Yahtzee: I hadn't actually seen this until Paul H drew my attention to it, but it's certainly made me wonder about what might have been. Yes, at one point a couple of years back I was approached to possibly write for Duke Nukem Forever.
Trust me, I would have talked about this a lot more if it weren't for two things: partly the uncertainty over whether it violated some unspoken non-disclosure arrangement, which I guess isn't an issue anymore if that video I linked can have a former 3D realms developer gab off about it, but mostly because it wasn't a terribly interesting story, at least not from my perspective. Brian Hook emailed me asking if I was available for game scriptwriting, and I said yes, because I was. I was asked to do an audition piece so I knocked up a quick and dirty script for a scene that was basically taking all the piss. And don't ask to see it because it was a couple of hard drives ago.
Until I watched the video above I didn't even know if anyone had even liked the piece at all, which is probably why I don't talk about it. All I got told was that it didn't suit the tone they were going for. I was taking the piss out of Duke himself and they wanted Duke to be relatively straight while the world and the people around him were silly. I didn't submit a revised audition because that didn't make any sense to me at all. I would think the only way an action hero as typically 90's as Duke Nukem could survive today would be with as much irony as possible. I said as much, and thus ended my potential glittering career with 3D Realms.
Duke Nukem Forever originally began its life as a sidescroller instead of a shooter back in 1996, and that canceled version has just been leaked.
Very cool, but i don't know how real this is... I'll check it out later to find out.
Duke Nukem Forever, the troubled FPS from Gearbox and 3D Realms, has been restored to more traditional 90s shooter thanks to a sweeping “remaster” mod
kinda of a misleading title.
Mod features:
Sprinting removed and faster player movement
Jump height increased
Swim speed is much faster
Player can now hold breath underwater for 45 seconds instead of 15
Weapon rebalance and screen shake when shooting removed
2/4 weapon limit completelly removed
Quicksaves (F5 by default)
Depth of Field removed and new post processing effects
Driving sections are now in first person perspective
yw.
It is pretty amazing, I remember being so hyped that they covered the Duke theme back when it happened haha. I still quite enjoyed Forever though personally.
It is great, you should check out Eric Calderone - Duke Nukem meets metal .. thats proper as well
Duke Nukem Forever, the infamous and controversial FPS from 3D Realms, apparently looked much better before launch, as modders discover various cut features
Wow, that advanced lighting makes a huge difference to the visuals. I get that Gearbox tried to slap everything together and release a finished product. But it seems like they cut out a lot of content that would have made the experience more enjoyable. That's a shame.
Same, the AI could be pretty dumb but the bosses were fun. I thought the levels (mostly) got better later in the game too.
It makes you wonder what sort of game Duke Nukem Forever would have been if 3D Realms had gone with Yahtzee's script. A DNF that takes the piss out of Duke for being an over the top 90s action hero in a modern world would have been pretty funny.
Duke Nukem Forever could have actually have been funny.
Sigh....best not to live the in the land of 'what-ifs', though.
Without his design input, though, the gameplay would still be the bore that it is.
I really hope Yahtzee can get in on a big project. It is painfully obvious that he knows a lot about good game design, and he clearly has a passion for it.
As cool as it is reading about things like this, I really hate doing it. It always makes we wonder if we could have had a decent story and decent dialog to go along with the boring, old gameplay (as opposed to crap dialog/story to go with the boring gameplay).