The 24 hours leading up to E3 make my inbox scream for mercy. Wave upon wave of press releases, trailers (but you can't put them up now!) and batches of screenshots drop from the virtual sky until it all becomes a blur. In the evening when I should have been considering a supper I never ate, an announcement that Deep Silver Co-Signs Publishing Agreement with Ap, huh? Being the good little press person I am I look a little closer. Ap = Apogee software in this case. Ok, cool. Deep Silver are the Chernobyl guys. Apogee? Rings a bell...from the 90s - shooters like Wolfenstein, right? Man, I'm hungry... knock at the door, my writers have arrived!
I have to learn to scan my email faster or something. Duke Nukem is back!
Terry Nagy, originally of 3D Realms, now Chief Operating Officer of the newly resurrected Appogee Software is on hand to discuss just what it means for Duke to be back. As he said, "It's time."
Beginning in the summer of 2009, Apogee will release the Duke Nukem trilogy revisited beginning with Critical Mass, followed up by Chain Reaction and then Proving Grounds. As familiar as these will be to Duke fans, they will be a re-telling of the original stories to bring in new fans as well. They will not be ports; these will be originally created titles for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP designed to take advantage of the capabilities of each while telling the same story on each platform: A story similar in scope to the original trilogy but with a twist.
"We'll be bringing back all of Duke's old enemies, led by Dr. Proton who we'll simply call Proton now. [The nebulous] they have been monitoring from the future, sending agents through a temporal vortex to ensure that all is well but the agents haven't been returning. Duke is heads to the future to see what is going on.When Duke arrives, the future has been taken over by Proton and his "buddies" because Duke left the past in the first place which allowed this to occur. He then returns to the past a few moments after he left to inform the general of what is occurs but it is too late because the invasion has already begun.
The present day Proton has total access to the time generator and is also using it to get Duke to defeat his [Proton's] "allies" along the way. By the time the third game is released, it will be the 1940s and WWII."
Nagy and I discussed the advantages of handheld systems with the series today. Multiplayer will be included in the titles and the newer engines will allow Duke's trademark bravado and arrogance to truly shine through. He will be the same over-the-top swaggering Schwarzenegger-like hero yet his style will remain uniquely his own.
"As always, it's about saving the babes first. If he can save the world that's a cool secondary but it's all about saving the babes.We also want to make him the Forrest Gump of WWII. Duke will be the one who sunk the Bismarck. The flag at Iwo Jima will still be raised but Duke will be in the middle of raising that flag. As always, he'll have his one-liners that he's famous for.
Like the original titles, we'll let the levels tell the story. The only difference between the two platforms will be the gameplay but both will contain the same story."
Nagy, a tall man - so tall I had to ask him to move so I wasn't blinded by the lights in the ceiling above him - was amusingly animated and excited about the project. He is committed to producing the first title by next summer and the second as closely as possible to the first.
"We want to introduce an entirely new generation to Duke."
Throughout the entire interview he purposefully worked to never use the word forever. Next summer! One year.
I'm a mother of two boys, ages 7 and 10 and live in the chaos that ensues. I've a permanent disability that keeps me homebound, so books, kids, games and books are my constant companions. Oh, and books, too. *grins*
My children both play games so I often play them first, getting to know exactly how something may effect my sensitive and easily stimulated older child vs. my stoic and imperturbable younger.
I like games for games; for the pure enjoyment of them and believe that no game is wholly bad, though some are real stinkers.
I also have the dexterity of a camel in mittens so find playing FPSs difficult (and I also don't like the gore) and RTSs at times can stump me. I just can't seem to move quickly enough to keep up with them. Some of my favorite games are arcade games and I'll spend 3-5 years on the same 5-6 levels because I just never get any better. But, I have fun.
