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Duke Nukem Forever Demo Released

Posted by Soulskill on from the temperature-in-hell-starting-to-drop dept.

uslinux.net writes "Gearbox Software released the demo for Duke Nukem Forever today, though it's only available to preorders and other promotions for the time being. After more than a decade, it looks like this game will actually hit stores this month. After 12 years in development, will it live up to the hype?" Included with the linked article is DNF's launch trailer. This should go without saying, but just in case: NSFW. Seriously.

34 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Links by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Informative

    The summary -- did you read it?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. Re:Links by Dyinobal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    well damn, I'll be honest I mostly just started looking for download links. Who the hell only releases demo's to pre orders, maybe if they let me play the game I might pre order it but I'm not going to pre order so I can play the freaking demo. Honestly what marketing idiot thought that up. Anyone got a torrent for the demo?

  3. Daikatana was worth the wait too by Skarecrow77 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oh wait, it was garbage compared to other games out at the time, and this one has been in development hell 3x as long.

    It'll be lucky to garner a solid 70% average. While this has been in development, we got half-life 1 and 2, gears of war, several halos, freakin mass effect, Modern warfare. Hell even borderlands.

    It won't be hard for this thing to exceed my expectations, because I expect it to be crap.

    1. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But Duke Nukem was fun.
      Seems this is lost on todays generation.

      All those games besides Borderlands and the HLs are the definition of why these past couple generations have sucked.
      You want a fun game? TOO BAD, HAVE SOME RESTRICTIVE NOFUN GAMES INSTEAD.
      GTA IV. What the hell happened there? Where is my fun GTA? Where is my GTA with Elvis impersonators walking around in groups? Where is my SCORE?
      I'm fine with serious stories in games, but if they are laborious and require grinding, it is an automatic failure for me. (count in almost every MMO out there too)
      There is too much bullshit like spawning infinite enemies for time period X. Too much infinite ammo for NPCs.
      L4D, for example. God damn it, that bored the hell out of me. Half the classes are terrible and ruin the game for the most part. Witches? Hell no, what a terrible waste of bytes. (looks like the same might happen to Dead Island too...)

      I'm tired of this super serious generation of games. I hope they die off quickly, they suck so hard.
      I hope to god a new Timesplitters game is announced next week. It was one of the last few remaining great FPS game series that was purely designed for fun from the ground up.

    2. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by mobby_6kl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The only way in which Duke 3d compares poorly is its technical execution, the Build engine just wasn't as advanced as Quake and especially Quake 2 of course. You're free to dislike it certainly, but just declaring that it wasn't fun isn't really fair either. There are, simply, some things that make it more fun than other contemporary games, such as the highly interactive environments which, variety in weapons, enemies, and level design, and even the cheesy one liners.

      I don't think it's rose colored glasses, I played the game back when it was reasonably new, and I liked it at the time, not just in my memories. I also played it very recently again, and it was a blast. And I'm talking original textures and models, none of the new HD textures and 3D models. Despite of this, the outdated graphics definitely didn't distract from the actual enjoyment

      Regarding Mass Effect, never played it, but the recent CoD games just shit over everything that was good about shooters. Sadly, early reports are even that Duke was affected by its influence - there's the ridiculous regenerating health, much more linear levels, and, most bizarrely, a limit on how many weapons you can carry. It makes no sense in an unrealistic aracdy game like this, but apparently since CoD does that now, Duke has to follow the convention.

    3. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Duke 3d wasn't fun. Duke 3d was a polished doom-esque experience with some quirky weapons and completely forced humor. It was an interesting alternative to doom/quake until Quake 2 came out, at which point Duke's failure to actually be a -good game- in and of itself was completely evident.

      You're definitely projecting your own opinions here, because Duke 3D was a smash-hit that a lot of people still cite as a game with innovative ideas yet to be matched in today's games, especially in multiplayer. The tongue-in-cheek attitude was also unique, and especially in today's environment when so many games try hard to be serious and cinematic, a politically incorrect game that doesn't give a shit about offending people will stand out even more.

    4. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by bonch · · Score: 2

      Yeah, games today definitely don't have big-breasted women or other sexual imagery oh wait

      DNF will be a hit. That the usual politically correct types will hold their noses up at is is all the more reason it should exist in all its offensive glory. This society has become so incredibly stuck-up and wimpy that it can't take a joke anymore.

    5. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by Kitkoan · · Score: 2

      Sadly, early reports are even that Duke was affected by its influence - there's the ridiculous regenerating health, much more linear levels, and, most bizarrely, a limit on how many weapons you can carry.

      Having just finished the demo I can let you know, yes you have regenerating health (its called "Ego") which I really hate in these new FPS games. And you can only hold 2 weapons. The demo mentions that your "Ego" gets a permanent boost with killing a boss, maybe you can also hold more weapons. But doubt it.

      --
      Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
    6. Re:Daikatana was worth the wait too by Skarecrow77 · · Score: 2

      I probably shouldn't bother since you're hiding behind AC, but...

      "short pre-chewed existance"? I'm probably older than you are. I started gaming in 1981. How about you? I had pong. I was there for the great crash of 83 (I even owned a copy of ET, the game that did it). I wore multiple NES and and SNES consoles. I gamed in glorious 12" orange CGA monochrome. I had boot disks. how much of the above stuff have you ever played outside of an emulator?

      I've played at least half the games or more on your list, and there are some good ones on there, and some incredibly overrated ones. Not to mention that you're missing a lot. Where are your gold box SSI games? Where is Tie Fighter? Where is Wizardry? Where is Might and Magic? Where is Civilization and Master of Orion and Master of Magic? Warcraft 2? C&C1/Red Alert?

      Sir, I know good gaming.

      The funny thing is, you pretty much came up with a list of the most highly rated at-the-time list of games from 1980(ish) to 1999, while I listed some of the more highly rated games in the decade hence. There is no difference between your list and my list except the decades we are considering, which was the -entire point of my post-, how many good games have come out in the past 10 years in duke's genre that have one-upped what duke forever is trying to do (aside from showing pixelated boobies of course).

  4. Re:Links by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Informative

    In other words: we're waiting for one of kind souls who preordered DNF to get off his butt and upload a torrent with the demo.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  5. Love the Warning... by RdeCourtney · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mature 17+ - AWESOME
    Blood and Gore - AWESOME
    Intense Violence - AWESOME
    Strong Language - AWESOME
    Mature Humour - AWESOME
    Strong Sexual Content - AWESOME
    Use of Drugs and Alcohol - AWESOME

    The legal warning at the beginning negates any intro!

    --
    Insert signature here...
  6. they don't want the sever to blow up taking the ga by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    they don't want the sever to blow up taking the game code with it or the game sucks so bad that they want to lock in the pre buy funds and not have a demo for free.

  7. I fail to understand by Haedrian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The point in giving demos to people who already bought it.

    Doesn't it negate the entire point of the demo? They're sold already, show it to people who aren't sure yet instead.

    I realise part of this preordering thing is making people feel they've got an extra good deal, but really, you've waited 12 years already.

  8. I've played it... by CmdrEdem · · Score: 2, Interesting

    in the 360 and it's not a awesome game. This release will be important for the team that worked so long on this game, but like other said: there are some awesome shooters out there nowadays and DNF is not one of them. I just fear that reviews can get rough because of the development time and so little accomplishment in all game aspects. Gameplay is typical but a little irresponsive, graphics look good but have no personality. Duke needs more steroids, because he jumps 1 feet high and can't push a mining cart full of barrels, meaning that he's all talk. I respect the dev team but this game will not get good reviews or good talk from players.

    --
    This combination doesn`t exist: ETIs that know about humanity and want to see us dead. Otherwise we wouldn't exist.
  9. Main focus of the game developers by sega_sai · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The demo left me with the feeling that the developers spend more time on textures of naked women than on anything else.

  10. Played it. by bertoelcon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I played it earlier today (Thanks Borderlands GOTY), it"s exactly what I expected from Duke Nukem game. Good or bad it's very much a "boy's game" with toilet humor, aliens, a buff dude fucking the aliens up, and chicks. When you start the game off taking a piss you kind of set the bar for expectations low.

    --
    Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
    1. Re:Played it. by Seumas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Calling it a "boys game" because of the Duke character and his sense of self and humor is like calling Idiocracy a movie for idiots, because the movie itself is filled with idiots. Duke Nukem is a parody of its time (though it hardly really fits into the pop-culture of this century). The Duke Nukem humor itself has never particularly done anything for me, though it occasionally gets a slight chuckle. In 2011, it's only really relevant in the sense of "oh man, remember when all the action movies and stars were really like this back in the 80s?".

      The problem is that this game could have done something with itself using the same style of humor and retarded juvenile style, if the mechanics and look (and performance) of the game matched other modern games. Instead, it feels like an XBLA title that someone would release for $15. It feels every bit like a game that would have been made and released in 1999, but with a graphical update (that makes it look perhaps around 2005-ish).

      It's really unfortunate that Gearbox's good intentions didn't pan out, here. I guess there's only so much you could have expected from their attempt to rescue the title. I hope that Pritchford's spending of good karma (built up from the success of Borderlands) wasn't entirely wasted on convincing the company to let him at DNF. There are a lot of better ways, in retrospect, that he could have burned that karma.

    2. Re:Played it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's exactly what the 1st game was, and I still to this day do not understand why people thought it was so great.

      "it has a shrink ray and a freeze gun!"
      so? I don't know about you, but there's nothing I love more than when I'm about to kill somebody and they use a cheap gimmick on me.

      Cheap gimmick? It's a powerful weapon in the right hands so the reason why you consider it a gimmick, is for me a reason why it's a weapon that requires a little more skill by the player to use well. Variety is always nicer than just guns with various reload times and damage. Besides, when you kill someone with either one, it's extra fun so as long as you get to do it yourself sometimes too, you like it :b

      "but it's funny!"
      no. Go watch some beavis and butthead or early south park for that brand of humor if you really want funny, or hell go re-watch evil dead 2 and army of darkness for the funny that duke obviously really wishes he could be.

      What's wrong with incorporating that kind of humor into a game? Especially when done well. Besides, Duke 3D came long before South Park.

    3. Re:Played it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      but it didn't come before Army of Darkness.

      Hail to the real king, baby.

    4. Re:Played it. by frozencesium · · Score: 4, Insightful

      While all this is true...it's Duke. I for one expected exactly what the demo showed.

      Cutting edge graphics? No...It's Duke.
      Juvenile and campy? Yes...again, it's Duke.

      Hard core gamers need to break out of their mother's basements and take Duke for what it is...A guilty pleasure with nudity, toilet humor, and an ass kicking good time. It's the leisure suit larry of our generation. For those who expect Duke to push the technical limits or be some revolution in game play, get over yourselves...those are NOT the reasons we play Duke.

      --
      I'm not always the brightest pixel in the stream
    5. Re:Played it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Because they can take a joke. You already ranted about the game earlier and obviously never took to its politically incorrect humor because you feel the need to remind us of how you're too mature for it. You probably didn't like the Grand Theft Auto games either, or Mortal Kombat, or any other controversial game that walks the edges of social acceptability--something I consider important for entertainment to do or else it becomes stale whitebread.

      What about those of us who enjoyed GTA, MK and similar games, yet still can't stand the redneck-appealing stupidity of Duke Nukem?

      That cheap gimmick is fun as hell, the same reason Mario Kart is fun. For crying out loud, there is no other shooter in which you can fire a shrink ray at a mirror, have the projectile reflect off of the mirror, hit someone in the next room, and then step on them. That's really not fun to you? Were you born wearing a suit and tie?

      Yeah, Mario Kart is still a hell of fun after all those years. Your second example I couldn't give a shit about. I've never worn a suit and tie, sorry.

    6. Re:Played it. by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

      so? I don't know about you, but there's nothing I love more than when I'm about to kill somebody and they use a cheap gimmick on me.

      Couldn't escape eh?

      You must hate fighting games with reverses then. How dare someone actually alter the internal narrative you had built up! And the fact you never could figure out how to escape when small probably didn't help.

      Mind you, that's one of the most rewarding feelings in an FPS...

      ever play starsiege: tribes? That's how you make a shooter with jetpacks.

      And you can thank Duke for 'em kindly.

      no. Go watch some beavis and butthead or early south park for that brand of humor

      Neither of which are in the same context, if I wanted something mindless instead of interactive I'd go watch paint dry. I like South Park but Bevis & Butthead never did much for me.

      Duke was an amazing game not because of the toilet humor or any one unique weapon... it was amazing because of the endless variety of play, of ways you could be killed or have fortunes reversed at a moments notice because of some diabolical plan. In fact, I dare to say that anyone who didn't enjoy the game lacked the imagination to come up with said diabolical plans, and therefore the inherent subtly of Duke was lost on you.

      To this day, Duke 3D is by far still the most fun I ever had in a multi-player game, matched only by Carmageddon (which happy days, is also making a come back soon).

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    7. Re:Played it. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      Cutting edge graphics? No...It's Duke.

      Actually, when Duke 3D just came out, it had cutting edge graphics, and, generally speaking, quite advanced engine. Sure, it was sprite-based, but Quake was still half a year away, and existing "real 3D" games either looked like crap (Ultima Underworld) or deliberately used the environment where low-poly count was not noticeable (Descent). Meanwhile, Duke had mirrors, and plenty of interactivity on the maps themselves.

  11. It's what I expected. by damnbunni · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've played through the demo on the PC, and it's about what I thought it would be. It's neither amazingly good nor bad gameplay wise; it's typical shooter gameplay with some goofy weapons and a sophmoric sense of humor.

    Which is what I expected from a Duke Nukem game.

  12. Incredibly Mediocre by ZackSchil · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The demo is very mediocre. It feels like a fan project that was given some time at a major studio. Which I guess is kind of what it is. The production values are uneven, the graphics are uneven, and the pacing is odd. The flow of the environments in the demo were not up to modern standards. The AI is rudimentary at best, the animations look all funky.

    Unless a lot has changed since this demo was put together, I imagine the game will be a very bland, linear FPS with small, barren environments and stale gameplay.

  13. Review by JohnyDog · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a review showing the whole run through PC demo, including intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6MjzgTZriw

    --
    People who like this sort of sig will find this the sort of sig they like.
  14. One of the worst demos, ever. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever quite awhile ago. I hoped for a lot, but didn't expect it. I mostly just wanted to buy a copy so I could play through it and have it on my shelf for purposes of nostalgia. The hope was just that maybe after all that time, Gearbox's intervention to save the title last year might have done some amazing magic on it. After all, they do have a good record and a lot of love for the franchise (Randy Pitchford originally worked on Duke back in the day).

    Some of the videos out there promoting the game made it look like a very competent modern shooter. Lots of stuff going on, nice graphics, big destroyed cities with enormous monsters and all that. Pretty much everything you'd expect, in 2011.

    The demo? It's like they made it with the intention of making you cancel your pre-order (which I did -- I'll buy it again for the shelf when it's $20 or less).

    First, the loading times are awful. They're about 75 seconds and you have to sit through a load screen even if all you did was die.

    Second, the framerate is bad. It is sometimes smooth and looks fine, but then it'll suddenly hitch for half a second. And more times than not, you hitch again when you are hit (melee or a bullet) by an enemy. Sometimes it's enough that you'll die before you can respond to what's going on. Or even be knocked off a cliff and die before you can react to being hit.

    Third, the graphics. The best of the demo is in the beginning, when it looks competent. Not setting new standards, but not a turn off. Unfortunately, everything after that is flat and fairly simple. The interface is pretty boring and uninspired, too.

    Fourth, the audio. Man, the audio is a disappointment. The sounds of the weapons. The repetitive sayings of Duke. The grunt every time he jumps. It sounds like they haven't recorded anything new since 1999.

    Fifth, it is SHORT. And BORING. Like I said above, the videos make it look like you'll be engaged in these huge fights with massive monsters in big bustling destroyed cities with all sorts of things going on in the sky and the background. But what was the demo? The following is the demo:

    The game opens on you pissing in a urinal (press RT to piss). Then you leave the urinal and find you're in a locker room at a stadium. You go out to the playing field and fight a giant monster. After killing him, the camera pulls out and you find out that you are actually Duke playing Duke in one of Duke's games on a console. Two chicks are blowing you and sit back to converse with you. Then, you're in a shitty looking 4x4 driving through a bland canyon dodging rocks for about 90 seconds. Then you shoot your way through a bland canyon for about two minutes, until you reach a cave that you walk around fir about two minutes to find some gas for your truck. You fight a ship by shooting it about 20 times with a weapon handily placed nearby. Then you run back to your truck and fill it up with the gas that you found. Then the demo is over.

    1. Re:One of the worst demos, ever. by PixelJaded · · Score: 2

      First, the loading times are awful. They're about 75 seconds and you have to sit through a load screen even if all you did was die.

      OK, I understand its cool to bag the game on here before anyone's played the full thing. But seriously, the LOADING TIMES were a problem??? Did you pre-order your computer in 1998? My LAPTOP never took more than 7 seconds to load anything, and I timed my desktop at 4 seconds off the old spinning disk (never thought to try the SSD because it was so fast anyway). The loading times were similar to Borderlands (a 2007 game) on both machines. Seriously if your computer is too slow to run 2007 games please don't bother posting your experience of a 2011 game.

      Similarly with the frame-rate. My 1 year old laptop was fairly consistent ~30fps throughout the demo at 1920x1080 high detail (Radeon 5730m) and that gfx card is less than half the performance of a low end $100 desktop card (1/3 the performance of a desktop Radeon 5770 for example). Even my 4 year old laptop can run the game smoothly at 1024x768.

      Honestly my only gripe with the demo was the lack of enemies and how ridiculously easy it was on hard. To be fair though, this is probably the very start of the game and I'm hoping it gets better later. I for one will not be cancelling my pre-order.

  15. Re:Links by node+3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Who the hell only releases demo's to pre orders, maybe if they let me play the game I might pre order it but I'm not going to pre order so I can play the freaking demo. Honestly what marketing idiot thought that up. Anyone got a torrent for the demo?

    Pre-ordering gives you early access to the demo. I'm sure it will be generally available after launch.

    Also, limiting the demo to pre-orders means people who pre-ordered can begin to play the game before everyone else, providing additional value in pre-ordering.

  16. Dodged a bullet by anomaly256 · · Score: 2

    Damn. So glad I didn't pay for a pre-order. I wouldn't even take this game if they offered it for free. A man can only take so many puns-per-minute and the video someone posted of walking through the demo makes me want to vomit from exposure to excessive lame.

  17. Re:Main focus of the game developers by edxwelch · · Score: 5, Funny

    > The demo left me with the feeling that the developers spend more time on textures of naked women than on anything else.
    Time well spent, in other words

  18. Demo for those that paid ? by meerling · · Score: 2

    So basically, if you've already paid (preordered) your copy, you get a demo, something that's used to promote the game and entice you to buy it.
    That's kind of like the drunk asking the bar owner if he'd like a drink...

  19. Re:they don't want the sever to blow up taking the by bluemonq · · Score: 2

    Option C: Pre-order folks who love multiplayer can get their game on earlier.

  20. Re:Links by jimmydevice · · Score: 2

    Much like the late night TV ads where you can try a product ( usually exercise equipment ) for only $19.95. Of course, if you keep it, expect your credit card to rack up some large charges.