Borderlands is a wonderful game. I love it to pieces, and it's almost assuredly one of my top 10 games of the year. But there's something about it that's been bothering me for a while now. It's time I finally get this off my chest: The death animation is almost exactly the same as the old Ubisoft startup animation. I present unto you VIDEOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. (I don't think I used that word right.) Anyways, check this out.

Here's a Youtube clip of someone booting up Red Steel. Skip to the 0:27 marker.

Now here's another Youtube clip of someone mudering up a storm with their level 50 Mordecai. Skip to the 6:57 marker.

See? The similarity is pretty startling. What's up with that, Gearbox? I know you folks have played a Ubisoft-published game before. Hell, you've even made a few. The people demand answers!

So Penny Arcade's annual Child's Play charity drive for children's hospitals is on, and the HotSpot is doling out homework emblems for people who participate (or otherwise donate time/money/effort to the charity of their choosing, just e-mail hotspot@gamespot.com to tell us). GS User @Amozarte Chris VanHuysse wrote in and pointed out that a lot of companies have matching donation programs for their employees. He also suggested that gamers can find out who handles such programs at their own employers and suggest participation in Child's Play to them. He did that at his job, and sent along his letter so others could consider using at as a template to ask their own companies to get in on the act. So thanks a million to Chris, and to all of you who have donated or will be donating in the future! Now here's the letter:

Child's Play is a charity for children who are stuck in long term hospital care due to severe illness. Hospitals can be scary, lonesome places for adults, let alone children! Imagine spending the better part of your childhood in a place where "going out to play" means being wheeled down a sterile corridor to be shoved inside a loud, dimly-lit machine for a few hours!

Child's Play, founded in 2003, works with hospitals to raise money for the purchase of toys, games, books, movies, and other forms of entertainment. The hope is that by providing entertainment outlets, kids can forget the IV needles, machines, monitors, and tests for long enough to feel like a kid again.

Nearly 70 hospitals around the world are associated with the program. They include the US, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and even Egypt! Child's Play accepts cash donations, or donors can opt to browse one of many hospital-specific Amazon.com wish lists to purchase gifts and have them shipped directly to the hospital of choice.

Child's Play operates throughout the year but has recently launched the 2009 campaign, hoping to raise a total of $1 million in cash and/or gifts just in time for the Holidays. They're almost halfway there thanks to the generous support of other corporate sponsors such as Amazon.com, Microsoft Game Studios, Sony Online Entertainment, and Google. I wondered if our company would consider honoring Child's Play in the spirit of the Holidays? If not this year, then perhaps Child's Play could be considered for our 2010 charitable efforts?

The holiday release season is well underway, bringing with it colder temperatures, shorter days, and woefully depleted bank accounts. The one silver lining to being assailed by great games on a weekly basis is that, well, you do get to play them after you buy them. I know I've been doing my fair share of that lately. Here are some of my thoughts on the big ones over the past couple months:

The Beatles Rock Band

The Beatles are pretty much the definitive band of the British Invasion era (if not all time), but to tell you the truth, I've always been a bigger fan of The Who. It's not that I dislike the Beatles, but The Who is the only band of that period that's grabbed me so much that I felt the need to dig into their entire catalogue of music. And while I've certainly enjoyed The Beatles, I've never really felt that pull with their stuff. So I went into this game as someone who really only knew their hit singles. Playing those songs have been a blast, but what I wasn't expecting was to fall in love with some of their lesser known--by their standards--numbers like "Dear Prudence" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Now I feel compelled to go and check out their entire backlog of music. Maybe the remastered catalogue that came out on the same day as the game? I'm this close to pulling the trigger.

The other thing I wasn't expecting was to go from a full-time Rock Band drummer to a guitarist and singer. I've been drumming pretty much exclusively since the first game in the series, getting to the point where I can play most songs on expert. But man, Ringo's work isn't the most compelling to actually play. The songs are still great, but the drumming patterns are simple and fairly repetitive. I realized pretty quick that I'd have to switch over to guitar to maximize my enjoyment out of the game. And so I did. But then I also realized I'd have to rig up a mic stand so I could play guitar and sing at the same time, because there was just no way I could listen to all these songs and not shout along to them.

Forza Motorsport 3

I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with the racing genre over the years, and Forza 2 was the game that pulled me back into simulation racing. I loved it for its simple elegance and accessibility, that combination of deft racing gameplay and a warm, welcoming attitude toward people who weren't experts at turning apexes and gear ratios. I also fell in love with the livery editor, spending just as much time designing the exteriors of my cars as I spent inside of them.

There's no one area of Forza 3 that's leaps and bounds better than its predecessor, but there are ton of scattered additions and improvements that make it a sublime experience. The instant replay is a great way to alleviate frustration when you mess up on the last corner of a marathon, 30-lap race. Cockpit views and rollovers combine for greatly improved immersion, and the new tracks are pretty fantastic additions to the overall circuit landscape. But more than anything else, I love what the new storefront system adds to the game. Now I can spend time in the livery or vinyl editor, make something cool, and reap tangible (in-game) benefits from it. Right when I first got my copy I made a Cactuar decal (you know, the little cactus enemy from Final Fantasy) and put it on the store for 5,000 credits. I've since scaled back my Forza 3 playing to a day or two a week, but on those days when I do log in it's like Christmas morning, with the game telling me I've earned enough credits to buy an A-class car selling Cactuars on my days off. It's a fantastic feeling.

Borderlands

I remember seeing Borderlands at a demo in Cologne this past August and thinking to myself, "WHAT." It was a tough game for me to wrap my head around, with MMO jargon being thrown around left and right during the demo. I don't play MMOs, and tend to shy away from anything remotely close to them. But Borderlands managed to grab me and refused to let go for a good while longer than I was expecting. A big part of that was the ever-present draw of collecting more and more loot. There are so damn many guns in this game that even though you're only fighting a handful of enemy types, the combat feels varied because you're using a different weapon on them every ten minutes. And while the graphics aren't great, they have a lot of character to them. That's something of a theme to the entire game. There's no real story to speak of, but there's enough bizarre charm to the people and places you visit that you feel oddly compelled to push forward. From the clever achievements ("I'm on a boat!") to the insane cackling of my Tank any time he goes into Berserk mode, Borderlands is much more than a mindless loot-fest.

Uncharted 2

I was a huge fan of the original Uncharted. Even after Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, it continued to be my favorite game on the platform. That is, until the sequel. Everything I loved about the original is here: That combination of likeable characters, fantastic dialogue, and subtle animation that makes you feel like you're not even playing a game. But, of course, you are--and those parts have been improved as well. I love that the platforming and gunplay have been more tightly integrated into each other, making for a much less disjointed experience than the original. And hey! Headshots actually register this time around, too. So that's nice.

It's hard to pinpoint any one area where Uncharted 2 excels, because--aside from a few cover mechanic issues--it really excels everywhere. I guess really the two main factors are the terrific sense of cinematic storytelling, that feeling that you're playing a movie with real human actors, and a terrific pace that offers few respites from huge setpiece battles. Yep, I like it. A lot.

Part 2 coming soon! (Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age, DJ Hero)

A quick look at The Beatles: Rock Band's confirmed track list reveals the exclusion of a large number of classic Beatles tracks. 44 of the 45 songs in the game have been confirmed, which means that all of these songs (bar potentially one of them) will not be included on the disc:

1. Hey Jude
2. From Me to You
3. Let it Be
4. Love Me Do
5. She Loves You
6. Help
7. The Long and Winding Road
8. Yesterday
9. We Can Work it Out
10. Penny Lane
11. Eleanor Rigby
12. All You Need is Love (available to purchase for Xbox 360 as DLC on day one, with proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders)
13. Lady Madonna
14. The Ballad of John and Yoko

All you need is 45 songs we've chosen for you...

While it's possible that some (or most) of these songs will appear in the long and winding road of post-launch DLC there's some huge tracks that have been overlooked. Some of these might be because they wouldn't work particularly well but given that they're all confirmed number one hits their presence will be sorely missed.

What do you think about the game's soundtrack and what has/hasn't been included? Are you just glad that The Beatles' songs are finally going to appear in a videogame, or were you hoping for a more definitive collection?