As Duke Nukem Forever reaches its penultimate climax, we are starting to see more and more marketing for the many times off the rail sequel.  With this new series of videos, we are asked the question, “What Would Duke Do?”.  In this case, Duke has several options to consider when taking a ride as an unwanted passenger on an enemies back, but as with most things Duke, things don’t end well for the bad guy.

Check out the jump for the full video, as well as a bonus video that can only be described as…childish and oh so wrong, but funny nevertheless.  Duke Nukem Forever is finally set for arrival on June 14th, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 from Gearbox Software and 2K Games.

What Would Duke Do – Jetpack

Duke  Nukem Forever doing….well, just watch and be amazed.

For those that want to bring a Swarmite into the workplace, you might want to view the new video that we have from Hothead Games that mentions the trouble and tribulations of this situation.  As with prior videos, this is the latest in a series of tongue in cheek videos to help spread the world for the upcoming Hothead Games release, Swarm.

To check out the new video for Swarm, check it out after the jump.

Our friends over at Bethesda Softworks have sent over a new trailer that shows off a lot of new gameplay footage for their upcoming title, Hunted.  Hunted, now foregoing its “The Demon’s Forge” surname, looks a lot better from the time we saw it for a bit at E3 2010, now featuing better combat, fluid co-op and, to my surprise, a bit of humor.  I am not sure if there was a bit of a refocus on what Hunted was suppose to be, but the meetings have paid off in my opinion as I have put Hunted back on my radar.

Take a look at the new trailer below the fold.  Hunted is being developed by inXile Games and is published by Bethesda Softworks.  Hunted is set for release on June 1st, 2011 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Atlus and Ace Team have released a new set of screenshots for their upcoming title, Rock of Ages.  These new screens show off some of the new art design that will be showcased in the game as well as some of the puzzles that will be encountered by the player.

More importantly, Ace Team has a new Developer Blog out that details the artistic periods that were chosen for the game and they even included a list of all the art periods from the beginning of recorded art so you could see where the timeframe of where the dev team chose from.

Also, if you join the Rock of Ages Steam Group, 10 people will get a chance to win a copy of Zeno Clash on their choice of platforms (XBLA or PC).

Hit the jump to see the rest of the screens.  Rock of Ages is set to come in 2011 for PC and XBLA from Atlus and Ace Team.

While perusing the Steam Marketplace yesterday afternoon, I came across a little title called Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes and just from the name alone, I was intrigued.  I sat back, watched the little trailer and immediately found myself captured by this little curiousity of a game.  So, I clicked on the buy, downloaded the program and played through thirty minutes to give you a taste of Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes to find out if it might be worth someone’s time and investment.

Right from the start, you can tell that this might be a rough around the edges experiment, as the Configuration Tool starts out in German rather than English.  Not a huge deal, but this game does come from a European development house, and it does show some quirks that can be prevalent with European PC developers.  However, I set up all my parameters and got to the business of playing.

Grotesque Tactics is a turn based strategy game, but it adds a lot of tongue and cheek humor into the mix.  Right from the start, we have a a character by the name of Drake who has failed out of combat school at the hands of a deadly mushroom.  Okay, it was not that deadly and he was laughed out of school.  So he does what any failure does – looks for a way to kill himself.  All of this misery is presented on the screen, including a little raincloud over the character’s head to let you know his mood.  While we sit in misery, along with two other soldiers who are looking to kill themselves as well, we are approached by a hero in shining armor by the name of  Holy Avatar who wants to rid the land of the evil spread by Dark Church.  Holy Avatar is a complete hero stereotype from an RPG/turn based strategy title, complete with rippling muscles, long flowing blonde hair, and an attitude that makes everyone feel like complete peons.

The entire story behind the game is completely based on humor and stereotypes that you find in most RPG and turn based strategy titles.  From female heroes that are clad in the most ridiculous of armor sets, damsels that throw themselves at the Holy Avatar, even when he is not the one to save the day, the enemy types, including the lowly mushroom.  More than once, I found myself having a little chuckle at the humor that developer Head Up Games and Silent Dreams put into this title.

It is also nice that the tactics are pretty straight foward, and combat is rather intuitive.  There is a rather lengthy tutorial that you can run through, but Iwould suggest just hitting it up for the general basics and then skip the rest.  All the controls are pretty standard and most will have it figured out by the end of the first battle.    I also found the combat to be a lot of fun.  Sure it is the same as about any other turn based strategy game on the market, but it is the little things that add so much charm as you play through.  When you have a critical miss, you don’t just miss your target, but your sword goes flying out of your hand and you frantically pat your hand behind you to find it.

While I enjoyed the charm, humor and the actual battles themselves in the first thirty minutes of play, I did have a hard time with the rough translations.  As stated in the beginning, this is a game that comes out of Europe (Germany I believe), and it looks like some of the dialogue options were run through Babel Fish or Google Translate and pasted into the English version of the game.  It is not a bad thing, but on more than one occassion, I struggled with the  meaning of a paragraph or winced at how poorly a sentence would read due to terrible grammar, punctuation or translation.  It would have been nice to have a proper translation put together for Grotesque Tactics, but it is not a huge hit either.

I wish that there was a demo for the game in English so people could try it before they buy, but at $15.99 through October 22nd, 2010, it is a good impulse buy and I had enough fun with the title in the First Thirty, that I am probably going to keep on playing when I can find time during the hectic fall release schedule.

Many in the gaming community were a bit surprised when Gearbox Software announced that a new DLC pack would be coming to Borderlands, not because people were done playing Borderlands, but because Gearbox had made it seem that the game was done in regards to additional content.  The new DLC pack, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution moves the Claptrap from Rodney Dangerfield status to a fearsome enemy, while adding new areas to explore and new missions to complete.  It is a fun ride for fans of the series, injected with a huge dose of humor, but falls a bit flat as the main quest of the DLC is rather short and can be finished in less than 90 minutes.

The main crux of Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution is that the little Claptrap servants have decided that they are tired of being the equivalent of the red headed stepchild and have begun a revolution, complete with hilarious imagery that harkens back to the inspirational posters of the 1960’s that featured Che Guerra and Fidel Castro, albeit in Claptrap form.  You have been asked by Mr. Blake, the vice-president of the Hyperion Corporation to take out the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap in an operation known as “Operation Trap Claptrap Trap”.

The main story has you performing four missions for Mr. Blake, with each mission taking out a support structure for the Claptrap revolution.  Along the way, you will fight hordes of Claptrap robots dressed as soldiers, suicide bombers and as boxers.  As you progress through the missions, you will also notice how the landscape is slowly being modified by the Claptraps; to the point you will fight Skags, Raiders and even some returning bosses from prior engagements, each intertwined with Claptrap technology.  None of these main missions will tax you as I took a level 23 Hunter into the DLC and was able to stomp through it in under two hours for the main story.  However, there are several side missions that you can undertake for Tannis and Marcus Kinkaid, and there is a new mission board that will offer up new quests for you to finish as well.

While the story is not the most interesting part of the title, the humor that has been present in the previous expansions and the main game is present in Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution.  This is by far the funniest expansion of Borderlands with shots taken at anyone and everyone.  There are propaganda speakers littered throughout the levels that spout out all kinds of little quips, including a great spoof on an Andrew Ryan speech that had me chuckling for several minutes.  I don’t know if the humor is enough to get people in the door for the DLC but if definitely keeps a smile on your face as you march through the campaign.

There were no real flaws or bugs that I ran across during my play of the new DLC, but I just felt that the missions never held up for any period of time, and it seemed that I had a few weapons that just would annihilate most of the enemies that were found in the six new areas in the DLC.  It just seems like the DLC was made to have some fun with the Claptraps rather than actually become some sort of meaningful or difficult expansion.  I did a few of the side missions first before I realized that I only had to finish the four missions for Mr. Blake to actually finish the DLC.  Some might find it a bit overpriced for the amount of time you will spend in the DLC areas, but I think the humor might be enough for fans of the series to come back for this latest entry in the series.  Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution gets a 3.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Check out Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution and other Xbox 360 reviews at Test Freaks.

Bethesda and Splash Damage have continued their developer diary kick with a new one focusing on the mixing of the single player and multiplayer modes in Brink.  It seems that when you create your character in Brink, it will seemlessly move between the three modes of gameplay, whether in a single player experience, or moving into the mutliplayer/co-op gameplay.

To watch the full developer diary, hit the jump.  Brink is set to come out on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2011 from Bethesda and Splash Damage.

After 10+ years of waiting, fans of the Worms franchise on PC can rejoice as Worms: Reloaded has launched on the Steam Store today.  Featuring over 60 single player missions, a robust multiplayer and more, Worms: Reloaded should be looked at as a full featured product for fans of the series.  Worms: Reloaded is priced at $20 on the Steam store and includes Steam Achievements and more.

Hit the jump for a new trailer celebrating the single player and the launch of the title.

Now I have not played the first episode of DeathSpank as of yet, but it is on my honey-do list.  That said, I am already onboard for the second episode of DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue.  I mean, any game that has you chasing down six magical thongs cannot be bad. 

It seems that six powerful thongs were created long ago, with each granting the wearer great powers, but at the cost of absolute corruption.  DeathSpank is therefore tasked with tracking down each of the persons wearing one of these thongs and dispatching them from this, or any other plane of existence.  DeathSpank will continue to support local co-op play, but unfortunately, no online co-op play.

Look for the new DeathSpank episode to hit PSN and XBLA on September 22nd, 2010 for $14.99 or 1200 Microsoft Loonies.

EA and Hothead Games Reveal DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

The Summer’s Greatest Downloadable Hero Returns to Save The Day on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Aug 23, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Today Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and leading independent developer Hothead Games(TM) announced DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, the follow-up to the delightfully twisted and fiendishly addictive action RPG, DeathSpank. Featuring the trademark humor found in the original, Thongs of Virtue centers on DeathSpank’s journey through a massive war-torn land; explore the North Pole and the high seas to locate six mystical thongs to bring peace and harmony to the universe. DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue (T.O.V.) will be available for download on PlayStation(R)Network on September 21, 2010 for $14.99 and Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade on September 22, 2010 for 1200 Microsoft Points.

“Bigger, longer, harder–these were the words that drove us while we created the follow up to our introduction to the DeathSpank universe,” said Vlad Ceraldi, Director of Game Development for Hothead Games. “In T.O.V., we’re taking action RPG fundamentals and adding loads of new creatures, environments, weapons and characters, while continuing to push the envelope with our signature humor.”

DeathSpank: T.O.V. puts players in the mighty boots of DeathSpank, the “Dispenser of Justice”, “Vanquisher of Evil” and “Hero to the Downtrodden.” A long time ago, nine mystical thongs were planned to bring balance and harmony to the universe, but when marketing got in the way, only six thongs were produced, and the result was disastrous. Granting great power to those who wear them, the thongs corrupted all those they touched–except DeathSpank. DeathSpank must find all six thongs and destroy them once and for all. Thongs of Virtue includes local co-op mode, allowing a second player to choose one of two hilarious sidekicks to help save the world. Players will enjoy unleashing magical skills, playing as Sparkles the Wizard, or laugh at the ninjatastic Kung Fu moves of DeathSpank’s new partner in crime, Steve.

For more information on DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, visit www.deathspank.com or follow the development team on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/deathspank.

About Hothead Games

Hothead Games Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, is an independent developer and publisher of groundbreaking downloadable titles currently bringing to life original games such as the critically acclaimed DeathSpank and the award-winning Swarm. Hothead also partners with indie studios around the globe to bring games like Braid to new platforms and new audiences. For more corporate information, please visit our website at www.hotheadgames.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EATM, EA SPORTSTM, EA MobileTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies

While the city has changed a bit from the first Crackdown, it appears that Ruffian Entertainment totally get the vibe of what makes a great Crackdown title.  Just from watching the newest Developer Diary, which can be found after the jump, they showed off a lot of action, insanity and a lot of humor.  Crackdown 2 looks to be building on a solid foundation, but is expanding your battlefield both high and low, while keeping all the antics from the first title, including orb hunting and skill building through performing actions.

Check the jump for more info.  Look for Crackdown 2 on July 8th, 2010.