Viridian Dreams Forum

So, an official trailer's been released, IGN's updated its page with it, and there's news coming out of PAX that there was a 15 minute demo for Duke Nukem Forever...

People, is this finally happening, or am I just dreaming?

I suspect it may be a mass hallucination. Either that, or it is building up to a very elaborate April Fools joke (although starting 7 months early does seem a tad excessive). I mean, the Saints already won the Superbowl. We can't have any other signs of the apocalypse, can we?

I saw the live stream about two or so days ago. I've waited for this day.

Well the B.C Lions did beat Montreal in football today.....

I dunno could be real

could be just another chain in the long links of development hell.

Well, this might also be it. Remember how long it took for them to finally develop Fallout 3.

On the other hand....

I'll say here what I've said elsewhere, "I'll get excited about this when I actually see it on store shelves."

12 years of being promised this game, and getting exactly nuthin' has soured me just a bit.

Can someone explain the point of still being excited for a game after twelve years? especially one that has a very high chance of just being another FPS, admittedly probably a very good FPS but still it from what I've read was revealed it's not doing anything to shake up the genre.

People are still excited for Duke Nukem for the same reason people are still excited about someday having off world colonies, delicious food that keeps you healthy no matter how much you eat and world peace. They are all things we've been waiting for.

The first two I see happening, the last one?

Not gonna happen.

6000 years of recorded history, and only 21 of them enjoyed "world peace."

I think Darkandus was providing it to just be kinda coy. For a lot of gamers we thought that Duke Nukem forever was NEVER going to come about, and that it was just a long shot of a dream as the things he described.

I point out how the same was thing was considered true for Fallout 3. Of course, I will cheerfully remain skeptical until a demo is available, with a release date.

Then, I might consider that the rumors might be true after all.

I bet it'll come out Dec 2012 - at which point the day it comes out will be the start of the end of the world.

Gotta love that Mayan Long Calendar.

Of course, it might just end the world due to sheer awesome.

EDIT: Street date is Feb 1, 2011. Well let's see if it goes off the vaporware shelf.

Well, it's out. Finally.


And I wish to god that it had stayed vaporware. Leaving aside the misogyny, the game is just bad. Sections that would have been quirky and funny just drag on and on. There are long periods where you're playing a first person platformer, and not a particularly good one, rather than a shooter. Level designs are painfully linear, with the partial exception of the beginning.

Duke's one-liners, one of the big things about the character are dated, sad, and not-funny. Even Duke's voice actor sounds bored and indifferent.

Technically underwhelming, particularly on the XBox 360. Graphics have objects that are incredibly sharp next to backgrounds that are pitifully blurry. AI is as sharp as a brick and simply charges forward without bothering with cover; even the 'porting enemies. And the icing on this fail-cake? 40 second load screens. Every. Time. New area? 40 second load screen. Get killed a minute after that load screen? Another 40 second load screen. And there is no reason I could see for it. The graphics weren't that good and the distance to the next load screen wasn't that far; and even with the long load screens, there's a noticeable drop in framerate when more than a couple of enemies are on the screen.

For once, I'm in total agreement with most game reviewers. This is not a good game.

My advice? Rent it for nostalgia and to say you played a game over 10 years in development, but don't waste your money on it like I did. I'd sell it back to a game store, but I have a sneaking suspicion they'll not be buying them due to already being over-stocked...

There are long periods where you're playing a first person platformer, and not a particularly good one, rather than a shooter.

This implies that there are good first person platformers. I'd love for someone to prove me wrong, but I've never found one. You can't platform well if you can't see your feet, or where you're walking off the platform. The closest I can think of is Portal and Portal 2, and those aren't even platformers, they're puzzle/physics games.

MrRigger

Well, the Metroid Prime series it's very good at the platforming segments... granted, those three games are actually action adventure games that just happen to have a first person view, rather than actual platformers.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that the game is that bad, given it had such troubled development. IIRC, Wired published an article detailing all the problems that happened, the most serious one being that the chief of the development team was so obsessed with reinventing the wheel, that each time a new game in the genre presented a new gameplay mechanic or graphics engine, he immediately pressed for its inclusion in the game, delaying the development without even polishing what was already in place.

I don't have any console that could run the game (and even if I had one, I probably would not even rent it), but from what I have read in some reviews, the Wired article was incredibly accurate.

There was a good first person platformer for the playstation. Jumping Flash, I think it was called.

This will always be the only Duke Nukem to me.
Ahhh memories.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that the game is that bad, given it had such troubled development. IIRC, Wired published an article detailing all the problems that happened, the most serious one being that the chief of the development team was so obsessed with reinventing the wheel, that each time a new game in the genre presented a new gameplay mechanic or graphics engine, he immediately pressed for its inclusion in the game, delaying the development without even polishing what was already in place.

I don't have any console that could run the game (and even if I had one, I probably would not even rent it), but from what I have read in some reviews, the Wired article was incredibly accurate.

You can actually see the mishmash in the game. Places where they brought in new ideas, but never really worked them into the game; they just sort of plopped them down.

It just shows what I've suspected for years: the world has moved beyond Duke Nukem. At the time, Duke Nukem 3D was incredible. It made fun of '80s action movies, had an offensive main character, and an interactive environment. It was Duke Nukem that produced the first FPS with a main character with a distinct personality that expressed itself during gameplay.

The problem now is that Duke is offensive, but it's not the shock it once was. Not when you have the likes of Grand Theft Auto. A stripper you get sex toys for and she then performs a lap dance? *Yawn* GTA had the main character paying a prostitute for sex, and then you could kill her to get your money back. Where Duke was once shocking and offensive, now he's just offensive.

If they'd played that up, making fun of his attitudes through the game, it would have been worth it.

The game was a satire of a lot of the gaming conventions in FPS shooters. I liked it, if only because it did not take itself that seriously.

I agree, the game is shit, but I enjoyed playing it to the end, and it has some moments that were just pure Duke.

The problem a lot of players had, is that they forgot that Duke Nukem was never intended to be taken seriously. They have been glutted with serious games, with serious plot, and so on. That was never the point of Duke Nukem. It's crass, offensive, misogynistic, pushes the limits of bad taste and crosses the line. In other words, do not take it seriously. Players did, and were disappointed. I didn't, and went in with low expectations to begin with. Needless to say, I was not disappointed and found myself having a blast playing the game.

Its' troubled development history is a case in point as to why a developer needs someone with a baseball bat for sanity checks.

A guilty pleasure, to be sure, and I do not repent that.