Shooting

In his Wired article, Earnest Cavalli doesn't mince words. He starts off by saying "It's time to put Duke Nukem out of his misery." You can't be more direct than that and after starting a story in that way, you're not allowed to sugarcoat the rest of it. And Cavalli doesn't.

But he is correct. Though still popular—our Duke Nukem Never post proved a popular one—Duke was a character that time may have just passed by. Few gamers today can relate to Duke Nukem, a caricature of 1980s action heroes.

He's after his cheddar... if by "cheddar" you mean "diamond-encrusted skull"

HIGH Co-op campaigns are always welcome.

LOW How quickly the game falls into stolid repetition.

WTF The entire story, pretty much.

Duke Nukem Forever may never see release, but I know that, like me, you've been dying to get a look at the actual game. Whether it was ready for release or not, you want to see something. And here it is.

Now, graphically, it looks like it stands up. I love seeing Duke's legs, arms and hands when he climbs, runs or falls. Lots of shiny sweat on said arms and legs. It looks like they were incorporating all of the visual bells and whistles. And (most of) the enemies look nice, but it's the AI that doesn't seem at all smart. What definitely don't stand up are the one-liners. I don't know if they were added for this demo or what, but they sound canned. Imagine that, the bread and butter of the Duke Nukem franchise just sound out of place and antiquated.

Again, this is a demo and isn't necessarily indicative of the entire game—but having nothing else to compare it to—we have to look at this brief look and come away a little disappointed. Ah, well.

The Army Experience Center is the latest effort by the Army to use games to recruit teens and young adults. This has drawn the ire of parents and anti-war activists.

Over one decade after announcing Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms has to close its doors taking the industry's most famous piece of vaporware with it.

In a prepared statement, Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis said:

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title. In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever."

A representative for Deep Silver and Apogee Software said they "are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms. Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned."

Duke Nukem Forever was not the only project that 3D Realms had worked on, but it was probably the one that the developer was most known for.

Given these tough economic times, the performance of titles like Prey and ongoing development costs, 3D Realms finally had to lay off its entire staff.

As we near the arrival date of our son (still in utero) we find that we are in kind of a holding pattern… since we've got all the baby stuff and reorganized the house several times over, there's not really a lot to do but wait. Helping us pass the time today was House of the Dead: Overkill on the Wii.

Although the game felt a little bit shallow (and took us about three hours to complete) I've got to say that I absolutely fell in love with the presentation—Headstrong Games pulled a really genius move in positioning the entire thing as a 70's exploitation film.

I'm pretty interested in this Ghostbusters videogame that's due out in June. I think that's because it's like a national law that anyone my age (37 later this year…) love Ghostbusters in general. If you were around the age of 12 when the first film hit, it was probably one of your favorite films. And since it's that rare childhood favorite that still holds up when viewed as an adult, a whole generation still seems to love anything Ghostbusters related.

GameTrailers posted the opening cinematic video from the upcoming game—and I'm impressed. They really nailed the feel of the first movie and I was surprised how much nostalgia this thing inspired in me in the span of a few short minutes. My only complaint is the expository dialogue from the one guard (nice information dump there, guys…), but everything else looks great.

Check it out for yourself and see what you think. The game makes its retail debut on the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, PS2, and Nintendo DS on June 16th.

Tragedy: Exploited!

HIGH Finally a zombie game since Resident Evil 2 that acknowledges shooting them in the leg is a really good tactic.

LOW It's a Vietnam war game with absolutely nothing to say about the conflict other than: it happened.

WTF Okay, so you're turned into a zombie—I get putting on a gas mask and picking up two cleavers. Hey, who wouldn't? But how does that make you bulletproof?