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The Demo
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After the video, we were seperated into groups as they only had 6 machines. I was in the first group and chose my computer and picked up my 360 controller and put on my headphones. You turn the monitor on and it's ready to play. If you've seen the Dahanese photoshops, you'll recognize the intro menu with Duke standing there.
When you start the demo, you start off in a situation that mimics many games' opening sequences nowadays.
The opening to Duke3D is unforgettable. Ask anyone that's played it, "How does Duke 3D start?" Well, you're in a cityscape, on a roof, and he's pissed that his ride just got shot down by aliens. He's got a gun, he can shoot out crawl space grates and on and on..
First scene, you've got drama, you've got a one liner, you've got a weapon, and you've got some interactivity. And not just interactivity, remember, interactivity you've never seen in a game before. You couldn't shoot the grates out in Doom. There was no jumping or ducking in those games. So already you know, "This is going to be fucking nuts." and you've got a weapon, you drop down the chute, kick some ass, find a rocket launcher, blow a hole in the wall, look through cameras, etc etc.
I highly doubt this is the opening to Duke Forever in the final game for a few reasons. You start off with no weapons and the first thing you see is a urinal and "Hold RB to Piss" or whatnot. So the first thing I do in DNF after over 10 years waiting is I take a piss in a toilet. After this, you can move around, there's some shit you can fuck with, your urinals flush, the water runs, the soap dispenser pumps, the toilet flushes, you CAN NOT GET IN THE FUCKING HOT TUBS, you can see yourself in the mirror, etc. Beyond that, you're the weaponless character in the beginning of most games walking around a chaotic scene unfolding with police officers telling you where to go and mayhem and blammo, stuffs going down. There's also a whiteboard you can use to draw on which is neat for about 5-10 seconds. You can also press RB I think it was to "use" a water fountain, then press X as you're view is now altered to give the appearance of you in position to take a drink, to actually take a drink. Two button presses to drink water but I can't hop in the fucking hot tub?
I'm HUGE on exploration and checking things out. Sometimes to a fault. I think I missed something that may play out better in a walkthrough of the setup, but at one point I'm walking down a hallway and notice a cop blocking an area. The hallway I was in led outside to the inevitable bad guy but I chose to instead try to get past this cop. He wasn't budging but then he all of a sudden fell while a huge explosion was going off and I was able to move on past him if I wished. I think I missed a scene going on to the side of me or behind me as I was trying to sneak past the cop in the way which was my fault as the player, but I hope I didn't miss anything important. If I was showing someone this walkthough without so much open investigation going on, I would know not to miss that trigger.
You eventually come to a scene where you go to grab a devastator and when you do, you notice you're in an elevator shaft going up. That elevator shaft leads you to the football field where a big boss is awating you. The big boss was standing in the middle of a football field, it's rainy, you've probably seen the scene or screenshots at least. It's a remake of the scene from Duke3D. Circle strafing just isn't what it was back in 1990-whatever. The bosses in Resistance are larger than life at times also but at least required you to hit certain destruction zones. This was just plain old circle strafe around and shoot the bad guy X many times to win gameplay. With one weapon. And the ammo drops were something else. If you were showing and walking through this demo for someone, that would be one thing and come across much differently as you knew WTF was going on. But as it is, it's hard to tell how to reload.
I noticed that so long as I skated around, the boss wasn't hitting me or doing much damage; maybe I was invincible. So I started shooting at the sidelines crap (that stuff knocked around with physics), tried shooting out the lights (nothing happened), tried shooting at the stands (nothing), and eventually ran out of ammo. Where's the ammo? Looking around, looking around.. Huge football field, oh what's that smoke signal way over there? Apparantly, in the midst of all of this mayhem, there are ammo drops being flown in from the military for me. Every 10-20 seconds, I need to go and find an ammo drop that was flown in and it was just a bit confusing at first.
I finally got tired of the guy and blasted him and move on to the next level. I think this was also where the scene zoomed out into the Duke living room and where the blondes are giving him head and he makes some kind of joke and the next level loads.
Ok, next level and this setting is more western/mining themed and you start early on in a 4x4 Monster Truck. The driving which handles well, my only complaint is in a day and age of games like Red Faction where you can drive anywhere, the fairly closed-in spaces to drive around in almost made the whole driving section pointless in DNF. A neat thing to show, but just not implemented well. Duke, in a Monster Truck? Ok. I ran over a few guys, turned some corners I had to turn, hit the turbo, went off a ramp and then promptly ran out of gas. Where was the gas? "Press X to exit the vehicle". Well, now I'm left to wonder if I could have continued on had I only known to collect gas. I got out and walked along and came across some "Pig Guys". I couldn't make out if they are "Pig Cops", but they are pig dudes. And their appendages blow off fantastically when you shoot them with the shotgun.
So now I'm walking around these red rock type areas and there's lots of mining equipment (carts and rails and elevated tracks) and the pig dudes are coming out every so often. I happened to find the shotgun, a sniper rifle, and the chain gun all of which were satisfactory and it is a bummer to not be able to carry them all at once. Now I'm killing a couple of dudes with the shottie, one drops a chain gun, now I have a choice I shouldn't have to make. The fun should not be interupped by something like "Should I drop my shottie or keep it?" I don't know what's up ahead or if it even matters. I want to try the chaingun, but what if it's got too little ammo or there's no ammo ahead? I still stand by my case that while yes, Duke 4 can be played with two weapons at a time as a choice, optimally the game should allow for carrying of every weapon collected so the only choice the player is to be bothered with there is "Which weapon do I want to whip out not to kick THIS guy's ass with??" See Ratchet and Clank for a game that nearly defines weaponry and how to handle it. Or other titles on the consoles that handle multiple weapons just fine without interrupting the flow of the game.
At this point, I had just picked up the chain gun when I felt a tapping on my shoulder and a voice saying, "We're all done" and that the next group was getting a turn. Oh shit! Everyone was gone! How embarassing! I had taken much longer than the others in my playthrough and was the only one there besides the guys that work for Gearbox. I think, I don't know I was so embarassed but we all left and made it back to the beer and pizza room while the next group came in to check out the demo.
Overall:
Graffix - Fine. Sure, they could use some work in areas, but I'm honestly the worst to ask about graphics as I place gameplay way higher than graphics and can enjoy the WORST graphics in a game so long as the game is fun. Like Minecraft. Certain Wii games. Yes, graphics can help, but they are a very shallow thing for me and the deeper meaningful stuff outweighs it. But overall, graphics were on par with what is out there today on 360 and PS3.
Controls - Standard FPS on a console fare. X to jump, move with sticks, etc. No complaints besides the inclusion of a run button. IMO, Duke doesn't need a run button as I don't think he'd ever think, "Whoa. I need to slow down". Make the left analog stick control movement speed with you know.. It's analogy-ness. Make a full press his run speed (it's nothing outlandish) and maybe hold the stick half to "walk". That would free up a button there and perhaps multiple weapons could work. One other thing, I couldn't find the Boot Kick button. Melee does the standard gun butt attack. At some points, if it weren't for the one liners, you could get lost and think you're playing any character from a modern shooter.
Gameplay - Yes, it's old school Duke. If by that you mean, "Can I piss in urinals, shoot big guns, hear one liners, and jump and duck in 3d space?" Yes. Is it old school Duke. In terms of whether it's taking fun and interactivity to any next levels? Not that I saw. At least that portion wasn't chosen to be shown. Rechargable health is in(yes, it's called Ego).
Eventually, Steve came back, gave us some gift bags, and led us out. My feelings on Duke are mixed and primarly because I'm trying to get this game to live up to what a game 15 years ago meant to me and I think that might be unfair. It's also fair then to say for what it is, if it wasn't called "Duke Nukem" and made by Gearbox and Steve wasn't involved, what would I say about the game as I played it? It's easy to be nostalgic and say, "I don't want Duke to be a carbon copy with updated graphics, I want that level it brought gaming to from where it was back then compared to where gaming is today!" but that's a hell of a lot harder to do nowadays given what Duke is. Is DNF going to be a fun titty joke game where you punt testicle shaped brains into the end zone? Yes. Duke is an enigma and that carries alot of weight for different reasons with people. What it will be when it ships I have no clue but I am sure even if it's just more of what they showed us there, it will be considered a success and worthy of another sequel or two (or three, whatever).
Everyone at Gearbox was super cool and it was a great visit and I am honored to have been chosen to go and check it out. They invited some of their most vocal critics in to check out the game along with their biggest fan in the universe and I think it was a great time for all.
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