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Infamous vaporware will see the light of day this year
After lingering in development limbo for 14 years, it looks as though Duke Nukem Forever might actually see a release this June.
The infamous sequel to the 1996 title Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever spent most of its apparently eternal incubation period under the development of 3D Realms. The company postponed the game's release for over a decade before finally cutting its development team in 2009. A year later, 2K Games announced that Gearbox had picked up the textbook vaporware and was set to release it worldwide in May of 2011. Of course, that's been delayed by a month, and the release date is now tentatively set for June 10th.
Duke Nukem Forever's effervescent nature in the gaming world has been subject of plenty of ridicule, most of it hilarious. I'm partial to the Zero Punctuation review of the game, in which Yahtzee Croshaw outlines in detail the hyperadvanced gameplay. According to Yahtzee, the game allows you to control each part of Duke's body individually, allowing for the most realistic gameplay ever experienced. It's a game that takes us beyond gaming. It's a game from which the gaming world can never look back.
I'm honestly a little disappointed that Duke Nukem Forever is seeing a release this year. No matter how incredible the game is--and really, it doesn't look to be anything special beyond its own novelty--there's no way it can live up to a decade and a half of hype. The legend it's become in the gaming world, all the humor it's inspired by being the epitome of vaporware and developer procrastination, will be ruined once it actually exists as something we can play. The only reason the Duke Nukem franchise is even still recognizable is that it's been trying and failing since the '90s to produce a single game. I feel like the game itself can never make up for the meme its release will destroy.
Whatever your thoughts on Duke Nuken Forever, it seems it's closer to reality than it's ever been. We saw a babe-filled trailer last week, and 2K just released 10 new screenshots from the game. I don't think it looks great for 2011--the aesthetics are nothing new, and that kid's face up there is the stuff of nightmares--but I'm sure fans of the franchise or its legend will enjoy them.
The infamous sequel to the 1996 title Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever spent most of its apparently eternal incubation period under the development of 3D Realms. The company postponed the game's release for over a decade before finally cutting its development team in 2009. A year later, 2K Games announced that Gearbox had picked up the textbook vaporware and was set to release it worldwide in May of 2011. Of course, that's been delayed by a month, and the release date is now tentatively set for June 10th.
Duke Nukem Forever's effervescent nature in the gaming world has been subject of plenty of ridicule, most of it hilarious. I'm partial to the Zero Punctuation review of the game, in which Yahtzee Croshaw outlines in detail the hyperadvanced gameplay. According to Yahtzee, the game allows you to control each part of Duke's body individually, allowing for the most realistic gameplay ever experienced. It's a game that takes us beyond gaming. It's a game from which the gaming world can never look back.
I'm honestly a little disappointed that Duke Nukem Forever is seeing a release this year. No matter how incredible the game is--and really, it doesn't look to be anything special beyond its own novelty--there's no way it can live up to a decade and a half of hype. The legend it's become in the gaming world, all the humor it's inspired by being the epitome of vaporware and developer procrastination, will be ruined once it actually exists as something we can play. The only reason the Duke Nukem franchise is even still recognizable is that it's been trying and failing since the '90s to produce a single game. I feel like the game itself can never make up for the meme its release will destroy.
Whatever your thoughts on Duke Nuken Forever, it seems it's closer to reality than it's ever been. We saw a babe-filled trailer last week, and 2K just released 10 new screenshots from the game. I don't think it looks great for 2011--the aesthetics are nothing new, and that kid's face up there is the stuff of nightmares--but I'm sure fans of the franchise or its legend will enjoy them.
(via gamefreaks.co.nz)
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