Duke Nukem Forever - the Thread

[Sho Nuff]

And apparently if u wrote a mean review of this game you get blacklisted by 2K PR

[AdmiralViscen]

What the fuck is this crashing elevator lever pulling shit? What smoothing over was done by gearbox and affiliates?

[demi]

lol, yeah that got me too. I'm like uhhh wtf. You just keep squeezing it, I guess.

Only part I died at was the turret bit, since you lose all your health in 1 hit (Hard).

[AdmiralViscen]

Now im driving an rc car through halo's library with doom3's lighting. Can i shoot guys soon?

[Trent Dole]

[youtube=560,345]IE3KdcTgrno[/youtube]

I never get tired of hearing "I've got balls of steeeeel". Incredible

This will never stop being awesome.

[Mr. Gundam]

Redbox has this, figured I'd give it a try.

[Himu]

Redbox has games now?

[Sho Nuff]

I don't think I could handle the load times. Much respect to anyone who 1000's this game and risks waiting for +40-second load times every time they die

[Himu]

[youtube=560,345]IE3KdcTgrno[/youtube]

I never get tired of hearing "I've got balls of steeeeel". Incredible

[Great Rumbler]

"I don't think your mother's very happy about it."

[Herr Mafflard]

playing this game makes me want to play less bad games in my backlog like Fracture or the recent Aliens vs Predator

i actually reminisce longingly for those mediocre titles when I'm playing through this

[Mr. Gundam]

Redbox has games now?

They've had games for like a year now.

[Himu]

I've never used redbox. Is it a buck to rent a game?

[Mr. Gundam]

I've never used redbox. Is it a buck to rent a game?

$1.99. Gamefly is a better deal if you rent tons of games, but I picked up Duke just to try it out since I'll never buy it.

[Shuri]

I'm stuck at duke dome. You are suposed to find batteries to power this mechanical crane thing, but uhh, I can't find them

Halp?

[demi]

Cant help... I'm at "Vegas in Ruins" - yea, I'm slow. Game isnt even that difficult so far.

[The Sceneman]

I'm stuck at duke dome. You are suposed to find batteries to power this mechanical crane thing, but uhh, I can't find them

Halp?

you have to climb the crane, then run across the crane arm and jump over the the construction site area. The batteries are in a shack in there.

[Shuri]

I'm at the hive part 2.. I honestly hope that i'm not close to the end of the game... Also this part feels like 'developpement leftovers from Prey'

[The Sceneman]

no theres heaps to go.

[cool breeze]

when is the demo coming out for non-first access people?

[The Sceneman]

uh, just buy the game. Pir8 on PC if you must

[Positive Touch]

uh, just buy the game. Pir8 on PC if you must

i did but when i try to play all of the walls are invisible

very disorienting

[cool breeze]

I will only buy this game after they let me play the demo.  It's the principle.

[Stoney Mason]

I will only buy this game after they let me play the demo.  It's the principle.

If you are interested in it, you might as well buy it (And I say that with the truth being that I would never buy it at any price but that's just my imo). Because that demo certainly isn't going to make you run down to the store and drop $60 dollars on it. It's probably the least useful demo in the world ever in that sense.

[demi]

dont be a poor, swaggers

[cool breeze]

I'm buying the game on PC.  It's literally impossible not to be a poor.

[demi]

these turret sections are leftover vagina fart... jesus

[The Sceneman]

  I take it youre on the "Crash Course" level? Yeah that part blew chunks.

A good trick is to abuse the auto-aim by pumping LT as fast as you can while holding RT while shooting at distant ships. It'll keep you locked on and you can blow 'em up before they get hits on you.

[Cerveza mas fina]

BUY IT. Game is awesome, I can't believe I'm playing Duke Nukem Forever. I was just learning how to masturbate when this game was first announced.

[demi]

I'll give it a try tonight, Scenester

[AdmiralViscen]

This game really is terrible. And kind of frustrating too.

[AdmiralViscen]

You spend more time in this game standing around with your dick in your hand than shooting guys.

I just did the part where the trailer gets flipped over, went through a tube, and ow im in an area with some big shipping crates and alien eggs. I blew up some cans and knocked over one of the containers. Now what thw fuck do i do? This is like resistance 2

[Herr Mafflard]

this should never have been a full priced title, instead it should have been released at budget price as a forewarning on how not to make a game, possibly accompanied by a public service documentary featuring a disenchanted George Broussard

it's sad that DNF pokes fun at other, better fps games like Halo and Half-Life 2, yet its whole design ethos seems to be based on burrowing traits from those franchises and half-heartedly throwing them into the melting pot-- nothing done that is new, nothing done that hasn't been done better already 6-10 years ago.

also, is it intentionally supposed to be this unfunny? the humour is uniformly terrible.

[Stoney Mason]

this should never have been a full priced title, instead it should have been released at budget price as a forewarning on how not to make a game, possibly accompanied by a public service documentary featuring a disenchanted George Broussard

That's the real issue and that's why its getting a bit kicked in reviews. When I tried it out my initial thought unprompted was, this feels like an XBLA title. And not like a perfect XBLA game. But one of those ones with issues where even if you like it, you wait for a sale.

Now I get why selling it at XBLA prices is completely impossible both because of size and the budget this game had over the years, but when you sell it at $60 instead of maybe $40 you lose a lot of the goodwill you had by finally bringing this saga to conclusion.

[Stoney Mason]

Where I disagree with a lot of the reviews is that they deem this now to be a dead license. I don't agree with that. A good shooter is fundamentally tight action and good combat. And while that's harder than it sounds, fix that and that's like 75% of the battle.
The other bit is yeah, the license currently for a modern audience doesn't feel right because the generation that plays games now didn't grow up with Stallone and Schwarzenegger.


There are a couple of approaches you could take. Reboot him. Go back to before who he was and take the hero's journey. Educate the audience and make him relevant to a modern audience. Or you could go post modern with him. Where everybody realizes he is this weird anachronism and maybe even thinks he's this out of step loser and wants him gone but you rebuild his character by the fact that he really is the only guy left who can do what needs to be done. In Army of Darkness Bruce Campbell's character is considered a loser by the other people for the most part. His confidence is mostly fake bravado and the hero's journey he makes by the end. I mean there are a number of ways you could go with it when Gearbox makes the next one. But first they have to fix the combat. And then they have to sort of decide how to expand the character beyond people who played the game 20 years ago. 

[Bebpo]

I'm about 2 hours in and it's alright.  The gameplay is kind of bad (wish it was easier so I could just blow through it and play it for the lolz; you take so much damage so quickly), but it's silly enough to be fun.  Not that I expected any different with Gearbox putting it all together though, I've always thought Gearbox is a shitty FPS developer and once DNF landed in their hands it was doomed.  But at least this time they have a lololol license to make it a so bad it's almost good game.  The keyword is "almost".

Dunno if it was worth $45, probably was just to see it after all these years and to see that leaked script brought to life.  Seems entertaining enough to finish.  I gotta say though, the leaked script from last year was a much better way to experience this than actually seeing it brought to life.  I think I'd just recommend the script to others instead of the game.

[Bebpo]

Also that sounds more negative than I actually am on the game.  I'm having fun with a smile on my face for much of it.  And I'm ignoring all the quality "good games" I'm currently playing just to play this.  Every once and a while you just gotta play through a kusoge.

[Stoney Mason]

I've always thought Gearbox is a shitty FPS developer and once DNF landed in their hands it was doomed. 

Whatever you think about Gearbox, they almost certainly share no blame for this game.

[Bebpo]

I dunno, you really don't think things like damage/weapon balancing was done by Gearbox?  It feels a lot like their other FPS in a way I really do not like.  Same with the overall pace of moving through the scripted levels.  The levels themselves aren't bad, but the pace just feels slow as molasses.  This is all final end of product tweaking stuff and that's why I associate a lot of these issues with Gearbox. 

I guess since I feel Borderlands shares most of these same issues I just associate it with Gearbox.

[Stoney Mason]

This game was a broken mess sitting in pieces. It was always going to be what it is. In the time given them from Take 2, all they most likely did was stitch it together. Add some shaders. Make sure it didn't crash every 30 seconds. And push it out the door for their eventual game. When the next Gearbox Duke game comes you can blame them or credit them with the quality of that. But this is a broken decade long expedition of a game. It seems silly to blame the dudes who rescued it from the shitpile for the state of said shitpile.

[Bebpo]

Eh, I'd like to see a full story of what went down after Gearbox got a hold of the project.  How long they had it, what changes to the gameplay they made, etc...I'm probably being more harsh to Gearbox than I should be because I got burned on Borderlands and because Gearbox's soon to be Generic Aliens FPS killed Obsidian's would've been awesome Aliens RPG.  I never played the Brothers in Arms series and while Opposing Forces rocked, that was long long ago and they've used up any good karma from it with me.

[iconoclast]

Every once and a while you just gotta play through a kusoge.

Kusoge do have their place in the world. They make you appreciate the good games that much more.

[Herr Mafflard]

Also that sounds more negative than I actually am on the game.  I'm having fun with a smile on my face for much of it.  And I'm ignoring all the quality "good games" I'm currently playing just to play this.  Every once and a while you just gotta play through a kusoge.

it gets worse the further you get in. Once you get over the 'holy crap, I'm playing DNF' phase, there isn't much to get excited about.

This is a game who's biggest innovation is shrink levels, and even then that was inspired by CounterStrike kitchen map. Nah, the fact that it came out at all is its biggest accomplishment.

edit: concur with Stoney, this would've garnered a lot more goodwill had bit come out as a $15 xbla title.

[cool breeze]

they should fix up and release the 2001 version

see, this duke nukem forever isn't what I think when I think duke nukem forever.  If there are distinct versions of the game, from 1998 to 2001 to this modern one, the DNF I wanted was the 2001 one.  That looked like it was to Half Life as Duke 3D was to Doom.  Just everything cool about what it was deriving from, but make even more fucking awesome.

[demi]

I'm near the end... about to fight the Energy Worm

I missed a ton of Ego Boosts in the strip club... I was like, wow that level is short. But I apparently missed a fuckton of more level. I'll get back to it when I play Insane.

[The Sceneman]

yeah I'm gonna collect all the ego shit before I do insane. I want to keep dying to a bare minimum. Those damn load screens. TBH that is the only problem I had with the game.

[Great Rumbler]

they should fix up and release the 2001 version

Isn't the general consensus that the 2001 version never actually existed?

Eh, I'd like to see a full story of what went down after Gearbox got a hold of the project.  How long they had it, what changes to the gameplay they made, etc...I'm probably being more harsh to Gearbox than I should be because I got burned on Borderlands and because Gearbox's soon to be Generic Aliens FPS killed Obsidian's would've been awesome Aliens RPG.  I never played the Brothers in Arms series and while Opposing Forces rocked, that was long long ago and they've used up any good karma from it with me.

Wait, you hate Gearbox because:

-You got "burned" on Borderlands [sorry, bebpo, Borderlands was a fun game]
-Because they're making a new Aliens games and Obsidian isn't [which probably has more to do with Obsidian being Obsidian than anything Gearbox did, and I happen to LOVE Obsidian]

Even though you:

-Haven't played their Brothers in Arms series
-And loved Opposing Force

 

[Stoney Mason]

Isn't the general consensus that the 2001 version never actually existed?

That's the thing. I don't think there was ever really a version of this game that was complete enough to release and say here is a game. There were always probably levels and half levels but nothing that actually existed as a "real" game in the sense of something that you could sell.

I think they kept scrambling and reacting to market trends and engine updates and it was just chasing ghosts. It's easy to put together a kick ass trailer. But that's not a game.

[demi]

Bebpo got "burned" because he played Borderlands solo.... loooooooooooooool no friends looooser

[cool breeze]

then they can release whatever video footage of the 2001 version exists as a kinect game

[Bebpo]

Bebpo got "burned" because he played Borderlands solo.... loooooooooooooool no friends looooser

If you're selling a game with a solo campaign, than it better be good in both solo play and multi.  Borderlands solo was more like Boringlands.  Grind grind grind grind grind.  SP should have been Borderlands without gun stats, so you could win by skill and not just needing a stronger gun.

[Great Rumbler]

Bebpo got "burned" because he played Borderlands solo.... loooooooooooooool no friends looooser

SP should have been Borderlands without gun stats, so you could win by skill and not just needing a stronger gun.

[Bebpo]

I was under the impression that Sega realized they didn't have the finances to fully market 2 Aliens-based games, so they cancelled the rpg and stuck with generic marine shooter FPS because that is what sells in today's market.

[demi]

A good decision. Obsidian

[Great Rumbler]

I was under the impression that Sega realized they didn't have the finances to fully market 2 Aliens-based games, so they cancelled the rpg and stuck with generic marine shooter FPS because that is what sells in today's market.

They actually had three Aliens games in development at the time [Obsidian's RPG, Gearbox's Colonial Marines, and Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator]. From what I've read, it seems like Sega snubbed the first two to focus on the Rebellion's efforts [perhaps in the hopes of capitalizing on the movie franchise].

[Herr Mafflard]

All these statements are true:

“We’re confident that DNF will be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, game of 1998. And this confidence is not misplaced.” – Scott Miller, 1997

“Trust us, Duke Nukem Forever will rock when it comes out next year.” – Joe Siegler, 1999

“If DNF is not out in 2001, something’s very wrong.” – George Broussard, 2001

[Brehvolution]

My local gamespot has a bunch of Duke figures I imagine are for the collectors addition stacked up behind the counter. I just can't help but think I'll see them in the bargain bin next month.

[Cravis]

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/

Great article on the history of Duke Nukem Forever. I swear Broussard looks like a man-child.

[Great Rumbler]

[Broussard] ripped out the ceiling of a room at the 3D Realms office to assemble a motion-capture lab, which would help his team in rendering “complex motions like strippers,” he noted on the 3D Realms Web site.

[Eel O'Brian]

i think they could do cool things with the character, similar to what gerstmann said, by going the "what happens when you stop being in on the joke and become the joke?" route

like, in his mind, duke is walking around with money falling out of his ass, everyone adores him, and all the ladies giggle while biting their lower lips at all his sexual innuendo - then you'd get brief flashes of reality where he's some brokeass highway worker, everyone is repulsed by his attitude and laughs at his ridiculous clothing, and instead of "what're you doing later besides ME, stud?" they're really saying "go fuck yourself, asshole."