Hasta La Gadget!

Borderlands 2 players seem to be leading an uneasy existence. First, they had to deal with that nasty rank reset bug, which deleted badass rank and the perks associated with it across all characters, and now, those playing on Xbox 360 are having to deal with a few unsavory folks. Gearbox has warned Borderlands 2 players on the Gearbox forums of a few individuals who are sabotaging others’ characters through the use of an (obviously) malicious exploit.

“Recently a few users have begun violating the Xbox Live Code of Conduct by using an external application to maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players on Xbox 360,” Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor wrote on the Gearbox forums. The studio has submitted a patch that will fix this unnamed exploit to Microsoft, but of course, the certification process for patches can take a couple of weeks. Therefore, there are few things that Gearbox recommends you do in the meantime to avoid having you characters tampered with.

Gearbox says that while we’re waiting for the patch to arrive, gamers should only play in private Xbox Live games with players they know. That way, you can avoid letting any of these malicious players into your game, which seems to be the trigger for the issue. Also remember to always leave your game by selecting the “Save and Quit” option from the menu, and if you happen to bite the dust during play and you’re booted back out to the menu instead of respawning in-game, select “Continue” from the main menu immediately to avoid any unwanted character loss. It’s worth pointing out that this exploit seems to only affect those playing on Xbox 360 and not those playing Borderlands 2 on PC or PS3.

At this point, we’re still not clear on what the issue it is or what it does exactly, but after reading through some of the complaints on the 24-page thread over at the Gearbox forums, we’re positive that you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of this exploit. Some players are reporting that their character saves have been wiped entirely, which would not be a pleasant experience for anyone. Have you fallen victim to this exploit, or are your characters still intact?

Borderlands 2 hackers “sabotaging characters” on Xbox 360 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You may be busy taking on Handsome Jack and his Hyperion goons in Borderlands 2 at the moment, but a new ad in the game’s digital strategy guide suggests that the Borderlands franchise will be getting a new mobile installment later on this month. Dubbed Borderlands Legends, gamers will take on the role of the original Borderlands characters – Brick, Roland, Mordecai, and Lillith – once more as they fend off wave after wave of enemies. Unfortunately, details on the game are still pretty slim, seeing as how Gearbox has yet to make an official announcement.

That’s not to say we’re completely clueless, however. According to the ad, which was discovered by Gearbox Forums member Ownzilla, Borderlands Legends will have players earning cash by killing enemies and completing waves. Sadly, it seems that the franchise’s loot aspect won’t be fully implemented, as players will use the cash they earn to buy new weapons. We’ve seen this plenty of times before, so those who have played similar free-to-play shooters in the past should have a pretty good grasp on the kind of game Borderlands Legends is by now.

In addition to earning money to buy new guns, Borderlands Legends players will be able to earn experience and level up, unlocking new skills along the way. It remains to be seen if this means the skill trees from the main games will be available in Borderlands Legends, but it sounds like at least something similar will be present in the game. The ad says that Borderlands Legends will be available on iPhone and iPad in October, and considering there’s just over a week left before November arrives, Borderlands Legends should be launching pretty soon.

That’s it as far as the available information goes, so now we just sit back and play the waiting game. If Gearbox is planning to stick with that October launch window, then we should be finding out more information soon. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information.

[via IGN]

Borderlands Legends lands on iPhone and iPad later this month is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We already took a look at gaming hardware sales for September, so now it’s time to pore over the software chart for the month. Unsurprisingly, Madden NFL 13 took the top spot for the month of September, selling over 2.55 million copies according to NPD (via NeoGAF). NPD told GameSpot that Madden NFL 13 sales managed to climb 11% over Madden NFL 12 sales in its first month, which is definitely good news for Electronic Arts and its yearly football franchise.

Of course, we expect Madden to sell well, so the fact that it took the top spot in September is no surprise. What is surprising, however, is that Borderlands 2 managed to come in second place. According to NPD’s numbers, Borderlands 2 sold 1.48 million copies in September, and analyst Anita Frazier tells Game Informer that represents a 234% increase over the first month sales of the original Borderlands. It’s important to remember that NPD only reports sales numbers for physical media, so none of Borderlands 2‘s digital PC sales are counted in that 1.48 million figure. In other words, Borderlands 2 could have easily sold more than 2 million copies during the month of September.

Also interesting: Guild Wars 2 managed to beat out the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Of course, we’re assuming that most of the sales for both Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Pandaria were digital, so it’s hard to say that Guild Wars 2 is the clear winner with any certainty. Still, it’s interesting to see that NPD has Guild Wars 2 outselling Mists of Pandaria. Have a look at the full top ten software list for September:

1. Madden NFL 13 – Electronic Arts (360, PS3, Wii, Vita)
2. Borderlands 2 – Take-Two Interactive (360, PS3, PC)
3. FIFA Soccer 13 – Electronic Arts (PS3, 360, Vita, Wii, 3DS, PSP)
4. New Super Mario Bros. 2 – Nintendo (3DS)
5. Guild Wars 2 – NCSoft (PC)
6. NHL 13 – Electronic Arts (360, PS3)
7. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria – Activision Blizzard (PC)
8. NCAA Football 13 – Electronic Arts (360, PS3)
9. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes – Warner Bros. Interactive (360, Wii, 3DS, DS, PS3, Vita, PC)
10. Battlefield 3 – Electronic Arts (360, PS3, PC)

In September, we saw Battlefield 3 claw its way back into the top 10, most likely due to the recent release of the Battlefield 3 Premium Edition. Overall, it was a good month for sports games (and Electronic Arts), but it wasn’t so great for game sales in general. Software sales were down 14% year-over-year, but we can probably expect them to climb this month as we begin to close in on the holiday season. Stay tuned.

Borderlands 2 makes strong showing on September software chart is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Thursday evening, folks – just one more work day and the glorious weekend is here once again. This afternoon we heard that both the iPad Mini and the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro – neither of which officially exist yet, remember – have been delayed due to problems with component yields, but not long after, analysts were saying that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is still on track to launch this year. Apple has managed to delay the ban of the iPhone and iPad in South Korea, and we learned that the company’s new dock connector is nearly impossible to mod in a new teardown.

If you’ve been waiting for either the DROID RAZR HD or the RAZR MAXX HD, good news: you’ll be able to pick them up from Verizon in just one short week. The Samsung Galaxy S III Mini was officially unveiled today, though its specs aren’t much to write home about, and we learned that the sales ban on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has been lifted. Google boss Eric Schmidt expects Android to hit 1 billion activations within the next year, and today Sprint confirmed that it has been in buyout talks with SoftBank.

Apple has released a new iPod ad called “Bounce,” while Nokia was busy delivering prices for its Lumia 920 and 820 accessories in the UK. Apple was awarded an interesting new patent today, and Verizon says that it will keep its 2G/3G service active until at least 2021. Today Acer revealed both the new M5 and V5 lines of Windows 8 notebooks, and we heard that at one point, Nokia was planning to bring an N9 MeeGo tablet to Verizon.

Facebook is looking to improve its apps with stricter Open Graphs policies, and Gearbox announced a new DLC pack for good ol’ Borderlands 2 today. Ubisoft delivered a new trailer showing off the weapons in Assassin’s Creed III, while a new compilation called the Rockstar Games Collection: Edition 1 was announced. Anonymous has apparently gone to war with Facebook, bringing down the social network across Europe today, but thankfully it seems that things are slowly coming back online. Finally tonight, we go hands-on with both the Huawei Ascend D Quad XL and SHADOWGUN: DEADZONE‘s new multiplayer beta, while Chris Burns tells us why the Galaxy S III Mini represents a missed opportunity for Samsung. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, go out and enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 11, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Yesterday, we told you that Gearbox had released the highly anticipated Mechromancer DLC for Borderlands 2 a week early, which is good. Unfortunately, a number of users were reporting that the DLC and the patch that goes along with it were wiping badass ranks, skins, heads, golden keys, and in some particularly nasty cases, character saves, which is bad. Today, however, Gearbox is saying that the DLC and the rank reset bug aren’t actually connected, which is simply a relief.

After reports of the rank reset bug hit the Gearbox forums, community manager Chris Faylor posted a statement claiming that though the bug and the DLC seem connected, in reality they aren’t. “The good news is that the release of Mechromancer and today’s update are not connected to the occurrences of Badass Rank being reset — while the timing may appear coincidental, it’s a separate issue that we are continuing to investigate,” Faylor wrote. While he got his words a little jumbled there – the timing actually is coincidental – it’s good to know that downloading the Mechromancer DLC isn’t going to completely ruin your game.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of the rank reset bug, so it could be that the Mechromancer DLC is pulling players back into Borderlands 2 and they’re simply experiencing this reset bug for the first time. If that’s happening, it’s easy to understand why these players are thinking that the Mechromancer DLC has something to do with the bug. Thankfully, it doesn’t, or at least that’s what the official word from Gearbox claims.

That doesn’t change the fact that the rank reset bug is still floating around out there and causing headaches for a lot of players. Gearbox says that its working on a fix, and if you encounter it, you’re urged to email the studio at profiles@gearboxsoftware.com. When you do, be sure to provide as many details as possible so Gearbox can get a better grasp on when the bug occurs and who it affects. Have you been hit by this nasty rank reset bug, or have you managed to avoid it thus far?

Gearbox: Borderlands 2 rank reset bug not connected to DLC is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.