News: Borderlands 2, Tribes Ascend, Vita Launched and Nintendo release dates

Tribes Ascend: The open beta starts on Friday 24th Feb at 5pm GMT. New maps, game types and balance tweaks will be in the patch. Notes below:

• New gametype, Arena Deathmatch, with two initial maps
• New Capture The Flag map, Temple Ruins
• New Team Deathmatch map, Inferno
• Two new unlockable items for the Soldier class: Proximity Grenade and Utility Pack
• New default suits for Doombringer and Brute
• Ability to view either Blood Eagle or Diamond Sword skins from Class menu
• Service supporting Name Change
• Large number of bug-fixes and balance adjustments.

Vita: Sony released something called the PlayStation Vita today? Apparently it’s some kind of really small PS3. If you bought a 3G one with a Vodafone SIM, don’t forget to ring Vodafone to activate it. Here’s our Vita coverage so far, including reviews of wipEout 2048, Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Reality Fighters. We’ll have reviews of Escape Plan, Hustle Kings, MotorStorm RC and Unit 13 coming over the next few weeks as well.

Nintendo: Lots of stuff announced today:

Release dates for 3DS:
Kid Icarus Uprising – release date 23rd March
Mario Tennis Open – release date 25th March
Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure – release date 5th April (More info here)
An official community code for Mario Kart 7 – 44-9597-2178-5848

New releases on the e-Shop:
Dillon’s Rolling Western – an action tower defence game set in the Old West (Western, yes! Tower Defence, oh never mind.)
Nintendogs + Cats demo (cute!)
And a Sega Game Gear virtual console from March.

And for the DS, Inazuma Eleven 2 Firestorm and Inazuma Eleven 2 Blizzard will be out on 16th March.

Borderlands 2: The release date has been announced with a wubberly new trailer – 21st September 2012. More guns, more powers, better vehicle handling and for those who play split-screen, a better menu system (or so they claimed at E3 2011).