Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: You just attended a Duke Nukem Forever event (in Las Vegas, no less), and it sounds like you got to see even more of 2K Games' long-delayed first-person shooter. I last saw it at last year's Penny Arcade Expo, where protagonist Duke Nukem came off as an excessively dated '90s-era bad-boy action hero. What's new, and what's your take on Duke?
David Wolinsky, Contributing Editor: Well, he certainly doesn't seem any more current in the months since you saw him. What's new is, Gearbox let me sample the game's first 90 minutes. And true to Duke's cheeky chauvinism, the event wasn't just in Las Vegas, but at the Deja Vu Showgirls strip club, dubbed Duke Nukem's Titty City for the occasion -- complete with equally ridiculous accoutrements like urinal guards with pictures of boobs on them in the bathroom. In the time since Duke Nukem came of prominence, the whole PC (not personal computer) movement came and went, and this kind of showy offensiveness lacks the punch it once packed. I mean, when was the last time you remember being shocked or caught off-guard by an episode of South Park? As a nation, we're kinda desensitized to this sort of thing by now; it just doesn't really rate anymore.
Nevertheless, I'm not sure how much of DNF you got to sample at PAX, but I'd agree with your label of him being a dated '90s bad-boy action hero. What surprised me most was how unapologetically dated the game is. The President conferences with Duke and calls him a "relic from another year," warning that the best approach to facing the alien invaders is diplomacy and reason. Still, for all of Duke's showy bravado, it's a good hour or so until you actually start pulverizing bad guys. Great pains are taken, not necessarily to make you feel simpatico with Duke, but rather to be clear of his persona. In short: He loves sex, hates aliens, and is now the richest man on Earth. Before anything goes awry, Duke plays a video game based on his life, goes on a talk show, and signs autographs. You're in full control the whole time, and it's an inauspicious start to gaming's Chinese Democracy. The pacing was a bit of a shock, but maybe games were this slow back in 1997. I honestly can't even remember.
Maybe this wasn't the best chunk of the game to highlight at a first-look press event, but at least it's honest. As I got deeper in, it began to feel like the familiar Duke Nukem I remember from (hah) back in high school, when the games felt a bit racier. As I made my way through Duke's massive penthouse mansion, in-house casino, and out into the city streets, I noticed a definite lack of linearity. Again, in a timed demo, that made for extra pressure to power through each section. But more than a few times, I had to double back and make sure I was going the right way -- and not just to peep through the air ducts to see two chicks going at it. That's the Duke I remember.
Ryan Scott: So how does the game play, on a fundamental level? Does it also feel like a relic from another year?
David Wolinsky: To be blunt: Yes, it does. DNF hails from the era when context-sensitive interactions were still something that was bragged about on the back of game boxes. Everything in the world is a plaything for Duke, from office chairs that can be spun, to dumbbells that can be chucked at enemies. In what I saw, sometimes that interaction could be intrusive: I wanted to hit a switch on the wall, but had to make sure I was straight-on facing the switch, or else I'd be eating donuts or flipping on a water cooler. Then again, I wouldn't say that "less is more" is in Duke's vocabulary. Why should that hold true of his world?
In contrast with that, the running and gunning is barebones. Most of the advancements we now take for granted from the past decade-plus -- from cover systems to the rejection of first-person platforming -- aren't even evident here. DNF beams with an almost GoldenEye-like simplicity. The only strategy you have in taking down your enemies is to get them in the middle of the screen, and then plow forward with the trigger held down. The occasional basic physics-based puzzles crop up, but those are the exception, not the rule.
Ryan Scott: I feel like it's going to be a super-polarizing game; does it at least come off as a parody of games from that era, or what? Who is this game for?
David Wolinsky: You know, that's something that went through my mind while en route to the event, and especially while I played the game. Though Gearbox President and CEO Randy Pitchford got choked up in a speech about how devoted he was to staying true to DNF's original vision, much of what was in that initial 90 minutes felt oddly anachronistic to a game supposedly dating from the late '90s. Coincidental or not, I noticed understated references to Arkham Asylum's prying open of doors and Batman's Detective Vision (Duke has Duke Vision to see in the dark), and BioShock (Duke's mansion has a colossal aquarium area). How could that be, if Gearbox has been completely faithful to the game's original vision back when neither property existed? I have no idea.
I'm also not too sure who the core audience is, something I asked about in my interview with Gearbox VP of Marketing Steve Gibson. Though it's impossible to verify these figures, Gibson told me that far more female gamers are interested in this game than anything else the company has put out to date. But still, who is this game for? It's got over a decade of dust on it straight out of the box, presumably appealing largely to diehard fans of the series. I mean, we've had 12 years to decide whether or not DNF has held our attention, as it's gone from vaporware to something that's coming out in just a few short months. Based on the limited time I spent with the game, I'm inclined to think it won't change anyone's mind one way or the other.
Ryan Scott: Ever since Gearbox picked up the baton, and we knew DNF was very definitely coming out, I've found myself wondering if it's overhyped to an extent that it can't live up to. Did you see anything that... I dunno, might dispel that concern?
David Wolinsky: No, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily a strike against the game. I mean, how on Earth can anything live up to that hype? If nothing else, it's reassuring that the game's universe takes quasi-satirical potshots not just at the things like video games at large and action-movie cliches, but also at the long-ass wait that fans endured. The first thing you hear once the game has started is Duke at a urinal, griping "Come on, this is taking forever... it's time to get this big guy back in action." Obviously, it's a reference to at least two different things. Though it'd be unfairly speculative to assume the rest of DNF follows suit based on the first hour-and-a-half, I strongly think the game will benefit from not self-consciously shying away from its absurd backstory or attempting Hail Mary maneuvers to modernize itself. It can't compete with Halo, nor does it have to. They're completely different categories of games, though they belong to the same genre.
And though I can't even remember when exactly Duke Nukem Forever fell off my radar, I give kudos to the fact that (aging as the the initial vision was) it will be realized. Duke Nukem Forever will no longer remain an unassailable symbol of what could have been, but instead a time capsule of a first-person shooter. Then again, if you're buying into the hype, nothing's going to change your mind anyway.
