So I hear that Duke Nukem Forever is shipping in 2011...

[Tev]

Maybe it's lies....maybe it's not.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, there are lies, damned lies, and Duke Nukem Forever stories. The game's been vaporware for over a decade. Leaked screens and gameplay videos from so-called alpha versions occasionally emerge then fade in a muddle of half-baked theories, forum mockery, and fan dismay. When the game's now defunct publisher 3D Realms talk about the game these days, few listen.

Until today, that is.

Yesterday 3D Realms president George Broussard teased gamers with a picture of pigs flying. (In a 2006 1UP interview, Broussard joked the game would be out when pigs flew.) Today, he's explaining what that means. Or at least the game's new developer is.

At PAX Prime 2010, Gearbox (Brothers in Arms, Borderlands) president Randy Pitchford confirmed rumors that his studio has assumed responsibility for the practically mothballed shooter. What's more, he announced it'll be playable--that's right, playable--on the show floor.

"People seem to be enjoying the game a lot," reads a dispatch from 2K Games' Twitter feed. "How many [PAX] folks thought they'd leave Seattle having played [Duke Nukem Forever]?"

The game, due in 2011, will be available simultaneously for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows.

So they got some new guys who actually have it in them to maybe make this happen. The part about it being playable on the showroom floor is nice.

Anyway.....taking bets on what we may actually get in 2011?