Duke Nukem Forever FAQ Updated 57
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a significant update to the Duke Nukem Forever FAQ over at PlanetDuke, which isn't 'official', but is linked from the 3D Realms site. The FAQ collates handy information such as the current engine choice ("DNF will be using an extremely enhanced version of Epic Games' Unreal engine"), release date ("DNF will be released 'When It's Done.' What this means is that 3D Realms will not release the game until they are sure it is the best first person shooter ever"), and the labyrinthine publisher list for the game ("Take 2 Interactive Software is publishing DNF. Prior to this.. [it was] Gathering of Developers... Prior to that, their publisher was Infogrames (now known as Atari), who bought out GT Interactive.. [who] had bought the rights from FormGen.")
Re:But... (Score:5, Interesting)
3D Realms will not release the game until their publisher gets fed up with footing their bill without any resulting product. 3D Realms will be forced to foot their own bill, and go broke or finish. See Ion Storm for more information.
And also some comments by Joe Siegler: "If we had wanted some quickie piece of crap, it would have been out ages ago. It takes time to innovate - it doesn't take any time to shovel any old crap out there. Since we are not a publically held company, we aren't beholden to the same things that some big companies hold their development teams to, hence we can afford to take the time to make a quality product. Besides, once it's released, no one will care how long it took, they'll care that they have a cool fun game."
Quality products have been made, recieved sequals, and fallen into squallor in the time that 3D Realms has been working on this title. Quality takes time: 3 years. But quality also takes luck. In the now 7 years of development that Duke Nukem Forever has been undergoing, 3D Realms could have released 3 FPSs, one of which might have had that elusive magical all-togetherness that makes games great.
You can't simply throw more development time at the problem of quality... at some point you need to throw out what you have done and start over. You can do this as the DNF people have been doing and release nothing, or you can release what you have done, and move on with your life.
Re:But... (Score:5, Interesting)
if they would be funded by a publisher, they probably would have been forced to release something years ago
Re:But... (Score:4, Interesting)
HURD (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean, HURD publicly available, and somewhat functional.
For all we know Duke Nuke'em Forever still only exists as a design document and a Power Point presentation
This isn't any real news (Score:1, Interesting)
The only new material on this FAQ is stuff that's turned up in discussions here at