WTF Is... - Duke Nukem Forever ? (demo)

TotalBiscuit takes a lengthy look at the Duke Nukem Forever demo, released today for first-access club members. More to the point, is it any good?

[@soylentgreenb]

The flow in duke 3d was excellent. No regenerating health meant no loafing about taking cover and waiting for health. No weapon limitation meant no stopping and fiddling about with your inventory whenever you come across a weapon. Enemies are numerous, but they go down easily enough that you can kill them without taking damage if you have a decent weapon and you get the drop on them. Those are the core ingredients of a good arcadey shooter.

[@SiD3WiNDR]

The DNF reviews introduced me to TB and friends, revisiting today.... Rest in peace John.

[@75338]

RIP

[@pnutz_2]

yeah this was my first video

[@Inferno957841236]

Same bro

[@captainkirk265]

Well gay means happy so gay abandonment would mean happy abandonment which goes to joyful abandonment which means do something that makes you happy without fear.

[@OmegaPhlare]

This is an old video but after seeing it, I have serious respect for TotalBiscuit in the way that he handles this game. He doesn't have unrealistic expectations for graphics; doesn't expect a tropical rainforest with thousands of polygons (Crysis). He doesn't unjustly bitch about how much he hates the game or how boring it is to him every 5 seconds. He just comments about perfectly valid issues in the game.

[@Emidretrauqe]

I'm so glad TB did a WTF is of this game. Would've never had expected it to be this run of the mill...

[@HeroAdventurer1]

On PC now you can hold 4 weapons

[@KapitanPazur1]

And fun value of the game got multiplied by 6. Sadly the fun value is still at 0 tho.

[@BandTiguysChannel]

this game may be shit but GODAMN THAT THEMESONG

[@lambodriver2]

is it just me or does the little "mep" noise that happens when you reload the shotgun sound like the one from half-life 2's shotgun reload sound?

[@KapitanPazur1]

Stock sound effects. Any company can use those for free.

[@Vorstikaste]

"Save the world all by yourself" is a line from the original trailer from a decade ago.

[@cynicalbrit]

Lolling hard at the children who got butthurt over this demo being awful "He wasn't meant to play Duke". Newsflash kiddies, this isn't Duke. Duke came out before you could walk. Deal with it, consoles ruined any chance of this game being decent. If the demo is anything to by it's an outdated, entirely linear, Halo-inspired piece of junk. If you want to keep believing otherwise then go ahead, a fool and his money are soon parted. This game exploits the franchise, it doesn't honour it.

[@Questypants]

Was that crowbar thing duke said a half life reference?

[@KapitanPazur1]

Yes, DNF is full of overdone jokes about old video games and pussy wearing power armors

[@pnutz_2]

the first video I watched on this channel, referred from an online forum. You missed mechanicus, the astartes series and cnc remastered but got saved from cp77 and so much other videogame bullshit RIP

[@Hattuapina]

this game is such garbage

[@TwistedxL3G3ND]

11:09 "If you get stuck, don't forget you can cheat by looking at FAQs online" lmao I love the tips it gives in the loading screens

[@HandOfCode]

[@captainkirk265]

I don't like how he blames the two weapon limit on console gamers. Its not our fault what the game developers do. Its not like all console players absolutely hate having more than two weapons. By the way their was a FPS game on PS2 return to castle wolfeinstein operation resurrection that let you pick up has many guns you can find, did not have regenerating health, had you searching the map to solve puzzles, find med kits, and find secrets, and implemented cut scenes without taking away from the action.

[@HellsAsylum]

The way I see it, it has everything to do with the consoles themselves. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or not doesn't really have anything to do with what platform you play on. It's true that if it had been PC only, it wouldn't have been dumbed down because the developers would be able to tailor it to the PC platform. However, I still believe that dumbing down their PC ports is due to either laziness or lack of resources or both.

[@gravygamers]

CynicalBrit, I've grown very fond of your videos and this one is no exception- I love how you gave the game a chance and defended it when you could. I agree with the point of the design flaws- GearBox is clearly looking to make sales and attract to the younger kids gameplay wise and just attempting to attract the older market with jokes and appearance- it's smart marketing but it's going to get them burnt. I also tried the demo- it was as you said "average". They need to remove the 2 wep limit.

[@sedeasedeasedea]

10:30 TB: "Doesn't really tell you a whole lot about the game." Duke:" It's good!"

[@Sinjino]

TB: "Doesn't tell you much about the game." Duke: "It's goooooood." Nuff said

[@ripoutyourprejudice]

Have you played the High-Res Texture mod for Duke 3D, it puts the entire game in actual 3D than 2.5D what it originally was. You get 3D enemies, 3D weapons, 3D everything. I personally enjoy the older aesthetic more for old school shooters, but that 3D mod makes it feel new.

[@metaknight234]

"The music was The Prodigy, so I switched it with something that was less awful..." ...what?

[@RattlingHeads]

"Admittedly, it doesn't really tell you a lot about the game." Duke: It's good. Okay, that was some excellent (un?)intentional humor.

[@s0m30n3el5e]

lol 11:10 "if you get stuck don't forget you can cheat by looking at FAQs online" hahaha, one of the best tips I have seen

[@xBattsey]

For your information, the two weapon limit has nothing to do with consoles since this choice was incorporated long before Gearbox had anything to do with Duke Nukem Forever. This was a design decision made at 3D Realms, by 3D Realms. Also, Gearbox brought in alot of the staff to continue work on DNF that once worked at 3D Realms and then subsequentally fired once the studio shut down. Fyi.

[@Horidikanas]

I think people were expecting perfection because the main reason the game was delayed was because every time some kind of new engine or something-else-tech was released, 3d realms spent money on switching to that instead of staying on one specific thing because Forever had to be /the/ game with /the/ newest and coolest stuff

[@Battalrin]

10:31 TB: Admittedly it doesn’t really tell you much about the game Duke: IT'S GOOD!!!

[@DotSWE]

Sprinting looks just like in CoD/BF. You can only carry two weapons. And then the worst part... NO BOOT!? Duke Nukem used to be equal to Chuck Norris. When did "kicking ass and chewing bubble gum" stop being relevant? I must say I'm disappointed, but I will probably still play through the game just for the nostalgia. Great review as always TB, keep it up bro! :)

[@Duchu26]

IMO Gearbox wanted to make their game more accessible for modern FPS players. They thought that by making this changes (regenerating health, 2 weapons limit etc.) they would steal some gamers from series like Call of Duty or Battlefield. And by doing so: 1. Modern FPS players won't play DNF, because they have better games. 2. Duke Nukem fans won't play DNF, because it's no longer Duke Nukem they remebered and loved.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

"the music wass originally the Prodigy, so i replaced it with something less awful" thank you, i had enough of him in the third Big Momma's house movie (which seemed to be nothing but a very long ad for him.)

[@DrFieldMouse]

1 gun: have you got any bubble gum? 2 guns: meh 3 guns: good 4 guns: fun 50 guns and your all out of bubble gum!

[@HellsAsylum]

Yes, it's true that Bungie and Insomniac doesn't dumb down their games, however that only mean that they're doing it right, while everyone else is doing it wrong. There was a time where developers put a lot of effort into porting their games to other systems in order to make sure that each port was tailor made for each system. The quality of these ports were debatable, but at least they put in the extra effort.

[@gassnake2004]

Old-school Duke was a fun first-person shooter with colorful graphics, no regenerating health, you could carry however many weapons you wanted, and all the rude, in-your-face humor had been practically unheard of in that time. DN3D has greyish-brown graphics like every other FPS, you can only carry two weapons, you can only have 2 weapons, and the jokes are just juvenile instead of shockingly funny. In short, the devs wanted to keep up with modern FPS's instead of staying true to Duke.

[@MrSepiriah]

TB: 'Admittedly it doesn't tell you alot about the game' Duke: 'It's good!'

[@sarcasm-83]

@GhostReconGuy I might've used the wrong word, I apologize for that - english isn't my motherlanguage. But I meant that gearbox finished the game. And they ported it to consoles and made the decisions that "consolized" the game (regen health, 2 weapon limit). Not that it bothers me that much now, but for some reason I was really expecting an old school experience as I miss those games that I played way back in the day.

[@PorplSnek]

"My god he can run fast." Considering that in Duke Nukem 3D he was running a little faster while carrying several hundred pounds worth of guns and ammo, I would expect nothing less.

[@MrTeal8]

@Rockandmetal45 It's a shoot-em-up game. I don't know how much depth you can get there. The greatest things about Duke Nukem is the over-the-topness and this demo definitely has that.

[@EnigmaHood]

I have to say that Gearbox had very little do with these design choices. This was almost entirely 3DR's fault. 3DR finished 95% or so of the game, Gearbox just finished the mess 3DR started.

[@iuel42]

Thx again for saving me money, TB

[@Mrbordershock]

I love how at the beginning, Total buscuit tries to be as forgiving as possible and tries his hardest to enjoy and have fun with the game but the more he plays, the more you see his mood to slowly change into annoyed. I feel so sorry for him for believing this game was going to be awesome because I did the same thing... -_-

[@superdog619]

9 guns and no iron site is what made real shooters. GO IN GUNS BLAZING!! DUKE NUKEM STYLE!

[@MapleMan4000]

What gearbox needs to do is add a dificulty/game mode called "duke classic" or somthing along those lines.It would have health packs and multiple weapon slots (aswell as the mighty boot). This version would apeal to the old duke fans, while the cod / modern fps fans can play the original game mode as it is similar to what they are used to. Best of both worlds.

[@DanHowardMtl]

Awesome. Thanks for posting this.

[@Furycrab]

I 100% agree that the limited amount of guns is ridiculous, half the fun in Duke nukem was finding secrets with powerful guns but limited ammo. However... Complaining about difficulty/insta deaths and not being able to run and gun however you like on the presented hard difficulty... I have issues with those complaints

[@ThantosProduction]

Anyone else that can't get enough of watching this video ? :D damn i dont remember when i last time waited a game so badly.

[@TimelessOne123]

Acctually, the 2-weapon restriction is a bit of a problem. As TB stated, Duke carries 50+ weapons on him like the manly man he is, and punches giant aliens in the balls. WHERE IS THE MIGHTY BOOT DAMN IT!

[@TheKijib]

Onwards to 2023

[@Theninja114]

"If you get stuck, don't forget you can cheat looking at FAQ's online" rofl

[@HellsAsylum]

My point still stands. Developers don't need to dumb down games in order to please the console crowd.

[@hotshot3434]

mood of the demo: start: =D middle: =| end: >=c

[@Elementlmage]

What annoys me about the regenerating health is that they lied to us about it. They said Duke would regen health by being a bad ass, and NOT by cowering behind cover and being a wimp. And....they went back on it.

[@etiennegalea]

We're not being haters, we're stating the fucking obvious. This is NOT the Duke Nukem we loved, 'nuff said.

[@LolFishFail]

love the new intro! :D I want one like that! xD

[@mdavies97131]

Thumbs up if you want a skilled modder, or even better, a developer patch, to "correct" this game & let you carry ALL weapons in true Duke style :)

[@Jagethemage]

my quick-cap analogy to explain my (personal) experience with duke nukem forever, anticipation to finish.. it was like opening a present on Xmas that was 10feet tall, but ended up being a huge child-support bill

[@OdraMH]

Love your reviews, I'll definitely get DNF IF it supports a decent mod scene to address these issues. Sadly there seems to be some map DLC on the way, whether its priced or free has not been confirmed, but if its priced we can kiss a full fledged modding community goodbye. I'm still nauseous from seeing the "Aim Assist" option.

[@Silenthunter287]

On a side note,I don't agree with the 2 weapon system being the console's fault since FPS games in the N64 allowed you to carry A LOT of guns.Hell,The Darkness,for instance,didn't have a two weapon system.I blame the devs.

[@BrandonBlume]

Modified Unreal 2.5 engine, actually. The renderer was completely rewritten, to be exact. Almost a brand new engine. I'm sure someone else has already brought this up, though. Maybe you even did in your next two videos of DNF, which I will watch after this one. :)

[@abcicklah]

When it said "press space to continue" i pressed space, i was waiting for about 10 minutes before i remembered i was watching youtube. then i realized that these graphics are that good

[@Opirian]

@LightninLew Your reply honestly baffles me, I was replying to your comment of "You can't do a 360 because your desk isn't infinitely long, to which I provided a counter-point. Also to your reply, aiming and repositioning with a mouse is actually quite easy, and I have never had to pick up my mouse to keep turning in a FPS on the PC, if I wanted to turn further I move my mouse slightly faster. Why did you feel the need to insult me there in the end? It doesn't make your argument more appealing

[@sfocelot]

Fucking epic intro! Love it!

[@Stedal1978]

They are not Gearbox's design decisions, they were already in place by 3DRealms long before Gearbox took over. The changes are 3DRealms trying to eveolve Duke Nukem a little. Gearbox just finished what was already there.

[@Akantorz12]

And one more thing, ITS A FUCKING DEMO. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? 8302020 GUNS? THE BEST PARTS OF THE GAME IS MEANT TO BE SAVOURED IN THE LAST

[@gustavengman]

"It runs well and it runs smoothly."

[@mdavies97131]

Thumbs up if you want a skilled modder, or even better, a developer patch, to "correct" this game & let you carry ALL weapons in true Duke style :).... and bring the boot back outside of preset interactions & frozen executions, lol

[@PavelDrotar]

The reason for only 2 weapons is fairly obvious. If you listen to eg. the commentary for HL2 Episode 2, you'll hear how multiple weapons causes problems for level design (in Ep2, some testers managed to save every single grenade up to the Guardian so that they could kill it with explosives). By limiting players to only 2 weapons, and basically being able to expect them to have 1 "standard" weapon, you know that their firepower is limited all the time.

[@onetwofunk]

Hey, thanks for helping me compose my letter to gear box! Dear Gearbox, TotalHalibut hates your game due to the lack of many, many things. And who could forget the classic MIGHTY BOOT? And Howcome its all Halo now? I bet youve gotten over 10,000 messages about these things! Sincerely, Viewer of Total Halibut.

[@alex134219]

id like to mention the chaingun was also called the ripper in earlier games

[@SlashleyVO]

People, stop saying this game is bad by just looking at reviews, play the damn game for yourself. We have rentals for a goddamn reason.

[@Itookthelaw]

@TotalHalibut I agree but I think it still warrants a demo download and a review read before I make my judgements.

[@TheGulzbert]

"two weapon restriction? who the hell do they think this guys is? This is freakin Duke Nukem! He can carry 50 of these dumb things!"

[@AgentH53]

11:08 Why are they calling FAQ cheating? If you get stuck in game, you got two options: 1: Remain STUCK. And throw the game in the garbage. 2: Or look up and FAQ, and CONTINUE the game! Your choice.

[@Arcling]

Actually Duke wasn't supposed to be totally oldschool but rather something between old and new. Now it all looks rather outdated simply because the game is being released later than it was intended (and by this I mean the latest version of the game ofc). Main problem is that many people are expecting too much, they want this game to be perfect. I remember similar situation with Doom 3 - while the game wasn't bad, it was forgotten rather due to not meeting high expectations built over the years.

[@TryMike4instance]

@Billaargh thankx :)

[@Jagethemage]

ill give this game one good point, that was the most REALISTIC minecart ride in any game, ever.. period..

[@RattlingHeads]

Also, it's probably been stated many times, but all Gearbox did is polish, 3DR developed the game mechanics and everything.

[@lucasnooker]

you use the mighty boot with execution!

[@thethingexe]

@133742069 Gearbox weren't the guys who made most of the game, they got to make the final changes, which meant making it more console friendly.

[@Xamashi]

guys wait til the full game comes out to decide to buy it or not. honestly this is jsut a demo and might just have restrictions since its a demo. there actually might b more guns to carry in the real game. it looks descent

[@EnigmaHood]

@landovers He did. He said the graphics are very brown and the art direction was pretty awful.

[@jrp1234657]

i understand how you feel man but this game is still going to kick so much ass. damn i used to play the old games all the time sure this has a few disappointments but you know what i don't think i give a shit about the differences ill love the dukes games always HAIL TO THE KING.

[@LightninLew]

@GalusIcE You're right, it does mainly come down to personal preference. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I think this all started because someone said console controllers where holding back gaming. As for the smoothness thing, I'm not really getting my point across, I hate these character limits. I could easily write thousands of words about this, but then I try to condense it and my point completely disappears, oh look I've filled another comment without actually saying anything useful.

[@sarcasm-83]

@gregolol777 Well yeah, that's true ofcourse, but I just meant that I wasn't expecting them to go the "regen health, 2 weapon carrylimit" way since they hadn't done it in their previous well known game. It would've made sense that they would've figured out a way for duke to get his duke-like massive arsenal and the old school healthpack mechanic like in duke nukem 3D. I miss those old school games... sure I'm used to regen health and 2 weapon juggling but I just miss the old things :)

[@C4Chaos42]

Gearbox turned duke nukem forever into COD/HALO. "Here have some friendly and unwanted features that console kids love: health regen, limited weapons, story line on rails (bye bye exploration) and indicators for everything (weapon pickups etc..)

[@makingitwork2]

@private420 GEARBOX DID NOT ACTUALLY DEVELOP THIS VERSION OF DNF! Triptych Games, who are made up of former 3DR workers (Including Allen Blum), are the ones who actually finished the game. Gearbox provided funding and assistance. Randy saw what 3DR wanted to do with the game and respected their decision. He allowed Triptych to make DNF the game they wanted to make. Not the game that Randy thought it should be.

[@JakeRayTM]

TB says: "It doesn't tell us much about the game.." Duke says: "It's good.." 10:20 or something, when he kicks the eye :D

[@54356789]

@klaus4040 Actually, no, it's not. The demo is a pre-released, unfinished version of the game for those that want to see if they want to buy the game from just an incomplete version. People have to wait until it comes out and people start giving their testimonies on it for an actually valid decision on something of that sort.

[@Vingauld]

@renhoeknl He's not thinking about serious Sam, he's thinking about Duke Nukem 3D, It's where the whole thing came from!

[@jasonallen19]

*pauses at 13:03* Right about then the Duke boys knew they were in trouble...

[@Jugabaloo73]

That intro made me jizz and replay duke nukem 3d entirely in my head

[@DudeTheAlmighty]

next duke game has got to have: 1. humor: put fresh and witty stuff in there but be sure to also have some dirty good old school in there, and put loads of parodys and references 2. good gameplay and mechanics: unlimited guns, mighty fucking boot, ok graphics, loads of shooting, open world level design, and no puzzles 3. make duke an anti hero middle finger to todays fps industry. mave him insult and spit on puzzles, aiming down, and the like

[@ryano1267]

1. Alpha up middle, Blake flanks. 2. Philips and I head around. 3. PROFIT!!!

[@Bluehawk2008]

It was called "The Ripper Chaingun" in Duke3D.

[@0kazaki]

@OniScythe there will be a boot. dunno if TB missed it on the options or if its just the demo, but there will be a mighty boot.

[@Alien426]

It reminds me of the game Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death that I recently played. It has only 2 weapons as well, and one of those is always the Lawgiver. You get to punch, though. That helps when reloading is not an option.

[@MrAustinGman]

"a crowbar would come in handy right about now" 12 years later, Half-Life 3 forever comes out.

[@MisterBreezer]

"Why can i not run sideways?!" Probably because your Duke Nukem, a human, not Duke Nukem, the crab.

[@aboohoo]

@clugzo i meant the stuff in the final product didn't take 14 years to produce people shouldn't be expecting super high quality graphics just because the game has been in development for so long but it's all kind of moot when the gameplay looks as boring as it does :P

[@HellsAsylum]

Yeah, I agree. Like Yahtzee said, you can practically dissect the game and see how it tries to keep up with the last 14 years of shooter evolution. I suppose the dumbing down on games can somewhat be attributed to the explosion of the console market and the succes of "modern" shooter like Halo, but it can be equally attributed to some developers just being lazy/copycats. Just because something is popular doesn't necessarily mean everyone has to copy it, lest the genre begins to stagnate.

[@gunndaddy]

The boot dlc will be released two weeks after the release date for $10.