Duke Nukem Forever Preview

Last PAX - PAX Prime if you will - I posted about the imminent release of Duke Nukem Forever. You may not have believed then but surely you must believe it now - it comes out May 3rd... OF THIS YEAR! At PAX Prime everyone there had the opportunity to play the demo of Duke Nukem Forever and all attendees of PAX East 2011 had that same opportunity. At some point I made a joke to myself that my next post on this blog was going to be a post about playing Duke Nukem (because I obviously have not been concentrated on this blog at all) so here it is.

After waiting on line for almost two hours I finally wrapped my hand around the controller.


I selected the medium difficulty because I didn't want to appear to be a chicken to all of those watching me play. I inverted the Y-axis and began to play.

The demo starts where I imagine the beginning of the game is: with rock music and no explanation of what's going on. You run around a football stadium trying to kill a giant alien. The gun you pick up is a missile launcher of sorts (I don't remember the name) and you are given 69 rounds (giggle). It takes little effort to take down this big sonofabitch, ammo being dropped as needed, and eventually you kick a field goal with what looks like the aliens giant tonsil. The screen pulls back and you are Duke playing Duke. How meta.

If you do not already know the dialogue I'm not going to spoil it for you here but let's just say it is very... Duke.

The next part of the demo seems to fast forward in the game a little bit as you are now driving Duke's truck. The controls of that, to me, felt a little wonky but eventually (after two deaths by giant rock) I persevered. The truck runs out of gas you shoot a few pig cops and then are assaulted by a spaceship. Conveniently there is an RPG under the shelter that you take and after a few salvos of missiles the ship disintegrates. Not going to lie, it would have been cooler had it crashed into the ground.

I then took a trip into a cave that I didn't have time to figure out how to get out of. My demo time was up.

The demo seemed like an old build and was a tad bit laggy at times but I'll wait until the final product to reserve judgement.

It may sound like I didn't totally love it but I assure you I did. It was Duke Nukem - prettified. I think it will be worth the wait but I also think that I won't do anything new for shooters.

I also neglected to mention that my wife was standing next to me as I played and grimaced when I shrunk a pig cop and stepped on it. That made my day.

Duke Nukem Forever

If you are like me you could not count yourself lucky enough to attend PAX Prime this year. While PAX is not ordinarily known for its megaton news announcements, PAX attendees this year got one of the biggest megatons out there - Duke Nukem Forever still exists.

... and it was playable.

Feel like kickin' ass and chewin' gum? The fine folks at Gearbox are going to make that a possibility They've purchased the IP and it is coming in 2011. Who knows, we might even see a demo.

I grew up on Duke Nukem 3D but I never was that excited about the prospect of a new Duke game. Perhaps it was because in my gut I knew that it might never come out or perhaps it was because I had already seen what happens to sequels of games that I played when I was younger (Quake, Wolfenstein, DOOM). Return to Castle Wolfenstein may have been the exception but nothing from these series was ever stellar after their original incarnations.

Maybe even Duke Nukem Forever won't be that great but at the very least I know it will be great for some mindless fun. I am excited to play with the shrink gun again and put some remote laser mines all over the wall.

Come here piggy, I have the bottom of a boot I would like to show you.

Game Diary - May 12, 2009: Pegs Part Duex

When I have been playing on the 360 I have been giving my attention primarily to COD4 on Veteran. I have most recently completed 'The Shot' achievement which for those who do not know involves waiting an extremely long period of time for a helicopter while and endless wave of hostiles would like nothing more than to shoot you to pieces try to do just that. After the helicopter actually comes you have to fight your way across the field in order to pick up your partner who got injured earlier in the mission and then carry him to the helicopter. It sucks and it was pretty hard. I am impressed with myself for completing it and today I will further my progress through another level that seems like it will never end. It is another level where you have to fight your way down a ridge in order to get to another helicopter while another boat load of guys that would love nothing more than to shoot you limb from limb, again, try to do just that. You are timed once again and you only have a limited number of "Close Air strike" that you can use. That one should take most if not all of whatever playtime I have today so I won't being playing much of anything else today or so it would seem.

Peggle for iPhone came out today and anyone in their right mind would not buy the same game for two different platforms, right? Wrong. I purchased it or Cindy's (my wife) iTunes gift card purchased it for me and I have been playing it on and off all morning. It eats my battery though so I'll have to watch myself if I plan on using my phone as a phone.

In terms of news that I have wanted to post about there has not been much other than this Modern Warfare 2 video that teases another MW2 video or this Duke Nukem Forever video that just makes me more sad that the game probably will never come out. That is all I have for you today. So sorry I know that you expect more from me.

3D Realms Shutters Doors, Economy Touches My Childhood (I Feel Violated)

This is probably a news story that most PC gamers, my age (24) or older, will find disheartening. I am not sure that it really affects the console generation but if this news hurts you in some way then we are all in the same boat.

The developer 3D Realms has announced that they are shutting its doors citing financial reasons.

While it is sad to see any developer this one touches my childhood. The game that I loved and the one that they were always most famous for was Duke Nukem 3D. It was the game I was all about after I had exhausted all of Wolfenstein 3D, a game that 3D Realms published. Over the past twelve years or so they had become the black sheep of game developers touting Duke Nukem Forever since 1997 as their next big thing. Now it looks like a strong possibility that we may never see this game and even if we do will it have been the developers original vision. Many have called Duke Nukem Forever "vaporware" and as of yesterday evening it is looking to be true.

There are no other reports other than 3D Realms are shutting their doors because of financial reasons. Great job economy (looking for a scapegoat here, sorry) you managed to come out and touch my formative years. I am feeling violated.

The lighter side of this news is that a Duke Nukem Trilogy is still coming from Apogee and Deep Silver.

Let's pour one out for all of the people who lost their jobs and wish them a speedy recovery.


[Ed note: Last night after reading this news at one in the morning the 3D Realms site was still up and running and as of right now I personally cannot get the page to respond.]