Just wondering how everyone feels about Duke Nukem Forever being cancelled? Was anyone a fan of the original game 12 or so years ago?
I've been looking at the leaked screenshots and video at Shacknews (they seem to have close ties with the dev team, and George B is a regular poster there) and judging by the images, if it were finished and released, it would never match up the hype that it's gathered. But as a game that you could waste a dozen hours over, it looks alright. Some of the earlier leaked screenshots were way to generic looking though (monsters in armour, metal corrodoors etc).
I liked Duke Nukem 3D
I liked Duke Nukem 3D because of it's level and weapon design. While other games like doom and quake where all about demonic/cyber gritty environments and demons. Duke was about going around cities, spaceships and the moon to kill some aliens. It was in comparison to everything else at the time, colourful and creative in it's level design and weapons. The first few city levels for Duke Nuken 3D where ahead of their time. especially the interactions with the environment like blowing by buildings, opening secret doors and playing pool.
As for forever, as a designer who seeks to create a quality product I think this project was doomed after 2001. If you let a project go for to long then it goes into a creeping limbo and the end result never meets expectations, Silicon Knights 'Too Human' fell prey to this as well. In all truth 5 years is the very maximum you should spend to make a game, and even then it better be one the most engaging games of the year when it's released.
I really feel sympathetic for the devs who have spent 12 years of their life on this project. But in all reason and logic why pursue it for so long?
better before 3D
I liked Duke Nukem before it got 3D. The original 2D platformer was great, and I still have it today. I played Duke3D a bit, but couldn't really see any appeal in it.
I always guessed that after such a long wait, I'd be surprised if anyone even cared about it once/if it got released. This game's just been a punchline for as long as I can remember...
Duke Nukem cancelled
I enjoyed the earlier DN games, but I never really got DN3D. It was fun, but I never thought it was exceptional.
Most people seem to like his attitude and one liners the most, but I didn't understand why. Almost everything he said was quoted from somewhere else. Things like the "boomstick" quote from Evil Dead or "kick ass and chew bubblegum" from They Live.
Disappointed
I can't help but feel slightly disappointed - even though I only played one demo level of Duke 3D back in the day! I have, however, been following up Duke Nukem Forever's progress ever since. To me, it's pretty damn sad to see it end this way, and I do feel for the developers who worked on this game for oh-so-many years, but this whole debacle has made the Daikatana situation look like development dream-time in comparison. And that game was a piece of shit, but hey, at least they got it released. I think I saw it in a garbage bin for $10, and I still didn't want to give it a go (Kenneth Scott art or not). It was those damn frogs from the playable demo, man.
I can recall the various demos in E3 (from 2001 I think) and the announcements from George B of its near release straight after. And while it was missing in action in the years after, things really have been looking up for a real and definite release. The first sign was that Prey actually got finished and was on shelves. That really came out of nowhere, and it wasn't too bad either. Other news of George mentioning the game was on the 'homestretch", with Take Two offering them a sizeable bonus if they released the game before Christmas (2007 or 08 I think) got people talking. With the tiny thumbnail piccies that 3D Realms had up with a job ad on Gamasutra caused a sizeable stir on gamesites everywhere, I think everyone really expected something this year.
There needs to be a documentary on DNF's development - it'll be bigger than Master's of Doom. I'd love to know how it was even possible to work on one game for more than 6 years, let alone 12.
Shacknews
Ah this is great. You gotta hand it to Shacknews on their coverage of the recent Duke Nukem Forever situation (including breaking the news on 3D Realms axing the DNF team). They've made a timeline / brief history of its decade-plus long development hell, outlining some of the public smack talk and internal dev decisions. The stuff about Wired's vapourware awards is hilarious.
Honestly speaking, the speed at which information was released led me to believe it was always going to be a flop.
Also, never really liked the original series since it was just Doom with a man's-man avatar and strippers.
So I guess, I never had high expectations because Doom was a massive flop on itself anyway, so I expected Duke Nukem to do the same thing.