The world of Pandora was a very desolate place, one of hopelessness and anguish, where dreams go to die. Gangs rule supreme and decent people trying to make a living fear for their lives. Innocent robots are trampled on and used as target practice and are given presumptuous names. Why torture the Claptraps? They were created for the sole purpose of giving people a punching bag and surely they will be even more frequent in the inevitable sequel to my GOTY of 2009, Borderlands.

I put too much time into this game. What made the game so great was the co-op and the complete package the game was. Literally, you could encounter thousands of weapons and even more were added with each piece of downloadable content. It was a thrill, a rush of adrenaline, to kill Crawmerax and see what amazing weapons would drop - and it made all those times dying even sweeter (which was fine because I was rich). When I first heard about it, it looked like one of those pointless releases that caught the attention of very few and then set aside for the other major releases of the pre-Christmas period; boy, was I wrong.

Since the year has now changed, and it is common practice for games to have a two-year development cycle, we can expect some kind of announcement about a sequel. Earlier last year, it was unveiled that Gearbox had registered the name Borderworlds. Could we be seeing different moons or different planets? Expanding the universe would be great for the franchise, and that means even more guns and more characters and more locations. And more bosses to kill. And, hopefully a better story. I do realize the story was only used a device to advance the game, but there is potential for moving on to other planets. A chance for Gearbox to redeem themselves, I guess.

But the one thing we all care about - the guns. The millions of guns. I want to see billions, trillions, quadrillions. I want to see the craziest, most colourful, most obscene guns that Gearbox can come up with. Sniper rifles that shoot rockets; rocket launchers that blast everything but rockets; even the ability to launch the characters themselves through a weapon. If Gearbox could make that work, that would be badass. And on that note, I also want a weapon bank. The one in the Underdome was disappointing, and I don't know how Gearbox couldn't have anticipated people actually wanting to collect the millions of guns as the number was advertised. When I saw that number on the commercial, I saw a trophy case of the rarest guns in all the universe and my reflection in the glass smiling with glee. This bank should have unlimited space and be included with the original copy of the game, not in sub-par DLC. Also on that note, I would love to see some kind of auction house where other players connected online could place bids on different guns and this would add an MMO feel to the gameplay. Gearbox promoted co-operative gameplay, and if the developer could work in a better form of competitive multiplayer, a sequel could be something else altogether.

The cast of characters - Roland, Mordecai, Lilith and Brick - each had their own personality and Gearbox had fun making them. But with Pandora unlikely as the setting, I think they should include the colourful batch from the first game, but also expand it to include other characters as well. I can't think of any examples but hopefully Gearbox won't disappoint. Pandora itself wasn't a character, but played a big part in setting the mood of the game. A change of environment would be nice - maybe some colours other than brown or grey or anything that's not depressing? It'd be appreciated. Also keep Cage The Elephant as the theme - the band is great and their new record I'm sure has the song perfect for the new game.

For the sequel, Gearbox doesn't have to do much. The formula was sound and worked incredibly well when played in co-op. In reading other articles like this, lots of these and more were mentioned, and I hope Gearbox is listening. I really do. I can't wait to kill Crawmerax 2.0 over the Christmas holidays in 2011.

Update: Eurogamer reports that, as expected, a sequel is being developed by Gearbox for release in 2012. An official announcement should be coming shortly. Yay Gearbox!