Duke Nukem Forever

[Atreyu]

The official launch trailer was released a couple of days ago:

YouTube link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHQ0EiCHy2Y) (sorry, they've disabled embedding)

To quote one of the comments ... "you know it's a Duke game when the ESRB Rating is a paragraph". :lol

I think I might buy it just so I can say I played it.

[Peter McCoy]

I will be getting this at some point. Not right away, but I know it'll be a blast. No holds barred mayhem, lewd, crass fun! Makes me wanna play Postal 2 just thinking about it.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think this will be one I pick up when it's on sale on Steam!

[Sanis Prent]

I've missed making it rain dollars around strippers and making it rain cluster bombs around aliens. Duke Nukem has been gone from my life for too too long. I'm getting a little misty just thinking about it!

[Atreyu]

So the game is now out, and the reviews are ... not so good. :\

Here's one example:

Joystiq review (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/10/duke-nukem-forever-review-fail-to-the-king-baby/)

Shame really. :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

I suppose this is the trouble with developing a game for so long.

[Sanis Prent]

It's interesting reading the Something Awful games thread about DNF, since they have something of a faux-cult around Duke's second coming. It's classic seven stages of grief and everything.

Shame. I wanted this game to be cool, but I guess there's really no way to bring that era of gaming back, is there?

I'll still rent it at some point heh.

[Peter McCoy]

One of the comments for that review says that it's not supposed to be taken seriously yet people expect a high standard.

I honestly cannot believe they've said that. (It was a user comment, not something the reviewer said). Postal is not meant to be taken seriously. But it is still a great game with a high standard and a lot of effort put into it in terms of size and content. Even if they made a game based on The Life of brian, I'm not going to take it seriously but I'd still expect a high standard otherwise the developer deserves nothing from me.

Name/reputation alone should not justify a high price tag. But similarly, small, independent games that cost little should not be expected to be poor quality. Look at the likes of Braid, Revenge of the Titans, Magicka, Gish, Defense Grid. Below the £10/$20 mark when most premium games cost £35/$70 and yet they are awesome quality games.

I've played Duke Nukem Forever for a few hours now and while I am curious to see the rest of the content, I have to say I am very unimpressed. There's a number of cool "things" (I wouldn't call them features since they hardly actually feature) that are amusing and fun for a few minutes, and would only be revisited if I had guests - "Hey Droo, check this out! Okay cool, now lets go the pub".

So far, I'd say Duke Nuken 3D is infinitely better than this attempt.

[Atreyu]

I think Ctrl-Alt-Del sums up the reaction to the game pretty well:

Finally? (http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20110613)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Ah, if only this review was true...

<div style='width:650px;font-size: 12px;'><embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/config/748-23f773dbe478f4c5771dc174c6312c41.js%3Fplayer_versi on%3D2.5%26embed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="391" wmode="opaque"></embed><div><a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com'>The Escapist</a> : <a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation'>Zero Punctuation</a> : <a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/748-Duke-Nukem-Forever'>Duke Nukem Forever</a></div></div>

[Atreyu]

:lol

I wonder if Yahtzee will do a real review now that it's actually released?

[Atreyu]

Well what do you know, he just did:

<embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.7.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/config/3581-a479de4fc9ff3e6546979ec122137ca3.js%3Fplayer_versi on%3D2.5%26embed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="opaque" height="391" width="650">
The Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com) : Zero Punctuation (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) : Duke Nukem Forever (for real this time) (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/3581-Duke-Nukem-Forever-for-real-this-time)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Sad... I am not even tempted to get this on Steam sale now.

[Atreyu]

I liked his analogy of trying to build a house alongside a river near a boat, and having to keep stopping and restarting the house again and again because the boat keeps moving so all you're left is incomplete mounds of rubble strewn out.