DNF Launches Overseas with Mixed Reviews

[kikireeki]

Deja vu!

 

[NuclearShadow]

The game isn't bad, but its nothing special. As person who has played the previous Duke Nukem titles I do enjoy seeing the type of humor back in action. The game-play from what I have experienced so far certainly isn't one of the greatest games but its decently fun. I haven't gotten to far yet but it seems that quite a bit of the game-play consists of being in a area and having enemies spawn in (or being dropped from ships) killing them and soon after running into the same situation again.

If your looking for some sort of epic game that will be a defining experience to your life as a gamer this isn't it. But it is humorous and pretty much mindless fun. At-least Duke lives on, right?

 

[Stickywulf]

These reviews sites talking about long load times, outdated graphics and disorienting levels must be playing a different game. Oh, they are.
Check the reviews playing on PC and the scores are higher.

On my PC:
Levels load in about 5 seconds.
Graphics are good (not great, just good).
Disorientation doesn't exist when you control with keyboard and mouse.

I give the game 8/10.
Won't win game of the year but certainly fun for anyone who was a fan of Duke Nukem 3d.

 

[LORD_ORION]

I honestly do not understand why they released this game in Europe 1st.

They are not going to "get it" because it's a cultural thing... it's aimed right at the North American crowd.

Had to expect non-North American reviews would be bad.

Had they launched in the US first, I would expect mostly 80/100 reviews which you figure would be spur sales elsewhere.

 

[arcus_doom]

Doesn't matter. In the end. A game is just a game.

 

[prozium42]

If you guys don't have the demo and don't trust reviews, I suggest watching Totalhalibut's DNF Demo playthrough. He hits the nail on the head for the reasons its so lackluster.

I will buy this game when its $20-30 and has some mods to take out some things that shouldn't be in Duke Nukem and put a few in. I was expecting something along the lines of the new Serious Sam game coming out. Hell the tagline for that game is 'All man. No cover.' and the trailer is mostly the type of insane gameplay i remember Duke Nukem for.

 

[clonazepam]

I played the demo. For hardcore Duke fans it'll be fine but just wait for it to hit the $5 bargain basket in a week or so. It's definitely nostalgic and reminded me of the early days of 3D games on Super Nintendo when you could see the sprites "growing" and pixel density not adjusting as the image came closer. I saw this most often with those boarmen as they advance toward you. Don't expect much from the AI. In a large boss fight in a football field you just circle around him shooting him in the face. When you run out of ammo, you run to one of four corners in the field, and then go back to circling. No creative tactics necessary *in the demo*.

 

[clonazepam]

The driving sequence in the truck felt like mario kart or outrun or like one of those mini rc car games. Nothing feels modern in this game. From the driving to no weapon bob, and well the turds dont look nearly as cool as the ones I make.

 

[ProDigit10]

DN became famous because it was one of the first of their kind!
Now, it's nothing more than an average game, as technology as developed (especially with quake), 3D special effects have improved, even the standard adventure games have far more scary looking creatures than the first doom game out there!

So in essence, DN has just upgraded from their DOS version to a WIndows MMX compatible version, that runs on a higher than 800x600 pixels!

I'm not surprised! Even if DN would come out with yet another game right now, it'll just have to surpass Halo, Crysis, and all those games, in SFX and graphic quality, while maintaining the same game play.

And besides, who still is looking for a hero, shooting bad guys?
The bad guys of the '80's where the nazi's.
Back then it was alright to portray them as bad.
The bad guys today are terrorists with tulbands and beards.
Portray them today in a game as bad people, and you have (a) lawsuit(s) pending!

Things are different today as they where back in the days.

Back in the days it was time to get out of the system of blind obedience and rebel against authority. It has helped us to become free-er and more self sustaining and creative.
Today there's just economic hard times, and limitations, and money is nowhere.

 

[clonazepam]

^+1 I wasn't expecting great graphics but I was hoping for gameplay that rivaled quake 2 and didn't get it.

 

[sticks435]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]I played the demo. Don't expect much from the AI. In a large boss fight in a football field you just circle around him shooting him in the face. When you run out of ammo, you run to one of four corners in the field, and then go back to circling. No creative tactics necessary *in the demo*.[/citation]

You are aware that it wasn't supposed to be a real boss fight and was meant to be easy right? Your playing a video game of yourself, of course it's going to be easy.

 

[clonazepam]

I thought the asteriks around "in the demo" was self-explanatory.

 

[NuclearShadow]

[citation][nom]arcus_doom[/nom]Doesn't matter. In the end. A game is just a game.[/citation]

I hope your outlook isn't very serious when you say this.
Video games are a work of art that take serious effort into not only
making them but making them appeal to a audience. The heart and soul
put in by the devs makes it much more meaningful than it being a simple game. For the gamer its to enjoy the work of art. To experience it, to live it.

Video games are a form of modern art. A very popular type at that.

 

[Guest]

I'm From Europe got the full game today and have to say its nothing like that half assed demo they released so if your basing the game just on the demo, you've got it wrong it's a lot better than that, the main whiners are the console crew, if you liked the old duke buy it you wont be dissapointed .

 

[someguynamedmatt]

[citation][nom]LORD_ORION[/nom]I honestly do not understand why they released this game in Europe 1st.They are not going to "get it" because it's a cultural thing... it's aimed right at the North American crowd.Had to expect non-North American reviews would be bad. Had they launched in the US first, I would expect mostly 80/100 reviews which you figure would be spur sales elsewhere.[/citation]
I hate to burst everyone's bubbles, but if you "have to get a game to enjoy it", then that makes it a bad game. End of story.

 

[sticks435]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]I thought the asteriks around "in the demo" was self-explanatory.[/citation]
Ahhh, I didn't actually read until the end. I apologize and retract my earlier comment.

 

[shloader]

[citation][nom]Dukeisntthatbad[/nom]if you liked the old duke buy it you wont be dissapointed .[/citation]

A lot of truth right there. You really have got to like the original Duke 3D for what it was back then, and back then it wasn't a technical marvel releasing shortly after Quake. 3D Realms was after a longer feature list for interactivity with the environment. How they managed and did it back then worked well as sprite games were becoming old hat too make. Unfortunately small team and older management styles don't translate to the larger scale production DNF evolved to. Didn't help they had a project head that wanted every neat feature from every other game included in one game (thanks George, but not necessary and unproductive in a sequel ridden market). Before 3dRealms closed its doors in '09 it had a dev team of 2-3 dozen? Halo 3, Mass Effect and other complex games are twice that at times. The material was a little behind the time in '09 and more so when gearbox finally got their hands on it. I nickle-n-dimed my pre-order for half a year so it wasn't all $60 up front and am buying the PC version well aware of DNF's growing pains. I think too many felt Duke's final release would be an event on par with the resurrection. It will be what it was back in '96; a game w/ slightly dated tech and lots of novelty interaction moments with a lot of Duke Style humor. Never expected more.

 

[beayn]

Reviewers in general are always more negative than the actual players, let alone Europeans reviewing an American game. This game is a remake, why expect more than a 90's game? That's the whole point of it. It also wasn't 12-15 years in the making. Nothing that was done more than a few years ago is in this game.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I just completed the game. All in all, I do feel a bit let down but not because of hyped up expectations after waiting 15 odd years since first completing Duke 3D. You can tell whilst playing the game that a lot of time was spent putting in details like lots of little mini-game bits and 'hit space bar repeatedly to open doors' bits etc but some of these mini game like parts get really irritating really fast. The driving parts and the shrunk parts get annoying in particular. The strip club bit is a laugh but the bit you've been waiting for lasts all of five seconds.

My biggest gripe with the game though is how short it is. I completed it in under 8 hours and I was really taking my time. I also had to battle with one part because of the game crashing over and over which upped the play time. I think the first episode in Duke3D took longer than that. For a game that's taken this long to develop I expected it to be *at least* as long as 'modern' FPS single player games like Bioshock, Half-life 2 etc.

That being said, I really get the feeling that nearly all of this game is 3D Realms' mess of a game that Gearbox have stuffed together to get out fast. I'm really interested in seeing the DLC content that Gearbox have (I think) created themselves and a full blown modern sequel to this could be what's needed made in house at Gearbox and without having to rely on ten years of botched game design.

 

[eddieroolz]

Ouch. I never played Duke Nukem and don't see the appeal of it, but the reviews must be painful for the diehards.

 

[back_by_demand]

Play the full game then make a comment, until then NONE of you is qualified to make an opinion.

As far as rating it based on the demo you really need to remember RTCW, the first few levels were like a crappy version of MOHAA, then eventually you get zombies, monsters and experimentel Nazi lightning guns.

So play the full game and soak up the new bosses, the poo flinging, the titty bars, the crass humour, the in-jokes and remember that for the same cost as this game I could just about buy dinner for me and the missus, but Duke will last longer and be much more fun.

 

[feeddagoat]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]The driving sequence in the truck felt like mario kart or outrun or like one of those mini rc car games. Nothing feels modern in this game. From the driving to no weapon bob, and well the turds dont look nearly as cool as the ones I make.[/citation]

I dont want to defend or critise the game but the game is trying to recapture a past glory rather than be "modern" TBH modern fps annoy me cause they lack challenge with health regen, crap story line since everything is multiplayer focused, added realism and stupid QTE's!! Yes Crysis had regen health tho while not many people like it I thought it was excellent simply because it was successful in creating large environment where you could pretty much a predator.
By that standard DNF is suppose to be stupid, OTT and anything but modern.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Play the full game then make a comment, until then NONE of you is qualified to make an opinion.As far as rating it based on the demo you really need to remember RTCW, the first few levels were like a crappy version of MOHAA, then eventually you get zombies, monsters and experimentel Nazi lightning guns.So play the full game and soak up the new bosses, the poo flinging, the titty bars, the crass humour, the in-jokes and remember that for the same cost as this game I could just about buy dinner for me and the missus, but Duke will last longer and be much more fun.[/citation]

I *have* played the game and have completed it. Duke Nukem Forever doesn't last *that* much longer than a night out with the other half. Without getting lost due to no instructions at all at times and without having to deal with crashes, the single player game is probably only about 6 hours long.

 

[misry]

I like it for what I feel it is, FPS's the way they used to be. The single person play is all but token. Now we need to get the mods and the maps a crankin'. All those who feel it wasn't all that need to show us what they got.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]Spanky Deluxe[/nom]probably only 6 hours long[/citation]
Interesting, throughout your whole tirade you never said if you enjoyed it or not, either you didn't enjoy it and forgot to say or you did enjoy it but are not saying so to try and be cool with the others who hate it. Far as I'm concerned games are NOT a democracy, I played it and liked it, if I'm the only one from millions who did then tough titty for you all, I had fun and in the end that's all that matters.

All I want now is for Gearbox to pump out 3 DLC packs the same way they did with Borderlands and then get to work on Duke 5.