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Duke Nukem Forever Update
Gamasutra reports on an update to one of the longest running jokes in the games industry, Duke Nukem Forever. The title, already ten years in development, may (possibly) see release this decade. From the blurb: "3DR's George Broussard also demonstrated world interactivity that includes Duke standing in front of a computer and emailing the player, if he provides his email address for the game. But, according to the piece, Broussard was bashful, overall, about showing off the game, commenting: 'The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, Yeah, whatever. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.'"
They are complex.
The technology is forever changing.
There are multiple platforms.
They become obsolete after two months.
The fan base is one of usual hypercriticality.
With these aspects working against you, developing them is just all the more difficult. How many times has this game changed the engine it's being built upon? Too many.
From the article: There's also a very informative timeline. As the last sentence of the above excerpt illustrates, Duke Nukem Forever came to suffer a development process that simply could never complete itself because it always needed the newest latest and greatest renderer. This is insanity, and I predict that this game will lack original content and any sort of story line since they are relying on graphics and graphics alone to satisfy the customer requirements. You could release a side scrolling version of Duke Nukem (a la Duke Nukem II) that I would play given a good story line and fun puzzle-solving levels.
My work here is dung.
April Fools day was on the first. This story is 13 days too old!
This sounds great...where can I preorder it?
http://skelman.com
And you forgot the "OMG P0n13s!!!11"
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Sounds to me like Broussard has finally realised that endless rewrites and engine changes were a mistake, and that at some point you have to accept limitations and ship the product. Now that he has realised this, I expect DNF will actually be released in the near future.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
"mainly just pieces of the game in progress and tech demos", including "an early level, a vehicle sequence, a few test rooms"
OOOoooo, an early level *and* some test rooms? Sounds like they've been busy these past ten years! If we're lucky maybe they've also completed a Pong mini-game, which leaves nothing left to create except the game itself.
Once again proving the old adage that all computer programs evolve until they can handle email.
I expect we'll see a realease right after Duke Nukem gets threaded news reader and RSS support.
until ( $win ) { &cheat }
The brand itself seems to have lost a significant amount of value and overall relevancy to me. I remember many endless nights playing Duke 3D, and the great world it immersed you in. The character itself was great, as was the game. Everyone was excited to see what they could do next with the franchise, and they sounded really ambitious about what they wanted to do. Then, time passed.. and passed.. and passed.. and games like Deus Ex came out, which again kicked some serious ass (the sequel maybe not quite as much). So, obviously the industry has moved on, and would this game coming out even make as much as a splash as much as it once may have? I mean in all this time, they had plenty of opportunity to license another engine (again, like Deus Ex) and take the original game to the next level. Instead, I honestly have no idea what they have been doing, and in the meantime, many other great games have come along to fill the void. No matter what they come out with at this point, it is never going to live up to the expectations that they have working on this game, theoretically, for 10 years now.
Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.
;)
Yeah, whatever.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I think the most important question at this point is: Who cares? Is there anyone who is still looking forward to this game? Anyone?
I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D, but I honestly can't remember what computer I was playing it on because it was so long ago. It isn't like there haven't been three or four generations of shooters since this game was announced.
Sure the original was amusing, but it wasn't that good. Just give it up. No matter what they finally release, it won't be worth the wait and no one will really care.
Hell, I get it just to put it on the shelf, whether it is crap or win.
It might look good next to BOB and Daikanata.
So they've built a spambot that runs from inside a game? And all it took was 10 years. Wow...what innovation.
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
... a test level, a vehicle sequence and a few test rooms????
...even the duke nukem forever april 1st joke is late!
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
1. Some game website will first frown on it, then get a beta copy and hype all the neato features.
... oh fuck call it Far Cry 2.
2. Other testers will then buy $800 graphic cards to test it out on their vapor cooled 5Ghz Pentium4 box, then say, meh, only gets slightly better FPS than Jazz Jackrabbit or something equally stupid
3. The game will be released, it will sit on 5 CDs instead of one DVD to keep "costs down" and pirated versions will appear with all the speech replaced with mexican festival music
4. People will realize the game is as deep as the pamphelet their latest credit card came in and will toy with the game until 17 minutes after initial release someone posts a complete walkthrough with every secret bonus and glitch found.
5. The online site will be inundated with delinquant 13 yr old sharp shooters who won't give us hard working adults a chance to just play the game and have fun.
6. Some dude in Korea will die after playing the game for 79 hours straight.
7. A full week after the release of the game a dozen patches will come out to fix various holes in the game [re: pirates] and each one will take a full 200MB to replace 39KB of code in the binary.
8. A full week and one day after release the game will become yesteryear news and people will be clamouring about the latest "let's kill the mutant aliens in obviously dangerous situations game"
9. The folk at 3DR will be vindicated then bought out by MSFT and outsourced to India to make the "books" look good.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Can the moderators forgive me for not saying anything of value but:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! pull the other one.
Seems feasible, it clearly isn't intelligent design.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Because of this, the instant it's released, a million people will rush to buy the game just because of the hype.
It may be that a week later, the game will turn out to be shitty, and no one will care, but I'm predicting that the game will at least cover its development costs within that first week.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
Why would they? This is the joke to end all jokes about delays. No need to call in lesser jokes.
AccountKiller
I think its just too funny to see a) that Wiki has DNF listed in their site and also b) the image used on their page. That image alone really dates the game. I vote they use that original image for their auctual game box.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
If the big feature they have is that the game's character can e-mail you a form letter then the game is in even worse shape than I ever imagined. They don't talk about innovative gameplay at all, but they were sure to show off how Duke can write you an e-mail probably telling you to "keep it real!"
This "feature" should be a late addition in the final production or something a programmer added on their lunch breaks, not something to show off.
"The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, Yeah, whatever. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it."
Inspired, insightful thinking like that is getting Duke Nukem finished and downloaded to your computer at lightning speed.
--
make install -not war
If one can believe Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/deta il/-/videogames/B00005NCEZ/pictures/ref%3Ddp_pics_ smp/202-8135606-0966225
It even has screenshots...
Join the anonymous, help develop the network: http://www.i2p2.de
It's a reasonable educated guess that a 10-year-old game design will be received very poorly. It's kind of like if you spent a hundred years developing a missile defence system.
[b]A Random Gamer:[/b] Hurry up now and finish Duke!
[b]3D Realms:[/b] Why? We running out of time?
[b]Gamer:[/b] Technically, yes. The universe is collapsing and the time dimension is starting to rotate into a physical dimension.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
http://www.gamepro.com/computer/pc/games/previews/ images/50334-1-2.jpg
Then upgraded to the quake 2 engine:
http://games.cnews.ru/trophy/screens/duke-nukem-fo rever/aai.jpg
Not sure what engine this is from 2001: http://www.gamenavigator.ru/pub/gallery/news/news2 005100605.jpg 2001
If you are out of the loop like me:
http://www.planetduke.com/duke4/faq/
I can't find a single current screenshot on the web and am very curious. Anyone got a lead on that?
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.
:-p
With a motivation among the devs at this level, what quality can one expect from the game?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Stop reading too much into it. He's saying exactly what he's saying: After nearly a decade, it will be literally impossible to "blow away" anyone. Best case scenario, they'll get a "Well, it took long enough, and it doesn't suck, so I guess that's good". Worst case scenario they'll get "All that wait and we get this steaming pile of crap?". No matter what they do, they're fucked. It's just been too long.
At this point, they can't say they've invested 10 years in it. What they've done is spend the last 10 years on 3-4 failed projects, and one (bearing a superficial resemblence to a design doc that's ten years old) that may see the light of day.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
...just what sort of a biblical failure they are about to produce? Nothing they do will be adequate. Nothing they do will satisfy. Nothing they do will be enough. At this point in development, if we can call it that, if there's even an official 'point in development' for a game that's been under construction for ten years, 3DRealms can't even have normal marketing for their game. Worse yet, anything they say becomes some strange and surreal form of anti-marketing in which everyone the world over that knows about this game's history gets a good 10 minute laugh after debasing them for an equivalent period of time.
Who exactly are they trying to sell this game to? God knows it can't be any of us.
I don't buy games out of pity, do you?
Ever get the feeling that the people who don't have anything to say are the ones doing the majority of the talking?
Despite the cliche, it seems that Duke Nukem has become the "Jarndice and Jarndice" of the modern age, reflecting on the evils of software development rather than those of the Chancery division. In all seriousness DN3D was such a pathetic story it would be funny.
I wont be surprised if they make more money from the book about what not to do with a game/generic development project than they do from the software itself.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
Damn, that's pretty cutting-edge, being able to store and retrieve string data.
But this is special string data that has been touched by the blessed DNF engine (may it bring us everlasting joy amen).
Please let me dream!
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.