<em>Duke Nukem Forever</em> has gone gold

<em>Duke Nukem Forever</em> is actually, really and truly, honestly... coming out. The game has gone gold, so there's no turning back now. Now what are we going to use for easy jokes?

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/gaming/news/2011/05/duke-nukem-forever-has-gone-gold.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[Aurich]

Is it an Aurich masterwork (rather than an official publicity shot, which I wouldn't put past them)?

Nope, that is from 3D Realms, erm, Gearbox. I have no idea why Ars refused to put their sources out there: http://twitter.com/#!/GearboxSoftware/s ... 1902939136

It doesn't need to be sourced, it's an official asset that was designed to be used in articles such as this.

/Puts on Creative Director hat

We always source our images when appropriate. Creative Commons licensing for example. We don't source official PR assets. We could, but I'm not sure there's a compelling reason to.

The only real grey area we have is crediting original in-house illustrations. I generally sign any work I do that I consider "original", meaning more than just having some fun tweaking an existing image. Probably be a good idea to clarify that part though, so thanks for bringing it up.

Edit: The more I think about this the more I wonder if clarity isn't always the best course. I'll keep this in mind during some thoughts I'm working on re: our image policies. Thanks again.

 

[HiredGoons]

Well there's always Half Life Ep. 3 for vaporware jokes.

 

[Chris R.]

Is it an Aurich masterwork (rather than an official publicity shot, which I wouldn't put past them)?

Nope, that is from 3D Realms, erm, Gearbox. I have no idea why Ars refused to put their sources out there: http://twitter.com/#!/GearboxSoftware/s ... 1902939136

way to look like quite an asshat by assuming Ars __refused__ to put their sources up, like as if they were resisting.

 

[BigDragon]

The Vegas sign is missing something about cake. Yes, cake.

Hmmm...to pre-order or not to pre-order. The $45 sale on Steam is enticing. I just can't shake the feeling that this game will wind up being just another shooter.

 

[HiredGoons]

The Vegas sign is missing something about cake. Yes, cake.

Hmmm...to pre-order or not to pre-order. The $45 sale on Steam is enticing. I just can't shake the feeling that this game will wind up being just another shooter.

The demo at PAX was pretty underwhelming. On the other hand it's DNF.

 

[JChurch81]

I am going to rip off that games head and shit down it's neck!!!

 

[FoO]

Sweet! This reads almost like boilerplate for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Just swap out 2K with Valve, and you're good to go!

 

[Jasconius]

A literal "Going Gold" announcement is very apropos of this game's generation.

 

[Artema]

I am disappointed by the US-bias here.

The game is released 10th June internationally, and 14th June in the US.

And on a U.S. based site, no less. What a crock.

Funny, a U.S. based *web* site, how relevant ... stuck in the 20th century??

The net didn't start getting chopped into pieces until the last decade or so. In the 90s it seemed far more worldwide, as the term goes. Now its US Web, UK Web, China Web, Canada low bandwidth Web, etc.

 

[nehinks]

The net didn't start getting chopped into pieces until the last decade or so. In the 90s it seemed far more worldwide, as the term goes. Now its US Web, UK Web, China Web, Canada low bandwidth Web, etc.

New WebLite, from Canada! Guaranteed to provide less bytes in your daily struggle against media consumption!

 

[craigdolphin]

Easy jokes? US broadband 'deployment' rates and US broadband 'competition'.

Still, this is the end of an era!

 

[Dynamo Hum]

I suspect they were really really hoping that the Rapture day was going to happen. Now they're left with no choice but to release the damn thing .

 

[slowcoffee]

That looks like the Duke - but it's been so long, I can't tell. Are you guys sure about this?

 

[continuum]

THE WORLD REALLY IS ENDING!!!!!

Duke Nukem Forever shipping.. ZOMG!!!!

/me dies

 

[socratesfoot]

What's Duke Nukem' again? Oh yeah, that game that came out in 1996 that they've been promising us fans a sequel to for the last 10 years!?!

It's ironic that there might actually be children that were conceived on the original announcement date playing the game for the first time when it finally hits the shelves.

 

[NeoPlasma]

When we say a game has "gone gold," it means that the work on the game has finished, and a master copy has been sent out to the duplication plants to be pressed, packaged, and shipped out to consumers.

Wait wait… they still press disks? An actual physical disk that you have to insert into a drive before installing? How quaint!

 

[Ed209]

"with a demo coming on June 3 for preorder customers and those who bought the Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands."

I don't think they know what a Demo is, sounds more like a preview for parying customer's.

Beat me to it... what's the point of releasing a demo only to people who've already bought the game? Well, except for maybe the Borderland GOTY buyers, but still.

 

[kindakrazy]

so it was the rapture

This is why the rapture was delayed by six months. God just wanted to give 'the chosen ones' a chance to play through it.

 

[Lord Kestrel]

So when is GNU/Hurd's release-date?

Hah! I would say that is about as likely to come out as DN:F, but I'll have to find some new analogy.

How about this: Hurd will come out when Bush gets re-elected to a 3rd term.

 

[iandisme]

Your link to the April Fools' Day review starts on page 2. I am disappoint.

 

[signal11]

As a part of gamer lore and mythology, DNF was fucking epic. I could wax poetic about how long it's been around and the things I've gone through in life while waiting for DNF. The greatest game that never was.

I am really disappointed that it's coming about because it's ultimately going to be a forgettable game.

 

[Rabbiddog]

I've been saying for years; someone needed to get the balls enough to cut Boussard (spl?) out of the development process and they could probably actually finish the game. Looks like that's what it took.

 

[Rabbiddog]

What's Duke Nukem' again? Oh yeah, that game that came out in 1996 that they've been promising us fans a sequel to for the last 10 years!?!

It's ironic that there might actually be children that were conceived on the original announcement date playing the game for the first time when it finally hits the shelves.

Correction... 15 years.

 

[Rabbiddog]

When we say a game has "gone gold," it means that the work on the game has finished, and a master copy has been sent out to the duplication plants to be pressed, packaged, and shipped out to consumers.

Wait wait… they still press disks? An actual physical disk that you have to insert into a drive before installing? How quaint!

Hey they thought they'd go for that retro feel of what it would have been like if the game had been put out when it was originally announced. But instead of one or two CDs, you'll have to install from like 20 CD's.

 

[lost_packet]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but i really can't see any game living up to the 15 years of hype.

I do have to give them credit for making it happen.

 

[Tempor]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but i really can't see any game living up to the 15 years of hype.

Not really the point.

 

[mogbert]

I was sure that by the time that DNF was launched, it would be directly downloadable to our cortex implants.

 

[Fiendish]

Is it an Aurich masterwork (rather than an official publicity shot, which I wouldn't put past them)?

Nope, that is from 3D Realms, erm, Gearbox. I have no idea why Ars refused to put their sources out there: http://twitter.com/#!/GearboxSoftware/s ... 1902939136

It doesn't need to be sourced, it's an official asset that was designed to be used in articles such as this.

/Puts on Creative Director hat

We always source our images when appropriate.

In my opinion, these responses completely miss the problem. Stop worrying about the pictures. Start worrying about the article sources. Ars has always had a noticeably bad habit of not linking to sources. Some writers tend to be better about it than others. In this case, there's a picture and some words about Duke Nukem, but you didn't link to the official announcement message in the post, and we know that one exists. The words "Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold" should have been a link to the gearbox tweet. But it wasn't. Instead we only see self-linking back to other arstechnica pages. This is what I believe ronelson was pointing out.

 

[sinewav]

Without question Half Life 2: Ep3 should get the vaporware torch (jokes included) when DNF hits store shelves.

DNF gets a bad wrap but at least the previous game had a complete story, HL2: Ep2 ended with one of the biggest cliffhangers in gaming history I would argue is a far bigger crime than what DNF did. Even Portal beat Half Life to market with a full sequel, mind you HL:Ep3 is supposed to be a shorter "Episodic" game.

 

[7im]

Nice picture. Too bad the Stardust is closing.

 

[EtrnL_Frost]

re: Half Life 3 jokes -

I wonder if this is a good thing. I imagine Gabe Newell, checking the gaming forums/twitters/etc's for news on Duke Nukem on a daily basis.

Every day, he wakes up and glances at his tablet, which he automagically runs a query on Duke Nukem each morning.
"Whew!" he grunts to himself, as he sees that Duke Nukem hasn't come out yet.
"As long as that doesn't come out, the heat will be on that game, and we can procrastinate longer!"

This morning, though, it didn't pan out as well as it had been. Duke's come home, and it's now time for some srs bsns.

 

[OldeGamer]

Anyone remember the jab the CroTeam made in Serious Sam? Wonder if they'll do another one in the next Serious Sam?

 

[GenericAnimeBoy]

I'll add one more voice to the chorus: Half-Life 2 Ep. 3 is the new easy punchline for all of your vaporware jokes.

 

[TheAce-MGT]

Is it an Aurich masterwork (rather than an official publicity shot, which I wouldn't put past them)?

Nope, that is from 3D Realms, erm, Gearbox. I have no idea why Ars refused to put their sources out there: http://twitter.com/#!/GearboxSoftware/s ... 1902939136

It doesn't need to be sourced, it's an official asset that was designed to be used in articles such as this.

/Puts on Creative Director hat

We always source our images when appropriate.

In my opinion, these responses completely miss the problem. Stop worrying about the pictures. Start worrying about the article sources. Ars has always had a noticeably bad habit of not linking to sources. Some writers tend to be better about it than others. In this case, there's a picture and some words about Duke Nukem, but you didn't link to the official announcement message in the post, and we know that one exists. The words "Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold" should have been a link to the gearbox tweet. But it wasn't. Instead we only see self-linking back to other arstechnica pages. This is what I believe ronelson was pointing out.

Since the source your pointing out is just a tweet and doesn't include a quote from someone at Gearbox, I dont think it's Ben's original source either. As is usually pointed out during articles like this one (which is very press release like) the source is the press release emailed to them. He can't link to his email. Unless you want Ars to start putting posting emails somewhere to link to?

 

[siliconaddict]

*wait patiently for his balls of steel*

 

[willyu34]

So is that guy with that > 10 year old, turning yellow, pre-order receipt getting a free copy for his loyalty

 

[Voo42]

Well there's always Half Life Ep. 3 for vaporware jokes.

Yep thought the same thing. And contrary to DNF that's actually something I look forward to :/

 

[wjousts]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but i really can't see any game living up to the 15 years of hype.

I do have to give them credit for making it happen.

I think it's gone past the point of hype. Maybe 10 years ago you could have said it couldn't live up to 5 years of hype, but then it became a joke and now, ironically, the bar is so low that everybody is surprised that anything is actually being released.

Me, I'm looking forward to DNF 2.

 

[gorehound]

finally a game that is un-pc and a lot o fun.
and for all of us old timers it will bring back memories of old duke and old doom and of course wolfenstein 3d

 

[dferrantino]

When we say a game has "gone gold," it means that the work on the game has finished, and a master copy has been sent out to the duplication plants to be pressed, packaged, and shipped out to consumers.

Wait wait… they still press disks? An actual physical disk that you have to insert into a drive before installing? How quaint!

Hey they thought they'd go for that retro feel of what it would have been like if the game had been put out when it was originally announced. But instead of one or two CDs, you'll have to install from like 20 CD's floppies.

FTFY