As you can guess from the name of this site, we enjoy Loot. And as any hardcore gamers, we enjoy a good shooter. Put the two together with strong RPG elements and you get Borderlands, one of the most addicting games you’ll play this year. Gearbox slapped together a kick-ass cell-shaded art style, awesome shooter gameplay and more weapons your can count to make a killer app.

Plenty of comparisons can be made between Borderlands and Fallout 3, and rightly so. Both are RPG/shooter combos set in a wasteland with Vaults as the main plot point. Where Borderlands sets itself apart is the FPS controls, which are spot on, and the millions of procedurally generated weapons. You’ll take on various quests throughout the game collecting endless amounts of loot with each enemy kill. Borderlands was designed with four player co-op in mind, so grab a buddy for your Skag killing adventures; it’s just that much more fun. For me, the comedic stylings of the NPC’s and boss-type characters in the game kept a smile on my face during the majority of my play time. Each of the four character types offers differing types of gameplay and it’s well worth it to play with each of them (my personal preference is Mordecai, the Hunter, but also enjoy Roland, the Soldier, for his medic abilities).

Borderlands does have some issues keeping it from being the perfect game this Holiday season. Fast Travel comes a little too late, in my opinion. While I loved exploring the wasteland areas, running or driving from place to place constantly in quests becomes tedious. My main gripe with the game is the menu system. I would have liked to see a more streamlined way to manage your items and quicker upgrades to larger backpacks. With so many badass weapons, I wanted to carry more than I could on many an occasion. If you’re playing split-screen co-op, you’ll need to scroll left and right to even see half the menu. Lastly, Gearbox needs to add a weapon trading system for playing with friends. If a buddy and I want to swap loot, we both have to drop the item on the ground and pick up the other. It would be easier to just have a trading system in game.

While Borderlands does have issues, it doesn’t change the fact that this game is addictive. You’ll be playing for hours and not want to put the game down. I kept telling myself “just one more loot drop,” but I kept playing. Aside from the story being forgettable, Borderlands is exactly what I wanted from Fallout 3. You get an amazing shooter with terrific loot drops and RPG qualities with massive replay value. Pick this up right away for whatever system you prefer.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]