Will Tuttle, Editor in Chief: This is a joke, right? Getting a text from you about going hands-on with Duke Nukem Forever was not something I expected on a lazy pre-Labor Day weekend. Are you just messing with me?
Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: At this point -- even having actually played it at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle -- it feels incredibly stupid for me to be typing anything serious about this game. I mean, it's been 12 years of 3D Realms faffing about and restarting development practically every other day. And now, after all these false promises, Gearbox (of Brothers in Arms and Borderlands fame) swoops in to see the thing through. So, yeah, it's real! It exists!
Will Tuttle: As much as I hate to let my inner graphics whore out, I'm dying to know how it actually looks. Do the graphics look dated already? I mean, it seems like every major graphics engine over the last 12 years has had a version of Duke Nukem Forever running on it, so I can't help but wonder if it's already showing its age.
Ryan Scott: It looked fine to me. It definitely doesn't look like an old-ass game; I suspect Gearbox has had this thing cooking for a while now, so it looks like it's in good shape. My worry isn't about the graphics, though -- based on the trailer they showed, and the 15 minutes I played, DNF kind of comes off as an excessively self-referential game, an in-joke for itself. Duke himself makes repeated references to the delays, and he's still the kind of hyper-macho over-the-top character that was funny back in the 1990s -- the kind I think most of popular culture has moved on from.
Will Tuttle: It's funny -- I was just about to agree with you, but then I realized that now is the perfect time to bring back a '90s icon to appeal to the so-dated-it's-ironically-hilarious crowd. I mean, The Expendables just proved that you can't keep an old action hero down, so why not bring back the video game character that became famous for lampooning Sly, Arnold, and their ilk? Anyway, I've heard that the game was running on a PC but that people were playing with Xbox 360 controllers. Did you ask for a keyboard and mouse?
Ryan Scott: I went ahead and dealt with the 360 controller, which is not my optimal control method for first-person shooters (especially when I don't play many of them for PC to begin with). The irony in me being one of the first people to play this game is that I'm also one of the people who probably cares the least!
Will Tuttle: See, that's the great thing about this business. Sometimes you have to cover stuff that either doesn't interest you or you suck at, as I once learned when I wrote a preview of Microsoft Flight Simulator. I'm still surprised that the hate mail finally dried up! So did you get a chance to talk to anyone about the game's actual development process at Gearbox? I mean, they took that game in and turned it around pretty quickly.
Ryan Scott: Yeah, a bunch of the fired developers kept cranking on it in their spare time, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford swooped in to provide funding. At this point, Gearbox actually owns the IP rights to Duke Nukem (this was announced during PAX as well), so it's out of 3D Realms' hands for good. Given how long 3D Realms strung all of this out, I'd say that's a good thing. Pitchford's got some history with this franchise, too -- he worked on Duke Nukem 3D and DNF before founding Gearbox. I remember a meeting I had with him years ago where he just completely went off about the hows and whys of DNF's development hell; he even drew a graph on a whiteboard to explain how "time invested" and "3D Realms' vision of perfection" shall never meet.
Will Tuttle: Randy's always a great interview for precisely that reason. I'm glad that the franchise is in good hands, although -- as you mentioned above -- it still remains to be seen if Duke will still resonate with gamers. As an expert on all things video games, how do you see this all playing out? Did Gearbox agree to fall on the DNF sword so it could do its own thing with the IP further down the line?
Ryan Scott: Whoa, I think you're giving me a little too much credit there, buddy. In any case, geez, I dunno. Since Gearbox went after the IP rights, it's obvious that they have long-term interest in the franchise. And I wouldn't put it past Pitchford to lend his hand to this particular project for largely emotional reasons -- wanting to see it actually get done and whatnot. Hell, he's gonna go down in history as the guy who finally got Duke Nukem Forever out the door. That alone is probably reason enough to do it. And, you know, because this game will probably sell a billion copies on its legacy alone.
Will Tuttle: That is quite a legacy, but I'm guessing people will view the game's sales as "disappointing" when all is said and done. I mean, would that many people blindly buy a game (especially one as troubled as this) just because Duke Nukem's face graces the cover? And, more importantly -- anything else we should know about DNF? Anymore entertaining anecdotes about outspoken developers for us?
Ryan Scott: I dunno... a lot of people are willing to buy crap as long as the right name is on the box. Not to say that DNF will be crap -- I mean, after this long, I hope it's awesome -- but I suspect a lot of people might buy it just because of its unique history. Whatever; here's to Gearbox. With any luck, Duke Nukem: Five by Five (or whatever they call it) won't take quite as long.
