Returning Duke Nukem after one day

[SonOfStayPuft]

So, it's finally here, never thought I'd see the day.

And it's goooood, although, it has some of the worst graphical/performance issues I've experienced on any game running on a console, but damn if I'm not having fun.

The gunplay is a lot of fun, (just wish you carry more than two weapons - really dumb decision there), and Duke's humour never gets old. I'm really liking the music, some throwbacks to the old, just generally a cool rock beat going on all the time. Some very funny references, I only just realised the one near the beginning was a parody of Christian Bale's rant a few years ago.

So yeah, it was never going to live up to 14 years of development, but this is still a lot better than most games that go through development hell and much more fun than most FPSs these days.

Having played it for a while, I can honestly say i'm impressed. Even with the short amount of time Gearbox had to revive it.

There's so many easter eggs and references, and I love the amount of interactivity you can have to get your Ego bar up.

The one liners are classic Duke too.

As a Duke fan of 20 years, when I got this in my hands today, it was a great moment, and Gearbox haven't let me down.

I'm not looking through Rose Tinted Spectacles, and admit, yes, it isn't perfect and could have been a lot better, but you want a serious shooter, then go and get The Orange Box or BFBC 2 or whatever.

As mentioned previously, Gearbox can now work on a Duke title we will be proud of.

Always bet on Duke.

 

[Herbsk]

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.

No - I'd point equal blame at ID Software as Gearbox - this is what you get for taking a game over from another studio - I'm looking at you Obsidian.....

 

[Jeffrey Rodriguez]

I found it entertaining as hell. I'd say it's a fun FPS with little depth but allot of vicarious fun which is what Duke Nukem has always been. People are just throwing a tantrum because it's a more modern FPS style.

 

[Aerograt]

Did you get to try out the multiplayer?

 

[Katana314]

TL;DR: Stop judging it based on what you thought it was going to be like, 12 years of hype helps no one, not even Duke.

You're absolutely correct that we should enter with no notions of what it should be like. However, I didn't buy into any hype, only watched one or two videos, and was only mildly interested. I didn't expect much from the demo, and I didn't get much.

Once again, I refer to Yahtzee's chart.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be getting from this little chart other than I was... Right?

Are people glossing over the part where I said that I haven't played it and that they're free to not like it if they want?

You might have been mistaken in thinking I was arguing against you. I was just continuing the discussion; like I said, I agree with you, and then just stated my own opinion of the game (based on playing it myself, and no prior notions)

 

[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.

'Twas indeed awesome, and a fine pick up for anyone looking for a classic-style shooter with more modern graphics.

The fully upgraded shotgun from that game is still my favorite weapon of all time. It was by far the most badass way of going CQC on some Alien ass. The fully upgraded Machine Gun was awesome too.....

 

[EzraPound]

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.

No - I'd point equal blame at ID Software as Gearbox - this is what you get for taking a game over from another studio - I'm looking at you Obsidian.....

Dude, id didn't have anything to do with DNF. 3D Realms developed it until a few years ago when Gearbox took over.

. . .Well, I should correct myself: id did have something to do with DNF. But only because it was influenced by DOOM, and 3D Realms published id's games under the moniker of Apogee.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

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.

Judging by your avatar and the kind of game I'm guessing you enjoy, I'd guess you were (like me) rather let down by DNF and the way they did it.

And yeah, Bulletstorm was great. Played through twice and loved every moment. It was what DNF should have been.

 

[smeghead25]

snip

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.

Oh I wasn't meaning it's a crap game. It's just not as good as it could have been or as good as 14 years of hype would make some expect it to be.

It's still some good fun. to me anyway, but some of the gameplay mechanic jokes probably looked good on paper but are far too subtle in the game for most people to get unless they're looking for them. From what I played I thought it was quite fun and entertaining. The one-liners are still great and there's a whole heap of silly distractions strewn around the place. The remote control level is not as bad as it's described in the original post either, it's only like five minutes long and it's not hard to know where you're going. Though the turning of the vehicle could have been tightened a little.

It has it's issues and it's not as good as it could have been. I'd call it an average game, what we would give about a 7 or 8 out of 10 these days (but in a perfect world would be a 5/10). It's one that many people will buy and enjoy while other people won't find it fun.

Splatterhouse, Singularity, Turok, Army of Two. It sort of fits in with those. They're certainly not worth buying at full price but they aren't bad games. They have some design flaws and perhaps some occasional frustrating sections, graphical issues, repetitive gameplay... But in the end they're still fun and you won't feel burned if you buy them at a discount.

 

[GinraiPrime]

Picked up DNF today and I'm loving it! Its true that its definetly not gonna be for everyone, its more for those who're used to the shooters of old, with platforming segments and the odd little puzzle here and there. They're not exactly difficult but again, not for everyone. I love all the easter eggs that've been put in and the voice work and dukeism's are spot on as always. Its got the feel of a Duke Nukem game and all in all I'm having a blast with it.

There is some slight lag issues when I was in a certain level but that was only after a load screen and then it was perfectly fine from then on. The load times will put some off but I've seen much worse than this. Think the average load speed of a PS1 game, 30-40 seconds at times. Might be tough for some but would put up with that than Commodore 64 anyday!

My expectations weren't overly high, all I wanted was the game to be entertaining, the humor good and I got exactly that. Its not gonna change gaming as we know it but if you can just look past any issues with it you'll find a fun game here! Now that Gearbox own the Duke Nukem IP they could develop one from scratch instead of polishing the survivor of development hell. What they have done though is still awesome and I hope we'll see more of Duke in the future

 

[Zeema]

I wasn't really shocked at all or interested in this game nothing made me go 'i wanna get this game' . i watched the Demo Play through on Nova's channel. I thought this is a PS1 game?

it was all Brown the game was a Brown and now everyone is like 'What the Brown'

 

[Logie--bear]

I had originally pre-ordered a copy of the Balls of Steel edition. Luckily I cancelled it and instead reserved a Day 1 rental copy.

MY GOD. This game is just balls.

Like the OP I went in with no expectations for the graphics, I wasn't even sold on the sense of humour but I wanted to give DNF the benefit of the doubt. I haven't been a Duke Nukem fan, mainly out of not playing the games rather than out and out hatred. So I thought I'd represent the new generation of gamers who didn't rely on nostaliga.

I don't think even the darkest shade of rose tinted glasses can cover this game up. Graphics are AWFUL. Don't need to harp on about that but they look a lot like Doom 3's idea of "Make everything glossy and that will make the graphics look good". Actually Doom 3 looks better. MOVING ON.

The sense of humour is just plain bad. Imagine any comedy where the jokes fall flat, not just some of them, ALL of them. This is the Epic movie of games. That's how bad the jokes are. Duke sounds dated and bored. As a character he just is not interesting. Every single line of dialogue that comes out of his stupid mouth sounds EXACTLY THE SAME. He is even less than 1 dimensional. The game touts that ladies want to be with him and guys want to be with him, but even the worst NPCs (and they are awful) have more character than Duke. I'd rather watch the characters in Oblivion talk about Mudcrabs for 10 hours straight than listen to this shit.

Music = generic
Level design = Un-navigable and bland
Weapons = Boring
Enemies = lame and stupid

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a contender for the year's worst game.

 

[SovietSecrets]

"But no. No creativity here. After a few cute opening jokes and smearing shit on the bathroom walls like a mentally handicapped gorilla, the game devolves into what is quite literally the most piss-drab, deathly boring experience I have ever had the displeasure to play" and "Duke Nukem Forever. Is just. So. Fucking. Generic" made me laugh so much.

What the hell were you all expecting?

 

[2fish]

To those who say...
"It's not the same Duke" I can only respond with...
"It IS the same Duke and that's the problem!"

snip

The real duke is frozen in the artic and will come back to fight the evil fake duke (the one that is in this game) once the time lines align and the real duke from the future can go forwards into the past to free himself after a long weekend party in Vegas using the fake dukes credit card.

This will bring a new Duke series and a trilogy with four games in it.

Other than that sorry you wasted you cash op I was very skeptical on this game just due to the amount of money put into ads.

 

[archvile93]

It's scoring 80s on Metacritic.

Games journalism is in a bad, bad way.

Depends on which one you look at, the 360 version is 22 points less than the PC last time I checked. I'm not sure what to think about that. I never thought this game had much of chance. It was in development hell for over a decade which probably meant that the development team was too busy fighting amongst themselves to get much done. The design Gearbox got was probably made when 3D Realms was floundering, which would mean it was not getting the resources it needed to be good, kind of like what happened to Blacksite: Area 51. Since Gearbox just touched up the one they had rather than build a new one from scratch, it amazes me the game is as good as it is.

 

[WorldCritic]

Well thank you for your opinion, I am grateful to know some of the games flaws before it is released here in the states (even though it sounds like it I'm actually not being sarcastic.)

 

[TxMxRonin]

Yeah it's true it sucks.
The fact that it's day 1 of its release and there is not a single person to play with online in all the continents of the world except America,means something.

That's weird considering it doesn't come out in America till the 14th.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Ya know what I haven't heard yet about DNF? The actual game length. Is DNF a great, long, coiling piece of shit or, is it a little bitty rabbit-pebble like Homefront?

 

[Randvek]

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

After all this time, Daikatana is still the pinnacle of over-hyped crap. I bet most gamers these days never even played it. Getting old. >.>

 

[JackWestJr]

So it wouldn't have mattered if it was banned in Australia anyway looks like it...