Fellow gamers rejoice for the return of one of the greatest co-op games ever conceived is just a few short days away. That’s right, “Borderlands 2” will bring back the bloodshed and bellowing laughs on Sept. 18. Having played the game at Penny Arcade Expo Prime,

I can confirm the greatness of the original “Borderlands” is back, amped up and more insane than ever before.

I had the chance to try out Axton, the “Borderlands 2” an-swer to the turret-loving, rifle- ready Roland of the original. One of the weapons I started with was an assault rifle, a weapon often thrown aside in the original game because of its limited usefulness and awkward handling. Not so in “Borderlands 2.” This time, the rifles feel much more like what you would find in a shooter such as “Battlefield 3.” It was hard to put this weapon away in order to try out the rest of my arsenal.

Another starting weapon was an electric rocket launcher made by Tediore. A new property of Tediore weapons is instead of traditional reloading, a new weapon regenerates after throwing the used one away (usually toward an enemy, where they explode in the bad guy’s face.) This mechanic is very fun, though it can be tricky. The detonations are powerful and hurt anything in a small area. I killed myself several times when I shot a rocket and then ducked behind cover to reload, only to have my weapon explode in my face. However, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of propelling your rocket launcher into a foe’s face.

The special abilities of each class in the sequel are more fleshed out and intricate than in the original game, and Axton’s Scorpio Turret 2.0 is no exception. While facing off against hordes of enemies in an arena, my turret unleashed a torrential downpour of bullets and explosives, dwarfing the capabilities of the turret in the original game. Oh wait, excuse me, my turrets, plural.

That’s right, you can get a skill that allows you to weild two turrets at the same time. And when I said they unleashed a down-pour, I meant it literally, be- cause my turrets were attached to the roof. Being able to stick your turrets to wherever they’re deployed is another zany new talent.

The demo for “Borderlands 2” at PAX was everything I had hoped for and more. As Roland would say, “It’s like Christmas.”Fifteen minutes was far too little time to feed my co-op carnage addiction. I’ll be sure to pick up “Borderlands 2” the moment it comes out. You would be a fool not to do so as well.