Borderlands 3 is aiming to be the most accessible entry in the series so far, and developers Gearbox made an appearance at GuardianCon over the weekend to talk on some of the features they’re adding to the loot shooter to make it even easier for players to get involved.
Chief of all these is the new ping system; very much of the rage at the moment, the video below shows how you’ll be able to ping objects, enemies and positions and, naturally loot – and more – to communicate without using a mic. In addition, fully re-mappable controls are promised, alongside aim assisst and toggles for headbob, auto-mantling, running and crouching as well as compatbility with the Xbox Adaptive Controller on Xbox One.
As per the accompanying blog, there’s also additions being made to asynchronus multiplayer – you’ll now be able to mail loot to your friends, check your friends’ loot and take on rare enemies that your friends have beaten on bounty boards. Traditional multiplayer matchmaking is also getting improvements, allowing you to filter by where they are in the story, level and so on.
These will also be joined by a suite of new community features for players streaming – and players wanting to watch streams of – Borderlands 3. The first version of the extension was used during the livestream reveal event, but this is to be expanded even further on launch of the full game, with mobile support, subscriber bonuses and events that can allow viewers to affect your game, such as having enemies share the names of viewers with abilities voted on by Twitch viewers.
Borderlands 3 is set for release on September 13 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC through the Epic Games Store and will probably take you around 30 hours just to complete the main story, if you beeline it.
