Feb 14, 2011 09:34 GMT  ·  By

Gearbox Software, as the developer, and 2K Games, as the publisher, have announced that they will be launching a special Balls of Steel edition for their first-person shooter Duke Nukem Forever, which is set to be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC on May 3 of this year.

[admark=1]Here are the items that make up the special edition of Duke Nukem Forever:

- a bust of the Duke that has collectable value, with the company describing him as “the greatest alien ass-kicker of all-time>; - a certificate of authenticity for the special edition, complete with signatures and with a order number; - a book called The History, Legacy & Legend: Duke Nukem Forever Art from the Vault, which has 100 pages and shows off the various iterations of the character as the development process progressed; - a series of postcards based on Duke Nukem Forever; - a Duke Nukem Forever radioactive emblem sticker; - Duke Nukem Forever collectable comic book; - a paper craft series based on Duke Nukem Forever; - Duke Nukem Forever poker chips; - Duke Nukem Forever mini-card deck; - Duke Nukem Forever radioactive emblem dice.

A copy of the game is also included, and the Balls of Steel edition can be preordered now by long time fans of the Duke.

Duke Nukem Forever has long been vaporware, a product that its developers were talking about but which had limited chances of ever being released.

The game has been in development for about 13 years and the initial team at 3D Realms which worked on it managed to bankrupt itself before finishing.

Gearbox took over the development effort in 2010 and announced that the project would be released this year, but there are certain industry watchers that will only believe Duke Nukem Forever is complete when they finally manage to pick up a copy on May 3.