{"title":"2K Australia","description":"\u003cp\u003e2K Australia traces its origins to April 2000, when Irrational Games, the Boston studio that had made its name with System Shock 2, opened a second office in Canberra under the name Irrational Games Australia. Jonathan Chey, one of Irrational's three co-founders, led the Canberra operation, which quickly became more than a satellite: it worked alongside Boston on the tactical police shooter SWAT 4 and the sci-fi shooter Tribes: Vengeance, establishing a track record in systems-driven first-person design that would define the studio's output for the rest of its life. The corporate picture changed in January 2006 when Take-Two Interactive acquired Irrational Games and placed it under its 2K publishing label, and in August 2007 the two Irrational studios were formally split apart, with the Canberra team renamed 2K Australia. Under that name it contributed to BioShock, the game that turned Irrational's immersive-sim lineage into a mainstream phenomenon, and it would go on to support two more of 2K's most ambitious projects, BioShock Infinite and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe studio's identity shifted once more between April 2010 and November 2011, when it operated under the banner of its sister studio 2K Marin before reverting to 2K Australia, a reflection of how closely the two teams were interwoven on the publisher's shooter projects during that period. Its defining moment as a lead developer came in 2014 with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, the entry that bridges the original Borderlands and Borderlands 2 and moves the series' loot-driven co-op shooting to Pandora's moon. 2K Australia led development, with Gearbox Software providing development support, and the result is the credit the studio is best remembered for and the reason its name sits on PJ's Games' shelves today. That success was not enough to overcome the economics of the region: on April 16, 2015, 2K Australia closed, with the cost of running a game studio in Australia given as the stated reason, and its former web domain, 2kaustralia.com, now simply redirects to 2k.com. Fifteen years of work on some of the most respected first-person games of their era, from SWAT 4 to BioShock to the Pre-Sequel, is what the studio leaves behind, and the Borderlands entry it led remains as playable and as sharp as it was at launch.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"borderlands-the-pre-sequel-pc-download","title":"Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eBorderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes the loot-driven shooting that made the series famous and lifts it off Pandora entirely, onto the moon Elpis and the Hyperion space station Helios hanging above it. Set between Borderlands and Borderlands 2, it casts you as one of four new Vault Hunters working for a man named Jack, who has not yet earned the \"Handsome\" and has not yet become the villain everyone remembers. Low gravity, oxygen management, laser weapons and cryo damage change how every firefight plays out, and the story fills in the most important gap in the Borderlands timeline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Moon With Its Own Rules\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElpis has a fraction of Pandora's gravity, and 2K Australia built the whole game around that fact. Jumps become long, slow arcs you can shoot from, and the new Oz kit lets you double-jump, hover and then come down hard with a butt slam that flattens whatever is standing underneath. Outside pressurised zones, the same kit feeds you oxygen, so the map itself becomes a resource to manage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOxygen as a weapon.\u003c\/strong\u003e Your Oz kit burns air to jump and slam, and it is the only thing keeping you alive in the vacuum. Enemies play by the same rules: crack a Lost Legion soldier's mask and watch them suffocate, or drop the pressure in a room and change the odds.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLasers and cryo.\u003c\/strong\u003e Laser weapons arrive as a full new gun type, from railguns to beam rifles that never stop firing. Cryo is the new elemental damage, and freezing an enemy solid before shattering them with a melee hit or a slam is one of the most satisfying rhythms the series has produced.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLunar vehicles.\u003c\/strong\u003e Catch-a-Ride returns with the Moon Buggy and the Stingray hover-bike, both tuned for the low-gravity terrain. Long jumps across craters and canyons are part of the route, not an accident.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Rise of Handsome Jack\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe framing is Athena, in chains in Sanctuary, telling Lilith and the Crimson Raiders what really happened on Elpis. What follows is Jack's story told from his side. He starts as a Hyperion programmer with ambition and a grudge, and when Colonel Zarpedon's Lost Legion seizes Helios and starts firing on the moon, he hires you to help him take it back. Over the campaign you watch his charm curdle into something colder, and the game never lets you forget that the man you are helping is the one who will later rule Pandora from a space station shaped like the letter H. Familiar faces from both earlier games turn up in roles you may not expect, and the writing keeps the series' habit of undercutting every serious moment with a joke, then landing the serious moment anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eFour New Vault Hunters\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eAthena the Gladiator\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHer Aspis shield absorbs incoming damage, then gets thrown back at the enemy with everything it soaked up. Athena's skill trees push toward a bleed-and-melee brawler or a tanky front-liner who thrives when surrounded, and she is the most approachable of the four for a first run.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eWilhelm the Enforcer\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eWilhelm brings two drones, Wolf and Saint, one for offence and one for healing, and his trees gradually turn him into the cyborg that Borderlands 2 players had to fight. Building toward drone uptime and heavy weapons makes him a natural fit for co-op parties that need cover.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eNisha the Lawbringer\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eShowdown snaps her aim onto every target in sight and boosts fire rate and reload speed while it lasts, which makes pistols in particular devastating. Nisha rewards aggressive players who like to move fast and never stop shooting, and her one-liners are some of the sharpest in the script.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eClaptrap the Fragtrap\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003ePlayable Claptrap is the wild card. VaultHunter.EXE examines the situation and picks an action package for you, from a disco funhouse of buffs to a rubber-duck float that helps nobody, and his skill trees deliberately mix good ideas with terrible ones. Chaotic, funny and surprisingly capable in the right hands.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eShoot, Loot, Repeat\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnderneath the moon setting this is still Borderlands at its core: procedurally generated guns in absurd numbers, elemental matchups that matter, and a level-up loop that keeps pulling you toward the next chest. The Grinder in Concordia adds a twist, letting you feed three unwanted weapons into a machine that spits out something better, so the junk you would once have sold becomes raw material. Online co-op supports up to four players, with enemies scaling to the party and loot dropping for everyone, and finishing the story unlocks True Vault Hunter Mode for a tougher second pass with rarer drops.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrab an Oz kit, learn to time your jumps, and go find out how a Hyperion nobody with a good haircut talked his way into owning a planet. The moon is waiting, and Jack has a job for you.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"2K","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":33269262796,"sku":"PC_9528175372_DL_GL","price":7.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-borderlands-the-pre-sequel-pc-game.jpg?v=1788961274"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.pjsgames.com\/en-ie\/collections\/2k-australia.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}