The developer of such games as Brothers in Arms and Borderlands, Gearbox recently filed for a quartet of “War Hero” trademarks. However, they have now confirmed to Shacknews that the new franchise is “something down the road.”

Explaining that the trademarks reveal “a bit about our interests in the development of another original intellectual property,” Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford said that “we haven’t even talked to any potential partners” in regards to War Hero.

“So we’re certainly not ready to talk about it publicly at the moment,” he noted.

Pitchford further tells Shacknews that War Hero is not among the three mystery projects currently listed on Gearbox’s “games in development” page.

Pitchford added that the studio is currently “all gaga” over its October-due shooter-RPG Borderlands, with attentions “focused squarely on kicking ass.”

First announced way back in September of 2007, Gearbox Software has finally settled on a release for Borderlands – and it couldn’t of came at sooner time.

When speaking to Shacknews in a recent interview, developer Gearbox Software revealed that it’s targeting a October release for its post-apocalyptic shooter-RPG Borderlands.

“Borderlands represents an important evolutionary leap in game design and technology,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “By utilizing revolutionary new technology to create thousands of unique, randomly generated missions, weapons and situations, Borderlands will raise the bar for next gen action games.”

Please say it ain’t so. According to a post on the official 3D Realms forums, long running developer 3D Realms has closed its doors for the final time due to funding issues – as sources reported.

Although the developers did not explicitly confirm the closure, the recently relaunched Apogee Software and its publishing partner Deep Silver issued a statement saying they were “not affected by the situation at 3D Realms. Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned.”

3D Realms were working on such games as Duke Nukem Forever, which was originally announced back in 1997. However, Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two did confirmed to Shacknews that it wasn’t funding the project.

“We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title,” said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

[3D Realms closing doors, Duke Nukem Trilogy 'unaffected' via GameSpot]

Why EA, why? In a conference call earlier on today, it was revealed by EA CEO John Riccitiello that both Mass Effect 2 and a sequel to DICE’s Battlefield: Bad Company would be releasing within the first three months of 2010.

According to Shacknews, who originally reported the story, Riccitiello, during the conference call, said that Mass Effect 2 will arrive on multiple platforms, which means it could hit both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But, however, when they asked about about specific platforms for Mass Effect 2, an Electronic Arts representative told Shacknews that no details were available at this time.

Any-how, both games will now be released during the fourth quarter of the publisher’s 2010 fiscal year, which runs from January 1 to March 31.

The achivement list for the upcoming Duke Nukem 3D port was released today via the achievement guru, Achieve360Points. At first glance this is sign that the game has undergo certification and should be released very soon. Here’s what 3D Realms George Broussard had to say when speaking to ShackNews, “We officially passed final certification on our first try Friday, August 15th,”. While no price has been mention, ShackNews goes on to say that most games of this upcoming fall will fall behind the 800 and 1200 Microsoft point mark with a retail value between $10-15.

Almost all the fans of Team Fortress 2 now know all about the newest character, Scout. We don’t now much about him at this time, other then the fact that he is a bat wielding SOB who is will to kick your assets from here to kingdom come. As we where saying, this new character comes equipped with what looks like a bat and a shotgun. He also acts like if he grow up in the ghetto and he’s not the person you’ll want to mess with. Watch the video and don’t forget to put what you think about the trailer: