Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, who want some Wang? What? Nobody? Dang.

How do you follow a hit game like Duke Nukem 3D? Obviously, you scale everything up. People liked interactivity! More interactivity! Vehicles! Pachinko machines! RC cars! Everyone enjoyed the real world locations? There would be more! Streets! Towns! Restaurants! People made a fuss about the sexism! Hah! This time, we'll try comedy racism instead! What could possibly go wrong? Right?



I really hate Shadow Warrior, though I can't really say it's a bad game. It's aged spectacularly poorly, even worse than Duke Nukem 3D, although though for its time it was actually pretty good. It's just one of those games that instantly rubbed me up the wrong way, with sandpaper, right from the introduction of its character - a ninja called Lo Wang, because Japanese and Chinese people are basically the same, right? It's not even the game's pathetic comedy racism that annoys me so much as the fact that it was obviously dumped onto the game because of Duke's success, turning a perfectly solid, polished shooter into one that only seems interested in getting a reaction by acting like a masturbating chimp.



The plot - what little of it there is - is that Lo Wang is a former assassin trying to take down an evil corporation run by a fiend called Master Zilla, along with his army of zombies, suicidal coolies (yes, the game calls them that), killer ape things and giant snake monsters. What made it an interesting game for its time though was that after Duke, the team was much more accomplished with the Build engine - and Shadow Warrior was the game that really put it through its paces, for better and worse.



One of the early puzzles for instance involved driving a remote-controlled car to get a key (a puzzle repeated at the start of Duke Nukem Forever with a fuel cell and more physics). Very occasionally, you got to jump into a bulldozer or similar engine and find out why most games of this era avoided letting you jump into vehicles. The levels were full of incidental details, like rabbits bouncing around your Master's temple that would get it on if they got close enough. There were even some genuinely impressive bits of technology/design for the time, like a (completely faked) portal system, voxel based 3D objects, and real-world pop-culture artwork scattered around from before anime/manga became a big deal in the West.



Like many shareware games, the majority of the memorable stuff was in the first episode - just four levels. The full version added 18 more, plus extra enemies and weapons, and all the other usual details, but while I have played it... none of it stuck. Some of the things that surrounded the game however did. For starters, in the UK, Shadow Warrior was one of the Great Censorship Blunders. For some reason, the government was terrified of things like imported Asian weapons back then, so they were an automatic no-no. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Weapons like nunchucku were right up there with headbutts on the list of unacceptably violent things. As for Shadow Warrior, it was an 18-rated game and allowed to keep most of its ninja toys, including the default katana and caltrops and machine-guns, but forced to remove its shuriken weapon in favour of...

...wait for it...

...darts. Yes, darts. Regular darts. Because it doesn't hurt to get hit in the face with a fistful of darts. Not at all. And they're so much harder to find in England than imported throwing stars. Thanks, BBFC! Don't know how we'd ever have survived through the 90s without your vigilance!

(Not that England had a monopoly on this stupidity. There was another Build game released around the same time as Shadow Warrior called, simply, "Blood". It was a horror themed shooter, and again, the shareware episode was the best bit. It was however sold in stores, and as often happened, Wal-Mart and possibly a few other places insisted on their own, family friendly version without the gore. In short, they happily agreed to sell a game called Blood... but only if it didn't have any blood in it.)



Now things get really strange. What do you do when you have a racist main character, comedy racism or not, in a stupid world where putting a 'Titsubishi' sticker on a bulldozer counts as a joke? What's that? You commission a novel based on it? Don't be stupid. You turn his direlogue into a song.



Oh, and then you commission two novels.

Game novels are rarely done well, and that's including the ones whose main characters aren't one chim-chang-chong away from The Wild World Of Batwoman. Nevertheless, there were two of them for Shadow Warrior - You Only Die Twice and For Dead Eyes Only. They're both long out of print, of course, but still available if you're willing to wait about a month for delivery. I considered this a while ago, as a complement to the Doom novels, but decided that I'd rather read Baldur's Gate 2 again.

Luckily, you don't have to buy the book to get a flavour of this great work.

Wang, without seeming to slow the spinning knives, snipped off a small piece of the assassin's nose and caught it in his left hand, holding it up for the assassin to see.

"Looks like chicken," Lo Wang said, turning the hunk of nose around in front of the man. "Chicken a favorite of mine." Wang smiled, spun the hunk of nose around slowly in his fingers, licking his lips, then tossed the nose over his shoulder so that it landed near the business men behind the bar. They could keep it as a souvenir of their lunch. Maybe even dip it in plastic, mount it on a nice plaque, and hang in over the fireplace. Then when telling the story to their grandchildren they could point to the hunk of nose with pride.

The assassin's eyes were almost bulging out of his head. Blood poured from his nose and down the front of his face, spurting slightly at the beat of his heart. Wang moved the still-spinning knives closer to the assassin's face, then began to lower them slowly.

"Zilla?" Wang said, staring into the assassin's eyes while smiling and lowering the spinning knives toward the man's belt. "Or do I find a piece that look like pork?" Somehow the assassin's eyes got even bigger, then through the blood he sputtered,

"I don't know where Zilla is. But Tanaka does."

Wang backed the spinning knives away slightly and the man signed, which came out almost like a gargle because of all the blood.

"Tanaka?" Wang asked. "He have another name?"

The problem with the name Tanaka was that it was so common in Japan. Much like Smith or Jones in the United States. Without another name the information would be almost useless.

The assassin again shook his head, spraying blood in all directions. "Only Tanaka."

Wang nodded, discouraged. He could tell the instant a man began to speak the truth. This man was doing so. Of that, there was no doubt. But at least Wang now had one lead to Zilla's location. Now all he had to do was find a first name. Wang turned and started away. "I will let you live," he said, loud enough for the assassin to hear.

Then, without turning around, Wang flicked both knives underhand and backwards at the assassin.

Thunk. Thunk.

The knives cut off both ears of the assassin and pinned the man's head between the knives.

Wang laughed to himself. "Assuming someone can stop bleeding."

Wang knew that would not be possible. But the assassin deserved a slow, lingering death. He had broken down and given away his boss. There was no honor in such cowardly action. Better to die with lips sealed then live with hole in honor. Wang moved back to the Sushi bar and leaned over to look at the two businessmen who stared at the nose on the floor in front of them. "You can finish lunch now," Wang said. "Speak well of me to grandchildren."

The businessmen both nodded, but didn't stand. Wang turned and headed for the front door and the busy New York City streets. This time he would go the extra two blocks to China Town before stopping for lunch. And meat first. No soup. Just in case he was interrupted again by another group of assassins who wanted a piece of Wang.

With prose like this, it's amazing the Booker Prize went to anything else!

(Although it is still better than Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars...)



Despite trying far, far too hard to get attention, Shadow Warrior didn't do anything like as well as 3D Realms hoped, and the franchise died a quick, not particularly dignified death. There were three expansion packs from various places, although only two of them made it out and none of them were released commercially. Even at its release, Build was in an uncomfortable position, being light-years ahead of Doom-level engines, but visibly creaking at the seams next to the full 3D of games like Quake and Terminator: Future Shock. Luckily, 3D Realms knew this, and it had a Plan.

Shadow Warrior hit the web on May 13th, 1997.

But on April 28th, Duke Nukem Forever had already been announced. For 1998.

Is it worth the wait? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. How could any game possibly be worth waiting 14 years for, especially one that only ever aspired to be a low-brow comedy first-person shooter? There’s no reinvention of the genre here, no real attempt at grandeur. More than anything, Duke just wants to party like it’s 1997.

Check unrealistic expectations at the door and forget the ancient, hyperbolic promises of self-deluded developers before you even consider buying this suddenly corporeal ghost of PC gaming history. The development-time-to-awesomeness ratio isn’t impressive. If you can do that, Duke Nukem Forever can at least mostly succeed in its aspiration. After all of its tumultuous history, it’s ended up as an entertaining FPS wrapped in juvenile, smut-laced humor. Its gameplay is a hybrid of old-school and new, and it won’t wow players with stunning visuals—its window of opportunity for that passed years ago—but it does put on a good show of alien ass-kicking by working what it’s got.




Like a hyper-violent, over-sexed Peter Pan, Duke Nukem refuses to grow up. Though 12 years have passed since the events of Duke Nukem 3D, he’s the exact same trash-talking, cigar-chomping, muscle-bound man of action, still rocking that ’90s-style buzz cut and red tanktop. The source of his superhuman action-hero powers is his own ego, which doubles as a literal recharging shield over his (also recharging) health. It’s reinforced by an entire world of people who worship him as an infallible man-god and sex idol—women want him, men want to be him. He’s the stereotypical teenage boy’s power fantasy personified and turned up to 11. Sure, he’s a ham-fisted action hero parody, but Duke remains one of the most memorable characters in gaming history for a reason: he’s simply more fun to play as than SERIOUS FACE ARMY MAN.

As two-dimensional as Duke himself, the story gets right to the point: intergalactic sex-criminal aliens are re-offending, and Duke must defy orders and step in to defend Earth’s chicks. Even that flimsy B-movie tribute plot is resolved (sort of) half way through—DNF becomes simply about shooting aliens ’cause they’re ugly, and bits of the script are little more than profane Mad Libs. Lazy writing or pointed critique of the state of story in first-person shooters? I prefer to think of it as the latter.



Reloaded
Action-wise, the single-player game fulfills its obligations as a successor to Duke Nukem 3D. It’s fast-paced run-and-gun battle against diverse, love-to-hate ’em monsters, using weaponry ranging from conventional boomsticks toover-the-top sci-fi, and fought through a long series of corridor levels where there’s almost always something unique to see and interact with. Almost every original weapon (except Duke’s boot) returns—and after taking the Shrink Ray and Freeze Beam for a spin, it makes me wonder why few shooters have appropriated the joy of killing enemies in two-step attacks. Sure, shrinking enemies and then squashing them or freezing and shattering isn’t as efficient as double-tapping to the head, but it’s more fun. There’s also the Devastator, a ridiculously powerful, double-barreled, rapid-fire rocket launcher that never pauses to reload until it’s spent.



Duke’s trusty pistol, shotgun, Ripper chaingun, and rocket launcher may not be anything particularly unique or special (and certainly not realistic, lacking even a hint of recoil) but they’re loud and potent alien killers. The new weapons, a rail gun sniper rifle, an alien laser, and a triple-missile-launcher called the Enforcer Gun are pretty ho-hum—no new classics here. The biggest sadness is that DNF has adopted the Halo-style two-weapon system, which frequently forced me to abandon my beloved Shrink Ray for lack of ammo. Even with all of that heavy weaponry, I still died quite a bit—despite the regenerating health system, Duke Nukem Forever is one of the more challen­ging shooters I’ve played in years.

At least the signature remote-detonating pipe bombs, laser tripwire mines, and Holo-Duke decoys (plus melee-enhancing steroids and pain-mitigating beer powerups) exist outside this limitation, allowing you to set all manner of devious traps in the diverse range of linear, corridor-style levels and lure enemies into them. Duke battles the aliens through his high-tech Duke Cave, his self-styled opulent casino, the aliens’ disgustingly organic hive (complete with Prey-style sphincter doors that open when tickled), a Vegas skyscraper, a Dukeburger restaurant, Hoover Dam, construction sites, Nevada canyons, underwater, and more.





Oh yeah, and there’s a shameless strip club level with no combat—it’s mostly a showcase for boobs and a playground for the many interactive games (pinball, air hockey, billiards, video poker) and gross-out moments in the bathroom. No two settings are alike, and with plenty of Easter eggs scattered around that boost your health when interacted with, exploring the world is a frequently rewarding high point.

Blast from the past
At the end of these levels lie some old-school-tough boss battles. Almost all of the hulking beasts took me out at least once before I figured out and exploited their attack patterns (notable exception: the final boss). Fights against a mothership, a massive alien queen, an underwater leech, and others are more about the spectacle of fighting huge unique monsters (plus an excuse for Duke to nut-punch something for an ego boost) than creating interesting gameplay.



The old-style design is probably due to the fact that DNF should’ve come out years ago. (Hell, 2K’s recommended PC is built from five-year-old hardware.) Here and there, it shows; while alien monsters look pretty cool—particularly the iconic Pig Cops and flying, tentacled Octabrains—humans and many of the environments look well behind the curve. But thanks to the aliens’ comical massacre of EDF (Earth Defense Force) troops, you don’t spend a lot of time looking at people, so it only really offends when the incompetent President waves his unarticulated fingers in your face.

Pop culture references are similarly out-of-date—even growing moldy. Considering that the freshest ones I caught date back all the way to 2004’s Team America: World Police (excluding reenactment of Christian Bale's 2009 meltdown in the opening and a crack at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare tacked on at the end), most of Duke’s one-liners were probably recorded in the early half of last decade. Though Duke still delivers several chuckles per level by quoting ’90s films like Pulp Fiction and Starship Troopers and jabbing at Halo, it’s noticeable that he’s been living under a rock for quite some time.



Meatheaded
I encountered a lot more puzzles (of the jumping, physics, and switch-throwing varieties) than I’d expected, and few are befitting of Duke. Dropping barrels into one end of a shipping container to tilt it and create a ramp is too mundane a task for a super badass—Duke’s not making fun of the puzzles other shooters started using a decade ago here, he’s imitating them. Poorly.

The more innovative puzzle gimmick is shrinking Duke down to a few inches tall and sending you scurrying through levels made for man-sized play. Being action-figure sized gives you a new and interesting perspective on the world—jumping around a vast kitchen battling rats and mini Pig Cops among the shelves while using mustard jars as cover is a very different experience, and one encounter in particular makes an epic battle of what would normally be a one-shot kill. However, running any significant distance on tiny legs can get tedious.



Action is also varied up with frequent turret-shooting scenes, most of which are thankfully short and punchy, and two separate driving sequences: one as mini-Duke in an RC car, one in an oversized monster truck. Both are longer than they probably should be, as the uncharacteristic lack of guns on Duke’s cars limits you to repeatedly running over enemies and turbo-boosting over jump after jump.

One category in which DNF has surpassed its predecessor by leaps and bounds is in its uncensored nudity, particularly in the first half. Breasts abound, some attached to shapely but dead-eyed ladies, some to other, less appealing things. If that kind of thing bothers you, you’ve probably already been warned away by the long-as-your-arm ESRB rap sheet—but my personal taste threshold was exceeded only once, by a mid-game incident that goes just a little too far in mixing boobs, comedy, and gore.





Other points of pain are the checkpoint-only save system, which is at least courteous enough to only rarely respawn me farther from the point of death than I’d have liked, and mercifully brief quick-time events—mostly just tapping Space bar for feats of strength.

Duking it out
DNF is a throwback to the age when shooters were long single-player experiences first and multiplayer games second, and as such the eight-player multiplayer modes aren’t going to challenge Call of Duty or Battlefield for the competitive crown. It’s often hilariously effective at showing us a good time, though—the 10 maps, which are diversely designed with the same wide range of locations as the campaign, are built to create goofy and memorable moments when combined with Duke’s weapons. Moments like shrinking and squishing a guy carrying a babe-shaped flag back to his team’s base, or hitting a jetpacking enemy with the Freeze Ray, causing him to fall to the ground and shatter. And those laser tripwire mines? Hilarity ensues.



There’s a persistent character progression system, but fortunately (in my opinion) leveling up only unlocks cosmetic items to make your Duke avatar distinct with silly hats, shirts, and glasses and not weapons and perks. Bonus: it supports Unreal Tournament-style mutators, such as the classic rail gun insta-gib.

Checking “flying a jetpack” off the list (in multiplayer only, sadly) meant that the reasons I loved Duke when I was 16 are all present and accounted for in DNF. They’re no longer new, and I’m not 16 anymore, but the combination of nostalgia and juvenile humor can still crack me up.



It’s a healthy chunk of game, too. The Steam clock read “10 hours played” when I’d finished the single-player run on normal difficulty, and that’s without devoting time to posting a high score on the pinball machine or conducting a thorough search for secrets. Completing the game unlocks classic, why-doesn’t-anyone-do-this-anymore cheats like character head scaling, and I might have to replay at least part of it just to see that absurdity in action.

I’m sure that years of anticipation will spoil Duke Nukem Forever for some—there’s no getting around that at the end of that long road is only a good game and not an amazing one. It is what it is. He may not be at the top of his game, but even after all this time, Duke still knows how to party.

Last year's Bioshock Infinite reveal was spectacular, an introduction to the fascinating flying world of Columbia so immacuately choreographed that people doubted whether it was actually being played at Gamescom, or whether the guy with the controller was just finger-syncing.

This year's demonstration was the exact same way. It looks so stunning, so dramatic, action-packed exciting, that it feels like it's either going to be inhibitively scripted or that the illusion will break as soon as the player decides to toodle around rather than look where they're supposed to.

On the other hand, it's dramatic, action-packed and exciting. Every corner of the world is packed with detail. It's funny. It's better written than anything else I've seen at the show. The characters have real character. If it does turn out to be little more than a scripted rollercoaster ride, then I'm glad it's through a world that looks like this. I've included my frantically typed moment-by-moment of the presentation below.

First, a little background. Designed by Ken Levine, he of the original BioShock, Infinite uses some of the same principles to explore a different world. Instead of a city at the bottom of the ocean and a story that explores objectivism, it's a flying city, held aloft by balloons, and a world defined by early 20th century ideas of American exceptionalism.

There's an off-putting 1:1 ratio in all of the elements that made the original BioShock great. Big Daddies are gone, but there's the Songbird, a flying, robotic protector for Elizabeth. Plasmids are gone, but there are bottled vigors in their place, gifting you similar abilities.

The player is Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent on a case to find Columbia - lost for years in the clouds - and to rescue a woman named Elizabeth. The Songbird keeps her locked in a tower, and is programmed to feel betrayal should she escape.



Which is exactly what Elizabeth has done, with your help, as the demo begins. Since breaking free, Elizabeth has discovered she has powers that she doesn't understand and can't control. Booker is taking her to meet one of the Founders, about whom we know little, but who apparently should be able to provide answers.

Booker and Elizabeth head into a shop called Major's Notions, Sundries and Novelties. It's filled with clutter, random pieces of tat, and extremely colourful.

The first really different thing here is that Booker, the player character, talks. And often. He talks when you pick up a weapon in the store. He has great banter with Elizabeth. At one point, she calls Booker over, and when you turn, she's wearing a novelty oversized Abraham Lincoln head and doing doing impressions. It's all just lovely.

Which is when the heavy breathing starts. Elizabeth hides behind a desk, and Booker does the same. The Songbird is outside, looking for the two of you, and beaming coloured lighting into the room for his massive, seeking eyes. There's stuff in the audio that's like the smoke monster from Lost, a messy mechanical terror.

The songbird moves off, and Elizabeth peeks through the door. "Promise me," she says. Booker cuts her off. "I will stop him." "No. That's a promise you cannot keep. Promise me, that if it comes to it, you won't let him take me back." She's wrapped your hands around her neck as she talks.

You move outside, and the city is bright and beautiful. It strikes me that the closest analogy is another, real world paean to American exceptionalism: Disneyland. It's a flying Disneyland, clouds wafting between the floating streets.

The next weird thing: Press X to euthanize horse.



Elizabeth has found a dying horse in the street, and she wants to use her powers to bring it back to life. "It's just an animal." says Booker. "It's too powerful, we won't be able to stop it."

"I wasn't asking for permission," she says.

Booker doesn't just talk, he has a personality that is his own. It's slightly jarring - I'd quite like the horse to not die, but my representative in this world feels different. But it seems worth it for what is gained: conversations that reveal character, and not just plot. It's worth it just for making Elizabeth a living part of the world, and not just a speakerbox standing behind unbreakable glass. The conversations the two have make the whole adventure feel like Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, or Nick and Nora Charles.

We don't find out how Elizabeth would react if the player had followed that button prompt, though, as the player in this instance doesn't press it, and Elizabeth starts to use her powers to open a tear.

As she does, Columbia is painted over with a different reality. It spreads out along the ground from where Elizabeth crouches, and then surrounds them both. Her first attempt paints the world around us as a beautiful garden, before we snap back to Columbia. She tries again and, this time, the world becomes a city street. And not a street in 1912, but much later. A cinema on one side of the street is showing Revenge of the Jedi, which was the original title for Return of the Jedi.

A car streams down the road toward Elizabeth and just before it hits, she snaps the tear closed again. Booker and Elizabeth are back in Columbia. The horse is not.



From here, they move up some steps, and emerge into larger city streets. There are more balloons visibile in the distance here, and massive posters for an orgnisation called Vox Populi. The streets are cluttered with debris here, and fights are breaking out. Booker points a gun at someone to drive them away when they're eyeballing Elizabeth.

There's a lot of colour. Streets are draped in red banners, on to some of which a woman's face is being projected. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying, and then Booker and Elizabeth entered a town square centered round an large, golden statue.

There's a small crowd here. A man is about to be lynched, accused of crimes he denies. As soon as people see you, though, they start screaming. That's Booker! Combat explodes. Multiple people start shooting you at once, and one man starts cranking an enormous megaphone device. Booker kills him before he can get it revved up, but there are explosions and bullets and soon, Booker and Elizabeth are pinned down.

Here, we get a glimpse of another of Elizabeth's powers. She's able to magic into existence different objects, and with clouded representations, gives you a choice of three here, one of which is a new door in a wall, another of which seems to be a train. Booker selects the train.

By this point, events are happening in the demo too fast for me to note them all down. Booker uses magic to make things float and Elizabeth smashes a trailer through them and you jump on to the rail and you're skyhookingaround. You're speeding past so many posters and bits of art. There are other guys chasing you, speeding by on the rails, swinging between them, leaping, chanting. It's so pretty. The clouds. Another person cranking the big megaphone thing, and this time a flare is fired into the air.



Which is when the airship arrives. Apparently, this isn't a scripted thing. It's a boss. It's a Big Daddy as a zeppelin; a patrolling airship you can climb aboard and blow up from within.

You ask Elizabeth to create a turret, and she can't do it yet. It's too soon since her last magic use. The airship starts firing at you, dozens of rockets smashing into the ground and walls behind you as you're again leaping between the rails. Again, it looks scripted, but it's not, just tightly rehearsed. It's thrilling to watch. I want to explore this world.

Evventually, Booker gets high enough that he can leap on to the airship, shoot his way inside, and blow up the engines within. It quickly catches fire, and Booker makes a hasty escape by jumping out and into the clouds, being lucky enough to land on one of the skyrails.

Elizabeth comes over to you. "Booker, that was amazing."

"Good, because I don't think I can do it again."

Which is when the Songbird arrives and hurls you through a window, into the top floor of a building. The Songbird is pitched as a controlling, abusive husband, and he's really, really pissed at you. It tears off the roof of the room you're in and thumps down inside, and is about to crush you when Elizabeth leaps in to stop it. Songbird gently pushes her aside and returns to end you whe she yells "I'm sorry!" He softens, and she asks to be taken back, back to the prison she earlier described as being worse than death.

She reaches out to you for a second as she's carried away, but your hands never quite meet. And after a second's pause, Booker dives out the gaping hole in the building, off the floating island it sat upon, and back on to the skyrails in pursuit.

Gearbox announce that who pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever, or bought the Game of the Year edition of Borderlands can now download the Duke Nukem Forever playable demo. All you have to do is whack your code into the box on the Duke Nukem access site and get downloading. Gearbox haven't mentioned a date for a full public release of the demo, but it seems likely it'll hit alongside the release of the full game on June 14 in the US, and June 10 everywhere else. Don't worry if you can't play the demo yet, console yourself with the new launch trailer, released yesterday.

Welcome to bizarro-world. The Duke Nukem Forever launch trailer is upon us, and it's ashamedly gratuitous as you'd hope, or at least expect from the Duke. Shrinking rays, pole dancers, bad language and breasts all make a predictable appearance. The game's out everywhere except the US next Friday. The Duke hits the US on the following Tuesday. Will you be picking up a copy?

Members of the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club and owners of the Game of the Year edition of Borderlands will get the first slice of Duke Nukem DLC for free. Gearbox haven't said what the update will include, but a "source familiar with the situation" has told Kotaku that it's "a full DLC. Not some silly skin." The voice of Duke, Jon St. John dropped a hint, saying that it's "something that may involve singing. I'll leave it at that." Duke Nukem karaoke, anyone?

Duke Nukem Forever surprised the world recently when it finally went gold. It's coming out on June 14 in the US, and June 10 everywhere else.

This week, Head Intern Anthony assembles a team consisting of Lucas, Chris and PCG's newest editor, Tyler Wilde (formerly of GamesRadar) to stop the Reapers and save the Galaxy. But first, they must discuss the topics of the week that was. Stories include Modern Warfare 3, League of Legends' new Tribunal system, Age of Conan going free-to-play, the announcement of Ghost Recon Online, Windows 8 and Duke Nukem Forever finally going gold. We also do a round of Truthiness and Falsity, answer your questions and say our goodbyes to Anthony.

PC Gamer US Podcast 274: Hello Tyler. Goodbye Anthony.

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@PCGamer
@logandecker (Logan)
@Havoc06 (Chris)
@DanStapleton (Dan)
@ELahti (Evan)
@jaugustine (Josh)
@tyler_wilde (Tyler)
@PlanetValva (Anthony)
@Ljrepresent (Lucas)

Can it be true? It must be true. We've had word from Gearbox that Duke Nukem Forever is finally, genuinely finished. “Today marks an amazing day in the annals of gaming lore," says Christoph Hartmann the day where the legend of Duke Nukem Forever is finally complete and it takes that final step towards becoming a reality.” Going gold means that all the development on the game is complete. All that remains now is for the game to be mass produced and shipped to retailers for its release on June 14 in the US, and June 10 everywhere else.

It's been a few days at least since we showed Minecraft any love, so this week's headlining video is from our favourite excavating game. Here, with some mod trickery, you can see just what Minecraft would look like if played after ingesting Lysergic acid diethylamide. It's a nauseating experience, so view on a clean stomach and do not attempt to eat or drink during the viewing experience. I genuinely have no idea why on earth you'd want to play with this mod on, but it certainly makes Minecraft's world look even more mind-bending than it does at current. Looking at the sculptures on the PC Gamer Minecraft server genuinly fills me with awe; it's incredible to see what some of you guys have crafted. It does make me wonder though, if players were armed with THIS, what kind of elements they could mine and build stuff with.

Finding cool PC videos has been a little bit more tricky than usual this week, thanks to one little game that's sent the console world mental. The entire interweb has suddenly been replaced with a shrine to that game with the guy out of Mad Men in. With the coolest videos all focusing on 1940's LA, it's time to turn to YouTube's best director Freddie Wong for some videogame-inspired fan films. Are you one of those annoying Battlefield 2 players who put claymores everywhere? This little video will certainly remind you of all the good times you had camping, waiting for your prey to not see those BB-filled cases you'd scattered about. More of a singleplayer gamer? See this first-timer learn how you progress the gamer's way, ALWAYS starting with the melee weapon, before working your way up to the pistol and then finally the full-auto goodness. Eliza Dushku makes and appearance too, which is very welcome.

Talking about learning lessons, Geralt discovers that Ezio's methods of tower-diving are not exactly fool proof.

What's your favourite way of finishing off an enemy? I've been playing through Mass Effect 2 again recently, and have decided it's definitely using Mordin's tech abilities to snap-freeze a target before bashing them to death in close quarters. However, this seems a totally elegant manner of dispatch compared to what happened to this poor pig. After reviewing the evidence, the autopsy team soon realise who was behind this barbaric murder. It could only be the Duke himself.

Realistic, gritty games are all well and good, but sometimes it's easy to tire of their grey and brown aesthetic. That's why I love the fresh feel of Storm, this serene looking physics puzzle game that sees you taking control of the weather. The artistic style is very soothing for the eyes, and I can imagine easily winding away a few hours on a Sunday afternoon using raindrops to solve puzzles.

Certainly not adopting the serene atmosphere path is FEAR 3. This latest trailer shows off even more of the game's explode-gore deaths, explaining the game's co-operative challenge modes, where you can compete against a friend to be declared the 'favourite son'. So should you still be feeling inadequate from a childhood spend being the unloved sibling, now's the time to put that right, in a fountain of blood.

Also adopting the death and destruction route is the aptly named Orcs Must Die!, although their method involves some kind of wind explosion erupting form the palms. So it's a weather and death game - should you not wish to invest in either Storm or FEAR 3 but so wish to get the best of both games, then Orcs Must Die! is clearly the game for you. Clearly.

Finally, if you saw the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developer talk on the web a while ago, but just wished that it had been longer, then fear not. The guys over at Joystiq have the full hour-long talk from PAX East ready for your viewing pleasure.

Duke Nudem, a promotional website for Duke Nukem Forever has been launched by 2K. It features real women's breasts and a mediocre Flash game where you compete against the owners of said breasts. Get a decent score on the NSFW version and you get to download a wallpaper of each lady - nipples and all!

Duke Nudem is part of the "Boob Tube" suite which includes The Hall of Hotness, Duke Alien Autopsy, Duke Nudem, and the upcoming Duke Sound Board.

I recently previewed Duke Nukem Forever's multiplayer. A lot of people read it. They seemed sad. As always, let us know how you get on with Duke Nudem in the comments.