Duke Nukem Forever Comments by Rob Fahey

I would have loved to played this. They don't make many of these kind of shooters any more. :(

For a moment there, before I clicked on the link to this story, I thought this was going to be an ***ACTUAL*** preview of the near-finished game. Instead it turned out to be an obituary. Ah well.

Would love to see a remake of Duke 3D in a modern day engine

Read this? Could well be true. It gives some answers, like why it took so impossibly long and where the hell 3D Realms got their money from.

Then again, I'm not sure about that very exciting ending. Surely Game Developer Conferences aren't that thrilling in real life?

At the very least they could release an interactive archive of all the builds and assets, similar to MGS2: Document.

The years of efforton 3D Realms' part has to count for something.

Being in my mid-twenties I'm just about remember the whole thing from the start reading about it in PCG to (presumably) what is now the finish.

Jesus it's a long, long time when you think about it like that!

Sad to think that it'll never really appear. As Shinji so rightly said in the artlcle, a whole new generation of gamers won't even know who Duke Nukem is, and even if a new game appeared wrapped around something like the Unreal3 engine, it'd be an impossibly tough sell to all those industry critics and writers just ready and waiting to bare their teeth and sink their fangs into whatever abortionate creation ended up being shat into existence.

I would've actually liked to have played the 2001 versh just for the sheer garish ugliness of it.

I always thought "The Return of Matt Hazard" was more than a close tongue in cheek parody of the whole DNF thing. And that's generated about as much excitement as the next swine flu report, so maybe it's better that Duke Nukem Forever becomes Duke Nukem Never

For a bit of added bonus perspective of how long the whole thing has taken, I still had some hair back in '97 :)

hurhur. duke nukem came out exactly half of my life time ago..

Good riddance.

I have no clue what you guys are on about with the 2001 trailer - to me, it looked awesome then, and it still looks awesome now.

I call BS on this. I bet they'll announce a release date tomorrow, or even release the game tomorrow. That would be just like Broussard.

Toodles.

I really enjoyed Redneck Rampage about the same time as DN if i remember?

Weird, I always thought Rob Fahey was older than me.

shame was looking forward to this

: ( : ( : (

I'll never forget the monsters breaking through that cinema screen. I couldn't believe such technical wizardry was even possible..

Also, DN3D gave me my first unrestricted access to pictures ofboobs. Beautiful, pixilated boobs . .

@ Tingler - That was a mental read! Rather hard to swallow though. It's difficult imagining those people acting like the sodding mafia but still, I'm not sure I'd put it past anyone.

I blame Arsenal Gear.

This has got to be the pinacle of game news, the death of a 12 year vapourware game that so many had looked forward to (me included).

The news has make me chuckle ever since I learnt of it.

I have no sympathy for them over this,no game should have 12 years spent on it and gawd knows how many man hours spent on it.

Utter utter farce of the highest order.

DN3d had the best start to a game ever. If, like me, you hadn't read any documentation & hit start straight away you're just dropped on top of a building & the only exposition is that "those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride"

still generated a huge laugh when playing the XBLA version

@ TheTingler

Haha, incredible.

Duke nukem forever 2001 trailer...

The video that made me dream of the world's most awesome game....

It's a shame that all this hampered Duke from getting a proper sequel, but games like Shadow warrior and Blood filled the gap (in terms of build engine based games with awesome environments to explore)

I remember playing the original back in the day, and had always looked forward to the Duke's return. I guess ultimately incompetence must have killed this game off finally. Either that or the developers just spent all their time gaming. Or maybe they actually just got other jobs, never intended to release this, and pulled the biggest hoax in gaming history!

If managed correctly the Duke Nukem game could've turned into a long running series like Doom or Castle Wolfenstein, possibly even spawning a movie! It could still make a comeback if anyone involved cared enough. But I guess in truth they don't, and as such, why should we care now.

@JensonJet
It spawned a movie, called 'They Live' - it was released back in 1988

Would have been better than Halo ;)

"By today's standards, the video looks positively archaic, and even then - with games like Half-Life having raised the bar significantly for first-person shooters - it didn't look like a huge leap forward."

Nah, the E3 2001 DNF trailer is still one of the most exciting promo clips of an FPS ever. Graphically it's ancient (Unreal engine 1 and all that) but in terms of content it showed scenes everyone wanted to play, even now I'd still like to ride a donkey while blowing a squidmutant head off with a shotgun or slide under a truck with a Harley Davidson. The only other trailer at the time that generated as much excitement (back then) was the WarCraft III one, which was pure CGI and didn't even represent something that came close to actual in-game scenes or gameplay.

"More importantly, if you're much younger than 25 or so, you probably don't remember Duke Nukem at all. Once, DNF could have sold itself on the strength of the brand - now it would face an uphill struggle to convince a whole new generation that this slightly twee self-parodying action hero is actually worth a second glance."

I think the 25+ years old crowd is a big part of the market. I am not saying DNF would have been a most-wanted game like it could have been many years back but a lot of people are still interested in this. Hopefully some other dev can finish it.

I think the 25+ years old crowd is a big part of the market.

It is, of course - but this is where I think DNF falls between two stools. You've got teens who have never heard of it, and a big chunk of older guys who just feel like they've grown out of it. Personally, I've got rose-tinted glasses for Duke, but I'm not sure how much of the rest of the world, outside of the hardcore forums online, would share that view.

The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

Actually, I think this may ultimately be good for Duke fans (I count myself as one). My logic being that the brand may move to another software studio and actually be taken forward.

The risk being they would not be as adept at the sense of humour element that 3DR seem to have got right with D3D.

I think there is still a market for this type of game and in fact the modern world is perhaps more rich in terms of satirical content.

I guess this must be the punishment you get for stealing Bruce Campbell's quotes.

The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

I've seen claims that it was all just tiny chunks of levels and models specifically made for the E3 video, and that none of it was actually running in the game. That's never been confirmed or substantiated, so it didn't seem worth digging it up in this article.

(There are tons of conspiracy theories which circle around DNF - although the one about Tim Sweeney beating people up which is linked earlier in this thread is one of the most amazing ones yet! - but frankly, down that path lies madness, and the most straightforward explanation is still basically that a terribly managed, over-ambitious and uncontrolled project just finally fell off the rails.)

One thing remains; they will forever be remembered as the biggest sack of failure in gaming history.

I just pretend Gears of War IS Duke Nukem.

that chair story thetingler linked is most definitely interesting. but the ending can't be right... can it?

I honestly dont care. Duke had his time back in the day and i lost hope of a game coming out years ago. Move on.

It's too ridiculous to be true, surely.

You'll see as much of Duke Nukem Forever as you will of Shenmue 3. Get over it. 3D Realms digged their grave. I can see someone buying the rights but it will never be the same, of course.

TBH I gave up caring for this ages ago anyway. Hope was rekindled when the new trailer popped up but I still never expected to actually play it.

No duke joins the many great games series who will sadly never see new games. Besides is there anyone not bored to death of bloody FPS's now anyway?

Good riddance.

>Good riddance.

I hope some twat says that about you if you ever get made unemployed.

twat

/Broussard puts on best Jack Nicholson voice:

"I tried didn't I? At least I did that much!"

25+ plus huh.. I turned 25 this year and I remember playing Duke Nukem on the Saturn. I feel so incredibly old :(

The legend surrounding DNF has always been incredibly entertaining and I hope it continues on for many more years! At this point it's probably nothing more than a much loved project, if still in development, but what is so wrong with that? Not everything has to become a commercial product. Lots of people design their own games all the time, companies build up their own projects that never see the light of day. We'll probably never see DNF, but I'm always interested to hear about it's development anyway, because game dev stuff is pretty fascinating on it's own merit, regardless of the end product.

I wouldn't go so far as to calling them a failure. They're just perfectionists ;)

If your company hasn't produced anything in 12 years yet continued to be paid for producing nowt - you'd surely expect to be unemployed at some point.

The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

All the talking bits were scripted for the trailer (but were ready/planned to go in the real game), just like the Worm, but the rest was taken straight out of the game according to Charles Wiederhold (said it on the 3D Realms forum somewhere recently).

But hey, 3D Realms scrapped that incarnation of the game anyway, we're not going to see that 2001 version anymore and I don't even know if a complete transfer to the Doom³/UE3 engine/whatever mutated hybrid Broussard came up with would have been better...

I have actually just cried a little....

Although I don't celebrate the thought of anyone being out of a job, this really is the most fitting end for the whole DNF story.
The game could never have been 12-years-waitings-worth of good, and now it stands as the most visible reminder of what happens when you dont manage a project, and believe your game is 'too big to fail' (or however you want to put it - I guess that phrase is more for the banking sector than the games industry).

To everyone who worked on it - best of luck with the future and I hope you all find new jobs soon.
To 3DRealms as a collective entity - piss off, dont come back, and dont try pulling that shit ever again.

@raion: Guess there might be some truth to that story. I guess he exagerated some things (like the ending, which would make quite a nice scene for a mobstermovie, really) but still it's quite the interesting read. Wonder if anyone is willing to dig deeper into that stuff, even though it's his word against that of the other guys...

I hear 3D Realms handed development of DNF over to God, it'll be ready to play by the time you get to heaven apparently.

I'm stunned and pissed at this news. I only just caught it now.

Maaaaaaaaaan.

:/

Didn't they develop Prey in the meantime?