Duke Nukem Forever Message Board

Speaking of that DLC stuff, Duke Nukem is destined to expand for the price of $10, next Tuesday. The DLC, which is called The Doctor Who Cloned me, features a new single player campaign (although presumably it’s only short compared to the main campaign) as well as a bunch of multiplayer maps. Gearbox explain the setting thusly: “Deep in the heart of Area 51, Dr Proton has been hatching his evil plan. Fueled by new ego boosts, Duke is ready to take on evil clones, aliens queens and anything else that comes his way in order to save the world and his babes!”

Mmm!

The crazy $5 deal on Duke Nukem Forever at Best Buy has come and gone, but it’s not like the game will cost you very much anywhere else if you still find yourself morbidly interested in how that project turned out.

Once you’ve done that, you may not be interested in playing more, but, well, the option is available, as 2K Games today announced The Doctor Who Cloned Me, a single-player add-on set in Area 51.

The Doctor Who Cloned me costs $9.99, launches everywhere on December 13, and includes new enemies, bosses, weapons, achievements and additional places to interact with for an ego boost. There are also four multiplayer maps--Sky-High, Command, Drop Zone, Biohazard--to run around in.

News!

We probably won't ever know the full story about the financials, but according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, Duke Nukem Forever will be a profitable release for the company.

How profitable, however, is something we don't know.

The CEO revealed this interesting tidbit on yesterday's call with investors and analysts, where Take-Two announced a loss for the quarter, despite shipping more than four million copies of L.A. Noire.

Duke Nukem Forever's ending suggested the so-called king would return again, but who knows how long it'll be before Gearbox Software shows off Duke's inevitable reboot.

Gearbox certainly has its hands full at the moment, having just announced Borderlands 2, polishing up the oft-delayed Aliens: Colonial Marines for a release next spring and taking the Brothers in Arms series in a brand-new direction with the Borderlands-inspired Brothers in Arms: Furious 4.

There are many reasons to criticise Duke Nukem Forever. The incoherence, the leaden dialogue, the back-tracking, the unconvincing claimed satire of its attitude towards women, the half-baked mini-games, the oppressive linearity… and, perhaps most acutely for those who were more prepared to forgive such follies due to their fondness for the character and his earlier games, the strict two-weapon carry limit. I can’t imagine there’s much hope of DNF’s recharging health being thrown out, but Duke’s arsenal is about to be made a little less puny…(more…)

For the thousands of people far too embarrassed to admit they're still playing Duke Nukem Forever online, and the baker's dozen still clinging to Homefront's multiplayer suite as a mother cradles a sickly child not long for this world, there is great news: you're getting more multiplayer maps.

THQ announced yesterday afternoon that Homefront would be receiving a new pack, rather obviously titled "The Rock." Yes, this is the inevitable Alcatraz DLC that most assumed would be coming since everyone discovered there was a level set in San Francisco. Anyone who has seen Michael Bay's identically-titled magnum opus knows that a game set in San Francisco without a sequence featuring people fighting it out on the city's abandoned island prison is simply incomplete. It's like setting a similarly apocalyptic game in New York and not featuring the Statue of Liberty in some state of disrepair or destruction as an all-too-obvious symbol of America's once prosperous status now in ruin. That's like Visual Metaphor 101, people.

The Rock map pack will feature two new maps, Alcatraz and Bridge (the latter likely a version of Homefront's final single player level, featuring the other distinct San Francisco landmark everyone always blows up, the Golden Gate Bridge), as well as two additions to the Team Deathmatch mode in older maps Overpass and Waterway. The pack will go for $5, and will initially debut July 28th (hey, that's tomorrow!) on Xbox Live exclusively, with PSN and PC releases to eventually follow.

Duke Nukem's new multiplayer DLC is coming a bit further down the road--thus far, all we have is a nebulous "fall" release date--but this offering does include a decent amount of content. In addition to four brand-new maps that parody other giants of the game industry (see if you can pick out what they're parodying in the descriptions below, as the subtlety of the comedy here was far too clever for my meager brain), Duke will also be getting a bunch of hats. Yes, hats. One of the maps, 2Forts1Bridge, features a bunch of hats, possibly as a method of parodying something in particular. Clearly, this makes up for the game's infantile sense of humor, dated mechanics, and mean-spiritedly misogynistic attitude. I know I'm swayed!

Here's 2K's full descriptions of the new maps, as well as the newly included "freeze tag mode."

• Freeze Tag provides some of the most fun team gameplay in Duke Nukem Forever. Players cooperate to freeze and shatter their opponents in succession for huge point streaks and combos. See who can hold on to the babe the longest in Hot Potato and play free-for-all Duke style in Hail to the King.
• Call of Duke: Duke engages in modern combat in a war-torn city. Foes don’t stand a chance against the Duke when he spams the map with the N00b T00b.
• Sandpit: Players take the role of mini-Duke in a giant sandbox with two bases at either end made out of children’s toys. This map features Sticky Grenades.
• Inferno: Time machine engage! Duke does combat in a hellish landscape of lava and teleporters. Who turned on the 16-bit graphics, and more importantly, where did this DFG come from?
• 2Forts1Bridge: Hats? Duke doesn’t need no stinking hats. Give him a minigun and he’ll beat off all comers.

Just a quick reminder that someone was paid to write those lines. Probably actual money, too.

For the thousands of people far too embarrassed to admit they're still playing Duke Nukem Forever online, and the baker's dozen still clinging to Homefront's multiplayer suite as a mother cradles a sickly child not long for this world, there is great news: you're getting more multiplayer maps.

THQ announced yesterday afternoon that Homefront would be receiving a new pack, rather obviously titled "The Rock." Yes, this is the inevitable Alcatraz DLC that most assumed would be coming since everyone discovered there was a level set in San Francisco. Anyone who has seen Michael Bay's identically-titled magnum opus knows that a game set in San Francisco without a sequence featuring people fighting it out on the city's abandoned island prison is simply incomplete. It's like setting a similarly apocalyptic game in New York and not featuring the Statue of Liberty in some state of disrepair or destruction as an all-too-obvious symbol of America's once prosperous status now in ruin. That's like Visual Metaphor 101, people.

The Rock map pack will feature two new maps, Alcatraz and Bridge (the latter likely a version of Homefront's final single player level, featuring the other distinct San Francisco landmark everyone always blows up, the Golden Gate Bridge), as well as two additions to the Team Deathmatch mode in older maps Overpass and Waterway. The pack will go for $5, and will initially debut July 28th (hey, that's tomorrow!) on Xbox Live exclusively, with PSN and PC releases to eventually follow.

Duke Nukem's new multiplayer DLC is coming a bit further down the road--thus far, all we have is a nebulous "fall" release date--but this offering does include a decent amount of content. In addition to four brand-new maps that parody other giants of the game industry (see if you can pick out what they're parodying in the descriptions below, as the subtlety of the comedy here was far too clever for my meager brain), Duke will also be getting a bunch of hats. Yes, hats. One of the maps, 2Forts1Bridge, features a bunch of hats, possibly as a method of parodying something in particular. Clearly, this makes up for the game's infantile sense of humor, dated mechanics, and mean-spiritedly misogynistic attitude. I know I'm swayed!

Here's 2K's full descriptions of the new maps, as well as the newly included "freeze tag mode."

• Freeze Tag provides some of the most fun team gameplay in Duke Nukem Forever. Players cooperate to freeze and shatter their opponents in succession for huge point streaks and combos. See who can hold on to the babe the longest in Hot Potato and play free-for-all Duke style in Hail to the King.
• Call of Duke: Duke engages in modern combat in a war-torn city. Foes don’t stand a chance against the Duke when he spams the map with the N00b T00b.
• Sandpit: Players take the role of mini-Duke in a giant sandbox with two bases at either end made out of children’s toys. This map features Sticky Grenades.
• Inferno: Time machine engage! Duke does combat in a hellish landscape of lava and teleporters. Who turned on the 16-bit graphics, and more importantly, where did this DFG come from?
• 2Forts1Bridge: Hats? Duke doesn’t need no stinking hats. Give him a minigun and he’ll beat off all comers.

Just a quick reminder that someone was paid to write those lines. Probably actual money, too.

The Gearbox forums have announced the inevitability of the Icons Parody Pack, a multiplayer add-on for Duke Nukem Forever. It’ll contain new maps and game modes, and be available in the autumn at some point. The post explains that the DLC will be free “to all First Access Club members who registered their FAC membership before Duke Nukem Forever launched in their country (subject to availability).” Presumably everyone else will have an option to buy it. More details below.(more…)

June, usually a slow period for video games, turned out to be the month when Duke Nukem Forever was finally released, after more than a decade of development and several complete reboots.

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales report for the games industry, bringing word that Duke Nukem Forever will have to be content with the number two spot. L.A. Noire took the top spot.

L.A. Noire sold 419,000 copies over the course of the month, while Duke Nukem Forever sold 376,300, I'm told. It's crucial to note, however, that these numbers do not include digital sales, only physical.

Here's the complete list, sans numbers for the rest of the games:

No sign of Alice: Madness Returns or Shadows of the Damned, two games that are definitely worth playing.

So far, only Microsoft has issued a statement on this month's numbers, announcing Xbox 360 outsold all the other hardware platforms and moved an impressive 507,000 units during June.

June, usually a slow period for video games, turned out to be the month when Duke Nukem Forever was finally released, after more than a decade of development and several complete reboots.

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales report for the games industry, bringing word that Duke Nukem Forever will have to be content with the number two spot. L.A. Noire took the top spot.

L.A. Noire sold 419,000 copies over the course of the month, while Duke Nukem Forever sold 376,300, I'm told. It's crucial to note, however, that these numbers do not include digital sales, only physical.

Here's the complete list, sans numbers for the rest of the games:

No sign of Alice: Madness Returns or Shadows of the Damned, two games that are definitely worth playing.

So far, only Microsoft has issued a statement on this month's numbers, announcing Xbox 360 outsold all the other hardware platforms and moved an impressive 507,000 units during June.