Break out your tired and hoary Duke Nukem delay jokes, as the authorized fan remake of Duke Nukem 3D in Unreal Engine 3 has been put on indefinite hold for reasons not entirely clear. However, developer Interceptor Entertainment does hope to finish Duke Nukem: Reloaded one day, and goodness knows Duke's fans are good at waiting.

"After careful consideration of the progress and direction of the project, Interceptor Entertainment has decided to finish Duke Nukem: Reloaded at a future date that is yet to be determined," the team announced (via PC Gamer). "We hope to resume that work again when the time is right."

Why exactly Interceptor has chosen to place the project on hold is something of a mystery.

Interceptor says that it "still has the good will and non commercial license provided to us to use the Duke Nukem brand for our creative ambitions." However, a forum post from project lead Frederik Schreiber says that the license and agreement have mysterious, unspecified conditions it "can't live with."

While The Internet quickly started pointing fingers at Duke Nukem franchise owner Gearbox, both say it was Interceptor's choice.

"The recent Duke Nukem: Reloaded decision was not a Gearbox one by any means. There has been no change of heart or stance at Gearbox or any other parties. Interceptor Entertainment made this decision on their own," Gearbox marketing man Adam Fletcher said in a forum post.

"The non-commercial license agreement that we happily provided to the team is still valid."

It is a shame that development has stalled now, as Interceptor seemed to be preparing to release something.

Schreiber says that the team was "actually in the final phase of the game, slowly starting our Beta phase." He claims that the "current multiplayer version" of Reloaded is "around 90% finished," though it's not clear exactly what that contains. When Reloaded was first announced last year, Interceptor planned for the initial release to be a multiplayer-only milestone build with several maps and weapons.

Still, as Duke Nukem Forever showed, Duke Nukem can wait a long time for the right time when it comes. He's a bit shy, the poor lamb. Doesn't get out much. Really needs people to bring him out of his shell.

Here's another look at Duke Nukem: Reloaded's debut trailer from October 2010, showing off its revamp of the start area in Duke Nukem 3D's first level: