The king is dead.
12 or more years in development is a hell of a thing to live up to. Alot of people might think that is a good thing, after-all the more time you spend on something the better it should be right?
I don't see it that way, I just see problems with that. Technology changes so fast that anything you do becomes technically obsolete within two years. Anything you have made 5 years ago is worhtless today.
What i havent heard anyone say yet is that the game was obsolete right out of the box and im not even talking about the game-play.
Alot of games use the 'unreal' engine. It's a fantastic engine. Soo many great games have been made using it.
On the opening splash screen i saw the familiar 'unreal' logo and i was happy about that.
As the game progressed I realised with amazement that it was the unreal 2 engine they had used and not the unreal 3 engine (which had been in use since 2006!)
I never thought id see a brand new game made with unreal 2 in 2011/2012.
Dont get me wrong, I love that engine. Rainbow Six Vegas used it about 6 years ago and the more recent indie pc game 'Killing Floor' used it...I love killing floor by the way.
Using an engine that is 10 years old for a retail game made by a major developer is insane and they used it badly. The game looks like it woud be at home on an original xbox. The old unreal 2 engine was capable of much more than that.
The weapon skins (ripper in particular) are disgusting and would have looked average to bad 10 years ago.
The gameplay itself and the damage models are an insult....ive died so many times because a point blank blast from a shot gun not only failed to kill and enemy but also failed to even slow him down, where-as on other occasions a far lesser shot would take the same enemy out..inconsistent.
Gun movement and crosshair tracking feels slightly processed and muddy, not precise and accurate like most unreal 2 engine games.
I like the tacky humor. Mysogeny is the new politically correct but its not enough to save Duke.
All the references to real life are at least 5 years out of date (except for a Dead Space reference I just found)...maybe we were supposed to be shocked by the Olsen twins 'blowing' duke in the opening sequence but anyone who's been alive in the past 5 years knows that this is now pretty much standard behavior for the real life Olsens...their real life antics are actually much much worse..and thats just the stuff we know about.
It's ironic...in the past nothing could kill Duke. Alien bastard hordes couldnt do it. Mutant pig cops couldnt do it.
Turns out that in the present all it took to kill Duke was a bunch of lazy, talentless, pencil necked game developers who didn't give a f*ck. (im channelling the real Duke when I say that)