Gearbox working on Duke Nukem Game? WTF?

Duke Nukem

Right, okay, let me get this straight. First we have rumours that Gearbox is working on Halo 4 for the next Xbox. Now /gamer reports that it won’t be Halo 4, but a goddamn Duke Nukem game. That’s right, Gearbox is developing a Duke Nukem title, according to the rumour.

/gamer’s mysterious source contacted them, informing them that there is, in fact, no Halo 4 going on. Also, he mentions “When it is announced fans of a series from the past will be surprised.” Note how he says “a series from the past”.

Now, they are contacted once again, with their source hinting at an article they wrote about Duke Nukem Forever. Why the source is not willing to state directly is unknown, but by his enigmatic words, this most probably would mean that 3D Realms is handing the reins of Duke Nukem to.

This wouldn’t be very surprising. Hell, it’ll be great, considering we won’t have to wait another century-and-half for another Duke Nukem game. Besides, the guys at Gearbox are trustable enough to deliver a quality shooter like Duke Nukem’s calibre.

“Son of Rambow”: Not Just Child’s Play

Son of Rambow
Paramount Vantage
Starring Bill Milner and Will Poulter
Rated PG-13 for some violence and reckless behavior
95 minutes

Warning: The following review contains vocabulary words that may require a dictionary. You have been warned.

I went into Son of Rambow being given the following comment: “It’s boring, and it’s crap.” Needless to say my expectations weren’t very high from the start, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Is it a kid’s movie? Is it a satire of action films? Why is it called Son of Rambow? What’s with the ‘w’ at the end of Rambo’s last name? Continue reading ““Son of Rambow”: Not Just Child’s Play”

Holy Lego Cartoon Series, Batman!

Lego Batman

Batman will be hitting the TV again, and I’m not talking about The Batman here. Instead, Traveller’s Tales, developers of all those great Lego games will be handling this. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about a Lego Batman cartoon series by a video game developer! Awesome!

“We’re looking to do… a Lego Batman series. I think they’re looking at doing a one-off initially,” Rich Earl, producer at TT said. The series will use the game’s engine itself, and the characters will animated fresh from Maya.

Earl claims that this will be quite different, and that’s totally fine by me. Traveller’s Tales earlier announced that they had their minds on a TV cartoon series, but did not mention any specifics. This news confirms that a 20-minute Batman cartoon will be on, and hopefully make its way to its own series!

I hope LucasArts looks at this and decides that a Lego Star Wars TV series will be worth its salt. Hell, from what I can tell, that might even end up better than that battlefest kid’s show The Clone Wars. Well, it’s not that bad, but a Lego Star Wars TV series might end up somewhere. Or not.

Chris Taylor: PC Gaming is Rediscovering Itself

Demigod Screenshot

In an age where pretty much everyone believes that PC gaming is dying a slow death, it’s nice to see some optimism from developers. While Blizzard and Valve have already shown their love for PC, there’s another developer scurring behind them, and that’s Gas Powered Games, known for their PC-exclusive games, such as the Dungeon Siege series, Supreme Commander and last year’s Space Siege.

Chris Taylor, supreme commander of GPG said in an interview that he believes that PC gaming is, in fact, rediscovering itself. The last 10 years of it, have been all about breaking system requirements, and the audience was also crazy enough to buy the latest gear for it. That is starting to change.

“We have to be careful we don’t create games that require four gigs of RAM to run. It’s just not responsible. It kind of was, in the old days; now, well, hardware’s pretty quick. We don’t really need to do that. We should be focusing on the characters, the story, the UI, the design.”

Nice to see it come honest and clear from a game developer. While console gamers have only to buy a disc and pop it into their drives, PC gamers have to inspect the game, compare the requirements, install it, and then hope it’ll run as it should. No wonder even the most hardcore PC gamers have been taking to consoles!

Taylor also thinks that Blizzard has the right idea, “using art direction rather than pure technical showmanship to create visually appealing but less-demanding games.” He says that GPG is working on something very similar with Demigod, their upcoming RPG-Strategy hybrid.

We’ll just hope Taylor’s optimistic tone holds up. Long live PC gaming!

“The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior” a Decent Journey

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
Universal Pictures
Starring Randy Couture, Michael Copon, Karen David, and Simon Quarterman
Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual content including references
109 minutes

In the grand tradition of the WWE delivering acting talents like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena, Kane, and Chyna, The Scorpion King 2 brings us the acting debut of the UFC’s Randy Couture. Okay, okay. So Couture isn’t the greatest actor on the planet, but since we are talking about a movie that is the prequel to The Scorpion King that starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, it works out quite well. And, I don’t normally say this, Continue reading ““The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior” a Decent Journey”