Can this be the year of the Duke?

[Isildur´s Heir]

Well, can it?
Because it has to come out sooner or later, and 12 years is a long time.
Duke Nukem Forever is the most awaited game in video game history, so, the only question is, will it live to the hype?
Like many say, for a game 12 years in the making, if it´s not the best game ever released, and it can actually cure some kind of cancers, it will be a flop.
And if so, if it gets released this year, which system will it go to?

My call, it will see the light of day this year and it will be Microsoft exclusive.
Hear why....

Why 09?
We haven´t heard nothing on Duke Nukem Forever for many years, until Sep 08, when screenshots started to be revealed

Why release images to a game still in the making?
One that is so for a very long time.
Rumour also say that the game is already up and running on the UE3 (as we can see in the first 2 pics, especially in the 2nd).
Also, George Broussard (one of the creator of DK and developer of DKF) said, on 12th Jan: "Game developers often say “Cutting is shipping”. We begin this year with a vengeance and a chainsaw."

Why exclusive to Microsoft?

The logic states that it will go to every system in the planet, 3D spent a lot of money doing it, they need to make it back.
But, the screens above were all released as a bonus at the end of Duke Nukem 3D for XBLA.
First, 3D Realms doesn´t make a game in a long time, but they did, the remake for the XBLA.
Why not release it on the PSN too?
Why release 3 new screens on a XBLA game?
Why not release it on some website like normaly everyone does?
It would get the same reaction and seen by more people.
The screens are not from a PC version, but 360.
And from what i gathered, the game is being made on a version and build of UE3 that was made for the Microsoft console, and easier to port to the PC.
After i came to this theory, i found that there are a lot of rumors running around that it will, indeed be a 360 exclusive.


Microsoft needs a big announcement for this year...it might be it.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

The screens are not from a PC version, but 360.
And from what i gathered, the game is being made on a version and build of UE3 that was made for the Microsoft console, and easier to port to the PC.

It uses the unreal 2 engine.
Those are pc screens.

 

[Havok83]

Who cares was my first thought. I dont get why they dont just officially cancel the project.

 

[[A]]

*sigh* I just don't care anymore

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Who cares was my first thought. I dont get why they dont just officially cancel the project.

Yes, the care level is very low for this one.
Some games sometime get labeled vapourware but actually do come out though. Team Fortress 2 sat since 1998, released 2007, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Cherynoble sat since 2001 and was released 6 years later in 2007.

They have released sets of pictures before, years back.
Here we are now, with another set.

 

[Havok83]

Duke Nukem was so revered back then bc it was so different and original. It had a great sense of humor not seen in FPS before. It also was one of the firsts that helped define the genre and put it on the map in a big way. There was nothing like it on the market and it was arguably the best out there. The time for a sequel would have been in the mid90s. They've waited way too long and the genre didnt stand still for it. Amazing series and franchises have been created since then like Half Life, Call of Duty, Halo etc... They have raised the bar and DN had such high expectations that I dont think it could compete with these. Taking over 10 years for a sequel, it needs to be more than just damn great. It needs to be near perfect in order to justify taking so long to get out there and I dont think it will be. I say just drop it and create a new franchise which is a spiritual successor to Duke Nukem. I think thats the best option to go at this point

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Personally if it does come out I hope it is duke nukem with a lick of paint than an attempt to do something new or updated game play with the times. I bought the ID super pack off steam and going through the catalogue, doom 3 was only fun the first play through, now that years have went on abit can the glossy graphics aren't pretty as they once were, it just didn't have a big enough fun factor to go through it again. Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II remain consistianlty fun, same with Return To Castle Wolfenstien wich was more true to it's original gameplay than doom 3 was. The game play might be archaic but it was a hell of alot more fun.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

It uses the unreal 2 engine.
Those are pc screens.

I´m not even going to debate that.
Everywhere it say that those screens are from the 360 and uses the UE 3.

I completly understand many people don´t care anymore, myself included.
The game is in the making for so long that it as everything to go wrong and be the laughing stock of the video game biz.
But the thing is, DKF is still out there, it was never canceled, and 3D Reamls was (i say was because they don´t make a game in a very long time) one of the best developers around.
And it´s the Duke, one of the most recognizable and revered characters in video game history....
I believe that, when announced and shown gameplay, everyone will not be able to not care.

 

[hippie_hunter]

This game never coming out....confirmed

A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the development studio has shut down.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee. Employees of both entities have already been let go.

Phone calls and e-mails to various 3D Realms veterans have thus far gone unanswered, with 3D Realms publishing partner Take-Two and Apogee partner Deep Silver likewise unavailable for comment. One 3D Realms spokesperson declined to comment when reached.

3D Realms was founded in 1987 by Scott Miller and George Broussard, and was best known for its Duke Nukem series of shooters starring the titular, bubblegum-lacking hero. The studio had infamously been working on Duke Nukem Forever, the next flagship franchise entry, for over 12 years.

A final push to release Duke Nukem Forever began in 2007, marked by a short teaser starring the in-game hero that was released late that year.

As recent as January 2009, company steward George Broussard wrote on his Twitter feed that he was visiting Take-Two to show off the title.

Update: Apogee Software and Deep Silver have issued a statement to Shacknews, confirming that the situation at 3D Realms has not affected the development of Frontline Games' upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy.

"Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms," a representative for the companies told us. "Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned."

Update 2: Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two has confirmed to Shacknews that it was not funding ongoing development of the 3D Realms project.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.

Update 3: 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler has publicly confirmed the shut down, stating: "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

All I have to say to this is LOL!

 

[hippie_hunter]

This game never coming out....confirmed

A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the development studio has shut down.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee. Employees of both entities have already been let go.

Phone calls and e-mails to various 3D Realms veterans have thus far gone unanswered, with 3D Realms publishing partner Take-Two and Apogee partner Deep Silver likewise unavailable for comment. One 3D Realms spokesperson declined to comment when reached.

3D Realms was founded in 1987 by Scott Miller and George Broussard, and was best known for its Duke Nukem series of shooters starring the titular, bubblegum-lacking hero. The studio had infamously been working on Duke Nukem Forever, the next flagship franchise entry, for over 12 years.

A final push to release Duke Nukem Forever began in 2007, marked by a short teaser starring the in-game hero that was released late that year.

As recent as January 2009, company steward George Broussard wrote on his Twitter feed that he was visiting Take-Two to show off the title.

Update: Apogee Software and Deep Silver have issued a statement to Shacknews, confirming that the situation at 3D Realms has not affected the development of Frontline Games' upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy.

"Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms," a representative for the companies told us. "Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned."

Update 2: Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two has confirmed to Shacknews that it was not funding ongoing development of the 3D Realms project.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.

Update 3: 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler has publicly confirmed the shut down, stating: "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

All I have to say to this is LOL!

 

[Havok83]

This game never coming out....confirmed



All I have to say to this is LOL!

Im surprised it took them soo long. A company can only throw in so much money into a project which after 12 years has yet to be released and make a return

 

[StrainedEyes]

It probably wasn't even that good.

 

[Addendum]

It probably wasn't even that good.

And then it would've been scrapped when they switched to yet another game engine

 

[Spade]

I've been tracking the updates on this. Joe Sieglger confirmed it an hour or two ago, but the 3D Realms forums have been down. This is very disappointing, but I can't say I'm surprised. There's been a lot of talk about the developers mucking around for far too long on this game. If you're interested in finding out the details, this would be a good place to check out.

 

[KALEL114]

This was a good read as well albeit far fetched:

Spoiler

Game developer Charlie Wiederhold, who worked at 3D Realms between 1998 and 2006 wrote on his personal blog about an mindblowing conspiracy perpetrated between the heads of 3D Realms, Epic Games and a few other leading members of the industry to keep Duke Nukem Forever in almost perpetual development for the PR and marketing purposes of boosting the success of the Unreal Engine and to create a game that was to be remembered for all time:

Before heading out to E3, George and Scott Miller had arranged a meeting between Epic, 3DR, and the people who had worked on Duke 3D but weren’t working on DNF. The intent of this meeting was… you guessed it… how best to handle the future of the Duke franchise. Epic was invited because having Duke around on the Unreal Engine was a constant PR boon for them. So they are almost just as invested in how well Duke does as 3DR (as you will see later). It was a secret meeting (there were actually two meetings, but I’ll get to that later), not even the publisher knew about it (except Mike Wilson… he was operating outside of the Gathering of Developer’s authority). The people there were Scott Miller, George Broussard, Cliffy B, Mark Rein, Tim Sweeney, Levelord, Allen Blum, Keith Schuler, myself, Brandon Reinhart, Mike Wilson, and even Todd Replogle and Ken Silverman made the trip out there.

The plan was actually pretty simple… create the longest developed game in history that eventually is one of the greatest games ever made. You have the time to work on it properly (no ****), so given the intelligence and talent of all the people involved, it was a pretty good bet. All 3DR had to do was make money on other stuff. All Epic had to do was open up a wide channel between the two companies. 3DR would serve as a research house for future Epic engine updates, but also give 3DR everything they did as well. The boots on the ground just had to keep the drum beating and keep the image of business as usual going. The truly hard to swallow part of this was some of us had to eventually leave, but we were guaranteed we’d be ok. All we had to do was let go of the idea of just making DNF in the traditional way… which I’m ashamed to admit was easier to let go of than I thought it would be.

The story then takes a sudden shift as the chief parties start to resemble members of the Mafia, and ends with a physical threat on the developer's life when he questioned the contract he was about to sign. Read on.

We all came back the next day. We went around and gave our thoughts on things after having a night to sleep on it. Scott and George wanted to get paperwork signed that day if we were going to attempt it at all. This seemed *way* too soon and I didn’t have a lawyer around to read the contract or anything. I was young, but I had had enough experience by that point to know you don’t sign a contract of any significance without having a lawyer read it. Unfortunately it was made clear that this offer was active only so long as we were all in the room. Once any one of us left it was void and Scott, George, and Mark Rein (the three that put it together) would deny all knowledge. They had never done any discussions of this in written form except the contracts which Scott Miller was holding.

That was pressure… here was this deal where I would be set for life, and if I backed out of it, it would blow the whole thing for both companies and everyone involved. Not only would I be backing out of the opportunity of a lifetime, but I would also be ruined in the industry because those guys have way more power than I do. I wanted to do it, but how do you commit on such short notice and without really knowing what you are signing?

Brandon, Allen, Keith, and I kept hemming and hawing and we could tell we were really causing problems with everyone else in the room. I said that I wanted to do it, but I *had* to have a lawyer review it before I signed it. The fury in the eyes of the guys sitting across from me was literally enough to give me a third degree burn. I have *never* felt that much fear in my life. Well… up to that point at least.

I was told to think about my next words very carefully before giving my final answer. Honestly, I felt this was a test to see how well I would hold up to pressure later when we had to “hold the lie” (the similarity to “hold the line” isn’t on accident), so I held firm and said I really wanted to, but needed to have it reviewed…

oh ****…

Faster than I can even remember (literally… I don’t remember) I was knocked out of my chair by I *think* of all people Tim Sweeney (it was a wooden kitchen chair) and was pinned on the ground by Mike Wilson and Cliffy B (he’s so much stronger than I ever expected). George walks over to my chair and ******* stomps the **** out of it until the legs are broken off. He casually picks up one of the legs that had split into a **** your pants style point and starts tossing it up and down. Scott and Mark Rein alternate on and off saying that I apparently wasn’t aware how *real* business is done and that if I didn’t want to find out why those two companies had maintained such a strong position in the industry dating back to the shareware days (when it seems people didn’t ask nearly as many questions about why developers appeared, made a game, and then disappeared without a trace)… I had better reconsider my answer.

I do remember the next part very very well though… I will never forget it and I have to admit that I have dreams about it pretty frequently.

Cliffy and Mike pulled me up and shoved my face about 6 inches from the point of the chair leg. I was drenched in sweat (the trailers didn’t have decent AC so it was already hot as hell in there)… and if they had let go of me I would not have been able to stand on my own.

George looked me in the eyes and asked me one more time what I was going to do… so at that point I did what anyone would do…

Far out. I don't buy that at all, but it makes for a good story (read the original here).

Wiederhold is currently under the employ of Infinity Ward, where he works as a mission scriptor on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Thanks to VE3D for the heads up on the news.

http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs...-Duke-Nukem-Forever-and-a-Story-About-a-Chair

http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Chinese Democracy took forever to get made.

But, it got made.

And I loved it.

So...here's to Chinese Democracy.

And I think it just needs to be great. Not an end all-be all perfect. Just great is enough, I think.

Those screens look nice, though.

And if we're able to take a dump on an enemies head after defeating them...I dunno, that could still be considered something "original".

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Links that have pics from former employees that were working on Duke Nukem Forever:

http://talkinrealatyou.blogspot.com/

http://www.squidcakes.blogspot.com/

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Well, i was right, this is the year of the Duke....the year of Duke Nukem Forever, Forever in Limbo.

But, I believe that Take Two will end on making it, and is not going to take half as long for them to do it.
And i also believe that this will not be the end of George Broussard (to start, he revived Apogee Software last year).
But yeah, Duke Nukem Forever will be Forever the biggest joke in gaming history

Edit: All games that were being produced by 3D Realms (minus DNF) are now at Radar Group, a new studio created by Scott Miller (the other creator of Apogee and 3D Realms).
So, Prey 2 is still alive and kicking

 

[Dark_Lord]

Leaked Gameplay

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Looks very cool.
I still say that 3D Realms was a great developer and the game would be hit, just took too damn long...
Still, there is a chance that Take 2 will make it or end the development.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Looks like it could have been alot of fun.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Something is still going on...

Apogee Software's COO Terry Nagy has revealed that a press release regarding new Duke Nukem info will arrive sometime next week.
One can say that this is about Duke Nukem Trilogy, but, because we know that it is still going to be released, there isn´t much of an announcement there.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-...5d10-Duke-Nukem-announcement-coming-next-week

Then we arrive to another rumor...
Ok, it´s more of speculation than anything, but, if it´s right, then i was right too, because this all thread was about exactly this.
3D Realms didn´t closed, they were bought by Microsoft, and with it, the exclusivity of Duke Nukem Fovever.

http://www.thebitbag.com/2009/05/10/3d-realms-possibly-bought-out-by-microsoft/

Right or wrong, imo, it seems that Microsoft is back to form, and BigPark studio was the just the first buyout.

 

[Addendum]

I highly, highly, doubt it will ever come out. But, if by some bizarre set of circumstances it does, it's just going to be a rental with me.

 

[Matt]

Does anyone remember the 1991 original Duke Nukem game where Duke was just a guy who was pissed off that Dr. Proton's plan to invade the world interrupted his soap opera?

 

[BlackLantern]

I remember the old shareware 2d side scroller Duke Nukem and then the 64 version with strippers and Pig guys