Actually, searching Google, wiki's, fansite forums and Youtube it sounds like Reloaded is old (VERY old news). The linked project pagae has apparently existed for ages.

Screenshots of early levels and even a small bit of video is out there. The project has been "on hold" presumed cancelled for ages owing to Forever and whatever other legal reasons. But it looks like its still alive, and this once fan-made project is going to finally get out there with some proper studio polish.

Funny to read it was held back for Forever's final Gearbox release as Reloaded looked prettier than Forever and would have killed any final hope of remaining sales!

We may have got our wish on the remake front:

http://interceptor-entertainment.com/site/portfolio/duke-nukem-3d-reloaded/

"... Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded – an Unreal Engine 3 powered remake of the 1996 FPS classic, Duke Nukem 3D. "

For content purpose: Those curious or dissapointed by the slow 'early' release, check out:
http://valvearg.com/wiki/GLaDOS@Home

Specifically from "how the site works":
"The main bar at the top represents the average of the length of all the red bars. Once this is full (when every red bar is full), we get Portal 2! "

So whilst we are seeing minor release changes now, if things continue at the current rate (and every game is filled, with the help of potato multipliers), then 1 calculated prediction gives us:
http://www.themcgoverns.info/portal/

For what little its worth Beamer, I thought it was a great post. But yes, it will fall on deaf ears, or TL:DR A.D.D posters.

I still check Blues every single day (or more), but checking the comments reveals just the same old tired diatribe from the jaded few, as opposed to when games were actually openly debated for their merits and flaws.

Checking the comments here is atually kinda humorous, as 95% of the time you can predict why there are 50 posts on a certain subject before even clicking to view them. Self entitlement, jade, DRM, x developer fucked you personally etc etc are always at the forefront before anyone actually considers the games themselves. The aging PC 'community' is self-destructive, and only has itself to blame (not that anyone will accept this - awaiting same tired responses to be shovelled out).

GG Valve, eagerly await your next game, your next mould-breaking marketing, your early release and your community engagement. Yes, we do exist.

As an old-school QWTF player and someone with many TF2 hours logged, I can say microtransactions (nor the majority of the hats etc) are personally NOT for me. However, as someone has stated, nothing has changed with how they can be obtained in-game without handing over cash - so no big deal.

I think people should be more concerned about what Steam Wallet represents, rather than the TF2 update. As Steam / steamworks can now arguably be called the main electronic purchase / delivery platform for the PC, it must lead a lot of publishers to draw comparisons between it and Live and PSN. I don't imagine it's much of a stretch of the imagination to believe many publishing executives will be asking questions about why they are able to make revenue for X patch / DLC / update on one platform, and why they continue to offer it for free on the PC when the infrastructure is all there.

I can well imagine Steam Wallet is the result of either other publishers asking for a console equivalent, or a business decisions to attract other publishers to Steam. For the first stage of this Valve are internally offering / trialling the service on one of their own products in a reasonably 'safe' manner to their loyal fanbase.

Whilst I dont think we will ever see Valve guilty of charging for small updates, patches and small DLC in the distant future, I do fear they are inadvertently going to trigger the 'start of the end' by opening an avenue through which greedy exec's can port their console strategies to the PC.

I really hope not, but Steam's successes has continued to run away with itself, and I hope Valve don't lose sight of their own morals. Whilst they continue to be a beacon with regards to game updates and free DLC in their games, they don't seem to be relaying this message or encouraging others via the introduction of Steam Wallet.

Don't go off on a tangent and re-direct this elsewhere. We are talking about you and this specific title. I am not making an outcry to piracy as a whole, and I am aware the argument is not black-and-white. I am singling YOU out however as a prime example of the straight-up shitty pirate who doesn't hold a morale high-ground.

I actually agree with most of Surf's comments, and I think there can be "honourable" pirating of sorts, for want of a better word, but that is very much not the case here. You never had any intention to buy before, and if you did, well you didn't buy it anyway despite it being a great game.

A single-player title, you have tried-before-you-buyed, and refused to buy. And thats even knowing it wasn't m/p to begin with. And despite enjoying it and having played it for hours (and presumably will continue to) you are choosing to continue to steal.

You tried. You liked it. You chose to not buy. And I bet it remains installed.

So drop the pretentious fallacy you are in your rights and had good intentions. You are not one of those 'potential' buyers warding against shitty DRM, bugs, quality or concerns - you are a simple thief.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
You are blaming the wrong guy,

Okay, who do we blame for you pirating? Clearly we are misdirected.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
...you cant blame a pc gamer for trying out games before buying

Again, so where is the "buying" part of this coming into effect? You had a pre-release demo, a game on your friends xbox, a trial of your pirated copy and you still fess up to not paying out.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
You can pirate consoles even easier, it's just that kids don't know it and mommy buys the games for bday/xmas. Consoles are also more accessible.

Uhuh ... and? Are you trying to impress us, or promote your own, err 'friends', xbox exploits? Getting hold of and using pirated tools isnt rocket science.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
bet your iphone is not jailbreaked, or android phone not rooted.

Invalid argument, this isn't illegal in itself unless you are ifnerring to running stolen apps on them. And actually no, mine isn't and I have bought plenty at their shocking 50pence pricetags.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
You cant blame people for pirating , people have been trying to rip us off with cheap 3 hour worth of gameplay console ports since a decade.

And with people like you, they won't be making them longer anytime soon. Maybe you could try showing your support where it is warranted to send a message? No? Oh well, they should just churn out shit as they won't be paid regardless.

Syd wrote on Aug 24, 2010, 11:50:
I won't buy mafia 2, there is no multiplayer, or coop. Thats why i gave it 9/10 but hey, i live in the 21st century, mp/coop is a must for me or i do not buy. They have ruined the shock franchise because of this bullshit.

Clearly a ruined awful title at 9/10 and a missing m/p element you knew when the title was announced let alone released. Clearly it's all bullshit and you are entirely justified in your thieving.

Way to go champ. Seriously, GTFO.

I'll bite:

So now you've had a pirated copy demo'd to you at your friends, and rushed out to support the product by pirating it yourself so you can give glowing praise and waive your aforementioned e-peen, are you NOW going to support the developer with your wallet?

I am hardly the whitest of white when I think back to my younger days, but it annoys me that you are exactly the small minority that is giving the PC scene such a bad rep. You clearly must have no intention of paying for any game, irrelevant of the games quality it seems ("9/10 a must"), so that age-old excuse flies out the window.

You can't even count yourself amongst Valves "unexpected customers" as I dont foresee you coughing up the goods to legalise your free "movie" experience.

Now go take your "HAW I PLAYED IT FIRST" pirate cool elsewhere, whilst I await for my preorder copy to arrive. K Thx.

I would put forward the suggestion that Carmack was and has always been a computer scientist first, and a gamer second. I'm not convinced any of iD's IP's really demonstrate any amount of creativity or imagination beyond flying skulls, cyberdaemons and the imaginings of too many rock concerts. As a technical wiz at pioneering computing technologies, Carmack has and continues to be a genius with little rival - 3D engines, texturing, multiplayer gaming etc. But again, I'm not convinced that outside of the dark basement of the iD 'old days' he has ever really had the mindset of a healthy all-round gamer.

The very origin of dedicated servers in the hay-day of quakeworld's pioneering netcode was fundamentally due to a lack of bandwith, (hello 9600 baud modems) and the client-server system would have been a sensible, logical and scientific decision. Now that we live in the age of broadband, to him it would seem illogical to go down that road. But as has been already highlighted, he wont appreciate what additional benefits servers have brought about - communities, mods and extra-value that never shipped with the title, giving games long exceeded shelf life.

I don't diss Carmack's genius and contribution when it comes to pc gaming, and I myself am a long-term FPS gamer with much to give thanks for due to Doom/Quake etc, but I really don't believe the gaming world should turn to Carmack to give direction to the average gamer on what is the future of our platform. Let him do the science, and let others craft ideas and draw from the gaming scene.

Also passed over Arma2, as someone who is has been a solid fan of OFP but shares the view that BIS *dont* offer "amazing support" but are actually constantly fixing their broken, rehashed projects.

Slowly but surely from recent media I am growing ever more confident this will be a great successor, and offer slick fun, accessible gameplay whilst remaining true to its roots. I like realism, and simulation in limitation, but ArmA became something that was just tiresome to "play", and increasingly fragmented with addons and hardcore home-soldier fanboi's who lost sight of what made OFP1 great.

The mix of infantry squad warfare and silentops missions looks akin to OFP1, and its good to spot lots of little details in there that make sure this snazzy new engine doesn't seem too distant to it's roots. Whilst lack of leaning, infantry freelook and controllable jets as well as arguable console-ism may bother some, and me to a degree, this still looks a solid title that will benefit from a modern game engine to take the quite niche genre forward. Extra excitement for the fully fledged editor for PC gamers that will mean endless replayability playing new coop missions with mates (a big draw of the original to take advantage of the sandbox open world).

I realise I'm posting this as someone who, despite all the polish and style, got bored quite quickly with Bioshock and never finished it... but:

Seeing this vid just looks no fun at all, reason being it looks like you can die (quite readily) from 101 different ways with no counter or escape. I realise the marketing vid is full of players and deaths to appear more pumped up and hectic than it might otherwise be, but it gives the impression of a complete spam fest of guns, plasmids, sentries, objects etc etc. Not doing anything for me, I'm afraid.

It annoys me too that the release of constant patches is always perceived as a good thing. When a studio keeps rushing out buggy games that take 2 years to near a polished state, this is not cause for a pat on the back.

What frustrates me with BIS is the major bugs in this title launch read just like OFP and ArmA's. I guess thats what happens when a game engine is rehashed for its 3rd outing. I would love to see the state of their source code after 3 titles, expansion packs, and 10 years of endless bug fix patchery. For me a no sale, despite my temptation I confess. Hoping OFP:DR makes for a better *game* even if it is less sim'y. I'm not convinced both is possible.

I have not experienced any bugs since 1.16

A quick reminder - just how long ago was the 1.16 patch released (which I would argue puts the game in a reasonably polished state) compared to when Arma1 hit the market in its beta-state?

Answer: Arma was launched in Nov 2006 (more widely May 2007), the 1.16 patch in April 2009. Thats 2 years for their title to end it's endless succession of bug fixes, performance tweaks and OS compatibility issues (woo, finally vista 64 bit support with >3GB RAM). The framerate performance from launch to now is practically double, stability improved a hundred fold, and hundres of glaring bugs quashed. It should have been more like this on release, I do not care for being an ongoing beta tester.

On one hand I am pleased to see a developer so committed to ongoing support like BIS, and so engaged with its playerbase (see their forums). But the fact is they just arent capable of pushing out a polished title at launch. ArmA was a repetition of OpFlashes patch cycle, launch problems and continual fix/breaking. Now we have ArmA2 which looks to be sharing the exact same fate.

The stories about the German release read like deja vu to ArmA's, and the CEO's comments on the last ArmA article were just plain embarrasing to read. I still never finished ArmA's single player campaign because it kept failing on me and suffering AI navigation issues. I find it sadly amusing that the new game has precisely the same problem.

Don't get me wrong, I have been an avid fan of Opflash, ArmA and their expansion packs. I have had countless enjoyment from coop games, mission editing, addon editing, running whacky games, running dedicated servers for the community and sunk probably hundreds of hours into it. However now faced with a choice of a 'fresh coding slate' with Codemasters and Flashpoint Dragon Rising, I am afraid I am turning my back on BIS. Everything about the videos and screenshots screams ArmA1.5. You can see the same game - and with it I can practically see all the quirky mission scripting errors and game glitches screaming back at me.

Sorry BIS, one time too many for me.

Thanks for clarifying that for us...

For as much as Valve seem to be losing their way, fumbling in an increasingly directionless way with each update, they still have their sense of humour.