It's really real. Duke Nukem Forever is being published by 2K Games and developed by Gearbox. Here are our first hand impressions.

Here are some quick notes notes on the game, courtesy of Andrew Reiner's time with the PAX demo:

• Duke Nukem Forever is running on current technology, not a DOS-based engine like previously thought. The game looks amazing, and shows no signs of being 10+ years old.

• Gearbox's Randy Pitchford talked about the game. "This is actually happening. Can you believe this?" He said. "We don't want the dream to die. We brought all of the guys back together. We want to finish the game. Preserve what they made. Add to it. Expand it."

• Allen Blum, one of the level designers of the original Duke Nukem 3D, is still working on the game.

• The opening cinematic begins with aliens returning to Earth. They tear down a statue of Duke. They are after Earth's women.

• Duke runs across a huge three-breasted demon. In classic Duke style, he says, "I'd still hit it."

• The shrink ray gun has returned. There's also a rail gun, tons of alien weapons, and huge enemies.

• The game's signature humor is back: The game reportedly contains "first-person urinal peeing," complete with a golden stream. Hitting left on the D-pad gives you beer.

• After the intro, the demo begins: Duke is in the bathroom in a football stadium, taking a leak. He follows a group of commandos out onto the field to battle a 4-story Cycloid. It's raining out, and the water splashes on the screen beautifully. The Cycloid fires rockets at Duke, and has a thruster pack that allows him to charge the protagonist at high speeds. It's similar to the football field fight in Duke 3D.

Here's a blurry picture of the demo room. You can see that the game is running on the Xbox 360:

Here's a picture of Andy playing the demo:

• The demo continues...Duke takes the Cycloid down, grabs onto its head, and rips its gigantic eye out. He kicks it through the goalpost -- field goal!

• A driving sequence is up next. Duke is driving through a canyon in a monster truck. Alien ships are shooting the canyons to drop boulders in his path.

• The monster truck eventually runs out of gas, and Duke has to go on foot. Luckily, he has an alien sniper rifle and a pistol with a laser sight.

• Next, he encounters some of the pig aliens. They are incredibly agile, more boar-like in their movements than in Duke 3D: They gallop on all fours and are brutal at close quarters. One of them drops an RPG when he's killed. This area is vast and completely open, reminiscent of Borderlands. As expected, the RPG makes a big mess of the pigs -- blood is everywhere by the time the fighting has ceased.

Pitchford told us that Gearbox started working on the game a year ago and that the company owns the IP. We'll bring you more information on the game as soon as we can. Man, Duke Nukem Forever is actually coming out in 2011. Who would've thought?