After waiting 15 years, we get our hands on the first 90 minutes (or so) of Duke Nukem Forever.
You heard right, guys. Duke Nukem Forever isn't just a running gag about a game that will never come out. Not anymore. It was confirmed last year that Borderlands developer Gearbox Software had acquired the rights to complete work on this long-awaited first-person shooter. While this may not seem like the most obvious choice of studios, it turns out that Gearbox frontman Randy Pitchford, and several of Gearbox's founding members, got their start at 3D Realms many years ago working on the original Duke Nukem 3D from 1996. And now, in 2011, we've played through the first part of the game and have much to report. Please be advised that this story covers the first 90 minutes or so of gameplay and may contain minor spoilers and some descriptions of sexually explicit scenes.
Our play session started soon after we selected one of three difficulty levels: piece of cake (easy), let's rock (normal), and come get some (hard). We started a new session on normal difficulty and ran through the same content we covered in the PAX 2010 demo last year. This was the same introduction, with Duke starting a new adventure by standing squarely in front of a urinal, relieving himself (if you're wondering, in the Xbox 360 version, you press the right trigger button to pee), then meeting up with Earth security forces being attacked by aliens, picking up the multi-rocket-launching devastator weapon, and reliving the football field boss battle from the original Duke Nukem 3D. After the battle ended, the scene cut to a close-up shot of a video game controller being held by Duke himself. It was then revealed that he had actually been playing his own licensed video game (which had also, coincidentally, been in development for 12 years). Oh yeah, and while he had been playing, he was apparently being orally pleasured by twin giggling pop stars dressed as schoolgirls. So…there was that.
After finishing the game, Duke did some channel surfing, revealing both the music video for his twin girlfriends' new hit single, as well as an ad for his upcoming late-night talk show appearance on Damn, It's Late! with Johnny O'Lenoman. Saving the earth all those years ago made the cigar-chomping tough guy a celebrity. And now, he has turned his international fame into a multimillion-dollar empire and has appeared both in his own award-winning motion picture and in a glitzy Las Vegas musical revue in his own casino, the Lady Killer. Which is where he now takes up residence. In the penthouse suite, of course. As a matter of fact, everything would be perfect for him if it weren't for those pesky aliens, who have returned to Earth but claim they come in peace this time. Worse yet, the president seems to have fallen for the aliens' ruse, but the Duke, well, he ain't buying what they're selling. (And he later finds out that the aliens haven't changed a bit and that they have once again returned to Earth…to steal our chicks.)
In this early part of the game, we took Duke on a leisurely stroll through his own fabulous digs, exploring both the late-night TV studio and the casino. Over the course of this early game, we augmented our mighty hero's already-colossal ego. No, seriously, that's what your health bar is called in this game--"ego." The ego meter works a lot like the replenishing health you've seen in modern shooters like Halo and Call of Duty--if you take a hit but can get to cover, your meter will eventually refill itself.
You can permanently increase your maximum ego level by defeating boss monsters, and temporarily increase it by doing "Duke-like" things, such as hitting the rec room and pumping some iron or working the heavy bag; by giving some snot-nosed kid your autograph; by admiring yourself in the mirror; or by putting some jerk TV producer in his place by knocking him out cold. In this part of the game, we also got the chance to experience nostalgia in the form of various exhibits built to sing the praises of the character and his previous adventures, from an art museum that features screenshots from the original DOS side-scrolling Duke Nukem games, to an exhibit with bronzed versions of aliens and weapons from the 1996 game, to a behind-velvet-ropes throne where some kid waited for the coin-operated camera to snap a nostalgia photo.
After obliging the adoring fan, we hopped onto the throne ourselves, and it descended to our high-tech secret mission room, the Duke Cave. (Yeah, that's really what it's called.) Our hero arrived to find that the president, and the general of the US Army, were teleconferencing stringent orders that he not show any kind of hostility toward the aliens, despite the fact that they were currently all suspiciously congregating outside Las Vegas' most successful restaurant, Duke Burger, and despite the fact that power had been cutting out throughout the casino, and despite the fact that we had already observed aliens climbing the walls and sneaking through the guts of the building.
After listening to the speech, we'd had all we could stand and headed out of the control room to blow off some steam, only to find aliens in the rec room doing curls and reps with our equipment. We couldn't stand for that and immediately put up our fists and punched the aliens' lights out. Fortunately, we discovered a cache of our secret weapon: beer. Beer temporarily makes you "tougher" (a handy benefit when you're up against pulse-rifle-wielding aliens armed only with your fists), at the minor cost of making your view blurry. Beer is one of Duke's regular items, which can, in the console versions, be accessed with a press of the controller D pad.
Anyone notice that in the vid he says duke nukem forever will be released may 3rd, but it says on this site june 10th? Am I the only one noticing a pattern here? I just hope they were wrong, and we will finally see this game released. It has been a very long wait and I dunno about any of you guys, but I cannot wait to see this game in all its glory
does anybody know when the duke nukem forever beta is coming out for the first access club?
I have been hearing about this game for the past 15 years... HAHAH its just another April fools joke right? (most of you need to pay attention.. this game was not being developed for 15 years straight it but rather it passed from failed company to failed company)
I have been hearing about this game for the past 15 years... HAHAH its just another April fools joke right? (most of you need to pay attention.. this game was not being developed for 15 years straight it but rather it passed from failed company to failed company)
Just bare in mind that the game did ot spend all these years in developement for the same company it depends on when they started, still i believe gearbox will get this game right but dont blame them as they started the game few years ago.
well after 15 years of work I expect 10k hours of game play, good luck hehe just kidding :P
"Before we blacked out, Duke gave one last gesture of defiance (and we'll give you a hint: he wasn't pointing at anything)." +1 (and not the one pointing at any anything)
@arab-man666 so,why is it a bad thing? personally,im sick of same-type-style-gunfight shooters,where the main character has an ego or charisma of a stone,or a brick wall. we need some fresh "old" blood,and i think that Duke fits perfectly. as far as the AI and the looks go, lets wait until the game is out...you can't judge the finished game graphics by a hype trailer. well,you can ,but it's Duke Nukem... :)
As good as they make this seem, it looks like a left-over remnant from generation-X, when people were saying things like "Radical Dude" and the Ninja turtles were king. Times have changed- and the game it self doesn't look that good. I know I'm going to get thumbs down, but I just have to say it like it is. As much as I loved Duke, punching and alien in the crotch is dead. This era in society is dead. And to top it off, the AI and game looks unpolished. So as I said, thumb me down *braces*
Balls of steel edition will be my first collectors edition game. You get a bust of the duke!
Gearbox's Borderlands was awesome to me for that old-skool feel to everything about it. Thanks Gamespot for telling us what happened to the original fore-fathers of Duke, it makes a lot of sense now where Borderlands fell out of... with that in mind, Duke Nukem Forever can only be a million kinds of awesome!
I will buy this. Can't wait. But to put its development time in perspective: When this was announced I was in middle school. Now I'm getting married.
@endouken the game isn't censored(only trailers and some prewievs),you will see boobs and boobs and alot more boobs as real (and naked) as they come :)
I like his view on the puzzle and exploration element and its a good point about this element going backwards in gaming. I've played some fantastic shooters over the last couple of years but "tapping A" or solving simple mini game to find a solution without a gun is becoming a bit to frequent.
i dont care what people think but it better have long single player story and lots of wepons with lots of things to do if not then what the hell those 15 or 14 years were spent on.
As much as i wanna play this, i have a hard time thinking new comers are gonna be like "dude have you heard of Duke Nuken Forever?" Which saddens me because i dont want this to be the last Duke.
@TheFreeloader this is gonna be a long one :) obviusly you dont know a thing about DNF develpment history, well last 2 years alteast. here is a blog of T.Issac ,former art director at 3DR ,so feel free to read a little inside info about DNF. http://talkinrealatyou.blogspot.com/ He claims , not only him,but alot of former staff,and even R.Pitchford himself said it couple times in interwievs and i dont have any reason to not believe him, that by the shutdown and lawsuit ,DNF was 85% finished ,Tryptich Games (ex 3DR guys) finished the PC version =95% ,the last 5% is for optimizing,polishing ,MP and console ports. the game is DONE. an for those motherfu**ers from T2 ,the didnt want to close the studio ,or kill the Duke ,the wanted to thake Duke IP from 3dr who was running out of funding. 3DR invested their 20mil.$ into the game ,and they needed 4-5 mil. to finish it ,T2 said ,we can give half now,half after release ,witch was not acceptable. and then they filled a lawsuit ,and demanded that 3DR gives them all the assets ,DNF source code, all stuff related to DNF .... and they lost :D there's more ,but im tired of typing. get your facts right.
its taken longer for DNF to come out then it took me to get through high school. And ive been out of high school for eight years!
"There are minigames, puzzles, boss fights, and plenty of interactive environment objects to mess with, and we were assured that we missed out on several of the early game's Easter eggs." Bout time we get something other than a linear "Go there, shoot him" type of campaign. Looking forward to this.
this game better be worth it..I have seen gameplay of this game in the toyko game show 2011 of Duke Nukeum and it does look good
i said my opinion about this game.so ,you shouldn`t sad. in my mind duke is`nt a wonder full game.it is just my opinion.no more. you should be Possible criticism
this looks soooo good, im soo hyped for this game to come out, finally a real shooteer that isnt all about mp but is about just plain amazing graphics, awesome guns, funny story with seriousness and blodd and just plain freaking awesome shooting. this will return fps games to what they were shooting
LOL this game sounds so awesome' Gear Box will do Duke justice . This game is shaping up to be the one we all have been waiting for.This game can't get here for me fast enough. Hold right trigger to pee classic DUKE lol.
This works for me, just hope the game will be long and well designed by release date. This should be fun!
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