Borderlands 2 Preview
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Tiny Tina is clever characterisation - much more clever than the always-entertaining but ultimately two-dimensional Claptrap - and characterisation is the keystone of the role-playing genre.
For all its merits, the first Borderlands game had a puddle of a story. It was a breezy lean-to scarcely sheltering a loot pokie-machine. Gearbox has been talking breathlessly about adding narrative depth, but talk is cheap, and media-trained talk isn't worth the cue cards it's rote learned from.
Tina demonstrates that it hasn't all been dubstep and hyperbole. She's a functioning example of how Gearbox and publisher 2K Games are set to take a breakout success, and groom it to establish a dynasty rather than strip mine it for the most immediate gain.
Tiny Tina suggests that Borderlands 2 isn't made from concentrate, it is concentrate: digital high-fructose corn syrup, fluorescent food colouring, and a discarded Ritalin prescription. It's excited babbling, dilated pupils and conflicting imagery, and it's all superbly interwoven to create something unique in videogames.
