Please Note

: Below is our exclusive hands-on preview of Borderlands 2 on PlayStation Vita. But don't forget, we have other stuff, too! Embedded below, in addition, is our exclusive video preview. You can read more about when Borderlands 2 will launch on Vita here , find out what PlayStation Vita Slim's release date in North America is here , and see the very first batch of Borderlands 2's Vita screenshots here . Enjoy!

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“ More noticeable is the fact that defeated enemies no longer ragdoll and fall to the ground...

Spend those skill points.

“ Corsi noted that the game runs stably at 30 frames-per-second, though it can drop down to about 28 frames and go up to about 33.

Oh dear.

“ Vita simply doesn't have the volume of buttons necessary to map things in a more traditional fashion.

Stay warm.

"We don't want to let anybody down."That's what Sony's Gio Corsi told me when he swung by IGN's office to show-off Borderlands 2 on PlayStation Vita. Corsi -- an industry veteran with experience at EA, Propaganda, LucasArts, and elsewhere -- has been tasked with bringing rogue third party games to PlayStation platforms. And though his first project was technically the excellent TowerFall: Ascension on PlayStation 4, Vita is his team's primary focus, and Borderlands 2 is their proof-of-concept that big, meaty third-party games can thrive on Sony's commercially-struggling handheld."I don't want to disappoint myself, either," he later said, noting that bringing Borderlands 2 to Vita hasn't been an easy task, but that he, his team, and the guys and gals at porting studio Iron Galaxy are proud of what they've accomplished. When I played the game on the show floor of GDC some weeks back, I wasn't impressed , and representatives from Sony will be the first ones to admit that they had more refining to do. Needless to say, that refining is underway in earnest, and the new, close-to-final build of Borderlands 2 I played shows marked improvements over what I played at GDC in virtually every way. Gearbox's eight and a half million-seller onto the handheld. When you play, you may notice that distant objects -- like far-off mountain ranges -- have been removed. More noticeable is the fact that defeated enemies no longer ragdoll and fall to the ground, instead exploding in a pool of blood (which frees up system resources). Enemy density has also been lessened in some areas with a huge amount of foes, but only slightly. The example given to me in this regard was that a location with 12 adversaries on PlayStation 3 might only have 10 on Vita.These concessions were made to make Borderlands 2 run better. Corsi noted that the game runs stably at 30 frames-per-second, though it can drop down to about 28 frames and go up to about 33. This build of the game definitely seemed to run better than the previous one I played, though there was still occasional frame stuttering, some control delay issues, and quite a bit of texture pop-in. Load times between sections of the map are excessive, though Corsi and the team at Iron Galaxy are trying to trim precious seconds off of it between now and release. But he wanted to be clear that this is a PlayStation 3 port, and not a port of the slickest version of them all: the PC release.Perhaps my biggest qualm from my time with the game at GDC was its control scheme. Vita lacks R2 and L2 buttons and clickable analog sticks, and so their respective functionality needs to be put somewhere else. The logical place to map extras, as always, is the touch screen and back touch pad. This solution isn't ideal -- especially when it comes to the back touch pad, which is finicky -- but there's nothing else that can really be done. Vita simply doesn't have the volume of buttons necessary to map things in a more traditional fashion.Then again, it's probably no coincidence that Borderlands 2 is launching in North America alongside the all-new PS Vita Slim model . That's because this new Vita cleverly truncates the real estate the back touch pad takes up, allowing you to hold it more comfortably without interfering with the game itself. The more I played Borderlands 2 on the original Vita, the more used to its control scheme (and the fashion in which you have to hold it) I became, but with PS Vita Slim, the game felt even more at home.Borderlands 2 launches on PlayStation Vita in North America on May 13th , though you can score it a week early if you purchase the PS Vita Slim/Borderlands 2 bundle, which is set for release on May 6th . Either way, keep an eye on IGN in the coming weeks for our full review (oh, and check out the very first batch of screenshots here ).

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.