Duke Nukem Forever: Rises from the grave?

[Sky Warrior Bob]

...

There are no words. I am completely... This makes no.. Why?!?!?!?!?

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1111626p1.html

You've waited 13 years already, so what's another few months? Reports are suggesting that the comically delayed and subsequently cancelled Duke Nukem Forever has been resurrected, with Borderlands developer Gearbox tasked with taking the project to the finishing line.

Having begun in 1997, development on Duke Nukem Forever had seemingly halted after the game's development staff at 3D Realms were let go in May last year. Due to 3D Realms failure to complete the game it was sued for breach of contract by publisher Take-Two, a matter that was resolved earlier this year.

But that's not where Duke Nukem Forever's story ends, it seems. A report on Kotaku suggests that Duke is alive and that Gearbox would be taking the game to completion. Sources at both Take-Two and Gearbox are remaining tight-lipped, although it wouldn't be the first time that the Borderlands developer was associated with the cigar-chomping action hero; Gearbox was outed as the company behind Duke Begins, a project that was scrapped before it ever saw the light of day.

The reports claim that more could be revealed at September's PAX, and that a playable demo could even emerge as soon as this year.

The story of Duke Nukem Forever is a strange and unique one – could this be the final twist in the tale? We'll bring you more as we hear it.

[Kim]

Why do people care about Duke Nukem anymore? Do they? It's going to be an average FPS at best.

[Aerozord]

I love the release date

US: "When its done"... if ever

[synkr0nized]

Why do people care about Duke Nukem anymore? Do they? It's going to be an average FPS at best.

This.
By now anything they were thinking of doing is probably trite and no longer innovative.

Secretly, Duke is the fifth vault hunter...

[Yumil]

This.
By now anything they were thinking of doing is probably trite and no longer innovative.

It's kind of true, but most people are just interested due to the joke it's become.

I don't know about the most recent version, but I had friends doing freelance art and help with some of the mocap when they used UTDs mocap lab for it about a year before it was canceled and many of them told me that they were told that the project had been scrapped and redone multiple times during its life.

Heck, at one point they apparently hired a bunch of kids out of school and didn't get someone with any experience to oversee them. When they finally did, they found out all the work done was not usable and lost at least a year of work basically. Fun stuff.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Why do people care about Duke Nukem anymore? Do they? It's going to be an average FPS at best.

It wasn't all that great of a side scroller either (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuULxLMzZww). I do remember it did have a soundtrack if you had a soundblaster card, but back in those days not everyone did. Haven't spotted a YouTube vid with anything but PC speaker sound.

SWB

[stefan]

See the thing about duke nukem forever was, Duke Nukem 3D made such hilariously ridiculous amounts of money that 3D realms was pretty much able to do everything in-house with no oversight whatsoever. This, coupled with the lead designer's crippling perfectionism, meant that the game basically got to near-gold completion several times when the designer would say stuff like, "add a snow level to show off our particle physics," or "the engine isn't good enough anymore, scrap it and build a new one," or "I've decided to make sweeping changes to the plot, we're throwing out most of our work and redoing it."

in short, perfectionist designer + massive budget - any sort of oversight = delays, delays everywhere.

[Loyal]

:wtf:

Duke Nukem Forever is a legend - a myth to be shrouded in the mists of time - and should remain that way simply because there is no project so tragically composed as that.

[Kim]

I want it to come out and turn out to be a turn-based jRPG where everyone except Duke looks like Cloud, Sephiroth, or female versions thereof.

[Mannix]

I want it to come out and turn out to be a turn-based jRPG where everyone except Duke looks like Cloud, Sephiroth, or female versions thereof.

Just watch, it'll turn out to be a turn based strategy game ala Romance of the Three Kingdoms except everybody is an adorable Pokemon.

[Kim]

MY NAME'S DUKE NUKEM AND I'M AN ANIME!

[bluestarultor]

Well, you know the reason it was in development Hell for so long was because they were constantly improving it, so while it's probably not going to be innovative, it at least stole enough from everything else over the years to potentially be good.

[CABAL49]

Seriously guys? The plan here is obviously for Gearbox to continue the legend. Since 3D Realms could no longer delay the release, it is up to other game developers to pick up the cause. From Gearbox it will head to Pandemic, then to Obsidian, then to Bioware. After that it will spend some time with Square Enix before moving onto Bethesda.

[Aerozord]

maybe its all intentional, they did it so it would be an internet legend, then even if its crap people will buy it out of morbid curiousity

[Flarecobra]

Well, you know the reason it was in development Hell for so long was because they were constantly improving it, so while it's probably not going to be innovative, it at least stole enough from everything else over the years to potentially be good.

Actually.. that'd be kinda funny...

Especally if it's intentional. :D

[bluestarultor]

maybe its all intentional, they did it so it would be an internet legend, then even if its crap people will buy it out of morbid curiousity

More like it was being driven by a guy with lots and lots of money, but also lots and lots of ideas. That generally doesn't end well. This is just an extreme case. I read stories of the guy bounding into work every time another FPS came out and saying he wanted to include all sorts of stuff they'd done, and it went through enough engine changes to be considered a train conductor. They spent over a decade following the pack instead of actually innovating, which is what landed them in trouble.

[Aerozord]

More like it was being driven by a guy with lots and lots of money, but also lots and lots of ideas. That generally doesn't end well. This is just an extreme case. I read stories of the guy bounding into work every time another FPS came out and saying he wanted to include all sorts of stuff they'd done, and it went through enough engine changes to be considered a train conductor. They spent over a decade following the pack instead of actually innovating, which is what landed them in trouble.

also what made Duke Nukem what it was. Its a giant walking parody after all.

[RobinStarwing]

Seriously?

No, Bioware wouldn't get it. They are into innovation and getting something out on time. So is Bethesda.

[Loyal]

So, hand it off to Blizzard for the final stages. Or Valve!

[synkr0nized]

Well, you know the reason it was in development Hell for so long was because they were constantly improving it, so while it's probably not going to be innovative, it at least stole enough from everything else over the years to potentially be good.

More like the lack of outside funding to pressure a deadline meant that they could dream big, take forever to "perfect" it, and then end up with others pushing out similar or neater things before their never-coming launch date. And then each time a new game came out or a new engine emerged with some kind of neat element in it, Broussard could direct his developers to try to add the same thing or some kind of expansion on it to the game, compounding work and even scrubbing previous work.

I'm not going to knock the guy for trying to create an amazing, top-end, superb-quality product that could sit at the throne of FPS games, but his small team and desire to assimilate anything he thought was cool combined with his funds let him in effect push back the real world too long.

Unless Gearbox has some pretty wicked ideas up their sleeves [or were left some by 3D Realms that we haven't heard of yet], I'll remain skeptical of the wow factor of any Duke title, let alone its actual release.

[bluestarultor]

More like the lack of outside funding to pressure a deadline meant that they could dream big, take forever to "perfect" it, and then end up with others pushing out similar or neater things before their never-coming launch date. And then each time a new game came out or a new engine emerged with some kind of neat element in it, Broussard could direct his developers to try to add the same thing or some kind of expansion on it to the game, compounding work and even scrubbing previous work.

I'm not going to knock the guy for trying to create an amazing, top-end, superb-quality product that could sit at the throne of FPS games, but his small team and desire to assimilate anything he thought was cool combined with his funds let him in effect push back the real world too long.

Unless Gearbox has some pretty wicked ideas up their sleeves [or were left some by 3D Realms that we haven't heard of yet], I'll remain skeptical of the wow factor of any Duke title, let alone its actual release.

I just said that. ;)

In fewer words, actually. :ohdear:

[greed]

In all seriousness this is pretty good news. Gearbox seems like just the right guys to do this. Plus they seem pretty on the ball as far as getting shit done. I mean it's not going to be worth the wait, but I reckon it'll be pretty good.

Seriously?

No, Bioware wouldn't get it. They are into innovation and getting something out on time. So is Bethesda.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh man Bioware couldn't innovate it's way out of a paper bag. All they do is do what Obsidian/Troika/Black Isle/CAPCOM did but polish it. Not knocking them, they're a good company, but innovative they are not. Similar deal with Bethesda, except they can't write.

[synkr0nized]

I just said that. ;)

In fewer words, actually. :ohdear:

Then I misinterpreted your meaning with "it at least stole enough from everything else over the years to potentially be good". 'cause this wasn't going to be all that good.

[Amake]

I predict Dwarf Fortress will go far enough in its quest to emulate everything in the entire universe for people to create in the game a Duke Nukem Forever that is everything it should have been before Duke Nukem Forever is released.

Just a guess really.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I have this feeling that Duke Nukem will never die.
I remember when I was in elementary school and a friend told that they're gonna make Duke Nukem Forever. And another one claimed to actually have the game.

Last Duke game I played was Zero Hour which, at the time, I thought was really great, even though it wasn't even an FPS, or maybe because of that, since the only good N64 FPS games ever were GoldenEye and to a greater extent Perfect Dark.

Greabox have a huge load on their shoulder's now. They could be the ones to destroy the myth that is Duke Nukem Forever and make it Duke Nukem Right Now, Bitches or something.

I just noticed the Duke followed me my entire life. When Duke Nukem Forever gets released a part of me will die.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Maybe it's not that DNF wasn't ready for this world but that the world wasn't ready for DNF.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

If DNF ever actually gets released, I'm pretty sure the universe implodes or something.

[Aerozord]

I dont really follow this game, for obvious reasons. So someone fill me in. They were self funded right? So how did someone take the game away from them? Isn't the franchise theirs to do what they will or were they just granted liscencing for it?

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I have no faith in this finally getting finished and released. This is likely just to continue it's legendary internet statis.

[Marc v4.0]

Gearbox strikes me as the sort of team that will either release it, it'll be really good and take a lot of people by surprise...or delay it forever while they laugh at us and point.

Eitherone sounds like GB

[bluestarultor]

Then I misinterpreted your meaning with "it at least stole enough from everything else over the years to potentially be good". 'cause this wasn't going to be all that good.

I meant my other post with the story, but I can see the confusion if you missed it.


I dont really follow this game, for obvious reasons. So someone fill me in. They were self funded right? So how did someone take the game away from them? Isn't the franchise theirs to do what they will or were they just granted liscencing for it?

Take Two was publishing. Basically, the story is that Take Two is the most patient company on Earth and waited over a decade before deciding that the team was not fulfilling their end of the contract by actually making the game. While the team was self-funded, they still had a contractual obligation to release the thing, which they didn't for long after it would have been reasonably expected. Take Two got fed up with the "when it's done" release date, sued 3D Realms, and is now rumored to be giving it to someone else. The key word being "rumored." There's no official confirmation yet.

[stefan]

Take Two was publishing. Basically, the story is that Take Two is the most patient company on Earth and waited over a decade before deciding that the team was not fulfilling their end of the contract by actually making the game. While the team was self-funded, they still had a contractual obligation to release the thing, which they didn't for long after it would have been reasonably expected. Take Two got fed up with the "when it's done" release date, sued 3D Realms, and is now rumored to be giving it to someone else. The key word being "rumored." There's no official confirmation yet.


not quite. 3DRealms WAS self-funded for quite a while, they only approached take two when they realized they were running out of money.