Hail to the king baby!

[Oni no Ted]

http://bobshouseofvideogames.com/2010/09/03/funny-video-game-photos-thats-right-people-the-rumors-are-true/

2011! 

[D]

And you believed it.  Thats so touching Ted.   

Yeah I know they say they're going to do it.  But it just isn't right.  First SCII.  Now DN:Forever.  It's like someone went out to Silicon Valley and showed them a work ethic.

[Oni no Ted]

If 3d Realms said they were doing it, I'd call BS.

DNF is being released by Gearbox... they actually have their act together

[D]

Wired describes the nearly manic attitude of Randy Pitchford at PAX, showing the game off to the press and public:

"You cannot kill Duke. You cannot kill Duke!" shouted Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford to a group of gamers that had waited in line Friday at Take Two's PAX booth to see the game. Pitchford, a former employee of 3D Realms, was wearing the Duke shirt the company gave him in 1996.

"I couldn't let Duke go, either," he said.... "Upload that sh*t to Facebook!" said Pitchford before playing the game's new trailer at PAX. "Steal a thousand screenshots—I don't give a f*ck."


In the immortal words of Slappy the Squirrel, "Now that's comedy."

[Dr. Steed]

I'll believe it when the disc is spinning in my machine and the game is on-screen responding to control input. And maybe not even then.

DNF review: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1968-Viewers-Choice-Duke-Nukem-Forever

I have to agree (as I usually do, even when he rips games I like) with Yahtzee: if it doesn't come on 12 DVDs or otherwise finds a way to justify being over a decade late, I'm going to be irritated.

[Dr. Steed]

Demo session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-97N6jNKb4

Notes: NSFW, actual gameplay starts around 2:40 and runs intermittently throughout the video.

Thoughts: The physics look about right and the graphics appear solid, except the facial animations but nobody's ever done muscular-skeletal facial animations without falling into the uncanny valley. Music is what it should be - metal. Seems the Duke is still the Duke; "Hail to the king, baby!" attitude's about right. Interactivity is amusing (such as "kick field goal"); it'd be nice if the release version has choices as to what you can do with the interactivity at various points. It might be interesting if they do that, and have your choices affect how the game unfolds, so long as it's NOT A MORAL CHOICE SYSTEM. If not, there's some replay value in having different ways to be a jackass so long as they stick to the Duke formula. Word has it that everything in the environment is destructible, which is good; that tech's been around since the first Red Faction and it wouldn't be appropriate to have a Duke game without it.

Now, a modern Duke Nukem game should be at *least* Rated M (but preferably AO) for content because the franchise is meant to be over-the-top and pushing towards offensive (remember: the last installment had strippers 8 YEARS before GTA's 'hot coffee' debacle). Somehow I doubt it will be, though; dollars to doughnuts they'll water it down for release. No way they leave in content like the last minute or two of the vid, regardless of how appropriate for the Duke it is. I'm calling my shot now; it'll get scrubbed to Rated T, *maybe* M for gore-factor. I'd love to be wrong, but history has shown I tend to be spot-on about these things.

In any event, I'm sticking with my original opinion:

I'll believe it when the disc is spinning in my machine and the game is on-screen responding to control input. And maybe not even then.