Duke Nukem: Forever

[Notuern]

(Sounds are not featured in the game.)

Well, when they 3D-Realms hit the shitter, the rumors started that they closed 3DR and took back their old name(Apogee software) to get rid of their deal with Take-Two.. well, this statement is kind of old:

In June of 2009, Apogee court filings stated "[3D Realms/Apogee Ltd.] admits that it has continually worked on the development of the DNF for many years, and continues to do so" as well as revealing that development halted on 'Duke Begins'.[48] In December 2009, Apogee CEO Scott Miller clarified that "we've never said that Duke Nukem Forever has ceased development," explaining "yes, we released the internal team, but that doesn't correlate to the demise of the project."[49] According to a recent interview with magazine Gamesauce, "3D Realms has laid off the game's internal development team, but still plans to most likely work with external development studios to develop the game."[50]

But check this out:



Thats the voice actor that does Duke's voice.
Later in that Panel, he also says: "I didnt sign a non-disclosure with you.. you're not Apogee."

Linky: http://vimeo.com/8533236 (20 minutes in.)

What was left on DN:F when 3D Realms closed?
Recording the dialogs and the rest of the sounds + beta testing.

So what does this mean?
Well, hopefully, for all us Dukers out there, this game might actually be released THIS YEAR.
.. still, its Duke Nukem ForNever so.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

DUKE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been waiting for this game since I first heard about it years ago!

 

[updog]

Duke Nukem Forever isn't even funny anymore.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/748-Duke-Nukem-Forever

Oh yes, yes it is

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

As long as he still says "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, And im alllll out of bubblegum" I will be buying this game....Believe dat!

 

[Notuern]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/748-Duke-Nukem-Forever

Oh yes, yes it is

I agree.
But this time the game is almost finished, and they are at the end of the development, so its very likely that it actually will be released now.
Im still not stupid enough to expect it to really be released though, but im clinging on hard to that last shred of hope that there will be yet another game for me to kick ass and chew bubblegum!

As long as he still says "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, And im alllll out of bubblegum" I will be buying this game....Believe dat!

Jon St. John gave us a sneak peak for the next one-liner: "I will rip your eye out and piss on your brain!"

 

[Harry Hughes]

I didn't know anyone even cared anymore.
I remember saying to myself in 1999 that if the game were to be released, it would suck no matter how good it was, simply because it would never live up to the excessive hype it received.
It's now 2010

 

[drew_drummer]

Duke Nukem Never.

 

[Notuern]

I didn't know anyone even cared anymore.
I remember saying to myself in 1999 that if the game were to be released, it would suck no matter how good it was, simply because it would never live up to the excessive hype it received.
It's now 2010

The reason it hasnt been released previously was because 3DR didnt think it did live up the hype, so thats why they have held on to "When its done.".
.. im STILL not expecting anything from it, but i cant give up on the greatest FPS evar.

 

[slashvanyoung]

If you just think about how often they changed engines for this game... They initially started off with the Quake II engine, then went 180° with the Unreal engine. Madness...

IMO - as far as I can judge that from an outside perspective - 3D Realms' biggest strength was also one of their biggest weaknesses: They operated a game development company like people used to in the early to mid nineties, when developers and executive staff were essentially the same people (or had the same background).

They even captured this spirit in their "developers rule":

Most game projects are controlled by someone in management who is not a developer, and doesn't hold development priorities above financial and business considerations.

But not at 3D Realms Entertainment.

This freedom on creative levels made for some of the best games we know - concepts that still provide the basis for some of the best selling games/genres even these days , but without substantial changes on operative levels, many of these inventive, original players (like ID) wouldn't have survived their business being catapulted in a competition worth billions of dollars... and in fact, many didn't or were assimilated by those who knew how to adapt to a drastically changing game.

3D Realms were more than once at the brink of extinction and if it wasn't for their lucky hand in distribution (in good ol' Apogee manner), they would have folded years ago.

Let's face it, George Broussard is an idealist. The employer every employee wants because he's one of them. But he was/is just not capable of managing a project of that size/importance. With Scott Miller bailing in 07, concentrating on his new baby - the Radar Group - the ship got totally out of hand.

---

For years, people have been speculating if DN:F could ever live up to it's legacy, putting more pressure on that little team than they could ever handle. Now, ironically, DN:F is more likely to see the light of the day than ever, but the possibility of it not living up to expectations if also higher than ever, because we'll either see a semi-finished product or a rough patchwork of several independent developers.

Maybe, the Duke should better be left in peace altogether... But come on, who am I kidding? I want to play this god-damn game, no matter the state it's in.

 

[vikk]

Duke Nukem with be released along with new Necrophagist and new Wintersun

 

[updog]

Duke Nukem with be released along with new Necrophagist and new Wintersun

more likely along with Wintersun's third studio album, whatever it shall be called...

 

[GarethSE]

i will play this however it turns out
and i can see it being one of two ways
earth shatteringly awesome or a steaming heap of pure shite.

 

[kaomao]

going offtopic a little bit:
You know Carmack hated so much the duke numer 3d engine?
John was and is the man, but how can you fucking say the original Duke nuken 3d sucked so much? lol
If you love the good old stuff, read the Masters of doom ! a biography about Id and of course the two John's: Romero and carmack

 

[slashvanyoung]

Yeah, it's an awesome book, I'd recommend it to anyone who has a special place for FPS legacy in his/her heart.

Even though Carmack "hated" the Build Engine in DN 3D, he had also the utmost respect for its creator, Ken Silverman, stating on numerous occasions that he thinks Silverman is/was one of the most talented people in the business.

Putting things into context, this mess even makes some sense haha: The BUILD engine is a quasi derivate of the DOOM engine and therefore naturally suffers from all the limitations the original DOOM engine had. Features like "looking up and down" or a "multi-storey environment" could only be implemented through "hacks" and were often only discovered by accident.

Ken had a very tight deadline to implement these things into an engine that didn't even actually allow for it. All on his own. That's why Carmack felt the engine was "held together with bubblegum". It did the things it was supposed to do, but the implementation was (out of necessity) rather inelegant. Yet it did took a "genius" to get the BUILD engine to support the things it does.

Take also into account that Quake was around the corner, featuring a whole new level of engine coding, vastly superior to the DOOM and "DOOM-like" engines. In light of that, the BUILD engine looked like a patchwork from ancient days.

 

[kaomao]

That's why Carmack felt the engine was "held together with bubblegum".

Yeah I remember reading that line in the book lol
Yep carmack said that, but still kicked so much ass
I hope with RAGE they will conquer the world again!!

 

[Notuern]

Carmack was the one who suggested to Silverman that he should use so called "sectors"(Like Doom.), what Carmack probably got pissed of by was the fact that Silverman realized that it was possible to stack/link different sectors together, creating several levels etc.
One example of linked sectors is "Lunatic Fringe"(A map in EP2), where you can walk in a perfect circle for 720 degrees without meeting the starting point.
There are other examples where there are several rooms overlapping each other, or rooms that are bigger then the actual building etc.

I really think that Carmack "hated" the engine, because he didnt realize the potential of using sectors him self.
(Silverman made the first draft of the build engine the same year Doom was released.)

So yeah, Duke Nukem 3D is actually Duke Nukem 2.5D.

 

[slashvanyoung]

So yeah, Duke Nukem 3D is actually Duke Nukem 2.5D.

Yeah, 2.5 at best if you consider that the majority of the objects and characters are just flat sprites.

Trying to adapt Carmack's mindset, I'd probably be a little disgusted too haha. There's the rocket scientist on one hand. A perfectionist who only sees beauty in perfectly streamlined code.

Then there's this all-rounder kid on the other hand who takes inspiration by Carmack's work where it's needed, but who is also able to think outside the box if it's fruitful in the bigger picture.

Using (often accidentally discovered) exploits to implement a feature must be like a nightmare for Carmack, because it naturally can't be the best implementation.

So here's Carmack, sitting on his new baby, the Quake engine, to see daylight. A revolutionary new engine that supports all these things that DOOM-like engines could only sport "half-assed-ly" at best and only through exploits... Just to see Duke 3D being released some months earlier, selling like crazy and being praised for the features Doom, Hexen etc. didn't sport, even though the BUILD engine probably wouldn't have been what it is without Doom.

As great as the Build engine was and all those awesome games running on it, it was also pretty much doomed (ka-ching!) from the get go, being so dated from the core. There's another huge mistake on Apogee/3D Realms part, not properly investing in Silverman's talents to continue his awesome work.

 

[Notuern]

Yeah, 2.5 at best if you consider that the majority of the objects and characters are just flat sprites.

The sprites actually consists of voxels: 3 dimensional pixels.
Personally, i believe that is the biggest step the world of game development has ever seen, as it really is the future for gaming(It needs to get hardware supported though.).
It will allow real destructible mesh(Not just simulated ones like today.), the possibility of setting your own detail level without loosing data.
You can convert low-detailed mesh to high-detailed mesh by just pressing a button.
Anti-Aliasing can be made by creating a realtime vector mask around the outer voxels etc.

http://www.3d-coat.com/voxel-sculpting/

Trying to adapt Carmack's mindset, I'd probably be a little disgusted too haha. There's the rocket scientist on one hand. A perfectionist who only sees beauty in perfectly streamlined code.

Then there's this all-rounder kid on the other hand who takes inspiration by Carmack's work where it's needed, but who is also able to think outside the box if it's fruitful in the bigger picture.

Using (often accidentally discovered) exploits to implement a feature must be like a nightmare for Carmack, because it naturally can't be the best implementation.

Yeah, i think that is the only "weakness" Carmack has: He is being all to logical, which makes him miss some great opportunities.

So here's Carmack, sitting on his new baby, the Quake engine, to see daylight. A revolutionary new engine that supports all these things that DOOM-like engines could only sport "half-assed-ly" at best and only through exploits... Just to see Duke 3D being released some months earlier, selling like crazy and being praised for the features Doom, Hexen etc. didn't sport, even though the BUILD engine probably wouldn't have been what it is without Doom.

True.
I read an interview with Silverman, where he said that he had created the build engine(It was just as advanced as the Quake engine in mid 1993.), but it ran too slow.
At a convention he got to meet Carmack him self, and asked for advice, and thats when Carmack suggested to Silverman the use of sectors.

So Carmack created the concept for the Build engine, and Silverman created the concept for the Quake engine.

As great as the Build engine was and all those awesome games running on it, it was also pretty much doomed (ka-ching!) from the get go, being so dated from the core. There's another huge mistake on Apogee/3D Realms part, not properly investing in Silverman's talents to continue his awesome work.

The thing is that the engine was completed in late 93, from that point on, it only got minor tweaks for more performance.
If you play LameDuke, you will notice that it had ALLOT more features in the early versions(Such as reflective water.).

 

[slashvanyoung]

The sprites actually consists of voxels: 3 dimensional pixels.

Nah dude, Silverman added voxel support AFTER Duke 3D was released. Shadow Warrior and Blood, for example, sported voxels.

Duke 3D definitely used 2D-Sprites! Have another look.

But yeah, agreeing with your overall take on voxels!