As if a hellish, 14-year development cycle weren’t enough, Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is now suing its former publisher, Gearbox Software, for unpaid royalties.

According to an article on Law 360, Apogee Software (the legal name for 3D Realms) filed a breach of contract suit on June 7, saying Gearbox failed to pay what it owed in the purchase agreement both companies signed back in 2010.  The now-defunct development company says Gearbox owes more than $2 million in unpaid royalties.

3D Realms was the original developer of Duke Nukem Forever before Take-Two Interactive acquired the publishing rights back in 2009. Take-Two actually filed a law suit against 3D Realms that year for failing to finish the game by the time it was supposed to, but the suit was later settled without disclosing further details.

Gearbox issued a statement to Polygon writing off the accusations as untrue.

“It's unfortunate that 3DR did not abide by the the objective audit rules outlined in the agreement and even more unfortunate that it chose to blame its failures on Gearbox. Since 3DR seems unable to accept reality and has chosen to become hostile, Gearbox is forced to bring its actual claims of breach of contract against 3DR and is confident Gearbox will prevail.

"Perhaps the lesson learned here is to never enter a gaming business deal with a person who has had more lawsuits than shipped games."

Ouch.

The problem with Duke Nukem Forever - other than that it was bad - was that it didn't provide the classic FPS experience that Duke Nukem 3D fans wanted, while also failing to be a decent modern shooter in its own right. That's why this is such a beautiful thing: with Duke Nukem Forever 2013, modders Gambini and Mikko Sandt have created the "game that was meant to be". Which apparently means a Duke Nukem 3D mod.

Duke Nukem Forever 2013 Trailer - Mod DB

Okay, it's not a complete old-school re-imagining of 2011's messy sequel, but then, it doesn't need to be. It transports some of the basic ideas and areas from Forever (and it's 2001 preview), and finds a much more suitable home for them inside the high-speed, twitch action of 1996.

To install, just download the mod from its ModDB page, unzip it, grab the DUKE3D.GRP file from the root directory of a Duke 3D installation, and copy it over to your DNF2013 folder. Run DNF.BAT and you're ready to kick ass and chew over the delicate nature of balancing a fleeting memory of gaming's past against the increasingly overwhelming demand of a modern audience.

When unloading a shotgunful of death or crushing a shrunken Pig Cop alien beneath your manly boots in Duke Nukem, you can always expect to hear a clever follow-up—quips that defined one of classic PC gaming's most memorable characters. Jon St. John, owner of the deep baritone fueling Duke's wisecracks, has reprised his role in a franchise spanning nearly 15 games, but he doesn't necessarily share Duke's pleasure of slugging bullets into warm bodies. In fact, during the latest episode of the Unlimited Hyperbole podcast (via PCGamesN), he revealed his aversion to guns and the violence they promote, saying, "I don't care for guns in general."

"It bothers me how free we are to bear arms," he continued. "They say ‘Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' Well, no, I think people with guns kill people. Quite frankly, I’d like to see stronger gun laws in this country. Hell, I don’t even like hunting. I don't like people out there shooting deer or elk or whatever unless they’re doing it to survive. If they're using every part of the animal in some way, then great, but I'm disturbed if they're killing it just to kill."

St. John, who established himself as a voice actor of great flexibility by assuming roles in such games as Half-Life: Opposing Force, Clive Barker's Undying, and Heroes of Newerth also stated "gratuitously violent" games such as Grand Theft Auto aren't his jam, preferring instead flying, racing, or driving experiences. Of course, he also recognized the glaring contrast between his personal stances and the testosterone-fueled gib-generator he voices.

"I've been connected to Duke for so long," he said. "And even though I'm on 150, 160 odd games in all, Duke Nukem is the one character who really made me famous in the industry. A few times at conventions I've had guys come up to me and say, 'Man, you're so badass,' but I'm really not. That's why I hesitated when you asked me about guns. I don't want to disappoint fans."

Do you hear that faint wailing in the background? That's the sound of a thousand bank accounts going "noooo!" at the appearance of the Autumn Steam Sale. Thankfully for our wallets, it only lasts until Sunday, with dozens of new deals every day. Consider it a warm up for the monolithic Steam Christmas sale next month.

The sale kicked off yesterday, but you've still got six hours to grab some of the fantastic day one deals. The marvellous Orcs Must Die is just £2.99 / $3.74 (we gave it a score of 90 in our Orcs Must Die review). Portal 2 is selling for just £6.79 / $10.19. If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, the first game is £2.49 / $4.99, and Mass Effect 2 is 75% off at £4.99 / $12.49.

If you're more partial to an arcade explodathon starring Gordon Freeman, Renegade Ops is £4.99 / $7.49 (or you can grab a four pack for £9.99 / $14.99). All of Dejobaan's games are also on sale as well, including AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome.

These games are also on sale for the next few hours:

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Duke Nukem Forever
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Risen
Sam & Max series
Men of War series
Oddworld series

 
These deals will switch out in 5 hours and 42 minutes from the time of writing. Keep an eye on the Steam front page for the next set of deals then.

Jeez, took long enough, right? I mean, it's been, like, two whole months since Duke Nukem Forever's Parody Pack was announced. Two! You'd think these people could learn to be a bit more timely.

Regardless, Duke's making his first assuredly offensive leap into the brave new world of DLC on October 11, according to VG247. It's completely free to First Access Club members, but everyone else will have to pony up a fairly steep $9.99. Four maps and weapons - no matter how sort of timely their knock against Call of Duty may be - don't exactly cause my piggybank to explode with glee. Or explode at all, for that matter.

Duke Nukem Forever sold well, apparently. What sales charts fail to measure, though, is the weeping rage of a million disappointed souls, beating their chests and flagellating themselves for believing in the stinking resurrection of the zombified remains of Duke. To measure that, you need a survey.

Gearbox are collecting opinions to discover what you thought about Duke Nukem, presumably for the rumoured Duke Nukem Forever sequel. Personally, I could only force myself to play to the second hour, before binning it. What did you think?

The first Duke Nukem Forever DLC details have landed on the Gearbox forums, picked up by VG247. It will be called the Parody Pack. It will add three new game modes, four new maps and new weapons designed to send up a few well known, slightly more successful shooters.

There's Call of Duke, a modern combat map populated by N00b T00b launchers, 2Forts1Bridge, with its own Heavy style minigun, and two other maps featuring sticky bombs and a weapon known only as the "DFG."

The DLC will be out this Autumn, and will be free to the First Access Members who pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever before its release. Two screenshots have been released along with more DLC details, which you'll find below.

Here's a summary of the Parody Pack's innards, as supplied on the Gearbox forums:

Call of Duke – Duke engages in modern combat in a war-torn city. Foes don’t stand a chance against the Duke when he spams the map with the N00b T00b.
Sandbox – Players take the role of mini-Duke in a giant sandbox with two bases at either end made out of children’s toys. This map features Sticky Bombs.
Inferno – Time machine engage! Duke does combat in a hellish landscape of lava and teleporters. Who turned on the 16-bit graphics, and more importantly, where did this DFG come from?
2Forts1Bridge – Hats? Duke doesn’t need no stinking hats. Give him a minigun and he’ll beat off all comers.

 

Following an earlier announcement on the 2K Games forums, the Duke Nukem Forever demo is available to download now on Steam. You an get our verdict on the Duke's latest, long overdue outing in our Duke Nukem Forever review. Earlier today we mentioned that Take Two recently said that they're not done with the Duke just yet, suggesting that there might well be more Duke games in the pipeline. Let us know your thoughts on the game in the comments below.

Take Two boss, Strauss Zelnick has told Forbes that the Duke is not dead, saying "we don't really talk about it in detail but you will see future Duke IP coming from this company."

The term "Duke IP" could mean anything from a sequel to Duke Nukem Forever to comic books or a film. "If we can take some of our intellectual property and bring it to another medium in an extraordinary high quality way, that delights consumers and represents an interesting commercial opportunity for us, we will," says Zelnick.

"We have certainly considered doing that with BioShock and with other titles. So far we haven't brought anything to market, but stay tuned."

Despite a very mixed critical reception, Duke Nukem Forever seems to have done well. Official sales data hasn't been released yet, but comment from Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford hints at a successful launch.

“With sales data, It seems like *customers* love Duke," tweets Pitchford ,"I guess sometimes we want greasy hamburgers instead of caviar…”

With this in mind, it wouldn't be surprising to see another Duke Nukem game turning up at some point. For now Duke Nukem Forever fans have future DLC instalments to look forward to. For more on the Duke, check out our review, or head over to the Duke Nukem Forever site.

This week is all controversy! Free-to-play games on Steam?! I mean, really Valve?! Oh, right. Well, that's actually pretty good news, but other than that, controversy! Josh, Dan, Tyler, and Lucas weave through Duke Nukem Forever's critical assassination and PR gaff attack, Battlefield 3 preorder bonus nonsense, EA's digital exclusivity ambitions, and the rampant hax0ring of boxes. Plus, feel free to laugh at Tyler's first attempt to host a PCG podcast (excluding E3). Just keep in mind that he can hear you listening. That's how the internet works.

PC Gamer US Podcast 276: Duking it out

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