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It's not often we see a game that effectively mixes genres to create something entirely new. Borderlands did just that this year, taking the obsessive, loot-driven mechanics of a dungeon crawler and stuffing them within the friendly and familiar confines of a first-person shooter. Borderlands also oozes style and never takes itself too seriously. It's a fun adventure, full of charismatic NPCs and an experience akin to the kind of childhood adventures you'd embark on with friends, battling imaginary monsters and building forts in the back yard.

Have you ever wondered what keeps gamers forever in search of the next great piece of loot, why WoW players have to find the last piece of that epic armor set, why Borderlands fiends constantly quest for a better gun? The answer, according to website pscychologyofgames.com, is all in the brain's neurotransmitters, specifically dopamine neurons. Put simply, dopamine neurons monitor dopamine, a chemical that accompanies good or pleasurable things -- like, say, finding some rare loot in Diablo. Dopamine neurons subsequently try to predict when good things will happen in the future.

The site further notes that dopamine neurons "really go nuts when an unexpected, unpredicted gush of dopamine shows up, giving you an even bigger rush." In other words, unexpectedly stumbling on that rare item brings even more pleasure and causes the brain to want to repeat the process. To put it even more simply, the site states that the reaction is similar to the one many people get when playing a slot machine. Winning is entirely random, but that doesn't stop the brain from trying to figure out a pattern.

Just be glad you're not popping a quarter into the disc drive every time there's a loot drop. Not yet, at least.

[Via GamePolitics]

If more Borderlands DLC is just what the doctor ordered – not Doctor Ned, of course, star of the shooter slash RPG's first DLC outing – then look no further than this week's "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot."

Developer Gearbox is giving Joystiq readers an exclusive look at the above gameplay trailer, showing off some of the pack's offerings: three new Riot Mode arenas, the "bank" where you can "'stache your loot" and a litany of modifiers, like "Hot Potato," "Loaded" and "Dodgeball." It's a slow week, folks – "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot" spices things up on Xbox Live tomorrow, and PlayStation Network next week.

Take-Two warned us (and investors ... actually, mostly investors) to expect smaller revenues for the fiscal year that ended October 31, and its fiscal-year results, announced today, hold true to that portent. The company's net revenue for fiscal 2009 was $968.5 million, down from $1.5 billion. Take-Two attributes the loss to the lack of a game as strong as Grand Theft Auto IV.

It wasn't all bad news, however. Net revenue in Q4 was actually up over 2008, from $323.4 million to $343.4 million. Take-Two attributes the success in this period to Borderlands, NBA 2K10, both the downloadable and disc-based releases of the Grand Theft Auto content and, yes, GTA IV, which must have experienced a resurgence when Gay Tony and Episodes from Liberty City were released.

As 2009 drawns to a close, it seems that Borderlands is going to be one of the few real original IP success stories of the year. Gearbox's co-optimized first-person shooter has emerged from a pack of licensed games and sequels to sell two million units worldwide, according to Take-Two's most recent financial release.

Take-Two added that the game "has established itself as a key franchise for Take-Two, for which the Company has long-term publishing rights," so it seems as though two million of you will undertake a return trip in the coming years.

A new Borderlands title update is available on Xbox 360 (with a PS3 version coming soon). The patch fixes a number of issues, the most serious problems affecting skill points, Achievements and Trophies. Some players have encountered glitches that made them lose skill points, while others have had trouble unlocking Gamerscore/XP -- even after successfully completing an Achievement. Thankfully, the patch should apply retroactively, awarding players their rightfully earned skill points and gamer cred.

To see the full list of fixes in the patch, click past the break.

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The latest item of DLC coming to Borderlands adds new, combat-focused content to the game ... while simultaneously removing any artifice with which Gearbox was obscuring the universe's cinematic inspiration. Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot (get it?) adds three new Riot Mode arenas for single-player or co-op, along with a new bank feature for storing weapons.

That's right, a bank. For weapons. That pretty much guarantees you'll pony up the 800 Microsoft Points when this comes out December 29 on Xbox, or the 10 bucks for the PS3 version on January 7. No date or price has been announced for PC. Full press release after the break.

Update: In a statement, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford clarified the Riot Mode announcement. "This is an ENTIRELY NEW GAME MODE," he said, calling it "Smash TV in coop FPS, but in the Borderlands."

Hey PC gamers, it's the holiday season, are you sure you want to read this post? Who wants to spend the yule upset that not only are they getting Borderlands DLC "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" two weeks after their console brethren but they actually have to pay for it, like a peasant? Wouldn't you rather just sip some eggnog and chill out, rather than focusing on the grave, $9.99 injustice launched into the world today on Steam and Gearbox's store?

No? Okay. But don't tell Baby JC that we didn't do anything to keep your Christmas spirit alive.

As noted by PS3Trophies.org, it appears that more Borderlands DLC is imminent. The five recently added Trophies point to three coliseums, called The Angelic Ruins, The Gully and Hell-Burbia, all of which appear to have "lesser" and "larger" challenges.

Eurogamer mentions that Borderlands Creative Director Mikey Neuman was all set to reveal something on Twitter, but it appears the marketing powers changed the announcement to a "later occasion." Publisher Take-Two seems happy with the success of Borderlands and critical reception to the game's first DLC pack, The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned. Reaching out to 2K Games about the DLC, we were informed, "No official announcements have been made regarding future Borderlands DLC at this time."

[Via Eurogamer]

We can't put our finger on it, but for some reason, Gearbox's recent trademark filing for the title Borderworlds sounds awfully familiar. Oh, that's right! It released that other game with the eerily similar title earlier this year, Border ... wait. Borderareas. Or was it Borderlocales? Borderlands? No, wait, it was Borderregions. Yeah, definitely Borderregions.

Following yesterday's positive comments from the Take-Two conference call, a sequel to the fastest-selling new IP of 2009 certainly seems like a natural next step. However, considering a world is considerably larger than a land ... or region, Gearbox could be planning something appropriately larger in scope than the series' first installment. Or, it could simply be covering its titular bases, as appears to be the case with the "War Hero" trademarks filed earlier this year.

Update: Apparently, the Borderworlds trademark was filed back in 2007. Apologies for the confusion!

[Via superannuation]

German Borderlands players who just had to import the gory, uncensored version of the title from another region are getting their comeuppance. According to a lengthy thread on the Gearbox forums, players who purchase the Zombie Island of Doctor Ned expansion from the German Xbox Live Marketplace can't access the new content from their imported copies of the game.

We've contacted Gearbox to find out if anything is being done to refund the DLC's 800 cost to these depraved, violence-crazed importers. They certainly don't seem like the type of crowd you'd want to upset.

To quote the immortal words of the musical revolutionaries known as Widelife, "all things just keep getting better!" For the purpose of this post, "all things" include Steam's post-Thanksgiving deals, which seem to have hit critical value mass today. Resident Evil 5 for $24.99? Borderlands for $33.49? Ghostbusters for $9.99? Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition for $7.49? Daddy like.

Once again, if you don't like the games which have had their prices temporarily torn in twain, tune in tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. PST for the next batch of deals.

Are you enjoying the zombie-massacring action presented in Left 4 Dead 2, but wish the game had more ... panache? The upcoming DLC pack for Borderlands, titled The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned, might just offer the stylish undead action you crave. Check out the trailer after the break to see what we mean. Spoiler alert: In the video, zombie faces get punched into gooey paste, Were-Skags get euthanized, and birds get flipped. It's probably not suitable for the faint of heart.

The walking corpse-infested landmass is downloadable today on 360 and PS3 for 800/$9.99.