Duke Nukem Forever.... beyond a joke. (2 Viewers)

[Jason Harbaugh]

Guess they are trying to counter Unreal 2 and their single player game. Strange that they wouldn't go after UT2003 though since that was the main competitor of Q3. I do hope they lose the cartoony look of Q3. Quake and Quake II were awesome games but Quake III was very disappointing and made me an Unreal fan.

 

[Graeme Clark]

To be fair, we really have no idea what's going on with DNF, what the current game really looks like, or how the game is being managed.

Comparing it to Doom 3 seems kind of pointless. If DNF is released sometime in the Oct/Nov time, then it will probably have close to a year up on Doom3.

Saying it will be the next Daikatana also seems rather unfair. Daikatana had much more than it's delays to earn it's "Joke of the Industry" delays. For that we had so much more fodder. The game was supposed to come out with less than a year in development, we had Romero telling us how incredible it was going to be, the big parties and early reviews to hype their games, the infamous "Make you his bitch" ad, what seemed like daily reports of the internal strife at Ion, the mass exodus of employees, the reports of entire levels being redesigned or not even close to finished etc etc.

All we got with Duke is one engine switch and a long development.

I mean, Blizzard has more strife (long development, delays and entire engines being scrapped) yet everyone expects their games to be nothing short of amazing.

Half Life was not the most technically advanced game on it's release, yet the game was great... and people still play it.

Duke3D did great, and was a great game, despite competition from the more technically advanced Quake.

Based on Duke3D, which I still consider to be one of the best FPS ever, I'm willing to give 3DR the benefit of the doubt. I'd like to see some more info also. Heck, I'd like to see them go back to their roots and release a "Shareware" version or full featured Demo soon (although that may backfire in todays market). But I don't consider they way they've gone about things to be highly unprofessional, or grounds to give it a dud status before I even see it (let alone play it).

 

[Graeme Clark]

P.S.

This post from the Shacknews board that Adnan linked to is classic.

You guys are like the really hot girl that hints she wants you but just when you think you are going to pop her she reveals she has a penis.

 

[James Zos]

"You guys are like the really hot girl that hints she wants you but just when you think you are going to pop her she reveals she has a penis."

Huh. I myself have never had this experience, but I suppose it all depends on what bars you go to or whatever.

"I'd like to see them go back to their roots and release a "Shareware" version or full featured Demo soon (although that may backfire in todays market)."

Graeme - why are shareware or demos likely to backfire in todays market? I've noticed that there seem to be less demos released for major games (Elder Scrolls, etc). Why do you think that is?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

All I know is that I stopped caring about DNF a long time ago. They've taken a ludicrous amount of time to get the game out, and I'll be suprised if it breaks even

 

[Graeme Clark]

A demo can backfire if the game sucks, or is full of bugs of course. And I think there are less demos now because they take too much time to produce and don't seem to totally be neccesary. So when they do come out, they are in the guise of "tests" or come out after the game is released.

But I was thinking that a demo or shareware version along the lines of Duke3D's might back fire. That demo gave you 1/3 of the game, most of the weapons and both Multiplayer and Single player. That shareware version was the most played game for months by me and my friends, and we were anxiously awaiting the full version and played that for a long long time also.

But in today's market, with so many games being released, a lot of gamers are playing a game for a few weeks and then moving on to the next greatest thing. If 3DR gave away 1/3 of the game for free, I'd be afraid that a lot of potential customers would just skip the full game feeling that they got enough from the demo.

But then, I guess you could argue that something like the Quake3 test gave you a fairly large portion of the game, and people still bought that.

Still, I hope we get a demo or test before it's released. They can be fun.

 

[Javier_Huerta]

I would bet they won't ever release DNF. How long has it been now? 3 years? More than that? Blah, I say.

Which is a shame, really. Can you believe I still play Duke Nukem 3D from time to time? And I do consider it a better game than Quake, maybe even Quake II?

If DNF was released, what would make me think it would recapture the spirit of the original? How long it has been since it was released? 6 years? More than that? (likely). Even if the original team was involved, wouldn't they have lost their impetus and their originality by now?

Sad, really. Because just as I said, Duke Nukem 3D is one of my favorite games ever. I simply don't think they will be able to repeat their success, simply because they are so obsessed with technology. I'd rather have seen the game released a couple of years ago.

 

[Paul_D]

[singing]Why are we waiting...[/singing]

 

[Kelley_B]

Talk about raising the dead Paul!

I think its best to forget DNF and just move on to looking forward to a game that really will get released, Doom III.

 

[felix_suwarno]

"They will teach courses on the failure of this game, mark my words."

i got that lecture a few months ago. honest.

 

[BrianB]

I simply don't think they will be able to repeat their success, simply because they are so obsessed with technology.

From everything I know about DNF, that is 100% NOT their problem. Their problem is obsessing with content, not technology.
BTW, if anyone cares, DNF has already made a profit for 3DRealms without even being released

 

[Kelley_B]

BrianB,

Are we talking on just retailer pre-orders and orders for the game?

 

[BrianB]

Nope, they got a huge chunk of cash from Take Two as part of the buyout of the publishing rights to all Duke Nukem games from Infogrames.

I don't know if this is still true, but certainly a year ago the revenues from older 3DRealms' games were enough to cover month to month costs too. This was before Max Payne hit. The guys in charge of 3DR are *very* on the ball business wise.

 

[Graeme Clark]

The absolute silence on this game is getting beyond silly. Would a short monthly update on how things are going really be all that much to ask?

 

[Kelley_B]

it would be way too much to ask

 

[James Zos]

Sooner or later (maybe later) the game will come out. When it does it will either be good or not good. All the previews or updates in the world won't change that. All they would do is raise or lower expectations. But you don't get to play your expectations - you have to play the game.
So when Duke Nukem Forever (bet they wish they had called it something else now) finally comes out, I'll see if it is or isn't a good game. Until then I'll withhold judgement.

 

[Jean-Michel]

Incidentally, it looks like Quake 4 may be out before the end of the year, which is a little strange, because its being developed by Raven (Jedi Outcast, Soldier of Fortune 2) and allegedly uses the Doom III engine, and the former is due in June next year.

Where did you hear this? It would be quite a surprise since we've yet to see even a single screenshot. I haven't even heard anything about it since the initial announcement at Quakecon 2001 so if you have any more info I'd love to have it.

 

[Eugene Esterly]

I am & still waiting patiently for Duke Nukem Forever to come out. I have been waiting since I heard about DNF in July 1997. I have seen reports on the Internet that the game may come out in 2003.

Where the hell is "Prey"?

I also would love to know what happened to Prey. Prey is one of the games which I was going to buy.

Another game is Max Payne. I was waiting for Max Payne to come out since I first heard about the game. I was surfing the Internet earlier this year & I saw Max Payne was out so I ordered a used PS2 copy of Max Payne.

 

[Graeme Clark]

Prey was cancelled long ago.

 

[BrianB]

I also would love to know what happened to Prey. Prey is one of the games which I was going to buy.

The lead engineer quit & moved to another games company. It limped along for a while after that, but by that time the tech wasn't anything special (portal tech is old hat now), so it got canned.