Every cloud has a silver lining, and let's be honest; isometric ARPG/shooter Bombshell was a pretty big (possibly mushroom-shaped) cloud. Originally planned as a Duke Nukem reboot, legal scuffles forced the game to re-brand, and it all turned out a bit pants anyway, leading developers Interceptor Entertainment to fold not long after.
The silver lining may be just what old-school shooter fans have been clamouring for, though. The Build-engine retro FPS now known as Ion Maiden was originally planned to be a promotional tie-in with Bombshell (and still shares a protagonist). It fell off the radar after Bombshell turned out a dud, but it seems that side-studio Voidpoint never stopped believing. Without warning, and under the (recently purchased) 3D Realms banner, Ion Maiden has launched direct to early access.
To everyone's surprise, it may actually be really good.
]]>3D Realms, freshly emerged from their settled lawsuit with Gearbox, bring us the much delayed top-down action shooter, Bombshell [official site]. Has the deviation from the Duke been worthwhile? No! No, it hasn't! This is a steaming pile of shit. Now, with all surprises off the table, here's wot I think:
]]>After we turned out the RPS treehouse's lights on Friday, locked the doors, and ran down to the pub giggling, an explosion blew out the windows. We looked up, our upper lips coated in the foamy moustache of Real Ale, then shrugged. "It'll wait until Monday" we agreed. And so it has. Rootin', tootin', rude 'tude-totin', twin-stick shootin' Bombshell [official site], the game which supposedly grew from the litigation-smashed Duke Nukem Mass Destruction, is out and yeah, it sounds a bit bum.
]]>3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment never will get to make Duke Nukem Mass Destruction, we can finally say with certainity now that lawsuit's settled, but they appeared to have accepted this years before anyway. The twin-stick shooter was seemingly reborn as Bombshell [official site], an awfully similar-looking game with that flattoped buffoon swapped out for a lady also brimming with rude 'tude and one-liners. Bombshell was due this autumn, but Interceptor have now announced it needs a little more work and so Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison will be riding out on January 29th, 2016. Oh, and it's getting an FPS prequel next year too.
]]>A lot has changed in video games across my six years as a professional words person, but Duke Nukem has always been a shambles. In uncertain times, I knew I could always glance his way and groan "Oh no what's happened now?" I feel a little lost now the legal troubles between old owner 3D Realms and the new Dukelords at Gearbox Software have wrapped up.
Gearbox, 3D Realms, and 3DR owner Interceptor Entertainment have issued a joint statement declaring they've voluntarily ended all the litigation, and that Gearbox are "the full and rightful owner[s] of the Duke Nukem franchise."
]]>Given that Bombshell [official site] seemingly began life as a Duke Nukem game, before legal battling saw the aging blonde bimbo replaced with a bodacious babe, I'd expected it would be more bombastic. Explosions! Quips! Explosions! Flushable toilets! Explosions! A sense of humour. A bit of a bad attitude. Something. Anything. Instead, its twin-stick shooting looks kinda fun but the wrapping is so dull.
We've got our first proper look at the game in a new gameplay trailer coming out of QuakeCon, which shows ten minutes of hot fetch quest action (find a key for a supply crate!) with dull dialogue and no flushable toilets.
]]>Right. Bombshell [official site]. Originally announced as a sort of replacement project for a cancelled Duke Nukem game due to 3D Realms endless legal troubles, it looked ... well, a bit shit. Very 2009 from a graphical standpoint, low-budget 90s from a thematic one. It sort've disappeared after that with that initial trailer now deleted and a total re-reveal of the game taking place. Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison has grown her hair out a bit and found some armour with a midriff and trouser bottoms if not a proper chestplate. She and the game are looking a lot cooler and a lot closer to the Diablo-With-Guns-And-Ms.-Nukem that's presumably the aim.
]]>Names have power, oh names have a terrible power. Names define and names bind, names create and names destroy. No name can ever truly die. Utter those syllables by chance or by mischief and the name returns, just like that, hungry to reclaim its power. When we instinctively shush a burbling baby, it is a primal terror that they might speak a forbidden name. From the mouths of babes, indeed.
But hark, why do the cats wail so? From whence does this gale blow? You press your hands to your ears but cannot keep in the gushing blood nor block out the howling winds and the name they carry:
３Ｄ ＲＥＡＬＭＳ
]]>Remember that legal battle between Rise of the Triad developer Interceptor (who recently ate 3D Realms) and Borderlands border/game license patrol Gearbox over who's allowed to make Duke Nukem games? Yeah, well it's still happening, and apparently it's not going as smoothly as Interceptor anticipated when I interviewed them. From Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction's maybe-ashes has arisen Bombshell, Interceptor's own top-down blast-'em-up starring a hard-fighting, harder-drinking main character. This one, however, is an impractically dressed lady with a robot arm... who just so happens to have recently robbed Duke Nukem's supply chest/motorcycle garage/lion throne room. Trailer and first details below.
]]>The plot thickens. Actually, come to think of it, the plot was already quite thick - perhaps even viscous - given that 3D Realms sold the rights to Duke Nukem years ago only to resurface out-of-the-blue with a new Duke Nukem game being developed by Rise of the Triad developer Interceptor, get sued by Gearbox for it, sell its entire business to Interceptor, and allege that the purveyor of borders and lands has no legal ground to stand on. It's been a mess so far, frankly - a sticky morass of contradictory claims. And now for the latest chapter, in which 3DR and Interceptor claim an agreement over an old project called Duke Nukem Survivor gives them every right to continue absconding with Gearbox's supplies of gum and frighteningly kickable ass in the night.
]]>It hasn't exactly been "business as usual" for Interceptor lately. First the Rise of the Triad necromancer stealthily didn't quite reveal a new Duke Nukem game, and then Gearbox *did* entirely sue them for it. But while the Borderlands creator is flinging around 87 bazillion pieces of supposed evidence to the contrary, Interceptor believes it's in the clear - especially in light of the fact that it now owns original Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms. What does all of this madness mean for Interceptor's future, though? Is owning 3D Realms even a good thing these days, what with the stinking stain of Duke Nukem Forever still fresh on its name? And what happens to series like Shadow Warrior, which have been lent out (to great results) to other developers?
Also, Blood. Will there be Blood? Can there be Blood? All that and more below from CEO Frederik Schreiber and new 3DR head Mike Nielsen below.
]]>Oh gaming industry, even during the early year release doldrums, you never pull punches on good old fashioned drama. In the red corner, we have Rise of the Triad developer Interceptor, whose burgeoning brand roster now includes the smoldering remains of original Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms, and in the blue corner we have Borderlands developer and current Duke owner Gearbox. Gearbox, of course, is suing Interceptor because of Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, a gum-assing, kick-chewing ARPG it doesn't believe Interceptor has the rights to develop. But, in the wake of its 3D Realms purchase, Interceptor has told RPS that it thinks it's completely in the right.
]]>I didn't see this coming. Interceptor, the Danish company that recently announced a Duke Nukem ARPG and released the Rise of the Triad remake last year, have bought Apogee Software Ltd (aka the legal name of 3D Realms). This surprises me because I didn't think I'd be writing any stories about 3D Realms in 2014, except perhaps when they licensed Shadow Warrior out for a sequel to the splendid remake. But the senescent studio has already been making headlines in this, the 27th year of its existence. They're not exactly the kind of headlines that would ordinarily lead to a buy-out though.
]]>Hail to the legal filing, baby. Gearbox, owners of the Duke Nukem IP, have filed a complaint against 3D Realms, creators of the Duke Nukem IP. That's because, as Adam spotted earlier this month, 3D Realms have teamed up with developers Interceptor to make Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, apparently without owning any of the rights that would allow them to do that legally.
]]>If the NeoGAF community's swift data extraction is to be believed, Interceptor, the team that rebooted Rise of the Triad, are due to announce a new Duke Nukem game. They have history with the man who stole a thousand catchphrases, having initially attracted Apogee's attention while working on a remake of Duke Nukem 3D. Mass Destruction does not sound a continuation of that remake. Instead, if the briefly operative website is to be believed, it's "a top-down action role-playing game...including experience points and tech trees". Earlier comments by Interceptor's CEO Frederik Schreiber suggest a possible return to the square-jawed intergalactic heroics of the original side-scrolling Duke, in place of the failure of a parody of a satire of a spoof that haunted Forever. The website is currently undergoing maintenance but reportedly contained a 24 hour countdown timer. You can follow NeoGAF's detective work here, or cast your eyes down the page for quoted details.
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