borderlands 2/sequel? what do you think? suggestions...

Gearbox has definitely sold plenty of copies of Borderlands. It's been a huge success for them, and it's one my favorite games by far. I can only hope for a sequel, however I hope they add a couple of things (granted, this is a tall order, and would take a massive amount of space on a blu-ray disc for PS3 or a dvd for Xbox360/PC, probably along with a lot of installation time).

1. Increased Variation/Dynamic-ness

I love the game's random loot generating engine. However, I was slightly disappointed when I first got the game. Before it came out, I heard a lot about randomized enemies, and even landscape details. I found the game to be slightly lacking in this respect. For instance, there's only one way for rocket launchers to reload (with that weird clip thing). Why can't some reload like RPG's? Or some like AT-4's? On that note, why do all the guns of one category look the same? It would be kind of cool if some snipers looked like WA-2000's or some SMG's looked like UMP's. And what about other kinds of guns (grenade launchers, anyone)? And with the landscape, I had heard some stuff about randomized enemy camp size, locations, designs and the like. For the sake of consistency, I can understand some stuff remaining in one spot, but I also think it would be cool if enemies took stuff down and put stuff up while I'm not playing (bunker here today, lookout tower there tomorrow). The same sort of randomization goes for environments (what about jungles, cityscapes, or oceans/underwaterishness), enemies (more kinds of psychos? Brutes/bruisers with shields? Sniper enemies?), etc. While I'm on the topic, why does each character have to have one melee weapon the whole game? I think melee weapons would be cool as loot items like the guns (e.g.: "YUSS!! I just found a lazer sword!! It has twice the reach and speed of my lead pipe with x3 flame damage!). And how about a euphoria enemy AI, like SW:TFU (Euphoria is a program that attempts to give enemies virtual nervous systems)? Or ragdoll physics instead of a holographic representation of a dead enemy?

2. Customization?

One of the things I love most about the RPG genre is the depth of customization and gameplay they afford. I missed this in Borderlands. Instead of having one set of characters, I would really really enjoy being able to choose a class, and then create the character from the ground up in appearance, like Saint's Row 2 or Dragon Age: Origins. Same goes for vehicles. It would be really cool to see some air vehicles, custom paint jobs, or more vehicle weapons. Maybe even using your character's guns instead of the turret? I don't know. But vehicle customization could be deeper. What enemy vehicles dropped vehicle weapons or vehicle boosters or vehicle shields instead of infantry weapons? And what if you could get class mods for your vehicle, too? All this customization would make online a lot more fun, since you could see what other people's characters and cars looked like, and things like that.

3. DESTRUCTIBILITY!

Oh destructibility. What's not to love? Take Red Faction for example (maybe Gearbox should too). I could enjoy that game with or without story. It's endlessly fun to just run and gun and topple buildings, which have realistically calculated stress points and strengths. Different materials break differently, and different weapons break materials differently in that game. And by destructibility I absolutely do not mean the Frostbite engine from BFBC2; if you play that for a little while, you'll realize buildings collapse the same way every time, and concrete walls break the same way every time when under fire. Red Faction-esque destruction would mesh nicely in with the random guns, which could have an additional penetration/force stat (SMG's would be low, rocket launchers high). This would also be really cool in combination with the dynamic environments, meaning you could go tear up a bandit shanty town and come back the next day to find that they salvaged the metal from it and built a fortress. A little bit of something like the Lucas Arts' DMM system would be cool too (for those of you who don't know, that's the software in Star Wars: the Force Unleashed that made metal bend like metal, wood snap like wood, and glass shatter like glass. All matter broke the way it does in real life).

4. Multiplayer

I think we can unanimously agree that Borderlands really got co-op right. It's so much fun to play with friends, especially since you get better loot, more loot, and you have to fight stronger/more enemies. But competitive multiplayer is arguably lacking. Sure, you can duel and enter arenas, but what if there was team- and map-based competitive multiplayer? An interesting thought—matches would be organized around a certain level range (e.g. only players between the levels of 45-50 could join this match), and everyone would start with no weapons. Both initial spawn points could be full of weapon crates, and there would be a scramble for everyone to fill out their four weapon slots. Beyond that, it would be basic team deathmatch, CTF, or capture/defend mania. Of course, action abilities would have to be slightly scaled to be balanced when playing multiplayer.

Other stuff that would be nice:

-Shorter load times

-A cover system

-Better storyline/stronger plot (with a more fulfilling ending)

-More fluid transitions between areas (Knoxx's use of the highway thing would be cool, except you have to load new areas, and for a long time too)

-Better competitive multiplayer (or at least wagers in money or guns over duels to resolve loot disputes)

-A trading option for loot

-A system that rates guns based on their stats, and puts the rating in the gun info thing

-Elemental guns should be more rare

-Better enemy/boss/mission difficulty scaling (I blew threw the first playthrough dying only a handful of times)

-More NPC's for the single player experience (and more people in general too for that matter)

-Neutral A.I.s? (e.g. guards around New Haven that only attack you if you attack them)

-More flora/fauna... The game feels a little lonely sometimes with the general lack of NPC's, people, wildlife, and the like.

I realize putting all these together would be an astronomical feat, but imagine if Gearbox took note of this, or even parts of it!