Returning Duke Nukem after one day

[DoctorPhil]

You bought the console version? Oh boy.... You know the console versions of PC games are always inferior, why even bother?

The PC version is allright, I'm pretty disappointed too though, since it's too much like a modern shhoter, and not old school. I guess old school shooters don't work on consoles, and consoles are simply too big a market to ignore.

My major gripe is the sniper rifle...... What?! Duke Nukem doesn't need a fucking sniper rifle! Sniper rifles are for pussies, Duke Nukem would never use that thing, he'd get right in the middle of the action and blow shit up with middle and close range weapons.

The moral of this story: modern shooters suck and never buy console FPSs.

Oh for the love of god, take your fucking PC elitism and shove it up your butthole.

I see how it sounded that way so that's my bad. I love my consoles, I played more on consoles than I ever will on PC. All I'm saying is just that 'console versions of PC games' are inferior, since they are ports. Ports are usually inferior, and I've heard on the official Duke Nukem forums that many people were displeased with the console version (PS3 to be exact), while few didn't like the PC one.
Also, I think most FPSs don't work on consoles as they're clunky to control (aiming with analog sticks is just horrible). Exceptions are the Metroid Prime games, due to lock-on or aiming with the wiimote. Also Perfect dark and james bond games, due to IIRC you didn't need to aim a lot with those.

Wait what ... DNF is totally a "modern shooter."
From linear levels to regenerating health to the 2 weapon limit to the hour freakin' long tutorial that's nothing but handholding ...

How is anything in this game old school?!

You're agreeing with me right now. Might want to read my post again. No worries though, it happens to all of us.

The real Duke Nukem didn't need 3D. And he had to get close to the enemies because otherwise they'd go off the side of the screen and he couldn't see them any more.

I just think a sniper rifle doesn't fit his character at all. And it doesn't make for fun gameplay either. At all.
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I have to say I had my expectations way too high. I didn't know DNF was infected with modern shooter-itis. Still, the game is fun and the jokes make it all good. Also I barely remember anything about my time playing DN64, so my opinion's not based on nostalgia.

Here's to hoping for a great sequel, built from the ground up by Gearbox and learning from this game's mistakes.

I just hope it does well enough for a sequel - which I think if given the chance to make from the bottom up Gearbox could make a fantastic DN game.

You mean 12 years is not enough time?

It was too much time.

 

[Flac00]

not suprised, honestly, was anyone else? But hey, I'm sure someone will end up liking it, maybe.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

It's a shame. I really loved Duke Nukem 3D, and even Duke Nukem: Zero Hour on the N64. I never really cared that both games were somewhat ugly, it was always about the tone. And if that tone is gone... /sigh.

Guess I'll be waiting for it to appear on a 50% to 75% off sale on Steam.

 

[GiantRaven]

I honestly don't get the complaints about the games graphics. I have absolutely no interest in Duke Nukem Forever and I don't think the graphics are anything that could be considered 'bad'.

 

[Pearwood]

The engine and thus graphics seen now, are the last reiteration of the game, and Gearbox didn't want to mess with anything apparently.

I'd argue that that shows they didn't care, looks like they just bought the license and slapped something sellable together to cash in on the nostalgic money.

 

[kasperbbs]

I expected it to be bad or at least mediocre, i have never played a duke nukem game and i'm not about to start with this one, not to mention that the best thing in the demo was the part where you got to mess around with a piece of sh*t.

 

[Atmos Duality]

All those who saw this coming say aye.

Aye.

"Aye"
A game that followed the same "brilliant" game design plan as Daikatana? BAD?
Nawwwww!

*snip

It doesn't matter if you're presenting facts or not if the manner in which you're presenting them is blatantly smug/rude.

It's people like you who get the rest of us called "elitists" by mere association, and quite frankly, it's becoming annoying.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

What i find funny about the ego/health system is that you have to hide behind cover like a little b***h, waiting until you can come back out and shoot. Also I think that the ego meter should constantly be going down seeing as Duke FRIGGIN Nukem cant hold more than a pistol and an smg if those are the two weapons hes got. [/rant]

Also AYE

 

[Nfritzappa]

Well thats it, I'm canceling my preorder.

 

[DoctorPhil]

Edit: removed for quoting wrong post.

 

[Pearwood]

Maybe they thought that a weapons wheel would make the game imbalanced (too easy), since it was playtested with 2 weapons cap.

They're the ones who balanced the game.

 

[Cookiegerard]

I bought it purely because, just to see it if was as crap as everyone said it was, my god...I am at the "blanky blank"(just in cause anyone actually cares about the plot, please don't) and you have to push around these little ball thingys...ugh...the most akward thing I have ever seen or tried to do..

 

[Audio]

I can't return it...i got it on steam ;____;
I got a hell of a lot more fun out of Bullet Storm. Even though it was easy, it was enjoyable AND pretty.

 

[DrEmo]

I played a bit at the Mana Bar today. It is very generic. But.

It's one of those games that you're not supposed to take seriously and it's meant to be generic. I know that sounds stupid but let me explain...

A lot of shooters do tend to make you do the same sort of things such as "pick this energy core up from this place and stick it in there". See I think the point of Duke Nukem is to take those generic aspects and goof it up. For example in most games you have to fight you way through a few rooms to find that energy core but in DNF, right at the start, you literally have to grab those energy cores from right next to the thing you have to put it in with absolutely no enemies around to stop you. It's like the game was saying "Where the fuck else would these things go, people don't just grab important things and leave them lying around god knows where do they?"

Then you have to find a third one and it's nowhere to be seen. So you go through a door and fight a few enemies (like you would in any other shooter) and then you find it sitting in front of you on a desk... on the opposite side of a bulletproof window. So you check around you for a grate because you've just spent a few minutes crawling around in them, but not. Nothing there. You look for the things you would find in any other shooter such as a door or another entry or even just a button. And then you notice the remote control randomly sitting in front of the window. And the RC vehicle. And then you realise you're meant to drive this vehicle around the shelves and push it through a small gap.

The ideas and goals are VERY derivative of every other shooter, and I also admit I did get very frustrated in the part where you had to shoot the mothership as it was never pointed out where you were actually meant to shoot, i ended up just shooting the whole penis-like extrusion until the health started dropping and bits fell off. The load times are also excruciatingly long, though that will liekly be fixed in an update (which is not an excuse and I could spend many hours typing an essay-long post about why I hate post-release updates, DLC, and online registration etc etc etc, even though I have perfectly good internet in my area.)

Having only played a small segment of it I do agree with your claims for the most part. The graphics are very subpar and take a bit of getting used to. Bit of a rude shock to be honest. But hey, at least they didn't have yet another engine change... >.>

My point is, yes it is average in every way and definitely plays and feels generic. But I also think it can be heaps of fun if played with no expectations. Just enjoy the stupidity of the situations and the humour and the hilarious interactions Duke has with the world around him. Don't expect it to be game-changing; don't expect it to bring anything new to the table; just expect it to be some silly macho fun.

I think though $109 is a bit too much to be asking. I'll be buying it when it's cheaper. It will be forgettable and silly harmless fun.

Ok, so, if someone makes a crappy game but somehow says that it's supposed to be crappy it's ok?

By this logic: Crap=/=Crap if Crap is admitted to be Crap.

This kind of attitude is way too prevalent these days. Everyone is doing things 'ironically' or because it's 'just dumb fun that shouldn't be taken seriously'. That's no excuse for mediocrity. Serious Sam is dumb fun that shouldn't be taken seriously, but guess what, it works because the game itself is good.

You can't say it's good because it's supposed to be a parody. If you parody bad mechanics with bad mechanics you still have bad mechanics but people don't seem to understand this. They think that the fact that it's a parody absconds it from any and all responsibility. As if recognizing the fact that what you made is garbage is supposed to free you of any criticism. If you KNOW it's garbage and you keep doing it, then there's something wrong with your brain.


It's not even a good parody, either. If they wanted to make fun of modern shooters they would've done it better. Making a bland level to make fun of bland level design is not acceptable. You still have a bland level and it's not making any point. Serious Sam made fun of Duke Nukem and other macho FPS heroes in his games. How did he do that? By being ridiculously macho to the point of absurdity. You KNOW the developers were in on this joke and they used it well. Even the name is a joke: SERIOUS Sam, when serious is the last thing this game is. Serious Sam also made fun of randomly spawning enemies. How? By having enemies spawn out of thin air right in front of you and even behind you. This would be bad design in any other game but here this parody was integrated into the gameplay. The enemies' absurd spawning locations keep you on guard, provide a hell of a challenge and a lot of them serve to scare your pants clear off.


TL;DR: Saying that Duke Nukem is garbage because it's supposed to be doesn't mean it's good; it's still garbage. If it were a parody, it would have been done differently. This is just bad game design. Serious Sam did it better years ago.

 

[Freakzooi]

Finished the game today, was actually not that bad. I'd give it a 7.


The loading times were fine for me. Nothing spectacular in the grapics department, but I'm playing on a (high end) pc. Loading times took around 5-10 seconds for me. Understand that is different for PS3 players, which is a shame.

The game is very lineair, and sometimes the levels seems a bit too predictable. Drive car, encounter ravine, cross the gap on foot, hit button, drive across, repeat. I don't know if this can be called bad design, but it isn't great design either, that's for sure. The fights were reasonably fun, specially with Duke's comments in the background. Became a bit of a drag after you played it for a while, since after a certain point the standard enemy fodder stayed the same, with only the bosses to provide you with a fresh challenge.

The 2 weapons limit (you can carry pipeboms and tripmines too) seemed a bit of a letdown at first, but since different weapons are always around the corner it didn't matter too much in the end. I liked the bossfights, very arcade style and not like modern shooters, except with the regenerating health instead of healthpacks. While the environment could be a bit dull sometimes, I liked the 'minigames' very much, when you get to drive a monstertruck or a little RC car, or turn tiny. The game reminded me of Gears of War sometimes, when you man a turret and blast away at aliens flying by. It was quite predictable what to do though, and if you don't like the arcade style fights they designed for many of the bossfights, you will be disappointed here. No advanced tactics or precise aiming, just learn where to stand when and you'll defeat them quite easily.

About three quarters into the game it began to feel a little bit like a drag though, but maybe that was due to me playing all morning You won't get many new weapons after the initial arsenal from duke 3d, like the shotgun and triple-barrel machine gun. The shrink and freeze ray felt as a bit of a letdown, gameplay wise. They seemed more like gimmicks than actually usefull.
Also, the sniper rifle. The game doesn't really offer any huge anvironments to play as a traditional sniper. You'll be at medium range mostly, and since many enemies can close up on you quite fast, the sniper rifle didn't feel 'not-duke' at all to me.

Oh, play it on hard. It's not that hard and only had to replay a few parts a few times, certainly made the fights a lot more entertaining (as in provide a challenge).


TLDR: Can be good fun, specially if you've played Duke Nukem 3D. The many references to it are great. If you don't like arcade style shooters (i.e. less aiming, more spraying) and the Duke humour isn't your thing, you'll most likely quit after the first two levels.

 

[parasyteFMA]

Still getting it day one. It shaping up to be fun, for me at least.

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

Aye.

What, you want more content? Fine.

I think DNF should have been shelved after five years. At that point, you either know you're going to make a great game or you're not. If you keep pouring money into a hole and getting nothing in return for it, then maybe you should turn off the money spigot. The original developers (can't think of their name at the moment) should have admitted defeat and come out and said that it's just not happening. Also, who was supplying the various devs with cash anyways? I would've thought after a decade plus of delays that no one with any amount of investment capital would've even thought of coming close to giving the project money.

iD software, I think made the Duke Nukem games, basicaly they made loads of cash off the game, enough to buy a mansion mind, and poured it all on DNF, what a waste of lazy man power and money....

 

[ffs-dontcare]

All those who saw this coming say aye.

Aye.

Seriously people, we all knew this was going to happen. Once the word got out about the demo everyone should've caught on.

Aye.

I didn't even play the demo and I still saw this coming from a mile away.

I don't even care about the fact that it took well over a decade to make this game. They could've made it better, and I wasn't impressed by the footage I saw in various videos.

iD software, I think made the Duke Nukem games, basicaly they made loads of cash off the game, enough to buy a mansion mind, and poured it all on DNF, what a waste of lazy man power and money....

You mean 3D Realms / Gearbox.

 

[cefm]

Let's all all take a long look in the mirror and ask ourselves "Why should we be surprised?"

The original Duke Nukem 3D offered very little in the way of graphics, play style or level design that others hadn't done earlier and better. Then add a 12 year catastrophic clusterfuck of a development cycle, and what should be expected?

Everyone knew that this game was going to be like asking someone to punch you in the face. So don't complain that it sucks. You're the idiots who asked to be punched by installing the damn thing. I, for one, am content to believe the experts who tell me that fire is hot - so I didn't feel the need to stick my hand into this burning mess.

 

[vrbtny]

Well, for me to buy a game with "no expectations", it's gotta be $5-$10 bucks

I picked up Quake 4 for $5, and have seen less complaints against it than this game.

Dude, but Quake 4 was awesome! It was like playing Unreal Tournament but with a campaign.... a really good campaign! Got that game a couple of months ago in the bargain basement for a fiver.

Definitely best value-for-money game ever bought.