Duke Nukem: Forever, a game which has been in development since 1997, was finally released last week to a bombardment of surprisingly unfavourable reviews. On Metacritic, the console port of the game scores an average of 51 percent on the 360 while the PS3 copy scores slightly higher at 58. With a score of 62 percent, the PC version is the best rated at the time of writing, but only just.

The most positive review comes from Asian gaming site MEGamers, who awards the game a score of 8.8/10. Although along with German based site PC Gamer, who scores the game 81/100, these are the only two reviews on the net which claim the title lives up to it’s expectations.

Looking at reviews from more well known media websites, it seems that the once highly anticipated title is actually nowhere near as good as we all hoped. IGN awards the title a mediocre score of 55, while Eurogamer stoops even lower by giving the game a shameful score of 30, describing the game as a ‘gruesomely mangled resurrection’.

The lowest score so far has been awarded by Destructoid, who gave the game a damning score of just 20/100, while saying ‘Nobody should think kindly of such a miserable, lifeless, grotesque little game’. Ouch!

There’s no doubt Duke Nukem Forever will shift a fair, if not high amount of copies due to all the hype surrounding the game. Although it will be interesting to see how so many negative reviews will effect the games overall sales targets.

[UPDATE] So yeah, I made 7 correct predictions out of, err, 16. Also, a huge congratulations to Peter Molyneux, who was awarded the prestigious BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for be an utter gaming legend. Well done, sir!

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It’s that time of year again where the best developers get credit for their games from the past year. So, here’s my predictions. Are they accurate predictions? probably not, but who cares. If you reading this your probably just killing time anyway…

Just to note, these aren’t what I want to win, it’s what I think will win.

(In alphabetical order)

Action: (prediction) Assassins Creed: Brotherhood – (Winner) Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Artistic Achievement: (prediction) LIMBO – (Winner) God of War 3

Best Game: (prediction) Heavy Rain - (Winner) Mass Effect 2

Family: (prediction) Kinect Adventures – (Winner) Kinect sports

Gameplay: (prediction) Assassins Creed: Brotherhood – (Winner) Super Mario Galaxy 2

Handheld: (prediction) Professor Layton and the Lost Future – (Winner) Cut the Rope

Multiplayer: (prediction) Call of Duty: Black Ops – (Winner) Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Original Music: (prediction) Heavy Rain /Normand Corbeil - (Winner) Heavy Rain / Normand Corbeil

Social Network Game: (prediction) Bejeweled Blitz –  (Winner) My Empire

Sport: (prediction) F1 2010 – (Winner) F1 2010

Story: (prediction) Heavy Rain – (Winner) Heavy Rain

Strategy: (prediction) Plants v Zombies XBLA – (Winner) Civilisation 5

Technical Innovation: (prediction) Heavy Rain – (Winner) Heavy Rain

Use of Audio: (prediction) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - (Winner) Battlefield: Bad Company 2

BAFTA’s Ones to Watch Award: (prediction) Twang – (Winner) Twang

GAME Award: (prediction) Red Dead Redemption – (Winner) Call of Duty: Black Ops

However judging by the facial impression of the woman in screenshot no.7, it seems even the fully grown adult zombies aren’t all that scary. When it comes to facial impressions, developers Techland need to take a good look at LA Noire.

One of the shots also show a man wielding a huge machete-type sword with electric bolts branching off it. Just one example of the games extensive weapon customisation options.

Head over to www.deadisland.deepsilver.com for more info.

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and Gears…

It’s unclear as to whether the shots (which bf3blog claim to have been sourced from German magazine Gamestar) are actual in-game shots or pre-rendered shots, but whatever they are it defiantly shows some of the beauty of the new Frostbite 2 engine, which is being used to make the game.

Also, make sure you head over to Game Informer’s Battlefield 3 hub, where you can find a whole host of coverage on the game thanks to its month long cover story.

[UPDATE] If these screens weren’t enough to wet your appetite, check out the Videos page where you can find Battlefield 3′s FIRST OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY TRAILER!

[Source: bf3blog.com]

The screens don’t really tell us anything new, so hopefully we’ll see some new footage soon since the game is due for release sometime this year. (Click screenshot to enlarge)

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After 4 long, painful years of waiting, the game that everyone has been waiting for has finally been revealed to the world. Yes, this game is Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Revealed at the VGA’s on Saturday by Todd Howard himself, ES: Skyrim is a direct sequel of ES: Oblivion and will take place in, you guessed it, the Nordic country of Skyrim.

The game is being designed using a brand new, never before used game engine and is set for release on 11th November 2011. An exclusive cover story about Skyrim will feature in the February issue of Game Informer, but those that cant wait make sure you head over to Game Informer on January 6th to see the cover reveal that little bit earlier.

This is all we know on the game at the moment, but be sure to follow me on twitter as i will be announcing any news regarding the game the *second* i hear it. Yes, i love Elder Scrolls that much!

For now check out the teaser trailer below, I’ve never watched a trailer so many times…

Have a look at the rest of the trailers from the VGA’s on the videos page, and check out my in-depth report about the awards over on DTG.

4OD and ITV-Player will work alongside the already featured BBC iPlayer, therefore making the console the only one on the market that features free on-demand services from the 3 major TV companies within the UK.

PlayStation UK marketing director Alan Duncan predicted that ITV and Channel 4 will see a 10 percent increase in traffic, since around 80 percent of the 4 million PS3 owners in the country are online.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 already supplies Sky player for it’s Gold subscribers, while American users have access to ESPN sports network. Nintendo however, which only supplies BBC iPlayer, will now be at the bottom of the table when it comes to on-demand services.

Channel 4′s director of commercial business, Sarah Rose, claimed that it’s unlikely they will ever work with Nintendo due to the Wii’s advertising restrictions, while also claiming Microsoft was not ‘coming to our door’ about an Xbox version. ITV stated that the inclusion of ITV-Player on the PS3 was an ‘acceleration of [there] distribution strategy’.

Players can take a trip back to the shopping mall as they once again take control of Dead Rising protagonist Frank West, who must use anything he can find to defend against those flesh-eating mutants we all know and love.

The mobile version includes a cool new feature that allows you to send out a ‘distress call’ to friends on Facebook and Twitter if you die. If your friends fail to revive you, you then return as a zombie within your friends game to seek revenge. Sounds pretty cool.

Dead Rising Mobile is currently set at an introductory price of £2.99/$4.99 on the app store. Checkout some of the screens below, look familiar?