Duke Nukem Forever Tops Vaporware List

Wired has an annual list of high-profile vaporware projects and the number of games on there is just depressing. Numbers 7, 6, 5, 2, and 1 are all videogame projects. When the Phantom is only #2, you know what has to be number 1. From the article: "Announced in 1997 and promised every year since, this game takes vaporware to new heights. Think about it, in just 13 months this game will have been in one form of development or another for a decade. This project started with a game based on the Quake 2 engine, then in 1999 it moved to the Unreal engine and has been stalled ever since."

Comments

But But But

[LiquidCoooled]

Duke Nukem is in production?

Say it ain't so.

Don't Panic

[someguy456]

Don't worry, it's painfully obvious that DNF will run on Vista running on a Phantom. In fact, these have the same launch day...

In other news...

[the_skywise]

Water is wet!

Although I think calling the new Legend of Zelda "vaporware" is off as its only late by... ooh...3 months.

google

[szembek]

I disagree with the author having the Google beta products in the list. Simply because a product doesn't change from beta to actual release for a while doesn't necessarily make it vaporware. Gmail has been implementing new features and improving ever since it was initially released as a 'beta'. I think I would file it under vaporware, if we kept reading slashdot posts about an upcoming mail service by Google only to never see anything. Also Google tends to use the term 'beta' quite loosely.

Re:google

[drinkypoo]

According to Wired's definition, it's vaporware.

The only thing wired's an authoritative source on is how to make a magazine so ugly, gaudy, and unreadable that you lose half your subscribers. The only people who hung onto wired for that long were the ones who wanted to look like a nerd by having it on their coffee table.

Wired articles tend to be punched up so much in order to be sensational that they lose any validity. They're not about the news, they're about giving them excuses to put pretty pictures and funky type in their magazine.

No one who is anyone important takes Wired seriously.

DNF

[singularity]

I just noticed this on the DNF FAQ:

1.8 - Will DNF be available on DVD?
This still has not been decided yet, however the chances of this happenning are slim. It is important to note that DVD's are not mainstream yet, at least not in the software industry.

Now, I almost never do any gaming on my computer, but I definitely think that any machine that is going to run DNF is going to have a DVD drive.

Amazing that this product has been in development so long that means of distribution have even changed.

Re:DNF

[bigbigbison]

To be fair, in America, there are still very few PC videogames released on DVD -- and when they are, it is usually as a more expensive "collector's edition" while the regular version is still released on CDs.

For those too lazy to RTFA

[ThomS]

The list: 10. High-def TiVo and TiVoToGo for Mac 9. AlphaGrip ergonomic keyboard/trackball 8. Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs 7. Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms 6. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 5. StarCraft Ghost 4. Microsoft's Vista and Internet Explorer 7 3. Google -- betas galore 2. Phantom Game Service 1. Duke Nukem Forever

Woah. News.

[Kid Zero]

Congratulations to the DNF team. Now we know what they mean by "Forever".

Free publicity

[Threni]

> Think about it, in just 13 months this game will have been in one form of
> development or another for a decade.

I can't believe there are still people who seriously think this is what's happened. Obviously they've not been working on it for 10 years. They must have decided at some point to work on other things and simply give the impression they were working on it, and have finally (perhaps) decided to release something. Not many companies get to pay nothing to have one of their major project ranges mentioned on a regular basis - good luck to 'em. I've bought several of their games on PSX and PC but I'm hardly hanging on for new games from them (or any other company for that matter). I'm happy to wait for reviews and screenshots of the finished product.

For runners, DNF == Did Not Finish

[SurryMt]

Could there be a little similarity here?

The real vaporware

[dcapel]

is Desktop Linux. Sheesh, it is not the year of the Desktop Linux. It never will be. It will slowly grow, but just 'be' there. Yes, Martin Fink, I'm talking to you.

Re:The real vaporware

[Lisandro]

You can have a desktop linux NOW. Fetch a modern commercial distro (http://www.ubuntu.com/>Ubuntu, Mandrake, etc) or any of the free ones and you'll have an excellent desktop with little issues, if any.

    The people that bitch about the "linux desktop" haven't normally ever tried Linux and want something that feels like their WinXP desktop. If you're looking for that, yes, there's nothing like it now and probably won't be for a while. If you want an useable Unix desktop, there's a lot of excellent ones arround.
    You have a wide choice of desktops and window and managers, and there's a lot of excellent software for them. A linux desktop is useable today, and by anyone - i had Ubuntu on a desktop for a while and my mother, who's 'computer-imparied' had zero issues using it. Besides being unable to find the blue E icon ;)

Re:The real vaporware

[aussersterne]

No, you don't get it, it works NOW. My friend, in a management position at Intel corp., recently called me to bitch about Windows. I overnighted him a Fedora Core 4 DVD.

He called me the next day, ready to try it out, apprehensive as hell. I told him not to sweat it, that he didn't even need me on the line.

He booted from DVD, "Next-buttoned" everything from then on. It detected his 3D accelerator, his flatscreen monitor, his wireless network, and all of his hardware and dropped him in a nice desktop.

He plugged in his late-model Brother laser printer. Autodetected upon plugin and away he went, printing.

He plugged in his USB flash drive to test out access to office files. BOOM, icon appears on desktop. He double-clicks and up pops a file manager window showing his files.

He double clicks on an MS Word file and it opens in OpenOffice, no problem.

He plugs in his scanner and asks what program he needs to use to scan. I tell him to start GIMP and use the acquire tool, just like he would in Photoshop. The nice, user-friendly scanner dialog was just like he was used to in windows, and he scans three or four test scans and says "all good!"

He wants to use his Olympus digital camera. I tell him to go for it, so he plugs it into USB and BOOM, an icon appears on his desktop. He starts copying images off of it.

He normally copies his images to DVD-RAM, and he's got an external DVD-RAM drive that he made by installing a Panasonic LFD-211 in a USB case. I get a little nervous about this one, but he plugs it in to his USB hub, inserts a 4.7GB disk, and BOOM, there it is on his desktop.

He drags-drops the files from his digital camera to the DVD-RAM drive, prints out the photo he'd scanned with gimp, and tells me that he has one last need: he's got to install MS Office, Photoshop CS, and FrameMaker.

FrameMaker and Office, I tell him, are a go. Photoshop CS, not so fast. Does he need the whole suite? No? Then does he have Photoshop 7 onsite? Can he use that? Yes? Then we have a go. I point him to the Codeweavers website and he buys Crossover Office for the price of pizza and soda delivery, well under the cost of similar software for Mac OS.

After downloading it, he double-clicks on the Crossover Office icon on his desktop. Up pops a window asking for his password, and a moment later, it's installed itself.

I tell him to insert the Office XP CD and double-click on the "Setup" icon, just like he would in Windows. He does, and a few minutes later, he's got Office XP installed, including completed activation. He quickly does the same for FrameMaker 7 and Photoshop 7.

He begins to ask "how do I start these," and a moment later cuts himself off with, "oh never mind, they've gone into the start menu in a group called 'Windows Applications'."

He launches each one to test that it opens, saves, and prints files.

An hour and forty five minutes after he originally called, we've gone from nothing to a full Fedora desktop, complete with printer, scanner, digital camera, flash drive, DVD-RAM drive, and major Windows applications, and I haven't had to answer a SINGLE QUESTION and have instead been listening to him talk mostly about his family.

It's two weeks later, and I haven't had a SINGLE CALL from him asking for tech support help. His one comment, sent via e-mail:

"Man, I can't believe how fast Linux is. Starting about last year I was thinkin' this PC was due for a replacement request, but I guess it was just XP."

--

Linux is ready NOW. Five years ago, there were a few unmitigated optimists that refused to admit that Linux wasn't ready yet. Today, there are a few unmitigated cynics that refuse to admit that it became ready sometime in the last 24 months.

What about Too Human? Or Mario 128?

[mouse_clicker]

Don't get me wrong, I love all of Silicon Knights' games, but Too Human has been in development since before The Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen (meaning over 10 years, probably more) and has switched consoles twice. Now, I have no doubt it'll eventually come out and most likely be excellent, but why is Twilight Princess or even DNF on the list and not Too Human?

For that matter, why is Zelda on the list but not Mario 128? Mario 128 has been promised to us since, what was it, Spaceworld 2000? I could be mistaken, but regardless, it's been a while and we have seen no demoes, videos, or even screenshots, and it's switched development from the Gamecube to the Revolution. How is Twilight Princess being delayed 4 or 5 months but still having videos, screens, and demoes galore count as vaporware, but Mario 128 not? Odd...

-Moses

HD-TiVo

[ivan256]

From the article:(The cable-card) high-definition TiVo (was) announced at CES 2005, probably will be re-announced at CES 2006.

Actually, it was announced at CES 2004 for release in the first half of 2006. It's not even late yet.

TiVo recommendations? (Offtopic)

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

Speaking of TiVo, I'm thinking about buying one but I don't know what to get. Some of my buddies were able to do some neat things hacking into their TiVos, and I'd like the ability to save off selected shows or movies without building a MythTV box (too much effort). Which TiVo should I buy, and what Windows/Linux/FreeBSD apps should I grab? Are there non-TiVo firmware images I should download and install on my TiVo? Can I just go out and buy a TiVo brand new and use it without having to mod it? Or, even better, is there a web site out there that explains everything? I googled for "tivo recommendations" and "which tivo to buy", but they didn't turn up anything interesting. It looks like the Series 2 DVR does everything I want except for burning stuff to DVD, but if I can just FTP the files off or something that'd be good enough for me.

Weak, as usual

[Godai]

Every year they hash in a bunch of weak entries.

Personally, I don't consider something vapourware that's delayed from the end of the year in question to first quarter of the following. Maybe I'm picky, but I prefer my vapourware to be talking in years, not months. But every year, they pick at least one or two. Zelda being delayed 3 months does not, I think, get it the 'vapourware' sticker.

And c'mon, Google? That's a real strech. All the things they mention you can use just fine. By other people's definition, they're finished, but Google's fussy. That's not 'vapourware'. Geez, they must have been seriously hard up for ideas or something.

Starcraft: Ghost is more on the nose, though not in Duke Nuke Em's league. The Phantom is aptly named. Complaining about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD seems a touch premature I think, given how long it takes hardware standards to formalize, but at least there's a little substance there. TF2 has been in the works forever.

Vista, well, it's been delayed a couple of years so I guess it qualifies, even if it's one of those things that's guranteed to come out, in a way like nothing else on that list, even if does take another three years.