Much as 2011 was a year of sequels, some of the most anticipated games of 2012 look to be continuations on existing franchises. One of these titles came from one of the sleeper hits of 2009 called Borderlands, from Gearbox.

In Borderlands, players got the choice between one of four classes of characters and could play through the world by themselves or with up to three friends cooperatively online in an apocalyptic world with a cell shaded comic book art style. The game came from out of no where and would spawn its own community and garnered loads of DLC as well.

Coming in 2012, Borderlands 2 features new classes including the already famous gunzerker, new locations and new challenges. The four original characters from Borderlands are said to be returning nonplayable characters and favorites like Clap Trap will make appearances as well. This time, a man by the name of Handsome Jack claims responsibility for the deeds of the vault hunters from the first game and has used it to gain control of the Hyperion Corporation and has taken a strong hold on the world of Pandora and now is trying to expand his power.

The game will continue Borderlands’ FPS RPG style featuring quest lines, leveling up and loot drops all using the modified Unreal Engine 3 to power it. Take a peek below at the teaser trailer from the team at Gearbox for Borderlands 2, coming to the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in July 2012.

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Yesterday we took a look at Minecraft, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Capcom, Dark Souls and Portal 2. Today, we have a whole second set of awards to be given out for the best (and worst) of 2011.

Game That Shouldn’t Have Taken Nearly As Long to Come Out: Duke Nukem Forever

What happened in the time span since Duke Nukem Forever began development?

The entire Presidential run of George W. Bush.

This writer’s entire high school and college career.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Clone Wars were all released in theaters.

The XBox was released and ended its lifecycle.

Activision released 7 proper Call of Duty titles.

Lost.

A child born when development started would have grown to be a teenager.

The list goes on and on…

And the worst part is, after all that wait… Duke Nukem Forever wasn’t very good when it did finally come out. What was considered controversial when the game began production is pretty tame by comparison to what people are enjoying in gaming now and the humor comes off as sophomoric instead of clever.

While we can understand the desire to release a passion project to finally let it see the light of day, sometimes it is better to let it enjoy a quiet death with some dignity instead of coming out guns blazing as a failure.

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If you’re one of the people who’s been waiting fifteen years for Duke Nukem Forever to arrive, your wait is finally over. That’s right folks, after many, many delays and lots of time since Duke Nukem 3D’s original release, the sequel Duke Nukem Forever, which was announced way back in 1997, has now arrived.

“June 14 in North America will forever be celebrated as the day that legendary Duke Nukem Forever went from video game folklore to earth-shattering reality,” Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K Games, said. “For 15 years, fans have waited in limbo just yearning to hear those two little lovely words strung together–now available.”

As happy as this news is for many old school gamers, early reviews of the game have not been, shall we say, kind. The Guardian’s review was particularly unflattering saying: ”If this was 15 years in the making, it makes you wonder what they did for the other 14 years and 10 months.” Ouch.

Even with the seeming bad press after waiting so long for a game to arrive it seems a shame to not at least check it out. After all, how bad could it really be?

Duke Nukem Forever is in stores now and available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

After years of speculation, delays and a feeling it was really never going to happen at all, we’ve finally got a firm belief that Duke Nukem Forever is actually going to come out. How do we know?

Well, we’ve got a launch trailer for the game to share with you today. Sure, it’s only taken about 14 years (the game was first in development in 1997) to get to his point, but who’s counting? Having a launch trailer has got to be a pretty good indicator, right?

In case you’re not familiar with Duke Nukem Forever, it’s the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, which launched in 1996, and continues the story of badass Duke Nukem as he winds his way through a world infested with zombies, aliens and scantily clad women. In this new game the aliens have returned and are stealing earth’s women. Of course, Duke isn’t having any and takes matters into his own hands.

Check out the trailer after the jump. By clicking through you certify you are 18 years of age or older.

Duke Nukem Forever drops on June 14th for XBox 360, PS3 and PC.

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Sometimes it’s good to be bad. 2K games makes you an offer you can’t refuse with their recent release, Mafia 2. Transport yourself to Empire City, a pseudo-New York City of the 40′s and 50′s, for a gritty adventure of betrayal and violence.

Gameplay:

Mafia 2 plays a lot like a standard open world third person action adventure game. You drive or walk to missions. The missions are linear so you don’t get much distraction from the story. The problem with this type of build is that the missions start becoming redundant. Go save this guy, drive here, go kill that guy. No real side missions. No decision making.

You can go anywhere but there unfortunately isn’t much to do outside of the storyline based missions. You can make money by stealing cars or robbing shops. You can buy new clothes, get your car washed, or get your car souped-up.

This gathering of wealth and buying of material things isn’t very useful as the game makes you restart with nothing due to various plot points throughout the game. This unfortunately leads to an uneventful experience when not in the missions.

There are also collectibles that can be found throughout the game. Playboy magazines are hidden through out the levels, and are time sensitive, which means if you missed them the first time you were in an area they will disappear and they can later appear in areas you already visited.

Wanted poster collectibles are not time sensitive and can be found hidden in back alleys, on fences and behind buildings. There are no in game benefits that I can discern, but you can view them in your gallery.

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So E3 starts tomorrow officially while today is the Microsoft Press conference. As you have already seen, we have gotten some advanced notice on some of the happenings going on at the event.  A few changes will be happening with our coverage of the event compared to last year.

This year we won’t be giving a fully detailed recap of the BIG 3 Press Conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as a formal post. We will, however, be posting our thoughts and coverage on the big announcements and trailers as well as give a full indepth discussion with Matt Raub, Chris Ulrich and myself on this week’s episode of the podcast.

We have also gotten official word from various industry sources on what companies will be showing at the event. These have come from various press releases, other industry insiders and various leaks from the LA Convention Center itself regarding the event.

There has also been tremendous speculation around the event. Some of those rumors will be examined below as well. Finally, some of my own personal E3 2010 theories and predictions will be put out there too.

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Since video games came into being, setting records or being the first to hit a huge accomplishment has driven repeated plays of even the simplest titles. From the high score on Galaga to reaching the kill screen in Donkey Kong, gamers set goals for themselves no matter how time consuming to achieve.

Just like a real game of baseball, gamers have been given the goal in Major League Baseball 2K10 to pitch a perfect game. Not out of the realm of possibilities but certainly not easy to come by. To reward the first individual to throw a perfect game, 2K Games is offering a $1,000,000 prize.

On sale today, the first player to hit a verified perfect game on either the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3 will be eligible for this prize. Also on sale for the Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, PSP and PlayStation 2, the two higher end systems were probably decided on because of their constant internet connectivity and tracking abilities (despite PlayStation 3′s rough week so far).

The feat must be accomplished in the game’s MLB Today mode and the player must select the “Major League Baseball 2K10 contest” . Ending May 1st, players are given two full months to video record the successful completion of a perfect game in which no opposing player reaches a base for any reason.

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Bioshock was one of the unexpected gems of late 2008. With its immerse story and compelling narrative style, this first person shooter left people wanting more. Even with a lackluster final battle, Bioshock took the video game world by storm and had people clamoring for more of Rapture, the underwater world created by Andrew Ryan in hopes of a Utopian society.

Since its announcement, Bioshock 2 has been one of the driving forces of the video game world, especially with the announcement of a multiplayer mode being added. Coming February 9th to the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, 2K games let the world see the game’s final release trailer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

They took the same approach of gameplay-styled footage in the first person perspective but this time put the viewer in to the head of the Big Daddy character they will be playing as. This trailer also gives people their first glimpse at the power of a Big Sister in the heat of battle.

Take a look for yourself at the trailer after the jump and stay tuned to The Flickcast for more info on Bioshock 2 as it becomes available.

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