Duke Nukem Forever

[Agent York]

Roh-oh. Reviews coming in aren't that hot. There are some good review scores, but it seems most are fairly negative. The good ones do note how it's good, just not outstanding compared to today's competition.

The Good:

(9/10): http://www.cinemaevideogiochi.com/giochi/review-duke-nukem-forever-3/

(8.5): http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/2011/06/duke-nukem-forever-review/

(80/100): http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/10/duke-nukem-forever-review/

(77/100): http://www.videogameszone.de/Duke-Nukem-Forever-PS3-213835/Tests/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Test-der-PS3-und-360-Versionen-Cool-aber-technisch-schwach-827865/

The Bad:

(64%): http://www.gameswelt.de/articles/reviews/7148-Duke_Nukem_Forever/

(3/5): http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gaming/3628312/Return-of-the-King-or-pauper.html

(5/10): http://www.ausgamers.com/games/duke-nukem-forever/review/

(2/5): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/jun/10/duke-nukem-forever-game-review

IGN thinks it isn't that good: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/117/1175194p1.html

Not worth the wait, stuck in the 90s: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2011/06/10/duke-nukem-forever-duke-of-hazard-still-stuck-in-the-90s-115875-23192807/

Not a very good game, though it will make you laugh: http://www.gamer.nl/review/97110/duke-nukem-forever-1

[Scott]

Not surprised by IGN the whole place is filled with a bunch of retards!

[PSI Wind]

*sigh* These people don't know what Duke Nukem is, do they?

[Blue Wisp]

Not surprised by IGN the whole place is filled with a bunch of retards!

Anywho, just because it's Duke Nukem don't think it will get a perfect 10 review. Games that took hundred years aren't always perfect ._.

[Carbo]

(64%): http://www.gameswelt.de/articles/reviews/7148-Duke_Nukem_Forever/

(3/5): http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gaming/3628312/Return-of-the-King-or-pauper.html

3/5 and 64% are bad?

The game has gotten a mixed reception and I don't see how this is of any surprise. It's currently got a 76 on PC Metacritic out of 4 reviews.

I guess I can go a bit in depth with my impressions though. First off, the game has a ridiculously slow build up, and it really turned me off. It assigns itself to the Metroid Prime 3 level of slow build ups and after you finish the first boss in that video game Duke's playing an incredibly lengthy exposure tour follows which just boils down to trying to locate where you head off next. Herein lies the main problem I have with the game thus far - the level design is a bit wonky even in an old school kind of way where you're not always exactly sure where to go next and you're barely given any guidelines. Particularly in the beginning it tries to string together what loose plot there might be which still just boils down to "are you a bad enough dude to save our babes?"

The game didn't pick up for me until when I got a hold of my first actual gun. Now I will say, the choice to omit Mighty Boot as Duke's primary melee attack was one I was disappointed with, but at times I'll find myself enjoying actual fist to fist combat much more than guns, especially when steroids are in play. That just never gets old. One thing I am bothered with however is the enemies, as the AI is pretty shit. The standard pig cops offer the thing you'd expect, but some guys like the jetpackers are almost cheap.

The regenerating health thing isn't so much of an issue I found, mostly because up until now I've never actually had to go the route of hiding in a corner and waiting for my health to build up. The levels aren't designed that much for cover shooting and it sort of expects you to go all out and destroy shit. Now what I did like were the various details they put into the things that helps you increase your Ego. Lifting weights, playing pinball, punching bags etc., those are all small touches I appreciate and just come off to show the plethora of personality that the game has.

Vehicular control feels relatively solid and it's practically your standard Halo-esque mechanics. Music is pretty great and I enjoy it. So far my favorite thing about it is the variety and puzzles. I'm not sure how much this carries on but an average rated review cited these things as something in the game's favor, so I'll take it as a harbringer for good things to come.

Also the game seems really quite long. I've been playing for a couple of hours and I still haven't gotten out of the first casino.

Above all that though I don't think it really goes past being your average shooter affair and this game's strongest point in so far is simply variety and personality. This game isn't going to win awards and there is going to be some incredibly polarizing opinions to be had here. You really have to look past all of the flaws this game has in order to have fun. That said even though it tends to get dull and things like the graphics are just plain shit at times, I've had a lot of more fun with this title than recent FPS games in so far. In fact, at times it's incredibly fun.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Carbo

[Scott]

Anywho, just because it's Duke Nukem don't think it will get a perfect 10 review. Games that took hundred years aren't always perfect ._.

[Blue Wisp]

It's not the case, it's IGN I'm simply hating on, they give low reviews to games that are either too hard for them or isn't some shitty generic shooter such as Halo, COD or battlefield, if it's original, they wont care, if it's fun, it isn't to them, honestly

They can burn in a fire for all I care.

No one stops me from playing the GOOD games!

[TrueBlue]

It's not the case, it's IGN I'm simply hating on, they give low reviews to games that are either too hard for them or isn't some shitty generic shooter such as Halo, COD or battlefield, if it's original, they wont care, if it's fun, it isn't to them, honestly

They can burn in a fire for all I care.

No one stops me from playing the GOOD games!

[Carbo]

Everything bad with this game is instantly balanced out by allies having friendly fire.

I can throw trash cans at them and see it bounce to oblivion without any repercussions.

Which reminds me that the throwing physics in this game are so off they're hilarious.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Carbo

[eXtaticus]

Honestly, no review is going to make me want to play this game any less than I've wanted to ever since I first heard about the possibility that it was going to be finished this year - and I absolutely and definitely will be picking up a copy as soon as I get my grubby little hands on a machine to play it on.

I have high expectations.

I bet on Duke.

And I'm not listening to the opinions of self-righteous, up-themselves critics who expect a work of art from what it so blatantly a cheesy '90s throwback.

[Scar]

I don't see how you can call IGN retarded for disliking Duke Nukem Forever.

People aren't going to drool over it just because its Duke Nukem. I'm sure they too had expectations from Forever, and they were likely dissappointed. Where's the problem?

[Stacy]

Only shitty FPS you mentioned there is COD. Battlefield is a good modern-based shooter and Halo has a great storyline.

IGN has a way of criticing games that is... Different than the rest. If you want a website where they always rate most of the games 4-to-10 go to Gamespot.

Biased against COD I see *rolleyes*....

I am surprised Duke Nukem Forever has got as much coverage as it has other than its imfamous development because all of post Duke Nukem 3D games apart from maybe Time to Kill were largely forgotten as soon as they were released.

[Carbo]

Biased against COD I see *rolleyes*....

I am surprised Duke Nukem Forever has got as much coverage as it has other than its imfamous development because all of post Duke Nukem 3D games apart from maybe Time to Kill were largely forgotten as soon as they were released.

I don't see how it's a surprise. Back in the day every iteration revealed was so ahead of it's time it's a miracle that it wasn't actually released back then, and having a development time span equal to Chinese Democracy certainly helps.

[Stacy]

Yeah but like Chinese Democracy its been hyped to hell and back (didn't help that Chinese Democracy wasn't that good, well thats my opinion).

Why do people rely on critics so much? Can't people make up their own opinions? "Oh Noes it scored 65% it must score 90%".

If it was mostly reviewed below 50% then that would be a cause for concern.

Didn't Public Enemy rap about something called 'Don't Believe The Hype'.

But to me Duke is still the King and at least they got the same guy to voice Duke.

[Eternal EX]

Speaking of reviews, Here is Duke's from IGN.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/117/1175639p1.html

A 5.5/10 hurt my feelings some then I realized it was IGN full of COD fanboys. Either way, does it really deserve the rating(s) it got?

[Tornado]

*sigh* These people don't know what Duke Nukem is, do they?

Edited June 12, 2011 by Tornado

[Blue Wisp]

Don't get mad at me. But I had to do this:

>duke nukem forever gets finally released

>fans joy

>gets mediocre reviews

>fans rage

>"review sites wrong"

>i laugh

*flame shield on*

Edited June 12, 2011 by Doug Dimmadome

[Eternal EX]

Don't get mad at me. But I had to do this:

>duke nukem forever gets finally released

>fans joy

>gets mediocre reviews

>fans rage

>"review sites wrong"

>i laugh

*flame shield on*

I laughed at this. You sure deserved a +10 for this.

[Sami]

So Duke is the new Sonic?

[Carbo]

Do Gearbox? Because while I haven't played the full game yet (damn early EU release dates for games I want), the IGN review in particular has a few really damn good points against the game than I noted just from the demo.

For example, mocking Halo is awesome. Mocking Halo while blatantly copying the more annoying gameplay elements of Halo is not.

Except most of the things that are copied from Halo are things 3D Realms did, specifically, regenerating health and 2 weapon limits. The only reason Gearbox kept it was because they were less into reconstructing the game into something of their own and more convinced to just release it fully playable and as close to 3D Realms' vision as possible to end the jokes and eventually re-brand Duke into being one of their main franchises. Pitchford was a junior designer for DN3D and he knows fully well how Duke is supposed to be like and he's stated that no-weapon limits and the like is a perfect scheme for Duke, so we can more than likely expect this in the next Duke Nukem game.

This game isn't meant to be groundbreaking, and whether or not people find it good is largely none of Gearbox's concerns at this point. It was released to honor the 14 years of shit the devs had to go through thanks to Broussard's need of perfection. While this doesn't really excuse these design choices, it really requires all preconceived biases to go out of the window.

As for the demo, since the BOS edition gives you a first access code I figured I'd try the demo, and the game itself is an improvement over it. It still doesn't pass for being an above average shooter, which at worst is plain mediocre, so the opinions to be had are going to be incredibly polarizing and it will mostly depend on whether you will find fun or boredom in a game that has plenty of variety and personality. The multiplayer is pure classic fun though, I have a feeling it's going to extend the replayability for me.

More importantly I can microwave rats in this game.

And it has an unlockable Big Head mode.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Carbo

[Patticus]

The main issue with this game is that in trying to be everything else, it's lost what could have kept Duke a unique experience to this day.

Don't get me wrong combat in this game is still great, weapons feel great (vastly improved over the demo, especially the shotgun), and taking down charging Pig Cops is glorious fun while pipe bombs and trip mines still work great. I also like being able to grab barrels and award trophies to use as projectiles, a little bit of inspiration from Crysis clearly. But due to modern 'improvements' like weapon restrictions and recharging health this does feel like a Duke flavoured Halo/Half Life mash up.

Indeed it's the Halo influences that seem to against Duke, if they lifted the weapon limit and had a classic health system in this same game I get the feeling people would be a lot happier. So yeah, if this was basically a cross breed of Duke and Half Life, I think it would have appealed to a lot more people.

Oh well.

[Carbo]

If there is one thing I will defend about this game it's the regen system.

Health packs just don't fit this game. Maybe if literally did go by the DN3D rule book, but a health pack system would have meant starting from scratch with the entire level designs being remade to being accustomed to backtracking and wider areas that have them accessible, where-as the level design right now plays out like a multi-faceted and unique spin on the standard straightforward Halo levels, and health packs just kind of don't fit.

That's not to say that they could have gone ways around it though. Most people thought this would use the Manhattan Project system of regenerative health which is killing enemies to boost ego. I'd think the best option to satisfy both sides would be to heavily nerf the regenerative system but keep it in while adding context specific actions, events or items to speed it up or add onto it. Executions for example already fill your health permanently so it encourages a more run-and-gun action style than the more strategic approaches of DN3D, and you don't really hide that much behind cover as often as you'd expect to.

Weapon limit is a bit stupid though, even if they scatter them everywhere.

[Shaddix Leto Croft]

I only have one problem with this game and it's the Loading screens....sometimes I think I'm loading up a Sonic 2006 level at times that the loading screens are that long on the Xbox 360 but that the only problem I have really I've been loving every moment of it 10 year wait for me has been worth the wait for me shame for others it hasn't been like that for them lol

Edited June 12, 2011 by Shaddix Leto Croft

[Tornado]

Except most of the things that are copied from Halo are things 3D Realms did, specifically, regenerating health and 2 weapon limits

[Swiss]

I've been told they even botched a Doom reference in DNF aswell.

(spoilered to be safe)

So you know how it went in 3D, you find a secret room and see Doom Guy on the floor halfway through his death animation and Duke says "That's one DOOMed Space Marine". A nice little jab there, a classic in fact:

So in DNF (again, I've only been told this), apparently you can go underneath a painfully obvious tentacle to find a dead guy in there. Except this dead guy is wearing a helmet that is identical to those seen on Dead Space's Isaac Clarke. So what does Duke say?

"That's one DOOMED SPACE MARINE!"

...Isaac was an engineer. From the Dead Space franchise. Nothing to do with Doom. At all.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Swiss