Official Word on Duke Nukem Forever

I have no objectivity about DNF at all. None.

Seriously, I'm not even going to pretend.

There's a press release and some promo art after the break. Go read it while I dig out my old Duke action figures-

Duke Nukem Forever at PAX?!? Always bet on Duke-

joystiq is reporting just that the amazingly long awaited (and recently canceled) Duke Nukem Forever is at the Penny Arcade Expo game show- well, actually a former joystiq-er Dustin Burg is reporting that. There's also been a picture tweeted by 3D Realms (Duke's daddy's) head George Broussard of pigs flying- he said that's when duke forever would be released. Add to that mysterious pics of the Duke logo and swirling rumors of Gearbox taking over development and there's plenty of cause to get excited.

Please Gearbox, dear God please, as a big Duke fan- please surprise me! make the damn game!

Edit: Holy crap it's real 
Edit Again: EEEEEEEEEE! (that's me screaming like a schoolgirl)

Oddworld (sorta) Returns

The classic Xbox game Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, first released back in 2005, will be re-released as a Playstation Network exclusive at some point down the line- Edit: Tentative download date is Q1 of 2011

This is great news for fans of the series that haven't seen a new entry since O:SW first came out- Playstation gamers in particular haven't seen an Oddworld game since Abe's Exodus (1998)! As I remember (I've never played the game), Stranger's Wrath didn't really bowl anybody over but became a bit of a cult classic. Although with a meta score of 88, it must not have been that bad.

Even less 'that bad'  will be all new bonus material for the fans, remastered graphics, Move support (!), and more. Not announced were the inclusion of Trophies, but I can't imagine it won't have any. That would just be odd. *ahem*

Pressy after the jump-

Crackdown 2 Expands With the Toy Box

The Toy Box pack basically adds a load of new... toys to the game.  The best part? Toy Box is free. F.R.E.E Free... sort of.

See, you get the new level 6 ability (vertical flight), the Keys to the City package of goodies, and the Vehicle Tag mode. But there's new vehicles, weapons, avatar awards, and 'cheevo's to be had here as well. And that'll cost ya' pal- 560mspts to be exact.

Full description of all of the above after the break.

...560? Where's they pull that number out of?

Xbox Snippits

Just some quick flickers here to update on a few things:

• Dead Rising Case 0 is now available for 400mspts, which doesn't sound right. Seems like not enough gouging.
• The Minerva's Den add on for Bioshock 2 is out on Live as well for 800mspts and features a brand new single player adventure in a brand new area of Rapture. Yes please.
• The Xbox 360 control pad has been outed as a Transformer! The actual pad, which is the only bad thing about the controller in it's current state, will be replaced on the new model (which only comes in silver and only comes in a $70 play 'n' charge kit) with a pad that swivels and rises into a classic Nintendo-like 'plus'. One thing bothers me- why wasn't this the standard pack-in for the Xbox 360 s?
• Microsoft is raising the subscription fees for Live. Here's a summary. I get why, everything goes up- I'm sure something related to running the service costs more now than it did in 2005 -but still. 
• Speaking of Live, there's a rumor going around that there will be a Playstation Plus-like addition to the standard Live service next year that will run around $100 a year. If that happens, I would expect the standard 'gold' level to drop to $20/$25. It was once whispered that Live was going to drop fees all together but at this point I think that's a pipe dream.

F3AR Developers Diary

I'm a big fan of the Fear series- I don't really think that any other game franchise comes close to what developer Monolith has been able to achieve with it right now. Maybe that's why, despite how good everything looks, I've been a little apprehensive about getting too excited about the Fear 3.

In case you don't know, Monolith has partnered with Day 1 Studios- the idea being that the two houses can blend their talents and improve upon an already great series. The bottom line for me is that this seems like a recipe for disaster. I could see all kinds of problems popping up as ideas get shot down left and right. This video helps a little, making it seem like they have a pretty good handle on things.

Hope so.

Video Games | F.E.A.R. 3 | UK Spreading the F.E.A.R. Diary

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Just a suggestion for Monolith, how about another Blood? Love that game.

New 'Lord of the Rings: the War in the North' screens

One of the newest games to hold the license for the beloved LotR franchise, the War in the North seems to be doing a lot of things right.

From the RPG-ish feel to the bloody realtime combat, it's really shaping up to be a Lord of the rings game that fans can really get behind. That's something we haven't seen since the Two Towers and Return of the King games on last gen consoles- which, while great action romps, weren't exactly deep.

Read on for screens a some WitN fun facts-