Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold | Hacker News Reader

Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold

gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com

231 pointsCWIZO84 comments

Despite working largely in the games industry I don't generally get excited by new game releases - other than Portal 2 which I massively enjoyed, I haven't really played any single player games in the last 6+ years.

But DNF does look like it's going to be really good, and I'm actually looking forward to play through it. The 2k (publishers) guys were at Gadget Show Live (a 100,000+ consumer event in the UK that I'm involved with), and spent quite a bit of time talking about the game there, as well as trying out the demo. (They claim that a colleague of mine and I were the first people not related to the developement to play it in the UK, which I'm slightly proud of).

It's obvious the amount of passion that's gone into the game, and it's obvious how hard they've tried not to let down the fans who have been waiting for so long. And, most importantly, it's obvious that they weren't afraid of making a FUN fps title, not a game that does it's best to make you think you're in a real-life situation.

Really hope it's as commercially successful as it deserves to be, and as I think it will be.

edit: To give an idea of how it will live up to people's hopes, here is a picture of Paul (my colleague mentioned above) http://lockerz.com/s/91561838 playing the game. He's 39 and doesn't have a huge amount of time for playing games now days. He was at E3 in 1999 (was it 98?) when they first demo'd DNF, and has been waiting since then - when I told him he could play it at Gadget Show Live, he was like a kid on Christmas morning. And he absolutely loved it, was blown away by how much fun it was. (Side note, if anyone reading this went to the event, you might recognise Paul as being the presenter from the main stage in the Game Zone hall =].)

Paul doesn't look very enthusiastic in that picture :)

Trust me, that's his "how the hell do I kill this fucking thing?" face, not his unenthusiastic face!

To give a sense of scale to the development time, the list of things that have taken less time than Duke Nukem Forever: http://duke.a-13.net/

This includes the space race, from initial challenge to actually landing on the moon.

This is my favorite from the list of things that happened since DNF was announced:

The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity were proposed, authorized, announced, designed, launched and successfully landed upon Mars where they have been exploring the surface for over 2.5 years.

That's a fantastic one. I like this one in the "things which have taken less time" list:

>The United States' entire program to put a man on the moon, from Kennedy's challenge to the landing.

Last Edit: 5/06/09

So, it's even worse than that list implies.

Off the top of my head, two additional games in the main Final Fantasy series have been released, as well as The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, the Nintendo 3DS was released, it goes on and on.

http://blog.xkcd.com/2009/05/07/duke-nukem-forever/

Check the bottom of the page for the list of "Things that happened since the List of Things That Have Happened Since Duke Nukem Forever Was Announced was written".

For anyone else that was about to go check: Partly cloudy today with a 10% chance of precipitation tonight, no frost expected. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?...

Hm, I'd expect that given Hell to freeze over pretty regularly.

Climate change.

I wonder if the target date for this was originally Saturday ;-)

It's not on the shelves yet though.

Well, we are post-rapture at this point. The world is ending, so DNF is getting released. Hell freezing over isn't required any more.

so, does it come with a free copy of Textmate 2, or do I have to buy that separate?

Isn't this a bit like Chinese Democracy by Guns 'n' Roses? Meaning that all that time and money invested have raised the expectations to levels than can never be satisfied?

For a lot of us, just shipping the damn thing is satisfaction enough.

Not at all! The game is going to be released across 14 DVDs[1], how could it not be great?

[1] http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation... (warning: nsfw audio)

On a more serious note, the Chinese Democracy effect would apply if it were still under development by 3D Realms. Gearbox has turned out a lot of great titles so I have faith in them that they'll make this a good game. I don't know what to expect from it, but they do know that Duke was all about fun(especially since he was a parody to begin with). I'm not expecting the game to redefine first person shooters but I think it'll finally shake off the notion of it being vaporware. Hopefully no other well-deserving franchise gets this kind of treatment again.

Or Star Wars.

Or the Obama presidency.

"...they finally assembled the pieces to create an incredible, epic and cohesive gameplay experience."

Most game manufacturers don't tout cohesive as a feature... it's supposed to be a given. I hope I'm wrong, but given what I know about the development of DNF, I can't help but suspect that the reason they are mentioning it so loudly is because it isn't.

Hm. Did they pack all the work/code of the last years together or did they start from scratch and just use the "Duke Nukem" name?

That would be somewhat ironic considering that starting over so many times is supposedly why DNF never got released in the first place...

They used the content. DNF's last project manager when it was still with 3dRealms said something along the lines of:

"these guys have made about six or seven games over the past few years but have never got round to releasing any of them."

He basically just found a ton of fun products that were just a little ways off completion.

The final 6 million they asked for (and didn't get) was to release the last game they had "made". Considering Gearbox's timeframe I would expect they've taken the last game and polished it. I.E. done what 3dRealms would have done with that 6 million.

"done what 3dRealms would have done with that 6 million."

What 3D Realms claimed, and would have liked Take-Two to believe, that they would have done. Something they claimed they were on the verge of achieving for a decade, and which never came to fruition. What makes you believe they would have accomplished in that final year what they had failed to accomplish for the past decade? What makes you believe they would not simply have started over again?

I find it questionable that 3D Realms would ever have released DNF on their own. I think they would have burned through that money and still not have had a finalized product to show for it, as they seem to have been doing for quite a while, which is probably why the publisher declined to give them the money.

Ah I apologise, it was Van Lierop (creative director) who stated how close these games were to completion. It was the new Project Manager Brian Hook who was steering the game toward completion when they ran out of money. I say "steering toward completion" because he was actually standing up to Broussard to promote the concept of releasing over perfecting.

The source is here:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/

The stuff I'm referencing is on the fourth page.

Given how many companies have worked on the game and the engine changes and just the sheer amount of turnover in that 15 year time frame, I think they need to point this out. When you start with one set of people making the game and end with another set (along with a constantly cycling number of folks in between), I would seriously worry about the continuity in the game. But this is Gearbox, so I think they can pull it off.

I got the feeling that the game was remade from scratch multiple times only a little of the main plot surviving each remake.

I believe the only thing that survived each remake is probably the strippers.

I think it would be funny if they would switch engines as the game progresses. You start out as a blocky blob and finish with smooth photorealistic 3D.

There's flash a game that does it, but you have to buy the progressive upgrades with in-game money: http://armorgames.com/play/3955/upgrade-complete

Except it doesn't end at anything near photorealistic.

I would have much preferred a lackluster sequel 14 years ago than an amazing game today. I no longer own a Windows PC, play first person shooters, or use a mouse.

It will be available on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, in addition to the PC.

> I no longer own a Windows PC, play first person shooters, or use a mouse.

What point are you trying to make? FPS are still massively popular, and there's no doubting that many who were small children 14 years ago have taken your place, owning Windows PCs, playing FPS, and using mice.

I think his point was that he, personally, would have liked to play it :)

My point was this is being released far too late for me to care. I was anxious about a sequel in the late 90's. But now it's been so long that I no longer use the technology or this type of entertainment anymore.

So you're making a comment to say that you no longer care for FPS...I don't quite get it. That's like saying the release of Starcraft 2 was a waste because some SC1/BW players got tired of RTS, or gaming in general.

No. He's saying he won't play it. Nowhere did he mention anything about other people or that the game as a whole is a waste.

Sigh. I didn't say the game was a waste of time, or that FPS games or dead, or anything like that.

If you're going to be pedantic, at least try to interpret an opinion literally.

I may not agree with it, but the heart of his criticism is (harshly put) that you're polluting HN with your opinion because it isn't valid past you, nor does it reveal anything deeper about the subject at hand.

He can correct me if I'm putting words into his mouth.

See, you're doing it too. You're putting words in people's mouth and arguing against a position that was never made.

However, what he said is spot-on. I am looking for some discernible "point" in the hope that the comment is not just the arbitrary expression of an individual's taste, which it now clearly is.

What point are you trying to make?

That generally, a large market for a sequel (of any kind of media) is people who enjoyed the first one. And that they have left it a bit late in this case. A sequel to a popular teen rom-com movie would lose a lot of impact if it came 14 years late.

You don't use mice anymore?

Geez, you're either living in Emacs, or playing with fart apps all day.

I excusively use touchpads now. Even at a desk I use an external Apple touchpad synced with my laptop.

It's possible to play FPSes with touchpads, though probably not good for your hands and definitely not as easy as using a mouse. Using Caps Lock to shoot instead of right-click helps.

you're either living in Emacs, or playing with fart apps all day.

You've just given me a great idea for a new emacs extension.

I live in Emacs and play PC games. I didn't know they were mutually exclusive.

I don't use a mouse either.

Not since I discovered trackballs are the way to go.

I get you, but politely disagree. I would prefer an amazing game fourteen years late to any number of mediocre games in the interim. There's been no shortage of lackluster games that could have filled the void for me as a gamer.

I remember playing Duke Nukem on my N64 when I was only 8/9 years old. I'm not a big gamer but it was one of the most fun games I ever played. I can't wait to get this. I'll be installing Windows 7 on my Mac just to play it.

Hopefully it's been worth the wait!

One of the longest running gags in software industry is finally coming to an end?

Still vaporware until I can actually buy it.

Oh, you can buy it alright. So could you with the previous version.

I'm going to need a new vaporware joke now! This one has served me since the dot com bubble days.

Seriously, this looks great. I am afraid I am no longer the target audience but I'll probably try it for nostalgia's sake. I have the strangest feeling that - like rewatching Star Blazers now that I'm not ten - it's not going to hold up that well, but if anyone can do it right, it's Gearbox.

Half Life [episode] 3 is your new vaporware joke.

It's got a long way to go to catch up, though.

Duke Nukem Forever was in development before Half Life 1 came out. I'm going to miss not having it. It's like finding out that Samuel Beckett has written a sequel to Waiting for Godot. It just kinda spoils the whole thing.

ACT 1, Scene I

(Enter Vladimir, Estragon, Godot)

Textmate 2?

Wow, maybe that Camping guy was right, the world is ending!

I believe this is one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Haha. I remember joking about the name of this game at the Naughty Dog offices when it was like 3 years late -- I swear it was in the 90s! Perhaps during the development of Crash Bandicoot Warped. Never ever pick a title with the word "forever" in it.

They should have announced this on 21st of May :)

Or April 1st.

did they use any code from 3D realms in the end?

It would have been another 3 years in the making if they hadn't.

I believe—when Gearbox first announced they were working on DNF at PAX last year—that they were largely just finishing and polishing up what 3D Realms had worked on.

Yes. I can't really talk about it, but, yes.

And I just ran out of gum :(

Does anyone know what's the total development cost for the game?

Yes

Care to share the figure?

is this once instance where they finally switch from "aiming for perfect" to "done is better than perfect"?

No, I think this game has probably had more effort put into it (and I'm not talking about the work that had to be redone because of delays etc), with a bigger focus on perfection.

They know that they have to live up to such a huge expectation, and they're aiming to do that and more. And I think the will.

More like "aiming for perfect" went out of business. Someone else bought it at the liquidation sale and fixed it up for release. So no, no one learned their lesson and decided to ship.

But "done as perfectly as realistically doable" is still better. Rockstar Games (ever since GTA4) comes to mind...

From my experience with borderlands (another gearbox game featuring save file corruption, missing items, and general mission brokenness), I'd guess that "aiming for perfect" isn't their thing. Perhaps they were the perfect company to finally ship DNF.

Yeah, right!

Bundled with TextMate 2?

Seeing as Wine has reached version 1.0 and DNF has gone gold, anything could happen. Next thing you know, GNU Hurd stable will be released.

I remember posting on the 3D Realms forums in the 90s and thinking it was so cool that the developers posted there too, and I could converse with them!

So, does this mean hell has frozen over?

Too bad gearbox took over it, would have been better if 3D Realms could finish the game.

It's also disappointing they didn't accomplished a stunning graphic after more than 12 years of development.

Regardless of the graphic it's almost the only game of his kind and I still expecting a good gameplay with many jokes.

Hail to the king baby.

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