Between Gamescom and Game Informer's exclusive coverage in issue 221, there's been a lot of Borderlands 2 news over the past week. Here's a quick round-up of how the game with a bazillion guns is shaping up.

First, they pulled the curtain up on how the game begins. Handsome Jack, the new leader of the Hyperion Corporation, is not that nice of a guy. After you and your posse work your way up a to-the-death gladiator match, he fears his power is being threatened. So instead of fame and fortune, you get your ass abandoned in the middle of a frozen tundra. Thanks, douchebag.

Your first order of business? Go find the original cast, because they're your new supporting NPCs. It's pretty sweet that they're still involved, even though they're jerks. I'll admire this dirt as long as I well please, Mordecai.

The first new character revealed is Salvador the Gunzerker, and he's a play on the original game's Berzerker. This stocky guy's main allure is the dual-wield: for a limited time, you can pick up two of anything (rocket launchers, sniper rifles, mini-guns) and aerate any poor sap in sight. You can't scope and your accuracy decreases, but when you're five feet away from a dude and you're warming up two mini-guns, I imagine you'll be just fine.

Speaking of guns, they're getting a bit of a redesign. In the first game, there were various gun manufacturers with certain attributes common with all of their weapons (Vladof guns had a high rate of fire, but low accuracy, Tediore had ammo regeneration, etc.). This system gets a visual upgrade. Now you'll be able to tell the manufacturer just by looking at the model. For instance, Dahl guns look like the sleek, modern weapons out of the Modern Warfare series, while others, no doubt, will look like a porcupine mated with a machete.

One of the fun changes involves the Tediore Corporation. When you yell 'I'm out!' while holding a Tediore-brand gun, you can chuck it into a group of enemies and watch that sucker go off like a grenade. If you leave ammo in it, the blast will be even bigger. And don't worry, if you love the gun and hate to see it kamikaze itself, you can always bring it back afterward with a hand-held digistruct (the same thing that warps in cars except, ya know, it's hand-held).

My wife, for some strange and honestly-kinda-scary reason, voraciously took up Borderlands. It was disheartening to learn that we couldn't play split-screen co-op with friends half-a-Pandora away. Now you can, with a caveat. You can't be the host when you enter an online game split-screen, so two split-screen couples can't play together.

In other split-screen news, remember how awkward it was to view your inventory and mission log? How you had to constantly scroll back and forth to read everything? Fixed.

Oh, and it's written by Anthony Burch, one of the dudes behind the semi-famous, fully-hilarious video series, Hey Ash Watcha Playin'? (Thanks Josh!) So one can only assume the adult humor of Borderlands will land in the sequel intact.

Finally, here's the teaser trailer they released earlier this week:

And that's about it so far. Check out issue 221 of Game Informer for a more in-depth look. Borderlands 2 is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 with the ridiculously large release-date window of April 1^st, 2012 – March 31^st, 2013.

[via Game Informer, Joystiq]