Duke Nukem DLC out next week

Following the release of the critically panned Duke Nukem Forever in June, Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick said future Duke Nukem projects were in the development pipeline. While a Duke Nukem Forever follow-up may be a ways off, the original game is set to expand next week with the release of the Hail to the Icons Parody Pack add-on.

Gearbox has announced on its forums that the Hail to the Icons Parody Pack will hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 11. The pack features four new maps, four new weapons, and three new modes, all for the multiplayer portion of the game. The new maps will have nods to previous first-person shooters like Call of Duty and Doom, while the new modes include Freeze Tag, Hot Potato, and the free-for-all Hail to the King mode.

The pack will be free for members of the First Access Club, which is limited to gamers who had preordered Duke Nukem Forever from specific retailers or purchased the Game of the Year edition for Gearbox's previous first-person shooter, Borderlands.

In addition to the DLC, Gearbox is rolling out a patch for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions of Duke Nukem Forever on October 11. According to Gearbox, this patch will add support for the Hail to the Icons Parody Pack and other "optimizations and bug fixes."

Despite the poor critical reception for Duke Nukem Forever upon release, the game was June's second-best-selling offering, bested only by another Take-Two property: L.A. Noire.