Duke Nukem Forever

[Chojin]

something i noticed on the first playthrough: the general says about halfway through that the president says you shot at the aliens first, but that he's sure that's bullshit. on the second playthrough: while it's true that you do get assaulted on foot first, when you fight the mothership in your turret, it doesn't do anything until you fire the first shot. DUKE NUKEM THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.

[dextire]

If nothing else, this game has caused the most entertaining reviews I've read in years.
My two favorites so far:

Ars Technica - This is the best (in terms of entertainment) review I've read since back in the days of gaming magazines.
It's like a twelve-year-old boy was tricked into buying a empty box by a con-artist. And then the boy proceeds to beat the con-artist to death with that same empty box.

PC Gamer - This one is almost kind of sad. The reviewer goes on and on about all the problems with the game (too many puzzles, out of date graphics, etc.) that seems to describe a typical shooter that's worth a rating of 5, maybe 6 at most, and then he gives it an 8!

I'll be picking it up in the next week or two. Is it worth it to get the "Balls of Steel" edition?

[Nick]

I didn't regret picking up the Balls of Steel edition at all.

[Chojin]

what is the balls of steel edition? i got it on steam

[Mad Melvin]

The magic of Google.

[Nick]

The book and comics were real fun to read.

[Mad Melvin]

Yeah, I really liked the comic. Gave me a chuckle or two and a craving for beer.

[Nick]

I think I'll start picking up the new comic series.

[Chojin]

there's a part on the level "crash course" where you have to man a stationary gun/turret and shoot down a bunch of ships. it is literally impossible on the hardest difficulty if you play it normally because most of the shots don't land and the gun overheats too quickly to kill everyone.

to beat it, you have to first turn on 'aim assist' in the options for the section. then, i had to macro something that did 100 mouse clicks per second. it slightly lowers the firing rate of the gun, but dramatically lowers the amount of heat it uses.

[Chojin]

now that i've played through it twice and done a decent amount of multi, here's some more input.

re: multiplayer stuff; as mentioned before, your mic is on by default if you have one connect, but there is no option to turn it off. what the fuck were they thinking?

i also only get about 6 or 7 servers in the list when i browse, and some of them suffer from really bad rubberbanding. also i'm kinda disappointed that everyone gibs when they die since i love ragdoll, and it just feels wrong when you splatter someone with a pistol. the devastator feels kinda OP, but then again most of the weapons kill in one shot anyway. the one map everyone wants to play is Hollywood Holocaust (e1m1 from duke3d), but it has the worst spawn points i've seen since goldeneye 64. often you'll spawn right in the middle of a room. you do have 2 seconds of invincibility, but you'll also usually spawn right next to where you just died so the dude with the devastator gets 2 or 3 kills from you if you spawn as quickly as possible. i guess that's why you're allowed to wait to respawn.

'capture the babe' is kinda fun but feels like it would be impossible against a decent team. when you pick the women up, they wave their hands in your face and you have to press action to spank them to make them stop. you also get limited to a magnum, but it's super-powered and can kill anyone in one shot--frankly, i'd rather be able to use that gun regularly.

i beat the game again on the hardest difficulty and the ending didn't change, which was bizarre to me since the ending is about 10 seconds long and really seems like a 'try again' ending.

there's some stuff in the game that i think is really unique and neat. i love that you can see duke's body when you look down, i really like the effects when you get knocked over and have to pick yourself back up--seeing that much of your body in a first-person perspective lends a lot to feeling like you're really duke. however, duke is kinda a pussy and can be killed in a single lunge from a pigcop. it feels like he should be able to take a lot more damage, and the challenge from harder difficulties should be more/respawning enemies, not hemophilia. some of the single player maps border on brilliant, most are bland, some are quite bad.

the single player campaign is still better than most people give it credit for being, i feel. the multiplayer is a huge nostalgia rush that quickly ends when you notice just how poorly it was put together.

i'd say the game is about a 6.5 objectively, but a duke fan will probably feel like it's more of a 7.5 and want to pick it up.

[Pentegarn]

I was reading the ars technica review and I do have to point out that this reviewer seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth. He lavishes praise on the original Duke Nukem where he drops one liners (which are almost all pop culture references) and then goes on to complain that when Duke says "pork chop sandwiches" it is "just a reference". So which is it, references are "flavor" or "just a reference"?

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Chojin

there's a part on the level "crash course" where you have to man a stationary gun/turret and shoot down a bunch of ships. it is literally impossible on the hardest difficulty if you play it normally because most of the shots don't land and the gun overheats too quickly to kill everyone.

to beat it, you have to first turn on 'aim assist' in the options for the section. then, i had to macro something that did 100 mouse clicks per second. it slightly lowers the firing rate of the gun, but dramatically lowers the amount of heat it uses.

Those parts are super easy if you used the slow down option you unlock in the extra options menu. It doesn't count as cheating either.


Also I love that they included a Duke3d Freeze Ray option!

[Grislygus]

So. Don't know if you guys remember me wondering if I should buy a video game for the first time in, well, years. Fond memories of Duke Nukem 3d made this be the game I decided on.



This is, uh...








This is a game for creepy people. Which of you guys liked it?

[Pentegarn]

I haven't played it yet, but I do contend I am creepy so I will assume I do

[Chojin]

Originally Posted by Grislygus

This is a game for creepy people. Which of you guys liked it?

me. it kinda reminds me of the leisure suit larry games.

[Grislygus]

The first half was a fun and forgettable diversion like that, but then you realize in the second half that it's basically /B/TARD: THE GAME

[Chojin]

the second half of the game is mostly getting shrunk, driving, and shooting stuff

wut

[Grislygus]

The Hive. The hive at the end pretty much killed the whole thing for me completely.

Spoilers!

Tickling ass doors, the room where you have to hear sobbing and puking women referencing the things that were done to them, walking up to your freshly raped girlfriends and telling them "looks like you're… fucked" right before they die horribly after begging you to save them because they promise to lose the weight gained from being horrible-alien-pregnant.

I know it's not that big a deal, being a sleazy game and all, but jesus


It's a shame, because I loved the beginning with the whole casino/museum/shark reef thing and was having a blast as of that point

[Grislygus]

Spoilers!

and then now that I think about it, it seems like the reason they made the twins so goddamned annoying was specifically so that you wouldn't feel too bad about it. Like I said, not a big deal, but holy shit every single person who worked on this section probably stares at girls in parks while wearing trenchcoats

On the other hand, I don't really know why it's being talked about like it's the worst game ever, and I certainly don't get the TERRIBLE GRAPHICS BUGGY TERRIBLE GODAWFUL GRAPHICS comments. Then again, this is the first game I've played in a while

[Fathom Zero]

I've been hearing that a lot about that section, actually.

[Grislygus]

wtf there was a new thread I DIDN'T KNOW I WS A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT. IGNORE ME

[Chojin]

the hive is like level 3, that isn't halfway through

on the one hand i agree that the hive is the worst level in the game. on the other, it's completely appropriate with the setting and duke. duke3d had the same women in tentacle cages who would moan "kill me" when you talked to them.

[Pentegarn]

That's just it.

People bitch and complain how much more raunchy and juvenile this one is, but the only reason the first one was less so was they had severe limits with what the graphics could do back then. Had they had then what they have now, it would have been just as raunchy and juvenile.

[Phoenix Gamma]

When I was in college, I took a course called "Sociology of Deviance". Basically, it was a course about weird people who did weird things, like extreme body modification, polygamists, chubby chasers, BDSM fetishists, drug users, etc. Basically explaining what they do, why we think they're weird, and why they get off on whatever they get off on. It was really interesting because by the end of the week you'd kinda understand where these people were coming from.

I mention this because I will never understand the appeal of tentacle rape. I haven't actually booted up the game yet because of work and shit, but I watched Giant Bomb's Quick Look, and goddamn The Hive made me feel really, really uncomfortable. I'm fine with the rest of the lazy humor, but that whole level looks like it would probably depress me :V

[Chojin]

Originally Posted by Phoenix Gamma

goddamn The Hive made me feel really, really uncomfortable. I'm fine with the rest of the lazy humor, but that whole level looks like it would probably depress me :V

i think that in any other game, it would be seen as a powerful moment that challenges the player in some profound moral way. in a comedy game, it's like if there was an explicit rape scene in the middle of a naked gun movie. i thought the harvested women in duke3d were creepy and unnecessary too.