Why the hype for Duke Nukem?

[Antari]

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As for us older folks, yeah there's definitely nostalgia of playing of the first FPS games of my life and certainly one of the most over the top and fun. Add to that a 14 year development cycle and you bet I'm interested in what they've done. But I don't get hyped for games anymore, not since I was a teenager.

There wasn't a 14 year development cycle. They had gearbox slap it together on the Borderlands engine. It just took them 14 years to decide to make another one.

 

[Wolfram23]

snip.

snip.

As for us older folks, yeah there's definitely nostalgia of playing of the first FPS games of my life and certainly one of the most over the top and fun. Add to that a 14 year development cycle and you bet I'm interested in what they've done. But I don't get hyped for games anymore, not since I was a teenager.

There wasn't a 14 year development cycle. They had gearbox slap it together on the Borderlands engine. It just took them 14 years to decide to make another one.

What? Technically... you're completely wrong. They started development around '97. They released the first trailer in '01
They switched graphic engines multiple times. They built their own engine at one point.

It was supposed to be released in '03. Then '04. Then '05. In '07 they released another teaser trailer.

Anyway there's lots of interesting info here http://duke.a-13.net/

 

[The Wykydtron]

Nostalgia I suppose, though seeing the demo and the reactions to it, i believe Gearbox/3D Realms either dropped the ball or phoned it in...

 

[Antari]

snip.

snip.

As for us older folks, yeah there's definitely nostalgia of playing of the first FPS games of my life and certainly one of the most over the top and fun. Add to that a 14 year development cycle and you bet I'm interested in what they've done. But I don't get hyped for games anymore, not since I was a teenager.

There wasn't a 14 year development cycle. They had gearbox slap it together on the Borderlands engine. It just took them 14 years to decide to make another one.

What? Technically... you're completely wrong. They started development around '97. They released the first trailer in '01
They switched graphic engines multiple times. They built their own engine at one point.

It was supposed to be released in '03. Then '04. Then '05. In '07 they released another teaser trailer.

Anyway there's lots of interesting info here http://duke.a-13.net/

And if they'd stayed on any of those path's yes there'd be 14 years of development. Giving up and having the lowest bidder's engine make the game for ya is pretty lame. Outside of the development of the engine its pretty easy to come up with a storyline and elements for a duke nukem game ...

 

[Shihan2]

snip.

I hope you're trolling... you don't think a 30 year old has time to game? And on top of that, for some wierd reason, you think it's the 30 year olds who are foaming at the mouth for this?

Dude... no. We all have our hobbies that occupy our free time. If gaming is one of them, so be it. And it's most definitely NOT the older people who are "hyping" the game. It's the devs pushing a lot of media attention and a lot of younger people who did NOT play Duke 3D (at least not near it's release). But, a game with lots of tits and sex jokes and guns and violence? What's not to love (from a 15 year old's perspective)? Of COURSE they're going to be interested! After all that was around the age I was when first playing Duke 3D and it was HILARIOUS to my immature little mind.

Trolling? No. This would be pretty weak attempt at trolling. Most everyone I know are gamers, including the individual I mentioned earlier. But since he's a married man with a child, I guess I can't really expect everyone to want to step away from their computer and interact with things that are real. Anyone who can lose themselves in work needs just as much help as those lost in games.
I digress, the point of the topic is why it was being hyped as a god among games then vilified when it doesn't deliver. If all it is, and it sounds like it is, is that Duke Nukem was just THE game of the 90's, I guess I can understand that. It's the only reason Halo's gone on this long, as well as CoD and likely Gears too. It might just be I simply don't get the appeal of the game.

Oh, and since it keeps coming up, I usually do have to put gaming aside to focus on work and getting ready to leave for basic at the ripe age of 21. I assume most people have more time or want to spend on their computers than me, which by all the overly defensive posts seems to be the case. Let me go on record now that given the general audience of this site, I'll take a guess and say post people here are gamers, but I really couldn't care less. I want to know more about the game than any attempt to defend your use for spare time.

edit: Btw, the reason why I assume most people hating the game is because of the talk about ruining the franchise. Since most teens wouldn't remember the good ones, I tend to believe the loudest critics are the older members.

 

[EzraPound]

Let me first state that I didn't own a copy of Duke Nukem when I was a kid. I haven't seen much of the series, since I only saw about two minutes of it as a friends place before getting bored and doing something else. I grew up with games much farther on the fringe, so I don't really understand the appeal it has with so many people.
Let's assume that the people who REALLY enjoy this series were ten when the first game was released and 14-15 when 3D was released. By now, those individuals are now about to enter their 30's. Don't you have more pressing issues to worry about than resurrecting an old series from your childhood? I have a friend who's thirty and enjoyed the series back when Forever was still an uncertainty, and he's much more interested in his daughter learning to speak.
But what really confuses me is why everyone continues to rant on and on about the demo and how disappointing it is. After all this time, and let's not forget the original developers no longer being apart of the process, did anyone really think this would be anything other than an attempt to wring money out of nostalgic gamers?
Since I've never had much interest in the series, due to the fact in my eyes the "humor" is bland at best, I'm asking some of the other Escapists what their take on the matter is. I'm open to the argument that realism can and should be axed if it gets in the way of a game that isn't trying to be serious, and I understand humor is subject to perception. One thing I ask is to please give the Yahtzee arguments a break and argue about the merits of the Nukem series instead of blaming a game released five years after the end of Nukem.

First of all, I don't really know how you're able to add ten and fifteen and get "about to enter their 30's." Lots of people who are twenty-five are still in university, don't have families, etc.--which means they have a similar amount of free time to a senior-level high school student. Also--why are people who are thirty not allowed to get excited about a game? Often people on this site talk as if your life ends at thirty--trust me, it's not that different.

I'm twenty-two and I first played Duke Nukem 3D when I was maybe ten years old (I beat the DOOM shareware at age five). I finished the entire thing a few years ago--maybe in '06--on the N64. Of course, when DN3D was first released it was easily the best FPS on the market, barring perhaps DOOM, and had by far the most recognizable protagonist--the level of interaction with environments at the time was particularly impressive--so it ought to be understandable why people have been continually excited for a sequel.

The original Duke was developed by 3D Realms. The new Duke is developed by 3D Realms, albeit assisted by Gearbox--hardly upstarts in their own right. No problem there. Additionally, the footage that's been already released--rife with Duke's one-liners and images of him picking up poo or scrawling images of penises with marker--suggest the new game is at least superficially concerned with continuing the legacy of its predecessor, even if the two-gun limit and regenerating health features some find jarring (the world has changed since 1996--I don't). In all likelihood, DNF will be good--maybe not Half-Life 2, but good--a probability that many overcritical of an eight-month old PAX East demo or the inclusion of a few features that are staples of the FPS genre in 2011 seem to have overlooked.

So yes, I think there's lots of reasons to be excited--whether you were an early or late adopter of DN3D.

 

[icame]

Fourteen years of waiting and countless jokes is why the hype.

This. 14 years of waiting can make you build up some pretty high expectations and the jokes people made about the dev time kept it in public mind.

 

[Treblaine]

Let's assume that the people who REALLY enjoy this series were ten when the first game was released and 14-15 when 3D was released.

Who says they played it when it was released?

I'm a huge Doom fan but didn't "discover" it till like, err, 2005 or something.

 

[Frankster]

Let me first state that I didn't own a copy of Duke Nukem when I was a kid. I haven't seen much of the series, since I only saw about two minutes of it as a friends place before getting bored and doing something else. I grew up with games much farther on the fringe, so I don't really understand the appeal it has with so many people.

Had no reason to read past this (thought did so out of politeness) as you answer your own question here.

Why would you be hyped for a series you have no relation with?

For the record i'm 25 rather then 30, your stereotyping of what people in the 25-30 age group are up to or should give a damn about is rather...subjective.

As for explaining the appeal of a series, well if you didn't get it before, doubt anything i'd say would suddenly change your mind and make you start loving the duke. Different tastes for different people.