My theory on Duke Nukem Forever
 

A couple of years ago, this was easily my #1 most anticipated game. What little 3D Realms had shown, I liked. Now of course, it's not even on my list, but I have to think they must still be working on it. However, I don't believe they are using the Unreal Engine anymore. I think they have developed their own graphics engine, and started yet again building the game from scratch, or converting over what they could. There is absolutely no way they would be taking this long otherwise... look at how many great games have come out using the Unreal and Quake 3 engines in the time those games have come out. I think Half-Life 1 was out the last time any new screenshots were released, and now look at what Valve has done with Half-Life 2, which they say will be out at the end of September.

Either that, or 3d Realms is just playing a smoke and mirrors game, and they actually have some sort of game, but they know now it would be so behind the times that they arent releasing it. I have to hope it's the first case though, I'd love to see Duke finally make another appearance.

Brian

has it ever occured to anyone that the title "forever" might just really mean there is no game and that its not going to be finished "forever"? Just imagine, if the publisher decided to pull all of our strings just to make us think theres going to be a next DN

I heard that they switched graphic engine three times.

I just don't care at this point. Release it, don't release it. I've just lost all interest.

But I didn't get much out of the original, so my opinion would be different from those who loved the first game.

I think they should have taken the approach from the start that we've seen Valve take with Half-Life 2. Say nothing, not even to say that they are making the game, until they are actually ready to release it. *I think* this is what they are currently doing, as people over the past few years have been really critical of delay after delay with the game and it's now become a running joke on Duke Nukem (taking) Forever.

I'll be interested to see what actually happened during development when the game finally comes out to cause such delays and how much rework and scrapping took place.

Duke Nukem Forever dissapeared into the twilight zone along with Team Fortress 2.

I loved Duke Nukem 3D, but last time I tried playing it, it made me feel ill... all of the old 2.5D shooters do this to me now, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's for the same reason I used to play with inverted mouse a few years ago, but the last time I tried playing a shooter, I had to play with an un-inverted mouse.

I was looking at 3D Realms site for the Max Payne 2 demo, and happened to notice that they've removed all screenshots of Duke Forever.... saying that it no longer represents the current look and feel of the game ;)

Brian

They probably switched from the newer Unreal engine to HalfLife 2 or Doom3 engine..heh...it will never end!

Unfortunately plans for Duke Nukem Forever were scrapped for the PC.

The game has been moved to the Phantom console.

:)

We've only been waiting since what, 1998?

I'm not sure what engine they could be on now, but it simply seems that the game design process wasn't planned out very well. Instead of commiting themselves to what they were doing, they keep trying to be the best game ever rather then releasing a very good game. It's like they saw what one game could do, and thought "shit, we have to top that, back to the drawing board."

It's like the whole PC upgrade mentality... you can't go by the adage that "there will be better and cheaper things if i wait" because there will always be better and cheaper things, and you'll be waiting "forever" :)

I havent thought about Duke Forever much since like...2001.

"Serious Sam" was no "Half-Life" and it still managed to be a fun and awesome game. 2nd encounter had some cool levels and it didnt take CroTeam 85,000 years to make that.

If and when Duke Nukem Forever is released, I'll bet it's going to enjoy the same level of success and accolades as the classic DAIKATANA.

They did switch engines 3 times. They started over in 2002 and have developed their own in-house engine. George Broussard has stated that they started over in 2002 and he has also said that it takes at least 3 years to produce a good solid game. Forget everything you saw in the 2001 e3 video. This will be the second time they started over. George said the tech is done and now all they have left to do is make the game... he asserts that the tech is the hard part. My guess would be late 2005/early 2006 release.

I never realized this, I thought they just switched to a new engine. That is good to hear that they decided to just develop their own.

Now let's just hope that once they finish the game they are happy with it and don't decide to keep working on their engine.

Trigger: Thanks... I don't follow the 3D Realms forums, so I didn't know that George Broussard had said anything about it.

Brian

I have been checking out that forum every few months for the last few years just to keep up to date on the progress

I'm in the camp that couldn't care about it anymore. I even have the 2001 DVD E3 demo.

you could give that to me since you don't care anymore. :D

Geez with all the research and development and man hours put into this game its gonna have to have a 200 dollar retail price to make any money lol

I work in the game industry in Texas and have several co-workers with friends at 3DR. Apparently, according to them, the game MIGHT make this Christmas, but it might not.

here's me not holding my breath.

:)