Scott Miller: ROTT and Shadow Warrior Sequels Possibly Planned

The other day, Duke4.net had an exclusive interview with Scott Miller, the CEO of 3D Realms. Something interesting in amongst the usual questions one would expect (met with rather abrupt answers for most of them), is this:

“Q10. Any plans for sequels for older titles such as Shadow Warrior and Rise of the Triads?
A: Absolutely.”

I guess now that Duke Nukem Forever, which one must admit was an amazingly huge time sink that’s lasted for thirteen years or so, has been handed over to Gearbox, along with the IP, 3D Realms actually has time for other projects now.

The last game that 3D Realms actually developed and released was Shadow Warrior… in 1997. That was the year after Duke Nukem 3D came out. The company has however been involved in a publishing capacity like with Max Payne since then, and overseen the release of several console-only Duke Nukem titles, but not much else.
So, while Randy Pitchford is polishing Duke Nukem’s rocket, and Gearbox is working on the last bit of Duke Nukem Forever, perhaps 3D Realms can get back to some of the other great games like Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior, from the 90’s.
And we want a proper game too – not some iPhone port of ROTT like was seen earlier this year.

3D Realms is a significantly smaller studio now though, since the DNF dev team was let go last year, so I don’t know how long it would take before development could actually begin, or whether the studio will actually do it themselves. They could probably just outsource it to another studio and publish the titles. Apogee Software was a big name in publishing years ago…
They won’t be able to really work on Duke Nukem titles any longer either seeing as the IP was sold to Gearbox. In the above mentioned interview, Scott Miller also replied to a question about whether the company would ever try to re-acquire the Duke Nukem IP. He said it’s “unlikely.” He also mentioned that he looks “forward to several decades worth of Duke console games released in a timely way”.

Timely = good. Console = meh.
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Source: Our Exclusive Duke Nukem Forever Interview with Scott Miller [Duke4.net]

Scott Miller: ROTT and Shadow Warrior Sequels Possibly Planned

Video Game Character Lookalikes: Matt Horner [StarCraft II]

We’re back with another instalment in the Video Game Character lookalikes series.

As you know, StarCraft II was released to much critical acclaim in July, and I couldn’t help but notice while playing the game that one character in particular reminded me of an A-list actor.

You know Matt Horner? That generic-named, goody two shoes captain of the Hyperion starship which was “borrowed” from the Dominion? He’s a dead ringer for Christian Bale, don’t you think?
Come on, they’ve got the same face basically, the same hair colour more or less, and Horner even shares the same hairline as Christian.

             
                           Christian Bale                             Matt Horner

                              “Little Matt Horner sh@t in a corner.”

Video Game Character Lookalikes: Matt Horner [StarCraft II]

Looking Glass Studios Classics Dreamcast Beta Builds Discovered

        

                                 System Shock 2 and Thief II: The Metal Age

Looking Glass Studios is known for having done two series that inspired their respective genres of FPS/RPG hybrid and the first-person sneaker: System Shock and Thief.

Up until now, those series have both been PC exclusives. This is no different with the sequels in those series, System Shock 2 and Thief II: The Metal Age – both great games, both of which I regard as even better than their predecessors. System Shock 2 is sometimes mentioned as one of the greatest PC games of all time, usually miles behind Deus Ex – a game it inspired.

But I read something interesting the other day. It was the Sega Dreamcast’s 11th anniversary this past week, and to coincide with this event, a collector happened upon what he claims are beta builds for Dreamcast versions of not only System Shock 2, but Thief II as well. He found them in a discarded development kit which apparently once belonged to Eidos. To date, I’d only really ever been aware of a Dreamcast port of SS2 which was eventually cancelled.

This person over at Dreamcast-Talk decided to share the files by uploading them to the PSO archive online. These beta versions of the game aren’t playable, but with enough work, it’s thought that at some time in the future, though doubtfully, you could be playing these classics on your old Dreamcast. Why you’d want to is another matter. But then I hear that it was quite the popular little console years ago, albeit short-lived seeing as the Playstation 2 and Xbox eclipsed it when they were released soon after.

In addition to the Dreamcast turning 11, System Shock 2 turned 11 last month, and Thief II had its tenth birthday earlier on this year. I also read that this week, the first PlayStation celebrated 15 years since it was brought to the US. So good news and reason to celebrate all round.

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Source:

Download Unreleased Thief 2, System Shock 2 Dreamcast Beta Builds [GameSetWatch]

Looking Glass Studios Classics Dreamcast Beta Builds Discovered

Ex-3DR Employee: Gearbox Taking all the Credit

Tramell Isaac, formerly the Art Director for the DNF team at 3D Realms, and now at Sony Online, has been posting again on his blog, Talkin’ Real at Ya’. He does every once and a while and after PAX recently, he has something he wants to get off his chest.

At PAX, even though Randy Pitchford performed like a fan boy with his T-shirt of Duke that he’s had since 1996 and all, Tramell feels that Gearbox is claiming too much credit for Duke Nukem Forever.

Tramell reveals that DNF was further along in development than most people gave 3DR credit for, and not only this, they pretty much did most of the stuff you saw at PAX. After the DNF team was let go by 3DR last year, ex 3DR employees formed Triptych Games and pretty much went back and finished off the PC version of the game. So he argues that Gearbox has swept in and claimed the credit for finally finishing the game and getting it out, when it isn’t exactly true. All Gearbox has really done besides “polishing” the title, is the job of porting it to consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3).

In fact he is quite pissed off about the whole ordeal it seems.

Randy Pitchford said the following about DNF at PAX to WSJ:

"Clearly the game hadn’t been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created.”

"The approach and investment and process at 3D Realms didn’t quite make it and it cracked at the end. With Gearbox Software we brought all those pieces together. It’s the game it was meant to be."

Tramell:

“Ok, so before I start this, I'd like to say this. Duke Nukem Forever is alive and well BECAUSE of what the EX-3dr Soldiers of "Triptych Games" did. Ok, just in case you didn't hear me. ...HEAR THIS,.... a hand ful of guys that were on the team when internal development shut down at 3dr, took the game and finish it (PC version). These are the guys that truly made DNF happen.”

“Let me break this down for you. 85% of the work you see coming out of PAX is from our group at 3dr. 10% Triptych (the last 10% is the hardest ask any game developer) Which leaves 5% for the guys at Gearbox (with help from Triptych). To be perfectly honest, that Gearbox percentage could be plus or minus a few points. Bottomline, DNF was damn near completion if not completed when Gearbox got it (PC version).”

So that’s the truth according to someone who used to work at 3D Realms. Tyrell basically says don’t believe everything Randy Pitchford says. We all ready know that he has a habit of shooting his mouth off in public – particularly when he made some remarks about Valve last year which many found disrespectful. He claims however they were taken out of context.

I think most of Tramell’s anger is aimed at Randy for the comments he made, and not Gearbox.

Okay so I will say it. I’m quite sure Tramell will read this somewhere down the line, or I might just be paranoid. I read his blog every time he posts something.

I’m impressed with Triptych for actually doing what they did and going back to a project and finishing it. It shows commitment, and at least now they can put on their resumes that yes, they FINISHED DNF. That should be enough for any potential employer to sit up and take note.

I didn’t doubt that 3DR, despite all the delays over the years, had put in a lot of work in to DNF. Like I said before, looking at the screenshots and videos, you can tell.

Right now, prejudices aside, I would like to focus on getting in some more DNF screenshots and videos, and then hopefully get to play the game next year.

I was still in Primary School when DNF was first announced. In fact I didn’t even know it existed until a few years after that. Hard to believe.

Source: The Ride Continues!! - DNF WTF! (wake the freak) [Talkin’ Real at Ya’]

Ex-3DR Employee: Gearbox Taking all the Credit

Duke Nukem Forever Shown at PAX, Coming out Next Year

I said at one point a few months ago that I would stop doing news posts on this blog. But I can’t help it. I’m forced to make an exception here. Everyone’s talking about it now.

We all knew the saga behind Duke Nukem Forever, and quite frankly if you want to know the history behind it, you can just look it up on this blog where I’ve gone over it time and time again, or visit the page on wikipedia. I’m sick of having to read the long “drawn out drama” that most websites post every time there’s news on DNF. Right from it’s creation until now. And most of them get it wrong anyway, with some “journos” saying that it originally used the build engine, and that 3D Realms is defunct.

The main story here is that for some time now, it’s been rumoured that Gearbox Software, developer of Borderlands, has been working on Duke Nukem Forever. People just dismissed it as a myth though.

The thing is, these rumours continued and the other day, George Broussard tweeted something that alluded to a past interview he had concerning DNF. It was a picture of pigs flying. The significance? Years ago in that interview, George himself said that DNF would be out “when pigs fly”.

And just yesterday at Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX 2010 for short, after much speculation, it was confirmed at the event that Duke Nukem Forever, a game in development hell for just about 13 years or so, is actually coming out.

In fact some claimed it was finished and it’s just in the polishing stage right now. There was even a playable demo of it at the PAX booth. There’s all ready some photos over at Kotaku that show the typical humour and interactivity we’d expect from a Duke Nukem title. There’s pics of Duke with steroids and taking a piss in the loo, as well as drawing something on a whiteboard.

Places few games venture.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the game’s development was so far, that it would be coming out this year! This was said to be false though, and a more realistic release date of 2011 sometime was given by Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software.

WSJ did get it right however that DNF has been in development at the company since late last year – which confirms the rumours. If you think it’s odd that Gearbox would work on a DN title, just take a moment to read this.

Randy Pitchford worked on Duke Nukem 3D, and was employed at 3D Realms years before he went and founded the company we know as Gearbox and worked on Opposing Force and other titles since then. Gearbox was also revealed to be working on Duke Begins, another title in the series.

Now that all the court case nonsense that carried on between 3D Realms (Apogee Software) and Take-Two is over (it ended in a settlement this year), work can resume on these projects without having to keep it sort of secret all the time. The publishing rights for DNF and the Duke Nukem IP are said to now belong to 2K.

Randy says that basically 3D Realms did the groundwork on DNF but it fell apart. Gearbox apparently came in and put the pieces back together. People at PAX were apparently shocked that DNF looked as good as it did. But I know from having watched all these leaked demo reels and video footage as well as screenshots that were mostly leaked within the last year, and the design documents too, that the game was actually more complete than people originally thought.

And with a possible demo for us on the horizon, and a release next year, we may actually get to play this game in our lifetime. For those of us, including me, who stuck with DNF through thick and thin – we’re the ones smiling now. The haters who always put the game down will be eating their words shortly, hopefully.

Gearbox has a good reputation as a developer and they tend to actually release their titles.

One thing’s for sure though. 3D Realms, as legendary as it is, should never develop their own games ever again – especially not if George is still in charge. And seeing as it’s a much smaller studio after the DNF team was let go last year, it looks like it will stay this way for some time.

By the way, everything DNF has now been moved over to DukeNukemForever.com, with the official forums now being moved to GearboxSoftware.com.

Sources:

http://twitter.com/georgeb3dr/status/22750844938 [George Broussard on Twitter]

Duke Nukem Forever Complete? [Bluesnews]

Duke Nukem Forever Arrives On PC, Xbox 360, PS3 in 2011 [3D Realms]

The Duke Nukem Forever PAX Demo: A Not-For-Kids Photo Gallery [Gallery] [Kotaku]

Duke Nukem Forever Shown at PAX, Coming out Next Year

Thief II: The Metal Age Remastered Soundtrack up for Download

About two or three years ago if not longer, it was announced on TTLG and Thief-The Circle that the soundtrack for Thief: The Dark Project, originally written and composed by Eric Brosius, was available for download. Only this time it was remastered by Child of Karras, a forum dweller over at TTLG. It was called “The Golden Soundtrack”, and had 23 tracks all on one mp3, plus some fancy CD artwork and a booklet in PDF format with the entire tracklist.

I just read the other day that after a long while, the sequel, Thief II: The Metal Age’s soundtrack has received the same treatment and is now available online for free.

Quite fitting as earlier on this year, this classic title celebrated its tenth anniversary.

This time it comes in two forms. You can download the whole collection in one mp3, or you can get them separately. And the interesting thing I read about it is that it blends melodies from the English and German versions of the soundtrack. I likely haven’t heard some of those.

Thief 2 Soundtrack Gap-less MP3 [114 MB]
Thief 2 Soundtrack Single MP3s [100 MB]

You can bet that I’ll be recommending this some time for the NAG October 2010 Cover DVD Request Thread, which was opened recently. I’ll likely try my hand at downloading it myself as well though. Can’t wait a month until the next NAG!

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Source: Thief 2 - The Soundtrack Age [TTLG]

Thief II: The Metal Age Remastered Soundtrack up for Download

Video Game Urban Legends: Duke Nukem 3D’s Secret Cheat Code

You know, I like conspiracy theories, mysteries, and secrets. They’re fascinating.

I bought the new NAG magazine recently, and saw that GameTrailers have come out with a new series that explores these urban myths, and seeks to prove them fact or fiction by testing them out. It’s called Pop Fiction, and it’s quite thorough, and I actually want to see more of it. The show’s inspiration obviously comes from The MythBusters, when I look at the format.

The one about whether Reptile was in every original and perhaps every Mortal Kombat game in existence was one that captivated me, seeing as he’s likely one of my favourite characters in the franchise, next to the other ninjas like Scorpion, and my childhood idol – Sub-Zero. He was cool.

I also came across something interesting on Digg the other day, and it was a list of the Most Widely Believed Video Game Urban Legends. It’s like urban legends and so on, but relating to video games obviously.

There were only a few that I actually had heard about. And only a few of those were games I’d actually played.

Anyhow, on this list, I added a comment which explained one of the most memorable urban legends in video games, from my childhood. It went as follows (edited a bit):

When I was young and still in school, a friend (now ex-friend and bitter enemy) told me of a secret cheat in Duke Nukem 3D. He’d heard of it through a friend of his who claimed to have made it work. This cheat was known as DNLIPSTICK.

Practically all cheats entered in Duke Nukem 3D began with “DN”, which no doubt stands for “Duke Nukem”.

What the cheat allowed you to do was this:

When you’re in the Red Light District [E1L2] area’s strip club, and you enter the cheat correctly, Duke will allegedly be able to screw one of the strippers there, who so eagerly bare their assets when handed cash. Why not go all the way with the “cashman”?

In the past I tried and tried to make this cheat to work, but to no avail. My friend told me to try entering the code in different ways, and in different combinations, with some in capital letters and others not. But with no console back then, it made it difficult to see how you were typing it. It’s hard enough to just type a cheat normally and activate it.

So my opinion of this urban legend, if I have to be thorough about it is that it’s very likely fiction. Duke Nukem 3D was controversial enough back in the day without this sort of “interactivity” going on in it. This code is also not mentioned anywhere on lists of codes for the game, and due to my personal past experience with trying to get it to work, it doesn’t.

Plus, I’ve also talked to a bunch of forumites over at Duke4.net, and even though one might have heard of a similar rumour, they hadn’t seen or heard of DNLIPSTICK – the cheat code which is associated with it. Hell, if you google “Duke Nukem 3D DNLIPSTICK”, you’ll only get a few hits on a page – and they’re all from me, including this one.

The one reply pointed me to his website where I saw this and shook my head:

“To get the naked girl ending you have to beat the game 10 times in a row on the hardest setting while only using kick and you also have to not kill any lizards. If you do this you will get a movie with the lady from the strip club on level 2 show off her whole body and **** duke nukem!”

This guy also heard it from a friend at school. Go figure. They lie.

And to top it off I even contacted George Broussard of 3D Realms via Formspring. He said he’d never even heard of it. Okay, so he didn’t respond, but that’s life, huh?

Myth Busted.

Video Game Urban Legends: Duke Nukem 3D’s Secret Cheat Code