What to do while we wait for Borderlands? Books require too much reading and going outside requires too much time off the couch.

Earlier this site suggested to take a look at Left 4 Dead as a potential hold-me-over. One reason is the title shares some things in common with Borderlands. And now there's a second reason. Reviews are in for Left 4 Dead and they're pretty good. The Metacritic review average is an 88 out of 100.

I didn't get it (but might soon). Has anybody picked this zombie shooter up or thinking about it?

UPDATE!!! We now know that Borderlands will be released in North America on October 20, 2009.

Gamestop employee Fox Makenshi tipped us off that his company's computers updated the Borderlands release date to 9/1/09. Fox thinks this could be the real thing.

I work at GameStop and Borderlands was in our computers for release 2/2/09 until about a week ago when it changed to 9/1/09. I actually think that's not a fake date because 9/1/09 falls on a Tuesday which is the release date of most games. Funny thing is all of our marketing stuff is still telling us to advertise it for 2/2/09.

This is definitely a plausible date. Publisher Take Two has been saying for a while the game will be out by October '09. The lack of marketing for the game right now suggests it will come closer to that date rather than sooner. Maybe this is some of the big news that Gearbox has been promising to release?

First the mortgage industry, then banks, the car makers and now the Borderlands guys. This economy just keeps getting worse.

Ennui, a Gearbox employee, made some posts today on the company's forums. Not too much fresh info here but with the dearth of news on Borderlands its nice to get assurances that they are still working hard on the game.

On multiplayer:

Borderlands is also focusing on making the 4-player cooperative play the best it possibly can. We are making that experience one of the centerpieces of the game. We haven't made any mention of other possibilities for multiplayer at this point - right now what we've told everyone is that we're making a GREAT FPS game with RPG elements that you can play with your friends.

It's not often I see any upside to living in Plano, Texas but this is one of those rare days. Plano-based Gearbox wants gamers to be a part of a focus group. It's unclear if its for Borderlands. They'll only say "It is for a Gearbox title that's in development."

Below is some more on what its like to be a video game test subject from the Gearbox forums. On schwag:

An exec at Borderlands publisher Take-Two rattled off release dates for a bunch of upcoming games at a conference today. When it came to Borderlands, he remained vague and simply repeated the company line that it will be released in 2009.

My bet is that we’re more likely to see the game in the middle of next year. If it was coming out earlier they would probably be able to give a more precise release time frame. (From Gamespot)

Borderlands Wiki: Release Date

Election and financial news were aplenty this week. Borderlands headlines? Nada. In these quiet periods, I'm aiming to improve the features of Borderlands Guide. Next up is a side panel that gives registered users options like choosing an avatar image. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements.