To quote the Nerd:

"Duke Nukem Forever. It sucked back then, and it sucked forever!"

I'm really not seeing why everyone thinks the game is bad. Anyone with half a brain should know that it wasn't going to be anything groundbreaking, and so far I've found the game to be really enjoyable.

Edited by RisingDragon on June 15, 2011 at 2:46:29

Gamers and critics alike seem to be very negative about this game, and I don't really see why.

It's still a solid FPS experience, with over the top, so bad it's good, guilty pleasure quality.

I like that some of your interactions with the world can lead to health upgrades, which often leads to more Duke-esque hilarity or awesomeness. Two rewards for the price of one!

As for the flaws, I'm finding this game could use more of the over the top Duke-esque non-seriousness, and try less to be epic, edgy, and dark.

There are also times when Duke is completely silent, namely when interacting with story related NPCs, which is kind of a downer. It makes him seem more bland like your typical FPS protagonist, who is usually silent, and less like the Duke Nukem we've come to expect.

And the load times are atrocious.

I've never really played any of the Duke Nukem games, and haven't played Forever. That said, I can't say it's surprising it isn't getting the best reception. It's the Chinese Democracy of video games. Nothing can live up to that kind of legacy.

(I think review from Something Awful is relevant here)

"The wait is over, Duke is back! The reviews for Duke Nukem Forever are in and they are not favorable. In addition to the dated feel of the game, most reviewers cite DNF's rampant misogyny, recycled dialogue, and toilet humor as indications of low quality. Defenders of the game point out that Duke is a joke and you shouldn't take it at all seriously. They're both wrong.

Duke Nukem Forever is full of shocking misogyny, puerile toilet humor, and it is terrible, but DNF isn't a joke at all. This is a serious, methodical, absolute refutation of male-empowerment and the patriarchal ideals of manhood. It depicts a reality in which the entire world bows to a single hyper-masculine character's ego and sexual needs, and this world is as dystopian as its egocrat is a monster. It screams, with every flung turd, slapped woman, and chugged beer: "Death to the patriarchy!"

The game begins with Duke facing off against a toilet, phallus in hand. Press the button to urinate. This is such a clear Jungian allusion to the violence throughout the game - the player will spend the entire game staring at Duke's deadly phallus aimed at women and aliens - that it is amazing this opening moment has been so misread by reviewers as purely toilet humor.

Duke marks his territory for as long as the person playing the game chooses to engage in the act. From there players are free to explore a sporting stadium's training area; the hearth stone of modern masculinity. As Duke, you can rush through this portion or wallow in Duke's oppressive ego, marveling at himself at every turn, even if he is incapable of jumping the six inches to stand in a Jacuzzi tub. You can even force Duke to pull a wet piece of excrement from a toilet, holding it and flinging it as you see fit. Duke is tortured by your actions, audibly objecting and wondering why. Why are you, his super-ego, abusing him?

If Duke Nukem Forever were a third-person game the player would feel as if they were witnessing the actions of another. In this context I could see the common reviewer's arguments against the game having credence. Like Haneke's Funny Games the audience, or in this case, the player, would be participating by watching, participating as a voyeur in Duke's disgusting acts of misogyny.

Instead, by thrusting the player into the first person perspective, the highly linear game forces the player to become Duke and grants them the illusion of agency. They are forced to realize the hyperbolic fullness of the masculine ideal. To ensure you never forget this, Duke is addressed and speaks constantly, bragging and preening as he dishes out violence and insults in equal measure. Your health is synonymous with your ego and undertaking traditionally masculine acts - sports, lifting weights, torturing animals - increases your ego.

For the testosterone addicts, this is the gaming equivalent of forcing a kid caught smoking to power through an entire carton of cigarettes. "Look at how bad your choices are," the game brags, rubbing your nose in disintegrating women and jiggling breasts. As Duke you're not "saving the babes" or "getting back the chicks," you wear the boot of the patriarchy stepping on the throat of all women and your only choice is how hard to press the boot.

Even the setting, Las Vegas, is a hollow palace of the patriarchy, a latter-day Mecca for the male id and ego. It imitates the real world, but Duke has infected it, towering in golden statues and dioramas like the power-mad dictator of a forgotten Soviet satellite. When women are seen they throw themselves at Duke and make sexual comments. Such is his power that even when shrunk to the size of a toy a woman wants to violate herself with his entire body.

The plot is rudimentary. It serves the larger metaphor. Aliens are kidnapping all of the women, freeing them from Duke's domination. He wants them back, and this journey takes him through the ruins of Las Vegas to an alien hive. Here, the game reaches its psychosexual climax.

The alien hive exists as a gynecological atrocity, a womb-as-city. Sphincters and labial shapes appear at every turn and heaving breasts literally decorate the wall. Duke can slap these and laugh as women moan in the background. During this section Duke has achieved apotheosis, becoming himself a phallus, penetrating the alien reproductive enclave, deflowering doors and chuckling through galleries of female viscera. When the women are encountered, restrained and submissive, presumably raped by aliens, they cannot be saved, Duke can only leave them, slap them, or kill them to terminate their alien pregnancy in a final act of sexual violence.

Duke's trivial apologies as you execute these helpless women are the sign that, at last, you have acted beyond the boundaries of even this monster. Even Duke Nukem is appalled by killing women, but it's all he can do to save them. "It's better this way," he says, unconvincingly. At the end of the hive section Duke, the king, must destroy the immense alien queen to subjugate women once more.

If you feel sickened by this point in the game, congratulations, you're not a complete psychopath. If you blame this sickness on Duke or Gearbox or 3D Realms then you've still missed the larger point. It is your fault. You guided Duke through level after level, you cooperated, you collaborated, you pulled the trigger. You chose to reach this point.

And, the game declares, no matter who you are, even if you are a woman, slave to the patriarchy, if you are playing the game then you are part of the problem.

So don't play this game."

Even as a parody, this still doesn't help me. Is it Duke or not?

It's over the line of good taste, but not far enough over that it becomes entertaining. It's just in that awkward valley of awful.

Instead of going on and on about a dime-a-dozen negative review from whatever elitist review site, I'm going to instead relay the little gem of wisdom offered by the Dueling Analogs webcomic concerning DNF.

Personally? I thought the game was worth it.

Edited by RisingDragon on June 16, 2011 at 16:48:57

I couldn't make it farther than this. I'll get to it eventually, but I LOLed quite a bit at this.

I was generalizing, as there's a lot of review sites on the 'net that are pretty elitist.

I'll grant you that. Doesn't change that it came off sounding incredibly butthurt and bitter. Of course, I live in the Hipster homeland, so I'm just about ready to strangle anyone who uses buzzwords.

I dislike critics pretty much as a rule--I never did like letting people influence my opinion over something. The only critic that's really worth listening to is one's self.

As far as the criticisms on Duke Nukem Forever... well, most of them were expecting the game to live up to its hype, and frankly anyone with half a brain should've known better. Loading times aside (which were pretty horrible), DNF was a pretty solid shooter, and this is coming from someone who's pretty much abhorred modern shooters since Halo came out. I grew up on traditional shooters like Duke 3D and Doom; I didn't like being limited to two to three weapons and a couple shots for health.

And despite that, I still enjoyed DNF. Probably because I didn't set myself up for the fall of thinking it'd be the next groundbreaking, cornerstone-setting shooter since Halo.

I disagree. I don't have unlimited resources, so it's important that I get a good sense of what I might like or dislike before I spend that money. While I may not always agree with a particular critic, they do tend to serve as a good general indicator.



"The game not only doesn't fulfill all the hopes we have put in it (lets' be honest – that was impossible), but even when looking at it without thinking about the legend, it seem extremely mediocre. Ugly graphics, cliché gaming mechanics and a general lack of attention to details resemble a typical budget production."

"If you're going to 'go modern', do it. If you're going to 'go retro', do it. Just don't go half-and-half and end up failing to appease fans of both approaches. While DNF is kind-of fun, is playable and can be enjoyed all the way until the end, it's far away from what it should have been."

I think you're overestimating the amount of criticism that came from its legacy.

And despite that, I still enjoyed DNF. Probably because I didn't set myself up for the fall of thinking it'd be the next groundbreaking, cornerstone-setting shooter since Halo.[/quote]

Duke is so far removed from 1998 and the action heroes he was a parody of that he no longer works. The game just didn't click with me, and I'd just as soon go back to Duke Nukem 3D.

*sigh* See, I can respect your opinion, but most of the criticisms being laid out on the game by review sites seem baseless. The graphics are no worse than any other shooter these days, like the recent Halo games, can't argue the gaming mechanics being cliche, if you want to consider the same shooter gaming mechanics used in all current shooters as cliche, and DNF thus far has paid more attention to detail than I've seen in most shooters.

I think Duke Nukem could qualify as a parody of some of the more modern video game heroes, at least for the shooter genre. (Master Chief, Marcus Fenix, etc.)

Though DNF isn't perfect, and had that unusual pacing from typical Duke Nukem, to dark and more serious like your typical modern game (the later half of the game being more so than the former), I still enjoyed it.

I hope for the next Duke Nukem game, they lose the more dark, serious, and disturbing stuff, and just make the game more about what Duke's all about. Cheap one liners, babes, and an over the top combination of humor and violence.

The next Duke game seems to be an officially-sanctioned remake of Duke Nukem 3D--and may I remind you, Arkane, that Duke 3D had some of those twisted elements from The Hive as well? Episode 2 was full of them in the beginning, as was the first level of episode 3. Duke just didn't remark about it.

DNF was the first Duke Nukem game I ever played, so those parts were kind of a first for me. That aside though, I don't think those parts necessarily contribute to the games' benefit. If those parts are going to be a reoccurring element, I guess I can just overlook them, like I sort of did for DNF in favor of the parts I did enjoy.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, Duke 3D had the alien growths and captured women, though they didn't moan and squirm like they did in DNF. Technical limitations there. The only thing you could do there was grant their request for death, just like in DNF, as a reference to Alien. In the Duke 64 remake you could rescue them, due to censorship, which was a theme continued in the Zero Hour and Manhattan Project games.

Alright Mega X, looks like we're due another full-blown World War 2 scale argument, cause it seems like you've got beef with the Dukest of Nukems.

DNF is Duke. There's not much more to say. I happen to adore the Duke Nukem games and don't see why people are saying this one is "bad" and "dark" and "misogynist"--

Oh wait no I see why. Cause the US has become Politically Correct Whiner Central. If DN3D came out today, people would literally be shitting themselves since it was

- gorier than DNF
- more crass
- you could kill nameless strippers and hear them scream OHNOES
- way harder

PS DN3D has a level JUST LIKE DNF's "alien" level where the women are trapped. It seems like everyone forgot all those cocooned women in DN3D? That you could blow up. :shrug:

bitch i'll cut you



Frankly, I prefer the pre-3D days when Duke was just an egomaniac without the side-order of misogyny.



Please don't start peddling the "PC Police" bullshit. You're one of the few people I don't occasionally roll my eyes at. YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, LISA HOLLOW



Maybe it's just not having played DN3D in ages, but the tone felt different in this one. That level just sort of existed in this awkward area where it wasn't in good taste, but also wasn't over the top enough to be legitimately hilarious.

Besides, DNF's gameplay was shit. Seriously, if I find out who was in charge of the design team, I am going to go all blood for the blood god on that shit. And I'm not even allowed to worship the blood god.

QED, motherfucker. <-- Not relevant, but I've always wanted to say that.

I realize that's your opinion, but I honestly thought it played exactly like every other FPS out there.

Could there be more to it? Yes. Was it really horrible? No. IMO.

What Arkane said. It was just like every other FPS.

Also Duke has been a "misogynist" since Duke 3D. You just don't remember because you were probably playing it behind mommy and daddy's back or some shit.

But that's EXACTLY WHAT IT IS. How come back when Duke 3D, or Duke Time To Kill, or any of his other games (which were filled with OHNOES MISOGYNY) were never criticized for it?

Because in this stupid day and age, you can't say anything "negative" against a woman without a slew of people attacking you. Either women themselves, or men with guilt complexes.

So when this game came out, it was all OH MY GOD LOOK HE'S USING WOMEN FOR SEX!!!!!!!111 That happens every single day in the real world, and you're doing nothing about it. Get over yourselves with this "misogyny" crap and fucking laugh at the game like you're supposed to.

Puh-leeeze. I'll take Half-Life over that shit any day.

Which is fitting, because HL2: Ep 3 is probably going to be about as mythical as DNF was.



Yeah, which is what I meant when I said I preferred it in the old days (you know, the first two games) when he was just a raging egomaniac.





Look, don't get me started on the state of gender inequality in the United States. It's still ridiculous even today, as modern as we think we are. I don't know why it was more acceptable back then instead of now, but none of the reasons that come to my mind are flattering. At best, it probably had something to do with the fact that the Duke is a parody of action heroes that only exist now as parodies themselves, which really makes him look and feel dated.

And as for me "doing nothing about it"? Respectfully, you don't know shit about what I'm doing, and I would thank you very much to not pretend otherwise.



I just want the game to meet me halfway here and be funny.

Funny you should mention that...

Oh great, Mega X has become a feminist.

I'd prefer the old right extremist that emailed me and told me to vote for Dubya to that.

*Post redacted*