The death and rebirth of <em>Duke Nukem Forever</em>: a history

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<em>Duke Nukem Forever</em> was announced, delayed, teased, delayed, mocked, killed, and now resurrected. This is the story of one of the most storied development cycles in gaming history. Buckle up.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/gaming/news/2010/09/the-death-and-rebirth-of-duke-nukem-forever-a-history.ars'>Read the whole story</a>
 
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XaiaX

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  • #16
    Games that have come out since Duke was announced:

    Final Fantasy
    VII
    VIII
    IX
    X
    X-2
    XI
    XII
    XIII

    Every Halo game.
    Every Call of Duty game.
    Every Grand Theft Auto game.

    Other Disturbing Info:

    When Duke Nukem Forever was announced, the fastest processor available to consumers was a 233Mhz Pentium.
    In April of 1997, Google, eBay, and the term "weblog" didn't exist.

    Things that took less time than Duke's development:

    The Beatles formed, released every single one of their albums and broke up.
    Every Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.
    The Suez Canal.
    The Apollo program, from conception to landing on the moon. (And all the other missions)
    World War II and the entire Manhattan Project.

    http://duke.a-13.net/
     
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    OmniThought

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  • #18
    XaiaX":2q2jwkp4 said:
    Games that have come out since Duke was announced:

    Final Fantasy
    VII
    VIII
    IX
    X
    X-2
    XI
    XII
    XIII

    Every Halo game.
    Every Call of Duty game.
    Every Grand Theft Auto game.

    Other Disturbing Info:

    When Duke Nukem Forever was announced, the fastest processor available to consumers was a 233Mhz Pentium.
    In April of 1997, Google, eBay, and the term "weblog" didn't exist.

    Things that took less time than Duke's development:

    The Beatles formed, released every single one of their albums and broke up.
    Every Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.
    The Suez Canal.
    The Apollo program, from conception to landing on the moon. (And all the other missions)
    World War II and the entire Manhattan Project.

    http://duke.a-13.net/
    Click to expand...

    Quoted for sad/funny truth.
     
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    Hesster56

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  • #19
    Jonas beat me to it. I wish it could be compared directly adjacent to Daikatana. The thing is, after Borderlands, I trust Gearbox with almost any FPS. I mean, come on, you take a game concept that has more in common with Diablo than Call of Duty, and you turn out one of the best FPS games in recent memory? Yes, I now trust you'll do well with Duke. But damn if I don't want this game to fail. It is a remnnant of a prior age of gaming, a game type that is lampooned in the Serious Sam titles. Granted, Starcraft II has come along years later, and by all accounts it is a fine game. I seriously question whether the gaming consumer cares about Duke anymore. Lots of us who played the original have grown up, got married, had kids, etc. Is the audience still there, and do they care? Can't wait to see.
     
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    ericball

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  • #20
    I wonder what Gearbox actually bought. Probably a million dead ends which seemed like a good idea at the time. But I doubt there's anything which could be used without a lot of rework, much less as-is. I suspect the DNF review will read a lot like the Prey review - some cool ideas which are never fully developed surrounded by lots we've seen before topped off with bad plot devices.

    Or did Gearbox just buy the right to create "Duke Nukem Forever", along with the right to use anything they could salvage from 3D Realms. The question is whether they have enough time to create such a title virtually from scratch.
     
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    UltimateLemon

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  • #21
    ericball":zeonunxz said:
    I wonder what Gearbox actually bought. Probably a million dead ends which seemed like a good idea at the time. But I doubt there's anything which could be used without a lot of rework, much less as-is. I suspect the DNF review will read a lot like the Prey review - some cool ideas which are never fully developed surrounded by lots we've seen before topped off with bad plot devices.

    Or did Gearbox just buy the right to create "Duke Nukem Forever", along with the right to use anything they could salvage from 3D Realms. The question is whether they have enough time to create such a title virtually from scratch.
    Click to expand...

    It would be funny if Gearbox execs finally bring home the WIP so far and find only bunch of poor quality JPG.
     
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    mogbert

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  • #23
    No, Gearbox! Don't do it! You ahve so much to live for!

    Seriously, I don't know which I am afraid of failing more, Gearbox or DNF. I'm afraid they are going to have to release something which is closer to Serious Sam then Duke Nukem. There just doesn't seem to have enough time to put together something that is worth the twelve years of hype.
     
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    Nick-

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  • #25
    Hesster56":du6wl5e3 said:
    Lots of us who played the original have grown up, got married, had kids, etc. Is the audience still there, and do they care?
    Click to expand...

    Fuck yeah, we are. :)

    And regarding the game... Guns N Roses came out with Chinese Democracy, so I have no doubt at all that DNF will come out *and* actually kick ass.
     
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    thespiff

    Smack-Fu Master, in training
    69
  • #28
    Starcraft 2 did it because Blizzard has consistently put out some of the best video games ever made in the meantime. Gamers were able to keep the faith. We trusted Blizz to give us a good game even through the Activision buyout.

    Duke Nukem Forever is a gaming geek inside joke that will only sell well (if it ever gets to market, which I doubt) if it spreads through word of mouth as being the best shooter since Half-Life 2. Which means it actually has to be good. Sure, it's got a cool brand behind it, and a backing of hardcore gamers to take care of the early-adopter buying binge. But the mainstream simply does not know or care enough about this game to buy it unless their friends tell them it kicks ass.

    Yeah, I played through Duke Nukem 1, 2, and 3D in my childhood. I probably loved 3D so much because I was too young for the subject matter but my Dad didn't know because he thought it was just another side-scroller shooter in the vein of Contra and Mega-Man. In my mid 20's I don't really have time to play video games that suck. It's as simple as that. I just hope they aren't looking at Starcraft 2 as proof that no franchise is dead, and are actually focusing on making a groundbreaking shooter.
     
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    Interactive Civilian

    Interactive Civilian

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  • #29
    Dear Gearbox Software,

    Please implement the FPS finishing moves as described in the ArsTechnica April Fool's Joke. Please make them a real part of the game. Thank you for your time.

    Sincerely,
    Interactive Civilian

    P.S. After you finish DNF, and if it is awesome, then please consider doing either a re-imaging of or a sequel to "Shadow Warrior". Lo Wang has been ignored for far too long.
     
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    pepoluan

    pepoluan

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  • #31
    If DNF is Good Enough™, then it won't matter if the original market for the Duke Nukem series has moved on.

    There's still a whole new GENERATION not familiar with Duke Nukem which will get a treat. And this market will be the target market of DNF. Properly-managed companies always invest for the future, you know.

    That said, the bar has been irreversibly raised so high that if Gearbox managed to pull it through, they'll surely make it into my list of all-time great game companies.
     
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    Mark_oo

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  • #32
    It appears there are many posting here who didn't bother to read the actual story. 3DR, at the time of their closing in 2009, had many elements of the game in place and playable. Brian Hook, who was brought on as lead near the end, was surprised at how much of a finished game DNF had become. Unfortunately, 3DR went bust and couldn't afford to finish the game properly.

    Gearbox have not only bought DNF, they have also bought the IP from 3DR as well. They are now in the process (technically, they've been doing it for about a year) of stitching together the various bits of the 3DR game, polishing it, and getting it out the door. What people don't seem to understand is that the game is almost complete content wise (and has been partially complete in its current guise for some time before that).

    Whether or not the game is any good will be ultimately be judged on its own merits. Personally, I hope it turns out well because for some strange reason I like playing games rather than bitch and moan like a 13 year old Linkin Park listening oxygen thief.

    So no, the game won't be delayed another 5 years. No, Gearbox aren't going back to square one and reinventing the game. Yes, most of the levels and assets have been complete, and it's now going through final development and testing.

    Not too hard to understand.
     
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    Mark_oo

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  • #35
    r venosa":2eaexzs7 said:
    Mark_oo":2eaexzs7 said:
    It appears there are many posting here who didn't bother to read the actual story.
    Click to expand...
    I read the article and all the comments. Yours is one of the least relevant to the discussion.

    People have a right to be excited and/or to wonder if this is going to be another Daikatana.
    Click to expand...

    Of course they do. Except the Daikatana comparison doesn't work either because the actual game was a fairly decent shooter that was nowhere near as bad as the troglodytes on the web made it out to be.

    <shrug> gamers like to get all up in arms about the most trivial things. Video Games: Serious Business.
     
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    JPan

    Well-known member
    8,335
  • #36
    oh and 2 weapons at a time? Are they crazy and retarded? This two-weapons stupidity has to stop. Its ok for Call of Duty because immersion is important in this game and most rifles are more or less the same anyway in the real world (and we can see that a Panzerfaust would be difficult to carry in addition to a dozen other weapons) But it almost made me throw away Resistance2. People were enjoying the variety of weapon types in Resistance and what do they do? Remove the ability to carry more than two, classy. Together with the ugly crazy clown type palette (yeah we get it grey and brown shooters are out but it looked like shit in your game) and the removed health bar (something which apparently isn't done anymore in cool shooters as well) and Resistance2 became a really shitty successor to a fun but not outstanding predecessor.
     
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    Lbaxter

    Guest
  • #39
    I bet this impacts Borderlands' 2 release schedule. Everyone knows a sequel is in the works. I just hope Gearbox didn't scalp talent from the Borderlands team, to inject fresh blood in the Nukem carcase.

    So not only has zombie nukem been raised from the dead, to pay for my gaming sins, it molested Borderlands on it's way to 78 rating on Metacritic...great.

    Oooh cruel gaming gawds, how I shake my chubby little fists at you!

    /Don't fire your logic lasers at me. We both know they can't penetrate my reality distortion field....
     
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