New Borderlands DLC detailed

By Robert Purchese Published 11 December, 2009

Called Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot.

The next batch of Borderlands DLC is based on the Thunderdome arena in Mad Max, so much so that it's called Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot.

The content will arrive for Xbox 360 on 29th December and for PS3 on 7th January. Price will 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80/€9.60) or $10.

Arena quests here will be unlike those in the original campaign, and share more similarities with the wave-based Horde mode in Gears of War 2 or Firefight in Halo 3: ODST.

The idea is that Moxxi, who's mad, is running underground tournaments in coliseum arenas and you're invited to take part, battling wave after wave of baddies. The twist is Moxxi herself, who'll blurt out Moxxi Maxims at a whim and change the rules of engagement.

If she bellows "Vampire Rule!" then players health will slowly drain, replenishing slightly with every kill. Or she might yell "Shotgun Challenge!" and boost the power of shotguns while other firearms are temporarily weakened. She may also belt out "River Deep, Mountain High".

Underdome Riot will be broken into three Riot Mode arenas each with a small and big tournament. The latter is designed to test the best players, and designer Jon Hemingway told MTV Multiplayer he took six hours to finish one.

You can't save your progress, but you can pause, break and return - just keep your console on. "It's really hardcore," said Hemingway.

Moxxi's Underdome Riot also adds a new bank feature allowing for extra storage capacity, plus the ability to gain two extra skill points as quest rewards.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • RedSparrows #1 2 years ago

    'Underdome Riot will be broken into three Riot Mode arenas each with a small and big tournament. The latter is designed to test the best players, and designer Jon Hemingway told MTV Multiplayer he took six hours to finish one.

    You can't save your progress, but you can pause, break and return - just keep your console on. "It's really hardcore," said Hemingway.

    Moxxi's Underdome Riot also adds a new bank feature allowing for extra storage capacity, plus the ability to gain two extra skill points as quest rewards.'

    All good.

  • Flying_Pig #2 2 years ago

    Still on the fence on this one. Could be brilliant, but could equally be a bit poo.

    I'm hoping for an EG review

  • Monkey_Puncher #3 2 years ago

    Sounds great, more please!

  • Venkman90 #4 2 years ago

    A stash!

  • Ninja_Tino #5 2 years ago

    Sounds a bit meh, no? Coliseums can be quite bland. I would prefer something more Dr. Nedified!

  • udat #6 2 years ago

    Ooh skill points!

  • tachometer #7 2 years ago

    Sounds cheap to make!

  • Phattso #8 2 years ago

    Much as the combat in this game is awesome, without the exploration and questing element I'm not so sure this will leverage what most people love about the game?

    Happy to be proven wrong, but right now I have no interest in this. Which is a shame, as Zombie Island completely refilled my internal Borderlands Hype Bar. :)

  • Murton #9 2 years ago

    This sounds pretty good actually. 6 hours for one challenge sounds like an over-estimate but if we're to assume that that was one of the bigger challenges, and there's three of those plus three smaller challenges we could well be looking at a DLC giving somewhere in the region of 15-20 hours of play time, per character/playthrough. This will also be a blast in co-op with the additional difficulty increase that co-op brings, sounds like great value DLC, something which most games fail to deliver in my opinion.

    Hopefully this will be released before Christmas so I can take it home to my brothers for some beer-fueled same-couch co-op action.

    EDIT: speed read fail. Missed the release date, it'll have to wait for new year and that means online co-op for me or take it round a friends house. No big deal I guess. Thanks to the guy below to pointed out my failure, +1
    Edited by 1 at 11/12/09 @ 12:50

  • Phattso #10 2 years ago

    Heh - the EG collective demonstrating their reading comprehension again. ;-) Released on the 29th of this month, Murton. Just in time for New Year.

  • the_mtfr #11 2 years ago

    I was expecting the news bit to say something about the similarity between Mad Moxxi's Underdome and Mad Max's Thunderdome, but nooooo.....

  • etherfiend #12 2 years ago

    After the disappointing dead space 2 details yesterday this has put in a good mood again. Fantastic. Definitely my favourite game of the year, fitting that I should end the year playing its latest DLC :)

  • kinky_mong #13 2 years ago

    It does sound a bit sparse in content on paper, but The Zombie Island DLC was so good that I'm willing to give Gearbox a bit of leniency. I do enjoy fighting against overwhelming odds in Borderlands so I'll definitely buy this as something to tide me over until the Bayonetta/Darksiders release weekend.

  • SL33PY #14 2 years ago

    I found borderlands severly lacking. The world is desolate, opponents spawn back randomly and I feel running in, out and about places just to do more of the same stuff over and over again.

    Do mission
    Find new gun
    LevelUp
    Use gun
    Repeat

    There is absolutely no incentive to play on after a while, unless you want to be able to brag about finishing borderlands, or as I have seen mentioned around here "Boredomlands".

    I don't think this DLC is going to change that fact.

  • metalangel #15 2 years ago

    Wow, this sounds terrible, of the same kind of laziness of Pinnacle Station. Dr Ned was all a big joke about how yes, they really had just palette swapped a few enemies and were charging you for the privilege, heh heh heh, and just about got away with it.

    But this is just cynical moneygrubbing at its (almost) worst.* After all, we already had a Mad Max arena, what with fighting Mad Mel in the Headlands. And we also had another arena where we had to fight wave after wave of skags! AND this can't have taken them long to make, writing a few 'spawn x monsters' scripts and making a big circular area for them to attack you in must be far easier than creating another zombie island.

    How about a DLC to handle the numerous issues/improvements the game needs? Like a better vehicle for more than two players? Or a 'storage crate' so we don't have to lug EVERYTHING we want to keep around with us? Or some way to tweak our level up and down when playing with friends? Or a weapon designer - why is it we're the only ones on this stupid planet who seemingly can't put scopes and mods on their guns?

    *Ace Combat's reskins is pretty much the most blatant collection of rip-offs ever.

  • penhalion #16 2 years ago

    "Took 6 hours to complete one"

    Hang on here. You can't save but, your expected to sit at your console (with pause breaks) for 6 hours! I like Borderlands and all but, this is a bit silly isn't it and just what happens if you get killed 5 hours into the challenge!

    This may well turn out to be a DLC too far.

  • jim1975 #17 2 years ago

    *Metalangel

    Hearing people complaining about DLC is getting soooo old now. just don't buy the fucking thing.

  • Rodriguez #18 2 years ago

    @jim1975
    Metalangel makes some valid points about DLC though. There are probably a lot of games that could be greatly improved if some of their core gameplay was tweaked or fixed, but most developers tend to concentrate on extra content first, and rarely, or indeed never make changes that would massively improve the completeness and overall playability of a game. If as a community of gamers we stay silent and don't make a fuss about things that seem like cynical cash grabbing, or appear to have had little real effort put into them, particularly when it comes to DLC, then we'll only end up with more of the same. I'll happily pay for a quality bit of DLC that's had some effort put into it and if it really improves or adds something extra to the overall gaming experience then it's worth a purchase. I think games journalists and their reviews of DLC are currently, or perhaps always, the best way to avoid spending money on something that isn't worth it.
    Edited by 1 at 11/12/09 @ 15:16

  • Murton #19 2 years ago

    Sl33py: the exact same thing could be said of Halo or COD, play level, fight new baddie, get new gun from baddie, complete level, watch cutscene, play new level /repeat. What incentive is there to continue there? New levels, new bad guys and new guns, well Borderlands has new levels, new bad guys and as advertised, "bazillions" of new guns, plus it has the RPG mechanics to offer alternative playstyles and let's not forget the storyline which is actually pretty good.

    Metalangel: I dunno about this being "money grubbing" it's reasonably priced and is offering a decent amount of content per playthrough and as a lot of people will play through with at least two characters it's really good value. Plus the arena quests in the game were damned fun in their own right, this expansion on their frantic "oh my god I'm gonna die" gameplay are a welcome addition, plus the storage crate will be really handy and there's a couple extra skill points to enhance your character without giving him extra levels and seriously unbalancing the game. It's a good DLC in my opinion.

    Penhalion: I'd imagine there'd be respawns along the way, I can't see them making something which could potentially take that long to complete without either a respawn or a save, you'd also need respawns for co-op as you can't pause in co-op to take a break.

  • kinky_mong #20 2 years ago

    @Metalangel: "Like a better vehicle for more than two players?"

    You do realise you can spawn two cars at the same time?

  • makeamazing #21 2 years ago

    Im not sure about this one, 6hours with no save option, really come on. When is someone who can only play once the family are all sleep, and even then I dont have 6 hours, and lets not forget about work to go to the next day... obviously this is for those who have nothing to do... come on play fair, we all like games but 6 hours no save, sounds silly. Man I sound and feel like a grumpy old man

  • Mayhem64 #22 2 years ago

    I'd buy that for a dollar (or ten). Smash TV perhaps in first person? And there will be a storage upgrade, hopefully so you can put weapons in and anyone else gaming on your 360 can pull them out. Would make transferring weapons between my different characters easier...

  • CalmBlueOcean #23 2 years ago

    stop moaning about this sounding sparse... to be coming out so quickly they must have knocked it up in a matter of days after the first wave of feedback from their player base. There has been constant demands for horde mode and a storage box on their forums since the day of release.

    They are doing exactly what you want developers to do. Responding quickly to player requests.

  • metalangel #24 2 years ago

    @kinkymong: Yup. But I want a big APC-style tank with four seats too!

  • Machetazo #25 2 years ago

    This idea of Moxxi regularly changing the rules while you play, is the reason I'd get this. Sounds like a nice twist to keep things fresh.

  • SL33PY #26 2 years ago

    @murton, I find the implementation of the storyline lacking severly. There is zero immersion into the gameworld. all in all a huge step backwards especially compared to games like GTA4, Dragon Age and even Call of Duty, where the single player campaign actually has a story behind it that pulls you into the game.

    It's funny to see how you get shot down by so many because you don't like a certain game for imo valid reasons.