Sulphur on 4/6/2011 at 18:31
The demo isn't enough. It's a quickly put together taster, and the gameplay seems a bit crusty around the edges. Right click to zoom a little closer in sans iron sights, the aforementioned two weapon limit, obvious enemy spawn triggers, a highly rote and unsatisfying bit with a chaingun quickly followed by an RPG-and-circling-alien-ship section, etc. etc. The DoF blur really is annoying, there's got to be a way to turn it off. Elsewise everything's fine graphically - even with HDR and bloom - barring the odd rough-angled low-poly model or low-res normal maps.
And after all this time, it's still so very Duke. There's more sheer destruction, throwaway gags, ridiculous one liners and OTT set pieces in this demo than most demos ever manage, and it barely lasts ten minutes. It almost feels like the first episode of DN3D, warped forward in time to today. Nostalgia threatens to overpower every time Jon St. John quips a new one liner, or a pipe bomb blasts a pig cop into so many bacon bits.
That's enough to sell me on it: Duke is back, for real. It's gaming history, baby. Purchase imminent.
WingedKagouti on 4/6/2011 at 18:54
Quote Posted by Sulphur
The DoF blur really is annoying, there's got to be a way to turn it off.
(PC) Options->Graphics->Advanced.
There are also some useful settings in the Controls and Game options.
The demo is decent, about €30 decent.
Sulphur on 4/6/2011 at 18:57
There isn't a separate option for DoF, though. It's either turn all post-processing off or leave it all on. I'd rather have HDR, tone mapping, and ambient occlusion on. I'm guessing an .ini file edit should take care of it.
Nameless Voice on 4/6/2011 at 19:03
Weapon carrying limit restrictions don't belong in classic shooters.
It makes sense in something like Left 4 Dead, which is about strategy. It was insanely annoying in F.E.A.R., even though that has some small excuse for pretending to be a horror-shooter.
Who thinks the idea of having to drop a gun you know is good to try out another gun that may or may not be good is fun?
polytourist97 on 4/6/2011 at 20:02
It would make it easier to map out controls for a console though, not needing to have all those buttons dedicated for the various weapons. But cross-platform development doesn't have that kind of effect on design decisions, so there obviously must be a better reason.
Nameless Voice on 4/6/2011 at 20:34
Next weapon button.
Actually, scratch that. Classic FPSes on consoles are awful no matter what you try, it's impossible to aim properly with a controller.
Malleus on 5/6/2011 at 17:21
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
Next weapon button.
Or a weapon select button bringing up a circular menu. Tap to quickly switch to previous weapon.
Anyway, according to this the demo is based on a pre-alpha that was shown to the gaming press back in September:
(
http://www.plughead.net/impressions-duke-nukem-demo)
lost_soul on 5/6/2011 at 23:54
For me, part of what made DN3D Great was the abundance of equipment the player could carry around. From the steroids, to the portable medkit, to the night-vision, to the jetpack, to the tripmines and so on. It helped draw me into the game world, just like the inventory system and items in Deus Ex did.
june gloom on 6/6/2011 at 00:21
For me it was the juxtaposition of the very moody atmosphere with the delightfully unsubtle parody-porno setting.
nicked on 6/6/2011 at 05:56
Well the demo didn't blow me away (but then I'm hearing that it's just year-old bad marketing so maybe full game will be great) but, I was very nearly sold entirely on the tips that pop up while loading, because one of them said:
"If you get stuck, don't forget you can cheat and look at FAQs online."
I nearly spat coffee all over my desk.
