The newest issue of Game Informer is all about Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2, where we’ll have a chance to get to know the follow up to 2009’s surprise hit. Some of the contents from the magazine’s cover story have been leaked online, but if you really want to get acquainted with the game you’ll have to pick up a Game Informer. For the lazier among us, I’ve taken it upon myself to use my miraculous ‘copy & paste’ abilities so you don’t have to do anything but read my words, preferably aloud and in the voice of a young Jack Nicholson.

Head past the break for the list of new additions and returning features, and to clarify a little error in my earlier post on the game, Borderlands 2 will actually be releasing no later then March 31, 2013. Here are some of the features that will be returning:

4-player co-op
Vehicles, but with more variety (one new vehicle is called the Bandit Technical)
The four original Vault Hunters will be support NPC’s
Class mods and artifacts
Three-tiered skill trees for each character, but with less simplistic skills
Claptraps (who didn’t see that one coming?)

Sounds lovely, now here are some of the new things you can expect:

A new element called Eridium that can be used as currency or to upgrade weapons
Bandits now have their own brand of weaponry
Customize weapons with custom decals and enhancements
Improved enemy AI, making them more responsive, they’ll also interact with each other
Players will have dynamic dialogue, similar to what’s found in Left 4 Dead
Salvador the Gunzerker, who can dual-wield any weapon
Each manufacturer will have a style unique to them
NPC’s will be fully animated and move around their locations, interacting with objects within their locations (no more stone still robot characters!)
4-player vehicles will be standard, no longer an afterthought
More interesting side quests, which hopefully means less of those fucking boring fetch quests

Now, that’s obviously not everything, but the game’s more than a year away so it’s safe to expect a ton of new details to come out between now and then. Even if the above list is all Borderlands 2 offers, I’d still be all in for this game. It sounds delicious.