to draw from Gearbox’s experience with their last game, Borderlands, as it has a similar gameplay-style with its clear priority on co-operative multiplayer.
