It's finally, really, actually ... maybe going to happen at this point. The rumors are true: Gearbox Software and 2K Games have taken on the Herculean task of completing and releasing 3D Realms' unfinished Duke Nukem Forever. The project was officially unveiled today at PAX during a livestreamed presentation at the 2K Games booth and announced for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. "It's coming out in 2011," Gearbox president Randy Pitchford said during the presentation. (Of course, we're skeptical about any release date associated with this particular title.)
Gearbox began finishing Duke Nukem Forever in late 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal. "Clearly the game hadn't been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created," Pitchford told WSJ.
"We're in the polishing phase now. This is a game where we can not make a promise we can not fulfill," Pitchford added. "We need to get past the shock and awe, and then we can go to all the retailers and first parties and work out a launch plan."
Duke Nukem Forever is a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D and will feature both a single-player campaign and multiplayer. "Aliens come and say they're going to be our friends, and Duke knows this isn't going to work out," Pitchford revealed of the plot. "Duke once again is in the pivotal spot and it's up to him to save the world."
A few details about the Move-equipped Ape Escape outing for the PS3 (which was outed for a possible North American release by GameStop) recently surfaced during the Japanese CESA Developers Conference. Ape Escape Fury! Fury! designer Takamitsu Iijima explained the game's goal is to place the player in the shoes of the series' stalwart monkey catcher, resulting in a game of on-rails, first-person net-swinging.
We find it refreshing to play an on-rails shooter without any shooting to speak of, though we'll reserve judgment until we've gotten a chance to incarcerate a few simians ourselves. Provided Ape Escape Fury! Fury! is even the game hinted at by that recent Gamestop listing, of course.
Gearbox Software has announced that the elusive Duke Nukem Forever will finally be hitting store shelves next year for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 platforms.
News comes following a re-reveal for the shooter at PAX today, with Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford confirming a 2011 release for the eagerly awaited title.
Just in case you...
Sony has super-glued a North American release date to Guerrilla Games' hotly anticipated Killzone 3, confirming the game will launch in the region on February 22, 2011.
The platform holder's product marketing manager, TJ Consunji, confirmed the date over on the official U.S. PlayStation Blog.
It's also worth pointing out that the PS3-exclusi...
Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has spoken out again on the troubled launch of his studio's latest game, Elemental: War of Magic. Taking to Stardock's forums, Wardell (aka "Frogboy") said, "I don't think people yet fully realize the completeness of Stardock's fail on Elemental's launch. I'm going to write more about this, but not only did we think v1.05 was ready for everyone, but we felt v1.0 was too. That's the level of disconnect/poor judgment on our part we're talking about."
And while he places the blame on Stardock as a whole, he takes a full paragraph to account for his own mistakes. "EVERY competent software developer knows that the programmer must never be the one deciding whether the program is done. Yet, my love of Elemental broke my self discipline and I began coding on the game itself in vast amounts and lost any sense of objectivity on where the game's state was. I normally only program the AI on our games so I can keep a level of distance from the game itself to determine whether it's 'Ready.' On Elemental, I was in love with the world and the game and lost my impartiality."
He finishes his screed with the promise, "We'll do better," and in a separate post lists off the many changes and additions coming to the game (including free expansions and an intended v1.1 patch in September). Both pieces really are worth reading in full. You can grab them here and here.
The news will delight and stun those who’ve followed the shooter’s development. The reveal video is experiencing some problems at the moment, so we’re still waiting for platforms and date.
As 3DRealms legend George Broussard just tweeted, “I don’t think they knew what they were getting into. Need more bandwidth.”
VG247’s Steph Nunneley will be one of the first people in the world outside of its development to see the game demoed in Seattle at 10.30am PST. Watch the liveblog for updates below.
Taking names
Duke Nukem Forever was first announced in 1997, and became a legendary project in that it simply never came out.
3D Realms went bust in May 2009 thanks to a lack of funding, and was subsequently sued by Take-Two over lack of delivery and the small matter of $12 million.
Take-Two retained the rights to the game. Rumours surfaced at E3 that Gearbox was now in charge of the project, which finally surfaced last month.
Steph’s at PAX in Seattle now and we’ll have more coverage throughout today. Keep it locked.
Guerrilla Games has been hard at work making the most explosive shooter possible on the PlayStation 3 system. At E3, the development team gave you a glimpse of Killzone 3 in 3D where they walked away with Best Shooter, Best 3D graphics, and Best PS3 game to name a few of the E3 awards received.
Last month, we unveiled elements of Killzone 3’s stellar new multiplayer at gamescom and revealed new vehicles.
Today, on behalf of Guerrilla Games, we are happy to announce the official release date of Killzone 3 in North America is February 22nd, 2011!
We’re at PAX today so if you’re at the show, please stop by the Killzone booth and check out multiplayer for yourself.
"OMG, Duke Nukem is at PAX!" At least, according to an effusive
tweet from Joystiq alum Dustin Burg. In addition, a source at the convention told Joystiq that images of Duke Nukem are visible at the 2K booth, which has yet to open to the public. The Gearbox logo can be seen, but the title of whatever Duke Nukem game is being promoted is currently covered.
However, we might have a clue, thanks to reports coming in from CVG's "US dev sources," who tell the site that the game is actually Duke Nukem Forever, and will be given a "grand demo" at the show. Rumors have been flying recently about Gearbox signing on to complete the game. Also flying: pigs, in an image tweeted by 3D Realms' George Broussard (who joked with 1UP in a January 2006 interview that he expected DNF to be released "when pigs fly")
. 2K did say it planned "something big" at its booth, and this would certainly qualify.
Update: Gearbox creative director Mikey Neumann tweeted a picture of CEO Randy Pitchford wearing a Duke t-shirt. Seems portentous!
Update 2: A partial image from 2KGames' Twitter account also shows the Duke "radioactive" logo.
Update 3: Well, here's the most concrete evidence you could ever ask for. Pikimal [via Shacknews] posted several images, like the photo stand seen above, of Duke Nukem Forever signs at the 2K booth.
If you're in the mood for a game that's about classic-style dungeons and is an RPG, you'll be delighted to hear that NIS America dated the PSP game Cladun: This is an RPG! The game will be available on PSN on September 21.
Cladun allows players to build their own tiny character sprites and take on randomly generated dungeons. It features ad-hoc play, so up to four players can wander around dungeons together (while wandering around together in real life). To see more of Cladun, you can browse around the game's website, which is designed to look and sound like the game. You can also play Cladun-themed picross. After all, if you like dungeon RPGs, you enjoy difficult games.
Duke Nukem Forever coming '2011' on Xbox 360, PS3 & PC, courtesy of Gearbox originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
