Well it did, in that it never came out. As video game engines became more and more sophisticated, the creators of Duke Nukem, 3D Realms, kept revising it. Apparently, DNF had begun with the Quake 2 engine, then shifted to the Unreal engine (which is what the build shown in the original trailer was based on, if I recall correctly), and so on and so forth. New engines were created for it, new ones from other games were incorporated, and eventually it just took way too long. The fact of the matter is that 3D Realms got so bent about releasing a "perfect" game by trying to have the most state-of-the-art graphics, effects, and physics, that it was never released because it was never considered to be good enough by the company. If there's anything I've learned, it's that there's no such thing as a "perfect" game...but you can get pretty damn close. Shigeru Miyamoto himself stated: "A delayed game is eventually good...a bad game is bad forever" and if that's the case, then DNF is on track to be pretty fucking sweet after its 12 year development time.
However, there have certainly been a good handful Duke Nukem games since Duke 3D. Tons of installments were released to fill the void, and for the most part, they were pretty sweet. Versions of Duke 3D have been on many consoles...Total Meltdown for the PlayStation introduced some new levels into the standard game, while Duke Nukem 64 had an entirely different weapon set to play around with. Duke Nukem: Time to Kill for the PlayStation as well as Duke Nukem: Zero Hour for the Nintendo 64 (one of my personal favourites) introduced time travel to the formula, as well as a 3rd person perspective rather than the FPS style that Duke 3D had taken. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project came out for PC in 2002 or 2003, reverting the Duke universe to its 2D sidescroller roots, but with spiffy 3D models and special effects. The list goes on...Duke 3D has been released for a large number of consoles and handhelds, and the fans have created thousands of levels for it, showing that there is still demand for the Duke.
So finally, as of a few months ago, 3D Realms passed the project to Gearbox (creators of the recently released and critically acclaimed Borderlands), because it was founded by a bunch of the original staff from 3D Realms involved in the creation of Duke Nukem 3D. They've been charged with polishing it up and shipping it out in 2011. They've even shown the world a demo, seemingly replaying the final events of Duke Nukem 3D where Duke takes down the massive Cycloid Emperor in a football stadium and boots his eyeball for a field goal. As the eyeball soars, you see Duke's arm come up and do a fist pump when it reaches the uprights.
Fucking awesome.
After this, the game sort of zooms out and we see that this is a video game based on Duke's previous feats in Duke 3D, and HE'S playing his own game while being blown by 2 chicks.
"What about the game, Duke? Is it good?" one of the girls asks.
"Yeah...but after 12 fuckin' years, it should be."
Even in this demo, the spirit of Duke has already been completely captured and brought back. It's rude, it's hilarious, it's charged with action, and it's fucking ridiculous...sounds about right to me.
So seeing all of this Duke Nukem Forever news unfold over the last few months has really gotten me thinking about it and made me really pumped for seeing DNF...a game that I've been eagerly awaiting since I was about 13 (holy shit), and even through all the doubts and rumours that it was going to be vapourware (MOAR LIEK DUKE TAKIN' FOREVER LOL!), I stuck around and knew they'd release it at some point. Now, in this era of FPS games that have a distinctly different formula from the days when Duke was going to be released, I can't help but wonder what impact it'll have on the genre, or if it will make any waves at all in this sea of stale and formulaic FPS games. Fact is, I have some hopes for this game, and this is my list of the top 10 reasons why I'm STILL anticipating the release of Duke Nukem Forever:
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1. The weapons
Over the years of playing Duke, there's one thing that I've learned. Duke's not the only badass in the game...the weapons are their own all-star cast that each play their own distinct part in being fucking awesome. The Duke series has been known for extremely destructive and oftentimes hilarious weaponry. Who can forget the Shrinker, which fires green bolts of energy that reduce your foes to the size of a pop can so you can crush them under your boot? Or the Microwave Expander, which inflates them until they explode with a distinct *ding* sound at the end? And the Freezethower, firing cryogenic energy into your adversaries until they finally become a block of ice to be shattered by the smallest impact? There are tons of hilarious and unique tools of death in the series, and I absolutely can't wait to see them all again. Some returning weapons have already been shown, like the rapid rocket-firing Devastator and the Shrinker, and I'm absolutely pumped to use them again.
The thing is, this is how shit used to be back in the days of Doom, Duke, and Descent...an array of guns that are so terribly destructive that they really should never exist. Meanwhile, in ohh, 95% of todays shooters, what kind of loadout do you see? Tons of machine guns that just barely differ in their power, recoil, firing rate, and clip size...pistols and shotguns that follow the same formula...maybe a rocket launcher if you're lucky. I don't want to play through a first person shooter and just use different types of rapid-fire weaponry, cause that's fucking dull! "Hmm, should I use this machine gun, or THIS other one?" Yeah, that's gonna make a real difference in how you tackle your enemies. How about you pick up a fucking Volt Cannon and electrify the smaller enemies until their heads fucking pop off, and save your Shrinker for that Battlelord that's coming around the corner so you can step on him and save yourself the trouble? Now we're talking! And you know what the other good part is? The enemies'll be using the exact same weapons on YOU...I remember in Duke 3D when Protector Drones would fire a Shrinker blast at you and then try to step on you. I can't wait for that shit to happen to me again, rather than just ducking behind cover, dodging sniper rifles and machine guns.
Hi, I'm in every FPS on the market these days!In general, weapons in FPS games have become so goddamned dull...they're just not that fun to use anymore, because FPS games have drifted more into the style of becoming realistic and not having a distinct and unique weapon set. You can find the exact same guns in a majority of the FPS games out right now, and it's retarded. Whoever wants to use an AK-47 or some fuckin' variant of it in EVERY first person shooter they play should be slapped. A first person shooter is almost half-defined by its weapon set...these are the tools that you're going to be using for the entirety of the game, so they should be interesting and not all similar to each other. You don't need 27 different machine guns, 7 shotguns, 5 different kinds of rocket launchers and 8 pistol types. In order to establish a solid weapon set, all you need is one representative of a certain type of weapon that feels perfect and is balanced well. Each gun should have its own unique purpose, and if they're not satisfying to use, people'll just get bored of them halfway through. This is a feature that I know Duke Forever will deliver on, because Duke games have never failed to do so.
The only other thing I can hope for with respect to guns is a return to the classic "Walking armory" formula. No more switching your guns out because you can only carry two at a time...bring back the ability to carry them all at once!
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2. The aliens
That's right, ALIENS. Duke 3D was loaded with aliens that had started to take over Earth, beginning with Los Angeles. Police were mutated into Pig Cops, the sewers were loaded with floating, telepathic Octabrains, and later in the game you would encounter fat dudes on hover discs that shoot missiles out of their assholes, and anthropomorphic reptiles with noserings and chainguns mounted on their right arm. These were interesting enemies to fight because they were all distinctly different from one another.
Do you know what sucks? Killing humans all the time in FPS games, that's what. It's boring, and there's no variety in them cause they're all the fuckin' same! The only strategy you have is to go for headshots all the damn time, cause you know it's ALWAYS GOING TO WORK. Even if you encounter a NEW human...you know to shoot them in the head with one of the 2 different-but-similar machine guns you're carrying. I don't care what you say...I don't find this to be fun and it's far from engaging or interesting. The problem with shooters now is that the whole cast of enemies consists of humans, or humans controlling vehicles, or something along those lines. Sure, they may be carrying different guns or something, but they all react and die the exact same way.
Aren't you tired of shooting Nazis and terrorists in the head? When every game technically has only one type of enemy...why would you even want to play them all? Why not just buy one of the numerous shoot-humans-with-a-machine-gun, cookie-cutter FPS games and be done with it? Companies have just lost their fucking creativity now that they're safe and cozy in their bed of moneybags from making FPS games set in war and somewhat based on real events. Hell, even Half-Life 2, sci-fi as it may be, was boring through the whole game because 90% of the time you're fighting the Combine. What are the Combine? Well actually, they ARE aliens...but for some reason Valve decided to slap a human appearance to them seemingly for the whole purpose of making them boring as fuck. It's kind of funny how an alien cast of baddies can have more of a personality than a bunch of damn human enemies can. Give me back a cast of targets that are at least fucking interesting!
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3. The environments
I can't wait to see what the hell Duke Nukem Forever has in store with respect to the locales and environments you blow the shit out of. In Duke 3D, you not only fought on some familiar and cool locations around Earth, but also went to various space stations, alien lairs, and the moon. Some pretty cool stuff at the time. When the original DNF trailer came out, it showed locations like Las Vegas, a desert (so I assume Nevada was going to be the general setting of the game), as well as a few other environments. The time travel Duke games also had a very diverse set of locales, so nothing is really out of the question when it comes to Duke Nukem Forever.
It will certainly be a break from Nazi Germany, Nazi Germany, and Nazi Germany! Maybe throw Russia and Cuba in there every so often for some jungles and sub-zero locations just to add the illusion of true variety...seriously, all these war-based FPS games are becoming a huge drag. Similar locations in multiple series which have sequels in MORE similar locations...pah! Use your fucking imagination. A science-fiction change of pace will be nice to see in a new-fangled, straight up FPS game, and clearly the Duke games have a good reputation for environmental variety. I'm sure that Duke Forever will be no slouch, particularly with the newest graphical technology under its belt (complete with radiation symbol buckle). The demo already showed how awesome the Stadium looks, along with the Cycloid Emperor...and I can't wait to see the rest of the game.
Stadium + Cycloid = :D :D :D4. The return of a classic health system
This is key, and I can't wait. Back in the day when FPS games first came to the market, they had a hit point system where 100 health was full, and 0 was dead. When you got hit, obviously this number would decrease, but you could pick up medkits and stimpacks and things like Supercharges and Atomic Health to bump it back up and bring yourself back into the land of the living. These would be scattered around the levels, so if you were wounded you could heal yourself up and get back in the game. Maybe if you were lucky, you'd find some armor that would decrease the damage you took until it was destroyed. It was a simple system, but it sure worked well.
Well, now you have every goddamned game with this "regenerating health" cocksnot. You get shot, and your screen goes a darker shade of red on the edges to indicate that you've been hurt. Do you pick up medkits to repair your wounds? Fuck no, you go and hide for 3 seconds and then it's like you never got shot to begin with because your health regenerates as long as you're not being pelted with rounds. What the hell is with that? Since when do FPS games reward you for being a panzy and cowering behind stuff? Back in the days of Doom, Quake, and Duke, when you got hit, it stayed there until you earned the means of repairing it by surviving the damn firefight you're in and searching out a health pack once the coast is clear. Play your cards right and you'd get out of a situation with a whole bunch of health, which is really, really satisfying. Do players feel that satisfaction with regenerating health? This is how I see things...let's compare scenarios for a moment:
"I was down to 4 health, but I killed all those bastards and found myself a medkit. Man was it ever sweet to blow those aliens away and not get hit ONCE and survive!"
Or!
"My screen was really red so I went and hid and then I was back to full health and I shot every terrorist in the head with my lower recoil, lower fire-rate machine gun from behind a rock."
First one, hands down. It's just lame that you can keep ducking behind cover, going all Wolverine and regenerating your wounded body as much as you damn well want. There's no point in trying too hard at not getting hit, because you can just undo all the damage that's been loaded on you by hiding behind a crate for 5 seconds...and even if you die, you start like, 5 steps behind where you were shot to death. There's no challenge there, only extreme tedium! Get bent!!!
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5. The Duke
There's really no other video game character like Duke Nukem. He's awesome and hilarious with a badass American attitude. He's a parody of himself and all that he stands for. One of the most awesome things about Duke Nukem 3D and the games afterwards was the one-liners. Killing enemies cause Duke to spew out a sarcastic and often hilarious remark. Killing a Lizard Enforcer in Duke Nukem: Zero Hour would result in Duke saying something like "I've always wanted a pair of snakeskin boots!" Other, more general sayings include "Come get some!" or "Blow it out your ass!" Also, don't forget the random pop culture and movie quotes that he spews out as he tears bad guys apart...after 12 years of development hell, I bet the Duke'll have a ton of stuff to say about what's been going on.
Playing as Duke Nukem puts you in the shoes of a hero with a shitload of guns, a bigass stogie in his mouth, an appetite for destruction, and an attitude rivaled only by Ash Williams from Evil Dead (a character who inspired Duke's brash personality to begin with). It's awesome to play as such a vocal and wicked character while you blow the snot out of alien hordes. It really makes the player feel like they're not just some other person or some random soldier, and that nothing will be able to stop them.
It's good for a laugh, too!
Blow it out your ass!---------------------------
6. The multiplayer
Multiplayer in FPS games is nearly a necessity, except for in a very select number of games that managed to work with only a single-player experience. Duke Nukem games have almost always had multiplayer portions, and they've always been ridiculously fun. I remember playing Dukematch in Duke Nukem 64 with my friends, and going for over 1000 kills at one point. Same with Zero Hour, actually...well, not the 1000 kills, but we used to play it a shitload. There was nothing quite like playing the Western-themed map called High Noon and blowing each other away with the Havoc Multilauncher...or laughing your ass off at the idiot who triggered your Laser Tripbomb.
Duke Forever will likely be no slouch when it comes to multiplayer...it's been in development for 12 years, and there's not really a reason for multi to be absent. In fact, I expect they'll go all out with the multiplayer...this is Duke Nukem Forever, after all, and it's got a lot to prove when it comes down to it. Deathmatch will be an obvious mode, as well as stuff like Capture the Flag and Team DM...maybe even some co-operative play. All I ask for is the inclusion of splitscreen along with the online component, because there's nothing more fun than smacktalking people who are in the same room as you.
Multiplayer modes with new areas and insane weaponry that does hilarious stuff? Sign me up, fuckers!
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7. The Jetpack
I have a joke for you: What's more awesome than a badass, wisecracking, gunslinging alien ass kicker?
A badass, wisecracking, gunslinging alien ass kicker that can fucking fly.
Not so much a joke, but moreso the ultimate form of truth.
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8. The secrets
A feature that I'm really hoping for in Duke Nukem Forever is the inclusion of true secret areas. I remember back in the days of Wolfenstein, Rise of the Triad, Doom, Duke 3D...the games kept track of all the secret areas you discovered and gave you a tally or percentage of the ones you had found. That feature is strangely absent from games today, with secrets now replaced with areas that are simply out of the way and might have a different type of weapon for you.
The Duke games have always had some really wicked secrets. Duke Nukem 3D had secret areas where you could find the Doom Marine, the bridge of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D, and Luke Skywalker strung up and eviscerated...but you had to look pretty hard for some of them. Time to Kill had some cool secrets as well, such as finding the DeLorean from Back to the Future Part III when you were in the western era, among other things.
Duke: "That's one DOOMED space marine!"Considering all that's happened since the initial introduction of Duke Nukem Forever, there should be a lot of hilarious little secret areas to find...maybe with a decapitated Harry Potter? Or maybe Edward Cullen lying dead in a gutter somewhere? I'm looking forward to seeing what they put in...IF they put secret areas in like this at all. I think they will though...this kind of hilarity is pretty much a staple of the Duke series at this point, and leaving it out just wouldn't make sense.
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9. The interactivity
When Duke Nukem 3D came out, it was one of the most interactive games at the time. You could do a lot of things that you couldn't in other shooters, which made the world a lot more interesting. You could blow holes in walls to open up new areas, play pool with pixelated billiard balls, piss in toilets to recover a small amount of health, destroy said toilet and drink the water spouting out of the piping to recover MORE health, shoot bottles and cans off of bars, and pay strippers money to see their bubs (terribly controversial at the time). This kind of interaction made the world seem all that more tangible.
With the advancement of technology, and therefore game engines, a lot of improvements and features have come along that can only increase the interactivity with the world of Duke Nukem Forever. Physics engines have been improved upon drastically, meaning tons of items and objects in the world can be moved around and potentially used to your advantage (and that pixelated pool may actually be completely playable in Duke Forever!) Doom 3 introduced a method of interacting with computers and even playing video games WITHIN the video game...and that was back in 2004, so DNF could have some really cool features and ways of messing with things around you. Hell, the demo that was shown already displays the ability to write on whiteboards, activate sinks and toilets...apparently you can even pick a turd out of the Crapper and whip it at people if you want. That's only a tiny portion of the overall game, so just imagine what else there is!
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10. The ridiculousness of it all!
Just think about it for a moment. All of the above things that I've mentioned, combined into one amazing package. One moment you'll be firing at a squad of alien troopers, accompanied by Octabrains and Pig Cops, with a Freezethrower. Smash that last frozen Octabrain into ice shards with a rock that you've picked up and thrown from the ground while Duke says "Chill out!", and the next moment you'll be paying some hooker for a virtual lapdance. After that, you'll maybe go slaughter some people online with the RPG while taunting them with some classic Duke quips. Pick up your single player game again, and holy shit! Now you're in Egypt and you've just blown the face off of the Sphinx or something. You fly to the top of one of the great pyramids in Giza and find out that the aliens are using it as the base for a megaweapon, so you equip your Shrinker and head in...BY USING YOUR FUCKING JETPACK AND SIMULTANEOUSLY FRYING ENEMIES BELOW YOU WITH THE FLAMES POURING OUT OF IT.
I made that part up about Egypt, but you never friggin' know!
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That's my list of hopes for Duke Nukem Forever. I know a few people aren't going to like it as much as the standard FPS games on the market right now, but I also know that a shitload of people who grew up with classic FPS action are going to be shitting their pants in happiness. The hilarity is that DNF is going to be almost completely original in the present while being exactly like games from the past...and I can hardly fuckin' wait to finally see it happen.
Always bet on the Duke.
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