It’s hard to believe it’s been over a full year now since the Epic Game Store launched. Epic started the project to be the great disruption to the PC market, which has largely been ruled by Steam. Has that happened to any significant degree? I don’t know, I’ll let you be the judge, but regardless of what you think on that topic, Epic’s storefront deserves credit for its steady rollout of free games- and we might have many more to look forward to soon.

This week’s game was one of the biggest the store has ever given away: Grand Theft Auto 5: Premium Edition. It was such a big get, the whole thing basically destroyed the servers for hours. The next game is also a mystery for now, but it does seem like someone on Reddit managed to screen grab an ad that went up a tad early that allegedly spells out the next set of games: Civilization 6, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, and ARK: Survival Evolved.

Of course, as always with these leaks, we treat them as rumors for now. We actually got burned this month for the PS Plus by a pretty good fake. Fingers crossed here, though, as this is a pretty nice list for the next few weeks.

Sony is flying pretty high with the PlayStation 4, and it seems many of its users are too. We learned not too long ago that the engagement for PSN, the system’s online network, was pretty amazing. There’s a lot of people out there with PS4s, and about just as many using its services. One of those services is PS Plus, which features two free games each month- and this month it’s Borderlands: The Handsome Collection and Sonic Mania.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection bundles together Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel along with all their DLC. It has visual updates for each game as well. It’s just in time for the upcoming third game, Borderlands 3.

Next is Sonic Mania, a throwback to the Genesis era of the blue hedgehog, which was largely well received. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t seem to be Sonic Mania Plus, the enhanced version of the base game, so you may have to purchase the expansion to upgrade.

Both games will be available to download on PlayStation 4 on June 4^th to Plus subscribers.

Although Borderlands 3 was the big announcement at their PAX panel last week, Gearbox also announced an Ultra HD update for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (which contains Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) as well as Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, a remaster of the first game, also with Ultra HD support.

That said, these updates, while supporting 4K resolution on every platform they are hitting, will not actually support HDR across the board. Wccftech confirmed with 2K Games, the publisher of the series, that HDR will be supported on consoles (specifically, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X), but not on PC. While this is disappointing, HDR support on PC is a bit of a crapshoot all around, so I don’t think this will be too surprising to most people, either.

Hopefully, however, implementing HDR support on the PC version is something Gearbox looks at with the upcoming Borderlands 3. That one is a bigger project, so it will be less acceptable there.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition launches April 3 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.

Trevor – Grand Theft Auto V

While later entries on this list might make him seem like a teletubby, Trevor from GTAV is still quite a reprehensible person. A product of circumstances and environment that make Trevor the sociopath he is becomes a huge part of the commentary of the game, and make Trevor one of the more sympathetic examples here, even if we still wouldn’t have him over for dinner.

Mass Effect Andromeda

No, Mass Effect: Andromeda isn’t the best game in the world and yes, there are plenty of better open world games you should play first (like the next 29 titles). That being said, there are some decent side missions to explore and the loyalty missions are fun enough to run. It also doesn’t hurt that the game’s combat makes exploring the admittedly barren open world fun as you mow down heaps of enemies with shield drains, flamethrowers and teleport slashes.

Gearbox Software is chugging away on Battleborn and the next big Borderlands but it hasn’t neglected its past games by a long shot. The developer recently released patch notes for a new update that’s gone live for Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection that adds a number of different refinements.

In Borderlands 2 for instance, there have been changes and refinements to elemental-based skills to buff abilities like Maya’s along with adding the Fastball, a legendary grenade, to Boll’s loot pool. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel gets theus ual range of performance and bug fixes. The update does make legendary drop rate improvements permanent for both games.

Meanwhile, the Handsome Collection receives a number of performance improvements and quality of life improvements. Specific multiplayer connectivity issues on the Xbox One version have also been addressed.

What are your thoughts on the new update? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

It seems the rule of thumb when it comes to the video game industry these days, is that  updates for games that have already been rolled out are always pretty big. This is certainly the case when it comes to the update that was just released yesterday for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for the PS4 and Xbox One.

Gearbox software posted the patch notes for these particular updates and the company said the update is very large because of the “performance enhancing capabilities” of that update. While the company isn’t saying exactly how big these patches are, Xbox One users are claiming their patch is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.7GB. This is an especially large patch when you consider that the update doesn’t actually add any new content. This isn’t a situation where new weapons or new maps are being added. This is simply apparently a way to sharpen some of the mechanics.

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that this update is a pretty good size, considering the day one patch when Borderlands: The Handsome Collection first hit the Xbox One and PS4. Of course, some would argue that a patch of that size for games that aren’t really that old should have taken care of a lot of the problems this update was likely meant to cover. When it comes to The Presequel, an update dropped for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 but it doesn’t appear that particular patch was nearly as large. Perhaps the patch covering both games had something to do with its size when talking about Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.

Rockstar Games has revealed its latest financial report and confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 5 shipped 52 million units across the physical and digital realm. Sell-through numbers may be slightly lower but the total number represents an extraordinary demand. Keep in mind that the game has been confirmed to have sold more than 42 million copies on consoles as of February 2015 and 5 million retail copies in the UK.

Take Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that this was “one of our company’s best years ever. During fiscal 2015, we seamlessly launched five triple-A titles for the holiday season led by Grand Theft Auto V and NBA 2K15; added an exciting new franchise with the successful release of Evolve; and achieved record digitally-delivered revenue, including our highest-ever revenues from recurrent consumer spending.

“Fiscal 2016 is off to a great start, highlighted by the April launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 for the PC, which has exceeded our expectations.”

Evolve has shipped 2.5 million units since its release and WWE 2K15 has shipped 3 million units. Interestingly, the Borderlands series has sold 8 million units in FY2015 and apparently The Handsome Collection managed to exceed expectations with 20 percent of sales in the digital realm.

Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with Borderlands 2, which sees you taking control of six different Vault Hunters as they explore Pandora and join the Crimson Raiders to defeat Handsome Jack. Jack isn’t your normal run-of-the-mill psychopath – he’s got an army of robot Loaders and is digging up a powerful ancient Warrior to control. It’s up to you to become the killer that everyone needs and deserves to stop him.

"These games may have their filler but it doesn't encompass the entire experience by a long shot. And it's a testament to 2K Australia that it made Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel stand out as such a strong experience on its own with Oz kits, ground slams and low gravity settings."

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, on the other hand, takes place mostly from Jack’s initial mission to discover the Vault on Pandora. It takes a separate group of Hunters under Jack’s employ to Elpis, where they must stop the Dal Corporation’s Lost Legion from blowing up the moon. From there, a variety of twists and turns link The Pre-Sequel to Borderlands 2 while advancing the story for the overall franchise.

The magical thing about Borderlands is in its gameplay. It is a loot-grinder but also an action heavy first-person shooter. The RPG mechanics are subtle but endless variations can be created depending on the Vault Hunter you choose.  Each Vault Hunter has three separate Skill Trees which can be upgraded for different results.

Take Maya, the Siren, who can use Phase Lock to effectively trap enemies for a short period of time. Phase Lock can be modified to inflict elemental damage, siphon health back to allies and even pull enemies close together. Then there’s Athena, a Gladiator who’s Aspis Shield acts as a strong defense but who also possesses a sword for brutal melee kills. Athena can either be the ultimate defender or the most murderous melee attacker available. Let’s not even get started on Claptrap’s skill tree.

Add in several tiers of weaponry, ranging from Assault Rifles to Rocket Launchers, and different elemental types like Lasers and Slag and you have what’s guaranteed to be a riveting new experience each time. This isn’t Destiny by a long shot – in Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, you’ll find a huge variety of side-quests and story missions to complete. The cast of characters is well-written, humorous and extremely memorable. This is ably assisted by the voice acting, particularly for characters like Mr. Torgue, Handsome Jack and Mad Moxxi.

One could make the point that many of the quests in Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel are simple fetch quests. However, the good majority of the game offers far more variety. You could be charged with finding a group of fly-boys clearly spoofing Top Gun and murdering them. Maybe you’ll fulfil one Bandit’s request to be shot in the face. Or perhaps you’ll be taking on an enormous flying blimp before going one on one with a frigging Badassasauras Rex. These games may have their filler but it doesn’t encompass the entire experience. And it’s a testament to 2K Australia that it made Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel stand on its own with Oz kits, ground slams and low gravity settings.

"First time players owe it to themselves to visit Pandora and Elpis - they'll wonder why they ever bothered with the big floating Traveler in the first place."

That being said, I found the storyline for Borderlands 2 to be much better than The Pre-Sequel. It’s much like comparing a full-blown epic to an well-made mini-series though – pacing issues with The Pre-Sequel aside, it’s still a ton of fun. If only there were more memorable moments and the ending didn’t make me want Borderlands 3 all the more.

The visuals for both games are top notch, adhering to the PC version’s High settings and delivering an excellent experience overall. You’ll still find some iffy textures here and there, and the frame rate isn’t quite locked at 60 FPS. The amount of drops becomes even more annoying during co-op play, especially during Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. While it’s tolerable, one of the tenets of The Handsome Collection is its improved visuals. Having an unstable frame rate just doesn’t feel right in that regard.

Another technical issue with The Handsome Collection is the sizeable download both PS4 and Xbox One players have to deal with. For the latter, it’s roughly 16 GB or so, adding the Claptastic Voyage DLC in the process. This was released incredibly close to The Handsome Collection’s completion and more content is always a bonus. It’s just a shame that it requires such a large day one update. There’s also the issue of switching between both games. In order to play The Pre-Sequel, you’ll need to quit Borderlands 2 and load up the game separately. There’s no way to switch between the two on the fly, not even through an in-game menu setting.

Again, these are just minor annoyances for a grandiose package like this. If you’ve ever played either game before, you shouldn’t really expect much new content. Then again, if you’re re-experiencing it for the current gen platforms, this is an awesome combination of one of the best RPG shooters ever made and it’s extremely competent and fun pre-sequel. First time players owe it to themselves to visit Pandora and Elpis – they’ll wonder why they ever bothered with the big floating Traveler in the first place.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

The result combined strong draw distances with depth of field. Some of the choices made with the Willow Engine had consequences – the adaptive V-sync resulted in screen tearing whenever the frame rate went below 30 frames per second. This was at a native resolution of 1280×720 on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel Head to Head comparison between the PS4 and Xbox One versions. Please select 1080p and 60fps for best possible video quality.

Now, all those years later, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection looks to bring both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to the Xbox One and PS4. For the first time, it will be bringing the Borderlands series to consoles at 1080p resolution and a targeted 60 frames per second. Of course, it includes all previously released DLC (with the Claptastic Voyage content being added as a post-launch download) but what kind of the changes do the visuals see?

Before highlighting the changes, it’s important to note some of the detriments. First off, neither the PS4 nor the Xbox One version is locked at 60 frames per second. Fortunately, the frame rate holds steady through most sections we tested, even with a lot of action happening. While the PS4 averaged 56 frames per second on the PS4, it hit 54 frames on the Xbox One.

By comparison, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel saw an average frame rate of 57 frames and 55 frames on the PS4 and Xbox One respectively. There are some pretty drastic drops at times though with the PS4 version dropped to 45 frames per second while the Xbox One can hit 43 frames. The PS4, by virtue of less stuttering and fewer frames dropped on average, scores in both games. Both console versions are rendered at native 1920×1080 resolution though.

It will be interesting to see where Iron Galaxy Studios (which worked on the remastering) will take the frame rate in the future. Though it could easily lock the frame at 30 FPS, and attain this result more easily than the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of either game could, it’s more likely to release performance patches to stabilize the frame rate. At this point, with so many current gen titles failing to deliver a locked 60 frames per second, it wouldn’t hurt to have a second option for locked 30 FPS. How that would translate as a selling point would remain to be seen.

Over 90 screenshots showcasing the difference between the PS4 and X1 versions across Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel.

Borderlands 2 [PS4 followed by Xbox One and so on]

 Borderlands The Pre-Sequel  [PS4 followed by Xbox One and so on]

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection also surprisingly lacks much of the PhysX effects you’d expect from an Nvidia-exclusive title, which results in less spectacular physics. Due to the Xbox One and PS4 being inherently AMD-based machines, it’s understandable but it would have been great to see a comparable solution used instead.

One of the key issues with Gearbox’s Willow Engine was the screen-tearing. It returns on the Xbox One which, just like the Xbox 360, features screen-tearing throughout but mostly in cut-scenes. The PS4 version handles this much better and you’ll very rarely see any hint of screen tearing.

Another issue is the use of FXAA. While both current gen consoles can handle much heavier AA solutions, the Willow Engine doesn’t support any other anti-aliasing. On the one hand, it’s understandable to see this is in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions though it also results in outlines and edges for objects looking odd. However, in the translation to current gen, some other solution should have been used (even the HRAA in Far Cry 4 would have been better).

At least anisotropic filtering is present in both the PS4 and Xbox One version though it comes off as quite inconsistent. At times there will be textures that look to have better filtering compared to others. Texture streaming is unfortunately another sticky issue along with pop-in and occlusion. While it’s nowhere near as bad as the PC version or even at the level of the previous gen consoles, it’s still noticeable and takes the visual quality down a notch.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Iron Galaxy had made significant improvements to the GPU particle effects, simulating complex cloth, force field and persistent mesh debris in a much better fashion than the previous generation. Despite the texture streaming issues, the overall texture quality is very good, similar to the PC version’s High settings. A custom ambient occlusion solution ensures soft shadow effects. The main purpose of the Willow Engine was to improve draw distance and suffice to say, the PS4 and Xbox One help improve the same. Foliage distance is also better though the quality of density is still pretty much the same.

Judging the visuals of Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is a little tricky. It’s not as if many of these issues weren’t present on the previous gen versions and for the most part, they’ve been mitigated on the PS4 and Xbox One. The lack of PhysX is disappointing but along with better draw distance and improved texture quality, along with the full HD resolution, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection further improves on the strengths of its previous games. This is especially so when you consider that Unreal Engine 3 isn’t suited to either current gen console.

See how Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel on PS4 and Xbox One have evolved compared to the PlayStation 3 version.

Screenshot comparison between PS3, PS4 and Xbox One versions.

It should be noted that both console owners will need to download sizable patches for The Handsome Collection. While PS4 owners have an 8 GB patch, Xbox One players require a 16 GB update (3 GB for Borderlands 2 and 13 GB for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel). Though they add more content in the form of an additional story campaign, it’s still a rather annoying inconvenience that consumers will have to put up with.

The PS4 version is clearly the winner though with its frame rate and near complete lack of screen tearing. The Xbox One version still looks solid but serves to highlight the many issues of The Handsome Collection more than the PS4. Iron Galaxy Studios did a good job porting both games but if you truly want a Borderlands title built for current gen, you’ll have to wait for Borderlands 3.

Note: GamingBolt’s Bill Smith carried out the performance analysis for this title.