Much has been made about the overwhelming arsenal packed inside the role-playing shooter Borderlands, out tomorrow on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (also available for PC on October 26). But just how many can players expect to find inside the fictional world of Pandora?

"Over 17 million weapons," Gearbox President and CEO Randy Pitchford says, after discussing the game's Gearbuilder weapon generator that randomly creates a myriad of guns for players to toy with. "It's pretty astonishing."

Among of the more interesting weapons seen in Borderlands: a spread rocket-launcher firing five shots at a time, a long-range shotgun with scope and electrically-enchanced shells, and a small machine gun with acid-filled bullets.

Borderlands - inspired in part by films such as Mad Max and Blizzard's Diablo series - follows a group of mercenaries as they search for a legendary alien vault believed to contain technology of infinite power and incredible wealth.

The game has been described by the developers at Gearbox Software as a role-playing shooter, but Pitchford says the adventure leans more toward the latter genre. "The game is a shooter. If you can imagine playing Halo or Call of Duty, and instead of it just being the moment-to-moment (action), you can level up and get experience from what you're doing," Pitchford says. "The goal was to have a really fun core shooter, but to layer with that some of the things that compel us to play role playing games."

Pitchford stressed the importance of keeping the action fast-paced, and not slowing the game down too much with heavy doses of story and character interaction. "RPG (role-playing game) means there's an NPC (non-playable character) I need to talk to and he has a key to some door. For Borderlands, that stuff really slows things down," Pitchford says.

As players gather experience through missions and combat, they'll earn points to beef up their abilities, such as increased health, faster shield recharges and enhancements to their special powers. And, of course, experience boosts lead to a wider array of more powerful weaponry.

Coupled with the arsenal is an equally unique "hand-painted" art style, which is reminiscent of a moving comic book. When Borderlands debuted before the gaming world in 2007, it sported a more realistic look similar to games such as Fallout 3. However, a group of artists within Gearbox decided to create their own concept art and render it with 3D technology.

"The safe thing is much less impressive, and boring actually," Pitchford says of the original look. "And the artists couldn't stand for it. Since we (changed the art), the attention that we've gotten has been incredible."

Beyond Borderlands' main campaign, which can be tackled solo or cooperatively, players can enter a "Thunderdome," as Pitchford describes it, to enter multiplayer matches and even duels with your friends.

"Borderlands primary draw is to get lost in this world," Pitchford says. "We wanted to have something for everybody, but keep its focus."

By Brett Molina