Forever

[davidn]

I just genuinely had to check whether I'd fallen asleep for half a year and woken up on the first of April. But I haven't, and it looks like something unthinkable has happened. They might just be... close to... well, finishing it.

The thought is genuinely beyond my comprehension. I have an issue of PC Gamer from 1998 with a "near-finished" preview of that. Tune in tomorrow at noon where we'll discover just how far and wide 3DRealms' server has exploded from the entire world hitting it at once.

Comments

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

Bah, I can't view it without an account.

[kjorteo]

Will you revive
from the chaos in my mind
where we still are bound together?

Will you be there
waiting by the gates of dawn
when I close my eyes forever?

Er, anyway.

When DNF was first announced, it was 1997, I was 13 or 14 (depending on whether it was April yet,) and I was firmly in the middle of playing the crap out of Pokémon Red. On my old-school brick (not even Pocket) Game Boy when I was out, or with my super-awesome Super Game Boy (on the TV with four colors!) when at home.

Computer-wise, the Pentium II had just been introduced in March of that very year, but I think we still just had our 486. We were kind of slow to upgrade. By its very definition, Windows 98 wouldn't be released until the following year.

I'm skeptical at this point. I refuse to believe the game exists until it actually hits shelves. And even then, I might have to pressure someone I know into buying a copy (I don't even like shooters) just to make sure there are actual things in the box and it isn't some sort of practical joke.

[davidn]

In a way, I'll be quite disappointed if they finally manage to release it, ending the game industry's single largest joke. But in another more realistic way, I'd have preferred them to carry on making decent games instead of heading into an ever more eccentric downward spiral.

And if it took them ten years to get enough for a teaser trailer, just forty more to go until it's released!

[davidn]

Here it is!

http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/006093.html

[kjorteo]

Oh, I'm sure it will still be the game industry's single largest joke even after it gets released. The unending jokes on one side and hype on the other have set the bar so high that it will be almost literally impossible to release any kind of game that lives up to it. Even the second coming of Christ would be a major letdown after being in development for that long with that much buzz.

Some article on Something Awful (several years ago, which just goes to show you, I suppose) said that what 3DRealms needs to do to even salvage the reputation of the company is just crap out a screen saver or something, call it "Duke Nukem Forever," eat and apologize for the inevitable fallout, then go deep into blackout mode and start making new quality games with absolutely no pre-development discussion at all. "So we have this amazing new game." "Oh? When does it come out?" "It shipped yesterday. So there." At the time, I thought it was just another cruel (but funny) joke, but now I think that really could be their last remaining hope.