Let's get the obvious out of the way — these games make serious dough.

"Business leaders have an opportunity to... reverse an alarming trend of not recognizing the sacrifices made by the men and women of our military service," CEO Robert Kotick tells Victor Godinez at the Dallas Morning News. Business leaders also have the opportunity to make a gajillion dollars on the backs of those sacrifices.

But, that's being jaded — perhaps too jaded. Video games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare have not been critical of the military like many war films of this past decade have. What's more, war, for better or worse, is an ideal setting for a video game. There's conflict, shooting, objectives — the laundry list goes on and on.

As Godinez points out, video games are filling that gap left by Hollywood.

"The last Brothers in Arms video game," developer Randy Pitchford says, "if that was a movie shot in live action, could never exist because it would cost a billion dollars."

Video games take command of war epics as movies retreat from recent conflicts [Dallas Morning News]

Catch Pitchford on all that, plus his take on the game industry's crediting practices and the two design imperatives behind Borderlands' Lilith character on today's show. Oh, and Owen Good has another good rant that we bring Randy back on the show to address.

If you're pressed for time, check out the last 15 minutes. I think they're the best, though it's all good.

Host: Stephen Totilo
Guest: Randy Pitchford

Download The Show Through These Means:
Chatting With Borderlands' Randy Pitchford [Blog Talk Radio]
Chatting With Borderlands' Randy Pitchford [iTunes]

Ask good questions!

To listen, head over to our BlogTalkRadio page. Unfortunately, you can only listen live on the BlogTalkRadio website.

Want to be heard on Kotaku Talk Radio? Call us on the air LIVE at (347) 857-3782 or use Skype to dial in!

Listen to the show here.

Mr. Pitchford will be on hand to discuss anything and everything Pitchford and Gearbox related, from Borderlands to Brothers in Arms; that one Half-Life game they did to that other Half-Life game they did. Did you know he was once a professional magician in Hollywood? Well now you do, and you can ask him about that. If we're lucky, he'll be so caught off-guard he'll fall over, because "Randy Pitchford Pitches Forward" would be an amazing headline.

Pitchford joins Amy Hennig, Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, Cliff Bleszinski, and Michael McWhertor as the latest in our all-star and McWhertor cast of Kotaku Talk Radio guests, all of which are merely placeholders as we prepare the ultimate all-Fahey edition that will only be airing in my head.

Join us at 11am Kotaku Time (that's 1pm ET, 10am PT) tomorrow, when you will be able to call in grill Randy about anything your little heart desires - his games; his career; his favorite food - you name it.

Look for a reminder post about the podcast at 10:55 AM mountain time (12:55 ET) on Wednesday. The post will include call-in info so you can ask your questions. The show will be live at 11am MT, 1pm ET, which would be an excellent time to call in.

Pitchford will be talking about, well... just about anything you ask him, I figure. He can speak to Borderlands, Brothers in Arms, Samba De Amigo, his ridiculous collection of arcade machines, his absurd gamerscore, likely dance around questions involving his company's Aliens game and who knows what else. Call in and make it happen!

Pitchford follows the Kotaku Talk Radio guest-appearance trail-blazing of Amy Hennig, Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, Cliff Bleszinski, and, oh yes, Michael McWhertor. Soon we'll have to list who HASN'T done this show.

On Wednesday at 11am Kotaku Time (that's 1pm ET, 10am PT), you will be able to call in and ask Pitchford anything you want about his work, his games and who knows what else.

Look for a reminder post about the podcast at 10:55 AM mountain time (12:55 ET) on Wednesday. The post will include call-in info so you can ask your questions. The show will be live at 11am MT, 1pm ET. I'll expect to hear you calling our switchboard then.

"One of my partners, Brian Martell, had Blade Runner on the list [of IPs we wanted to use]," he told the Official Xbox Magazine. "We chased it down and we coulda had it. But that one failed on the business side, because the way we wanted to do it we wanted to spend 25 million dollars. And when you do the math on that, we weren't going to make it back."

Shame. Then again, the world already has a Blade Runner game and, advanced years or not, it's fantastic. So it's not a total loss.

And what is it with Gearbox and movie adaptations? Blade Runner, Aliens, Heat...what's next, Robot Jox? Because that would be awesome.

Gearbox: Blade Runner canned because it wouldn't sell [OXM]

Indie devs 2D Boy, Dylan Fitterer, Amanita Design and small but not indie dev Telltale Games all lent their voices to the "Valve's not so bad/Steam is awesome" tune when Ars asked if anybody was feeling exploited.

For some developers, Steam is actually quite the opposite of exploitation:

Ron Carmel, 2D Boy
"...Valve offers the most developer-friendly terms for digital distribution in the industry. Do you know the saying 'there's nothing better than a good king and nothing worse than a bad one'? I think it applies here, and Steam has clearly been a good king so far."

So, really, Pitchford — what's got you on edge? Is your Borderlands promotional slot not high enough on Steam's marquee queue?

Game devs speak out on Valve, Steam and conflict of interest [Ars Technica]

Why the harsh words? After all Gearbox and Valve have been tight in the past, with the former developing Half-Life expansions for the latter. Pitchford tells MaximumPC that, even though he loves Valve games, "There's so much conflict of interest there that it's horrid."

"It would be much better if Steam was its own business," he says. "It's actually really, really dangerous for the rest of the industry to allow Valve to win."

"I love Valve games, and I do business with the company," Pitchford notes. Borderlands is currently available for pre-sale through Steam. "But, I'm just saying, Steam isn't the answer. Steam helps us as customers, but it's also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that's not totally fair."

Maybe Randy got up on the wrong side of the bed the morning of the interview. Maybe this is just one of his eyebrow raising "tall tales" of Valve. Maybe he's just got a game promote.

Pitchford's answer about who might be a better solution than Valve and Steam might surprise you. You can enjoy it at the full interview linked below.

Randy Pitchford Talks Borderlands, Piracy, and Why He Doesn't Trust Valve [MaximumPC via VG247]

The story in question originally ran on Joystiq, which presented a lengthy e-mailed anecdote from Pitchford that purportedly answered the question of how Gearbox got its name. The story of riverboat gambling was extraordinary, and one I mistakenly took as true.

Pitchford told me today that his intent was to entertain, not mislead. I regret not trying to confirm the story with Valve before publication.

Over Twitter, he wrote: "Enjoy the Tall Tale about the Gearbox name? Read it on Joystiq and give them love! Kotaku too :)"

Apologies to Valve and you readers for presenting a tall tale as a real one. We're all for a good yarn, but didn't mean to mislead anyone.

(Click each thumbnail to enlarge)

My tour guide was Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford, who walked me through the halls, allowing photos of some things — like this work of a local artist that suits the style of this studio which has built the World War II series, Brothers in Arms.
This is a server on the top floor Gearbox occupies, the 13th/penthouse. It holds 52 terabytes of Gearbox's most precious game data and is guarded by cooling systems and a lawn gnome (not pictured, just off camera — seriously).
Gearbox's office is full of people, but also full of rooms like this, stuffed with old gaming machines. Some pinball...
More pinball...
And yet more pinball. All in one room.
Some rooms are full of arcade cabinets, some owned by Pitchford, others just being taken care of by the studio.
More of the first arcade room I saw...
...and still more.
Gearbox has three storage rooms like this, located outside a small kitchen and dining area.
Another shot of the healthy room.
I'm not allowed to show any of the Aliens concept art hanging on walls in the studio, stuff that's helping inspire the team for their Aliens: Colonial Marines project. But I can show this replica of the Aliens rifle one of Gearbox's employees, Stephen Palmer, was kind enough to wield for me. This one does not shoot live ammo. That rifle was in another room.
This wrench was awarded to Gearbox by Sierra to commend the company on its development of Half-Life: Opposing Force. Pitchford said Half-Life developer Valve got a crowbar version of this statue for their game.
Here's me wielding a rubber prop rifle just outside of Gearbox's mo-cap room.
And here's another of Gearbox's rooms stuffed with arcade machines...
Lots of arcade machines...
I mean, an absurd amount of arcade machines.
Borderlands, Gearbox's next game, is close to completion. Lots of concept art adorns the walls of the studio, some of them, like this, showcasing the game's new look....
Some of it, like this showed the older look...
... but Pitchford himself admits it didn't stand out. (I did play the game while I visited, but I can't write about that for a couple of weeks.)
Here's the Gearbox mo-cap room. No motion capture was occurring when I walked through it.
Right past the Gearbox lobby is a tech room full of wires and computers and a guy whose mission it is to ensure that no one at the studio is having computer troubles. While I visited, this cart got wheeled in, probably because this room also contains Gearbox's library of old games (the better to help with the company's monthly play-this-game-and-talk-about-it assignments).
In the tech room, Pitchford said these shelves held every relevant graphics card out there.
It also held shelves of extra consoles and development kits, including these Wiis used for game development.
And here's another Gearbox snack room....
More Gearbox snacks.
Here's the view of Plano, Texas, from Gearbox's top floor. Ideal during fireworks celebrations, Pitchford told me.
This is Pitchford's prized Guitar Freaks machine. (No one played it while I visited.)
And here, shaky cam and all, is Pitchford giving us all a quick look at his lobby. I'd have posted this first in the gallery had the quality been better. Apologies, folks. But for historical value, here you go.

Diablo and World of Warcraft would co-win the award for games most frequently name-checked by game developer Randy Pitchford as he explained his team's October game Borderlands at a recent event in New York City.

The developers at Pitchford's Gearbox have made a cartoon-shaded first-person shooter crafted like a role-playing game, a quest-filled, loot-heavy game drawing on Blizzard's finest Diablo and World of Warcraft mechanics.

And, oh yes, it's a game that can't believe how awesome it is. As in: It can randomly generate weapons and then describe them, having crafted one gun during my time with it that the game described with the phrase, "Holy shit, it shoots rockets!"

What Is It?
Borderlands is a four-year-in-development first-person shooter supporting four-player co-op. It comes to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this fall from development studio Gearbox Software and publisher 2K Games. The game is a Mad-Max-looking adventure set on a wasteland planet called Pandora (trademarked to Gearbox, by the way — so don't put a planet named Pandora into your games, competitors, unless you're the people making James Cameron's Avatar game, in which case Gearbox, which is developing a game based on James Cameron's Aliens, isn't really going to protest much.)

What We Saw
Not far from where a roasted pig was being chopped and served in a Brooklyn warehouse, I was allowed to play some Borderlands four-player co-op. And then went upstairs to play single-player while Pitchford answered my question, discouraged me from comparing any element of his game to Too Human, and admitted that his Gamerscore had cracked 80,000. Until I ran into a bug, I played the post-intro start of the game, getting trained to duck, use a weapon, take basic quota-kills quests from townspeople and explore a dusty town and its monster-packed outskirts.

How Far Along Is It?
Borderlands is set for October 20 release and, given the games being delayed left and right — BioShock 2 was publicly pushed back the day I checked out Borderlands — it's bound to not slip.

What Needs Improvement?
The Revelation of a Gameplay Hook: There is a lot that is smart and solid about Borderlands, a lot that works well. But if I was pressed to say what's unique about it, I'm left to describe how it combines elements of previous games and how it can generate a nearly infinite variety of weapons. Smaller details could prove to be irksome if the game's emphasis on gathering loot isn't accompanied with an efficient system for managing a bulging inventory and swiftly selling the excess. But that's more of a guess about what to watch for than a criticism of what Pitchford showed. The game is solid, just in need of revealing itself to be special.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Gunman's Role-Playing Game: Shoot things, get experience points, level up and unlock new abilities on your character's skill tree. That's Borderlands, and that's a strong core design. One of the four characters players can choose from at the game's start is a soldier, whose skill development can improve the turrets he drops, his healing abilities or his damage mitigation. A bulkier character, Brick, can, among other things, improve his fists until he can punch money out of his enemies. A female, dubbed the siren, can turn invisible. And, with a classification like siren, maybe she can seduce enemies? Maybe, Pitchford said. So go shoot stuff and improve. Not a bad formula.

The Graphics: Pitchford said that, five years ago, he wouldn't have approved the revised graphics his game now has. Good thing he changed, because his game looks lovely.

The Promised Vastness: The game has 30 main mission chains, each ranging from one to 15 missions long, along with 120 optional side quests, according to Pitchford (kind of like WoW in the way they activate, he said). Players start without a weapon but eventually gain an arsenal, develop special powers and earn a choice of vehicles (like mounts in WoW, he said). The game re-mixes enemy types and attributes and arms unfriendlies with randomly-generated weapons — some of which surprise even Pitchford, who was shocked to see an early-game enemy using some sort of advanced flamethrower he didn't even know could be generated in the game. And lots of loot is dropped (like in Diablo, he said). All that content suggests this game will be long and satisfying to our species' hunting and gathering instincts.

Co-Op: Borderlands was good in single-player but seemed even more promising in co-op. Gamers can't fake co-op and play with the three other main characters as AI partners. But they can have real players join and adventure with them. When we were doing this, missions were dynamically made more difficult. I enjoyed a mechanic that, while I was downed and dying, earned my character a health-restoring second wind if I could kill an enemy. Aside from this kind of co-op, the game allows any two players to fight a duel. Bump into each other and a dome drops to enable a one-on-one test of abilities, kind of like... WoW.

Final Thoughts
Before my demo with Borderlands, I didn't know much more about the game than that it could render lots of weapons. After playing, I get it. It's true that, as a console game based on loot-gathering it's in lonely company. The experimental and unconventional summer 2008 Xbox 360 game Too Human tried to load players up with a grand loot-quest. Borderlands presents a more conventional design in more generic trappings. It looks good and plays well.

Will Borderlands ultimately need a gameplay hook to win gamers' support, or can it thrive by combining the core draws of shooters, RPGs and its Blizzard inspirations? The game is a straightforward proposition. It can amaze itself. Here's hoping it can amaze gamers too.

"The news of the Gearbox Software 'War Hero' related trademarks exposes a bit about our interests in the development of another original intellectual property," Pitchford say.

The Texas-based developer, currently slaving away on Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines, looks to be getting back in the war game with War Hero. In a statement, Pitchford says in a statement that War Hero "is something down the road for us."

"It's not signed with a publishing partner yet as we haven't even talked to any potential partners about it," Pitchford cautions, "So we're certainly not ready to talk about it publicly at the moment."

"Right now, our attentions are focused squarely on kicking ass with Borderlands and we are *really* excited to be finishing Borderlands up for release this year," he added in his statement. "We're all gaga around here over the way Borderlands is shaping up, so if you want to see the new hotness, definitely keep your eyes on Borderlands."

Also, Borderlands, Borderlands, Borderlands. We look forward to it!

Gearbox Trademarks New "War Hero" Titles [Kotaku] [Image Credit]

"I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that's not Halo," Pitchford told game site VideoGamer.com. "Those guys are amazing, right? They walk on water! And the same with Infinity Ward. It's like, dude I'm totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven't seen before?"

Maybe Bungie want to make other games and maybe they're making them right now, but can't say anything about them because the developer has its hands with with Halo 3: ODST? Maybe Infinity Ward is following up a smash hit with a back-to-back sequel? Patience, dear Randy, patience!

To Gearbox's credit, the studio does churn out a wide variety to titles in different genres for various platforms. Not every developer has that kind of freedom or is even willing to take those sorts of risks.

Pitchford wants 'something different' from Bungie [VideoGamer via Dtoid via NowGamer]

It almost didn't.

Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, said that a couple of artists got together and started complaining about the look of the game. They felt, he said, that all games were really starting to look a lot alike.

"They were looking at pictures of concept cars and started asking why they never get to drive them in game," he said. "So four of them got together and prototyped this new look out. Then they roped more people in to help them."

"It was like a subversive coup going on."

When the artists came to Pitchford to tell them about his idea he told them that there was a "million percent chance" he was going to have to shut them down.

"They went ahead and worked on it and set up a presentation in a conference room," he said. "When I saw it moving, saw what it looked like, I was like holy crap.

"It looked like Borderlands but it's in a style I'd never seen before."

The new style has characters with strong ink outlines, like what you've find in cel-shaded art, but the characters themselves look hand painted. The team also clamped the shadows down on the characters and did some "interesting" lighting to keep the semi-realistic feel of the game, Pitchford said.

"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I was stunned."

So Pitchford grabbed up the presentation, hopped on a plane and flew to 2K in October to show them the new look.

"I was terrified to show them," he said.

He started by showing it to Greg Gobbi, one of the people who showed strong support for Bioshock in its early days, and Gobbi loved it.

"I was like, thank god," Pitchford said. "We kept having meetings and the meetings got bigger and bigger, until we had this giant meeting and they loved it."

So far, Pitchford said, the reception has been pretty positive, but E3 was a big test for the game and its new look.

"The team is terrified," he said during an interview early in the show. "I'm scared shitless."

"We are seeing a lot of positive feedback, but I'm still afraid for when we launch the game. Sometimes we are rewarded when we take risks, sometimes..."

You may have already seen Borderlands new look in action, whether it be in PC Gamer or from teaser shots promoting that issue. But now you can see the 2K Games-published spectacular how it was meant to be seen—on a computer monitor at a blistering 72 dots per inch.

The PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game looks just swell with its new black lines, an art style that Gearbox president Randy Pitchford explains once again.

"Since the story broke, the response to Borderlands we've felt has been overwhelming and I cannot thank everyone enough for the support of the game they've shown," Pitchford states. "We realize that curiosity about Borderlands is pretty high and so we're releasing more screenshots today that we hope you enjoy. We are excited to show more about the game soon. Thanks again for your support."

Alright, maybe that wasn't an explanation. It's just a statement. But look at how good that labia-faced monster looks now with the new style!

"No, Borderlands is not cel-shaded — it's a gritty and serious world after all," Pitchford told Kotaku via email. "But since the game was first unveiled we have made big advancements with the art direction and the technology to support the art and have produced some pretty impressive, even shocking results."

Pitchford added that the game's official website will "soon" be getting new content that shows where Gearbox is with the art — not to mention the upcoming PC Gamer article. The official Borderlands site is set to launch April 13.

"Finally, there's always E3 in a few months where attendees can see the game live," said Pitchford. "I know some folks have figured out that we've done something big to Borderlands even if no one is quite sure what we've done yet and I know I'm still being a bit cryptic on that."

I don't believe those kinds of ads are very effective.

The team already has Borderlands, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Aliens and Samba de Amigo for Wii on its plate, with the newest super secret project to get some serious attention only after at least two of those games ship. That means whatever Gearbox has been tapped to create, it's a long way off.

So, let's start the predictions, gang. We know that Gearbox currently has strong ties to Sega and has done plenty of work for Valve in the past. The team also handled the original Halo PC port. We also know that their forte lies in first person shooters, but aren't afraid to tackle a rhythm game remake.

Unfortunately, we may not know for years what the team has planned, but we're going to be hovering closely to (read: stalking) Mr. Pitchford at both DICE and GDC this month to try to learn more.

If you're an industry developer, this is the most important post you've ever read... [Gearbox Forums]

"Our game's about becoming a Colonial Marine, and looking at it from the Colonial Marines' perspective," explained Pitchford. The Colonial Marines battled the acid-blooded xenomorphs in Aliens, and were a template for the troopers who fight alongside the Master Chief in the Halo games.

Pitchford also mentions that even though there is communication between his company, Gearbox, and Obsidian Entertainment, the company that is responsible for making the upcoming RPG version of the Aliens game, both companies are taking two completely different directions. I can only assume one of them will do Alien vs. Predator, or is that just wishful thinking? Kim Phu

Gearbox spins out Aliens, Heat game details [Gamespot UK]