Gearbox: Duke Nuken Forever Was Victim of Expectations

[vitreoushumor]

I bought DNF on Amazon for $5 and I applied a $5 credit and I still feel like I paid too much.

 

[the_crippler]

Gearbox came in to polish the turd. They could have torn the game down and rebuilt it from the ground up with all modern coding - but that's exactly what 3D Realms did repeatedly and never got it to market. Gearbox bought the IP to be the company to finally release it and have the rights to continue the franchise in their own way. I respect that.

Was the game crap? Yeah, pretty much. Did I buy it? Yep. Did I have fun playing it? Hell yes.

 

[danwat1234]

I thought it was an interesting game. Funny at times. I liked throwing poo at my reflection in the mirror

 

[-Fran-]

I'd say half of that is true... There were 2 really really BAD choices in design for the game:

1- Only 2 weapons at a time upon release (it was patched later on).
2- Instead of health packs, the "EGO" bar was dumb as F.

I was able to forgive the lousy scenarios (boring puzzles and crappy graphics) and I was also able to forgive the glued-nonsensical story line of the game thanks to the cheesy one-liners from Duke. I also missed/needed more exploration and secrets, it was way too linear.

I can say I had fun playing it at least, but the full retail price I paid was not meant to be putting all this together. Also, terribad finish.

Cheers!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

A long long time ago I played the original game. From the reports and comments I read I am glad I didn't purchase the new version.

 

[ahnilated]

Wait a min. They had 15 yrs to make the game and they couldn't meet expectations? Are you kidding me!

 

[the_crippler]

[citation][nom]ahnilated[/nom]Wait a min. They had 15 yrs to make the game and they couldn't meet expectations? Are you kidding me![/citation]


Well, part of the problem is that the "they" changed a number of times over the years, and the company that was the last one holding it isn't the one who began it.

Also, few things can live up to the expectations built over 15 years of waiting. DNF could have been ME3 with a better ending, mixed with the shooting mechanics of Battlefield and the graphics of Crysis, and there would still be people complaining after 15 years of waiting. That's the real reason I think that Gearbox didn't invest more than they had to to get it out the door - it was a lost cause. Get it released and focus on doing the next one right.

 

[clownbaby]

hahahahaahahahaha "victim of expectations"! What were the expectations on the other side? O.K. , so if you were expecting something comparable to Crysis, maybe expectations were much. But you would have also had unreasonable expectations if you were hoping for say, a boring, mildly entertaining shooter. It couldn't even do that. I'd rather play angry birds on a pink cell phone for eternity than EVER play DNF again.

Rushed? Didn't we wait more than a decade for that "game"?

WOW. If I had ANYTHING to do with that project, I'd shut my mouth and let it disappear into the ether. There is NO excuse for the suck that is DNF. Just let it go. Let Duke rest in peace, with Leisure Suit Larry and the Noid.

 

[buddhabelly34]

[citation][nom]the_crippler[/nom]Well, part of the problem is that the "they" changed a number of times over the years, and the company that was the last one holding it isn't the one who began it.Also, few things can live up to the expectations built over 15 years of waiting. DNF could have been ME3 with a better ending, mixed with the shooting mechanics of Battlefield and the graphics of Crysis, and there would still be people complaining after 15 years of waiting. That's the real reason I think that Gearbox didn't invest more than they had to to get it out the door - it was a lost cause. Get it released and focus on doing the next one right.[/citation]
The issue is that they may not be able to sell the next Duke Nukem given the critical response to DNF. That is a huge deterrent for the company to consider.

 

[the_crippler]

[citation][nom]buddhabelly34[/nom]The issue is that they may not be able to sell the next Duke Nukem given the critical response to DNF. That is a huge deterrent for the company to consider.[/citation]


It was certainly a gamble, and one that I'm sure they considered. Time will tell if they managed to pull it off.

 

[wolfram23]

Wait... DNF was pretty fun. It was stupid and crude and hilarious... that was my expectation.

 

[hardeho]

I don't think any amount of lowered expectations could save that game. The problem was, it was a 12 year old game, and felt like a 12 year old game. Also, maybe its just me, but its also 12 year old humor, though I may just be getting old and uncool, and I accept that.

 

[spookyman]

Well it was not Duke Nukem and it was crap

 

[avalach21]

Again, probably 65% or more of people tearing the game apart I guarantee did not play the game at all, or at most, played the awful demo. The game was a solid fun time. I'd give it an 8/10. It wasn't a revolutionary mindblowing masterpiece like 3D was, but it was a solid good time with the Duke. In no way did it deserve a 0/10 1/10 or even a 4/10 review

 

[rooket]

Doesn't keeping it in the press, good or bad, sell more copies? I bought it for about $6.49 on steam. I started with a copy version and then waited for the price to go down. It wasn't terrible enough to not buy it at all. The developers deserved at least something. Yeah I know I squandered what almost $60 from them but look, it goes on sale. People buy it. A lot of people. They probably made a lot of money from it going on sale so much and people talking about it all the time. Most people don't pirate games despite what goes on on tom's hardware or any niche sites online. Piracy doesn't help this game, but at least I can say I don't own a pirated copy of it.

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]goldengoose[/nom]It was bad, accept that; don't try and make excuses.[/citation]


the thing is it was bad by todays standards. the game was created in the mid-late 90's. all gearbox did make the graphics look good and release it

 

[NuclearShadow]

The game itself was awful even if you forget the extreme development time and history behind the game.
Were expectations unreasonably high? Maybe but even a person who never played a Duke Nukem game before or knew the history behind it would no doubt see it as a poor game as well.

If they are going to live in this state of denial than expect no improvement if they make another.

 

[thechief73]

Game was absolutely terrible... and that is with low expectations. From its game play, graphics, to its vulgar script and opening cut scenes. If you were fool enough not to see that in them lame demo and bought the game, shame on you.

 

[__-_-_-__]

And about the game, it just completely sucks, i prefer playing hello kitty island adventure for 10 years than playing this game for 10 minutes, well ive played a shitload of games, so everywone that should say i never played anything else can shut the fuck up, the game development took 12 years for this completely shitty hopeless mindless unworthy piece of mammoth shit, just think of the first duke nukem game, completely awesome right?(i mean for that time) now think of that duke, being raped by 15 giant alien dicks for 6 years, then smashed into a wall of shit for another six years, and you have the 12 years development of duke nukem forever, the most shitty game of all time, i mean the guy can have only two weapons, the game have the most stupid jokes full of stupid easter eggs and the SINGLE and ONLY funny part is drawing a dick every time somewone asks your autograph, IGN was being IGNorant when they gave a 3.5 for this game, i think they felt sorry for who wasted 60 bucks on it, this junk would deserve 0.5, and dont say i didnt played this game, because i did.(unfortunatly)

 

[isoomega]

People were expecting DNF to be the top GOTY with Badass graphics and best gameplay ever. What they don't realize is that that's not what made duke nukem 3d shine in the past.... It was the hilirious comments/jokes and fun FPS. Get over it already!

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]michalmierzwa[/nom]If the creators had kept the story as it was originally, made few adjustments, no problem and certainly brought the graphics to today's standard than I think it would have been a better success than it worked out to be.[/citation]

Kinda hard when you don't have the same development team members...

 

[dreadlokz]

Good I don't pay to play, some titles I just stop and uninstall after 15m of play... like DNF?
Like some said, don't make excuses! Just try harder next time, and don't make any announcements if you don't want any expectations!!

 

[badaxe2]

It still had better tech and gameplay variety/depth than any recent CoD game, yet critics have no problem still praising that. I think most of it is just the unfortunate reality that it's "cool" to jump on the hate wagon for a game that's an exceptionally easy target. Admittedly DN:F was rough around the edges but exactly what were people expecting for a game that's been Frankensteined together the last decade and a half?

People throwing this game under the bus need to really go back and play the old ones, and once the nostalgia clears it'll be pretty obvious that DN:F is still an improvement over them. Probably still moreso than, again, any recent CoD game over the initial ones.

 

[bartholomew]

The production of this game was a complete disaster

 

[olaf]

lets be hones this was a Gears of war with Duke skin on it and some vintage duke parts, some of the games parts felt old i mean really old. Like duke3d with a newer skin, some newer and so on , So yeah the fragmentation did't help it but the fact that they pretty much used the same mechanics as in Gears of war was a big let down for me, where's the walking armory Duke used to be, WHERE WAS THE MIGHTYFOOT ?
I still remember kicking people in the face in LAN party's and having a blast. But this thing began to ambitious and it did't even measure up to the more "el cheepo" shooters coming out from some Russian developers.