Duke Nukem 3D Comments by Dan Whitehead

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This is/was the only game I've come across in 25+ years of actually being a gamer that made made me feel quite ill while playing.

As good as WAR then?

I tried the demo of this game last night but despite really enjoying the gameplay opted not to buy it for two reasons.

One, is that there's a bizarre lighting effect going on with the graphics that appears as banding and I found it very, very distracting. I don't remember it in the PS and N64 versions. The big issue for me though is the truly weird perspective which distorts the buildings and floor if you look down or up. Again I don't recall this from the playing the earlier versions (is this how old 3D games really looked?) but I was actually starting to get motion sickness while playing the game, something that has never affected me before. Whether that's because of this odd perspective or the sheer speed I don't know. A shame really because I was having a lot of fun with the game up until that point - it's supremely designed... and funny - even if visually the game is a tad blocky (what's the point of the Smoothing option though if it doesn't actually smooth the textures a la N64? And why no widescreen option?).

Played it yesterday and it was an instasale for me.

Darren: Everything you mention was in the original game.

For a short moment there I thought this was for Duke Nukem Forever.
I still haven't recovered fully from the shock.

Shake it BABY!

@Xerx3s - I don't remember them then... certainly not the odd perspective (which I see EG mentioned in their review) but maybe it's because back then 3D games where relatively new and I didn't know any better. Strange that the devs didn't at least address them for this port... it wouldn't really have taken anything away from the game IMO. As I said this is the first 3D game that started to give me motion-sickness so sadly I couldn't play it for very long. I guess it isn't always true when they say that old games were better... certainly not when it comes to the 3D effect anyway! LOL

According to XBLA Duke 3D (along with Doom and Buku Sudoku for crying out loud) isn't available in my current location - a location I have to lie for, since XBL is still not officially available in Greece :(

Sometimes I wish MS would pull their finger out and realize there's more to Europe than the UK, Germany, France and Spain. Who knows, maybe next time they'll get it right...

EDIT: Darren, could it be that you haven't played the PC original and remember only the console versions?

Xbox LIVE isn't officially available in Greece...? Why not? :?

Is it any wonder the Xbox 360 isn't selling as well in the rest of Europe as it is in the UK if Microsoft have such a lazy attitude towards other European countries.

Tut!

Duke says, What are you waiting for? Christmas?

There's no way this came out only two years before Half Life. It came out before Quake didn't it?

@JonFE - I said elsewhere that I've never played Duke Nukem 3D on the PC, my first experience of the game was the excellent PS version (which like Doom was one of the few games to have proper perspective correction and no texture seaming... something of a rarity for most PS games) and then the N64 version, which actually had blurred textures so it actually looked better, IMO, than this Xbox 360 port. Never got motion sickness playing either of those and, believe me, I played them loads as it's a truly brilliant game.

Bad Taste is a fantastic movie!

Well if they'd all stop being so bloody rude and take up English or Japanese as their main language - then maybe companies would release things there.

"Wahhh all these menus are in a language I don't speak wahh" MAN UP.

There's no way this came out only two years before Half Life. It came out before Quake didn't it?

Duke Nukem 3D was 1996, Half Life was 1998. Quake came out a few months after Duke Nukem.

Darren, as per XBL not officially available in Greece, it sure beats me. Maybe MS think we are not worthy or something... Sales could be a contributing factor, but, as you say, this attitude will surely not improve things.

Duke Nukem 3D was 1996, Half Life was 1998. Quake came out a few months after Duke Nukem.

Oh wow, I didn't realize all that happened in such a short amount of time.

@JonFE

I have the same problem (I live in South Africa but have a UK account because Live hasn't been officially launched here, even though the 360 has), as I understand it MS has instituted an IP-check to appease the German regulators who were concerned that you could download titles that weren't cleared for release in Germany just by creating a foreign account. So, for most 18-rated content on Live, it will check that your IP address corresponds to the region that your account is registered in, and if it doesn't, it blocks the download.

Don't know why there would be a problem with Buku Sudoku, though. Licensing issues, maybe.

The Build engine for DN3D on the PC didn't have perspective correction. However it was a pretty good step up from the Doom engine at the time which couldn't handle things such as walking under stuff. =]

I tried the demo yesterday but I don't think I will get it. Doom has aged a lot better - and it controls better.

My main issue with the XBLA Port is that autoaim seems to be disabled (maybe I can enable it in the options but I haven't found that) so you have to aim up and down unlike in the original. This if course is much easier with the second stick but they really should have corrected the distorted perspective when you look up/down. This of course has also been a problem in the original but since it didn't rely that much on actually having to look up or down this wasn't much of a problem.

I also think a bit more work should have gone into the music. Duke Nukem has awesome music - why didn't they bother to play the original midi files on a decent synth? The quality of the music isn't what it should be, it simply doesn't do it justice.

Since I'm not that interested in playing this online I think I will skip it.

LazyDan: your comment made me smile, thank you good man.

8 seems a bit generous for me. But I'm always skeptical of retro gaming in all its forms, and Zero Punctuation recently spoke the words of my very mind.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/v...

@Darren

The bonkers perspective was always there. Its just a symptom of the "not actually 3D" 3D engine. Dark Forces had the same issue iirc. You will notice that nowhere in DN3D will you find one walkable floor above another one. This is because it doesn't map out the vertical plane in a proper 3D way, but instead extrudes the vertical information from a 2D map.

"Mirrors reflect what's in front of them"

Another weird facet of the DN3D engine is that mirrors don't actually reflect anything (insofar as mirrors in games every actually do). As I recall from my dabblings with the level editor back then, if you wanted to make a mirror you had to actually build a room behind the mirror, in which your reflection would run around. Odd, but true.

@Gnort,

Thanks! That's more or less what I've suspected regarding violent-type games, but in the case of a sudoku game it really gets silly...

Darren: Old games are rarely better. If that where true, we would be going backwards in quality and possibilities. People have a habit of forgetting back aspects of games.
Anyway, I don't mind. It's still as good imo as it was back then. Started playing and before I realised it I was at the last level of episode 1 and several hours further.

"Oh wow, I didn't realize all that happened in such a short amount of time. "

One year after quake they released quake 2, several months after that they released unreal 1. Progress back then was happening at lightning speed. Meanwhile, consoles where still in the graphical stoneage.

Dan's fixed his 8 key then! Much rejoicing.

"8 seems a bit generous for me. But I'm always skeptical of retro gaming in all its forms, and Zero Punctuation recently spoke the words of my very mind. "

You think that hitler was right?! 0_o

This game was great back in the day. Wouldn't play it now, though. ;)

One of few games that is still as much fun to play today as it was back then, humour still holds up and art style still looks great as well. Now all I need is Blood and Lucas Arts Outlaws and I'll be one very happy bunny, make it happen Microsoft!

Oh and Doom 2..

If my 360 hadn't died on me last weekend, I would've downloaded this in an instant.

Still a ripoff of Army of Darkness?

kararootoo: "You will notice that nowhere in DN3D will you find one walkable floor above another one."

Well, in the very first level there's a walkway towards the exit, that crosses over the rear entrance to the cinema. There are also several areas in that same level that feature holes blasted in the floor that can be jumped through.

However, if I remember right, it was all a clever trick using teleporting or something, rather than being true 3D. I think John Carmack has plenty to say about it, calling it a fudge or something :D

God this game was shit back in the day...and is still shit.

Retro gaming FTL.

i got it yesterday, its plays much better now than Doom does IMO

Suck it down!!!

Enjoyed the first few levels from the N64 version, but like you said, it degenerates into generic territory fast

Also the N64 version gave me motion sickness, the only game ever to do so....

If I had a working 360 I would buy this, no question, even if I am seeing the game through nostalgia goggles.

I still enjoy bouts of this on the pc - my disc from 1996 somehow still installs properly and everything!

@ Darren

Greece Banned electronic games. Including PC games in 2002. Greek game ban This time it's not actually Microsofts fault because untill they actually repeal the law, its a legal minefield.

@Krun - Ah yes, I do remember reading something about games being banned in Greece a few years back but never really paid much attention to it. Sucks to live in Greece then... but then with the weather you get there, there's less excuse to stay indoors really, which certainly isn't the case here in the UK where it typically rains every other day (usually all day too!).

You will notice that nowhere in DN3D will you find one walkable floor above another one.

Are you absolutely sure? The cinema in the first level has a projection room that's directly above the corridor that leads out of the cinema. There are also numerous moments where you can blow open manholes and drop down into sewer tunnels below, as well as levels where you can swim underneath objects and floors. It may just be an optical illusion, with the map not really using all three dimensions in virtual space, but it's a pretty clever trick if that's the case.

"Oh wow, I didn't realize all that happened in such a short amount of time. "

Xerx3s
"One year after quake they released quake 2, several months after that they released unreal 1. Progress back then was happening at lightning speed. Meanwhile, consoles where still in the graphical stoneage."

Bollocks
the consoles were restricted by low Res TVs. The graphical affects were still good in the consoles early life considering a 3D card was not the norm on the PC. Come to think of it, Apples Amigas and Ataris had custom graphics chips 10 years before they were affordable on the PC.
At the time of the PS1 a Pentium 1 200mhz PC was over £1000 * without* 3D card. Most people I know played Doom and Duke with the inbuilt PC speaker at work FFS. The PC couldn't touch Ridge Racer and Tekken from 1994, not to mention the superior platformers on the PS1.

@frycrayola

You could use flattened sprites to make platforms if you set them to solid

(still has duke 3d level editing guide)

Dan, the game is essentially a flat 2d map, it's true.

It's clever how it's achieved (Doom was the same) in that you think you're above and it's all a complete 3d world. (We used a similar technique in Alien Breed 3D). Quake was fully 3d (as was Alien Breed 3D 2!).

The development of 3d FPS engines raced along after Doom/Duke... with Quake being the first truly 3d one I can recall (someone may like to correct me)

Christ first Wipeout HD and now this jaybus me poor wallet :(

Dan, the game is essentially a flat 2d map, it's true.

See, that's even more impressive to me. Kind of like how I'll always be more impressed with the dinosaurs in the original King Kong than in the 2005 remake.

Damn, I'm looking good!

@canIdoyabombsforya
But you're forgetting Magic Carpet :P Actually you're right. It wasn't until much later that 3D cards became the norm that PC superceded console games, in the graphics department. Turok looked incredibly dazzling and wasn't possible unless you purchased a $300 Voodoo card (more expensive than the N64 console+cart!). It also seems the Dreamcast had the edge over PC titles until the release of Max Payne. There was nothing on the PC in 1999 to rival Soul Calibur or Shenmue. But from DirectX8 onward consoles have lost their edge seemingly permanently, thanks to the rabid PC upgrading cycle that some people advocate.