One of the biggest issues I, and many others, had with the original Borderlands was that it felt a bit barren.

The game had great controls, an excellent loot and levelling system as well as gameplay that clearly centred around the co-op experience. But everything looked too similar, and the solo experience was a literal interactive translation of the desolate wastes you were exploring. The game lacked life, is what I'm saying.

Thankfully the team at Gearbox know this and are addressing it this time around, as lead concept artist, Scott Kester, explained to AusGamers in an interview.

"One of our biggest points [with] this game is variety and life inside of the world," Kester expressed to us on the topic of more life in Borderlands 2. "There’s a lot more zones that you’re in, in this. There’s the arctic tundra; there’s the more green Scottish Highlands; there’s classic desert in there, because it is Borderlands and we still want it to have that classic feeling.

"But one of the real big points that we’re trying to do though is not just the amount of environments, but the density inside of them -- the life inside of them," he added. "Trying to make them feel lived in; trying to make them feel more active. There’s more things to interact with and the way that the enemies inhabit the world -- there’s sort of a place for them, they’re not just kind of haphazardly placed as much."

The game really is looking peachy and we'll have a full preview coming for you soon (I've been ill, so bear with us), but in the meantime, check out our full video interview (and transcript) with Scott by clicking here.