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.

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• After 13 years of production and impatient waiting, it looks like Duke Nukem Forever is finally hitting shelves very soon. So soon that the first launch trailer has hit and already has us salivating.

• As if the laws in Tennessee weren’t crazy enough, a new law has passed making it illegal for people to share Netflix accounts. Bring on the legal grey area debates!

• Green Lantern: Emerald Knights hits stores next Tuesday, but if you can’t wait that long, we totally understand. Here’s a way to win a free copy so you can spend that money on important things like tickets to Green Lantern in theaters.

• What happens when you mix classic horror and cult films with well-known cereal brands? The epicness of the Cereal Killers trading cards from Eye Wax. Names like “Clockword Porridge” and “Zomb’a Crunch” are enough to get us to buy several boxes.

• Just in time for the possibly huge release of X-Men: First Class, contributor Wally has put together a pretty comprehensive list of the Top 5 X-Men Video Games. Sadly, Marvel Ultimate Alliance doesn’t make the cut.

• In nerdy business news, Groupon has filed for an IPO, allowing it to become publicly traded. Rumor has it, there will even be a Groupon deal for stocks…

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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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On my second day of the Penny Arcade Expo up in Boston, I took to the show floor to check out the booths of what I considered the three biggest and most anticipated games at the convention. One of these games is a follow-up two amazing titles for the Xbox 360. One is the sequel to the best first-person puzzle-platform of our time.

And the third is a game that most, if not all of us, never expected to see released. Gears of War 3, Portal 2, and Duke Nukem Forever were all booths that never ceased to cause lines and buzz all throughout the weekend.

Check out my favorites after the jump.

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It’s that time of year again when we all gather together to see our loved ones… that’s right. The Con season has begun. Whether it’s SXSW, Toy Fair, C2E2 or Comic Con in San Diego, if you are a reader (or writer) of the Flickcast, it’s likely you are going to end up at least one, if not all, of the Cons this season. Our first one up on the east coast is Toy Fair. Now while Toy Fair isn’t open to the general public, we made sure to get in and get a peek at some of the hottest new toys of the season.

We got to take a peek at the new models for the Walking Dead action figures alongside our friends from MTV Splashpage as the legendary Todd McFarlane himself explained how the zombie bodies will literally explode in the customer’s hands. We can’t wait to see the final versions in action.

There was a plethora of Green Lantern merchandise that we were unfortunately unable to snag pictures of as well as the brand new Thundercats line which is coming out soon. We were able to sneak a few pictures though of some of the Mezco Green Lantern products though.

The video game world was represented strong with Sonic The Hedgehog, Halo, Deus Ex, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy and Little Big Planet. Activision also announced to the world Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure for the Wii where toys and video games come together in a very interesting new way. Check back later this week for a full post including video of the product in action.

Check out all of our pics from Toy Fair below and keep checking back this week for more from the show (including an appearance on this week’s podcast discussing it with Matt and Chris)!

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