Duke Nukem Forever

Preview from Luke - Friday, 22 October 2010 @ 1:38am

It’s been 13 years since Duke Nukem Forever was first announced. Many thought, and some still do, that this game would never end up in stores. Last year when 3D Realms confirmed they had dismissed the team working on DNF, this seemed like the final nail in the coffin... But last weekend, I actually played a demo of this fabled video game that has been seemingly resurrected from the dead.
 
Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, who had been a part of the team that worked on Duke 3D back in the day, couldn’t just sit around and let this iconic game character disappear. Randy knew he needed to step in, so his company bought the rights to the franchise and have been working on the game over the past year.

The demo starts off in the same setting that the final boss battle took place in Duke Nukem 3D. The screen fades in with our hero standing in front of a urinal, you hit the trigger to pee. Turning around reveals an open locker room complete with showers, toilets, a spa and a few soldiers scattered around the area. Upon searching the environment I find a turd floating in one of the toilets, naturally I pick it up. Throwing it against the floor leaves a nice big brown smudge, it’s so elegant. But leaving it on the ground seemed to be a waste, so once again I choose to wield the poo, and finding the nearest solider I decide to launch it straight at his face … strangely it bounces off the solider quicker than a bullet. Steve Gibson, VP of Marketing at Gearbox, advised that the poo physics were at the top of the list of things to be fixed.

Steve Gibson & Randy Pitchford from Gearbox

A whiteboard sits in the middle of the room, the words 'Operation Cock Block' are scrawled across the top with a drawing of a monster just below. Interacting with the whiteboard brings out the artistic side of Duke. Armed with a range of colours and an eraser, players can draw just about anything they set their mind to… ANYTHING!!! Unsurprisingly, every time I glanced over to see what other people were creating, all I could see were attempts at giant dicks.
 
Making your way out onto the football field, you are confronted with the Cycloid Emperor a.k.a The Cock Blocker. There wasn’t really much strategy involved in taking down this guy, just circle around him while unloading as many rounds into him as possible. After defeating the monster, and kicking a field goal, the camera pans out to reveal that everything that had just happened was a video game, with Duke at the controls.
 
The game then fades out and skips forward to a later level where you’re presented with a wider range of weaponry. The gun play doesn’t do anything revolutionary – it's pretty much just a basic shooter. Making their return are favourites like the shrink-ray, RPG launcher, pipe bombs, and the HoloDuke. Then there are the new toys, such as the rail gun that will explode enemies into pieces and beer that will give Duke a boost of ego.

Mana Bar was full all day from people wanting to get in and play DNF

Now one of the big questions that everyone is asking after all this time is, does Duke still matter in this age of gaming? I don’t think that is something anyone will be able to answer until it’s released. But judging by the overall response from the general public that have had a chance to play a small portion of the game, they seem damn well excited for it. For me, I’m going to be playing this for the one-liners and classic Duke moments. What about you?


Duke Nukem Forever is set for release next year, on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.