So Duke Nukem Forever has built up a reputation of being THE WORST GAME OF ALL TIME. For various reasons.
Reasons I don't understand.
...I was one of the SIZABLE handful of people that actually, genuinely enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. I know, it's uncanny. I'm not stupid either. At least, I don't think so. ...regardless, I always tend to get crap for liking the game. Moreso than liking other games people don't like. When I say I liked Superman 64, for example, no-one bats an eyelid. When I say I liked Duke Nukem Forever, I'm a social pariah and the scum of gaming and the reason the industry is in the atrocious shape it's in now. ...huh.
What I'm trying to say is that Duke Nukem Forever, for all its flaws, was an extremely enjoyable game by the standards of a hell of a lot of reasonable and intelligent people. The shooting was functional, if nothing else, the level design and progression was wildly varied and interesting, and the humour... well, I'm kind of inclined not to say anything of the humour. Our tastes in humour are the most subjective we have. So if I say "the game was ironically hilarious and I loved how it played out as a parody of itself," that sentence holds no water whether you agree or not. So we'll let that by for now.
...my point being that while Duke Nukem Forever wasn't great, and was a massive disappointment, there's a lot to like inside it depending on your taste, and I'm thinking that it does the game a disservice to treat it like it destroyed gaming, or what have you. Does it mean you should try to like the game? Or sing its praises in the street? Lord no. But give the game its due - it didn't give you AIDS. It didn't soil gaming forever. And whether it's objective or subjective, the game was not - by ANY stretch of the word - a "horrible" game.
Let bygones be bygones, and let the game be nothing more than what it is - the sweat and tears of hundreds of developers, finally realized and put to rest in disc form. And moderately enjoyable to boot. And if you can't do that, well, at least let them work on a from-the-ground-up sequel before saying the franchise is dead.
Reasons I don't understand.
...I was one of the SIZABLE handful of people that actually, genuinely enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. I know, it's uncanny. I'm not stupid either. At least, I don't think so. ...regardless, I always tend to get crap for liking the game. Moreso than liking other games people don't like. When I say I liked Superman 64, for example, no-one bats an eyelid. When I say I liked Duke Nukem Forever, I'm a social pariah and the scum of gaming and the reason the industry is in the atrocious shape it's in now. ...huh.
What I'm trying to say is that Duke Nukem Forever, for all its flaws, was an extremely enjoyable game by the standards of a hell of a lot of reasonable and intelligent people. The shooting was functional, if nothing else, the level design and progression was wildly varied and interesting, and the humour... well, I'm kind of inclined not to say anything of the humour. Our tastes in humour are the most subjective we have. So if I say "the game was ironically hilarious and I loved how it played out as a parody of itself," that sentence holds no water whether you agree or not. So we'll let that by for now.
...my point being that while Duke Nukem Forever wasn't great, and was a massive disappointment, there's a lot to like inside it depending on your taste, and I'm thinking that it does the game a disservice to treat it like it destroyed gaming, or what have you. Does it mean you should try to like the game? Or sing its praises in the street? Lord no. But give the game its due - it didn't give you AIDS. It didn't soil gaming forever. And whether it's objective or subjective, the game was not - by ANY stretch of the word - a "horrible" game.
Let bygones be bygones, and let the game be nothing more than what it is - the sweat and tears of hundreds of developers, finally realized and put to rest in disc form. And moderately enjoyable to boot. And if you can't do that, well, at least let them work on a from-the-ground-up sequel before saying the franchise is dead.
UNFORGIVABLE!!
