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Borderlands developer Gearbox Software will indeed be finishing work started by 3D Realms on Duke Nukem Forever. The FPS--which has been in development since some of us were in swaddling clothes--will finally see its release in 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, according to Gearbox.

Gearbox was rumored to be the studio to bring the game to completion well before the confirmation this afternoon. In August, Kotaku kicked off the murmurs thanks to a well-placed source that pegged Gearbox as the dev. And when the publication went to the studio's boss Randy Pitchford for the official word, it received a coy statement that didn't deny the fact that Gearbox had DNF in its paws.  
 
Much later this September, 2K Games teased that it had something "big" to show at PAX Prime. Shortly after that, 3D Realms boss George Broussard tweeted an image of flying pigs, keeping the recent speculation alive and well.   
 


DNF was indeed the reveal both were hinting at, according to an on-and-off again live stream 2K set up for the game's PAX unveil event, where attendees listened to Pitchford speak, watched a short video, and then got hands-on time with the game.
 
At the event, Pitchford said Gearbox wants the game to be "the game it was supposed to be," and suggested that he and his studio brought in people from 3D Realms to help with its completion--a process that started back in 2009.  
 
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal before the event, Pitchford revealed that the game is in a "polishing phase," and admitted that a launch plan is not yet in place. But at least it's actually coming now, right?

Classics like Ikaruga and Prince of Persia are two of the core inspirations behind a new Ubisoft-published game called Outland, a just-announced and upcoming downloadable that seeks to merge the interplay of light and darkness with the running, jumping, action, and fantasy of a traditional platform-based title.

As you can see just below, Outland will feature a creative visual style that is high on color and environment. The game might also play with scale a bit, if that Hoplite-looking dude is a fair indication of the kind of things we can expect to see in the game regularly.
 


Details are light, but publisher Ubisoft has spent some time discussing atmosphere in Outland. According to a recent press release, the game will feature a world on the very brink of destruction--a world that is divided and apparently sways between light and chaos. As the protagonist, we'll be putting a stop to the flip-flopping into the latter.

Outland will debut at PAX in Seattle starting this afternoon and will be available to see through September 5 at Ubisoft's booth. It is being developed by Super Stardust HD creators Housemarque and has a tentative "early" 2011 release date on both Xbox Live Arcade and PSN.     
 

A couple of months ago, Gravity Crash developer Just Add Water revealed that it was working on several Oddworld titles in collaboration with Oddworld Inhabitants and franchise creator Lorne Lanning. JAW let it be known this muggy September morning that the first fruits delivered from this fledgling relationship will come in the form of a PSN remake of 2005's Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

Poised for release next Easter, Stranger's Wrath won't be a straight-to-download, quick-and-dirty remake. But it won't be a reimagining of the unique third- and first-person title, either. JAW plans to upgrade the visuals to 720p, remaster the dialogue, drop in PS Move control support, and add in a few bits of yet to be announced "bonus" content. 
 


“Since word got out that we’ve been working with Oddworld Inhabitants there have been many rumors circulating about what we’re working on," JAW managing director Stewart Gilray said in a statement. "Stranger’s Wrath is the first project in what we believe will be a long and fruitful relationship. Having the chance to update this great title and release it on PS3 is just a brilliant opportunity, not least for us, but for the fans too.”

Stranger's Wrath, which follows the story of a bounty hunter named Stranger and has a weapon in it that makes enemies vomit uncontrollably, received heaps of critical acclaim when it was released over five years ago. I wonder what we'll think of this new, up-scaled version with "bonuses" come 2011?
 
Image via Eurogamer. 
 
UPDATE: There was a question as to if this was exclusive due to omission and JAW's relationship with Sony. I incorrectly called Stranger's Wrath a PSN-exclusive at the time of writing and do apologize for the mistake. JAWs is not considering this an exclusive, according to a Sixth Axis report.

Last week, the studio responsible for Sam & Max and an upcoming game (or games) based on Jurassic Park, Telltale Games, tossed out a brief and mysterious teaser for an unannounced mashup game starring Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Penny Arcade's Tycho, Homestar Runner's Strong Bad, and Sam & Max's psychotic bunny, Max. That game was revealed this morning as Poker Night at the Inventory, a poker game that stars all of the above.

Telltale says Poker Night will be "more than just another poker title," and it's hard to argue with that. In addition to straight-up poker, the game will feature a cast of voiced and established characters, unique tells, and dynamic reactions.
 


Poker Night is the second title in Telltale Games' "pilot" program, which kicked off earlier this year with the release of Graham Annable's superbly atmospheric, yet soul-crushingly flawed Puzzle Agent. Poker Night is expected to release later this Fall on the PC and Macintosh for five bucks. You can pre-order the game now via its Steam page and save 10-percent off the price.      
 

Developer Outerlight, in collaboration with Ubisoft, has licensed Valve's Source Engine to create their own not-so-serious and cartoon-inspired shooter this Fall. Bloody Good Time, as it's being called, will be an online-focused competitive romp that appears to be attempting to capture the hearts and minds of "irreverent" FPS enthusiasts with its own breed of ridiculous melee and shooter action.

Built for up to eight players simultaneously, Bloody Good Time is being suggested to focus more on mayhem-causing weaponry than your typical range of guns. In the press materials, it's mentioned that players will be able to use items like frying pans and remote-controlled rats in addition to the normal arms like the one you see just below. 


 
If you're wondering why the characters look like they do, it's because the game is riffing on B-Movie actors and sub-AAA movies. In fact, the entire game takes place on a Hollywood movie set with silly locations such as Vegas hotels and summer beach houses. The sets also come with actors who dress like, well, bunnies, clowns, and starving security guards. 

Not much more is being announced about Bloody Good Time right now, but it seems possible that it will at least have some sort of campaign mode--the press materials mention specifically that the online portion is just an "option."

Want to see more of BGT? Look no further.     
 

Bit.Trip creators Gaijin Games is poised to make its first foray as a self-published developer in the downloads space. Its first game, according to a blog post on studio's official website, will be a collaboration with App Store-developer Different Cloth and 16-bit Music to bring their iPhone title Lilt Line to WiiWare.

Lilt Line is like what I imagined would happen if Guitar Hero married PC classic Snake and then had a special kid named "Lilt Line." It's a music-based joint that puts you behind the wheel of a simple, unimaginative white line across a series of fractal mazes brimming with psychedelics that rumble and strobe alongside fast and eclectic electronic beats. 

The goal is to steer the line through each maze, all the while using the handheld's tilt functionality to maneuver and its touch capabilities to slip through white hot barriers that appear in sync with the current level's music. All in all, it's a basic game that should translate well to the Wii's unusual inputs.  
 



"Lilt Line has been a labor of love for us over here at Gaijin Games," Gaijin Games' Alex Neuse wrote on the studio's blog. "The original version was created by differentcloth for the iPhone, and the moment I saw it, I fell in love with the game."

"I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of rhythm/music gameplay, and when I contacted the fine folks behind the original, we realized just how awesome it would be to work on something together. In short, we hit it off." 
 


The official Lilt Line website mentions that the game will ship with a total of 15 levels, which just so happens to be the exact amount available on the $2.99 iPhone version of the game. No release date is being listed, but an official trailer is available for your viewing pleasure.

The studio that brought us Trials HD is crafting a little special something specifically for Wii owners. It's called MotoHeroz, and it's hitting WiiWare possibly as soon as this year.

Fans of RedLynx's Trials HD will probably feel at home with the 2D side-scrolling platformer MotoHeroz in their hands, despite its cartoon-inspired visuals and Wii remote tilt controls. Just like in RedLynx's previous and aforementioned title, MotoHeroz will put you in control of a wheeled vehicle and have you racing across obstacle-laden levels. RedLynx is suggesting that momentum and physics will be key ingredients, too, in addition to level-by-level high score nabbing, similar to Trials HD. Presumably, the simple joy of mastering the game's mechanics will have its place as well.
 
 

But that's not to say that this MotoHeroz isn't without its own twists that stray from the Trials mold. MotoHeroz will feature a 100-level adventure mode complete with a "memorable characters" narrative nod, a two-to-four player local party mode, and an interesting "daily competitions" component, that may take some of the sting out of not being able to create your own maps online. It also features rally cars instead of motorcycles.
 
On the technical side, it's being promised to run at a steady 60 frames-per-second when it hits.
 


As for when it's expected? MotoHeroz might appear on WiiWare as soon as 2010 or in "early" 2011. 

Microsoft's promotional blocks for Xbox Live Arcade games, like Summer of Arcade, always feel like a success for Microsoft and the developers that are selected to release their games within. So, you'll have to excuse our utter lack of surprise upon hearing the news that another XBLA promotional series is coming to promote four more titles outside of the Summer (or the Spring). It's called Game Feast, and it kicks off this Fall.

The last game to be released in Game Feast will be Team Meat's indie-developed platformer Super Meat Boy on October 20. Big on difficulty and style, it's one of those XBLA titles you'd expect to love just from viewing a smattering of footage.  
 
The rest of the games to appear in Game Feast? According to Major Nelson, the block kicks off September 29 with Hydrophobia. Twisted Pixel's Comic Jumper will follow that on October 6, and the hotly-anticipated Pinball FX 2 will appear on October 13. A quick note about Pinball FX 2: it's not a game so much as a platform (and a free download as a result). If you're a proud owner of Pinbal FX 1, all your tables will import into the new game. Subsequent tables will be sold separately.
 

 
News of Game Feast leaked out (before Microsoft had a chance to acknowledge its existence) when Team Meat blasted a radical promotional image to other blogs, showcasing the fact that its game was headlining the then-unannounced Fall series. There was also a Twitter announcement from Team Meat, too, but it seems as if that was pulled (via Joystiq). 
 


Ready to dive in to Game Feast?    

A second Mafia II downloadable content pack filled with additional quests is launching on September 7 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, according to a 2K Games press release blasted this morning. And like in the first bit of content--which was a PS3 exclusive included with new copies of the game--you'll be in control of a man named Jimmy, a bold and bald killer who handles the mob's dirtiest dirty work.

How dirty? 2K Games isn't getting into specifics about the DLC's 30 fresh missions, but do expect to partake in a couple of assassinations and a couple of timed vehicle pursuits which end in a few shoot-outs and at least one car chase. As a bonus, the scores you put up while doing these exciting things will be recorded in the DLC's online leaderboards. 
 


The DLC will be available for 10 bucks or 800 Microsoft Banana Bones. As with the first bit of DLC, it appears as if Jimmy's Vendetta won't have any connection to the main game's storyline. It will, however, have a connection to Betrayal of Jimmy, if the new DLC's name is a good indicator of such things. 
 

You didn't tell your office that you were "sick" this morning, right? Throw on some pants and redact it. The Final Fantasy XIV open beta will, in fact, not be launching as Square Enix said it would this August 31. The dev team has spotted a few "critical bugs" in the game and the test has been pushed back as a result.

The news that things weren't going as planned comes on the heels of the beta sign-up site going down for a period of time. When it came back, Square Enix left a message stating that the open beta test was being "postponed" for an unspecified time. It also noted the confirmation of said critical bugs (via Massively). 
 

 
Plans to hold an open beta are still on, apparently, since Square Enix wrote that "a new schedule will be released at a later date." And chances are you'll be hearing about that new date rather soon--the full game launches on September 30, after all.