Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A recent presentation of Duke Nukem Forever to an audience in Amsterdam has been glimpsed by the electronic eye of the internet, and now cannot be forgotten. The clip is introduced and narrated by Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford, and it shows Duke looking in fine shape after his recent ill health. There’s some shooting! There are quips! In first-person! There’s also some footage of more esoteric features, such as emptying Duke’s bladder, drawing on a whiteboard and… is that a crudely drawn penis? It is. Watch the events as they unfolded, below.
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As mentioned in the Sunday Papers yesterday, there has been some controversy sparked after remarks made by Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford to Maximum PC regarding Steam, where he stated that the digital distribution service from Valve was “exploiting a lot of small guys.” This was later countered by an article on Gamasutra where Tripwire’s John Gibson retorted, “Ask the Tripwire Interactive employees if they feel exploited, as they move into their new offices paid for by the money the company has made on Steam.”

Interested to see if there were other positions we spoke to 2D BOY and Zombie Cow, who have sold their games on Steam, to find out about their experiences.

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Hyper-stylised FPS-RPG Borderlands is shaping up to be one of the best action games of the year. In case you missed it, I previewed it here. A couple of days back, I also sat down with Gearbox’s garrulous bossman Randy Pitchford; I was there on behalf of a magazine, but saved some time at the end for something a little different – a few questions from our goodly readers, conveyed to me via our Twitter. Read on for this absurdly loquacious and infectiously enthusiastic veteran PC developer’s thoughts on PC vs Xbox Borderlands, what might be in store for DLC, the reasons for and problems with all those grey’n'brown shooters, and a ton of insight into the thinking behind Borderlands. Also: his verdict on who would win in a fight between CliffyB and Gabe Newell. IMPORTANT JOURNALISM.
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Gearbox big chief Randy Pitchford was grabbed by GameTrailers and he unloaded his explanation of Borderlands, which you can see below. What’s interesting about this is how the pitch for the game has subtly changed. Originally it was much more “co-op shooter with loads of guns”, and now it’s “concept art shooter with RPG elements”. Pitchford flags up Fallout 3 and Bioshock, but the game footage that accompanies his chatter demonstrates that the game is nothing like either of them, in fact it’s got more of a multiplayer feel going on, and I wonder to what extent the FPS-Diablo-with-guns principles of it are actually going to make the game into a kind of co-op dungeon crawl. The persistent character stuff still intrigues me, and although I’m less excited about this game than when it was announced, I’m looking forward to the October release.
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Gearbox bossman Randy Pitchford says: “One of the things about videogames and story-telling is, well frankly I think the entire industry in the Stone Age.” The evidence from this trailer suggests that Gearbox are pushing for more of a Bronze Age with their new game, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, which is yet another game this year that I’m actually really keen on playing. Not sure if I really give a damn about the story though, and the idea that Gearbox have based its soldiers on the lives of real soldiers who fought in Market Garden, well that makes me feel a little uncomforable. I’m not even sure why. Interview-heavy trailer after the jump.

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