Duke Nukem PR firm says bad reviews = no more reviews

[atarian63]

I can't help but feel so far that DNF might as well be on rails.

Personally I like rail shooters. Might buy it.

[Mendon]

I'm still having a blast with the game, even though I was lost as hell inside the hive for quite some time.

 

But the game is not without fault, and while playing I wonder why Gearbox made some of the "modern upgrades" to the game they did:

 

Why the decision to only carry two weapons?

Why the decision to have have a typical CoD type melee attack rather than Dukes deadly kick?

Why the regenerating Ego bar rather than health packs and atomic health?

Why no keycards, a Duke tradition?

 

I find some of the jokes hilarious (the tribute to Leroy Jenkins as an example) but at times the writers seem to have taken the "Good Time Macho Guy" Duke I knew from previous titles and turned him into something else entirely. At times it feels like I'm playing a Duke 3D type game with the usual Duke wisecracks and other times I'm not sure what the hell I'm playing or who the hell this foul mouthed pervert is.

 

I still don't regret my purchase but I have to agree with others that this isn't the same Duke I used to know.

 

 

Mendon

[Hyper_Eye]

Why the regenerating Ego bar rather than health packs and atomic health?

 

I found it quite ironic when you are offered the Master Chief's armor and Duke says, "Power armor is for pussies." His ego bar acts exactly like that armor but without the nifty recharge sound effect. And during loads (which I was really sick of by the end of the game) it sometimes says "Treat your ego meter like armor" and something about getting behind cover to recharge. I do like the added touch of ego boosting through interaction. At least it gives you a way to become permanently stronger.

[A_Locomotive]

I tried the demo of this on steam earlier and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it was in no way revolutionary and won't likely make any sort of impact on the gaming industry but it was good classic duke fun, I'm almost ashamed to admit this but I enjoyed painting the walls with poop in the bathroom. A bit clumsy and it feels very dated but so what? As everyone on this forum most certainly knows a game doesn't need to be new ultra slick and revolutionary to be fun. I still don't feel its worth full price and will be waiting for a significant price drop but I'm definitely buying it.

[moycon]

Played through this game for about an hour yesterday at Battle & Brew.

I didn't think it was the greatest game ever, but at the same time was having fun for what it was.

I think it's a game people are either going to love simply because it's Duke even with it short comings or they are going to hate because of it's short comings.

 

I agree with Hyper_Eye in that I like the interaction permanent ego boosts. Like bench pressing 600 pounds.

Playing that Duke pinball machine was pretty crappy though. Pinball FX might have spoiled me!

[n8littlefield]

Played the demo last night. I actually really enjoyed it, but the 2 weapon thing did bug me. It's a Duke game, I just want to run and gun and not have to think about the best item for the job. I was impressed by the enemy animations and the overall feel of the game was better than I expected.

 

I'm kind of surprised that it seems to be somewhere between mediocre and good, but reviews made it sound like buying it would cause all the puppies in your neighborhood to burst into flames it was so bad.

[Hyper_Eye]

Played the demo last night. I actually really enjoyed it, but the 2 weapon thing did bug me. It's a Duke game, I just want to run and gun and not have to think about the best item for the job. I was impressed by the enemy animations and the overall feel of the game was better than I expected.

 

I'm kind of surprised that it seems to be somewhere between mediocre and good, but reviews made it sound like buying it would cause all the puppies in your neighborhood to burst into flames it was so bad.

 

I really didn't find the demo to be representative of the game as a whole. They took the initial action packed boss fight and some action that occurs much later in the game and stuck them together. The game has a lot of parts that are really really boring. That is the major factor that drags the score down from mediocre to bad. That and the huge number of glitches which people claim to not see any of which I find astounding because there are so many. They aren't even all graphical glitches. There were a lot of bugs related to interaction with the environment as I stated earlier in the thread. Those issues get annoying when you are playing a game from a top-tier developer. Those things don't come out in the demo. As I said before, the second half of the game was decent and it wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish it. I probably was one of the first people here to finish it. But I was still excited for the game after playing the demo even with the 2 gun limitation. Play the actual game and then decide what you think. I'm not implying that your opinion will go any particular way, just that the demo doesn't tell the whole story.

[Mendon]

Playing that Duke pinball machine was pretty crappy though. Pinball FX might have spoiled me!

 

Wait until you try Air Hockey

 

 

Mendon

[Video]

Air hockey? Wow, that kind of sucked. At least they knew it controlled bad and gave the AI a rather crap program.

 

I thought the whack a mole knock off was kind of cool, though not "right stick look" friendly.

 

Honestly, I've played a lot of the game, still haven't beaten it, but I figure I' a bit over half way though (I think someone mentioned the night club being the half way point) but I got to say...take the game for what it is, the next in line game for the Duke Nukem series that was supposed to release 10+ years ago, and it's a decent, even great game.

 

Compare it to the homages to it, like Serious sam, and Bullet storm and the like, it easily holds it's own. But when you compare it to main stream modern high end games like Halo or Call of Duty, then yeah, it's a little lack luster.

 

The graphics are fuggly, some literally look like early PS2 textures. The character animations are amazing compared to the old 2D enemies of earlier games, but compared to most modern games, they're kind of stiff (think Morrowind) and the glitches and especially slowdown are a problem, not as huge as some make it out to be, but it could have easily been polished. Like the boss fights, especially the alien queen in the duke dome, major slow down and glitchy graphic when you start firing rockets.

 

Over all though, hey, I like it. With any luck, there will be more Duke games, getting this out of the way finally makes room for more. I see myself playing this a few times. It's got dukes crude sense of humor and everything, it's honestly pretty funny.

 

I think a lot of people forgot they played duke nukem as teens and this may not appeal to a 30something as much as a teen. I just wonder if the original duke 3D had never been released, and that game just got released, how many of those 30 something's would say it sucked too?

[Mendon]

Don't disagree with you at all, Video! The game has faults... and what game doesn't..... but its still a blast to play.

 

Check out THIS PAGE for a video of Randy Pitchford and friends playing 4 vs 4 Death Match. I have yet to try multi-player but it looks like just "plain old time fun"!

 

 

Mendon

[moycon]

but its still a blast to play.

 

Agreed.

The main complaint I might have is with the initial cost.

A game started 12 years ago, and barely enhanced unless you consider the option to only carry 2 weapons and an automatically refilling life bar an enhancement should have been a $39.99 game at launch.

The B.O.S edition maybe... $59.99.

I think they screwed themselves asking for more.

I can pick up 2 dozen 5 year old games that are just as much a blast to play for under $10 each is why I say that.