Duke Nukem Forever

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JaySevenZero
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Duke Nukem Forever

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Duke Nukem Forever for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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leady129
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Re: 472 - Duke Nukem Forever

Post by leady129 »

Some years back, Duke Nukem himself, Jon St. John came to my city for a convention. Being a part of the media team, once the convention was done i had the opportunity to share a beer with the Duke himself.

Absolute Legend.

Anyone who has had the chance to meet Jon may be aware that he enjoys playing prank calls in character as Duke. At that time, one of my good friends had recently completed Duke Nukem Forever only the previous day, so i was thrilled when Jon took my phone, put on the voice and asked him what he thought.

Said friend obviously didn't believe for one moment that he was on the phone with the man himself and proceeded to tell Jon EXACTLY what he thought of Forever.

I've never been so embarrassed. It got to the point that Jon dropped the character and rather facetiously stated that at least the game purchase was helping to put Jons kids through school.

Upon recovering my phone i had to inform this now ex-friend that he had been on the phone to the genuine article. I've never heard someone turn their opinion around so quickly. He begged me to tell Jon that Duke Nukem 3D was his favourite game ever but it was far too late by that stage.

To this day, he still lives in fear that he made an enemy of the Duke.
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Nyx-Fontana
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Re: 472 - Duke Nukem Forever

Post by Nyx-Fontana »

I think the thing i enjoyed the most about Duke Nukem were the parts where Duke had to shrink down to action figure size in order to navigate an area or solve a puzzle. Even though its never explained why the heck the aliens are placing shrink pits in random places these parts gave me some nostalgia for the Toy Story 2 PS1 game i played as a kid, as well the movie 'Small Soldiers'. I also thought it was a clever idea to have Duke's health tied to his 'Ego' and that interacting with certain enemies or objects in the environment would increase his Ego a bit.

However, Duke Nukem Forever as a whole i think is just not very good. The level design is for the most part very uninspiring and ugly, as are the character models you see throughout the game. It doesnt help that the controls feel floaty as well, which makes the gunplay feel 'off' and can be a quick source of frustration when you have to navigate the light platforming sections throughout the game. And dont even get me started on the bosses, which are about as basic and dull as they can get. The game works for the most part, it's serviceable, but it lacks that fun factor that makes you want to play more of it. The length of the game also works against it i feel, as it is a lot longer than you might initially expect.

I was hoping the humor would perhaps make the other elements of the game more tolerable but it just didn't click with me. I felt that the game was trying too hard to be crass and over the top, and there were rarely any moments of tact to balance the crude nature of the humor. As a result the humor combined with the ugliness of the levels and graphics gave the game a really sleazy, greasy feel to it that was hard to ignore.

I also didn't really have any fondness for Duke or his one liners, perhaps because im not big into 80s action movies. However i think the voice actor did a good job portraying him as a confident, self absorbed meathead. I think my favorite crude remark from Duke came towards the end of the game when i vanquished a squad of Octabrains, to which Duke says something along the lines of "Go take your tentacles back to japan, you freaks."

Overall Duke Nukem Forever is a game i dont think i will ever go back to, i just ended up feeling nothing for it when the credits started rolling. Even if you see the game for cheap (for me it was 5 bucks) i feel like your money and your time would be better spent elsewhere.

Three Word Review: Beware the Octabrains
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Rhaegyr
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Re: 472 - Duke Nukem Forever

Post by Rhaegyr »

leady129 wrote: March 7th, 2021, 4:49 pm Some years back, Duke Nukem himself, Jon St. John came to my city for a convention. Being a part of the media team, once the convention was done i had the opportunity to share a beer with the Duke himself.

Absolute Legend.

Anyone who has had the chance to meet Jon may be aware that he enjoys playing prank calls in character as Duke. At that time, one of my good friends had recently completed Duke Nukem Forever only the previous day, so i was thrilled when Jon took my phone, put on the voice and asked him what he thought.

Said friend obviously didn't believe for one moment that he was on the phone with the man himself and proceeded to tell Jon EXACTLY what he thought of Forever.

I've never been so embarrassed. It got to the point that Jon dropped the character and rather facetiously stated that at least the game purchase was helping to put Jons kids through school.

Upon recovering my phone i had to inform this now ex-friend that he had been on the phone to the genuine article. I've never heard someone turn their opinion around so quickly. He begged me to tell Jon that Duke Nukem 3D was his favourite game ever but it was far too late by that stage.

To this day, he still lives in fear that he made an enemy of the Duke.
Absolutely love this story - telling the Duke himself you thought his game was shit is something else.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Our next podcast recording (6.1.21): 472 - Duke Nukem Forever

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

I remember a decade ago, when Duke Nukem Forever was finally announced, I was running off enough goodwill from Gearbox and Borderlands to pre-order it, but something in the air, some bad buzz, the perhaps and advance review, convinced me to cancel said pre-order before the game was actually released in the summer of 2011.

Near the end of that year, after a crazy demo, and those disastrous reviews had made it a huge laughing stock, I saw Duke Nukem Forever on sale at Amazon for a cool $9.99, and took the plunge.

I think the first thing that must be said about Duke Nukem Forever is how deeply this video game wants to be Half-Life. One of the things that jumped out at me in the infamous Wired article "Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem is George Broussard being blown away by opening sequence of Valve's classic, and how they had to incorporate it into DNF.

And incorporate it they do: That opening scene after the prelude feels interminable. And not that funny. Somewhat amusing to walk around that studio, but it was clear Broussard and Gearbox never quite understood what made Half-Life so successful, or at the very least, its formula couldn't be so easily stapled onto a larger than life figure like Duke NUkem. There's also a bunch of physics puzzles, which make things feel bizarre.

Bizarre is certainly the word for this game, when all is said and done- I don't think I've played a game with choppier pacing than this. The decade plus of work feels like Gearbox and Piranha games took all the disparate ideas and abandoned tracks of development but couldn't make it feel like a story with a clear narrative through line; as it is it's barely episodic. Duke does the walking around, the aforementioned physics puzzles, a driving sequence, a gross Aliens homage, some labored Call of Duty parodies, and it's... kind of a story, and then it's over.

The game also has load times that were pretty ridiculous for 2011, but that's kicking it while it's down.

I couldn't bring myself to hate Duke Nukem Forever. It's problematic, but it's not frustrating or unplayable, in fact there are some moments of inspiration, but in the end it's perfectly average. But for all the hype, al the blood, sweat , and tears, "average" doesn't quite cut it.

--Dan
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