Duke Nukem Forever Review on the Way

The complete review will be finished in fewer than 12 years.

                           Duke Nukem Forever Gameplay Commentary

 

At the outset of Duke Nukem Forever, the titular blond-haired, kill-crazy hero again embarks on a quest to wipe out lots of aliens. His reasons are simple – they stole his babes. The plot doesn't make much sense at the beginning, the character development is limited to crude dialogue meant to elicit nothing more than cheap laughs, and the secondary characters do little more than spout nonsense laced with profanity. It tries to be Commando with extraterrestrials, which, as a goal, is just fine.

What's bothering me after a few hours of play is how difficult Duke Nukem Forever makes it to enjoy the shooting parts. There's an overlong introductory sequence that does nothing but awkwardly glorify Duke's shallow, vulgar personality. Shooting sequences are constantly interrupted by weird puzzles and character dialogue that's about as entertaining to listen to as the rattle of subway trains. Then there's a bizarre vehicle sequence where Duke, after being shrunk down to a miniature size, needs to speed around in a toy car across broken floors and boost to clear jumps. The poor level design often makes stages unnecessarily confusing to navigate, and the inclusion of clumsy platforming sections is all the more off-putting.


When DNF finally does get to the shooting bits, it's more entertaining, though can't really decide whether it wants to be a pure nonsense murder-fest like Serious Sam or a modern shooter. Early in the game, Duke walks by a suit of Halo-like power armor and scoffs, saying he doesn't need it. Yet he has a regenerating health bar and can only carry two weapons at once; modern shooter mechanics popularized by the very game he so enthusiastically disparages. You do, at least, get to run through linear shooting galleries plugging away at aliens with turrets, shotguns, machine guns and rocket launchers, though even this gets wearyingly repetitive early on.

The look of Duke Nukem Forever is most certainly dated, with a level of detail way behind the bleeding edge and, on Xbox 360, framerate issues and unreasonabley long load times. Even if that's to be expected considering the game's been in development for over a decade, it doesn't make it any easier to look at. For sound, there's forgettable grinding guitar music and a handful of crude Duke quotes, which unfortunately start to be recycled far too soon. It feels like a game ripped out of the nineties with a few modern mechanics wedged in, which I guess isn't entirely surprising.

I'm still playing through at this point for review, so maybe Duke Nukem Forever will get better further in. So far, there's little worthy of praise. It's a clumsily put together game that, even when it tries hard to deliver exciting action set pieces like fights against giant bosses, feels dull and derivative. The only impressive part about Duke Nukem Forever is that it exists as a finished game.

Look for a review early next week, as I'll be spending the next while getting through the rest of the story and trying out the multiplayer modes.

Source:IGN

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EA: Battlefield 3 will outsell Modern Warfare 3

The FPS scene will see a true heavyweight battle this November, as the two biggest shooter franchises will go head to head: Battlefield 3 vs Modern Warfare 3. Game industry analysts have predicted that Modern Warfare 3 will outsell Battlefield 3, but EA doesn’t share that opinion. According to EA’s senior vice president Jens Uwe, Battlefield 3 will outsell Modern Warfare 3. When asked if Battlefield 3 will outsell Modern Warfare 3, he said:

“Certainly. The only question is when that day will be. And for me, the sooner the better. With Battlefield 3 we have a superior games engine and a top notch product. We are convinced that we will, in fact, have a better product than our key competitor in the space. We think this is the perfect year to gain back market share.”

Of course, this is nothing unusual, as EA, like any publisher, needs to sustain consumer and investor confidence. The last Battlefield game, Bad Company 2, sold 7 million units, while the last Call of Duty game, Black Ops, sold twice that: 14 million. Most expect Battlefield 3 to top 10 million units sold, and Modern Warfare to sell north of 15 million.

However, Call of Duty has never had any real competition, something Battlefield 3 will most certainly provide this November. It’s a safe bet that both games will do really well, but who comes out on top is still up in the air.

Source:BattleField 3

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Release Date

 

What will E3 show us about this war?

E3 2011 is just a few short weeks away, from June 6 to 9. We're taking a look at all the hot games coming our way from the show floor and talking about what we know and what we expect to learn. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be there. What does Makarov have in store for the world? What changes are coming to multiplayer? We hope to find out these things and more at E3 next month.

What We Know

From leaks and the recent teaser trailers, we know just a few things about this fall's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

A retail poster shows the game releasing on November 8, 2011, but that has yet to be officially confirmed.

Story-wise, Makarov is on the run from the events of Modern Warfare 2 and Russia's invasion of the United States. Modern Warfare 3 starts immediately after the events of the last Modern Warfare. From the first teasers, we get a glimpse of missiles firing on Manhattan, barricades in London, an explosion on the Seine in Paris, and a building coming down in Berlin.

In various languages, across all the trailers, Makarov makes the following statements:

1. Destroy the enemy's hope of victory.

2. Use everything to your advantage.

3. Use your opponent's weaknesses.

4. Attack from an unknown side.

The game apparently features 15 levels including Paris, Dubai and New York. "Soap" MacTavish and John Price make a return to the cast list as well. Rumor also has it that multiplayer will feature destructible environments. Read up on the first leaked information from our Modern Warfare 3 news post last week.

What We Expect at E3

Official details.

Everything so far has come from leaks, teasers and speculation. The teasers are a simple hint at what may be going on in the world, but at E3 we will most likely get a new story trailer that shows how these cities and conflicts may be related.

Additionally, there ought to be a glimpse at the game's multiplayer and any changes coming to it.

by Peter Eykemans

for more info : IGN website

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