“It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum… and I’m all outta gum.”
Duke’s one-liners are the stuff of legend and, in some cases, the stuff of other people’s scripts. This, Duke’s most famous line, is pinched almost word-for-word from the film They Live, although we have to say Duke delivers it better than Rowdy Roddy Piper.

“Suck my boomstick!”
Doom may have set the precedent for the gaming shotgun as we know and love it, but Duke Nukem 3D definitely played a part in defining it. It’s big, it’s incredibly loud, it’s double-barreled and it turns enemies into piles of sloppy, meaty chunks. And in Duke Nukem Advance it came with an unsurpassed four barrels.

Duke Nukem Taking Forever
This was the nickname given to Duke Nukem Forever by its own project leader’s kids. Never has such a hotly anticipated game taken so very, very long. 12 years! And still counting. No matter what the game itself ultimately offers, it will always be most famous for that 12 (or maybe more) year development period.

Best. Trailer. Ever.
The E3 2008 trailer for Duke Nukem Trilogy on the PSP and DS is the single greatest game trailer ever released. Watch it now. If you don’t love it, there’s something really badly wrong with you and the rest of us are sorry you suck so much.

“Damn… I’m looking good.”
Duke Nukem was the first FPS hero who was actually able to understand and interact with the world around him. He could go for a pee, he could decide he didn’t have time to play pinball and he could even give money to naughty ladies. But the thing Duke liked to do most was admire himself in the mirror. He really is one handsome dude.

“Shake it baby!”
Duke Nukem loves strippers and all of his games feature them at some point – usually at the beginning. And the end. And most of the way through the middle. But they’re not just there as gratuitous window dressing. They’re integral to every Duke Nukem plot and key to the economic stability of Duke’s world.

“Nobody steals our graphics… and lives!”
Before it went 3D and made millions of dollars, the Duke Nukem series 2D and pioneered the concept of shareware gaming. A pioneer in terms of its business model perhaps, but quite derivative in terms of its look. Very derivative really. A lot of its graphical assets were, ahem, borrowed from classic 2D shooter, Turrican. For a full breakdown, go here.

“Damn! I hate disco!”
Duke Nukem was one of the first game series to feature licensed, and even commissioned, tracks by well-known bands. As Duke himself often says, he hates disco, but loves top hip-hop and metal artists such as Megadeth, Xzibit, Wu Tang Clan and Slayer.

“I’m a bird! I’m a plane! I’m Duke Nukem!”
Duke Nukem 3D’s jetpack is one of its most loved ad best remembers features. While other FPSs of the time were confined to cramped corridor environments, in Duke Nukem 3D, you could fly.

Why I’m So Great
The main reason Duke Nukem is an icon is that he says he is, and whatever Duke says, goes. He even wrote a book called Why I’m So Great so that readers could learn valuable life lessons courtesy of gaming’s all-time biggest ego. How considerate of him.

Ninja Theory, the developer behind upcoming action adventure game Enslaved: Odyssey To The West as well as PS3 exclusive Heavenly Sword, was kind enough to invite us to its Cambridge base for a behind the scenes look at its new game. While we were there we took a few snaps of the studio and some of the work-in-progress designs and assets it was working on.

As you walk into Ninja Thoery's studio you are greeted by these ornaments

What we appear to have here are some animation programs for Monkey

Environments are very important to Enslaved and countless assets have been made to populate the world

Once the characters were designed they were made into 3D models like this one that can be manipulated and animated

Then what they need is some skin. Scars and bruising are added to give a sense of these characters having lived a life before the game began

Here's Tom Colvin, the lead audio ninja at Ninja Theory. Some 80 plus sound effects can go into some of Monkey's takedowns alone

This is where all the magic is made. Note the anatomy poster on the wall. It's an area Ninja Theory is improving on with Enslaved

And in the Ninja Theory kitchen is this massive piece of Nariko pop art.

You can find out much more about Enslaved: Odyssey To The West from the development team itself in Play issue 196 on sale now.

10.
Viola
Zone Of The Enders
Sometimes (a lot of the time actually) it’s not really about the hair.

9.
Tyris Flare
Golden Axe
The original Tyris Flare was not a redhead. Weird given that her name kinda implies a fiery disposition, which everyone knows goes hand-in-hand with redheadedness. See also – Red Sonja.

8.
Trip
Enslaved
Well, if you’re going to be enslaved by someone, it could be a lot worse than a hot young redhead with a big hole in the ass of her pants…

7.
Oerba Dia Vanille
Final Fantasy XIII
It doesn’t matter how old a female Final Fantasy character actually is, Square’s designers will still ensure she looks like a hot nineteen year-old. Genius.

6.
Amy
Soul Calibur
Lacy, thigh-high stockings and massive boots… I feel faint.

5.
Joanna Dark
Perfect Dark
Rare’s switch from Nintendo to Microsoft was the best thing to ever happen to gamers who’re into redheads. An Xbox fanboy once told me Rare used precise scientific calculations to make Joanna Dark into an objectively perfect woman. This is clearly nonsense but still… hubba hubba!

4.
Nariko
Heavenly Sword
Heavenly Sword’s heavenly heroine has to rank highly here because she has more red hair than any other game character. Plus she has less covering her bottom than… well, most other game characters.

3.
Candy Cane
Rumble Roses
The ‘schoolgirl’ look is another one popular among female game characters, but of course Candy Cane is too old for school. It’s just a… ahem… fashion statement. She’d get expelled for wearing that to double biology.

2.
Kasumi
Dead Or Alive
Every now and again I make a top ten list without everyone’s favourite ginger ninja in it, and find myself wracked with guilt and regret for days afterwards. Not this time though.

1.
Blanka
Street Fighter
Seriously, when I first saw this guy, I felt an electricity between us.

Thanks to Gearbox Software Duke Nukem is returning and one of the longest running development projects in history, Duke Nukem Forever, is finally going to be finished. This is great news and it got us in the mood to celebrate by talking to Mr Nukem and finding out about his past adventures and private life.

Play: You’ve thrown yourself in the way of danger on many occassions. Are you ever concerned how things might pan out?

DN: There’s only two ways this can end, and in both of them you die

Play: Do you ever get bored of it all?

DN: Babes, bullets, bombs. Damn, I love this job!

Play: You don’t come away from your battles completely unscathed though. How do you handle field injuries?

DN: I ain’t got time to bleed!

Play: What sort of music do you listen to when you’re not kicking butt and taking names? We’d take you for a classic rock man, but maybe you like disco?

Duke Nukem: Damn, I hate disco!

Play: You also seem to have a lot of love for the ladies. Any thoughts of settling down with someone special as a couple?

DN: My boot, your face; the perfect couple

Play: Any particular areas of the body you recommend budding Dukes target when fighting alien scum?

DN: Your face, your ass, what’s the difference?

Play: Do you have any particular food loves or hates?

DN: I HATE bacon!

Play: How did you handle travelling back in time to meet the Roman’s? What did you say to fit in?

DN: Friends, Romans, countrymen… lend me your chicks

Play: What have you got planned for the rest of your day?

DN: It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of gum!

And with that Mr Nukem left. In the mean time we can look forward to finding out more about Duke Nukem Forever in the coming months.

Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon
Back in the early days of PlayStation these two chaps had a promising career as mascots ahead of them. The failure of protracted and lengthy contract negotiations saw the two released from Sony duties as free agents.

Unfortunately for them, things were never the same post-PS. Crash unsuccessfully attempted to open a crate manufacturing business in western Bognor Regis, but was closed down by health and safety inspectors after thirteen workers were killed by exploding boxes (one inspector was quoted as saying “these boxes explode on contact. I see no reason – at all – why they should exist”).

Spyro moved into the club circuit and for a short time was a successful cruise ship singer. This career was cut short after he was jailed for embezzlement in 2004. He has not been heard from since.

Robbit (Jumping Flash)
“I remember those days fondly”, Robbit told us when we caught up with him in the old robotic rabbits home. “I would jump, then I would land. Then I would jump again. Sometimes I would follow that up with another landing. Great days. You can’t get days like that anymore – especially not with my rusty joints.”

After his brief flash of success on the PlayStation, Robbit moved into used car sales where he made a successful living selling chopped motors to unsuspecting members of the public.

He is now retired, living it up in a luxury complex. “Then I would jump. Sometimes I would land – but if I didn’t land, I would always try again. I also wore an onion on my belt, which was the style of the time…”

Ching Tong Chang (Motor Toon Grand Prix 2)
Chang had a future all laid out for him – the product of then-upcoming studio Polyphony Digital, he would regularly boast about how he was set to become a true icon of the PlayStation generation.

This status as a bona-fide mascot never came to fruition, however, on account of two unfortunate incidents. Firstly Polyphony moved onto what they considered a ‘better’ option in Gran Turismo – Chang was quoted as saying “who cares about that? Whoever made this decision is stupid. He’s an idiot. And he’s fat.”

Secondly, Chang was released from his duties in 1998 after being involved in a race-hate controversy. His career never recovered.

Fo Fai (Battle Arena Toshinden)
The heady excesses of the early days of PlayStation may seem laughable to us now, in our ivory towers made of pure, futuristic, hindsight-toting arrogance, but back in 1995 there was one man who made the cover of every magazine under the sun (including a rarely-publicised appearance on the front of PlayGirl). Fo Fai had it all – wisdom, claws, a high-pitched voice – but he didn’t have the ability to avoid changing trends.

He simply fell out of favour – out of fashion. Fai went into hiding for a number of years, returning from the shadows in 2007 to offer public classes on “how to pull the ladies (and not claw their eyes out)”. The last we heard he was on the verge of being offered a reality TV show based on these classes, set to air on Channel Five.

Parappa The Rapper
Possibly the most successful pooch to come out of our research into PlayStation’s past, Parappa now likes to be known by his given surname, Smith. Nevertheless, the positive-thinking, free-spirited pup with that frog-sporting beanie has gone from strength to strength, even in the wake of his poorly-received PS2 sequel.

Throughout his career a successful motivational speaker, Parappa has recently seen his life make headway for the Oval Office. He is expected to be elected Senator of Arkansas in the upcoming state elections and has already informed friends of his ambitions towards the Presidency of the US.

We were unable to get word from US lawmakers whether or not an anthropomorphic dog is allowed to run for the most powerful job in the world, but they’ve already had a chimpanzee (HAHA GEORGE BUSH JOKE), so why not?

Green Car (Ridge Racer)
Green Car had it rough, even back in the 90s. He was fighting a constant battle for column inches and cover images with the ever-popular Red Car, but this was a fight that would not go well.

Falling out of favour with Ridge Racer management, Green saw his stock go from average to nothing. Within five years he was selling his parts on the street, offering low-paying bums a brief glimpse of what it’s like to race in a rather slow, but good at handling car.

We were one of the first publications notified beyond Green’s immediate family of his death in 2008. He had been living rough for around a decade by this point, and new government mandates dictated that cars without the correct tax details would be towed and crushed. Green never stood a chance against this state-sponsored euthanasia.

Apparently we could be hearing something about Resident Evil 6 in the near future and that got us rather excited. So excited that we thought we would pay tribute to Resi 5 this week by picking out some of the best fan art around. Enjoy.

This excellent compilation image is brought to you by pant

Redfield looks like all this shooting and fighting is getting to him in kamillyonsiya's piece

XMenouX has Sheva and Chris strike a pose

As haruningster shows, Sheva can be very demanding

A dog is not a man's best friend in Resi 5 as AIBryce depicts

The locals are revolting, just some are more revolting than others thanks to AIBryce

After all the killing the gang enjoy some card games thanks to piyo119

Aki03 pays tribute to Mercenaries mode

All images from DeviantArt.com

“All four of these,” he said, “Are free-for-all elimination based game modes – we made and then scrapped team-based versions entirely – where it’s just you and the purity of your weapons platforms and that’s it. There’s something really core about that, something down to the fundamentals of the game. The purity of these four game modes will get people excited.”

Wager matches have met with mixed reactions from fans since being revealed yesterday, but we can honestly say that they are really exciting to play. We loved them and so did everyone else at the exclusive hands on event at Treyarch’s headquarters. It was actually pretty difficult to conduct an interview in the same room while they were going on,

“You can tell they’re playing Wager matches,” the game’s online director, Dan Bunting told us over the noise, “They get louder.”

There’s much more information and insight into Call Of Duty: Black Ops in PLAY’s exclusive cover feature this month. Accept no imitations – no other UK PS3 magazine has visited Treyarch and played the game. Pick up a copy at all good newsagents NOW!

games™ has picked the 100 greatest videogames of all time, and hits shelves today with a special, limited edition cover for each. Follow the links to check out the covers: 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-100.

Issue 100 also features in-depth interviews with industry legends such as Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, Yoshinori Ono and Peter Molyneux, as well as a look back at the last ten years in gaming. It also discusses what the future might hold with some of the finest minds in the biz.

“gamesTM hits shelves today with a special, limited edition for each ”

Plus:

FEATURES
Discuss The Decade In this issue 100 special edition of Discuss, we look back on the events, developments, controversies, promises, surprises and quotes from the last ten years in videogames.

100 Greatest Games Of All Time As we reach our centenary issue, gamesTM chooses the 100 greatest games in history. The gloves are off. Let the arguments begin.

Great Expectations Peter Molyneux promised us a no-holds barred interview, and wouldn’t you know it, he actuallly delivered. gamesTM speaks to the legendary game designer about Fable 3, Kinect and a boy named Milo.

No Gods Or Kings With BioShock Infinite now officially unveiled, we sit down with Irrational Games co-founder Ken Levine to discuss his past, present and future.

Street Fighting Man Street Fighter IV was a major factor in the rebirth of the beat-’em-up – we talk to Yoshinori Ono, the man responsible for arcade sticks becoming a coffee table centrepiece.

Team Player ‘There’s no ‘I’ in team’, they say. Clearly they weren’t talking about Sonic Team, or the head of the Sega codeshop, Takashi Iizuka.

Outrageous Misfortune He’s one of the games industry’s brightest and most creative talents, but his career has been beset by bad luck. We ask Tim Scafer about staying funny in the face of adversity.

A Link To The Future We speak to a number of industry legends, including David Braben and David Cage, about what they think the future holds for gaming.

REVIEWS
The definitive verdicts on the biggest games, including… Metroid: Other M Shank Valkyria Chronicles II StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty R.U.S.E. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light Limbo Mafia II Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair

RETRO
Behind The Scenes – Burnout 3: Takedown gamesTM is given unrestricted access to the Criterion vault, returning with the untold story of the developer’s finest arcade racer.

VCS
Veterans Howard Scott Warshaw talks to his former Atari colleagues, and returns with their account of the rise and fall of the original videogame company.

Famicom Memories Japan’s best known retro gamers look back at the genesis of the country’s videogame age and the incredible impact of Nintendo’s Family Computer.

Issue 100 is available now from all good newsagents or online from the Imagine eShop. You can even select which cover you’d like to order by clicking here, though supplies of each will be extremely limited so you’ll want to act fast to get the one you want. Alternatively get it on your mobile device via iTunes.

In Issue 195 of Play we promised you our full interview with God Of War novel author Robert E Vardeman, so here it is. Enjoy.

Play: Was there anything in particular that attracted you to working on the God Of War novel?
Vardeman: When I was in the fifth grade, the only interesting book in the library was an old book of mythology dating back to the 1930s.  It had slick pages, unlike the other books with their pulp paper, and best of all were the full-color illustrations.  The pictures of Pegasus and Hercules and Jason and Achilles were magical.  I was already hooked on reading science fiction and had read everything Clarke and Asimov had written (up to that point), but this old textbook got me started on fantasy, especially Greek mythology with the intricate pantheon of gods and goddesses.  The chance to frolic in Olympus and fight with the Ghost of Sparta was an opportunity not to be missed.

Play: How closely did you have to stick to the plot of the game itself?
RV: It was necessary to give gamers a solid foundation—and this was the story of Kratos they already knew so well.  But a novel is a completely different creature from a game.  Fighting minotaurs and undead legionnaires requires a lot of dexterity and reflexes but not much in the way of dramatic tension or plot arc or characterization.  To make a novel that didn’t simply follow the splendid action of the game required additional material.  What was Zeus doing while Kratos battled?  What did Athena do to remove Ares when Zeus had decreed that one god could not fight another?  This added political fighting, subterfuge, back-stabbing and clandestine alliances behind the scenes to give motivation to Kratos’ battles.
So, the game plot is all there but with new material to add dramatic elements best suited in a novel.

Play: Did you need to play the game extensively beforehand to familiarise yourself with it?
RV: If I’d had to play through the game to learn what was happening, I’d still be playing (after all those years I’d still be waiting to blow the horn to summon Cronos!)  When DOOM was new, I took an impossible time to get through it and proved to myself sudoku is where I ought to spend my time.  I am still working up the nerve to get started on HALF-LIFE, and probably will still be working up the nerve this time next year.  But you can bet I’ll have done a lot of sudokus before then.

Play: How much additional research did you do into Greek history and mythology to support the book?
RV: The mythology of GOD OF WAR is based on traditional Edith Hamilton Greek mythology but has added trials, tribulations and motivations.  The Olympians are still venal and heroic and self-centered and high-minded, with all human traits vastly magnified, but there are stories not found in conventional Greek mythology.  Think of the GOD OF WAR universe as the accepted mythology on steroids.

Play: What do you think of Kratos as a lead character? Is he quite unique?
RV: Kratos is a tortured soul, wanting only surcease from the fate Ares has decreed for him.  The hero on a quest is the mainstay of mythology, and Kratos fits this mould well.  His single-minded mission turns him into a force of nature, the irresistible force that cannot be stopped.  Throughout, his tortured spirit drives him.  So, yes, he is a substantial character who must carry out the will of the gods but does so for his own reasons.  This conflict of motives makes him a great, if troubled, hero.

Play: Do you think Kratos could support further novels, perhaps going beyond the events of the three games?
RV: I am currently working on the second GOD OF WAR book, again following the game while adding and expanding and explaining the machinations of the gods (and heroes)(and Titans)(and Fates) to the mix.  Beyond the games’ plots are so many potential story ideas where Kratos would be a perfect fit that it would be a shame if there weren’t auxiliary books to fill in the details of his quest as well as stories while a minion of Ares (or even a Spartan commander before he met the Barbarian King).  And then there could be…but there are so many exciting possibilities to expand the adventures of the Ghost of Sparta.

“We know the values and merits of having a beta,” he explained, “But we also know the cons of having one. We know the fans want it, and if we do it you’ll here it first from me.”

The cons are that running a beta involves releasing an unfinished version of the game into the public domain, which carries the danger of making people think that game isn’t as good as it actually is. Having spent a whole day playing the game though, we reckon if the game ran as a beta in its current state, no one would be disappointed.

There’s much more information and insight into Call Of Duty: Black Ops in PLAY’s exclusive cover feature this month. Accept no imitations – no other UK PS3 magazine has visited Treyarch and played the game. Pick up a copy at all good newsagents from September 2nd.