Gearbox Asks Why You Hated Duke Nukem Forever
Gearbox released a survey asking players about their experience with Duke Nukem Forever.
My Duke Nukem-themed birthday cake earlier this month.For the record, Duke Nukem Forever wasn't all that bad. The problems it faced were (1) a huge (massive) load of hype generated around a 14-year development cycle, and (2) an excellent, top-notch predecessor. The game was doomed at the turn of the century, its fate sealed by game franchises like Gears of War and Call of Duty which injected unique elements of gameplay into the FPS genre that's become standard over the years... and seemingly alien to Duke's classic run-n-gun style.
That said, Duke Nukem Forever had shining moments which conjured up memories of what made Duke Nukem 3D such a great, classic title. Unfortunately, the sequel also had its share of bad moments which ultimately brought in low scores across all three platforms. Gearbox Software, which was seemingly brought in by 2K Games to put Humpty Dumpty (Duke Nukem Forever) back together again, is now asking fans what they think about Duke's current installment so that perhaps the next game, Duke Begins, meets their expectations.
"Gearbox prides itself in listening to the community, and this is your chance to tell us how you feel about Duke Nukem Forever," reads the first page of a survey. "You may participate in this survey if you have played or have not played Duke Nukem Forever. Please answer the following questions."
The survey is anonymous, but users can supply a full name and email address if they want to enter a drawing for "Gearbox Swag." Overall the questions include "Did you play Duke Nukem Forever" and "What platform did you play Duke Nukem Forever on," "How would you rate Duke Nukem Forever," "Would you recommend Duke Nukem Forever to a friend," and so on.
Head here to take Gearbox's survey. Hail to the king, baby.
I get where they are coming from but DNF's problems should be quite apparent without asking for feedback on why it sucked.
Is it just me, or does there seem to be some distance between author's opinions here at Tom's? Don't get me wrong, I still love the site. However, when I see things like this, which imply that only large console shooters have changed the genre, or how PC gaming is "dieing" (soon to be followed up with articles on how it's not dieing), I begin to wonder.
I understand where this statement was going, I just don't entirely agree with it's implications.
It was an average shooter, overhyped so it got bad ratings, what's to know?
THEY were contracted to put the game together, NOT make the game. THEY barely touched it.
duke 3d came out in 96, 15 years later... forever.
this isnt like a normal game franchise, it didnt evolve over time, it was a 15 year gap, and the fan base of duke is mostly from 15 years ago. what they are looking for is this.
do you want a good throw back game
or
do you want duke completely modernized in every facet of the game.
now with this game its a valid point to bring up, should it be modernized, because it would most likely become a military fps with weird weapons, or a gears of war style cover game.
what games, sense half life, change the shooter...
they were all console games. halo brought regenerating health, which i despise. it also brought the small load out outside of realistic military games. there are others, but i cant recall them by name due to not playing fpses on consoles.
do not send the game out to feminists next time.
or anyone who cant take realy crude humor
dont spend more than 4 years on the next game
focus on single player, as thats the main selling point of the duke
and don't lock out mods, duke could easily have long legs if you allow for total conversion mods in multiplayer.
lets be clear, gear box put it together, and are asking what people want, a throw back or a modern game out of it for the next one.
... agree... DNF is simple fun... and simple is not always bad...
the played it survey hits the MAJOR flaws in the game, but these are things that... are open to debate if they are flawed, and you do not need to play the game to have an opinion on them.
and the non played it, its a bit different asking you what kind of fps you like and what elements that you like in fpses.
So in short more levels, slower pace with harder to kill or more numerous enemies, possibly more weapons (hard to enjoy a game where I expect to be able to carry more than 24 spare rounds of ammo and 2 weapons at a time and I cant), and while hot, sweaty, naked women are usually shiny it would be nice if not everyone was... Would also be nice if I could rescue the hot naked women who are being encased (?) in the walls of the alien ship you know? Like have some that are too far gone to save but others that are just arms and legs tied down and you can break them free and they thank you and go running by to safety totally nude.
Also Loved the naked breasts that was actually my favorite part. Too many games shy away from full nudity to appease walmart and the ESRB so that they dont get the dreaded nc17 rating. I say screw them! If its fine for me to use a shotgun or a knife on a guy and stab him or blow his head off at point blank range and that game isnt an nc17 rating then seeing some digital boobs or butts shouldnt be either! Besides what's worse murder or strippers shaking their boobs in your face? We are programming kids to believe that violence is right and sex is wrong just to sell more games! And the ESRB and walmart are helping! I'd rather play a game with full violence and full nudity where I can go to duke nukem's titty city and see a stripper rendered in 50,000+ polys and mocaped with an actual stripper's dance routine (rather than harley quinn who was mocapped by a dude for batman arkam asylum)and then step outside and get attacked by aliens who I can dismember than play a game like Mass effect where you can headshot a guy with an anti material rifle designed to take out shields and armor on a gunship in 1 hit and all it does is make the guy fall over with a splatter of blood on wall behind him. Then there's the "sex" scenes where yes your character is in bed with someone but they are fully clothed (save for jack and miranda) and you see next to nothing for all the hard work you put in to cultivating the relationship over the course of the game... That's not a climax (pardon the pun) that's a rip off! I just spent ~48 hours playing this game total play time and get to finally consummate my relationship with this character right before the big final battle and I cant even see them naked? I ought to be able to whip out my pistol and force them to get naked in front of me at that rate! THAT is why I loved DNF... it made no qualms or excuses about stuff like that. True they didnt show actual sex either but there were actual bare breasts and more than one location that involved oral sex even if you didnt see anything.
So to summarize... keep the nudity and sex that was awesome, make the game a bit slower or add more levels so it doesnt take me 8 hours to finish it, allow me to carry more than 2 guns at once sort of like the old FPS games where you had 10 guns (even though I always joked about where they put them all and were still able to run and jump while carrying a rocket launcher AND a minigun), DX11 level graphics with tessellation (unreal engine 3 or 4 maybe) and actual women doing the female mocap, more enemies that are harder to kill (also if the game is longer and slower the higher number of enemies will make it seem like you are facing a never ending horde), lastly dont rush it. No one expected this game to ever get made so if you had taken the time to get everything looking good and added a few more levels it would have taken you what? another year or so? Everyone had such low expectations of DNF that you could have taken that extra time with no impact on your credentials. We all know it takes 3-5 years to put out a great game so rushing to put out a mediocre or crappy game doesnt make sense. Especially if people have already been waiting for 12 or 14 years.. another 1 wont kill them to make sure the game is done right.
Overall though I give DNF an 7.5/10. It was fun but too easy and too short and the graphics looked kinda dated.
Every developer shuold be read the feedback from gaming mags and websites to get feedback on their resleased games.
That what went wrong, its nothing wrong with the game itself. It was marketing + trying to live up to the old game that was the fault! Don't flame GearBox for asking, the devs should be able to ask in order to improve their titles without the crybabies lashing out like spoiled kids. We all want better titles and they want to know what we want - Its a win-win to answer them!
My 2 cents