The huge news of the days is the exciting reveal of Duke Nukem Forever at PAX 2010.  For all of you that don’t know, this game has been over 10 years in the making and was the butt of many industry jokes.  Seriously, 10 years!  A lot has happened over that time.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane:

July 1991 – Duke Nukem, a side scrolling shooter is released for PC.  Available on 3.5″ floppy!

August 1991 – The Super NES debuts, 2 years after the Sega Genesis.  Marking the beginning of Nintendo’s fall in to ‘kiddy’ games.

August 1992 – Mortal Kombat is released in the arcades.  Virtual disembowelment has never been this realistic!

December 1993 – Duke Nukem 2 is released for PC to little (if any) fanfare

May 1995 – The Sega Saturn debuts!  Stock in fork lifts soar as consumers have to use them to carry their Saturn controllers around.

January 1996 – Forever’s predecessor, Duke Nukem 3D is released for PC, pubescent teens everywhere (including your’s truly) were giddy over the strippers, toilets and masturbatory jokes

March 1996 – After 7 months, the Virtual Boy is discontinued.  Nobody cares.

September 1996 – The Big N releases the Nintendo 64 with launch title, ‘Super Mario 64′

January 1997 – Final Fantasy VII is release for Sony’s Playstation (yes, there HAS been 6 Final Fantasy’s before a sequel to Duke Nukem)

April 1997 – Duke Nukem Forever is announced to MUCH fanfare.  It is scheduled to be released no later than Summer 1998.

June 1998 – 3D Realms decides to switch Forever from the Quake II engine to the Unreal engine.  Effectively restarting the project.  Pricks.

Sometime around 1999/2000 – Someone (anybody?) at 3D Realms actually does some work.

October 2000 – The Playstation 2 is released, will go to sell over 6 times as many units as the Gamecube, released a year later (and still counting!).

June 2001 – A trailer is released at E3, fans are excited, ecstatic even.

June 2005 – There are rumors the game will be shown at E3.  Much to the surprise of nobody, it doesn’t.  Nobody cares anymore.

January 2006 – George Broussard is interviewed by 1up.com. Declares the game is close to finished.  It isn’t.

November 2006 – The curiously named ‘Wii’ is released and flies off the shelf.  Grandmother’s everywhere go bananas for them.  No actual games are sold.

December 2007 – Another teaser is released

May 2009 – Development suspended due to lack of funding *yawn*.

September 2010 – Game shown in playable form at PAX 2010, release date set for 2011 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.  I’ll believe that when I see it.

I am officially 100% addicted to Borderlands and feel it is a crime against the video game universe that it has been lost in the media marketing storm that Modern Warfare 2 has created.  What?  You don’t know anything about it?  Well let me enlighten you.

Borderlands is a first person, Action RPG shooter set in a post-apocalyptic, cell-shaded wasteland.  It’s like someone painted the walls of their room Fallout 3, the ceiling World of Warcraft, then accidentally spilled a bucket of Crackdown everywhere.  In this game you assume the role of somebody, travel around some planet, fighting some creatures.  The beauty of Borderlands is that all that stuff doesn’t really matter.  All that matters is that you finish this one last mission so you can level up before going to bed.  I assume you run out of missions at some point, but that is OK.  You can start up a new game with one of the 4 different character classes (no doubt numerous DLC to be available soon)  There are tons of ways to develop your character and countless hours of addictive gameplay.  So what are you waiting for?  Get it now, it’s $10 off!

Rockstar has announced the next episode of their crown prince franchise.  ‘The Ballad of Gay Tony’ will follow Luis Lopez, the right hand man of one Tony Prince, a legendary nightclub owner.  The press release says this episode “injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime” as gamers explore the high end of nightlife in Liberty City.  ‘The Ballad of Gay Tony’ is set to be released in the Fall at a price of 1600 MS Points ($20).

Also included in the press release is the announcement of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes.  A disc containing both ‘Lost and Damned’ and ‘Ballad of Gay Tony’ episodes.  This disc will retail at $39.99 and will not require a copy of GTA IV to play.

Gamestop has released the MSRP and release date of Tony Hawk: Ride via their website.  Tony Hawk: Ride is supposed to rejuvenate the series by including a wheel-less skateboard for your gaming pleasure.  The game, which is set to release on 10/13, is set to be priced at a whopping $120.  This pricing model is inline with other Activision peripheral-driven games.  However, this Tony Hawk fan hopes that the game will be released without the peripheral, sporting classic controls and at a reasonable price.

Gamestop Product Details:
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=74927

Most Xbox fans have a friend that loves Playstation and makes fun of the loud, unreliable machine from Redmond.  But, are PS3’s really that much more reliable than Xbox 360’s?

I have had a PS3 break on me after about 4 hours of gaming.  The drive would no longer read discs.  I surfed around the home menu for about 15 minutes one day trying to figure out how to get the game to play.  Nothing showed up. No error.  No red lights.  Everything was normal, just no ‘launch game’ option.

If your PS3 breaks on you after 6 months you have to pay to have it fixed.  At least Microsoft has a decent warranty in place for the 360 and replacement is a breeze (but takes a while).  According to Nick Doerr at joystiq the PS3 is not so easily replaced.  Luckily, our PS3 broke within 2 weeks of getting it and we had no problems getting it replaced through Amazon.

View this thread to read more PS3 woes.

Revenge is like a ghost.  It takes over every man it touches.  It’s thirst cannot be quenched.  Until the last man standing has fallen…

I don’t know where the creepy trailer guy grew up, but in my neck of the woods ghosts just kind of hover around making creepy noises, or peeking out of windows behind curtains.  Nonetheless, this is how trailers are supposed to be made!  If this doesn’t get your gaming blood flowing, you better check your pulse.

Comes out November 11.

e-play, a movie & game kiosk provider, is putting up kiosks in Walmarts nationwide to buy back used games from savvy gamers for store credit.  This replaces the traditional system of having to walk into Gamestop and actually talk to someone when you are getting bent over for your decrepit games.  Don’t even think about gaming the system as it has numerous safeguards in place to prevent hell-bent heathens from scoring some virtual cash.  In fact, you will be looking to get the damn things to work at all, according to jazzking2001 at neocrisis.

They are already being placed in Walmarts in the Northeastern US, so look for them in your local store soon!

And I thought it couldn’t get any worse for Sony.  According to NPD’s most recent numbers the PS2 outsold the PS3 by about 45k units in April.  The PS3 sold around 127,000 to PS2’s 172,000 which secured them the 5th and 6th spots in the console wars.  A price drop is the ‘official’ explanation.  Who the hell was waiting for the PS2 to drop to $100 before buying one?

I for one wish Tony would just stick to the status quo.  Here’s hoping he indulges us old school fans and includes classic controls.  I couldn’t look at myself is the mirror after pretending to ride a skateboard with no wheels in the middle of my living room.  That’s assuming the damn thing wouldn’t break if I stood on it.

When are they going to stop calling this stuff innovation?

This reminds me, I need to finish Splinter Cell: Double agent, and try and figure out a way to get the 17 seconds of my life back I spent watching this video.