Duke Nukem Forever comes out tonight

[len]

Blood used an updated version of the Build engine that allowed for multi-tier levels - you could make a hole in the floor of an upper level to look down onto the lower level (and snipe).
As well it offered the ability to create remote-controlled objects. There's one scene where you have to drive a little truck in an amusement area to push a key to the Prize slot, then you take the key.
You could also ride in a vehicle without getting run over.
Redneck Rampage and Duke's versions of the engine did not allow that. The truck in RR would run you down bigger than shit
I don't think Duke even had a vehicle in it.

I spent hours building levels for RR, following the tutorial written for Duke's version of the Build engine (and noted the differences RR's version offered in my own tutorials at the time).

I was recreating the house from Resident Evil as a RR map, but then moved on to other things before completing it. I did have the entire main hall finished - the stairs, the circular balcony that lead to the 3 different doors (2 on the right, one on the left). Had to figure out how to use "solidified" sprites for the upper floor tiles so you could walk across them - basically "cheating" to accomplish Blood's multi-tier effect.
I also had the dining room (where Barry and Jill find the blood by the fireplace) and the hallway beyond that where you first meet the zombies.
I also had the curved hallway out to the pool area, and the long hallway where the dogs jump through the window.

I didn't get all of those areas set up with spawn triggers and whatnot before passing it on. I did have all the doors working, though. Basically I jut uploaded it and gave it away. Not sure if it was ever finished.

I still get at least one email a year from some kid in the further reaches of Eastern Europe asking for the Makemap program, and asking how to make a door (even though my tutorials covered that clearly, and can still be found).

thats pretty cool Newc..... ever do anything with any of epics games?they shipped all the mapmaking software and the easy access UMOD tool to add new mods and maps ....at one point between my son and i UT2003 was taking up 12 gigs of our massive at the time 50 gig hd .....

on a DNF side note...i am about 3/4 of the way through and think the reviews are about half right.... the action parts get better as the game progresses but the puzzle parts are lame and no quick saves until you reach checkpoints oh and having to hit the jump buton a million times to open some doors or finally pull the horn or toungue out a boss is driving me fricken nuts

[Ripley7t]

Dude, we must not be playing the same game. I am over half way through it and havent had the opportunity to tongue out any boss characters, lol. I do agree about the dam doors though.

[Newc]

thats pretty cool Newc..... ever do anything with any of epics games?they shipped all the mapmaking software and the easy access UMOD tool to add new mods and maps ....at one point between my son and i UT2003 was taking up 12 gigs of our massive at the time 50 gig hd .....

Nah, never did get into the Unreal-type stuff. I tried the Quake map thing at the time but couldn't get my head around it.

[Scooter]

You guys are bringing back some memories for me. I played UT for a while, but really got into MoHAA, and SH. They were based off the Quake engine, but the WWII FPS hooked me quick. CoD was promising, but a disappointment in the end, and after the BF series started I had begun to lose intrest. I belonged to several clans over the years, but always kept the name "WildBillKelso"

[Trem]

I love the engine, to me even Quake3 still looks awesome but i just did not find it "fun" making levels in it.
I was immediately addicted to Unreal engine tho and have created weapon mods as well as maps with it. I just found it easy to dig into and it feels natural to get a work flow going.

I have been on and off for nearly 10 years building a multiplayer rpg in Unreal 1.5 engine, lol. I give up on it for a year or two, have had my hard drive completely fail - totally dead would not boot or even spin up hardly - and so loose everything i had up to a point. I was able to recover it like a year later in a dire attempt with some hardcore recovery software to get whatever i could salvage off the drive, the funny thing is ALL that i could recover off of the drive was most of my work on the game before it completely mechanically locked up. Literally of all the stuff on the drive, my game files, and a few pieces of windows fragments. So i felt lucky enough i should keep working on it.

So every once in a blue moon i end up getting drawn back to it. Had been working on it last few weeks again for the first time since 2007.
Thing is as you get better and better at making assets and stuff, the old stuff you want to throw out and start over cause you think well i can do better than that now, but it creates and endless circle so at some point you just have to say it is what it is and go with it. I've got stuff in it as far as world building that wasn't able to be done, due in part with the help of modern hardware. Machines of that time wouldn't be able to run it at all.

I delved into doing stuff in UT 2003 and 2004 but it also became much more time consuming having to model most of your world assets in 3Dmax or Maya.
It just got much more involved to be able to make time for it. But i would love to be able to do that full time. I would be good for that kind of job, i can go without sleep, food, or human contact for a long time when i get into a project, lol.

As far as Duke Forever, I think the "review" people expect to much for what it is supposed to be. I haven't played it, but i expect it will be a basic run and gun Duke Nukem game nothing more. I personally didn't think the first ones were "that" great to begin with. They were ok, had some fun.. done. I expect that this would be more of the same. The graphics i've seen from the screens and such don't bother me at all, Quake 3 engine is great... to me it will always be one that was ahead of it's time.

Btw, The game to watch for in 2012 that actually still uses a modified Doom 3 engine and looks utterly fantastic even by todays standards in graphics AND game play is Prey 2.

[Newc]

The one thing that puts me off about the Doom 3/Unreal engines is the fact everyone who uses it feels compelled to make an articulated asshole somewhere in a level - Prey had dozens of them in one room. I mean, really? Is the asshole so fantabulously amazing to these people?

At least it's not a spewing pud.

[Trem]

The one thing that puts me off about the Doom 3/Unreal engines is the fact everyone who uses it feels compelled to make an articulated asshole somewhere in a level - Prey had dozens of them in one room. I mean, really? Is the asshole so fantabulously amazing to these people?

At least it's not a spewing pud.

it's funny cause it's true.

[Axewielder]

I finally beat DNF tonight on medium (let's rock?) difficulty. All in all a pretty cool game. This is the first DN game I've tried, so I sort of went into it cold that way. I do sort of get where some of the complaints are coming from. Some things seemed just sort of thrown in there. Some of the fights had sort of bad dynamics with bad guys teleporting right on top or behind you all the time, but there were a lot of knock down drag out kickass fights as well. The bosses were pretty cool too. The puzzles really sucked, I had to hit the FAQ's several times just to get out of stupid locked rooms. I could have REALLY done without those barrel puzzles. There were some good jokes thrown in. The scroll wheel on the mouse was a major issue because Duke would look straight at the floor if I accidentally scrolled when trying to click instead (melee). I didn't see a way to defeat that in the controls menu. Argh! The graphics were really good most of the time, but I did notice the occasional bluriness. The night vision thing was used way too much, and I really ended up disoriented a lot.

[len]

axe
i finished last night too ....the begining was i thought it was way over the top with duke this and duke that
\kind of lame but it got better as the game progressed and allot harder... had to hit some walkthrus on you tube for some of the puzzlesas well (the dude from gamefront on the first puzzle was like wtf if i wanted puzzles i'd replay portal 2 )
my big problem was that i always bind jump to right mouse and it didnt work well with the doors and final kills of the bosses ...i had to kill that queen bitch 8 times before i got her toungue out and the final guy 5 times before i got all his tubes yanked
the way each boss battle was tougher and and with less cover was a nice touch
throw in no quicksaves made for a few late nights....
besides just running around and playin deathmatches against bots on the newest unreal tournament ,this was the first real game i played in about 5-6 years (besides portal 2)
..... all in all i think it was better than the reviews ....and it was definitely DUKE
just got a copy of FEAR 3 off of piratebay .... maybe next week on that one

len

[Axewielder]

Yeah you don't have to jump on the bosses to finish them off at all, just run up and hit the "use" key when prompted. Those boss battles did get DAMN hard. I only had to hit the FAQ on that street fight with that battle lord. That guy had my number!

[len]

i had use/ grab bound to enter on the kb ...thats what i had to use to mount the boss ...open locked doors and execute down pigcops... and i always have jump bound to right mouse since back in the day ...but when a door needed pulling up or for final extermination of bosses the screen prompted me to use rmb.....also had zoom bound to middle mouse that made switchin over real easy ....got to agree with you on the night vision ...could have been done better.....
had to get my use steroids and drink beer at same time achievement award just for shits and giggles when minaturized fighting that boss in the dukeburger place

[texasfury]

......

[len]

after payin 50 buks for duke ,i downloaded fear 3 with a crack ...its got the same engine,before game interface and when your dyin everything starts goin red then you recharge just like duke....