Duke Nukem, for me, represents going above and beyond gaming into something that is a little more... real-ish. See, when Duke Nukem came out, Doom was the king of FPS, and you couldn't jump or interact with anything. It was just move & shoot. Then here comes Duke Nukem 3D, and not only can you jump, but you can use objects in the world, and you can break stuff. The character was funny enough, but I liked the game engine more than I liked the character.
And I see some of that in this demo. I mean, any game will let you turn on a faucet, just about, that's nothing new, but the part where you see Duke's playing the game inside the game (which is just an HD update on the end of Duke Nukem 3D) shows they still have some of that spirit. I get the impression that while Duke Nukem Forever still may be the name on the box we buy, the name will be that of the game Duke plays, and the actual story will be something we haven't seen yet.
Also, it's great this is going to be on the Xbox 360. That means it will also be on the PS3, since a PS3 can run anything a 360 can, licensing issues aside. And Gearbox's last big hit, Borderlands, was available on both (and Steam) as well, so we should expect the same from DNF.
Expectations? What expectations? It's Duke Nukem, so you can expect raunchy humor. It's Gearbox, and you know they deliver. If you want to make the assumption that they won't license a new engine, make one from scratch, or do a whole lotta work on the one they got, play Borderlands if you want a feel of how the gunplay may be. Borderlands allowed its guns to be modified ever so slightly to make over 8 million combinations (albeit through a randomizer), so I wouldn't be surprised in the least if DNF incorporated some of that tech, whether through straight-up weapon mods a la Deus Ex, or maybe Duke jury-rigs something onto his gun or something.
Troublesome Strumpet":2ld3643g said:
I still do not understand the appeal behind the Duke Nukem character.
Duke is to men what so many women (including the ones in DNF) are to women. He's all the stereotypes rolled into one. He's a total badass, he loves guns and alcohol, he uses women, and he doesn't give a crap what anybody thinks about him. In most other games, you play a good guy. And a good guy should be virtuous and all that... Duke is not a good guy. He's as bad as you can get while still being basically good, defending the Earth from aliens and all that. That's the appeal. To some. As I said though, I'm not as big a fan of the character as some. But I'm still going to enjoy his game. I'm just gonna wait a year for the GOTY edition with all the DLC included.
