Gearbox Software ruined one of the best running jokes in software when they brought Duke Nukem Forever to market. At a recent developer conference in Brighton, they talked about working with independent developers to revive the character.
From Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford:
"I did not acquire the franchise merely to make sure we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever," Pitchford said. "That was sort of the toll we had to pay." He then explained that while Gearbox has carried out some concept development for the franchise, they'd need to work with the "correct developer" to make a new game.
One of the pitches:
Sam Barlow (Her Story)
Duke Nukem goes into a Vegas strip club at 4am, and it's kind of empty, and there's only two strippers working. He throws some money at them. Then, because there's no one else around, they sit down and they talk to him, and Duke sits there and he listens to this stripper talk about her life, why she's stripping, her family back home and how they live a state away but she flies into Vegas for two weeks of the month to earn money, then she goes go back and looks after her kids.
Then after an hour of this conversation, of him just listening to the woman talk, she asks Duke about his life, and then it flips. It's the first time anyone's actually asked about him, and he's forced to look inside himself and understand why he does these things, why he feels the need to kick ass, and it's just a lovely moment that they share. He walks away from it feeling like he understands himself a little bit better, but the ending is kind of ambiguous. We see Duke leave the strip club and we don't know what happens next.
What's your pitch, Soylent?
Original Submission
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Embracer Group has been backing away from its all-encompassing position in the games industry lately. The latest divestment is Gearbox Entertainment, the studio behind the Borderlands series it bought in early 2021 for a deal that could have been worth up to $1.37 billion to Gearbox had it stayed inside the Swedish conglomerate's grasp.
The buyer is Take-Two Interactive Software, which had previously partnered with Gearbox on publishing Borderlands and other titles. Take-Two will issue new shares of its common stock to pay $460 million for Gearbox, to be completed before the end of June this year. Embracer paid $363 million in cash and stock for Gearbox in 2021 but promised up to $1 billion more should the developer hit earnings goals over six years.
[...] Gearbox has studios in Texas, Montreal, and Quebec City, Canada. The firm had 550 employees at the time of its acquisition, but divisions of the company had seen layoffs in January.
[...] Embracer had been acquiring properties in 2021 and 2022 with an understanding that a planned $2 billion investment from the Saudi-government-backed Savvy Games Group would give the new mega-conglomerate some runway.
[...] Once the Saudi deal fell through in May 2023, however, the firm announced that it would undergo a major restructuring through March 2024. That included the shutdown of Volition in August 2023 and deep cuts at Eidos that took an unannounced Deus Ex title with them.
Gearbox and its Borderlands franchise were the biggest get, however. The looter-shooter series, struck through with (often exhausting) "edge-y" humor, has reportedly sold more than 77 million copies and earned more than $1 billion in revenue throughout its run, according to Bloomberg. Take-Two noted that a Borderlands game was "in active development" at Gearbox in its acquisition announcement.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:12PM
SJWs will not let a modern Duke Nukem happen. The only way Duke survives is a modern remake of the original three games, which are allowed for nostalgic reasons.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:25PM
That pitch could make a good film if done properly, however it wouldn't be a video game; it would be a long cutscene.
Does she know what a video game is? Because it sounds like she thinks it's just a newfangled type of movie.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:51PM
Have you "played" any of the "games" written by SJWs? This sounds about right.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Jesus_666 on Saturday July 18 2015, @01:31PM
Duke goes to the strip joint, talks to the stripper, hears her life story. She asks about his life and what he does. Flashback to earlier, when Duke has a perfecly normal day (doing something like bench-pressing ammo crates) that is interrupted by yet another alien invasion. Cue lots of shooting, improbable action scenes, corny one-liners and the like. The final level actually ends with Duke crashing the alien spaceship in front of the strip club and walking in. The flashback ends and instead of deep soul-searching we just see Duke put on a self-satisfied grin and saying something corny like "I'm just doing what I love."
It'd be a bait-and-switch that pretends to be an examination of the deeper layers of the two-dimensional action hero Duke is, when in the end it turns out that there are no deeper layers; Duke is a two-dimensional action hero and he likes it that way. Duke Nukem Five-Ever would be a celebration of the stupid action hero in all his corny glory. (If you want to address his casual sexism you could have someone call him out on it – upon which he points out that he's well aware he's an asshole, he just doesn't give a shit.)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @02:02PM
he's well aware he's an asshole, he just doesn't give a shit.
Duke Constipatem?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by suetanvil on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:43PM
This is pretty much what I created an account here to say.
Everything up to the part where she asks him about his life is a cutscene or equivalent. Then, when she asks him about himself, he says, "Last week, when the aliens invaded, I..." and we got to the actual gameplay. The whole game would be a flashback.
Of course, between levels (and occasionally, in the middle of a battle), we'd flash forward, back to the conversation where the woman would point out obvious exaggerations in his story. Duke would concede that he embellished things to make a better story and that it really went like this: at which point, you'd replay the relevant bit but this time, the alien in power armor is really a little old alien lady in an alien walker. For example.
In other words, Duke is an unreliable narrator and a bullshitter and the game is about finding the truth. (And blowing shit up, but that goes without mentioning.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @10:18PM
now thats a game that I could play!
Seriously, *the* reason that I played DN3D as a teen is because it was irreverent, misogynistic, etc. I still remember thinking, "OMG titties!" even though it was pixelated crap that was slightly better than ASCII porn. I'm not going to buy a PC game that destroys those things.
It's like Cookie Monster going crazy for carrots and apples... sure, it might be good for you but there's something special about characters that embody our base instincts.
A new game based on the old concept wouldn't work today, kids (teens especially) have easy access to all of things taboo in the game, and if you try to up the ante you just step into disgusting gross gore, full on pornography (which is pretty tightly regulated), and outright hate speech. So you have to go for a nostalgia experience, and yet try to attract new players with something special. It's a hard row to hoe, I can't blame them from holding back from it.
As a counterpoint, how about Duke dies from wounds in the strip club, the stripper picks up his gun and carries on with equally outrageous tag lines. Could pursue a switch to third person view to appeal to the male demographic, but it would have to be done carefully, I doubt running around in lingerie would be tolerated...
(Score: 2) by Jesus_666 on Sunday July 19 2015, @12:56AM
Actualy, you knoew what? He does die in the strip club. He's just alive again at the end of the game. Without ever explaining how he did that. That's what people in bad action movies do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @04:13PM
We cut to Duke visiting Japan. While visiting a brothel in Japan, Duke offends a prostitute. Said protistitute gets into a fistfight with Duke defending the Honor of Japan from yet another gaijin douchebag. Aliens attack. Slowly over a series of cooperative levels spanning Japan, an alien ship, the US, and then outer space they come to terms while kicking both Alien, and 'Otherworldly' trash.
Offering both misogynistic and misoandristic dialogue (Being Lo Wang's daughter has ALL SORTS of possibilities.) it would offer the perfect excuse for sexist male and female viewpoints and with a toggle for straight, bi, homo, nullo you could play through as either character with 'eye-candy' on for both genders, a single gender, or off (so nullo could be 'parental lock mode').
Maybe Gearbox can convince whoever is handling the Shadow Warrior IP now to cooperate on a crossover :)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NCommander on Saturday July 18 2015, @02:51PM
The problem is most triple AAA games these days are long movies, especially FPSes. Halo (all of them), Call of Duty, Wolfenstein (the remakes, not the original), just to name a few. You're going down a lot of corridors with fancy skyboxes basically going from point to point. Now, it can be well done, I've enjoyed playing through the campaign of all the Halo games and going for challenges, but I'm not going to kid myself that I have any control over the plot or taken in the game (which, as an aside, I truly despise the silent protagonist model as a major copout). Contrast this to Mass Effect, or any of the Fallout games.
Now, if they did Duke Nuken in the style of Fallout: New Vegas, I'd be very interested just what may come of that.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Saturday July 18 2015, @03:52PM
Ever play Max Payne? Gritty noir story telling with graphic novel cut scenes. Fantastic game that sort of felt like playing through a film.
BUT! Note to game devs: Do not, I repeat DO NOT include dream like cut scenes where the player is forced to play through. They feel like they were shoehorned in to try and give the story some substance but quite often the story sucks. Far cry 3 was a good example. Great game play but the story, characters,dream boss fights and dialogue were all complete shit. Thank god for the game play otherwise it would have not been a total loss.
(Score: 1) by TheMessageNotTheMessenger on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:39PM
I can't say I play games for their stories. It's the gameplay that keeps me hooked.
Just look at the classics, Mario has a rubbish story but the gameplay redeems all that. Some games have no story at all, you provide your own: Civilization, Crusader Kings etc.
Most RPGs have a similar plot, where an unlikely hero finds himself with a rag-tag team of adventurers and has to stop some kind of evil from taking over the world. Also, a zombie dungeon at some point leading up to the end. Even Mass Effect does this, being sci-fi but it's got its zombie level too.
Hello! :D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @05:25PM
Er, read TFA first. Pretty much every pitch is tongue-in-cheek sarcasm or satire, including the one in the summary (I hope...).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:48PM
Duke Nukem goes on a rampage trying to eliminate every mention of "Duke Nukem Forever" from the internet. He even destroys Google, Bing, et al. At the end he realizes that you know about "Duke Nukem Forever" and he tries to kill you, the player. He may succeed, or he may fail (and just destroy your console). Either way you're done with Duke Nukem forever.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Saturday July 18 2015, @01:12PM
Duke wants to go kick ass, but he has an infinite supply of gum he has to finish first.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:09PM
now that Duke Nukem Forever is finally out, the "biggest piece of vaporware" torch is passed to Half Life 3, which was promised to us, what 10+ years ago? c'mon Valve, get to it already, and none of this bullshit you're pushing to get out of making it, that the HL2 episodes are really HL3. Half Life is the only playable FPS, everything else is just boring Doom clones, so release it already.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday July 18 2015, @05:02PM
promised to us
Really? I thought nobody knew for sure they were even working on Half-Life 2 until a year before its release.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday July 18 2015, @07:20PM
now that Duke Nukem Forever is finally out, the "biggest piece of vaporware" torch is passed to Half Life 3, which was promised to us, what 10+ years ago?
Bullshit! We've still got Perl 6 and HURD, both of which have been in development hell longer than DNF. Half Life 3 doesn't have anything on them.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @08:30PM
Perl 6 will be out this year...
(Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday July 18 2015, @08:40PM
Perl 6 will be out this year...
Yeah, I heard that one a few times about DNF too and the date kept slipping. I'll only believe it when it actually happens.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Saturday July 18 2015, @08:16PM
(Sorry for double-posting, but I wanted to separate the joke from the serious response)
I don't get the massive HL3 hype at all. HL1 started the trend of on-rails shooters that are just glorified theme-park rides with limited freedom, and HL2 just continued and refined the same boring design, further limiting freedom of exploration. Prior to that, FPSes were known for expansive, maze-like levels, backtracking, and sometimes even passing through the same levels multiple times to open new paths. Quake 2, for example, was a game where you could get lost in the levels; learning and remembering the layouts was as much a part of the game as shooting things. I recall other games, like Hexen 2, being the same way. Basically, the levels themselves were puzzles to be solved, but with things trying to kill you throughout.
That's not even getting into games of the time like System Shock 2, Thief, or the slightly-newer Deus Ex, which all had greater freedom, new gameplay elements, and ways to make each playthrough different by adding RPG elements to the gamepay. These games had absolutely massive areas to play through, with both Thief and Deus Ex particularly well known for having multiple paths to your goal that could be taken depending on player choice (usually skills or equipment), further changing the experience on each playthrough.
Deus Ex, especially, had amazing player freedom due to its mix of RPG and FPS elements and gets its own section here. A combination of inventory, skills, and augmentations gave a lot of character-building flexibility, which influenced how you could tackle challenges that you encountered. Mission areas had multiple paths, depending on the player's stat/skill/aug choices and willingness to look for alternate routes. The entire game was full of lore, even including a mini-novel you could find in full if you explored enough to find all the chapters, and sometimes even bits of dialogue or letters left by NPCs that helped humanise them. (I remember, near the end of the supertanker level, finding a letter the captain was writing to his daughter, just after offing him because it was the easiest way to reach the goal, and feeling like an asshole for it. It was an optional thing you could have missed entirely, but when I found it I actually felt bad for killing a mook.) Then there were the civilian areas, which had side quests, places to explore, breaking-and-entering options, extra lore and game dialogue (like the creepy phone call if you break into the office in Paris), and even more flexibility in how to achieve your objectives than the missions had. The Hell's Kitchen, Hong Kong, and Paris areas were a tantalizing taste of how later games would present open, explorable worlds.
I know, Deus Ex came after HL, but the other things I listed were released around the same time (and some before, like Thief and the original System Shock). To me, Half Life felt like a step backward compared to other first person games of the time, because it took away much of the freedom the style of game gave the player. Half Life 2 was even worse about the theme-park ride design, and this was years after Deus Ex showed how awesome freedom in an FPS could be.
Really, that's all Valve seems to do: well-polished park rides that have things jump out at you on cue so you can shoot them and then move to the next plot or monster trigger. Even the Left 4 Dead series, with their semi-variable levels (some pathways block off or open up on a per-play basis) are this way, with only one viable route each play, creating another theme-park ride whose only difference is that the enemies don't appear in the same place every time due to the "Director" AI. Probably the most interesting thing Valve has done has been the Portal games, because they're essentially puzzle games in first person. Since they're puzzle games, and the puzzles are the point, the linear, theme-park nature of everything Valve does is irrelevant. You're there for the portals and the puzzles.
Point is, I don't get the massive fan-boner people have for HL2 and the idea of an HL3 release. There have been much more interesting games both before and since Half Life's creation. Story isn't even a strong argument, because games like Thief and System Shock (both games) did a better job of presenting story in an FPS around the same time. If you think everything else is a "boring Doom clone" you haven't actually played most of the games you criticised with your generalisation. Half-Life is more of a "Doom clone" (just a very linear one) than System Shock 2, Thief, Deus Ex, or even Descent* were.
---
* It didn't really fit with the theme of the rest of the post, but I think the Descent games deserve mention, too. Two releases before Half Life existed, full 3d gameplay in a way few games have done before or even since, and huge maze-like levels. It's not quite the same type of thing, but it's sure as fuck not a "Doom clone" either.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:10PM
you're comparing rpgs like Thief and Deus Ex to fps games. just because its played from a first-person perspective doesn't automatically make it an fps, and of course rpgs are going to be significantly superior since fps games are all bland and boring Doom clones. given your going on and on about fp-rpgs, i'm surprised you didn't mention the Elder Scrolls series, seeing as Arena was one of the first fp-rpgs (made a year after Doom), made after Ultima Underworld (which was made before Doom). the fp-rpg genre has been around almost as long as the fps genre; there's not really any such thing as "fps with rpg elements", there's just "fp-rpgs".
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:29PM
to clarify some of the differences between fp-rpgs and fps games, if it has "rpg elements" like skills, inventory, experience, etc, its a damn rpg no matter what perspective its payed from. all fps games are basically just "kill everything" games which involve little thinking and no skills like stalking and evading enemies, like in Thief. every "improvement" made to the fps genre is either in the addition of puzzles and better game mechanics and such (which HL2 made one of the larger leaps by introducing real physics), or is in converting it to an rpg - at which time it stops being an fps and becomes an rpg instead. Thief, Deus Ex, Mass Effect, etc, those are all rpgs, those i've played plenty of and enjoyed a lot. Quake, Halo, Battlefield, etc, those are all fps, and are all just the same rehashed crap they've always been.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday July 19 2015, @10:33PM
you're comparing rpgs like Thief and Deus Ex to fps games. just because its played from a first-person perspective doesn't automatically make it an fps, and of course rpgs are going to be significantly superior since fps games are all bland and boring Doom clones.
You're entering "No True Scotsman" territory, trying to limit the definition of "FPS" in a way that can support your view. All the games I listed are still FPSes despite the introduction of new elements, and those "FP-RPGs" as you call them are all mentioned in the FPS entry on wikipedia. [wikipedia.org]
Of the ones I named, the one most likely to be considered a non-FPS would be Thief because the focus is on avoiding combat, but ultimately it's still more FPS than RPG. Its main RPG-like element is the inventory and items, but that's been a staple of FPSes since the beginning. Unless you count Thief having an actual plot as making it an RPG, in which case Half Life would be an RPG too, which would be silly.
As for Deus Ex, it's still an FPS with RPG trappings. Built off an FPS engine (the first Unreal Engine) with the extra bits hacked on, it relies more on player skill with the weapons and augmentations than it does player stats, with no randomness to the combat and no real leveling system. Increasing weapon skill just makes the aiming crosshair steady faster; you can still make difficult shots with skill and patience, or you can use player skill to get in close so that the unsteady aim is irrelevant. How well or poorly you play is the greatest factor in how difficult the game is, with no increasing HP or player level mechanics limiting play. Furthermore, it had online deathmatch (and team DM) modes using a rebalanced version of the singleplayer mechanics, because it is an FPS.
SS2 is also still an FPS despite class selection and improvement mechanics for similar reasons. You could also classify it as a horror game, in the same way Clive Barker's Unying was, but they're both FPSes as well. (Side note: Undying was an interesting game with a great aesthetic. So was Alice, actually.)
i'm surprised you didn't mention the Elder Scrolls series
I didn't include those because, until Oblivion at least, they still followed the dice-rolling RPG conventions of doing things like hit calculations, leveled enemies, and other tabletop RPG mechanics that replace player skill with statistics. Oh, you hit that target point-blank with a sword to the face? Sorry, the random number generator said you missed, so you miss despite clearly seeing the attack hit. You can't go there, because the enemies are level 50 and you're level 3, so GTFO.
If the entire series played like Oblivion onward, I might have included it. Oblivion actually moved the series closer to FPS because of two changes. It took away the statistic-based hit calculations in favour of the FPS model for determing hits, and by making the enemies scale with you, it took away most (but not all) of the level-based statistic gating. It still has some of the other tabletop RPG trappings, but it's definitely the game that started blurring the series' RPG/FPS distinction.
Thief, Deus Ex, Mass Effect, etc, those are all rpgs, those i've played plenty of and enjoyed a lot. Quake, Halo, Battlefield, etc, those are all fps, and are all just the same rehashed crap they've always been.
Interesting that you include Battlefield, considering it has a class system (RPG element) and a level system that unlocks new weapons (e.g. skills. RPG element). It's still an FPS, but has more RPG elements than, say, Thief but you tried to drop Thief into the RPG category.
if it has "rpg elements" like skills, inventory, experience, etc, its a damn rpg no matter what perspective its payed from
Technically, every FPS since the beginning has had an inventory system. Even Wolfenstein 3D let you collect, carry, and change weapons. If your definition of RPG is that broad, practically every game ever is an RPG.
Which, actually, wouldn't be that far from the truth, and it's not just an FPS thing. There's basically no genre "purity" in games; as time goes on it seems like they all pick up elements from other genres, with tabletop RPG mechanics being especially popular to incorporate to add depth to a game. Another example is how FPSes have borrowed puzzle elements from practically the start. Even Wolf3D had lock/key type puzzles, secret rooms, and maze designs as primitive puzzle elements.
It's the same sort of problem as music classification. Genres like "heavy metal" "rock" "techno" etc. have the creators pulling in influences from other styles, and people start trying to sub-classify them and contention occurs when a band doesn't fit clearly into a category.
What you're doing, basically, is trying to separate out the FPSes you like from the FPSes you consider boring and place them in their own category. Otherwise you'd have to admit you actually like certain FPSes, which you don't want to do for some reason. You want to stick labels on games as an easy way to dismiss certain ones, so when an exception crops up you find a way to relabel it.
I sort of understand it, because I was the same way originally. I didn't like Wolf3D, Doom, the original Quake, or a bunch of other FPSes I'd tried, so I was convinced I just didn't like the genre. (I did like Quake 2 and Duke3D, but mostly for the cooperative play, so I considered them exceptions.) When I found things like Thief, SS2, and DX, I tried looking at it as "oh, they're not really FPSes, that's why I like them" but it was bullshit. It took me a while to realise that, but it was. Just because I like the FPSes that have extra complexity doesn't mean I should try to redefine them to not-FPSes to fit my previous worldview; instead, I decided that my original conclusion was incorrect and updated it.
I was also the same way about fighting games; I played a bunch and didn't like them, so I thought I just didn't like the genre. Eventually I found enough that I did like (Tekken 3, Soul Calibur 2, a bunch of King of Fighters games, and the Darkstalkers series primarily) and I realised that it wasn't that I didn't like the style of game, I just didn't like the design choices of the ones I'd tried before.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Monday July 20 2015, @07:48PM
right here on the wikipedia page you linked to, it even makes my point
FPSes are based on shooting. not exploring, not having an engaging story, not character development, but shooting. they're shooter games [wikipedia.org] from a first-person perspective. there's no "no true scottsman" there, thats the definition of "first-person shooter". if the focus of the game is something other than shooting, it is not a first-person shooter.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Monday July 20 2015, @07:53PM
sorry, this [wikipedia.org] is the link i wanted for general shooters, didn't notice that was just a subgenre of them.
if the main focus of the game is something other than shooting, its not a shooter. see, these things called "genres" are useful for classifying games. rpg is a giant category that could technically include every video game period (because you're playing a role other than yourself in all of them), but "shooter" is a pretty thin one that only involves games revolving completely around shooting and little else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @04:26PM
... impressive.
Back during the era of Pentium 200s to PII-300s Half-Life allowed squad based AI throughout the levels.
Combined with the quicksave, you could redo the same section 5 times and have the AI attack you from 2-5 different directions with the same 3-5 guys. This was actually the only reason I gave it a pass at the time. The other games available, such as Quake2 and company were still using simplistic AIs with little or no teamwork, very rudimentary AI's that only really responded to 'visual radius', player position and maybe 'friendly fire'. Additionally, it was the first 'major' game to support NPC backups (albeit they gimped it so you couldn't carry them from one area to the next, which infuriated me since they often killed them off rather than giving them an avenue to escape. Similiar problem to the later Halo in fact!)
Steam is what killed off Half-Life for me. And their lack of support for upgrading the sierra era version to interoperate with the 'standard' half-life reissue they did when they became their own publisher.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:22PM
in the quest for even better search algorithms to find more personal "stuff" on people
a semi-A.I. is created but it kinda sucks so human brains (and bodies) are augmented with additional DNA
pairs to make "smarter" programmers.
normal people start to speak up and feel funny because a web search now 99% correctly predicts what people want for dinner.
a Anti-A.I. movement start and and anti-technology phobia sets in.
legislation is passed to keep A.I. dumb.
celebrated augmented DNA-pair programmers go rogue, perfect the A.I. take over the world (after WW3) and the regular humans that made them
become the new slave race whilst the "new super humans" jet off in new A.I. created and designed warp-like spaceships.
:)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:26PM
The reason Duke Nukem 3D was such a successful and memorable game was because it combined camp, an arsenal of insane weapons, jet packs, adult themes, interesting maps, and Ken Silverman's Build Engine. It was pretty advanced for its day and packed in a lot of fun game play and interesting graphics. This was in ye old days before a game even needed a story. Hell, DN3D barely had a story and continued off where the old 2D side scrolling DN left off (which I never played). But who cared right? It was the PC game golden years before true 3D revolutionized gaming with Quake. It was just fun as hell to play.
What would I like to see? Good game play, camp but not "Duke getting blown by two chicks while playing his own video game" cheesy. That was such a cheap attempt at humor it was one of the reasons I turned it off. As for a story? It doesn't have to be anything amazing, perhaps a little absurdity like his pet chihuahua is kidnapped by aliens. Get people to write a few original duke-esk one liners and steal a few from some films like the original. That's all there is to it for writing. A new Duke Nukem should offer expansive maps to run around, good AI, interesting game mechanics, fun ambient interactions and most of all, an array of weapons. Also, some realistic vehicles that dont explode when they take too much damage would be fun.
The most important part is the game play. I still fire up Crysis every now and then and play the first half of the game (the really good half). Great AI, fun game mechanics, weapons galore, and the maps are both beautiful and expansive with multiple ways to approach each section. I love the super suit, punching people to death, grabbing and tossing people around, etc. Hell I set the game to the hardest setting and went through the whole first half without ever firing a shot. I just punched everyone to death. How's that for enabling a flexible approach to game play? Farcry 3 had some really good game play. I mean how fun is it to bait a tiger along with rocks and then get it close the the bad guys and watch it rip them apart? Though, what partly ruined it was the obnoxious characters, crap story, and awful dream sequence boss fights. Other games give you too much linearity like the other two Crysis games. Crysis 2 was complete shit. Got half way through the game and got bored with its overly linear maps and rail shooter like game play. Never bothered with the third.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Sunday July 19 2015, @11:21AM
Good game play, camp but not "Duke getting blown by two chicks while playing his own video game" cheesy. That was such a cheap attempt at humor it was one of the reasons I turned it off.
Exactly. I enjoyed the 2D side scrollers, Duke3D, and Manhattan project. Duke never came across as misogynistic in those - he was just so full of himself that other people were just there to provide an audience while he reminded everyone how great he was. That's a fun character to play - and, honestly, if you got to spend as much of your life blowing stuff up as Duke and still be the good guy, you'd be pretty full of yourself too! In Manhattan project, the ego serves as a stand-in for health and the power-ups are 'babes' with bombs strapped to them that you rescue. The dialogue is full of innuendo but not directly sexual: Once rescuing someone has reminded Duke how awesome he is, he's got more important things to do (mutants to kill) than spend any more time with them.
Duke3D was one of the first first-person games to have working mirrors, just so that Duke could look at himself in them and make smug comments. The gadgets in all of the games were fun (gloves for climbing and boots in the 2D ones, jetpack freeze- and shrink-rays in 3D).
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by TheMessageNotTheMessenger on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:35PM
There are plenty game and movie remakes/reboots lately, please try something new!
If a game, maybe not yet another FPS or platformer. There are so many of those already.
Hello! :D
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Saturday July 18 2015, @05:03PM
Me? I'd rework an old game idea of mine that was based on Duke and other 90's games, which I was calling "Sudden Death".
It bounces between several styles of gameplay. You've got 2.5D shooter levels, Road Rash-style combat racing levels, some shmup levels, maybe more. The story similarly goes through several genres - fighting invading Russians, zombies, aliens, and demons.
It would also focus on just doing stupid awesome stuff. A level where you fight a helicopter while riding a motorcycle up the side of Freedom Tower? Sure! Ride a bat into literal Hell, machine guns blazing? Why not?
This would, inevitably, make some changes to the Duke formula, but I think we all understand that that formula needs some changing. Nostalgia works best when it's stylistic, not just spewing quotes. So the entire thing was crafted to imitate a raft of 80s action movies - Red Dawn, Rambo, Alien, Mad Max, etc. - but it's an imitation of style, not a parody. There will be pop culture references, of course, but from a wider range, and less frequently, and less in-your-face. Less copy-pasting of one-liners and more copying what made them good.
There would be changes to Duke, obviously. I'd tone down the womanizing - not eliminate it, just tone it down. DNF definitely played that up more than it should have. I'd also tone down the bragging machismo - Duke should be a capable, confident badass, and a real badass doesn't care if the world knows he's badass or not. And yeah, make it less juvenile (again, compared to DNF in particular). It can still do dumb jokes, just not something as dumb as picking up and throwing your own shit.
And finally, make the whole thing more self-aware. My draft script of the major cutscenes has the protagonist bicker with the narrator a bit about how it makes no sense for all these things to happen one after another. The key to making that work is to make the characters aware that they're in a dumb video game plot, but have them use it as an opportunity to do cool, unrealistic things, like ghostride a Soyuz into space, rather than just constantly poke holes at the story.
And the key to the whole game is to make it fun. I actually have more notes on gameplay than on the story. Weapon lists, enemy notes, boss designs. The game needs to be, above all else, fun. That's why it bounces between styles so often - so it always ends a section before the player gets tired of that kind of gameplay.
(Score: 3, Touché) by richtopia on Saturday July 18 2015, @07:24PM
Large levels
Lots of destructible environments
Lots of aliens to kill (hundreds)
Fast gameplay
Dodging rockets
A few humorous one liners from the main character
16 player co-op
Change main character name to Sam
Game takes place in Egypt
If only this game [wikipedia.org] exists...
(Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday July 19 2015, @10:48PM
My pitch:
1. Give Duke Nukem license to Croteam
2. Give Duke Nukem (Jon St. John) to Croteam
3. Make Croteam hire someone new to make the human models.
4. Profit
The Serious Sam games show that Croteam has experience making the sort of game that suits the franchise, so why not just give it to them and get something awesome out of it? Hell, I'd play a "Duke Nukem vs. Serious Sam" type game with both characters in it. It's ludicrous enough that it'd be entertaining. Their biggest weakness is that, unlike their monster designs (which are usually good), their human models look like crap and aren't animated well. That can be solved with a new hire.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @09:04PM
Read the headline "Inde Devs Pitch ... Duke Nukem" instantly thought, fuck it's not a game dev just some hipster narrative bullshit. Read TFS, and confirmed.
Here's an idea: INTERACTIVE FICTION EXISTS! For fuck's sake. It really does exist as its own established genre. [tads.org] Why do you think shit like Depression Quest and other narrative bullshit only these SJW hipsters care about are not being submitted to the Interactive Fiction Competitions? [ifcomp.org] Why? Because shit like Depression Quest would get blown the fuck out of the water as the crap it is, even competing against other similar "games". Game press continues to ignore Interactive Fiction, even though ebook readers can be scripted now so there's a potential market and platform for Interactive Fiction. Why ignore I.F.? Because then the shit you're shilling for your friend would be outclassed by actual good I.F.
Here's my pitch: Get that bullshit out of my face. No one is playing I.F. "games" because the shit just isn't as immersive. You throw text at me? Fine, I LOVE MUDS and esp. RPGs... Oh, it's not even as advanced as ZORK or Colossal Cave Adventure? It's just a choose your own adventure story online? Fuck right off. Oh it doesn't even have any choices, it's just some ideological social justice rambling about prostitutes and being more sensitive to "social issues"? No, do NOT want. Get that shit out of here, and die in a fire (no, this isn't harassment, it's actually an endearing way of saying "goodbye" in the non-PC infected parts of the interwebs). Don't come bitching to your Patreon friends complaining of harassment (like Zoe) when no one on Steam wants that shit. It does not sell well because NO ONE WANTS THAT SHIT, it's not good, it's a step backwards from what we had in the 80's.
I make games as a hobby. I've been making games since ~10 years old. I've quit my day job several times to make games, but you can make more money in business software than AAA gamedev. I used to call myself an independent gamedev back when I was licensing my games for those game collection CDs "200 Games only $15". Now the term "indie" is synonymous with identity politician bullshit artists who couldn't make a real game to save their lives. Just look at Sunset by Tale of Tales [gameinformer.com]. They were darlings of the Indie game journalists, but THEY GOT NO SALES. Take this "indie" crap out of here. Fuck "indie". I know there's tons of decent independent gamedevs out there [tigsource.com], they're just not in the west-coast clique. From NY to Texas (esp. around id Software studio) there are indie game scenes that make non-SJW infested shite. There's tons of interesting games [indiedb.com] out there that are actually games, but the "game journalists" aren't covering them (they primarily cover their friends and others who toe the SJW line, they don't really care about games, hence: Gamergate).
Fuck "Reviving" Duke Nukem. You want to revive it? Give us a SIMPLE map editor, good online gameplay, and interesting weapons. Stop giving such a damn about "muh graphics" so that the barrier to entry for acceptable maps is lower. Give us a hub to rank and trade maps and have battles / tournaments on user created maps. The modding community already has tournaments of classic Doom mods, Quake, Duke3D, etc. ACTUAL INDIE GAMEDEVS ARLEADY REVIVED THAT SHIT! Publishers: Select some good mods of classic games and sell them, done, and for cheap too! Fuck off with this narrative nonsense. You story bound idiots want some legitimacy? YOU GOT IT: Go breathe some damn life into the interactive fiction genre [ifarchive.org] rather than pretending this poorly written "ambiguous ending" choose-your-own adventure shit like Depression Quest and TFS is "new" or "revitalizing" instead of just plainly crap nepotism that's retarding progress instead of innovating. Be warned though, your special snowflake status has been cancelled.