First Duke Nukem Forever DLC pack to take aim at shooter legends

2K Games and Gearbox are extending Duke Nukem's reunion tour with a new multiplayer DLC pack that looks to throw a few jabs at the King's biggest competitors. Due out this fall, the Hail to the Icons Parody Pack will introduce three new multiplayer modes, an extended arsenal and four new maps 'inspired' by the likes of Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, generic sandbox gamesand old school Doom.

The less-than-subtle parody maps make up the bulk of the games first add-on pack. In Call of Duke, players will trade shots in a destitute war-ravaged city wherein Duke can call in a N00b T00b attack, which we assume will be something akin to an air strike but with clueless newbs and/or internet trolls in lieu of bombs. Elsewhere in the map Sandbox, combatants will be shrunk down to mini-Dukes and let loose in a bonefide children's sandbox packed with kids toys and Sticky Bombs. The referential good times keep on rolling in Inferno, a retro-style map invoking the old days of Doom; and 2Forts1Bridge, Gearbox'snod to Valve's Team Fortress 2, of which Gearbox writes: “Hats? Duke doesn’t need no stinking hats. Give him a minigun and he’ll beat off all comers.”

The new modes include Freeze Tag, a team game where players run up the score by freezing and shattering their opponents in quick succession; Hot Potato, a contest to see who can 'hold the babe' the longest; and Hail to the King, a “free-for-all” Duke style frag-fest.

Hail to the Icons Parody Pack will be available for all versions of Duke Nukem Forever, and free to eager DNF loyalists who signed up for the First Access Club prior to the game's launch. In anticipation of the pack's release this fall, Gearbox is inviting anyone within the Novato, California, area to test play the new content on Thursday, August 4th. Full details (and understandable age restrictions) are now posted on2K Games' website.

Jul 27, 2011


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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.