Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 78 posts

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#21

Post by redthrowaway »

andrewvc wrote: post #2

Its hard to trust a humorless judgement of humor. While I haven't played the game myself, I'd like to point out to the author of the article that if attempting to describe why a something isn't funny, the best weapon in your arsenal would be humor, not simply sticking up your nose in disgust (though one could mix that in). That said, a lot of the jokes in the game sound pretty straightforwardly shitty and weird. Howe…

I'm waiting for Yahtzee to rip into it. He has a knack for separating the merely pedestrian from the truly terrible. If he can't laugh at DNF, there's a good chance I won't be able to, either.

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#23

Post by zoul »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #12
zoul wrote: post #6

I'm not really comfortable about the fact that dozens of adult people have spent several years of their work and milions of dollars so that other people can run in virtual environment and throw shit around.

Cheap attack is cheap. How big is entertainment sports business? How many millions of dollars do we pay individual players?

Tautologies are also very cheap these days :) It wasn’t meant to be an attack, I’m mostly wondering about the motivations.

It takes a huge amount of work to make such a game, even if everything goes perfectly well. I know there are interesting technical challenges in the game and there’s potentially a lot of money and other motivation, but I simply can’t image myself working hard several years to create a virtual environment where you can throw shit around and watch women explode because of alien insemination. (This is a simplification indeed, but the point should be clear.)

Would you invest the time and effort? If yes, why do you feel it’s worth it?

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#24

Post by gamble »

andrewvc wrote: post #2

Its hard to trust a humorless judgement of humor. While I haven't played the game myself, I'd like to point out to the author of the article that if attempting to describe why a something isn't funny, the best weapon in your arsenal would be humor, not simply sticking up your nose in disgust (though one could mix that in). That said, a lot of the jokes in the game sound pretty straightforwardly shitty and weird. Howe…

How about this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/reviews/3541-Top...

The game has a 50% on Metacritic, so I'm personally reluctant to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#26

Post by catch23 »

zoul wrote: post #23
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap attack is cheap. How big is entertainment sports business? How many millions of dollars do we pay individual players?

Tautologies are also very cheap these days :) It wasn’t meant to be an attack, I’m mostly wondering about the motivations. It takes a huge amount of work to make such a game, even if everything goes perfectly well. I know there are interesting technical challenges in the game and there’s potentially a lot of money and other motivation, but I simply can’t image myself working hard several years to create a virtual env…

The legendary Carmack has been working on a game called "Rage" for the past 6 years. Six years ago, iphones & androids didn't exist. Game developers do it because they enjoy it, even if the hard-core-games tend to make less dough than games like angry birds or guitar hero.

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#27

Post by shaggyfrog »

Joakal wrote: post #25

For those interested in why it took over a decade to develop it before it crashed: Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/ The downfall was perfectionism.

Perfectionism doesn't necessarily result in death marches and a crap product. Look no further to Valve to see what perfectionism can mean in the games industry (can I have my HL2:E3 now... please?), and of course let's not forget the obligatory reference to the master of perfectionism, Apple.

The difference between these two companies and the making of DNF? As Steve job said, "Real artists ship".

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#28

Post by JanezStupar »

gamble wrote: post #24
andrewvc wrote: post #2

Its hard to trust a humorless judgement of humor. While I haven't played the game myself, I'd like to point out to the author of the article that if attempting to describe why a something isn't funny, the best weapon in your arsenal would be humor, not simply sticking up your nose in disgust (though one could mix that in). That said, a lot of the jokes in the game sound pretty straightforwardly shitty and weird. Howe…

How about this? http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/reviews/3541-Top... The game has a 50% on Metacritic, so I'm personally reluctant to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I still like it. I think that authors were a bit too "politically correct) if anything. I actually like the scripted nature of the game and on PC its atmosphere is awesome (to me OFC).

I also liked the fact that this is one of few FPS's that actually got me killed a couple of times lately.

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#29

Post by StavrosK »

mishmash wrote: post #20
andrewvc wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I can believe that the game sucks in a painfully humorless way, never said it didn't. I'm just talking about the writing style of the article. If it was that unfunny, there should have been plenty of material in the article for the author to riff on. As is, he sounds like a straight laced bore.

Agreed such a terrible review. I mean his first reaction was to kill the women - and then shout down the game for it - considering they explode exactly 5 seconds after the dialogue ends, so yeah, really tried to avoid that huh.. http://youtu.be/bbGihyEoOy8

How the hell did he miss that? It actually takes three seconds from "we'll get the weight off, we swear" to them screaming end exploding.

Also, my favorite bit:

"Duke, what's happening to us?"

"Looks like you're... awkward pause fucked."

If that's any indication, I completely sympathize with the reviewer.

Re: Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

#30

Post by zecg »

redthrowaway wrote: post #21
andrewvc wrote: post #2

Its hard to trust a humorless judgement of humor. While I haven't played the game myself, I'd like to point out to the author of the article that if attempting to describe why a something isn't funny, the best weapon in your arsenal would be humor, not simply sticking up your nose in disgust (though one could mix that in). That said, a lot of the jokes in the game sound pretty straightforwardly shitty and weird. Howe…

I'm waiting for Yahtzee to rip into it. He has a knack for separating the merely pedestrian from the truly terrible. If he can't laugh at DNF, there's a good chance I won't be able to, either.

There's nothing to laugh at. It's just bad. Offensive is besides the point, that's how bad it is. Humour used to be ancillary, now the shooting is so bad, the design feels haphazard and the whole thing is so linear that self-references and unfunny shit are front and center. It's rather embarrassing.
Post reply on HN