

Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold - CWIZO
http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=121799

======
corin_
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 =].)

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

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

------
jokermatt999
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.

~~~
PostOnce
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.

~~~
bayleo
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".

------
m_myers
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?...](http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-
bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Hell)

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

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

------
Steer
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?

~~~
PonyGumbo
Or Star Wars.

~~~
hugh3
Or the Obama presidency.

------
rauljara
"...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.

~~~
timdorr
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.

~~~
adrianN
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.

~~~
BoppreH
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.

------
dstein
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.

~~~
oinksoft
> 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.

~~~
dstein
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.

~~~
oinksoft
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.

~~~
dstein
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.

~~~
true_religion
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.

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

~~~
oinksoft
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.

------
k-mcgrady
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!

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

------
singingwolfboy
Still vaporware until I can actually buy it.

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

------
neworbit
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.

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

~~~
hugh3
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)_

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

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

------
agavin
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.

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

~~~
hbrouwer
Or April 1st.

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

~~~
eswat
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.

------
rakkhi
And I just ran out of gum :(

------
ww520
Does anyone know what's the total development cost for the game?

~~~
megablast
Yes

~~~
ww520
Care to share the figure?

~~~
Eliezer
No

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

~~~
stonemetal
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.

------
pshapiro
Yeah, right!

------
cjoh
Bundled with TextMate 2?

~~~
martinp
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.

------
bonch
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!

------
superted
So, does this mean hell has frozen over?

------
mcorrientes
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.

