Before I say anything else, no I haven't finished Duke Nukem Forever.  I've played through a good portion of the game.  While critically, this game is being hammered down as being one of the worst games ever, I can honestly say, people, Duke Nukem Forever is really not that bad. 
 
Sure, Duke's dated.  I mean, this is a game that should have been released in 2004.   In fact, I honestly don't understand why this game received the fourteen year development cycle that it did.  Duke is something of an era that is long gone, he's a badass, 80's style hero who doesn't really fit into today's world.  Sure, the humor is a little immature, but sadly I've found myself laughing quite frequently during the game.  And come on, those that have played this, you have laughed too. 
 
And that's probably the greatest thing that pisses me off, simply put: Duke's not that bad.  But every critic in America is taking a gigantic dookie on this game.  Seriously people, what were you expecting?  Sure, I will blame Gearbox for simply just slapping nothing more then a new coat of paint on this game, so to speak, and releasing it that way, but honestly they did that to preserve what this game is.  Gearbox could have taken another year or two, really sat down and rewrote everything from the ground up, and made a Duke Nukem game that blew us all away, but instead they chose to just release this game for what it is.  And honestly, they are going to be laughing all the way to the bank regardless, because I'm sure despite negative reviews, people will buy this game simply because it is Duke Nukem. 
 
To be fair, I've played much worse games then DNF.  For starters, anyone ever tried "Secret Service: The Ultimate Sacrifice" on the xbox 360?  Yeah, go play that, then play this and tell me Duke isn't better.  Seriously.  That's just one comparison I can list to several of games that are much worse then Duke.  Sure, it is dated, but it isn't the trainwreck that every critic is panning it to be.  I'm sorry that Duke doesn't offer some insanely amazing story, some sort of leveling up system, or any one of those things that cause reviewers to get a little tight in their pants.  What DNF has offered me for the first several hours is a fun and entertaining experience, which is why we play video games in the first place.  
 
Anyways, I will get back to finishing this game up, so I can review it.  But do yourself a favor, if you are a fan of Duke, you have a Ps3 or a pc, check it out.  You won't be disappointed, it is a new Duke Nukem after all

From what I've played at a friends house yesterday, I can agree that there are far worse games than DNF.  
 
Damnation,anyone?

no one's saying it's the worst game ever though

Finsihed and liked it. Had a lot of Half-Life moments.

Yeah, there are far worse games. Big Rigs for example.

To be serious, the platform sections in the burger bar looked pretty fun and I didn't get why Jeff would shit on that, but why would I like to run around in that shithole of an alien world? It's just grey, brown, dull and more dull.

It's not the worst game. But it's such a boring game. I stopped playing again a few minutes ago, because that monster truck ran out of gas for the third bloody time.

Duke Nukem Forever: Come On people, it's really not THAT good.

The game is just boring and pathetic. The game's "humor" is what's making this boring game even worse. The game thinks it's funny for making fun of other modern shooters, yet it adopts some of the mechanics from the games they are making fun of. The jokes are terrible and well...everything is just bad. I figured this game would be ironically fun but in the end, it's just a completely disappointing and sad game. I'm surprised Duke didn't just hang himself in the end.

I haven't seen anyone say it's the worst game ever. I played about two hours last night, and while it definitely has issues, I'm not so offended by its gameplay decisions or pandering sense of humor that I'm not going to keep playing. In a lot of ways, the jokes themselves aren't funny, but what they mean in the fiction is kind of funny.

There are far worse games yes, but DNF is still a terrible game.

There are far worse games yes, but DNF is still a terrible game.

I believe this game serves as an exercise as to why developers should put out games in a reasonable time frame.

Damn, even Jesus hates this game.

This game is just the victim of fourteen years of hype, so of course it's not going to be well received. Combined with the already horrible anticipation that comes with three engine changes, and then the misconception that Gearbox did any amount of hardcore work on this all leads to horrible critical reception. 
  
Really, it's not surprising AT ALL that no one liked this game. We were happier with this game being a running joke in video games, and now that is gone, all we have left is a generic FPS that plays alright but can't appease MW-crazed junkies. So yeah, it is that bad, respective to everything else. 

@Master_Prophet said:

@SirOptimusPrime: I've gotten bored quicker during Call of Duty games then this. World at War anyone?

I can say with complete confidence and even without playing DNF that World at War is multitudes better than DNF.

@SirOptimusPrime: I've gotten bored quicker during Call of Duty games then this.  World at War anyone?

So many defenders of this game seem to think that people are complaining about no Modern Warfare style campaign, with all the trappings. But that is not what is wrong with this game. The fundamental minute to minute experience with the game is really boring, and just generally poor. And the 'humour'? How anyone found it funny is beyond me. 

@InternetCrab: I'm pretty sure WaW is the worst of the Call of Duty's.

There's worst

@Master_Prophet said:

@InternetCrab: I'm pretty sure WaW is the worst of the Call of Duty's.

No, Call of Duty 3 is the worst of the Call of Duty's

It's not THAT bad but it is a terrible game.

a Duke Nukem game where you don't fire your weapon a lot of the time.

I like the fact that they play on the whole "Duke is old" thing by him not being able to pick up more than two weapons at once... Oh what's that? That's not a joke for the game? ... 'sigh'

I didn't like it but that's just me, I think I grew above the whole "omg! saying "ass" a lot is so funny"-bs that game had going for it at some point 12 years ago

I'd rather remember it as a failure than a mediocre game.

It's not THAT bad. It's THIS bad!

I haven't played DNF (yet), so I can only speak from what I've seen in videos and what I've read in reviews and comments.

That being said, I don't think anyone's saying it's one of the worst games ever, and also I don't think most people are saying that any Duke Nukem game would automatically be bad; Just that this one is. I've read a lot of comments from people defending the game, and it seems like most of them basically boil down to "Cmon guys, it's Duke- he's fun. Not everything needs to be so serious. You would like it if you had fond memories of Duke 3D." But it just appears to me that these people are letting the fact that they're just glad to finally get another Duke game cloud the fact that the game in question just isn't very good. We all have certain games that we like a little more than we should for some odd reason or another, and that's fine. You just need to keep things in perspective. There's nothing wrong with enjoying DNF, but I really don't think it would hold up at all if you compared it to most modern shooters.

People can't write reviews from the perspective of "sure it's totally outmoded by today's standards, but let's just pretend like this game came out ten years ago, because hey, at least we finally got another Duke game."

Then again, I still need to really sit down and play it. Maybe I'm completely wrong.

i will have to wait until i buy this game. i agree it can't be that bad. meh, it got a lot of 2 and 3 stars from reviews.

I'd buy this game on PC... if it was 15 dollars... and if I got something with it like a decent movie or a coupon or weed.

@InternetCrab said:

@Master_Prophet said:

@SirOptimusPrime: I've gotten bored quicker during Call of Duty games then this. World at War anyone?

No. World at War is probably the greatest CoD after MW.

im sorry... but no.

I agree, it's not nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. It's not the greatest thing, but it's not that bad.

That should be a quote on the back of the box.

Yeah, there are far worse games. Big Rigs for example.

To be serious, the platform sections in the burger bar looked pretty fun and I didn't get why Jeff would shit on that, but why would I like to run around in that shithole of an alien world? It's just grey, brown, dull and more dull.

pic of a duke defender irl 

@Jesus: Confused on what you thought was boring?  I've had a good time with Duke thus far.  I'll admit it isn't the best game or anything like that, but hell I've been entertained.

Duke Nukem Forever: It Probably Won't Give You Herpes

In stores now!

Yes but is it worth 50$-60$?

It really, really is that bad.

@Seedofpower said:

Yes but is it worth 50$-60$?

It does help the economy...

So many defenders of this game seem to think that people are complaining about no Modern Warfare style campaign, with all the trappings. But that is not what is wrong with this game. The fundamental minute to minute experience with the game is really boring, and just generally poor. And the 'humour'? How anyone found it funny is beyond me. 

@Master_Prophet said:

@Seedofpower: I would also argue that 90% of the people that are reviewing this game haven't played through Duke 3D (I know Jeff on giantbomb here has, I know all those guys have, I'm speaking about other certain reviewers from other publications).

If you're going to accuse game journalists of lying about playing the game you should probably just say who the fuck you're talking about and what evidence you have to back it up.

Worst game I have played in a good long time, its the equivalent of Deadly Premonition if it was just shooting zombies.

@solh0und said:

From what I've played at a friends house yesterday, I can agree that there are far worse games than DNF. Damnation,anyone?

You are really going to compare the two? Really?

@Seedofpower:   But regardless, I am just honestly tired of reading everyone that's joining the "let's hate Duke because it sucks" bandwagon because honestly, it isn't nearly as bad as you all say it is.

Bringing up CoD is fine while talking about the Halo franchise, which I love both at about the same level. But trying to trash talk CoD in a thread about Duke Nukem Forever is kinda disgusting. Jeff seemed really bored with the game and Ryan's laughing was really uncomfortable, enough to convince me not to buy this game any time soon.