There was a point in my life where I was willing to be satisfied with the “when it’s done” line in reference to the completion of Duke Nukem Forever. Duke Nukem has always meant something special to me. The original Playstation incarnation, Time to Kill, was the beginning of my personal exploration into the shooter genre. The title’s irreverent social commentary and gore piqued my interest enough to continue to pursue other games like it.
I was willing to excuse the decades of delays by developer 3D Realms because of the special little gap in my heart filled by Time to Kill. Yet, the latest debacle in a series of debacles, idiocy, and delays has destroyed the patience that I once possessed. It is time for me to finally admit that 3D Realms is completely, irreversibly out of touch and incapable of putting Duke Nukem Forever out into consumers’ hands in any reasonable or decent capacity.
Duke Nukem has reared his flat-topped, ugly mug several times in the news of late. Considering Duke Nukem Forever’s decade-long development cycle, this is quite a feat. The first tidbit came in the form of a few seconds of footage on the Jace Hall Show debut. The footage was exciting, considering no one outside of 3D Realms has seen Forever in any playable context since 2001. The short clip displayed a dated FPS with little flair outside of hallways, uninspired guns, and large aliens.
The second story came after 3D Realms posted yet another job offering. It was a call for level designers with the “talent and passion” that the developers of Forever have obviously lacked. Accompanying the ad was a tiny picture of the title, which has apparently become standard when trying to lure developers into the black hole of developing that 3D Realms must be. The ad cited the need for speed, with this very professional line stating “Must go faster. Scotty, we need more powah!”
It was the story from two days ago that was backbreaker for my patience. A rumor was drifting around that Forever would yet again not make it to E3. While not a surprise, it was allowed to float for a day until 3D Realms owner Scott Miller confirmed it with this quote.
It's just that we view E3 as irrelevant nowadays. In fact, I wasn't even aware it was coming up.
That statement is complete and utter bullshit, and every prospective Forever consumer and industry journalist knows it. Unaware of the largest computer and video game trade show on the planet was around the corner? That statement is especially ridiculous considering how 3D Realms danced Prey around on the E3 floors before its release, and even showed off Forever back in 2001. Although, that was when 3D Realms actually had something worth showing off, when they possessed developers that had talent instead of excuses. Even if Miller was not lying and just fishing for more excuses, is this not a sign of just how out of touch everyone at 3D Realms is? Forgetting about E3 (or not setting up your own trade show in lieu of) is like walking past the biggest, brightest, and tastiest fucking Krispy Kreme store everyday and not thinking about a donut.
The one crucial thing that 3D Realms is “unaware” of is how they have strung along the entire process making Forever. The news is practically cyclical. First, post a video to excite the few fans that are still willing to be patient. Then, release a job ad with a tiny picture. Also, regularly refuse to comment on the progress, innovation, or the reason as to why Forever has been delayed for so long. At least this time, they added the new twist of calling E3, a trade show that could be a potential launching pad for any game, irrelevant.
In actuality, it is 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever that is irrelevant. The game was officially announced in 1997 and was slated for a 1998 release, the same year that Unreal, Thief: The Dark Project, and Baldur’s Gate were released. Since 1998, Forever has gone through at least two engine changes, lost staffers, and become the laughing stock of the videogames industry. All the while, the above games all had successful sequels and won awards. But of course, the development process of Forever “is swimming along nicely.” It has just simply been too long of a wait.
Forever’s future is not a scenario that we should even have to consider. After more than a decade, you would figure that 3D Realms would have actually addressed the delays and changes made to the title in full. Let’s suppose that the developer actually has staff meetings that address the progress a game is making. What can they even say to each other at this point? I would be willing to bet that all the staff walk into a room and just stare at the wall. Perhaps they have an internal “weekly excuses” meeting that goes over the plethora of reasons why no one bothered to touch Forever. The reasons would probably include World of Warcraft, indigestion, grandparent dying, or dog ate my keyboard.
I think we all reach this point with a game that we were excited about when initially announced. Perhaps some of you tired of Denis Dyack’s Too Human delays, or id Software’s mum stance on details of the next Wolfenstein. For me, it is not so much about time. As long as the game is great, I will consume. The real problem here is that the same things Scott Miller said about E3 can be directly turn around on 3D Realms as a company. The lies and fiasco that is Duke Nukem Forever is dead to me.
Contest:
2:34 PM on 06.29.2008
| 
although this is pretty funny:
the duke nukem forever list
"over 75 Megaman games have been released since Forever was announced"
:0
On a different note, Time to Kill was not a FPS. It was a third-person acknowledged rip off of Tomb Raider. No where close to the FPS genre.
lol
Thats what this has turned into... but all of you STILL watched it.. dont lie.
I for one.. will STILL play this, sad I know... but Duke Nukem (Taking forever XD)... you still have a place in my heart. See you in 2013!
World War II and the entire Manhattan Project. Yes, even the complete development of the atomic bomb took less time to develop than DNF.
But the dude's right. E3 is dead, long live E3.
What I see are a lot of cool concepts and Ideas that were originally thought of for duke, but in the end it doesn't fit too well, and the concepts are just too good to scrap, so another game is made. Nothing wrong with that, after all, would anyone bash StarCraft because it hindered progress of WarCraft III?
I'm still looking forward to Duke Nukem, whether it's just the chance to play as a sunglass-wearing, cigar-smoking ball of testosterone that will more than likely blow everything up; or just to see if the edgy social commentary is just as edgy as the 1996 game. After playing other games that 3D Realms have been involved with, I'm sure it will be a hit.
I agree nobody owes us anything at 3d Realms. Realistically though if I had said to somebody that I'm going to do something and don't, well that makes me a bit of an ass. I don't owe that person anything and I don't have to do what I said I would, but in that case I should just stop saying I will do something. Its been a decade since they said this game would come out, and saying that e3 isn't relevant is like saying Duke Nukem is relevant. Its not. They have made their mascot a joke and they have no idea how to make up for that.
I don't care about the game personally its just defending 3d Realms against criticism is rediculous. They have been touting this game for a decade and have nothing to show for it.
Prey had a little help from Producers 2k games (Take-Two) and developers Human Head Studios.
Still, it took 10 years. I could also say Spore has taken about 8 years as well and no one seems angry about it. Every Blizzard game takes over 5 years as well. I just don't see the purpose of the article.
If they were to show it anywhere, it should be E for all, or really PAX is probably the biggest thing in the states now.
But every time I begin to doubt I watch the 2001 E3 trailer again. Holy shit, man.
I think people forget that 'being in development' is different from 'announced on, then abandoned, then re-acquired, etc.'
Look at Team Fortress 2. I think the extra long cycle really helped the game.
You're quickly becoming one of my favorite writters on Destructoid, keep up the good work. =)
Too Human was showed off in 1999, then got moved to GC. Next year, Too Human will also be ten years in the pipe, so pray it gets out the gate this year. Either way, you'll find many games are in development for years before work actually begins, for the to become products.
Sure, Duke Nukem is as cliched as fuck. Its become a target more than most games because of this, and this is why no one has mentioned Too Human yet.
Personally, I fancy seeing Prey 2 more. Prey was a cool game many overlooked. Duke Nukem though, would have to do something special for me to buy and play. Unfortunately, I just don't see it, but I'm open to my mind being changed.
Secondly, let them take however long they wan't. It's not going to be the apocalypse if it isn't the best game ever made. They're just taking their time. There are some freaking amazing games that dropped this year already, more than enough to keep anyone busy until more great games come out. Why get irritable because it's taking long. Is duke the only game you want to play? Let's just ask 3drealms to realise it tomorrow, unfinished, so we can all have closure, maybe that will satiate you.
One dude called the "Duke Series" uninspired. I think other people alluded to it as well. These people probably played duke on the ps like our friendly article writer. You people don't get duke. You did not walk into a computer store to see it on display on their new 486 machines. If you did, you would have been witnessing a pant-shittingly awesome realisation of how interactive games could REALLY be. This was western development at its finest, freedom, excitement, SURPRISES. You never knew what kind of crazy shit was going to happen next. Many games today have still not reached the same level of environmental interactivity in Duke 3D. So if you think duke is uninspired, please go play Super Ultra Mega Fantasy 9: The Haunted Curse of The Sword of Butzenwald and marvel at how in this version, the menu cursor makes an exciting new sound! Oh, and the characters look even more androgynous in this version! Yaaaay!
At this point, it's up for biggest disappointment in gaming history, with it's only competition being the game the above ad campaign was for.
Duke Nukem Forever will be a shooter. It will have Pig Cops and a hero named Duke. They don't have to test out what Duke will look like to see if people like his design. This means that they already have an idea of what the game is. that takes out some of the development time.
Sometimes you have to struggle.
I would rather have them delay it until the end of time rather than release a sub-standard game that would tarnish the name of a classic.
Just to be clear, spore hasn't been in real production for 8 years, I used to work at maxis and it only went into full production 3 years ago. And I think Prey is a bad example, because while it was a fun game, it wasn't 10 years of development fun. That same game could have been churned out in 3 to 4 years by a good studio and still be just as good. This Duke Nukem crap is straight retarded, and they treat fans like you like crap.
What about the 10 year development cycle for Team Fortress 2?
I remember seeing screenshots for that thing in Issues of PC Accelerator , but nobody's seemed to mind when that finally came out. Matter of fact, it's a pretty big title. Just like DNF, it was a sequel and already had an established concept.
All I see here is a game that's privately funded, that's run into quite a few roadblocks such as complications with the game engines they were using (too human comes to mind, except it's happened thrice with DNF), Trading hands with Publishers, and a few minigames of 'scrap and restart' (Remember Resident Evil 2?). Daikatana was pretty much rushed in development and that turned to be a heinous crime of extreme ass. TF2 had a long development cycle and it's a very popular game. I can only hope that the same can be said for DNF, and even if it lives up to a quarter of the hype it should be enough to be an excellent game.
@Brad
Dude, I'm loving your writings. I'm a hard one to win over, too. :) Keep it up.
The reason why the developers had no idea E3 was coming is because all their clocks are broken. Duh.
And how can I get a job "developing" Duke Nukem Forever? Do they want a portfolio and shit or do I just have to show them my passion and they'll let me slide on the talent test? Because that DNF development blackhole sounds like the perfect job.