After 12 years and a year long court case it finally looks like Duke Nukem Forever will hit the store shelves for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 next year.

The long history of DNF started with the success of  Duke Nukem 3D in 1996. George Broussard quickly announced a follow up will be released late 1997 mid 1998 at the latest. Impressed with the recent Quake 2 engine, Broussard quickly acquired the licence to it and work began on DNF. With the use of the Quake 2 engine the release date was pushed back, but a trailer was released at E3 1998

First DNF Trailer

It was later discovered that Broussard was not happy with what the Quake 2 engine based DNF had produced, so the decision was made to upgrade to the Unreal engine and many new features were added to the game, including; new particle effects system, a impressive facial animation system that synced with the voice overs and real time lighting effects. Jump forward to E3 2001 and a new trailer is shown off to the gaming public.

2001 Trailer

Take Two moved in and took over 3D Realms and announced a release date of late 2004/early 2005 but no game appeared. Take Two eventually offered a bonus to the DNF team of $500,000 if they could make the game commercially available by December 31st 2006. George Broussard came forward telling people that he wasn’t concerned and would ‘never ship a game early’

In 2007 a new trailer emerged showing near complete gameplay, with an expected release date sometime in 2008.  Though a short video was released showing the Duke that Christmas.

Merry Xmas Trailer

Again this did not happen and 3D Realms showed signs of money troubles and asked Take Two for $6 Million. Rumour has it that Take Two returned with a counter offer of $2.5 Million and a further $2.5 Million on completion of the game, nothing came of this deal and on May 6th 2009 development was suspended.

Staff from 3D Realms were let go that year and Take Two began filling a lawsuit against 3D Realms for $12 Million. The staff who left managed to release to public many screenshots/concept art and a gameplay video. The Lawsuit was settled out of court In May of this year.

Leaked Footage

Whilst the lawsuit was going, some employees of 3D Realms were still working on the game and eventually spoke to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, who had worked on the expansion packs for Duke Nukem 3D. Pitchford was reported to say ‘Duke can’t die’ so plans were put into motion, for Gearbox to take over and finish Duke Nukem Forever for the PC as well as port it to the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Here we are in September 2010 and at the recent PAX2010 Gearbox brought a playable version of Duke Nukem Forever for all the world to see.

Playable Demo Footage

Latest Trailer

From the videos and comments made by people at PAX, it looks like Duke Nukem is alive and well, with many fans looking forward to next year for its final release. My personnel opinion is that it will be a great success and with the recent Hollywood revival in 80′s beefy stars, now is the time and place for Duke Nukem to re-enter the gaming scene guns blazin. At last we will have a hero that goes in and gets the job done, without worrying about collateral damage or feeling bad for killing the enemy and still gets the girls.

New 3D DS

In a strange move by Nintendo, they have annonced a 3D version of the popular handheld system, even the XL hasn’t even hit shelves yet. Satoru Iwata president of Nintendo says that the 5th version of the DS will not require any 3D glasses and will include sensors to track the users head movements to give the best 3D experience at any given time. Many people think that, Nintendo will reveal a working prototype in time for E3 this year. Whether or not this new DS will include the motion controls that were talked about previously, remains to be seen.

Mass Effect 2 DLC

Bioware have announced new DLC for Mass Effect 2 and will include a new member of Shepherds  crew called Kasumi and will include a new loyalty mission. She is a master thief and her mission will reflect this also included is a research upgrade and flashbang grenades. The DLC is scheduled for release on 6th April and unlike the ‘Firewalker DLC’ there will be a small charge around 560 Microsoft Points.

Xbox 360 USB Storage

After a much talked about update to the 360 last year, that disabled a lot of third-party memory units. Mircosoft is changing things once again, an upcoming firmware update looks to add third-party storage solutions once again, including the abilty to use more than 4GB to a limit of 16GB. This will allow people to save Gamer Profiles, Game Saves, and entire titles ripped from a disc to be stored on the mass storage devices, though it has been stated the ripped titles will still require the disc to be in the drive for verification purposes. This will be a very popular update for many 360 owners as the price per GB is terrible when compared against a normal PC hard drive or PS3 hard drive.

Slim Xbox 360?

It is rumoured via Kotaku that a Slim 360 will be heading to stores. Recent leaked photos of a new slimmer more compact motherboard for the 360, leads some to believe in a Slim version to follow Sony’s route of a smaller alternative. I will report more as I hear it.

Hello, its been a while. I have been addicted to a recent best selling MMO called Star Trek Online. I have decided to put it down for a week to concentrate on other games.

Warhammer 40K and THQ

THQ have announced they are going to show alot more information about the very secret WH40K Online at this year’s E3. It also looks like Space Marine has been pushed back with a release window whispered to be the end of 2010 or start of 2011.

In other THQ news they have said they are going to bring another Red Faction and Saints Row to the table. Again THQ are not offering much details apart form the games name, though they said they will take Saints Row 3 in a new exciting direction from Saints Row 2. (Personally I enjoyed and still enjoy now, nothing quite like getting a few mates together and taking on the law enforcers with a A10-Cuba )

New Ghost Recon

Ubisoft have finally announced the full name for the new Ghost Recon and they have settled on ‘Ghost Recon Future Warrior’. A trailer was released on Xbox Live this morning I have yet to see it. Hopefully it will follow Scott Mitchell from the end of GRAW2 and find out the outcome of the cliffhanger ending, that left me wanting more.

EDIT: The mentioned trailer

Ghost Recon Future Warrior

Other News

Square Enix the new owners of Eidos have registered the name ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’ thats all the info I have on Deus Ex3 at the moment, but if I hear anything else i’ll post it here.

EA have released their lineup for this fiscal year:

ELECTRONIC ARTS FISCAL YEAR 2011 RELEASE SCHEDULE

FYQ1 (April 1-June 30, 2010)
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (consoles, handhelds)
Need for Speed World (PC)
Skate 3 (consoles)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (consoles, handhelds)

FYQ2 (July 1-September 30, 2010)
APB (PC)
EA Sports FIFA Online (PC)
FIFA 11 (consoles, handhelds, PC)
Madden NFL 11 (consoles, handhelds)
Medal of Honor (final title TBA – consoles, handhelds, PC)
Monopoly Title TBA (consoles)
MySims Title TBA (consoles, handhelds)
NCAA Football 11 (consoles, handhelds)

FYQ3 (October 1-December 31, 2010)
“TBA” (consoles, handhelds, PC)
Crysis 2 (consoles, PC)
DTC Game For Console Online (consoles)
EA SPORTS Active Title 1 TBA (consoles)
EA SPORTS Active Title 2 TBA (consoles)
EA SPORTS MMA (consoles, handhelds)
FIFA Manager 11 (PC)
Harry Potter Title TBA (consoles, handhelds, PC)
Hasbro Family Game Night Title TBA (consoles)
Hasbro Littlest Pet Shop Title TBA (handhelds)
NBA Jam (Wii)
NBA LIVE 11 (consoles, handhelds)
Need For Speed Title TBA (consoles, handhelds, PC)
The Sims 3 on Console Title TBA (consoles, handhelds)

FYQ4 (January 1-March 31, 2011)
Action Title TBA (“full game download” for consoles)
Dead Space 2 (consoles, handhelds)
Dragon Age Title TBA (consoles, handhelds, PC)
Fighting Title TBA (consoles)
Hasbro Title TBA (consoles)
Need For Speed Title TBA (consoles, PC)
New Sims Title TBA (PC)
Shooter from Epic TBA (consoles, PC)
Spore Title TBA (consoles, PC)

Unfortunately it looks like their will not be a PC version of Dead Space 2, which is a shame as I loved the first one and the controls suited the keyboard and mouse. But on the bright side a new Crysis and Dragon Age are coming the PC’s way.

]]> http://www.total-oblivion.com/gaming-news-10th-february-2010/1002/feed 2 http://www.total-oblivion.com/gaming-news-for-21st-december-2009/803 http://www.total-oblivion.com/gaming-news-for-21st-december-2009/803#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:46:10 +0000 Plightstar http://www.total-oblivion.com/?p=803

Hello and welcome to my first news segment for Total Oblivion.

Modern Warfare 2 developer teases mod tools

In a post on Robert Bowling’s Twitter feed, he said that whilst player run servers are still out, the thought of official Mod tools may be in the pipeline. Also IW have announced they are well aware of the many bugs and issues players have with the game and have set up a new part of the forums dedicated to know and ongoing issues.

Nice Protection

New Left 4 Dead 2 DLC ‘The Passing’

New DLC to come in early 2010 and is to feature the cast of L4D meeting with the new guys of L4D2. It will also feature new uncommon common infected, a new melee and firearm weapons as well as new single player and multi player content. No price has been given for the cost of the DLC for the Xbox 360 yet, but its safe to say the PC gamers will have it free as always.

Battlefield Heroes hits 3 Million

For the first time this year EA has some good news with BFH only in its ‘offical’ three months has hit three million users. To mark this they have released a new map centered around a hilltop church control point called Sunset Showdown. Many of you (including myself) have probably played this map and personally I like it. Its a nice open map with lots of carnage centered around the church and in the air thanks to three planes on either side.

I will follow up with more Gaming news each week, hopefully on a Monday.

As part of Square’s plan to bring their company’s games to a wider and much more western audience, they have purchase the UK based company.

Whilst Eidos are still working on the newest franchises including Hitman, Tomb Raider, Thief and Deus Ex. They will also be working on Square Enix’s games including Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in order to appeal to a broader market.

Gaming magazine Develop reports that Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has confirmed that the company’s first game to bear influences from both the Japanese developer and its British subsidiary is in development at Eidos Montreal.

The new Eidos Montreal project “would be the first collaboration between Square Enix and Montreal,” Wada reportedly told summit attendees. “We would like to be able to create a new title that is made by the group as one.” Wada reportedly went on to note that the new project is still largely in a gestation phase, and he did not indicate whether or not it would be an original property.

This ‘new’ studio will be working on Thief 4 and Deus EX 3, even though Warren Spector left after the first Deus Ex I am still looking forward to what kind of game they can produce as a prequel to the original Deus Ex.

Hopefully with the extra cash from Square Enix we can start to see many quality titles brought to us sooner than we think.

Look behind you (an old image of Deus Ex 3)

Total Oblivion has now been around for just over 6 years.  Having celebrated it’s birthday on the 30th of May, we’d like to say thank you to everyone for continuing to support and be a part of our community. Having started out as an Armoured outfit on Planetside we have come far and we hope go even further. As we look to the future we hope everyone will continue to enjoy themselves and keep on gaming!

Thank you all for making this community what it is today!

-Nalan