Sunday, June 19, 2011

Duke Nukem Forever First Thoughts

My Close friends will know that I went to E3 a couple weeks ago. While there I got my first taste of the gameplay for Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), released by 2K Games after an extended development by 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Piranha Games, and finally Gearbox software.

At E3 I really enjoyed the fast paced Capture the Flag...err Babe mode. It is a little odd that the ultimate badass can only cary two weapons but, I chalked that up to the modern style of games that only give you 1/2 slots. Anyway my team won and I killed a good number of gamers and scored with multiple babes.

Recently I was able to get my hands on the DNF demo and played the two levels provided. Both levels were very linear. The first one killing the big alien with rockets was boring as all you need to do was fire and strafe...then pickup the rocket drops. The second level, the required Vehicle section of all games today, felt like driving a remote control car and the scripted Out of Gas was annoying as it doesn't take into considering anything around how you drove.

Now onto the enemies. In this demo we get three enemies. Big ass alien Cyclops (easy), the Pig Cop, and some little alien scuttlers. My main question is, why do the pigmen no longer wear police uniforms? The police uniforms were one of the Duke staples of irreverent silly comedy. Below find pictures to compare




Original Pig CopDNF Pig Cop


The other issue is that the pig cops blend into the background of the level since they are grey/yellowish-brown and so is the sand.

Just some first thoughts. 2K will eventually get my money and I will probably enjoy this game but it will feel like a mashup of other better games.