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Duke Nukem Forever may have taken years to come out, but it did not take the poor reviews of the game long to come in. Critics have been outspoken with their disappointment of the game and many reviewers have been giving Duke an embarassing 5 or below. Firing back at those critics are Gearbox's outspoken CEO Randy Pitchford and Duke himself. Well at least his voice actor anyway. "I have no comments regarding bad reviews by clueless critics. They seem to want to compare Duke Nukem Forever to Call Of Duty and other FPSs and they are missing the point. My thoughts about Duke Nukem Forever: It freakin ROCKS! Lots of action, lots of fun, sexy, funny, irreverent... It's everything I hoped it would be." ~ John St. Jon, Duke Nukem voice actor speaking to The Joy Pads Meanwhile, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford was throwing in his two cents on what critics are saying. "With sales data, it seems like *customers* love Duke. I guess sometimes we want greasy hamburgers instead of caviar..." Randy Pitchford, Gearbox CEO via Twitter These harsh words that are being thrown towards reviewers come after Take Two's stock plummets 15% since mid-May follwoing the release of Duke Nukem Forever. via Eurogamer

Jumping on the service pass bandwagon this week is Warner Bros and NetherRealm Studios. Both companies have announced the "Mortal Kombat Season Pass" which is exclusive for Mortal Kombat fatality loving players on the Xbox 360. Included in the pass are the downloadedable characters Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and a yet to be named character. As each character becomes available on Xbox Live you will have to download a free compatibility pack that allows you to use each character in your online multiplayer fights. The "Mortal Kombat Season Pass" will put you back 1200 points. If you do not want to purchase the pass, do not worry. These characters along with the klassic skins that they come with will be available for purchase individually at 400 MS points each. The first downloadable character Skarlet will be available on June 21. via Joystiq

Recently, EA's Sports Division head honcho Peter Moore sat down with Gamastura and discussed the techonology of the Wii U and why offline gaming is a thing of the past. "My dev teams -- their heads are exploding, in a good way and a bad way," Moore responded when asked about Nintendo's new entry into the console war. "How do we look at this new technology? We don't just want to bolt this on; this has to be relevant to the sports gamer." Moore later discusses his thoughts on offline gaming and why social gaming has exploded in recent years. It looks like EA, at least their Sports Division will be abandoning offline gameplay. What does that mean for the future of single player sports games or other titles from EA's lineup? We will have to wait to find out. via Gamasutra

Double Fine is looking for the publishing rights for their 2005 hit Psychonauts that was previously published by Majesco. Double Fine's Anna Kipnis jumped the gun early on Twitter by announcing that Double Fine now has the publishing rights to the Psychonauts brand. However Tim Schafer clarified the news by stating that they are in the process of converting all of the rights to the franchise to Double Fine. Does this mean we can expect a "Pyschonauts HD" remake appearing on XBL or PSN? via Gamasutra

When claims were made that Nintendo's upcoming new console was going to be more powerful than the current heavy hitters of the console world, PS3 and 360, gamers took notice. However with a recent statement being made by Nintendo that the Wii U will not be have a DVD or Blu-Ray functionality, the Wii U is shaping up to be another child's toy or retirement home reject. Iwata did confirm that there will be some social media functions. via VG247

Don't know what to get the geek loving dad on your list this year for Father's Day? Instead of buying the same old boring white socks or "Number One Dad" shirt, let us help you decide what other gifts are out there instead of the cookie cutter retail store items. Star Trek Pizza Cutter - $29.99 This adorable pizza cutter in the shape of Star Trek's Enterprise will be a pleaser for the pizza loving dad in your life. It's made of stainless steel and is an officially licensed Star Trek item. The Enterprise pizza cutter is available at thinkgeek.com. Darth Vader Imprinting Toaster - $49.99 That's right, you can now take your toast to the dark side. This nifty little toaster will actually imprint Darth Vader's mug on your toast. This black toaster is an official licensed Star Wars item and is also available at thinkgeek.com. Whiskey Stones - $19.99 These little handy cubes will help to keep your dad's whiskey or any other beverages cold without having the water diluation effect from plain old water ice cubes. Stick these bad boys in the freezer for a few hours and your dad's drink will stay on the cool side. The cold cubes are reusable and made from US mined soapstone. You can purchase a set of 9 cubes at thinkgeek.com. The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun - $11.25 This 250 page geek book is packed with fun little projects ranging from taking things apart and building items like robots from scratch. Written by New York Times Bestseller author Ken Dedmead, this book is fun for the whole family. You can purchase The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun at Amazon. Atari Pint Glasses - $22.99 for a set of 4 These four pint glasses come with Atari themed designs including Tempest, Centipede, Missle Command, and Asteroids. You can get the set at thinkgeek.com. Recycled Neck Tie and Suit Wallet - $30.00 Giving out neck ties as gifts is not exactly the best gift that your father might want to receive. However if he has a business type job or maybe there is some family joke about neck ties, you can purchase this wallet which is made from recycled ties that other men no longer wanted. These tie wallets can be bought on Uncommon Goods. L.A. Noire - $59.99 This crime solving based mystery game made by Rockstar is perfect for the father in your life who has been looking for a crime solving game without the CSI name attached to it. Available for the PS3 and Xbox 360, L.A. Noire is currently on sale at Amazon for $47.89. Duke Nukem Forever - $59.99 Considering the time frame that it this game to come out, chances are your video game loving dad was waiting for this years ago.If you order it off of Amazon you will receive a $10.00 promo code that you can use on your next purchase. Hail to the king baby!

Those of you waiting for DLC news from Homefront's developer Kaos Studios might not be getting any news at all in the near future. THQ announced that they have closed the doors at Kaos Studios and the UK studio, Digital Warrington. THQ has stated in a press release that their Montreal studio will be taking over the reigns of the Homefront series and that the reasons behind the closings were due to "a strategic realignment within its internal studio structure" and THQ "continues its strategy of aligning the best industry talent with the company's marquee franchises". via Joystiq

Not sure who would want to play as the caped crusader's sidekick Robin, but if you happen to be a fan of the smaller partner then you might want to pre order the upcoming Batman: Arkham City from Best Buy. Best Buy announced that all pre orders that they receive for the highly anticipated and graphically gorgeous continuation of the Batman Arkham storyline for the PS3, 360, and PC will receive Robin who can be used a playable character in two challenge maps. Yes that is correct. The selling point is Robin for only two challenge maps. via Batman Arkham City UK and Best Buy

Games (Trailers and Demos) Uncharted 3 Resistance 3 NBA 2K12 Medieval Moves Infamous 2 Starhawk Sly Cooper Thieves in Time Dust 514 BioShock Infinite Star Trek Need for Speed The Run Battlefield 3 Uncharted Golden Abyss - For the Vita Ruin - For the Vita ModNation Racers - For the Vita Announcements Jack Tretton talks about the Sony outage and says he is sorry. God of War Origins, Shadow of the Colossus, and Ico are getting HD remakes and will be releasing in the fall of 2011. Resistance 3 Sharpshooter edition - Sharpshooter, PS Move, Eye Camera, and Navigation Controller will be $150.00. A 3D monitor was shown that allows gamers to not only see in 3D but also allows splitscreeners to see their own individual screen. A Resistance 3 bundle will feature the new 3D display, 3D glasses, and HDMI cables for $499.99. The new Sly Cooper will be a reboot. PS3 gamers will get Battlefield 1943 for free with the purchase of Battlefield 3. PS Vita announced. Sony partnered with AT&T for the Vita and will feature two analog sticks and allows voice chat. Street Fighter x Tekken on the PS3 will have exclusive character and will be available on both the PS3 and Vita. PS Vita will be available this coming holiday season for $249.99 and $299.99 Chastity's Final Verdict: Sony's Press Conference started off the right way. The apology issued by Jack Tretton was needed and felt sincere. Sony still has alot of making up to do for it's fanbase, but in time and reassurance of the security I'm sure things will work out. The 3D display is nice, but is 3D really needed for video games? In my opinion 3D is overrated, but we will have to wait and see.

Games (Trailers and Demos) Rayman Origins Driver: San Fransico Far Cry 3 Brothers in Arms 4: The Furious Four The Adventures in Tintin Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Ghost Recon Online Trackmania 2 Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking Just Dance 3 Rocksmith Assassin's Creed: Revleations Announcements Far Cry 3 showcased a bit of story along with an opening cinematic that was all about "insanity" and a very dark and twisted storyline. Gearbox announced the new Brothers in Arms game that is straying far away from the traditional WWII setting and going into a more cartooney and outrageous atmosphere. Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking will be Kinect friendly. Chastity's Final Verdict: Ubisoft's lineup is definitely something to look forward to. Far Cry 3 looks like it is going to be an outstanding dark story and Assassin's Creed: Revelations looks amazing. The only announcement I was disappointed with was the new Brothers in Arms game. That game should not bear "Brothers in Arms" in the title. In fact it reminds of me Team Fortress with the characters. Other than that, decent showing Ubisoft.

Games (Trailers and Demos) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Tomb Raider Mass Effect 3 Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Gears of War 3 Ryse Halo 4 Halo Anniversary Forza 4 Fable: The Journey Kinect Disneyland Adventures Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster Star Wars Kinect Dance Central 2 Kinect Sports Season Two Announcements UFC and Xbox Live partnered together and all UFC pay per view events will be available on Xbox Live. Kinect friendly. Cloud Saves and Beacons allow gamers to access their games saves on other consoles and beacons will let gamers tell their friends what they want to play. Fall 2011 Dashboard update coming and looks much more user friendly and clean. Youtube and Bing coming to Xbox Live. Xbox Live TV Service announced. Unfortunately not alot of details were dropped other than that you will be able to watch anything you want. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be Kinect friendly along with all future Tom Clancy titles. Future Soldier will use body tracking and voice commands. Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden, FIFA, and an unannounced fourth title will be Kinect enabled. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be priced at $40.00 and will feature HD graphics, co-op over XBL, and a release date of November 15th, 2011. Halo 4 shown at the end of the press conference with a 2012 release date. Forza 4 will use Kinect. Fable: The Journey will support Kinect controls. Minecraft is coming exclusively to the 360. Kinect Fun Labs available now on the Kinect dashboard. Lets users re-create their avatar to look just like them, finger tracking controls, and take 3D photos and edit them. There will also be item scanning for use in games. Chastity's Final Verdict on Microsoft's E3 2011 Press Conference: I was a little disappointed by Microsoft's showing at E3 this year. It seems that they are heavily focused on marketing Kinect enabled titles which is great for them to steer gamers away from the Wii and PS Move. However that is all that there press conference was about. If you are married to your Kinect then this press conference was for you, but for gamers who were looking for sneak peeks, new games, and gameplay from regular games releasing soon, those gamers were left in the dark.

There are a few things that I have learned about Activision from a recent pompous and arrogance filled interview between MCV and Activision's Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg. These "things" are not directly about their video games, brand, or even where they see themselves in the next five years. I have learned that Activision has an over inflatuated opinion of themselves and coming from a company who reported a $233 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2010 is never a good thing. I find that statement reeking of wrongs considering that according to Game Developer Magazine for the year of 2010, Nintendo sits at number one for the top overall publisher position, EA is number two, and Activision finds themselves sitting at number three. Also according to Software Top 100, Nintendo once again takes the top spot for "The Top 25 Game Companies" while Activision comes in second. Sure Activision had the best selling game of 2010 with Call of Duty: Black Ops, however when Black Ops released it was nothing but a lag and bug infested multiplayer experience on the PS3 and PC coupled with lax responses from Activision regarding the online issues, fans were left with a sour taste in their mouth. Hardly how a company in the "number one position" should be acting towards dedicated fans of Activision's cash cow, Call of Duty. I seem to remember more than a few interviews done with loose lipped Activision CEO Bobby Kotick where he could not keep his mouth shut about EA like in an interview with Edge Magazine where Kotick said that "great people do not want to work at EA" or how about when Kotick slammed EA's decisions to buy smaller companies and rename them with EA followed by city in the title and further said that EA is struggling? Also did Hirshberg forget that Kotick was very vocal about how EA's marketing campaign to get gamers to buy more games new instead of used games is not in the best interest of gamers? Tough competition every year? Does a Halo game release once a year or how about Gears of War? Is Epic cranking out those games year after year, forcing gamers to buy a new updated version of the game every fall? The answer is no. The only competition that Activision has year after year is themselves, because of the yearly releases of Call of Duty from different developers. One thing that Activision needs to remember is that their success is based on three franchises and one of which they had absolutely nothing to do with and can thank Blizzard for and that is World of Warcraft. The second is Guitar Hero and with the Guitar Hero series in the can that only leaves Call of Duty. There are only so many times that you can release what is essentially the same game yearly just better graphics and changed perk names, add a pay to play mulitplayer experience into the mix, and expect gamers to keep coming back for more and with EA whipping the media into a frenzy over their extremely detailed upcoming FPS, Battlefield 3, it is only a matter of time before fans say "enough".

The new reboot entry into the Tomb Raider series is shaping up to be exactly what this dying franchise needs in order to stay afloat in a gaming world where so many once captivating series fade away. The latest pre-E3 trailer that Square Enix has released shows a very young Lara looking surprisingly more realistic instead of the huge boobed fantasy that we are use to seeing and extremely vulnerable as cries out in pain and glances into the horizon ahead of her. http://youtu.be/RN7_8Yholm4 via

Ryu is looking exceptionally bloody and a tad bit diseased (check out the arm) in the new screenshots of Ninja Gaiden III that were found on Famitsu. via 1up

Batman fans and pervs of the gaming universe unite! Rocksteady Games has confirmed that Catwoman is a fully playable character in the story of the newest entry into the Batman Arkham universe, Batman: Arkham City. GameSpot who got an E3 sneak preview of the highly anticipated game was told by Rocksteady's Dax Ginn that gamers will get to explore the darker side of the game and that Catwoman has been designed specifically for Arkham City. via GameSpot

A good eye caught this image that appeared briefly on the EA Store for their upcoming RPG hit series, Mass Effect 3. The image which was quickly removed is similar to the one that appeared on Xbox.com for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier that showed the same purple logo with the words, "Better With Kinect Sensor". A Kinect enabled Ghost Recon makes sense, but Mass Effect 3? What do you think? via NeoGaf and Eurogamer

Do you feel like spending about $20.00 or $12.00 on your DLC? If you bought Rockstar and Take-Two's detective based smash hit LA Noire, then you will be making that decision soon. Take-Two announced that there is a bountiful amount of DLC coming your way, however you can purchase it one of two ways either by ordering the Rockstar Pass (presently on sale at $1o until June) and you will receive all 7 DLC options or you can buy the content seperately for the price of $20.00 as it releases on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network. Make sense? Didn't think so. Chicago Lightning Detective Suit (Social Club only) - May 17 Free with registration L.A. Noire Rockstar Pass (limited-time discount price) - May 31 $10.00 "The Naked City" DLC case - May 31 $4.00 "A Slip of The Tongue" DLC case - May 31 $4.00 Broderick Detective Suit and Gun - May 31 $1.00 Sharpshooter Detective Suit and Gun - May 31 $1.00 The Badge Pursuit Challenge - May 31; $2.00 Chicago Piano Machine Gun (free community unlock) - May 31 L.A. Noire Rockstar Pass (standard price) - June 14; $12.00 "Nicholson Electroplating Disaster" DLC case - June 21 $4.00 "Reefer Madness" DLC case - July 12 $4.00 via Take-Two Press Release

A trailer for Beachhead Studio's Call of Duty Elite has been leaked onto Youtube and Activision was quick to yank it down this morning due to copyright issues. The recent announcement of Beachhead Studios working on the pay to play Call of Duty service that is titled, "Call of Duty Elite" has left fans either shaking their heads at the notion of paying to play for yet another service of their beloved series or others just simply saying, "don't like it, don't play it". This service would mix together with Modern Warfare 3, however with Call of Duty Elite you are looking at somewhere around a $7.99 a month extra charge to access the extra content that you will not find with the game. This includes new levels for the game that can only be accessed through Call of Duty Elite DLC. Elite will also have online features such as leaderboards and stats that seem to be on par with Bungie's online Halo leaderboards and stat tracker. There will also be a feature where users can meet together online and play together, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said, "This is an enormous investment" regarding the route that it appears the Call of Duty franchise and fans might taking. via The Wall Street Journal Online

In late March, Microsoft filed for registration of three new trademarks that each bare the name "Fusion" in one way or another. This filing has sparked rumors of a Kinect only series to feature the name, "Fusion". Fusion Genesis, Fusion Sentinent, and Fusion Vault are all names that appeared on the filing and according to IGN, the Australian Classification Board has a rating of PG for Fusion Genesis which features mild science fiction violence and coarse language. Many gamers started speculating that this might be an announcement for a new Fuzion Frenzy series, however "Fusion" in the filing is spelled with an "s" not a "z". There are rumors that began last year of the next Xbox featuring AMD Fusion technolgy. Could this be a new hardware filing with a classification to take away suspicion or is it just a news series that might be Kinect enabled? via IGN

Playstation Network services will be fully restored this week says Sony. However if you live in Japan, Hong Kong, or South Korea you will still be waiting. In case you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months or are just suffering from a case of "fanboy denial" Sony suffered a security breach in late April that completely shut down all aspects of the Playstation Network and put thousands of credit card holders private information in jeopardy. via Playstation Blog

Were you one of the people who pre-orderd Duke Nukem Forever way back in the day? Well we have some good news for as long as you have a receipt from all those years ago as proof of your pre-order. GameStop announced over the weekend that they will be honoring all pre-orders for Duke Nukem from back when most of you probably weren't even a thought and that those pre-orders will receive "Duke's Big Package" which includes the black and red trucker hat along with the game. Now would be a good time to scour through your old receipts that you have been collecting for years and have been "meaning to go through". via The Escapist

The stage has been set for Ezio and Altair's final chapter in the Assassin's Creed saga. For fans that are anxiously awaiting for E3 to arrive, Ubisoft has put together this little teaser which is sure to build up even more anticipation as E3 approaches in the coming weeks. http://youtu.be/ClloTWxH7Lg via

Joystiq claims that they discovered that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier may be Kinect enabled. Joystiq is claiming that an image appeared late lastnight on Xbox.com that showed the cover of the game sporting a "Better With Kinect Sensor" purple logo. That image has since been taken down and replaced with regular looking cover art. If you pay attention to the differences in both covers you will see that Ubisoft logo has also been moved and both versions of the cover are extremely different. What do you think Ghost Recon fans? Would a Kinect enabled experience enhance or destroy your gaming experience with Future Soldier? via Joystiq

Max Payne 3 is "still in development" according to a recent posting on Eurogamer after they had an investor call with Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick, but would not say anything else regarding the game which seems to have slipped into the shadows. Max Payne 3 was originally suppose to see a release date of 2009, but unfortunately has been pushed twice and is not on the release calendar for Take-Two in the 2011-2012 year. via Eurogamer