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Duke Nukem Forever reviews are in: the game sucks
The first Duke Nukem Forever reviews are in, and the overall consensus is quite negative. Does the game really suck, or does it simply mean that because of all the delays, the expectations have been set so high that the developers just can't match them?
ComputerandVideoGames has done a quick roundup of five major reviews: IGN (5.5 out of 10), Joystiq (2 out of 5), The Guardian (2 out of 5), Eurogamer (3 out of 10), and PC Gamer (80 out of 100). In short, four out of five publications didn't like it. On Metacritic, the Xbox 360 average is 50, the PS3 version sits at 62, while the PC version has a score of 76. This is likely because of how many PC gamers are appreciating the game for nostalgic reasons.
Gamers have waited over a decade to play the official sequel to Duke Nukem. The title was originally announced by 3D Realms in 1997. The project experienced all types of problems, however, and it was passed over to Triptych Games and Gearbox Software in 2009, with multiplayer components provided by Piranha Games.

Half a year ago, Gearbox confirmed that development on the title was being completed. Given how long the game had been in such a state (some 14 years), there were still many skeptics. Then the game was demoed live, but many would still not believe.
Five months ago, the game was given a set of release dates: May 3, 2011 in North America and May 6, 2011 in the rest of the world. Two months ago, this was pushed back to June 14 in North America, and on June 10 in the rest of the world.
Last month, the official PC requirements were released. This was followed by an announcement that the game is coming to OnLive, meaning you can skip the requirements if you want. Finally, the companies announced that the game has gone gold. A demo was released for some earlier this month.
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User Comments (51)
Post a comment|
Guest
on June 13, 2011 5:17 PM |
No Duke game today will ever top the 1996 DN3D. |
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ihaveaname
on June 13, 2011 5:28 PM |
No, this cannot be happening! |
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Guest
on June 13, 2011 5:31 PM |
The trailer has put me off this game. Too much bad language, sex, drugs and basic crudness. Good riddance Duke. |
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Guest
on June 13, 2011 5:35 PM |
Fail to the king, baby! The action was absolutely laughable, and repetitive. The graphics didn't impress me with anything special. The graphics engine looks pretty much like Far Cry 2004. Not even the occasional jokes or punchlines had any nostalgic feelings that would make the game more bearable. This round Duke is definitely out of gum. In my honest opinion Gearbox turned the game into trash. |
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Xclusiveitalian
on June 13, 2011 5:36 PM |
It's pure garbage. The next duke game would need to follow a more original back in the day formula different than today's FPS's. |
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TomSEA
on June 13, 2011 5:39 PM |
Zero surprise. The trailer was totally weak (including graphics). The game has been manhandled by how many different programmers and studios over a 14 year period? Expectations were sky-high. People remember that when they were 15 years old playing the original, that type of humor rocked their world but are now approaching their 30's and think that same style of humor is now juvenile. You could see this disaster coming from a mile away. I'm just wondering how many were sucked into pre-ordering it. Especially the limited edition which was something like $80?? Crazy. Oh well, 2K can now get back to what they do best. Making a Borderlands sequel. |
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Steve
on June 13, 2011 5:40 PM |
Sadly it does suck |
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princeton
on June 13, 2011 5:41 PM |
Guest said: The trailer has put me off this game. Too much bad language, sex, drugs and basic crudness. Good riddance Duke. Well thanks for telling us you're completely unaware of the point behind duke nukem. |
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Muggs
on June 13, 2011 5:51 PM |
Princeton said: Guest said: The trailer has put me off this game. Too much bad language, sex, drugs and basic crudness. Good riddance Duke. Well thanks for telling us you're completely unaware of the point behind duke nukem. I agree with Princeton. Does the guest have a clue what the whole franchise is even about? |
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Benny26
on June 13, 2011 5:52 PM |
It's a shame really. Maybe some things are just best left in the old days. |
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DokkRokken
on June 13, 2011 6:01 PM |
All Gearbox could do was polish a turd, and I'd say they gave it their all. Gearbox does 'outrageous' and 'gratuitous' pretty well. Any other developer, and it would have turned out even worse. They'll do the next Duke Nukem game right. But now we can look forward to Serious Sam 3! |
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stewi0001
on June 13, 2011 6:02 PM |
Guest said: The trailer has put me off this game. Too much bad language, sex, drugs and basic crudness. Good riddance Duke. I agree, when anything (including games, shows, movies, music, etc) focus too much on that stuff, it means it sucks because they dont have any good ideas but try to appeal to 'X' number of kids who think it's cool. |
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Emin3nce
on June 13, 2011 6:02 PM |
Have you seen the TV Commercials? It looks like a bad re-skinning of the doom 3 engine that's been dummed down to work on something 'tarded like the wii. Seriously. Worst looking game ever, the storyline is pretty lame, and well, let's just say the 'attitude' the game has was cute back in the early days... but we see worse on 6:30 cartoons nowadays. stupid bad evil resurrection of a hero that should have been left dead. |
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Muggs
on June 13, 2011 6:04 PM |
Benny26 said: It's a shame really. Maybe some things are just best left in the old days. I think that everytime I hear a remake of a song or movie. |
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Guest
on June 13, 2011 6:13 PM |
I guess I've moved on from all the inappropriate behaviour seen in these type of games, once upon a time it might have appealed but you soon learn there is more to life than chasing these short term pleasures. |
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pcnthuziast
on June 13, 2011 6:22 PM |
Can't wait till I can get it for 10 bux or less on steam... in a month or 2! smh lol |
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Muggs
on June 13, 2011 6:50 PM |
Guest said: I guess I've moved on from all the inappropriate behaviour seen in these type of games, once upon a time it might have appealed but you soon learn there is more to life than chasing these short term pleasures. So you stopped chasing short term pleasures and moved on to self righteousness. You might want to reevaluate yourself again since I don't see anything but downward movement here. |
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Cota
on June 13, 2011 7:21 PM |
Bo who, Duke Nukem was Crysased |
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pixelstuff
on June 13, 2011 8:33 PM |
I also agree with Princeton. A little bit of a bad thing is sometimes good, but put in a lot of a bad thing and it usually just makes everything bad. This rule applies to pretty much anything art related; movies, games, music, painting, cooking, dancing. Watching the DNF trailers reminds me of the Transformer film sequels. They took the comedic relief parts of the movie and said "if that was funny let's put twice as much of it. Then we'll take the action and put even more action in there. Then we'll make the big robots even bigger. Then we'll have the best movie ever." Stupid. |
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pixelstuff
on June 13, 2011 8:43 PM |
And another thing, The poor graphics are not what makes or breaks a game. I mean, I played Kings Quest 1 back in the day and it was fun! It's whether the story, exploration, and action can provide something interesting for the mind to think about that will make or break a game for me. Accurate or perfect visuals are just icing on the cake. And by the way no game out there has reached photo realism yet so they are all crap in that respect. Besides, I still enjoy playing Duke Nukem 3D every once in a while and we know how state of the art those visuals are. |
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pixelstuff
on June 13, 2011 8:50 PM |
Ooops. Sorry Princeton. I don't necessarily agree with you. I got the post authors mixed up. My first post was more in agreement with stewi0001 and guest, I suppose. Oh well. LOL. |
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p51d007
on June 13, 2011 9:47 PM |
Played the leaked torrent for the PC...yeah, it sucked, but was still kind of nice to kick as* and chew bubble gum...too bad the game was out of gum. When it shows up on the bargain bin for 19.99, I'll get it, just to have it, but I sure wouldn't pay 50 bucks or more for it. |
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supertech
on June 13, 2011 10:11 PM |
This game has taken so long to come out that no one really cares anymore. The people who originally played this game are now adults and 20 years beyond this game. There are way too many great titles such as Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, and many more super titles so that is why no one really cares about this game. The Duke Nukem franchise lost it's opportunity and that is just too bad. 20 years in technology is like 100 years in reality. |
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Wendig0
on June 14, 2011 12:37 AM |
Well, there's always "Duke Nudem". Giggity! |
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treetops
on June 14, 2011 1:35 AM |
I have played single player for 7 hours, I am still waiting for my amazon copy in the mail, it will arrive on the 14th. Anyways I give it a 8 out of 10. Heres a good review and theres another i read at like thunder.com or something that gave it 8.5. [link] Heres a poll with about 200 people who have played the full version, 80%+ say its good I like it. Spoilers in that thread btw. [link] |
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