2K Games finally released 3D Realms game, long awaited Duke Nukem Forever. The game was released 15 years after the development started – most of the time work was done and undone by 3D Realms, they switched engines, scrapped levels, built things piece by piece until they finally ran out of money to continue development. Lucky for us gamers, Gearbox Software took the project under their wings, and finished the project in co-operation with Triptych Games and Piranha Games.
After 15 years, what did we finally get into our hands?
According to some, we got nothing but steaming pile of shit, yet according to others, we finally got a masterpiece worthy of Duke’s reputation.
Sure, the game is ‘consolized’, as we PC gamers tend to say from far too many games today, rightfully or not, but does that necessarily ruin the game?
In my humble opinion, no, it doesn’t. Of course some elements of the game almost yell “play with me with gamepad” instead of far superior keyboard & mouse kombo, and saves are only done on pre-determined checkpoints rather than when player wants so, but that’s about it.
Every other element in the game could be from PC exclusive FPS game just as well.
It doesn’t let you explore around too much, but a gamer who doesn’t just run through the game will find several “hidden rooms” or “extras” that take you off the straight course through the level, which is more than most modern games offer.
What about the reputation and big expectations the game had to live up to?
Some claim that only thing common with the good old Duke Nukem 3D is the name and the immortal catch lines Duke throws into air like ‘I got balls of steel’ and ‘It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all outta gum’.
I, however, found a lot more in common with the predecessor, all the crude humor, objectification of women, sexual themes, dark humor and everything in place, as well as the general gameplay even though there’s new elements to it too, like driving around as shrunk Duke with a RC truck as well as full-sized monster truck, but those are only added spice to what I find to be one of the best modern shooters, beating easily Call of Battlefield part XXV: Modern War or some such.
The graphics of the game could use some updating, but let’s face it – had Gearbox & co gone to upgrade the graphics engine we would still be waiting, and graphics isn’t nearly as important as gameplay is.
Sound design works fine in general, though I think Dukes lines could have used some work, as they sometimes sound more like they’re “dubbed on” (well, obviously, they are, but you get the draft) rather than said by Duke in the game.
The game is running on widely popular Unreal Engine (2.x generation), though the tidbits which 3D Realms slipped during the long development tell that the graphics engine is completely in-house built engine instead of Unreal Engines. The renderer, though, appears to be finalized around 2007-2008 era, as the game tech demonstrations from that era match the final game completely – so it’s obvious the graphics from 3 years ago can’t match newest titles out there, but they’re still easily enough not to bother the gamer, IMO.
Before they settled on Unreal Engine, Duke Nukem was first started on Quake Engine, but 3D Realms quite quickly switched over to Unreal Engine, which later got updated to build 2 and 2.x, and the renderer to 3D Realms’ in-house built renderer.
So what is my verdict?
Duke Nukem Forever is worthy sequel for Duke Nukem 3D, modernized to (almost) todays standards, trying to keep some of the elements of the old days of extra rooms, with possibly alternative ways to go forth, in the todays world of “tubes” where player has absolutely no way to slip away from the meant course even for a second.
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Total: 8½/10
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Hi and welcome to my blog
As you probably noticed, I just massposted quite a few entries here - they're from my previous so-called blog, which I figured I'd post here too, if not for anything else, but for keeping them from ending up in bitspace for one reason or another. (Had to use Google's cache & Internet Wayback Machine to actually dig up the entries from the other place, as it's been suspended at least for now)
I'll try to keep posting here on regular, or at least semi-regular basis on my toughts on world, life, death, tech and whatnot.
Hope you'll enjoy your stay,
Yours,
Kaotik
I'll try to keep posting here on regular, or at least semi-regular basis on my toughts on world, life, death, tech and whatnot.
Hope you'll enjoy your stay,
Yours,
Kaotik
The best just got better
December 3rd, 2008
This is, of course, referring to World of Warcraft and the recent expansion to the game, Wrath of the Lich King.
The life of Warcraft lore-fans like me took huge steps to better with the new expansion, Blizzard really got it right, there's so many great quest lines which bring a lot more than any previous quest in WoW or TBC ever did for us, most of which aren't obvious or even noticeable to Average WoW-Joe, that I can't even really start to list those here.
But one quest line definately needing a special mention is the Wrathgate-line. I mean, epic is just a too weak word to describe it! It takes the whole term "epic" to a damn Brann-spanking-new level!
Of course there's downsides to the expansion too, at least for some. Many feel that the "wellfare epics"-trend has gone too far with the new raid-instances, Naxxramas specificly, being too easy. However, this isn't too shocking, not to me anyway, Blizzard said that they will be easy, they will be "Molten Core" of WotLK, back to basics, teaching the people pve-raiding, which of course feels far too easy for those of us who have raided most if not all
of the previous pve content of the game. And don't forget that many of you were also familiar with the encounters beforehand due the old Naxxramas 40-man raid-instance - while the new Naxx is tuned for 10 and 25-man raids, it's still essentially the same.
So I wouldn't be too worried, sure, they're easy and puggable, but already Eye of Eternity gives a bit harder challenge compared to them, let alone Onyx Sanctum if you keep the extra-drakes up. Even having just one drake up raises the encounter difficulty significantly, let alone having two or three drakes up.
Ulduar, coming in future content patch, is only the 2nd "big raid instance" in the game and it should be a challenge for most of us. Sure, it will probably be cleared quite swiftly by Ensidia (ex-Nihilum & ex-Curse (SK-Gaming) combined) and few others, but not as swiftly as Naxx was and definately will take some time for the "normal hardcore" guilds, let alone semi-hardcore or semi-casual guilds.
And Ulduar won't be the last either, Icecrown of course will be the last instance in the expansion, but there's rumors that at least Uldum might be included in the game before it, and who knows what other instances they'll come up with.
This is, of course, referring to World of Warcraft and the recent expansion to the game, Wrath of the Lich King.
The life of Warcraft lore-fans like me took huge steps to better with the new expansion, Blizzard really got it right, there's so many great quest lines which bring a lot more than any previous quest in WoW or TBC ever did for us, most of which aren't obvious or even noticeable to Average WoW-Joe, that I can't even really start to list those here.
But one quest line definately needing a special mention is the Wrathgate-line. I mean, epic is just a too weak word to describe it! It takes the whole term "epic" to a damn Brann-spanking-new level!
Of course there's downsides to the expansion too, at least for some. Many feel that the "wellfare epics"-trend has gone too far with the new raid-instances, Naxxramas specificly, being too easy. However, this isn't too shocking, not to me anyway, Blizzard said that they will be easy, they will be "Molten Core" of WotLK, back to basics, teaching the people pve-raiding, which of course feels far too easy for those of us who have raided most if not all
of the previous pve content of the game. And don't forget that many of you were also familiar with the encounters beforehand due the old Naxxramas 40-man raid-instance - while the new Naxx is tuned for 10 and 25-man raids, it's still essentially the same.
So I wouldn't be too worried, sure, they're easy and puggable, but already Eye of Eternity gives a bit harder challenge compared to them, let alone Onyx Sanctum if you keep the extra-drakes up. Even having just one drake up raises the encounter difficulty significantly, let alone having two or three drakes up.
Ulduar, coming in future content patch, is only the 2nd "big raid instance" in the game and it should be a challenge for most of us. Sure, it will probably be cleared quite swiftly by Ensidia (ex-Nihilum & ex-Curse (SK-Gaming) combined) and few others, but not as swiftly as Naxx was and definately will take some time for the "normal hardcore" guilds, let alone semi-hardcore or semi-casual guilds.
And Ulduar won't be the last either, Icecrown of course will be the last instance in the expansion, but there's rumors that at least Uldum might be included in the game before it, and who knows what other instances they'll come up with.
General ramblings about hypocrisy
August 2nd, 2007
Hypocrisy. Let's start with that, shall we?
Again, I got personal experience on how hypocritical the world can be, how hypocritical the users of Futuremark / YouGamers forum users are.
My signature, which you can see at the top of this blog too at slightly different size, has a razorblade in it, and then some blood. Shocking, isn't it? Apparently yes, it was shocking enough for many users to file complaints on it hurting them.
These are the same people which of many play games, where they kill NPCs and in case of multiplayer games, other players characters. Taking into account the realism of todays games, how can the same people who blow characters in games to bits and pieces, glorifying the game more and more the more realistic it's graphics are act like they did now?
Razorblade? with blood? My god, that's hurting my feelings, that's ruining my innocent mind!!
Let's go to the classic, prime example of hypocrisy, this comes from the United States of America ([sarcasm]surprising, isn't it?[/sarcasm])
Everyone probably remembers the good old Janet Jackson scandal, where the other singer (can't remember his name) ripped part of her dress off, revealing one of Janets breasts (with the nipple area still covered, though). Everyone went manic, how can that happen! Why was this allowed! Let's sue them!
Meanwhile probably half of them are perfectly happy with watching hardcore pornography, see just as much of "bare skin" in normal (as in, non-pornographic) magazines, commercials etc.
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Okay, enough of that, I had plenty of other things on my mind when I started writing this, but I can't remember half of them anymore. I remember that some of them were related to my last blog entry, but but, can't remember more, so I'll just write a new entry when I remember what I was going to write.
Hypocrisy. Let's start with that, shall we?
Again, I got personal experience on how hypocritical the world can be, how hypocritical the users of Futuremark / YouGamers forum users are.
My signature, which you can see at the top of this blog too at slightly different size, has a razorblade in it, and then some blood. Shocking, isn't it? Apparently yes, it was shocking enough for many users to file complaints on it hurting them.
These are the same people which of many play games, where they kill NPCs and in case of multiplayer games, other players characters. Taking into account the realism of todays games, how can the same people who blow characters in games to bits and pieces, glorifying the game more and more the more realistic it's graphics are act like they did now?
Razorblade? with blood? My god, that's hurting my feelings, that's ruining my innocent mind!!
Let's go to the classic, prime example of hypocrisy, this comes from the United States of America ([sarcasm]surprising, isn't it?[/sarcasm])
Everyone probably remembers the good old Janet Jackson scandal, where the other singer (can't remember his name) ripped part of her dress off, revealing one of Janets breasts (with the nipple area still covered, though). Everyone went manic, how can that happen! Why was this allowed! Let's sue them!
Meanwhile probably half of them are perfectly happy with watching hardcore pornography, see just as much of "bare skin" in normal (as in, non-pornographic) magazines, commercials etc.
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Okay, enough of that, I had plenty of other things on my mind when I started writing this, but I can't remember half of them anymore. I remember that some of them were related to my last blog entry, but but, can't remember more, so I'll just write a new entry when I remember what I was going to write.
The time to let go, the time to keep it inside, the time to unleash it all
July 28th, 2008
When is the right time for all that?
When is the right time to let everything go? To keep it all inside? Unleash it all, no matter who and how much it hurts?
I've been pondering about that lately, too much for my liking. I've been thinking if I've made the right decisions in the last few months, if my decisions were even relevant, could things that now happened be avoided had I chosen otherwise? I don't know.
I've taken a good grip of myself in the past couple months, but it has a price too. The decisions I've made during that time may have ended a period in my life which I've enjoyed the most, the period where I was truly happy inside - this is something I didn't foresee.
I've been thinking if the decisions I've made were good or not, the short term effects at least are catastrophic, but long term? I don't know. I don't have my engagement ring anymore, I don't know if I'm living here alone in a week, or is my love still here by my side.
I don't know, which is the worst thing I can imagine. Not knowing, it hurts, it hurts more than anything. What if I had chosen to do things differently, would I still feel good, would I still be happy inside and not only outside? Would I be with the one I love now, would I in a year?
Those answers can never be answered, there's no save/load buttons in life no matter how useful they could be.
So what did I do? Is it even relevant? I made things that caused her to lose her confidence in that she could trust me. Would I rather undo them? Probably, but I'm not sure if it would still fix anything.
After talking to few good old friends of mine, they said what I did was what anyone would have done in the same position, she was the one who caused me to do those things, they said.
If I had chosen to do them and keep it to myself, what then, would I still be here in a year and having them still burning my insides out?
That's what I've always done, it has always ended up in tears sooner or later, but this time I think it still might have been better choice, at least for myself. Why? Because the decisions made brought up things I had forgotten, things I thought were the past, things I thought I
had gotten rid of nearly ten years ago.
Yet here they are again, and I don't know what to do anymore, I don't want them back, I don't want the pills back either. Some of my good friends didn't want them ever, they're not here anymore. Am I here tomorrow if I don't go on the same painful road I took nearly ten years ago? I don't know.
Why am I writing this here? I don't know that either, really, I only know that what ever happens to me in future, I at least tried to put my thoughts down, clear it in my own head, clear it with my friends, clear it with who ever might read this and know me. Was writing here wise? Probably not.
Of course this doesn't really tell anyone anything, this is just words on a screen, with no real point in them, there's no thread to follow, there's no real answers or even questions of what actually did happen.
Heck, I don't know if I now re-read this if I understood what I just wrote myself anymore.
But it all still comes down to the topic - how do you know it's the time to let go, the time to keep it inside, the time to unleash it all?
And what if you picked the wrong one?
When is the right time for all that?
When is the right time to let everything go? To keep it all inside? Unleash it all, no matter who and how much it hurts?
I've been pondering about that lately, too much for my liking. I've been thinking if I've made the right decisions in the last few months, if my decisions were even relevant, could things that now happened be avoided had I chosen otherwise? I don't know.
I've taken a good grip of myself in the past couple months, but it has a price too. The decisions I've made during that time may have ended a period in my life which I've enjoyed the most, the period where I was truly happy inside - this is something I didn't foresee.
I've been thinking if the decisions I've made were good or not, the short term effects at least are catastrophic, but long term? I don't know. I don't have my engagement ring anymore, I don't know if I'm living here alone in a week, or is my love still here by my side.
I don't know, which is the worst thing I can imagine. Not knowing, it hurts, it hurts more than anything. What if I had chosen to do things differently, would I still feel good, would I still be happy inside and not only outside? Would I be with the one I love now, would I in a year?
Those answers can never be answered, there's no save/load buttons in life no matter how useful they could be.
So what did I do? Is it even relevant? I made things that caused her to lose her confidence in that she could trust me. Would I rather undo them? Probably, but I'm not sure if it would still fix anything.
After talking to few good old friends of mine, they said what I did was what anyone would have done in the same position, she was the one who caused me to do those things, they said.
If I had chosen to do them and keep it to myself, what then, would I still be here in a year and having them still burning my insides out?
That's what I've always done, it has always ended up in tears sooner or later, but this time I think it still might have been better choice, at least for myself. Why? Because the decisions made brought up things I had forgotten, things I thought were the past, things I thought I
had gotten rid of nearly ten years ago.
Yet here they are again, and I don't know what to do anymore, I don't want them back, I don't want the pills back either. Some of my good friends didn't want them ever, they're not here anymore. Am I here tomorrow if I don't go on the same painful road I took nearly ten years ago? I don't know.
Why am I writing this here? I don't know that either, really, I only know that what ever happens to me in future, I at least tried to put my thoughts down, clear it in my own head, clear it with my friends, clear it with who ever might read this and know me. Was writing here wise? Probably not.
Of course this doesn't really tell anyone anything, this is just words on a screen, with no real point in them, there's no thread to follow, there's no real answers or even questions of what actually did happen.
Heck, I don't know if I now re-read this if I understood what I just wrote myself anymore.
But it all still comes down to the topic - how do you know it's the time to let go, the time to keep it inside, the time to unleash it all?
And what if you picked the wrong one?
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