Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition is a free upgrade for existing PC players

2009's Borderlands is returning in a new Game of the Year Edition, releasing on April 3rd. It'll be free to all existing owners of Borderlands on Steam, 2K has confirmed, and it'll make a bunch of small but significant tweaks to the game. As well as a minimap in the style of Borderlands 2 which you can switch on or off, the inventory system will be simplified, and you'll automatically pick up items found on the ground like ammo and health.

There are more fundamental tweaks to the game, too. The game's final boss has been altered for a tougher, more rewarding challenge, and to make it a more "engaging" encounter—we'll have to give that a try before we know exactly what impact that makes.

The SHiFT player rewards are also coming to the game—anyone who's played Borderlands 2 or The Pre-Sequel on PC will get 75 free Golden Keys, as well as two random new weapons when they create a new Vault Hunter. Six new legendary weapons have been added to the game, too, which you can unlock by hoovering up Golden Keys or by defeating bosses. More customisation options are being added for player characters, too, with five swappable sets of head gear for your Vault Hunter available at the start.

Visual upgrades are a bit harder to parse—the PC version is referred to as visually remastered, so we'll see what that entails when we try it next week. The most important detail for PC players, as mentioned, is that owners of the original Borderlands on Steam will get the upgraded version for free (obviously you'll have to buy the game otherwise). You don't need to own the DLC to get this new edition, either—just the base game. I double-checked this with 2K. If you never tried the first game's expansions, now you can without paying an extra penny.

It seems like a good deal, then, if you needed an excuse to go back before Borderlands 3.