Despite working largely in the games industry I don't generally get excited by new game releases - other than Portal 2 which I massively enjoyed, I haven't really played any single player games in the last 6+ years.
But DNF does look like it's going to be really good, and I'm actually looking forward to play through it. The 2k (publishers) guys were at Gadget Show Live (a 100,000+ consumer event in the UK that I'm involved with), and spent quite a bit of time talking about the game there, as well as trying out the demo. (They claim that a colleague of mine and I were the first people not related to the developement to play it in the UK, which I'm slightly proud of).
It's obvious the amount of passion that's gone into the game, and it's obvious how hard they've tried not to let down the fans who have been waiting for so long. And, most importantly, it's obvious that they weren't afraid of making a FUN fps title, not a game that does it's best to make you think you're in a real-life situation.
Really hope it's as commercially successful as it deserves to be, and as I think it will be.
edit: To give an idea of how it will live up to people's hopes, here is a picture of Paul (my colleague mentioned above) http://lockerz.com/s/91561838 playing the game. He's 39 and doesn't have a huge amount of time for playing games now days. He was at E3 in 1999 (was it 98?) when they first demo'd DNF, and has been waiting since then - when I told him he could play it at Gadget Show Live, he was like a kid on Christmas morning. And he absolutely loved it, was blown away by how much fun it was. (Side note, if anyone reading this went to the event, you might recognise Paul as being the presenter from the main stage in the Game Zone hall =].)
This is my favorite from the list of things that happened since DNF was announced:
The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity were proposed, authorized, announced, designed, launched and successfully landed upon Mars where they have been exploring the surface for over 2.5 years.
Off the top of my head, two additional games in the main Final Fantasy series have been released, as well as The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, the Nintendo 3DS was released, it goes on and on.
Check the bottom of the page for the list of "Things that happened since the List of Things That Have Happened Since Duke Nukem Forever Was Announced was written".
Isn't this a bit like Chinese Democracy by Guns 'n' Roses? Meaning that all that time and money invested have raised the expectations to levels than can never be satisfied?
On a more serious note, the Chinese Democracy effect would apply if it were still under development by 3D Realms. Gearbox has turned out a lot of great titles so I have faith in them that they'll make this a good game. I don't know what to expect from it, but they do know that Duke was all about fun(especially since he was a parody to begin with). I'm not expecting the game to redefine first person shooters but I think it'll finally shake off the notion of it being vaporware. Hopefully no other well-deserving franchise gets this kind of treatment again.
"...they finally assembled the pieces to create an incredible, epic and cohesive gameplay experience."
Most game manufacturers don't tout cohesive as a feature... it's supposed to be a given. I hope I'm wrong, but given what I know about the development of DNF, I can't help but suspect that the reason they are mentioning it so loudly is because it isn't.
Given how many companies have worked on the game and the engine changes and just the sheer amount of turnover in that 15 year time frame, I think they need to point this out. When you start with one set of people making the game and end with another set (along with a constantly cycling number of folks in between), I would seriously worry about the continuity in the game. But this is Gearbox, so I think they can pull it off.
I think it would be funny if they would switch engines as the game progresses. You start out as a blocky blob and finish with smooth photorealistic 3D.
They used the content. DNF's last project manager when it was still with 3dRealms said something along the lines of:
"these guys have made about six or seven games over the past few years but have never got round to releasing any of them."
He basically just found a ton of fun products that were just a little ways off completion.
The final 6 million they asked for (and didn't get) was to release the last game they had "made". Considering Gearbox's timeframe I would expect they've taken the last game and polished it. I.E. done what 3dRealms would have done with that 6 million.
"done what 3dRealms would have done with that 6 million."
What 3D Realms claimed, and would have liked Take-Two to believe, that they would have done. Something they claimed they were on the verge of achieving for a decade, and which never came to fruition. What makes you believe they would have accomplished in that final year what they had failed to accomplish for the past decade? What makes you believe they would not simply have started over again?
I find it questionable that 3D Realms would ever have released DNF on their own. I think they would have burned through that money and still not have had a finalized product to show for it, as they seem to have been doing for quite a while, which is probably why the publisher declined to give them the money.
Ah I apologise, it was Van Lierop (creative director) who stated how close these games were to completion.
It was the new Project Manager Brian Hook who was steering the game toward completion when they ran out of money. I say "steering toward completion" because he was actually standing up to Broussard to promote the concept of releasing over perfecting.
I would have much preferred a lackluster sequel 14 years ago than an amazing game today. I no longer own a Windows PC, play first person shooters, or use a mouse.
> I no longer own a Windows PC, play first person shooters, or use a mouse.
What point are you trying to make? FPS are still massively popular, and there's no doubting that many who were small children 14 years ago have taken your place, owning Windows PCs, playing FPS, and using mice.
That generally, a large market for a sequel (of any kind of media) is people who enjoyed the first one. And that they have left it a bit late in this case. A sequel to a popular teen rom-com movie would lose a lot of impact if it came 14 years late.
My point was this is being released far too late for me to care. I was anxious about a sequel in the late 90's. But now it's been so long that I no longer use the technology or this type of entertainment anymore.
So you're making a comment to say that you no longer care for FPS...I don't quite get it. That's like saying the release of Starcraft 2 was a waste because some SC1/BW players got tired of RTS, or gaming in general.
I may not agree with it, but the heart of his criticism is (harshly put) that you're polluting HN with your opinion because it isn't valid past you, nor does it reveal anything deeper about the subject at hand.
He can correct me if I'm putting words into his mouth.
However, what he said is spot-on. I am looking for some discernible "point" in the hope that the comment is not just the arbitrary expression of an individual's taste, which it now clearly is.
It's possible to play FPSes with touchpads, though probably not good for your hands and definitely not as easy as using a mouse. Using Caps Lock to shoot instead of right-click helps.
I get you, but politely disagree. I would prefer an amazing game fourteen years late to any number of mediocre games in the interim. There's been no shortage of lackluster games that could have filled the void for me as a gamer.
I remember playing Duke Nukem on my N64 when I was only 8/9 years old. I'm not a big gamer but it was one of the most fun games I ever played. I can't wait to get this. I'll be installing Windows 7 on my Mac just to play it.
I'm going to need a new vaporware joke now! This one has served me since the dot com bubble days.
Seriously, this looks great. I am afraid I am no longer the target audience but I'll probably try it for nostalgia's sake. I have the strangest feeling that - like rewatching Star Blazers now that I'm not ten - it's not going to hold up that well, but if anyone can do it right, it's Gearbox.
Duke Nukem Forever was in development before Half Life 1 came out. I'm going to miss not having it. It's like finding out that Samuel Beckett has written a sequel to Waiting for Godot. It just kinda spoils the whole thing.
Haha. I remember joking about the name of this game at the Naughty Dog offices when it was like 3 years late -- I swear it was in the 90s! Perhaps during the development of Crash Bandicoot Warped. Never ever pick a title with the word "forever" in it.
I believe—when Gearbox first announced they were working on DNF at PAX last year—that they were largely just finishing and polishing up what 3D Realms had worked on.
More like "aiming for perfect" went out of business. Someone else bought it at the liquidation sale and fixed it up for release. So no, no one learned their lesson and decided to ship.
No, I think this game has probably had more effort put into it (and I'm not talking about the work that had to be redone because of delays etc), with a bigger focus on perfection.
They know that they have to live up to such a huge expectation, and they're aiming to do that and more. And I think the will.
From my experience with borderlands (another gearbox game featuring save file corruption, missing items, and general mission brokenness), I'd guess that "aiming for perfect" isn't their thing. Perhaps they were the perfect company to finally ship DNF.
I remember posting on the 3D Realms forums in the 90s and thinking it was so cool that the developers posted there too, and I could converse with them!
But DNF does look like it's going to be really good, and I'm actually looking forward to play through it. The 2k (publishers) guys were at Gadget Show Live (a 100,000+ consumer event in the UK that I'm involved with), and spent quite a bit of time talking about the game there, as well as trying out the demo. (They claim that a colleague of mine and I were the first people not related to the developement to play it in the UK, which I'm slightly proud of).
It's obvious the amount of passion that's gone into the game, and it's obvious how hard they've tried not to let down the fans who have been waiting for so long. And, most importantly, it's obvious that they weren't afraid of making a FUN fps title, not a game that does it's best to make you think you're in a real-life situation.
Really hope it's as commercially successful as it deserves to be, and as I think it will be.
edit: To give an idea of how it will live up to people's hopes, here is a picture of Paul (my colleague mentioned above) http://lockerz.com/s/91561838 playing the game. He's 39 and doesn't have a huge amount of time for playing games now days. He was at E3 in 1999 (was it 98?) when they first demo'd DNF, and has been waiting since then - when I told him he could play it at Gadget Show Live, he was like a kid on Christmas morning. And he absolutely loved it, was blown away by how much fun it was. (Side note, if anyone reading this went to the event, you might recognise Paul as being the presenter from the main stage in the Game Zone hall =].)