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Duke Nukem Forever to Arrive December?

Muddie writes "According to an article at The Inquirer, Duke Nukem Forever has a release date set at Amazon.Com UK for December 2, 2005. According to the article: 'We don't believe that Amazon plans to trick its customers - it's not its style and the customers can sue if it fails. The game is listed as a 24.99 title and we are surely thrilled if this all comes true.' Could it be true, or is the sky just falling again?" Big grain of salt with this one.

33 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. milk just shot out of my nose. by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 4, Funny

    seriously.

    1. Re:milk just shot out of my nose. by mindaktiviti · · Score: 2, Funny

      What would be even funnier is if you haven't had any milk in the first place, but your body decided to produce some as a subtle sign of just how funny this really is, even though it goes against everything in science.

  2. Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment. by FinestLittleSpace · · Score: 3, Informative

    "you cannot pre-order the game. If you see some online store saying "We are taking pre-orders", they're just trying to get your money (they usually also make up their own supposed "insider release date info", too). There is no release date set, we are not taking pre-orders for the game. End of story.
    The release date of this game is "When it's done". Anything else, and we mean anything else is someone's speculation. There is no date. We don't know any date. If you have a friend who claims they have "inside info", or there's some game news site, or some computer store at the mall who claims they know - they do not. They are making it up. There is no date. Period.

    And yes, we know the game has taken a long time. There's no possible joke you could make about the game's development time that we haven't already heard. :)"

    1. Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment. by alienw · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's not an insider dev comment, you fucktard. That's a direct copy-and-paste from 3Drealms' website. Not to mention, if the game _was_ going to be released, they would probably have agreements with the stores in place long before it's announced on their website.

    2. Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment. by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not necessarily a relevant comment to this situation, though. The 3d Realms website does not seem to timestamp its news posts - as I've not looked at it for about 6 years, there's no way of knowing how long that post has been up there. Could have been a few hours, a few weeks, 6 months, a year, or more.

      While the "fucktard" thing was perhaps a little harsh, the other points that the grandparent made are valid.

    3. Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment. by great+throwdini · · Score: 4, Informative
      The 3d Realms website does not seem to timestamp its news posts - as I've not looked at it for about 6 years, there's no way of knowing how long that post has been up there. Could have been a few hours, a few weeks, 6 months, a year, or more.

      *cough* archive.org *cough*

      Check for yourself. The wording has changed on that page over the years, but the pre-ordering sentiment has been there since at least mid-2000.

    4. Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment. by Meagermanx · · Score: 3, Funny

      At least now we have more information on the game.
       
        SPOILER WARNING!
      It's going to have 160 pages

  3. Noooo! by nb+caffeine · · Score: 2, Funny

    After that, what other jokes are left?

    well, i guess dakitana is funny to mention, and the phantom console...

    --

    "Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
    1. Re:Noooo! by hey! · · Score: 2, Funny

      I for one welcome our new jokeless overlords.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:Noooo! by pymike · · Score: 2, Funny

      Now that it's almost out for windows, there's only a few years left to wait until the linux client is made available...

    3. Re:Noooo! by Maserati · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let's see....

      Half-Life for the Mac.

      You go to hell Sierra, you go to Hell and you die.

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
  4. Uh oh... by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 2, Funny

    just 6 more seals to be broken before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse go aridin'

    Oh wait, this is DNF... Amazon just might be jumping the gun a bit...

    --
    "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    1. Re:Uh oh... by kailoran · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm afraid it's 5 seals remaining. Don't forget that Slashdot fixed it's HTML.

  5. amazon.ca by FrontalLobe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like Amazon.ca has the strategy guide listed.

    Item has not been released
    But... It has a published date of June 06, 2002...

    --
    -FL
  6. Amazon dot COM shows NOTHING by RUFFyamahaRYDER · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The link in the article goes to the UK Amazon site. I just checked the amazon.com site and got zero results for "Duke Nukem Forever". I'm raising the BS flag right now!

  7. Computer requirements by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 2, Funny

    It says that you will need either a Commodore Amiga or an Atari ST to play the game. Has it really been that long since they started working on it?

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  8. Double take by bendu · · Score: 2, Funny

    Heck, Id has gone gold on two different games while we twidle our thumbs for DN4. I can't wait to play Quake 4

  9. A couple notes by hambonewilkins · · Score: 2, Informative

    1) Amazon posts vaporware and products that don't exist. It happens. 2) It's 25 British pounds, not $25. This isn't clear from the writeup. 3) The boxshot looks like ass. There, I said it. If they ship with that, don't expect it to sell.

    --

    God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
  10. Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From some random blog I found through Google since the original post/list has long-gone been deleted. It's such an awesome list (it's even over one years old!):

    Janurary 1997: Work on DNF started.*

    April 1997: Quake 2 engine purchase announced. (they got it in mid-late 1997 before Quake 2 was released). Scott Miller states that he is confident that DNF will be released by mid 1998 and prey in late 1998 making 1998 a bit year for 3DR. He also mentions that his confidence is not misplaced.

    August and September 1997: First screenshots in PC gamer (hummer, farmer i think).

    May 1998: First DNF E3 video shown. You can see that a lot of work has been done.

    Late 1998: 3DR announces switch to Unreal tech. It is expected to take no longer than 6 weeks and 3DRealms says "DNF is a 1999 game."

    Mid 1999: 3DR admits that the engine switch took a lot more time than originally estimated.

    Late 1999: 3DR announces upgrade to UT level tech. It is expected to take two weeks. 3DR releases a Christmas card saying that DNF will be released in 2000.

    2000: I don't think anything happened. They released some sexy screenshots in late 1999/early 2000 (for the time). Broussard begins claiming that DNF development did not start until 1998. Inquiring minds wonder how they got so much done before May (E3) 1998.

    May 2001: 3DR comes out of nowhere and puts DNF up at E3. They state that DNF will be released in 2001 and the end of the E3 2001 video says "WID in 2001". Many part of the video bear a clear resemblence to the 1999 screenshots.

    October 2001: Broussard posts "sorry guys, it won't be a 2001 release" on the VE3D forums. "Don't worry, the last major hurdle is AI."

    Unknown 2001: Broussard states that DNF will definitely be out before Unreal 2.

    January 2002: Voodoo Extreme makes a list of top 10 titles to be released in 2002. #1 on that list is Duke Nukem Forever. Someone posts "when will we see something" in the 3DR forums. Broussard responds with "soon".

    June 2002: The "soon" thread gets locked.

    Unknown 2002: Broussard states that DNF will definitely be out before DooM 3.

    2003: Broussard states that DNF has been "on track since early 2002" and that they haven't reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but "they finally found it." He wisps away the years between January 1997 and January 2002 and wishes people would consider DNF's development as if it started in 2002 (this is a strong hint that DNF was far from complete). Unreal 2 released.

    Broussard adopts the "DooM 3 and HL2 will have been in development for 5 and 6 years when they're finally released -- DNF isn't taking that much longer" belief (notice: his numbers are very inaccurate).

    Late 2003/early 2004: Take 2 complains about DNF development and expects it around "late 2005". "At this point we're just hoping the team [in garland] will finish the project."

    2004: Broussard states that DNF development has been on track since "late 2002/early 2003", bumping up his earlier statement in an attempt to fight back release expectations. It is clear, from this behavior, that DNF will not be released this year or next. DooM 3 is released. Half Life 2's release is anticipated this year.

    So the most reasonable points in which they could've completely restarted would've been after each of the E3 videos. They could've restarted after the E3 1998 video or after the E3 2001 video. Luckily, you can refute both of these possibilities by simply looking at what Broussard was saying back then -- the Unreal engine upgrade was certainly not expected to require them redoing much. Things were added and tech was changed, things were adopted. This was all stated in interviews with Broussard himself.

    It is more difficult to question whether they've restarted at some point after E3 2001. Clearly, in late 2001/early 2002 when Broussard was saying that the last major hurdle was AI and "soon", h

  11. Its already ported to Source, and will be on Steam by BrookHarty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Its already ported to the source engine, its suppose to be for sale on steam by end of november. (pre-download)

    The funny thing, they showed old screenshots on the amazon.uk site, the newer ones with anti-aliasing on steam, looks awesome. Funny how nobody thinks the game is coming out, but some developers dropped hints over at http://www.planetduke.com about it being release this year for xmas.

    Also, isnt this the first stream game from a 3rd party developer?

  12. C'mon guys... it's definition 2! by RevRagnarok · · Score: 3, Funny
    --
    I should put something clever here. Maybe someday.
  13. In other news... by bradbeattie · · Score: 4, Funny

    America finally defeats terror.

  14. Pricing by rapjo · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Inquirer article says the game is listed for 24.99 British Pounds...which according to Google's currency conversion, is 43.87 US Dollars. It's likely to show up for 45-55 USD for us here in the States.

  15. Re:Prey first. by XO · · Score: 2, Funny

    somewhere or other i have a PC Gamer dead-tree edition with the cover story of PREY ... from 1996, I think.

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
  16. Re:Its already ported to Source, and will be on St by alphaseven · · Score: 2, Informative

    Where did you hear this? 3d Realms has partnered with a Steam-like service called xStream for the upcoming Prey game, I would expect Duke Nukem Forever to use that, maybe you're getting the names mixed up? And I think the first 3rd part Steam game is the non-Source engine Rag Doll Kung Fu that'll come out in about a week.

  17. 3drealms website by XO · · Score: 3, Interesting

    anyone else notice that 3d Realms website no longer exists?

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
  18. Why Bother by triso · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why wait for the new game when you can play the classic duke3d on Linux, Windows or Mac. Since the source code was released, many moons ago, there have been updates that use your 3d accelerator, your gigs of RAM and your Internet connection for multi-player matches. There is also a slew of third-party maps and levels available. All free, of course.

    http://jonof.edgenetwork.org/index.php?p=jfduke3d

    http://www.bur.st/~duke3d/

  19. A message from Hell by PGC · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's goddamn cold down here !

    --
    The Dutch will inherit the earth. If not, we'll settle for a bit of ocean. Beta delenda est!
  20. Re:Prey first. by ShawnDoc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yup. Prey was officially killed quite some time ago. Then 3D Realms sold it off to a 3rd party developer a little while back and they've gone gangbusters working on it. Almost nothing except the title and the general concept of the main character is the same as the original Prey.

  21. Actually looking at the screenshots by Maserati · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually looking at the screenshots reveals a fact that completely fails to surprise me. To wit, the screenshots suck. And these are the pictures for a "buy me" page. This is their attempt to sell the game. Crappy modelling, poor texturing, mediocre lighting and more composition. Check out the one with the rocket, it's particularly suckalicious.

    Based solely on the screenshots I'm predicting an average review score of less than 5.0, dismal sales, and massive warezing as people try to see if it really is that bad without having to spend money.

    This is gonna suck. It has the potential to outsuck a Derek Smart remake of Daikatana.

    Here's a key point: who's writing the game ? Huh ? They haven't said a thing about gameplay or story since 1997. It's gonna be a Duke Nukem game, so we have a pretty good idea what to expect, but I'm very worried (there's ominous potential for minigames). Silence on this point is a bad omen.

    --
    Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
  22. What the hell? by mnemonic_ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "We don't believe that Amazon plans to trick its customers - it's not its style and the customers can sue if it fails."

    Customers can sue for wrong release dates? Hasn't this been disproven with every release date Amazon has shown for all of id's titles? Amazon isn't trying to trick anyone, but that release date is just an oversight by price-marking drone.

  23. Duke Nukem Forever to Arrive December? by thelonestranger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, alright then. I'll belive it when I see it on shelves.

    --
    To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
  24. Ok fun while it lasted... by AzraelKans · · Score: 2, Informative

    I already went to www.3drealms.com forums,

    http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php ?Cat=0&Number=960968&an=0&page=0#960968

    They've already denied the release date, the inquirer went into extra happy mode for an amazon website mistake, end of story. Move along folks.

    --
    Go ahead MOD my day!
    More opinions here