Duke Nukem Forever is just two months away, and the King is not exactly keeping a low profile. New screenshots of the long delayed shooter have been doing the rounds this week, giving PlayStation 3 owners another look at how Gearbox Software’s version of Duke is shaping up ahead of its May launch.
Capture The Babe Leads Four Multiplayer Modes
The images arrive on the heels of the first real details on the game’s multiplayer. As Gematsu reported from Official Xbox Magazine, Duke Nukem Forever will ship with four competitive modes: Dukematch, Team Dukematch, King of the Hill and Capture the Babe, which is about as Duke as a mode name gets.
There will be ten maps, including one called Duke Burger that drops players into a miniaturized arena. Jetpacks are in, players can keep firing weapons while shrunk, and game mutators will let hosts tweak the rules.
From Vaporware To A Firm May Release Date
It has been a remarkable turnaround for a game that many had written off entirely. 3D Realms first announced Duke Nukem Forever back in 1997, and it went on to become the industry’s most famous case of vaporware, slipping through engine changes and missed dates for well over a decade. Development finally ground to a halt when 3D Realms scaled back in 2009, although a small group of veterans kept working on the project. Gearbox, the Borderlands studio, then took over and revealed last September that the game was alive and coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2011.
In January Gearbox put a firm date on it. According to the release announcement covered by Shacknews, the game is due on May 3 in North America and May 6 worldwide, published by 2K Games. 2K boss Christoph Hartmann described the launch as the moment fans everywhere had been waiting for, and for once it is hard to argue with the hype.
What The New Screens Mean For PS3 Owners
For the PS3 crowd, the new shots are a welcome sign that the Sony version is getting proper attention. Multiplatform shooters have not always looked their best on PlayStation 3 this generation, so every fresh batch of images tends to be pored over for signs of how the port is coming along. Gearbox has not yet published a detailed technical breakdown of the PS3 version, so a full verdict on how it compares to the Xbox 360 and PC releases will have to wait until the game is in players’ hands.
Anyone who wants an earlier taste does have an option. Gearbox is offering access to a Duke Nukem Forever demo through its First Access Club, which comes with the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition, and players who bought the original Borderlands on Steam before October 12 last year also qualify. Expect plenty more Duke between now and May, with Gearbox clearly keen to remind everyone that this time the game really is coming.