Duke Nukem Forever review

Wow - after all the great reviews - I think I will buy this game later today!
 
Kyle I think your assessment is a bit harsh. Despite it being dated in the graphics department, a number of people (including people here) find it to be fun and worthwhile. I find the interaction with the games and the world to be classic Duke. I am enjoying my time within the game... except for the Duke vision, my god that makes me want to rage so hard when I HAVE to turn it on.
 
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"The Duke just proves how shitty the game industry is and how hype is more important than anything when you want a game to make money. You can also blame all the people who believe in the culture of preorders"

Hallelujah!
 
Just finished DNF. it's ok. Not great but not unplayable (at least on PC). If you didn't buy it yet wait for a Steam sale to knock $20 off it. I'm just thankful that I got to play it rather than watch all of the videos post 3DRealms shutdown and wish I was playing it.

I'd give it 7/10 rating wise. Personally it irks me that Daikatana is actually scoring better than DNF on GameRankings. DNF might not be great but Daikatana was virtually unplayable out of the box.

This. I didn't hate it but I didn't like it. I was auto-pilot the whole way through the game. The secrets were worthless most of the time so I didn't bother hunting around for them. Also ammo was a joke. I found myself spray and praying the whole way. Guns with ammo were all over the place. Even during those "locked in a room, kill everything to get out" parts. Ripper+shotgun was the b&b weapon set up for nearly the whole game...
 
"The Duke just proves how shitty the game industry is and how hype is more important than anything when you want a game to make money. You can also blame all the people who believe in the culture of preorders"

Hallelujah!

So true.
 
Its been "official" for a while. No game spends that kind of time in development and comes out the other end anything else but a turd sandwich.
No other game has ever spent this much time in development. There's no precedent to base your argument on.
 
No other game has ever spent this much time in development. There's no precedent to base your argument on.

Zero,

The game wasn't actually "in development" for 12 or 14 years or whatever.

There were numerous hiatus that stopped development.
 
Zero,

The game wasn't actually "in development" for 12 or 14 years or whatever.

There were numerous hiatus that stopped development.
The only time development really stopped was when 3DRealms shut down. And even with that taken into consideration, no other game was ever in development for so long.
 
Take out the regen health, limited weapons carry, and the stupid first 15 mins you have to spend without a gun, IN A SHOOTER GAME and you may have an OK game, but not worth the 50$ they are asking. Its just an over-hyped consol trashed game that killed off a great IP. Next up, Shadow Warrior! Lo Wangs revenge!

You spent SEVERAL levels of the beginning of Doom 3 without a gun, what's your point?
 
3DR restarted the game for the 3rd or 4th time in 2006, then shut down in early 2009. When it shut down in 2009, then single player version was almost finished. So, what you're seeing on PC is about 3 years worth of development. When GB bought it, they spent the next 1.5 years tuning the PC version and porting it to consoles.

I've noticed this game copies a lot of HL2 based puzzles. It also has the music stops when all enemies are killed effect, and even the former weapon selection menu used to be a big rip off of HL2 (see it @4:29).
 
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The AI is not bad compared to Black Ops and World at War:

If player in line of sight = shoot
If player not in line of sight = throw grenades

It's not much better either but you know, gotta give at least something to DNF.
 
I picked it up for 36 bucks through that green gaming deal. Not saying it was great or even good but I was able to at least play through it (which there have been a lot of games recently that have lost my interest almost immediately).

I would give the game a 5/10 before the water levels and end boss and a 3/10 after those. And all 3 points are from stability (no problems) and nostalgia.

Whoever play tested the water levels and decided they were gold needs to be looking for another job. I cannot recall when I have seen that degree of bad of level design. I could probably go on and on about those levels but it isn't worth my time.
 
All i gotta say is don't blame GearBox on this. All they did was clean out the cob webs and actually bring the game to life. They didnt develop this game from the get go. But I do feel though that with them having the licensing for the game now (at least that is what im told), that means a new game can rise from the ashes and be some what good with a updated engine.
 
The only way ducke nukem could suck more is if You fucking played it on XBox 360 or ps3 with blury ass console graphics and horrible analog stick aim. Ya i saw some people playing it ont he fucking xbox it was sad I could not watch, it sucks even more on consoles.


I would still buyt the game if i could go back in time anyway for the lulz of the 10 or 11 year duke nukem forever saga I have to see it all the way through it has been to long this is the epic ending of it's 10+ years of lulz I remember this game on the unreal 1 engine.

It's done and over it was a good ride of lulz I enjoy it like I enjoy the bad movies on mystery sci theater 3000 like The Giant Gila Monster and selvester stallones Cobra..... He fucking cuts pizza with scissors in Cobra that movie is gold every body should see it... it is like the duke nukem forever of movies but without the 10 year wait.
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/cobra/



7.gif


Oh and the 8-bit game is better than duke nukem forever
 
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I got to play DNF, and I do have a opinion about the game. Being a long time DN3D fan, this game isn't terrible. It's not good, but not horrible.

The biggest problem with DNF is how it doesn't seem to match what I thought DNF was going to be. Mind you, the nudity, excessive use of woman, and foul language is something I love and expect from DNF. I didn't play DNF to be politically correct, or to be fair to woman rights.

The things I expected from DNF.


#1 Large explorable maps. Not this linear crap that I'm use to in first person shooter games.

#2 New weapons.

#3 New gameplay. Would have loved to have seen something interesting done with the ability to draw in a game, besides being used as a bad joke.

#4 I expected a very long game. Something that should take a month to beat, not a day.

Now for the Truely bad parts of DNF.

#1 You can't explore maps, as I've said before.
#2 Can only carry two weapons, like in Halo. Which BTW, Duke makes fun of Halo in the game too, which is pretty sad that the game copies their weapon carrying system.
#3 Graphics look dated. Like the game was made in 2004. There looks to be some attempt to update the graphics, but nothing major.
#4 Health meter is now Ego meter. Another stupid idea stolen from Halo.
#5 Game lacks substance. It's very short for a game that took 12 years to make.

Now for the Good, wait there's good parts of DNF?

#1 The Ego system gives players inventive ways to boost this health bar. Sometimes hilarious ways too.
#2 The old Duke weapons don't disappoint. How many games have you seen with a shrink ray used as a weapon? The crappy AI allows laser traps to actually work.
#3 As a heterosexual male, I do enjoy the constant appearance of naked woman.
#4 I also enjoy Dukes phrases, even though most of them I've heard in DN3D. I enjoy Serious Sam's one liners more then Dukes though.

It's a game I'd pick up for $20, maybe $30 at most. Though, I can't help feel that consolitis may have played a major roll in the suckness of DNF. One happy thought is that DNF isn't as bad as Crysis 2.
 
Wow seriously? The game wasn't that bad. This wasn't COD or BF, this was Duke Nukem. The story was serviceable, it didn't deviate from the goal(Kill Aliens, save the world) In fact I don't remember D3D having a story to begin with or narrative, other than kill aliens. This one had characters you talked to, goals to complete to get past those points. Sure the driving stuff could have been a bit better, but the getting the gas portion was essential to getting you out of the Vehicle. Other games did the same thing only they used walls to block off driving or blowing up your vehicle.

Basically this is a game styled as a B Action Flick Movie. I got my money worth. I went in to have fun and I did. I continue to have fun owning it up in Multiplayer and getting items for my dig. Oh wait, did anyone in the reviews mention that when you are playing multiplayer you get xp which is used to level up to get items and stuff for your Duke Apartment/Pad? The only other game I saw that did that was Bioshock 2. No one else did that. Too many people took it too seriously.
 
Folks this is just further proof why you should not pay 50 bucks for a video game.
 
For those interested, my thoughts on DNF are located here.

TLDR version: DNF may have its drawbacks but to me it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I sincerely think the bad reviews are more of fault-finding than actually playing the game. Definitely not something you'd probably want your 10 year old playing. What I don't understand is DNF is labeled as shit yet games like CoD get rave reviews when they are absolutely horrible.

To add: I can see why and where the game could have done better, and for some things there are valid points. I'm semi-upset that the game isn't more graphically wow-ing, and I know that those who have the setups for getting the full-on immersive experience (Eyefinity, NVSurround, etc.) have every right to be upset about that. I blame this lack of graphical goodness on having console ports being available on the same release day to be considered. I think THAT is what kills a lot of the PC games in terms of graphics. Why I am NOT upset is because there are gamers like me, who are running on older hardware, that can still play and get beautiful eye-candy. On my 4890 I'm able to run full eye-candy at 1920 x 1200 with no noticeable slowdowns in intense moments. I can't say the same for some that are DX10, so for me it's kind of nice to be able to enjoy the game without having to buy new hardware to accommodate it, even if I do secretly wish it pushed my video card a little.
 
Why does the multiplayer have to be utter crap? It's like it was an afterthought....

Now you know how single player folks have felt for the last 10+ years.

"Oh. Wait? You don't want to play with obscenity spewing racist homophobe juvenile teenagers? Sorry about that! AI is hard, so we focused on multi-player. Look! You can buy imaginary hats with real money in our eProbe Online Gamerz Store! THAT'S INNOVATION!"

:D
 
Just be happy that they finally released the game. Or else you would be waiting for it [Forever].

THE END!
 
Just be happy that they finally released the game. Or else you would be waiting for it [Forever].

THE END!

Unless Gearbox steps up and either fixes this game (unlikely) or releases a new Duke game that is actually good (DNF's SP campaign was completed by Triptych in 2009, not Gearbox), it would have been better to think of what could have been than what was.
 
Finally beat the game tonight. Overall I'd give it a 6/10. It's clear that this wasn't 12 years of work just a couple years after yet another reboot. Watching all those video clips from earlier builds kind of makes me sad as to what this game could have been if released years ago. To me they all look like they have more depth then what we finally got.
 
This game represents everything that is wrong with the gaming industry, this was a money grab and nothing more. Gearbox should be ashamed.
 
You spent SEVERAL levels of the beginning of Doom 3 without a gun, what's your point?

I didnt like Doom 3. It was a lame monster closet 1 trick pony. I cant remember how many times they spawned in an imp on my back or just so happen to open every door as I pass by it with more imps. The original didnt need to depend on lame tricks to be good. So whats YOUR point? How about you remember back too Doom 1 and 2 when you STARTED with a GUN and got too SHOT THINGS in a first person SHOOTER. Even the original DN3D started you with a hand gun on the roof of an arcade!

The only game that did the whole unarmed intro GOOD was Half Life. But at least it didnt limit you to two guns and regen health.
 
LOL, I love the [H]'s front page review. Short, straight to the point, and brutal, [H] style :D

This game represents everything that is wrong with the gaming industry, this was a money grab and nothing more. Gearbox should be ashamed.

Wait till you see Gearbox's Brother In Arms Furious 4, the squeal that has nothing to do with Brother In Arms at all!

I'm starting to dislike Gearbox's ideology here, taking great franchise from the past and completely screwing them over.
 
I had no expectations at all, but DNF is still painful to get through. It's definitely a throwback, one that appears to have an identity crisis by making fun of games and then stealing their gameplay elements. The weapons are the same damn things we had ten years ago, the gunplay is mediocre at best (circle strafing...woohoo...), the humor isn't well written or funny (and I really enjoyed the original), graphically it's a steaming pile of shit, the bosses are ludicrously simple...I could go on.

DO NOT buy this game unless it's on a massive sale and you're stupidly bored. Even if you're nostalgic for some Duke Nukem, I'd say go play the original and don't tarnish your memory of that classic.
 
Oh yeah, and I wanted to say this. The DNF graphics kept reminding me of Postal 2. Not sure why, but I would see the way scenes were rendered and it just kept reminding me of Postal 2, and I did not ever play that game much. Seemed weird to me....

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5M-vlm0PA"]Postal 2[/ame]
 
When the F did HardOCP become a game review site?

I rather play duke nukem forever than crysis or crysis 2 any day.
 
When the F did HardOCP become a game review site?

I rather play duke nukem forever than crysis or crysis 2 any day.

I did not know sharing our opinion in a single news post made us a game review site. We build PCs to play games, just sharing our opinions along the way.

Next up! F3AR!
 
To me, a great game that is worth its full price should be good right from the start, not giving you that meh feeling until some highlights somewhere in the middle or the end of it.

If it starts off badly for the first 30 mins, you know there's something fundamentally wrong with the gameplay. The things Kyle mentioned, like regenerative health and weapon limits are things that will always be there throughout the entire game, if it feels bad at the beginning, its going to feel that way right to the end of the game.
 
Well, given the game is really really crap, maybe when it hit's $5 sales will take off.
 
How about giving it a full review then as with any of the hardware that you review.
But you have to follow these points

Play through the entire game
Play Multiplayer and include a review of Dukes Digs as it is part of the Multiplayer experience.


I don't run a game review site and I am not going to treat it as such. If you don't like my game opinions, simply discount those. You seem to confuse a 4 or 5 sentence comment from me as a game review. I did not review the game, simply used a bully pulpit as a place to give my quick 2 cents. As with everything we say, YMMV. And of course we give you a platform here to tell me I am full of shit if you wish.
 
Duke Nukem 3D didn't have immersion to begin with though. Hell it didn't even have a story much of anything. This one at least had a story going for it and didn't break from the flow of that. Did you try the multiplayer at least?

But duke 3d had LOTs of memorable things going on from the interactions, speak, varied level designs and what not.
 
I have a stronger urge to play Postal 2 then DNF now, not that the urge is strong enough to do anything.
 
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