Voodoo Extreme has more details here, including official court documents filed by 3D Realms.

Sure, Duke Nukem Forever may have been in development forever but it seems the guys over at 2K Games also had a Duke title in the works; Duke Begins.

This news comes to us as Take-Two attempts to get back some loans they gave to Apogee for the development of Duke Nukem Forever. Unfortunately, Apogee says that 2K Games put a stop to Duke Begins development in what Joystiq says is an attempt to gain the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise.

If there are any Duke Nukem hopefuls left out there you better keep your eyes peeled as there very well may be an onslaught of Duke news very soon.

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company.”

3D Realms also commented on the Take Two lawsuit rumors, saying that the company received no money from Take Two for Duke Nukem Forever, and that Take Two initially tried to buy 3D Realms and the Duke Nukem franchise, but the company didn’t see it as a decent deal.

More here.

It seems that the closure of 3D Realms ticked someone off over at Take-Two because they have recently announced they will be sueing the now debunk company over the unfinished Duke Nukem Forever.

Since 3D Realms is no longer around to take the wrath, Take-Two will turn to the brand’s creator, Apogee:

“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,” Take-Two said in the complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

It doesn’t seem like Apogee has much of a counterarguement in this lawsuit but maybe Take-Two will put DNF in the hands of another developer and actually get the game out the door.

Read (Destructoid)

It seems that Duke Nukem is taking Forever is getting closer and closer to completetion. George Broussard, a member of the development team over at 3D Realms, has recently revealed via Twitter that the team has surpassed a milestone this week:

Closing out a milestone this week. 71 more tasks to do and we started with probably 800-900. Been a good push. Next one starts Monday.

71 more to go, huh? Well let’s see, the game was announced in April of 1997 which means it has been in development for about 12 years now. If we go by what Mr. Bourssard is saying by starting off with 800-900 tasks, we can calculate that the team has completed about 70 tasks per year. So, if they keep it up, we might actually be seeing Duke Nukem Forever hit shelves sometime within the next 2 years. Then again, probably not.

"Along with the first Tomb Raider, I think it’s hard to argue that Max Payne isn’t one of the best two adaptations yet," he said. "This kind of opening brings us a lot closer to the reality of a sequel."

Miller noted that Rockstar Games, which now owns the property, had attempted to stop the film from happening.

"After they bought the IP, [Rockstar] made serious attempts, including legal, to try to prevent this movie from being made, and were non-cooperative in providing materials that would help with pre-production," he revealed. "It’s a miracle it ever reached the big screen, and a testament to the committed efforts of Scott Faye and Julie Yorn, the two lead producers."

"There are several fundamental story flaws … in the film that have me shaking my head in bewilderment," he said. Miller also talked about the famous flashback scene.

"A big problem with the film is that we do not really know what is driving Max until we see the flashback scene [in the middle of the film] showing him coming home and finding his family murdered. In the game, we put this scene right at the front of the story for a reason!"

And then there’s the fact that Jack Lupino, one of the film’s major characters was “lamely killed by… non-action characters” instead of Max itself.

"The entire time we’re told that this drug makes 1-in-100 people super-human, yet Lupino doesn’t demonstrate this in the least," Miller said. "It should have taken a hail storm of bullets to bring him down, plus it should have been Max that kills him."

Now I know what your thinking, why should you care about a game, once thought to be vaporware, that has been in development since god knows when?

Well, because new HD screens have hit the net, of course.

Duke Nukem Forever is supposedly currently under development by 3D Realms and is expected to ship “When it’s done.”.

(Via: Gemaga)

The save film feature will let players preserve multiplayer battles and share the replays with other Xbox Live users. It will be similar to the one featured in Halo 3.

Duke is yet to receive a price point, but it has been revealed that he will be tipping strippers sometime next month.

In fact, the game has gone gold, according to Shacknews who confirmed with 3D Realms’ George Broussard. “We officially passed final cert on our first try Friday, August 15th,” he said.

While he wouldn’t offer any price point, he did say that it will be “about what you’d expect,” with Shacknews noting that most games fall between 800 and 1200 Microsoft points ($10-15).