DUKE NUKEM FOREVER - 14 YEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENT

In this video, we take a look at Randy Pitchford's greatest game. Duke Nukem Forever. It took 14 years to make, and brought about immense disappointment and criticism.
I've always been interested in the Duke Nukem games, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Music used is from Duke3D.
lik an sibcrob 4 more vidya lik dis
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Intro by Skyclad
❗Links❗
☢Spotify: open.spotify.c...
☢Music Channel: / @hazardmusicyt

[@zaiden2becausejustzaidenisused]

very fitting for randy to be a content warning also, the duke nukem version where you can save the women is duke 64

[@streetystuff]

I almost shat my pants when i saw that. Now that's true horror.

[@kinghoodofmousekind2906]

To quote Civvie; the grease must flow!

[@cutehomelessman]

I like duke nukem 64 alot, cuz duke nukem time travelling is just awseome

[@zaiden2becausejustzaidenisused]

@@cutehomelessman pretty sure youre thinking of zero hour, because there was a port to the n64 as well (obviously massively censored)

[@cutehomelessman]

@@zaiden2becausejustzaidenisused Oh I thought that this was how the time travel game was called

[@prebenjaeger]

8:24 it's a reference to a 2009 recording of Christian Bale going crazy over some guy disturbing him on the set. Man, I feel old.

[@Adamek1926]

"No, don't just be sorry. THINK for one fucking second!!!"

[@CINEKYD_MEDIA_ARCHIVE]

"We're done professionally, man."

[@kinghoodofmousekind2906]

Fuuudge, when the Dark Knight was still hot...

[@Chaotecsix]

That's it man. I'm gonna trash your mics

[@ellieh.5419]

for a second I was wondering why the way the dude was speaking sounded so familiar

[@TheZombieKiller]

To clarify the game's engine: It started on Quake 1, and eventually moved to Quake 2. Quake 2 is more of an incremental improvement over the Quake 1 engine, akin to upgrading the version of Unity or UE4/UE5 used in a game today. So whether or not Q1 -> Q2 is an "engine switch" is debatable. After a few months of development on the Quake 2 engine, the project was effectively restarted (reusing lots of assets temporarily to save time) on Unreal Engine 1. It never switched off this engine for the rest of the game's development, it just had things built onto it. At no point did the game switch to the DOOM 3/id Tech 4 engine, this was a rumor that spread following a comment from the then-CEO of Take-Two Interactive, Richard Roedel. It was later clarified by 3D Realms that he was mistaken. The final game is Unreal Engine 1, with a few early Unreal 2 features pulled in. It also has a custom rendering pipeline and physics engine (it used the Meqon middleware, but it does also support Unreal 2's Karma physics engine). There is actually code in the leaked 2001 build that still exists in the final game. You could consider the final engine similar to an advanced Unreal 1 source port, I suppose. It is certainly messier than that implies, though.

[@AntiPseudo]

According to the interviews I've read, the start went down a *little* differently than that. They were originally planning to start on the Quake 2 engine, but there were some delays in getting the source so they did what basically amounted to previs work on the Quake 1 engine while they waited for the source to be delivered (I believe the first batch of 4 screenshots, including the crashed jeep and the quad rocket launcher, were done on that engine). And the Quake 2 engine was VERY different from the Quake 1 engine; just ask John Romero and how they had to basically restart Daikatana from scratch when they switch engines. But yeah, 3D Realms used the Quake 2 engine for some time (Well over a year, at least), and released the 1998 trailer using it. Apparently while developing that version, they realized that the Hoover Dam level was just too damn big to work in the Quake 2 engine, so they decided to move to the Unreal instead instead, expecting it to take a couple of months to port, but ended up being such a huge undertaking that they restarted the project from scratch. I *believe* they also upgraded to the Unreal Tournament version of the engine at some point, but as I understand it that was a pretty incremental upgrade.

[@Treblaine]

@@AntiPseudo Yeah, when Valve was making Half Life on the Quake engine at first, they decided to heavily modify the engine into GoldScr to get the features they wanted from Quake 2's engine instead of just moving to the newer engine. There's strange parallels between Half Life and Duke Nukem Forever, both began production at similar times and as you may have noticed from some of the enemies and the Xen levels a lot of the DN3D developers went to work at Valve on Half Life. Doesn't the Alien Grunt of HL1 look like he'd fit in perfectly in a Duke Nukem game? Ditto for Alien Controllers. Gordon Freeman almost exists as a parody inversion of Duke, he's a scientist instead of a meathead, he wears horn rim glasses instead of raybans. Though they're similar in the FPS archetype of a huge arsenal of conventional weapons and then sci-fi weapons.

[@TheZombieKiller]

@@AntiPseudo Yup, I was primarily just covering the technical aspects in my comment rather than the history surrounding them. Quake 1 was never intended to be the engine DNF would ship on, and was just used for prototyping while they waited for Quake 2 to be available to them. Quake 2 is actually quite close to Quake 1, sharing a significant portion of the same code. The biggest change is that game code is now in C instead of QuakeC, which requires rewriting all game scripting when you move from Quake 1 to Quake 2 -- something time consuming, though not particularly difficult. My understanding of what happened to Daikatana is that the problems stemmed from a desire to actually take advantage of the new Quake 2 features rather than a straight port being difficult. They did indeed also upgrade to an early Unreal Tournament engine, the work for which was completed some time in 2001. It was Unreal Tournament v400 to be specific, with that same version number still being present in the 2011 version if you disassemble Engine.dll and find the startup code. Prior to that upgrade, it can be assumed that they were on Unreal v220 as revealed by the leftover DukeForever.ini file on the leaked asset CD from 1998-1999. It wouldn't surprise me if there were more incremental upgrades in between, though.

[@QuentinofVirginia]

Actually from what I remembered from an old, now deleted Daikatana postmortem on Gamespot called "Knee Deep in a Dream" switching from Quake 1 to Quake 2 engine was considered by the lead programmer of Daikatana (someone called Kimbrell) that it was a big enough engine change to warrant a lot of work. The postmortem said: "When we finally received the code and took one look at it, I said, 'Wow, this is totally different,'" admits lead programmer Kimbrell.

[@HiGlowie]

Would have been better if the game were on the doom engine. I can’t stand those saturated cinematic fps’.

[@MillywiggZ]

DNF is a racing term too for “Did Not Finish”. It speaks volumes.

[@midorifox]

Yeah, Duke Nukem Forver had this proto-meme floating around in forums wherever people would mention it, they'd go "did not finish/dnf"

[@TheExFatal]

Whenever me and my friends play sonic and all stars racing transformed, we *always* say "oh he duke nukem forever'd"

[@safebox36]

"Tell me one other game where you can punch an alien's nutsack." The first Half-Life, with the gonarchs in xen.

[@Kacpa2]

Nuke Dukem Forever or Gorgeous Freeman? Take your pick.

[@ryszakowy]

oh my fucking god civvie was right the memes are outdated that this guy didn't even realise it was private JENKINS and after he dies duke says 'damn it LEROY" get it? leroy jenkins? yeah it truly is a product of 14 year development hell

[@mutekichojin]

There's a guy yelling "MY ANUS IS BLEEDING!" in the game - Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected" came out in 2000.

[@lionocyborg6030]

I didn’t know about Leroy Jenkins either when I first played on Xbox 360 in 2011 mainly as despite growing up in that era, I never played World of Warcraft & didn’t even use KZbin as much as I do now. A friend’s (now privated) Marathon let’s play I saw in 2012 did a Leroy Jenkins joke too and I got that one as while I still had to Google who Leroy was afterward, it was better delivered and funnier as he ended up not dying, (mainly as there were less aliens to fight in that spot than he thought). Other memes I didn’t get included: That Underpants gnomes one as while I did watch South Park at the time, I never saw that episode. Captain Dillon being a poorly done Gears of War or Dead Space reference A spinning top in titty city was supposed to be from total recall or inception or something One of the lines Duke says upon picking up a log of poo is a reference to an old saying that appeared on the show Catchphrase. (A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush) The Holsom twins whose inspiration (the Olsen twins) I never heard of growing up outside a joke in an episode of Rugrats. (Angelica throws out their taxes paperwork as revenge for her dad making her eat broccoli) The nuke ending on my first playthrough as while I did hear about the COD 4 nuke sequence, to this day I’ve only played the original Modern Warfare 2. The president makes a comment about the proposed peace treaty with the aliens early on that’s meant to be commentary on the Iraq war, when all I knew about the war of terror back then was seeing a documentary on 9/11 just after news coverage of the attacks when they happened. (I was 5 at the time) Around 2001 & 2002, I even thought it was the bomb van in the older attack that caused it until I saw footage of the planes hitting the second tower. The Shadow Warrior RC car puzzle as I didn’t play nor even see the other Build engine games until 2013.

[@AdolfGOhomE]

​@@lionocyborg6030wow man, very deep analysis of dead memes and cultural references. Keep it up 👍

[@ubermorpth2208]

"You want to give Randy credit for saving Duke I'll give you that, but sometimes dead is better" - Civvie11

[@EddieSpaghetti69]

I'm still surprised that companies keep Randy on. It's like they do not listen to consumers and just use broad appeal to try to soak in funds which isn't working well.

[@nman551]

@@EddieSpaghetti69I am too especially with how creepy Randy is.

[@atifarshad7624]

​@@EddieSpaghetti69 Borderlands

[@skull862]

"but it seems like when you introduce a Randy into the equation, everything falls apart for some reason." -- Civvie11

[@nman551]

@@skull862 Funny isn’t it? How many failures was he behind that we can name because no one ever will forget aliens: Colonial Marines.

[@danin900]

DNF 2001 Restoration Project looks promising, tho. Let's hope it doesn't take them 12 fucking years to finish it.

[@midorifox]

let's also hope they stop it with the dramas. I already don't like Discord, but apparently their discord lobby is a mess.

[@nman551]

@@midorifox it’s always a mess on discord

[@uros.u.novakovic]

@@midorifox What is the TLDR of the drama?

[@midorifox]

@@uros.u.novakovic there's been many, the gist of it is that the usual suspects keeps acting like primadonna and slow down whatever workflow manages to form. It doesn't help that those people are also the most egocentric individuals to ever walk on Earth. Truly, a George Broussard moment. There were others, but I stopped caring to go snoop around that discord lobby to archive posts

[@uros.u.novakovic]

@@midorifox thank you for giving me a summary. Such a shame that a project like this has to suffer those types of people

[@mr.pointman1930]

Now a mod called the DNF Enhanced. It make the game bearable to play with no limited weapon to be switch in and out for different weapon anymore.

[@diamondhamster4320]

RadBoy f@ck3d up but not playing it with some kind of REDUX/Enhanced fan-mod/fan-patch.

[@aSkyclad]

@@diamondhamster4320It's supposed to be a video about the *actual* game, not a modded version lmao

[@diamondhamster4320]

@@aSkyclad Yes, but the mods make it passable - never play games as Devs indented - always play them as you wish and at their best, mate. Never bend over so to say, bend them over.

[@wiredsound5005]

​@@diamondhamster4320 I just refuse to mod games that are terrible through and through. As a polished turd is still a turd.

[@diamondhamster4320]

@@wiredsound5005 Not really, weird stance/weird philosophy. Very unsophisticated. You are turning something bad into something mediocre and something mediocre can be a tad enjoyable with the right relaxed perspective.

[@sugarpolecat4781]

20:09 that's a Leroy Jenkins reference, his name is literally Leroy Jenkins, which was -- a meme long before the game released, like 2006 or something. Another example of how long it took the game to release. When they were making it, the meme was popular, but by the time they released it, the guy who made the meme already fell into obscurity and the meme too.

[@manusgraham1159]

I flinched reading R*ndy's name in the content warning

[@diamondhamster4320]

What being terminally online and afraid of gaming boogeyman does to an MF ->

[@Aoi_the_Hert]

He's so greasy...

[@unoriginalperson72]

​@@diamondhamster4320 if only you knew

[@diamondhamster4320]

@@unoriginalperson72 If only I cared, mate.

[@escapefr0mslender]

Funny drama

[@labenvenci1584]

We can all blame George Broussard for the game not releasing in back in 2000. He constantly forced them to switch engines and tried to compete with other titles like Halo and Half Life, just because he thought it looked cool and made them literally work from home on the game and overwork themselves to a early grave. Extremely toxic game development. The only reason this game saw the light of day is because Gearbox had the rights as they acquired Gathering of Developers and Randy Pitford wanted to revive it cause he was a fan of the series, and completely remade it from the ground up.

[@Vub.]

Yeah I don't know why everybody's always bringing up randy instead of george

[@perrypougins379]

​@@Vub.Randy is the popular punching bag for everyone to blame for Duke, Colonial Marines and Borderlands 3 fall from quality, George is just some dummy who spent his time making things harder and worse from behind the curtains. Dude is, in my opinion, the most guilty person for this game flopping, Randy basically worked with what was already there and tried to remake it (allthough very badly). However, Randy is the one who should be blamed for the series not getting a new game in a long time, it'a just there foe him to brag about having and nothing more.

[@Dr.Oofers]

@@perrypougins379 Yeah, Randy might be responsible for a lot of things wrong with Gearbox and stuff they release/publish, but DNF was not one of them. It was already undergoing so much troubles from the constant engine switches, that even if Randy the greaseman hadn’t greased the project into a revival (after it was cancelled in 2009 originally) it still would’ve likely turned out just as horrid as the final product.

[@monsterurby]

As somebody who was far too young to play Duke Nukem 3D when it released, I played that game to death. Being a young PC gamer, Duke Nukem was my stand in superhero; He was the character I would dress up as at school events. Nobody knew who I was supposed to be. Haha. The early trailers for DNF from 1998 and 2001 had me so damn hyped and then they slowly but surely pissed it away. Duke Nukem Forever finally dropped when I was 25 years old, I played it to completion... and the child in me died. Another decade later, the revived 3D Realms reached out to me and asked, "Wanna help work on OUR Duke Nukem Forever?" It felt right.

[@lionocyborg6030]

Was this the 2001 Restoration Project or Phantom Fury? Either way, psyched for both.

[@monsterurby]

@@lionocyborg6030 I worked on Phantom Fury.

[@3333218]

Wait what?!?!!

[@3333218]

You're working a Duke Game? I wasn't even aware that that was happening. Can you tell us more about it? Up to the limits of any NDAs of course.

[@monsterurby]

@@3333218 No no, I was working on Phantom Fury for Slipgate Ironworks and 3DRealms, which is heavily inspired by Duke Nukem Forever, 2001.

[@arcticridge]

27:00 You can save the women in Duke 64

[@modernmobster]

8:00 is a reference to an infamous Christian Bale freakout on one of the crew members on the set of Terminator: Salvation.

[@KaraokeNig]

Yea trashing my lights.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

The sad thing is that the game did have some funny jokes, and the plot was "fine", but the implementation, the gameplay, and the overall writing were just awful. The rooftop fight at 34:07 was nice, I liked how atmospheric it was. Too bad the rest of the game wasn't like that. And yes, Bombshell was originally supposed to be a kind of sidekick\ second character, instead of Dillan, but Gearbox scrapped her, and 3DRealms\ Slipgate Ironworks made her into her own protagonist with Bombshell, then Voidpoint made Ion Maiden, and Slipgate Ironworks are now releasing Phantom Fury. Also, the leaked 2000 version, even in it's unfinished state was actually much more fun than the Randy version. So make of that what you will.

[@Cats-TM]

Never actually played a Duke Nukem game but I absolutely adore Duke's voice. And John St. Jon is just a really cool guy it seems. Who, fun fact: can sing!

[@sebaprime6411]

2008 and 2009 were the years where the game suffered the most. At the end of 2007, they had made the decision to port the game to consoles. However, the weird Unreal 1 based freak they had was not optimized enough to be ported to consoles as it was. They had to cut down most of the levels. Previously it had more open levels, similar to Duke 3D. It also had a lot of exploration in the streets of Las Vegas. There were some side objectives given by NPCs too. The graphics also had to be severely downgraded (the old graphics are partially restored in the DNF Enhanced mod, more improvements will be in the next update to the mod), that's why the game looks so bad. It wasn't supposed to look like that. The Call of Duty/Halo clone gameplay was also implemented here, replacing the more unique, fast paced gameplay it had before (similar to the gameplay of Enhanced, but not everything has been implemented because of all the limitations of modding this game). All the gameplay problems come from that. In 2009, 3D Realms was sued by the publisher 2K for not being able to release the game. This lawsuit ended with the closing of 3D Realms. However, some 3DR developers founded the company Triptych to finish the game themselves. George Broussard, the original project leader, was mostly not present here. He had envisioned Duke Nukem and the universe as "a serious world, a serious character dealing with serious problems". The writers Triptych hired instead focused on having more of the bits of humor that were in 3D. This is when the gross writing was introduced. The game was also cut down more. All of the levels set in the EDF base, in Area 51 or in space were cut. The character Bombshell (basically a female version of Duke, playable in most of the levels cut by Triptych and also meant to be the protagonist of the 5th Duke game after Duke was going to "die" in Forever sacrificing himself (he was going to come back later in that game)) was cut and replaced with Captain Dylan. This allowed the revived Danish 3D Realms to use her in their games, at least. Gearbox then came to help Triptych to develop the game. Their biggest contribution was replacing the 2009 Duke Nukem model they had with what fans call Douche Nocum.

[@Yackass]

George Broussard pretty much single-handedly killed this game with his own arrogance and incompetence.

[@sebaprime6411]

@@Yackass George's only fault was caring too much. He had almost no experience leading a game this ambitious. Shadow Warrior suffered for having outdated tech, and that scared them into always wanting to be ahead in terms of tech. Besides, the only time the engine switched was in 1998, Quake 2 to Unreal 1. Not counting the Quake 1 to 2 switch since that was planned from the start. The lighting changes in 2003 had little impact on the developers, none of the levels had to be redone or anything. Though they did later redesign the models. George can be blamed for the feature creep, though. But he doesn't deserve the amount of hate he gets for that. George wasn't some kind of arrogant dictator, forcing people to implement features or get fired. He's been described as being too nice, people felt bad when turning down his requests (until around 2005 when they started focusing on finishing the game). What killed the game went further than the feature creep. A constantly understaffed dev team, a rapidly changing industry, problems with the publisher in 2009... all that combined with a game this anticipated and ambitious.

[@GermanPeter]

Honestly, if the game had come out much sooner, even if it had been kinda generic, it'd have been received much better. They messed around for too long and were surpassed by everybody else. At least if had released a decade or so earlier, it'd have aged alongside all the other games.

[@Zack_Wester]

yep. the 2003 leek looked like a intresting game for its time and would had worked but they just keep restarting it over and over. also the early releses of Duke forever did it not havea lot of junk data like there was code for a completely different engine in it. (think a unity game whit Unreal engine code in it).

[@dsouth7754]

I genuinely love the AVGN'esque reactions. I think when any game is frustrating enough, we all start to channel our inner-James.

[@MichaelFoster117]

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

[@tmoney142]

Sometimes I get so angry at games, I channel my inner-James by telling everyone about today's sponsor, Raycon earbuds.

[@andresbravo2003]

Just to blame on Gearbox and 3D Relams, it should be.

[@dylan8736]

Especially George Broussard

[@midorifox]

1:49 we can also thank George Broussard for all of this. Without going into too much details, he was "feature creep: the dev," and not because he wanted to, but because he always felt like he had to demonstrate to others he was better than everyone. Randy did messed DNF, but Broussard gave him the keys to do so. And now he plays victim, like, really? Anyways, for the REAL Duke Nukem Forever, take a look at the Duke32's mod by the same name.

[@lionocyborg6030]

I’d say the real DNF is the 2001 restoration project but the Duke 3D mod is sure a good contender.

[@midorifox]

@@lionocyborg6030the mod has been out for years, the restoration project is all hype.

[@midorifox]

@@lionocyborg6030my comment disappeared lol. Anyways: The DNF 3D mod has been out for years, while the DNF Restoration project has been just hype.

[@lionocyborg6030]

@@midorifox That’s not true. The project has a First Slice demo out right now covering the first chapter (not the first episode, mind.) From the start of the game to when Duke makes it out of The Lady Killer. There’s a shareware demo coming out this year (I think, not sure exactly when but the team are working their asses off to give it to us) that covers the full first episode from the starting point to either when Duke leaves Las Vegas or to just after The Slick Willy levels. There is a lot of hype but it’s not _all_ hype. The Restoration Project team are not making the same mistake 3D Realms & Gearbox did. DNF 2013 is still a good way to pass the time as it is more complete. Sadly isn’t as interactive though. My favourite bit about the mod is the “DLC expansion” episode where upon returning to Vegas, Duke takes his bike to the highways and rooftops like Lethal Highway in Shadow the Hedgehog which just rocks! I haven’t played the Aftershock expansion pack of Ion Maiden yet but it has a bike inspired by both DNF 2001 and DNF 2013.

[@autistic_chef]

Oddly enough, I remember really liking DNF. but then again i haven't played it in 7 years so maybe my opinion would change if I played it again

[@Growy-Nerd]

8:30 it's parody of christian bale drama on the set of terminator salvation, he started screaming at some guy for walking around when they were filming

[@faloodaman]

"RANDY PITCHFORD, WHAT THE FUCK" -Radiation Hazard 2024

[@lowkeystupidasf]

"randy, oil up cuz youre gonna get touched tonight" - radiation hazard 2024

[@faloodaman]

@@lowkeystupidasf Man it feels weird hearing him saying shit like that on such a regular basis but I think I like it 😂

[@unoriginalperson72]

​@@lowkeystupidasfhe doesn't need to oil up he's greasy enough as is

[@ElekiSerket]

The squid (octabrain) that one shotted you in the queen boss fight did it because they can sometimes catch your rockets and throw them back at you, it's a bullshitty move but kinda cool

[@lionocyborg6030]

Octobrains in DNF: “It’s no use! Take this!” Even funnier is that in Duke 3D & Duke Advance, the rocket launcher & devastator are the best guns to use against them (devastator isn’t in Advance though) as due to Build engine jank, they’re coded to explode in 1 hit if shot with any rocket regardless or size. You cool use a bottle rocket and they’d gib.

[@Sharkle_Bunwich]

Yes, Bombshell was originally planned as a character for DNF. In fact, in the 1998 trailer, the girl that shows up is supposed to be Bombshell.

[@EugenijusKrenis]

Yeah Bombshell was going to show up in OG Duke Nukem Forever and she was like a hardass gun-totting bimbo to Duke's jackass jock personality, but she got cut and the ingame concept art seems to be from later iteration that got recycled. 3D Realms decided to use her as a character since that's what they have the rights to.

[@scarletcrusader5431]

Daddy Raz reviewing Duke Nukem Dark and Griddy? I never knew I needed this

[@DBUP-l8h]

"Daddy"... yikes.

[@scarletcrusader5431]

@@DBUP-l8h someone's clearly never been called daddy before

[@DBUP-l8h]

@@scarletcrusader5431 nah, pretty sure that makes you a peter gazer, calling other people that.

[@SPCHC]

I thought this was a Civvie11 video when i saw the notification

[@Aoi_the_Hert]

I kept having to check the video quality to see if it was 60fps. It in fact was. The game just stutters that much.

[@gimok2k5]

Honestly, I mostly blame 3D Realms for all that mess the game is. Gearbox basically just said "let's glue everything together to a function game that can be played from start to finish" and shipped it, they didn't exactly develop much. A good clue of that is the DLC for this game, which was made by Gearbox entirely, and it's *far* better. Probably also helps that it didn't use as much outdated humor. As for your memory: It's accurate. But that was for some of the console versions (I think specifically the N64 port?), not in the PC version.

[@sebaprime6411]

Not everything. Triptych is responsible for the writing. 3D Realms took the world and characters seriously when they were around.

[@cutehomelessman]

I played duke nukem forever like 1 or 2 years ago and this game fills me with rage, cuz I couldn't pass one of the incredibly shitty monster truck levels after trying the same thing for hours

[@DBUP-l8h]

Maybe you just need more practice. Give it another try!

[@cutehomelessman]

@@DBUP-l8h id rather kill myself than playing this 2011 junk

[@SammEater]

One good thing about all this DNF circus was that 2001 build being leaked online and now we have fans working hard to finish that version.

[@TheLaLeeee]

29:06 You can't shoot rockets at the flying tentacle monsters, because they knock them back at you, that's why they kill you instantly.

[@mygoogaa12]

Guys will see this and go hell yeah

[@bigpalookaalt]

hell yeah

[@mrman2476]

hell yeah

[@casmith1998]

this was great! you should do more long-form reviews like this

[@agayweirdo5404]

I was 17 when this game finally came out and I remember going "there's no way this game will suck after 14 years of development" I was so young and naive 😂

[@SHDW-nf2ki]

I always thought it was weird how much Duke Nukem Forevber looks almost just like Perfect Dark Zero. You know, that 360 launch title that was six years old? Look at Duke's fists when you equip them and then look at Joanna Dark's fists. They're the same model! Just different textures. Even the lighting issues are similiar! But Rare actually tried with the character, weapon and enviromental models to give you the illusion of peering into a different world. DNF was just lazy and slapped together in a few months. I'd honestly say DNF is a reskin of PD Zero but, they were made by different teams.

[@Aoi_the_Hert]

On my second time watching this video, i kept checking my glasses to see if they were smudged. My glasses were perfectly clean.

[@modernmobster]

Yeah you should do a video on the dlc too. Its actually better than the main game.

[@NoVIcE_Source]

I love this video! It was a treat to watch like that one long video about hdtf I really didn't mind that it's not half life related at all. Maybe it was actually abit related since duke nukem is in the same league as half life- Your style of explaining your experience with playing games is really cool! I played it thinking I'd listen to it in the background but I keep wanting to actually watch the video lol

[@RadiationHazardYT]

Ayy thanks my man. I will do more videos like these, after I do a bunch of Valve/HL vids.

[@NoVIcE_Source]

@@RadiationHazardYT !!!

[@saudade347]

29:13 You are not supposed to use bombs/explosives againts them, they parry it, that's the one hit kill, they parry your explosive attacks

[@johnshea7871]

In Duke 3D the Octobrains die from the RPG and Devestator which is very satisfying

[@MildPsychedelic]

That pic of Randy is the gift that keeps on giving

[@RoyHess666]

Thank you for the late review, its always nice to see old games being reviewed

[@MatthewCobalt]

8:20 is was a referene to the infamous Christian Bale rant on the production of Terminator Salvation. They even made the guys sound like him.

[@Feasco]

even for a game that took over a decade to make that's an incredibly dated reference

[@MatthewCobalt]

@@Feasco yeah, and not the memorable and charming kind of dated either.

[@koil475]

IF you had done the DLC, you would have learned Dylan survived his "Death"

[@PAL-Sanić]

That manner of a review reminds me of another good games themed channel called Warlockacy, also a good professional voice acting and decent scenario text. I wish to see more of that content on that channel. Thanks to the content creator!

[@barackyobama6139]

duke nukem forever is what your grandma saw on the tv when you were playing any video game

[@Canada407]

You probably won't see this comment. You need to do a Duke 3D video, this was really enjoyable

[@SuperShotgun300]

I second this!

[@SuperShotgun300]

An unexpected video, but a welcome one! I agree with a lot that was said here. I wish that the Duke IP gets purchased by another company and get a reboot like Doom did in 2016. That would be awesome.

[@alfredjr2k556]

Happy 14th anniversary to this game.

[@modernmobster]

13th, but yeah crazy how next year it'll be the same length of time between dnf's entire development and the time since dnf released.

[@starbiifly6666]

My favourite half life youtuber talking about my favorite fps character? Awesome!

[@TheStrayHALOMAN]

I'm going to build the 1911 from this game and the desert eagle from the 2001 build. Also it was the Nintendo 64 version of Duke 3D that let you save the babes. "It's also got better weapons and maps" ALSO please play the DLC it is pretty good compared to the base game... The base game was still built on 14 years of bad development... The DLC is original content and it's so much better.

[@EarthboundX]

7:56 You not knowing what that's a reference to really shows how putting in topical references in anything will just age them poorly. That reference was also literally already a few years old once DNF came out too. 52:48 Hmm, I played the game on the Xbox 360. It's been years for sure, but I don't remember the game being that dark at all.

[@nictomahawk7018]

I'd like to see you talk about the Doctor Who Cloned Me. It's honestly not that bad and makes the whole experience of DNF better.

[@DocDieg0]

The only good thing DNF 2011 gave to the world was Duke's lines to be used by Antoine Delak for Gorgeous Freeman. Nothing more.

[@justletmelistthese]

21:27 Now you have leveld up as a HL fan, expect your invitation to "F U Randy Club", soon I hope you will be enlightened enough to enter the "MARK (Rein), Y U SO MAD BRO?" lounge (it has mooore history than just the emails from Tim's Apple Crusade).

[@jorymo4964]

That bit where you mercy kill those trapped and mutated women feels like such a stark contrast from the rest of the game. It's straight out of the first Dragon Age, and is weirdly dark and disturbing for a deliberately raunchy and corny game

[@noxagonal]

I'm just now realizing that after 14 years of development hell... The DNF we got, is almost 14 years old itself. I feel old... XP

[@FatherHeathen]

I believe the captured women could only be saved in the N64 version.

[@Bizargh]

19:18 If you classify Halo Wars, Ensemble Studio's final game under the same categorization, that would make *6* Halo games (Unless you still consider Halo 3: ODST the expand-alone it was initially intended to be, then perhaps 5.5). Don't pass up on it's soundtrack if you like yourself some Halo tunes. Stephen Rippy (along with Kevin McMullan composing 'Under Your Hurdles') and all involved got some *lovely* results (Even though all of the themes from the Blur Studios cutscenes got relegated to secondary DVD disc and haven't joined the CD tracks that can be found in the present digital releases). Additional notes: - Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project also has you saving babes, although they may be more emphasized as a rewarded 'side-objective' than they were in Duke 64, if I'm remembering from the top of my head correctly. - I have only Civvie 11's account of The Doctor Who Cloned Me, but if it's enough, than it should provide some of the best that Duke Nukem Forever has to offer. - Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison was also the protagonist of 'Bombshell', a game originally intended to be a Duke Nukem game, but you can probably guess why it's called 'Bombshell' instead (It wasn't received well, but Andrew Hulshult made some *damn good* music for it).

[@ChrisDelChris]

The Team America reference is maybe the worst voice line in this game. It feels like they just told John to record it without him knowing the context so it just sounds awkward, not that it would be funny either way.

[@gregatim]

you could even say duke nukem 4ever was being in development since 1996 with a 2d prototype, as for the other builds i would love to see the 97-98 builds (even the prey builds) its like fossils for video games

[@BeegDongLeFleur]

A lot of people want to shit on Randy Pitchford for screwing this game up, I used to as well, but you know who the real culprit is? George Broussard, because every time a new video game engine got released, he would change the game's engine to try to match the current standards at the time.

[@HiGlowie]

They should have just made the game in the build engine, but modified the gameplay and visuals like Ion Fury. I’d love to find another Ion Fury-type game that has smooth controls and those beautiful build engine visuals.

[@scarletcrusader5431]

29:12 No, he took your rocket and tossed it back at you. The octabrains catch and throw explosives back at you

[@madrox8]

at around 8:12 that was a parody of when christen bale was lashing out a lighting engineer during filming of terminator salvation, there is leaked audeo of it that went viral back in the day

[@businessburd2071]

I think the funniest thing about Duke Nukem Forever, at least for me. Is that my dad Pre-ordered the game and had the little Duke bust the game came with for the longest time, so I played this game before so many others. I played this game before Half life (Which I ironically started with Episode 2 of all games, still not sure WHY I did that.)

[@DiegoSynth]

The problem is that people are taking the game seriously and out of context. Everyone complaining about the toilet, the girls, the "ego", the armor... - Why would u care if it says "ego", "health", "life" or whatever?! - Armor is something totally undefined in most games, u normally don't even know what it does exactly. I've beaten this game several times and played hundread hours multiplayer, and don't even remember if it has armor or not. - The graphics and lighting: I think they are ok for these times, never really had a problem with them. U mentioned Halo: that has much worse graphics. Now, I don't think it's a perfect game at all: - The voice. It's not what it was in Duke 3D. It's a different character. It's not dark and badass like before, but goofy. Like a nice fat guy laughing while eating candy. - The 2 weapon limit: big mistake there, that luckily they fixed. - Some tedious things: as you mention, the turret part, among others. - All the Duke home with trophies, photos, gym, etc: totally unnecessary. Out of place. Should have been an "extra" after finishing the game. Not in the middle, cutting all the pace. To be fair, this exists in MANY games, and while the concept is interesting, it has been proven a million times that it doesn't work (although they still include it nowadays). - The start: bad. - EDF soldiers: bad. Duke doesn't need more idiots around, especially being goofy and in these silly uniforms. The game is not bad, but it's not what we were waiting for. Hopefully they'll make another one... soon...?

[@criptfiv3]

i like your half life content, kind of inspired me to make videos (eventually ill get back to it), but i think it would be cool if you'd cover some other games or classic shooters you may have and interest in too, and maybe cover some mods from other games too

[@FR4M3Sharma]

Manhattan project was one of the 10 pc games that I played for the first time in my life. I was 6 when I played DNMP and I was 11 when I played Forever, and my God I remember cringing almost half of the game. They really should've let it lay dead.

[@matijajovic8125]

I played this game once when it came out and never again. This video reminded me that I don't need to replay it ever again. 😅 You can do a video on DLC if you want, I will watch whatever you make.

[@Neon_Henchman]

Funny coincidence, I played it only a few weeks ago and I must've been one of those positive recent reviews. What appealed to me were the Ego Boosts, two in particular; at the casino, I would try to play Slots to get that Boost, but all while aliens were dropping from the window roof, I just paid no mind being shot at while I was focusing on the big pull, it was so amusing in retrospect. Then, there was a printing machine inside a mobile shelter, where I tried to photocopy my ass while the Pigcops where bombing me from outside, again I thought it was amusing, but so it made me wish they had focused on that aspect more somehow, it was so fun to fuck with the enemies in this fashion, never taking the threats seriously, like imagine a 100% Ego Boost run where the player has to go fast too, I think it would've been a marvel to watch. I still think the game is not worth going out of your way to play, but it gave me an idea if I were to design games, like even Serious Sam, my favorite FPSes, doesn't have much to taunt the enemies or fuck with them, but Duke almost had such a system that felt organic.

[@chang7347]

I just beat this game on hard in a single sitting while watching this, and I actually had fun for the most part. 7/10

[@andyfriederichsen]

The entire game isn't just frustrating to play through but it also feels cringy as hell. After defeating the giant alien queen, I actually stopped playing because it just didn't feel fun to play. Also, is anyone else annoyed by how the ammo system works? Your ammo counters includes both the ammo in your weapon and your spare ammo.

[@tecmaxxd]

WAKE UP DUKE NUKEM RADIATION HAZARD VIDEO

[@sashapinesnguyenhienhoa8003]

Man i wonder how this series would be if we didnt have to wait this long

[@MillywiggZ]

They should have stuck with the Quake 2 engine.

[@PeteOfDarkness]

You know what, you DO need to make video about expansion. Allegedly it's better, even good.

[@OrangeBall_HL]

8:19 Coming Soon Hunt Down The Freeman: FOREVER

[@orchid9]

Weirdest shit about DNF’s writing is that most of it was written by a woman. Duke always was a parody of masculine stereotypes, but here’s zero understanding about the topic. Duke always was a goody-two-shoes with a legit love for people. In DNF he is annoying sleazy douche for some weird reason. That’s nothing like the character

[@QSHV]

I'd totally be down to watch a video from you on The Doctor Who Cloned Me

[@sebs-shenanigans]

I'd love the DLC video. A lot of praises were sung about it, so maybe at least it won't make you want to tear your own scalp out

[@umcarafoda125]

If MR berkor directed this game it would' ve been fire, like hunt down the gordon man

[@ThaShowStopper]

The Randy P warning in the intro is perfect 😂🫡

[@salsamancer]

I can't believe we're almost as far from the DNF launch as the original announcement 👴

[@DerekDaly92]

You can save the babes in Duke Nukem 64 but not Duke Nukem 3D, In 2D you get punished with Battle Lords if you kill the babes

[@Umbra_Ursus]

Honestly, the most disappointing aspect of Forever 2011 is the infamy. I played it *years* after the release, I've heard nothing but claims that it's the worst monstrosity ever, and when I actually get to play it... It's boring. Not awful, not horrid, just boring. Filled with dull fluff of annoying mini-games or blunt padding or just plain tedious shrunk sections, with the game's environments losing steam and getting more and more dull as it drags on. It's a shame, because I don't think the raw gameplay is awful, and sections like the Ghost Town Gunfight are actually really fun, if a bit sluggish. The EDF troopers are actually great, Graves is solid, the octabrains are fantastic in all aspects, and Duke still has some good lines. But... It's like the game thought it was too "good" to just be Duke 3D, but new, and threw an ever-increasing mountain of needless crap onto it.

[@whgamer12345]

I mean I played the game and it isn't THAT BAD well by today's standards anyways I mean if you compare this game with idk the new king Kong game or the day before (before it's shutdown) this game is a masterpiece and I didn't have any much issues with the game it played and ran just fine for me

[@HellsAsylum]

An unexpected surprise, but a welcome one! I'd love to see more content like this from you mr. RadHaz. DNF is such an interesting example because it's not like Daikatana nor is like Half Life 2. Instead it's just...Okay... When Interceptor Entertainment (Now Sligate Ironworks) bought 3D Realms, they were under the impression that this included the Duke Nukem IP, but that was still owned by Gearbox. Bombshell the game was originally supposed to be a Duke Nukem game called Mass Destruction and that's why it was changed in the first place. So even though Shelly Harrison from Ion Fury shares the name, I don't think she's technically the same character. Speaking of Ion Fury, I would love to see a Duke Nukem reboot. It would be very fitting too, given how popular retro shooters are nowadays. Too bad it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. I'm not even sure who owns the rights anymore but whoever it is I blame Randy.

[@ArsLanHGunner]

10:50 actually reminded me of a similar section in the original Shadow Warrior - another famous 3D Realms game on Build Engine. Man, I remember getting the jewel box version of DNF back in high-school with poker chips, art book and a comic, being all hyped up just to discover the game being shieeeeeet. In all honesty, I can look past all the junkiness and terrible gunplay, but... The lighting, FOV and constant blur... These are things that kill DNF for me. Awesome video as always! Now I lowkey want to play enhanced modded version

[@Petrick69]

Whatever happened with Duke Forever, Civvie11 has kept us updated.

[@CSSLZT13]

Managed to get all but one achievement on Xbox 360. All i had to do was beat the DLC on Damn, Im Good, but i cant be arsed to finish it.

[@MulekeTrairao]

10:55 Shadow Warrior from 1997 did something very similar, so it's not really innovative, but creative nonetheless. DNF did expand on that concept though.

[@OverwatchSniper]

Go speed racer goooo

[@kilmerval]

27:15 in duke 64 you could save the babes and in Manhattan project and in time to kill.

[@Camo-un8ee]

so i wanna add a problem i personally have, as a vegas resident, its annoying to see everything themed around duke. the stratosphere being a fast food restaurant for duke is like the empire state building being made into a panda express. its moreso i think the devs underestimated how annoying it would be to play a game where the world revolves around the main character. say in half life 2, imagine how annoying it would be if Gordon freeman was the face of everything in city 17

[@beardalaxy]

As someone who had never played a Duke Nukem game before, I picked up this game around 2018 or so just to see if it was really as bad as people said it was if taken just by itself without any context. The first two thirds of the game I actually enjoyed quite a bit for what it was. That last third of the game though was absolutely insufferable and unforgivable.

[@Zack_Wester]

I think a lot of the bad review was from around the launch of the game. back then you could only have 2 weapons (that was it the 4 weapon option was not even a option). the performance was dog poo bad, even for what it was. the graphic past the intro bit was terrible whit the model/texture Streaming not working meaning that stuff would always load in whit the lowest level quality/detail (this looks okey at a distance close and it looks bad). and just terible performence in general (remmber back then in 2011) most game would relese in a competent state game breaking bug did exist but the game would for the most time be playable on version 1.0.0 (duke was not), COD MW3 (from the same time) V 1.0.0 was completly playable and performence was okey from what I read.

[@beardalaxy]

@@Zack_Wester Gotcha, I played it on PS3 too so things might have been different there performance wise.

[@snoiper-bp9vf]

We be eating good tonight‼️

[@TheOneEpicplayer]

Disclaimer: This video contains Randy Pitchford