Rumor: Gearbox Reviving Duke Nukem Forever

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by Lord Data - Kotaku (reply to article 2)

I believe this is all part of a conspiracy.

Duke Nukem Forever was intended from its inception to be an unsolvable task. You see, the reason Duke Nukem was such a successful game was because its creators enlisted the service of the ancient and terrible God of Chaos. Its demons would create the game while the designers silently watched. They would weave a portion of the God's very soul into the game, imbuing it with the destructive gameplay that made it popular.

Unfortunately, the success proved to be addicting, and the company once again called upon the God of Chaos to produce a sequel, and again, to complete the trilogy. Each game was more and more destructive and powerful than the last, possessing greater and greater amounts of Chaotic energy.

Shortly after the release of Duke Nukem 3D, in a role reversal, the God of Chaos approached 3D Realms and gave them an ultimatum: They would produce one final demonic game: Duke Nukem Forever.

They would have access to an army of computer literate demons to complete the task. Once done, the God of Chaos, too long restricted to acting from a distance, would pour his full soul, the entirety of his existence into the game, making it truly possessed. Anyone who played this game would inevitably succumb to Chaos. The world would come to an end, as the physical incarnation of Duke Nukem - an avatar of the God of Chaos, rose to rule the Universe. Forever.

Knowing that they could not refuse the will of a God, and also knowing that they could not let such an evil come to pass, the Duke Nukem team gave their army of demons an impossible task. No one knows what the task originally was, or how many times it was revised to remain impossible, with todays technology making such a task more and more difficult to justify.

Pray, however, that the demons never complete the game. So long as it is in production, we are safe, the God of Chaos merely watching, waiting, becoming more and more agitated with every year. Should the game be completed, however, our days are numbered. The game will be purchased in numbers never anticipated when production began all those years ago, anticipation driving even the most stingy of gamers to pick up a copy. This, combined with the God of Chaos' pent up wrath, will cause his takeover to occur at an accelerated rate.

In order to prevent the destruction of the world, Duke Nukem must never be completed. It must remain in production - forever.

I pray that the new team working on DNF is privy to the hellish secrets of its inception. One more thing:

Thank you, thank you 3D Realms, for risking your lives and your budget to keep the world safe as long as you have. God bless

----------------------------------------------

[ferran275]

How did you find out the secret KO Gilligan??? HOW???? no matter, the prophecy will still come to pass! you cannot hold us (demons) back forever!!! RAWR!!!!

[Zeromaeus]

My master will rise! Power to the Chaos gods!
Hahaha... that's funny stuff.

[Dunedain]

Hmm, this is actually looking rather solid. Gearbox would be the most logical choice to finish the game, since 3D Realms doesn't have a team at the moment. Plus there are several 3D Realms guys working at Gearbox who can finish the game up, which is very cool.

The only thing that concerns me is that Gearbox not mess with the game's style. Their job should be just to finish the game, polish it up, test it thoroughly and release it. This is a 3D Realms game, Gearbox just needs to fill in the gaps where some things weren't finished and get it ready for release. But leave the Duke style and atmosphere, dialog, cut scenes, etc. just as 3DR made them. No doubt George and the various fellows from 3DR can advise and oversee to make sure that happens. And I assume most, if not all, of the 3D Realms guys at Gearbox will be on the DNF team to make sure everything is done correctly.

And no doubt 3D Realms' logo will be prominently displayed on the box and in the intro video and the credits, since it is their game, they designed it, and 3DR owns the rights to the game's characters, story, etc.

Can't wait till the upcoming show, should be very interesting, let's hope these rumors are true.

Always bet on Duke!

[Damien_Azreal]

Originally Posted by Baboy

.... and it's not so obvious that DNF is necessarily better than Begins.

Such blind, ignorant statements are annoying. DNF simply has more credibility around here because of it's history, and that 3DRealms handled the development up to the lawsuit.
And the leaked media seen.

But credibility and nostalgia doesn't make it better... specially since nothing was ever shown or spoken of from Duke Begins.
You can have your preference, that's fine. But to blindly say DNF is better when we KNOW NOTHING about Begins... just... ugh.

And really, why do people act like you have to choose? Like the comments "I'd rather have DNF than Aliens: Colonial Marines!!!" What is that? Is there some f**king unwritten law that says you can only have one or the other?

Screw that. Both. DNF and Aliens, or in the case of the current subject... BOTH. DNF and Begins.

---------- Post added at 03:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:21 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Dunedain

Hmm, this is actually looking rather solid. Gearbox would be the most logical choice to finish the game

Actually, the best choice would have been Ritual. But... well, we know what happened there.
Gearbox is a solid choice (IF THIS IS TRUE), but I've always stand either Gearbox or Monolith would've been perfect choices to complete the title.

[Crash_7]

Originally Posted by GOK

.....geeeebussss..... if T2 had given the extra bit of money that 3DR asked for instead of giving it to lawyers the game would have been out by now and 3DR would still have a full workforce.

No, if that had happened, it would have been inevitably delayed again.

[blakelan91]

[QUOTE=Damien_Azreal;941341]Such blind, ignorant statements are annoying. DNF simply has more credibility around here because of it's history, and that 3DRealms handled the development up to the lawsuit.
And the leaked media seen.

But credibility and nostalgia doesn't make it better... specially since nothing was ever shown or spoken of from Duke Begins.
You can have your preference, that's fine. But to blindly say DNF is better when we KNOW NOTHING about Begins.

Its not because DNF has more nostalgia its because 3dr is the only company that can capture the duke feeling. Its the fact they have funner games such as ROTT, shadow warrior, and duke3d. Its the level design that 3dr has that makes people want DNF more.

[Kristian Joensen]

3DR finishing DNF internally is off the table, obviously that would have been preferable. But even if they got $100M in funding they probably still wouldn't re-establish an internal team, when asked what he would have done differently with regards to DNF SM said the following:

Even so, I think I would have abandoned internal development six or seven years ago. I much prefer to work with external studios to develop games, as we did with Max Payne and Prey. Radar is following this very model, with no internal development. I wanted 3D Realms to switch to this model years ago, as it’s much more cost effective for us, with lower risk. For other independent developers this advice doesn’t apply. What I’d recommend for them is to not strive for perfection, which is the enemy of completion. For practically all aspects of a game, 80% is good enough.

(Emphasis added) - Scott Miller(Source: Fall 2009 issue of Gamesauce Magazine)

[Damien_Azreal]

Originally Posted by blakelan91

Its not because DNF has more nostalgia its because 3dr is the only company that can capture the duke feeling. Its the fact they have funner games such as ROTT, shadow warrior, and duke3d. Its the level design that 3dr has that makes people want DNF more.

Really?
I love DN3D, RotT and SW... but honestly, the level design in a lot of DN3D's levels is really pretty bad. Even George commented on this while doing the Xbox Live port.

And the level design in SW is even worse. But the games were still fun because of the attitude in them. But I definitely wouldn't say 3DRealms are the only company that can capture the Duke feeling.
Look at Duke Nukem: Zero Hour or Manhattan Project... both games felt like top quality, solid Duke games and perfectly nailed Duke's attitude.

And remember, DNF was supposed to be a more realistic, serious, story driven experience then any of their previous work.

I have a lot of faith in Gearbox to deliver if they ever get the chance to continue with Duke Begins. They are a great studio, and remember... Randy and a lot of guys that work there came from 3DRealms.
So they would perfectly understand that "Duke feeling".

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

And really, why do people act like you have to choose? ...
What is that? Is there some f**king unwritten law that says you can only have one or the other?

We always compare, evaluate and prioritize. With some of the high profile IPs we've seen some devlopers butcher the game and others making the franchise shine. I compare Star Trek games all the time.

I remember how you were trying to explain that Gearbox should prioritize their in development titles.

Why should we assume that there isn't job tasks that can't be distributed over three games in a development cycle? Perhaps delaying them, but creating more production efficiency? Comparing the games, and the developers? It's gonna happen.

It's because we pigeon-hole our world into task objects, and we give them file and rank. It's innevitable... and yes, DNF might or might not be better than Begins.

[cof_3pc]

Originally Posted by Kristian Joensen

You still don't get it??? Look:

1) HardOCP has a forum were they discuss HardOCP's news items.
2) HardOCP posts about the Kotaku rumor and a thread gets started about that.
3) HardOCP gets independent confirmation of the Kotaku rumor and makes a news item about that, in that news item they link back to the thread mentioned under 2) above.

How hard can it be to understand?

Yeah, I saw it, and nothing of importance is said in that entire thread. It's a bunch of idiots speculating like us.

[Baboy]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Such blind, ignorant statements are annoying. DNF simply has more credibility around here because of it's history, and that 3DRealms handled the development up to the lawsuit.
And the leaked media seen.

But credibility and nostalgia doesn't make it better... specially since nothing was ever shown or spoken of from Duke Begins.
You can have your preference, that's fine. But to blindly say DNF is better when we KNOW NOTHING about Begins... just... ugh.

And really, why do people act like you have to choose? Like the comments "I'd rather have DNF than Aliens: Colonial Marines!!!" What is that? Is there some f**king unwritten law that says you can only have one or the other?

Screw that. Both. DNF and Aliens, or in the case of the current subject... BOTH. DNF and Begins.

---------- Post added at 03:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:21 PM ----------



Actually, the best choice would have been Ritual. But... well, we know what happened there.
Gearbox is a solid choice (IF THIS IS TRUE), but I've always stand either Gearbox or Monolith would've been perfect choices to complete the title.

Hey, no need to throw "ignorant" and stuff in there. I merely said that we know very little about this rumor, and for example if Gearbox is working on Duke Begins and not DNF, it would make sense to say "yeah well it's not exactly like that, I'll explain it in September though because there's some truth as in we're making a Duke game". This is what I meant. If Gearbox is working on finishing DNF that's awesome, but if they just want to announce that the works on Begins are now continuing, I'll be similarly happy, considering DNF will be good but Begins has more potential (having been started much later and all). Of course I'd love to see both, but if only one were to happen it's not so clear that DNF would be the best, simply because we know nothing about Begins. That was my point.

[Damien_Azreal]

What? Why do people always seem to assume the worst when someone says the word ignorant?

The word doesn't imply that one is stupid or dumb. To be ignorant of something means you just don't know. Every single one of us is completely ignorant to how Duke Begins is or would be.
It wasn't an insult, not by any means.

[cof_3pc]

Yeah, I hear you Damien. I used it earlier too, and everyone got all emotional. I guess they're ignorant to developing a mediocre vocabulary.

Mediocre - of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate.

For those that don't know that one either.

[Altered Reality]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

And remember, DNF was supposed to be a more realistic, serious, story driven experience then any of their previous work.

Oh no! You said the R word! Now, a horde of nostalgic cretins will be all like "OMG WTF BBQ REALIZEM SUXXORZ!!!!11ONE" and rant about how DNF needs to be completely unrealistic because there is nothing realistic about aliens invading the Earth and a one-man army like Duke Nukem using impossible weapons like a shrinker!

[Kristian Joensen]

Originally Posted by cof_3pc

Yeah, I saw it, and nothing of importance is said in that entire thread. It's a bunch of idiots speculating like us.

It is NOT the thread that contains the independent confirmation, it is the second NEWS ARTICLE.

[WarThrash]

Originally Posted by Altered Reality

Oh no! You said the R word! Now, a horde of nostalgic cretins will be all like "OMG WTF BBQ REALIZEM SUXXORZ!!!!11ONE" and rant about how DNF needs to be completely unrealistic because there is nothing realistic about aliens invading the Earth and a one-man army like Duke Nukem using impossible weapons like a shrinker!

There definitely needs to be a level of realism in DNF. Not things like taking cover, and being limited on ammo, but rather realistic physics, movements, and animations. I'd hate it if it felt like I were playing a House of The Dead game at the arcade. I don't want Rainbow Six Vegas here, but there needs to be a sophistication to the way the game looks and plays.

[Kristian Joensen]

I agree completely, I can't stand the constant comparisons between Duke3D and Serious Sam. They are universes apart. What I like about Duke3D, is the atmosphere, the realistic environments, the interactivity, etc. Sure the humor(one liners and pop culture references) is important, but Duke3D is far from the gaming equivalent of say Scary Movie or something. More like the Lethal Weapon or Die Hard movies. I can't stand cartoony(TF2, Borderlands for example) graphics in general and would especially hate that extra much for a Duke game. However I don't want totally "realistic" game play ala that found in tactical shooters and games focused on competitive multiplayer. I thinking about games like Counter Strike and Rainbow Six, the slew of military shooters in recent years and that ilk here.

[JobivanHiob]

don't know what to say...

[PredatorFL]

Gearbox is a solid choice (IF THIS IS TRUE), but I've always stand either Gearbox or Monolith would've been perfect choices to complete the title.[/QUOTE]

Ahh Monolith would have been an excellent choice back in 06-07 FEAR 1 is still the best in the series... (Fear 2 wtf happened??) now in 2010... well I don't have anything good to say about Monolith anymore

[JobivanHiob]

so just to wrap things up.
There must be a NDA that cleary has ended when PAX takes place or before this, due to Randy indicating he can talk about Duke at PAX. YES???

[alexgk]

Originally Posted by JobivanHiob

so just to wrap things up.
There must be a NDA that cleary has ended when PAX takes place or before this, due to Randy indicating he can talk about Duke at PAX. YES???

No. No.

[JobivanHiob]

why no?

[alexgk]

Because nothing's been confirmed atm.

[Zeromaeus]

Originally Posted by alexgk

Because nothing's been confirmed atm.

I think he was trying to clear it as a definite possibility. Little more than asking for you to toss him a bone to chew on while we decide whether or not that smell is the grill or the farm next-door.

[alexgk]

Originally Posted by Zeromaeus

I think he was trying to clear it as a definite possibility. Little more than asking for you to toss him a bone to chew on while we decide whether or not that smell is the grill or the farm next-door.

Perhaps I'd have tossed him that bone, if he had said "There might be..."

If that's the case, then yes, there is a possibility that Randy is tight-lipped because of an agreement.

[cof_3pc]

Originally Posted by Kristian Joensen

It is NOT the thread that contains the independent confirmation, it is the second NEWS ARTICLE.

It says nothing. Shit I could make a post saying, "lulz someone just told me Valve is finishing Duke Nukem Forever." It's not like the Kotaku article, where they actually provide a creditable person's name, that opens up valid speculation.

With that said, that leaves Kotaku as the only place this news has actually originated from, with the addition of a couple people here and there connecting dots from supposed email conversations etc.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Kristian Joensen

I agree completely, I can't stand the constant comparisons between Duke3D and Serious Sam. They are universes apart. What I like about Duke3D, is the atmosphere, the realistic environments, the interactivity, etc. Sure the humor(one liners and pop culture references) is important, but Duke3D is far from the gaming equivalent of say Scary Movie or something. More like the Lethal Weapon or Die Hard movies. I can't stand cartoony(TF2, Borderlands for example) graphics in general and would especially hate that extra much for a Duke game. However I don't want totally "realistic" game play ala that found in tactical shooters and games focused on competitive multiplayer. I thinking about games like Counter Strike and Rainbow Six, the slew of military shooters in recent years and that ilk here.

Differences aside, I agree. And I think Serious Sam is a big Duke Nukem wanna be rip off piece of shit. Just because you make some macho guy that could almost slightly resemble Duke with brown hair, doesn't mean your game is good. I could never get into it, because I was always a hardcore Duke fan.

[8IronBob]

Originally Posted by KareBear

Theyre around 170 now.

Yeah, GearBox has to be around the size of id right now, I have a hunch. How big did iD get now that they teamed up with Bethesda? Just a comparison question, nothing more.

[ferran275]

Originally Posted by cof_3pc

[/COLOR]Differences aside, I agree. And I think Serious Sam is a big Duke Nukem wanna be rip off piece of shit. Just because you make some macho guy that could almost slightly resemble Duke with brown hair, doesn't mean your game is good. I could never get into it, because I was always a hardcore Duke fan.

I dunno, I think Serious Sam is pretty good, in its own right of course, Duke is King, no argument there, but I won't give up the point that playing any FPS as a one man army crazy killing machine is fun, especially when they're sending wave after wave of baddies at you. What I am just so sick of is all these 'realistic' games nowadays CoD, shit even Halo, they just bore me to tears.

[Darkenmal]

Random guys opinion:

It's coming. Its waaay too quiet, stuff keeps building on other stuff and it just adds up.

It'll get announced probably in PAX.

[Rapture_Rising]

Originally Posted by cof_3pc

It says nothing. Shit I could make a post saying, "lulz someone just told me Valve is finishing Duke Nukem Forever." It's not like the Kotaku article, where they actually provide a creditable person's name, that opens up valid speculation.

There was a thread here a while ago that said Valve was rumored to be finishing DNF but i think it has been deleted.

[Twitch]

George has been way to quiet on his Twitter. Must be over at Gearbox directing the traffic flow. !!!!

[NUKEMDAVE]

Originally Posted by Rapture_Rising

There was a thread here a while ago that said Valve was rumored to be finishing DNF but i think it has been deleted.

Yeah, that proves this rumor is true. If this was a false rumor, this thread wouldn't be here and the rumor wouldn't have been allowed to get this big. George or Randy would have came out and said it's lies. I can understand, though, that some here are still in denial.

If they plan to show anything at PAX, we'll probably know about it a little ahead of time. Otherwise, it will probably just be an official announcement that the game is at Gearbox and maybe a few other tidbits. However, I do have a feeling they will show the game there. Either in a full-blown trailer or just a little gameplay.

[DerricktheW]

I wanna see the preview for the next season of Jace Hall Show to have the first episode as "Jace visits Gearbox again"

And then the episode starts, things are all normal... and then out of normal, George Broussard walks out all non-chalant and talks about some game they're working on.

Big reveal.

[Zeromaeus]

Originally Posted by NUKEMDAVE

Yeah, that proves this rumor is true. If this was a false rumor, this thread wouldn't be here and the rumor wouldn't have been allowed to get this big. George or Randy would have came out and said it's lies. I can understand, though, that some here are still in denial.

The moderators have noted several time that because this isn't pure speculation, as in it actually came from an article somewhere, they are allowing this thread to stay afloat. They also push that this is only a rumor and nothing concrete has been said as of yet. They are right, too. Before anything is said about the moderators keeping quiet, please remember that none of the moderators work for 3DRealms. They simply do this in a fashion more akin to keeping up a hobby or a charity function. They do not hear the news dribbling out the walls. They are the same as us. Except for the fact that they can ruin your account.

[DerricktheW]

Originally Posted by Zeromaeus

The moderators have noted several time that because this isn't pure speculation, as in it actually came from an article somewhere, they are allowing this thread to stay afloat. They also push that this is only a rumor and nothing concrete has been said as of yet. They are right, too. Before anything is said about the moderators keeping quiet, please remember that none of the moderators work for 3DRealms. They simply do this in a fashion more akin to keeping up a hobby or a charity function. They do not hear the news dribbling out the walls. They are the same as us. Except for the fact that they can ruin your account.

You need to keep your logic shut. You're gonna hurt people's brains.

[ekdikeo]

I know I don't have much credibility around here, since I've only been here a couple of months, but let's just say I know some people who know some people ..

I brought up this rumor while chatting with a few of them, and the response seemed rather positive. I don't believe that I know anyone who might actually be involved directly with it, but I would be willing to bet at least some of their connections might know something, and I like the positive response. No, I'm not going to quote anyone on anything, and nothing specific was said. Just wanted to let people know that I hear positive things about this rumor.

[Alexander]

Sometimes I like rumors, sometimes I don't...
In this case I think we should just wait and see if it's true or not.
A lot of crap has been statted in the past few years about DNF.
However, as much as I'd like to see Gearbox finish this game, it would be a hell of a lot better if they would just make a god damn official statement about this.

Even if this is true, we don't know what it means for the title.
How much of the game is REALLY done?
Will the "team-change" affect the games content?
Can George still push his perfectionism into the project?
And, the most important question for me personally:
Will they finish it before 2012? or maybe sooner??

As usual, nobody here really "knows" wtf is going on.

We need more information, more details.

[cof_3pc]

Originally Posted by NUKEMDAVE

George or Randy would have came out and said it's lies. I can understand, though, that some here are still in denial.

Well you would be to if your irrational judgment and desire for this game has driven you to believe every rumor in the past 13 years meant the game was definitely coming, only to discover it was another huge let down. Haha!

[BugsBunny]

I think DNF is not very far, because

1. The D-Day happened on 28th of Nov, 2009. My guess is it on or around that date Scott handed the development of DNF to Gearbox, hence the comment of D-Day on Nov 28th, Take2 got no chances on Dec 2 before the explicit and clear cut statement "it's gonna happen, and when it does, shock and awesome " on December 7th from Scott.

2. Gearbox was already working with Duke Nukem Begins. Chances are they were working with the same engine and development IDE that DNF uses, and if that is the case, even though DNB was paused, on account of them being already familiar with the same engine and development IDE, they will not loose that extra 6 or more months that another developer would loose trying to familiarize with the development IDE when given the DNF contract.

So with 11 months working left when DNF team was left off ( team layed off in May 2009 vs supposed to go gold on April 1st 2010) , and then worked resumed on Nov by Gearbox who were already familiar with the Duke Engine and development IDE, I would say this christmas to coming year first quarter, there is a bright chance of the full retail version DNF getting released.