Duke Nukem Forever to Arrive December?

Muddie writes "According to an article at The Inquirer, Duke Nukem Forever has a release date set at Amazon.Com UK for December 2, 2005. According to the article: 'We don't believe that Amazon plans to trick its customers - it's not its style and the customers can sue if it fails. The game is listed as a 24.99 title and we are surely thrilled if this all comes true.' Could it be true, or is the sky just falling again?" Big grain of salt with this one.

Hail to the king, baby!

[(1+-sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

After a few days of R&R, I'll be ready for more action! [wikiquote.org]

milk just shot out of my nose.

[PhrostyMcByte]

seriously.

I can't blame you.

[game kid]

The news should be taken with a big grain of NaCl instead.

Re:milk just shot out of my nose.

[mindaktiviti]

What would be even funnier is if you haven't had any milk in the first place, but your body decided to produce some as a subtle sign of just how funny this really is, even though it goes against everything in science.

Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[FinestLittleSpace]

"you cannot pre-order the game. If you see some online store saying "We are taking pre-orders", they're just trying to get your money (they usually also make up their own supposed "insider release date info", too). There is no release date set, we are not taking pre-orders for the game. End of story.
The release date of this game is "When it's done". Anything else, and we mean anything else is someone's speculation. There is no date. We don't know any date. If you have a friend who claims they have "inside info", or there's some game news site, or some computer store at the mall who claims they know - they do not. They are making it up. There is no date. Period.

And yes, we know the game has taken a long time. There's no possible joke you could make about the game's development time that we haven't already heard. :)"

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[alienw]

That's not an insider dev comment, you fucktard. That's a direct copy-and-paste from 3Drealms' website [3drealms.com]. Not to mention, if the game _was_ going to be released, they would probably have agreements with the stores in place long before it's announced on their website.

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[FinestLittleSpace]

So from the 3drealms website.. would mean.. its a dev comment... therefore I'm not a 'fucktard'

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[RogueyWon]

Not necessarily a relevant comment to this situation, though. The 3d Realms website does not seem to timestamp its news posts - as I've not looked at it for about 6 years, there's no way of knowing how long that post has been up there. Could have been a few hours, a few weeks, 6 months, a year, or more.

While the "fucktard" thing was perhaps a little harsh, the other points that the grandparent made are valid.

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[great throwdini]

The 3d Realms website does not seem to timestamp its news posts - as I've not looked at it for about 6 years, there's no way of knowing how long that post has been up there. Could have been a few hours, a few weeks, 6 months, a year, or more.

*cough* archive.org *cough* [tinyurl.com]

Check for yourself. The wording has changed on that page over the years, but the pre-ordering sentiment has been there since at least mid-2000.

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[superpulpsicle]

They must be selling the engine middleware on amazon.

http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=2404 1 [anandtech.com]

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[Meagermanx]

At least now we have more information on the game.
 
  SPOILER WARNING!
It's going to have 160 pages [amazon.com]

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[RogueyWon]

Is this really from a dev? As far as I can see, the user who posted it is British and I don't recall the game being developed over here. Could just be a random user posting misinformation or recycling an old quote?

Of course, I find it pretty hard to believe that this game is ever going to see the light of day, but still...

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[stienman]

Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

Now read the date that comment was submitted - back in April.

-Adam

Re:Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.

[empaler]

They're pairing it off with Quake4, so you might not be completely off...

Noooo!

[nb caffeine]

After that, what other jokes are left?

well, i guess dakitana is funny to mention, and the phantom console...

Re:Noooo!

[putch]

there's always team fortress 2.

or the phantom.

and if you dig really back in the hayday of voodooextreme there's the bitboys.

not that DNF is going ot ever actually come out.

Re:Noooo!

[Meagermanx]

Even if it does come out, I, for one, am not going to stop making DNF jokes. It's a matter of principle.

Re:Noooo!

[Maserati]

Let's see....

Half-Life for the Mac.

You go to hell Sierra, you go to Hell and you die.

Re:Noooo!

[hey!]

I for one welcome our new jokeless overlords.

Re:Noooo!

[pymike]

Now that it's almost out for windows, there's only a few years left to wait until the linux client is made available...

Re:Noooo!

[Weirdofreak]

It doesn't have to be a video game; I suggest Arc [paulgraham.com].

Playable on the Phantom?

[Erioll]

But can you PLAY Duke Nukem Forever on the Phantom Console? That'd be the ultimate irony...

Or perhaps it'll be an EXCLUSIVE for the Phantom.

Ya... that's it...

Uh oh...

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

just 6 more seals to be broken before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse go aridin'

Oh wait, this is DNF... Amazon just might be jumping the gun a bit...

Re:Uh oh...

[KDR_11k]

Didn't the first four seals release the horsemen and the rest just did additional junk?

Re:Uh oh...

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

YOu're probably right. I tend to get particulars wrong when I'm making cliched jokes. Just be glad I didn't mix metaphores and invoke the name of Ric Flair in reference to the Horsemen... :P

Re:Uh oh...

[quinto2000]

you could have even mixed semaphores if you wanted.

Re:Uh oh...

[kailoran]

I'm afraid it's 5 seals remaining. Don't forget that Slashdot fixed it's HTML.

Re:Uh oh...

[Loonacy]

Unfortunately, an article with posts that all have perfect grammar has yet to occur.
(BTW: "it's" = "it is")

Re:Uh oh...

[yoyhed]

Though he should have said "There are" instead of "it's", he did use "it's" correctly.

"there are" is indeed correct for the first "it's", but the second one, describing Slashdot's HTML, should have been possessive.

amazon.ca

[FrontalLobe]

Looks like Amazon.ca [amazon.ca] has the strategy guide listed.

Item has not been released
But... It has a published date of June 06, 2002...

Amazon dot COM shows NOTHING

[RUFFyamahaRYDER]

The link in the article goes to the UK Amazon site. I just checked the amazon.com site and got zero results for "Duke Nukem Forever". I'm raising the BS flag right now!

Re:Amazon dot COM shows NOTHING

[mhayenga]

ahh.. because europe is a fake and mystical place?

Re:Amazon dot COM shows NOTHING

[Fred Or Alive]

I think Amazon.co.uk have had the page up for ages anyway (with the ability to preorder), it's not a new appearance. Presumably it was put up at one point when it actually looked like the game would come out (the screenshots certainly look rather old), and it's stayed up. They probably just stuck the release date in December as a placeholder or something.

Re:Amazon dot COM shows NOTHING

[PhotoBoy]

I agree, I'm certain that's all it was. The Inquirer was most likely having a small joke, but some of their writers have a somewhat offbeat sense of humour so I could see how people could misinterpret the article.

What about the Phantom?

[faloi]

Can we pre-order it along with our Phantom game console? That would be awesome!

PreOrder? Heck, I'm Playing It Now!

[blueZhift]

I'm playing it now on my Phantom, which is right next to my DVD playing Dreamcast, and SNES with the Playstation CDROM expansion! It's great and well worth the $80! Huh, what NDA? Oh, never mind...

Dontja know?

[Udo Schmitz]

Duke Nukem Forever will come bundled with the Phantom console! And if you order together with the new Apple PDA there'll be a rebate. Yessir!

Computer requirements

[Profane MuthaFucka]

It says that you will need either a Commodore Amiga or an Atari ST to play the game. Has it really been that long since they started working on it?

Re:Computer requirements

[hey!]

And you'll have to order Duke Nukem Forever from Amazon Afghanistan using a C64. And you'll have to enter the following promotion code as well: "Junis Sent Me".

Re:Computer requirements

[Gleng]

Woah. It says that the Amiga version requires the 512KB RAM expansion board. This game's going to rule!

Double take

[bendu]

Heck, Id has gone gold on two different games while we twidle our thumbs for DN4. I can't wait to play Quake 4

Prey first.

[Ahnteis]

A recent PC Gamer article revealing the upcoming "Prey" also mentioned that DNF is getting closer, but they're refusing to say anything concrete because.. well, because they pretty much screwed everything about DNF up so far.

I really doubt it'll be out by Christmas though as they'd be competing with their own game. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on a 2006 release, probably mid-year.

Re:Prey first.

[XO]

somewhere or other i have a PC Gamer dead-tree edition with the cover story of PREY ... from 1996, I think.

Re:Prey first.

[ShawnDoc]

Yup. Prey was officially killed quite some time ago. Then 3D Realms sold it off to a 3rd party developer a little while back and they've gone gangbusters working on it. Almost nothing except the title and the general concept of the main character is the same as the original Prey.

Re:Another sign of the apocolypse?

[DJCater]

8. ???
9. Profit!

Re:Another sign of the apocolypse?

[yoyhed]

8. World goes Imperial

Re:Another sign of the apocolypse?

[Delphiki]

5. Denver wins a Super Bowl...check.

As long as Detroit doesn't make it, I think we're safe. But if a miracle happens and Detroit plays in the super-bowl in Detroit, we're goners.

A couple notes

[hambonewilkins]

1) Amazon posts vaporware and products that don't exist. It happens. 2) It's 25 British pounds, not $25. This isn't clear from the writeup. 3) The boxshot looks like ass. There, I said it. If they ship with that, don't expect it to sell.

Kidding?

[solesoul]

My buddy Bigfoot is going to love this! Yeah, me, him, and Santa Claus are going to be in line the week before it comes out. I heard a rumor that some ghost got hold of an advance copy, but then I realized that they were just talking about the Phantom.

Re:Kidding?

[Jakeypants]

Haha, Jesus and I had a good laugh at that! +1, funny!

Re:Kidding?

[yRabbit]

I can verify Duke Nukem Forever is coming out this December.
You've got to believe me; I'm the Easter Bunny!

Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[Anonymous Coward]

From some random blog I found through Google [johndavidhead.com] since the original post/list has long-gone been deleted. It's such an awesome list (it's even over one years old!):

Janurary 1997: Work on DNF started.*

April 1997: Quake 2 engine purchase announced. (they got it in mid-late 1997 before Quake 2 was released). Scott Miller states that he is confident that DNF will be released by mid 1998 and prey in late 1998 making 1998 a bit year for 3DR. He also mentions that his confidence is not misplaced.

August and September 1997: First screenshots in PC gamer (hummer, farmer i think).

May 1998: First DNF E3 video shown. You can see that a lot of work has been done.

Late 1998: 3DR announces switch to Unreal tech. It is expected to take no longer than 6 weeks and 3DRealms says "DNF is a 1999 game."

Mid 1999: 3DR admits that the engine switch took a lot more time than originally estimated.

Late 1999: 3DR announces upgrade to UT level tech. It is expected to take two weeks. 3DR releases a Christmas card saying that DNF will be released in 2000.

2000: I don't think anything happened. They released some sexy screenshots in late 1999/early 2000 (for the time). Broussard begins claiming that DNF development did not start until 1998. Inquiring minds wonder how they got so much done before May (E3) 1998.

May 2001: 3DR comes out of nowhere and puts DNF up at E3. They state that DNF will be released in 2001 and the end of the E3 2001 video says "WID in 2001". Many part of the video bear a clear resemblence to the 1999 screenshots.

October 2001: Broussard posts "sorry guys, it won't be a 2001 release" on the VE3D forums. "Don't worry, the last major hurdle is AI."

Unknown 2001: Broussard states that DNF will definitely be out before Unreal 2.

January 2002: Voodoo Extreme makes a list of top 10 titles to be released in 2002. #1 on that list is Duke Nukem Forever. Someone posts "when will we see something" in the 3DR forums. Broussard responds with "soon".

June 2002: The "soon" thread gets locked.

Unknown 2002: Broussard states that DNF will definitely be out before DooM 3.

2003: Broussard states that DNF has been "on track since early 2002" and that they haven't reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but "they finally found it." He wisps away the years between January 1997 and January 2002 and wishes people would consider DNF's development as if it started in 2002 (this is a strong hint that DNF was far from complete). Unreal 2 released.

Broussard adopts the "DooM 3 and HL2 will have been in development for 5 and 6 years when they're finally released -- DNF isn't taking that much longer" belief (notice: his numbers are very inaccurate).

Late 2003/early 2004: Take 2 complains about DNF development and expects it around "late 2005". "At this point we're just hoping the team [in garland] will finish the project."

2004: Broussard states that DNF development has been on track since "late 2002/early 2003", bumping up his earlier statement in an attempt to fight back release expectations. It is clear, from this behavior, that DNF will not be released this year or next. DooM 3 is released. Half Life 2's release is anticipated this year.

So the most reasonable points in which they could've completely restarted would've been after each of the E3 videos. They could've restarted after the E3 1998 video or after the E3 2001 video. Luckily, you can refute both of these possibilities by simply looking at what Broussard was saying back then -- the Unreal engine upgrade was certainly not expected to require them redoing much. Things were added and tech was changed, things were adopted. This was all stated in interviews with Broussard himself.

It is more difficult to question whether they've restarted at some point after E3 2001. Clearly, in late 2001/early 2002 when Broussard was saying that the last major hurdle was AI and "soon", h

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[FinestLittleSpace]

What a brilliant list, it's amazing, especially the mars rover projects

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[Jakeypants]

"Dream Theater has released 4 albums (Falling into Infinity, Metropolis Part 2, 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Train of Thought), 2 Live albums, and 3 videos in that time frame"

Ahh, putting it in terms of progressive metal is what it takes to drive the point home for me. (seriously, where the fuck did that come from?!)

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[pyrrhonist]

"Dream Theater has released 4 albums (Falling into Infinity, Metropolis Part 2, 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Train of Thought), 2 Live albums, and 3 videos in that time frame"
Ahh, putting it in terms of progressive metal is what it takes to drive the point home for me. (seriously, where the fuck did that come from?!)

Soooooooo, you're a Symphony X fan instead then? ;)

(4 studio albums, 1 live album)

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[Jakeypants]

Symphony X releases albums like nobody's business. They're the Zappa of our time (and killer live, just saw them) :]

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[BortQ]

Wow, that's totally awesome. Really puts it into perspective...

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[fnhoser]

i knew that DNF has been announced for a while, but this post really puts it into perspective. this has got to be one of the more informative replies i've seen in a while. although i doubt it's coming out this year, i certainly would play it if it did. its been too long since the announcement of DNF (apparently 2.5 billion miles of Voyager's worth)

One other small fact...

[mwvdlee]

Google grew from nothing to a multi-billion dollar international corporation within that timespan.

Re:Fun Facts about Duke Nukem's development time

[Hillgiant]

In racing "DNF" means Did Not Finish. Perhaps a poor choice of title?

Its already ported to Source, and will be on Steam

[BrookHarty]

Its already ported to the source engine, its suppose to be for sale on steam by end of november. (pre-download)

The funny thing, they showed old screenshots on the amazon.uk site, the newer ones with anti-aliasing on steam, looks awesome. Funny how nobody thinks the game is coming out, but some developers dropped hints over at http://www.planetduke.com [planetduke.com] about it being release this year for xmas.

Also, isnt this the first stream game from a 3rd party developer?

Re:Its already ported to Source, and will be on St

[Kazzahdrane]

Hmmmmm...I'm almost certain it's NOT being released over Steam. Didn't they announce a new online distribution app that would let you play DNF "instantly"? Probably by very quickly downloading the first level and then downloading the rest as you played. I also didn't hear anything about it being made in the Source engine, and I've been following Valve/DNF news for a while. But please, if I'm in fact wrong then give me the links so I'll know for next time :)

Re:Its already ported to Source, and will be on St

[alphaseven]

Where did you hear this? 3d Realms has partnered with a Steam-like service called xStream for the upcoming Prey game, I would expect Duke Nukem Forever to use that, maybe you're getting the names mixed up? And I think the first 3rd part Steam game is the non-Source engine Rag Doll Kung Fu that'll come out in about a week.

C'mon guys... it's definition 2!

[RevRagnarok]

;) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vaporware [wiktionary.org]

In other news...

[bradbeattie]

America finally defeats terror.

Pricing

[rapjo]

The Inquirer article says the game is listed for 24.99 British Pounds...which according to Google's currency conversion, is 43.87 US Dollars. It's likely to show up for 45-55 USD for us here in the States.

Re:Pricing

[Fred Or Alive]

I'd say £25 is about the average price for a new PC game in the UK, at least if you buy online (console games are more expensive, as is buying at retail). I don't know what the normal price for PC games are in the US, but I'd guess DNF would be that price at launch.

Video games in the UK are more expensive generally of course, partly becuase of tax, and partly becuase the Pound is strong at the moment. Ie: A new console game's RRP is generally £40 ($70), I don't think the US price is quite that h

Re:Pricing

[jZnat]

Lately, new and highly anticipated PC games have been released in America at around the equivalent of £30+. :/

Where?

[Admiral Frosty]

I saw the link to it on amazon.uk, but I can't find it anywhere on amazon.com.

?!?

Honestly Zonk...

[steveo777]

When the HELLdid "The Inquirer" become a reputable information source?!

Don't care how slow the day is. This is ridiculous.

Re:Honestly Zonk...

[commander_gallium]

When the HELLdid "The Inquirer" become a reputable information source?!

Don't care how slow the day is. This is ridiculous.


Inquirer with an I, not an E.

All apocalypse humor aside..

[wynterwynd]

Look at the screenshots from the game on the amazon site. They look like a 14-year old got bored with a very old copy of Poser. If that's the upper limit of the amazing tricks they can do with the Source engine, I predict an epic smash hit on the magnitude of Deer Hunter 6: White-Tail Madness.

DN3d was good, but all that's left of the franchise is a broken promise and a bad joke that won't die. Maybe they'll make some money off people buying it just for the humor value.

Re:All apocalypse humor aside..

[Toby_Tyke]

Look at the screenshots from the game ... If that's the upper limit of the amazing tricks they can do with the Source engine

Well, I'm pretty sure this is all just a mistake on Amazons part anyway, but I can tell you why the screenshots look so bad. It's because they're all about 7 years old. I saw the same screenshots printed in PC gamer in the late 90's.

3drealms website

[XO]

anyone else notice that 3d Realms website no longer exists?

Re:3drealms website

[yRabbit]

It still exists for me. Maybe it was slashdotted...? ;)

http://www.3drealms.com/index.shtml [3drealms.com]

Why Bother

[triso]

Why wait for the new game when you can play the classic duke3d on Linux, Windows or Mac. Since the source code was released, many moons ago, there have been updates that use your 3d accelerator, your gigs of RAM and your Internet connection for multi-player matches. There is also a slew of third-party maps and levels available. All free, of course.

http://jonof.edgenetwork.org/index.php?p=jfduke3d [edgenetwork.org]

http://www.bur.st/~duke3d/ [www.bur.st]

Perhaps...

[Perseid]

Perhaps it's done and they're afraid to release it. After all, if they ship this thing and half of the geeks in the world don't have a simultaneous orgasm, 3D Realms' offices will be set aflame within minutes.

I'd move to Mexico before releasing anything called Duke Nuk'em. :)

Oh hell! DNF is being released?

[vertinox]

Crap. This can only mean one thing! I'd better stock up on Shotguns, Bottle Water, Canned foods, electric generators, and Bibles before December...

A message from Hell

[PGC]

It's goddamn cold down here !

Anything is possible

[fallacy]

Well, if Slashdot can finally use CSS, then surely Duke Nukem [Taken] Forever can make it into the world as well!

Beh, Amazon's frauding again...

[geminidomino]

This is the same site that, in May, showed a July release date for A Feast for Crows [georgerrmartin.com], complete with offers for pre-order.

STOP THE PRESSES

[Landshark17]

...In other news, Satan reports a sharp temperature drop in hell.

Actually looking at the screenshots

[Maserati]

Actually looking at the screenshots [amazon.co.uk] reveals a fact that completely fails to surprise me. To wit, the screenshots suck. And these are the pictures for a "buy me" page. This is their attempt to sell the game. Crappy modelling, poor texturing, mediocre lighting and more composition. Check out the one with the rocket, it's particularly suckalicious.

Based solely on the screenshots I'm predicting an average review score of less than 5.0, dismal sales, and massive warezing as people try to see if it really is that bad without having to spend money.

This is gonna suck. It has the potential to outsuck a Derek Smart remake of Daikatana.

Here's a key point: who's writing the game ? Huh ? They haven't said a thing about gameplay or story since 1997. It's gonna be a Duke Nukem game, so we have a pretty good idea what to expect, but I'm very worried (there's ominous potential for minigames). Silence on this point is a bad omen.

What the hell?

[mnemonic_]

"We don't believe that Amazon plans to trick its customers - it's not its style and the customers can sue if it fails."

Customers can sue for wrong release dates? Hasn't this been disproven with every release date Amazon has shown for all of id's titles? Amazon isn't trying to trick anyone, but that release date is just an oversight by price-marking drone.

Re:What the hell?

[Ayaress]

It's not a matter of release dates. I think it's a matter of taking preorders on a game that very well may STILL be years away or not come out at all.

Duke Nukem Forever to Arrive December?

[thelonestranger]

Yeah, alright then. I'll belive it when I see it on shelves.

Ok fun while it lasted...

[AzraelKans]

I already went to www.3drealms.com forums,

http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php ?Cat=0&Number=960968&an=0&page=0#960968 [3drealms.com]

They've already denied the release date, the inquirer went into extra happy mode for an amazon website mistake, end of story. Move along folks.