My take on the DNF demo.
#1 Posted 03 June 2011 - 12:59 AM
+ The puzzles were a nice break from the action. It's a step up from Duke 3D's dumb button “puzzles” and definitely a major improvement from what you see in modern FPS games.
+ The fighting was surprisingly good. The weapons feel really powerful, both in sound, look and their actual strength.
+ The gold pistol is sexy.
+ I loved Duke's one-liners.
+ Lots of attention has been paid to details, like being able to destroy trees and signs. I know that sounds silly, but little things like that show that a lot of care and love was put into the game, and I appreciate that.
+ Runs like a dream. Load speed is really fast, and I had absolutely no slowdown.
- FOV makes me feel strange. I can live with it, but a fix would be nice.
- The gibbing system is weird; you fire a few shots into something, and suddenly it disappears and gibs appear in its place. Other games do that as well, but they do a better job hiding it than DNF does.
- Ego is basically regenerating health. I don't mind it, but I was expecting some of the innovations they talked about in interviews, like how killing enemies gives you health.
- Ripper needs to be more powerful.
- Triggering the “stomp” animation for shrunken enemies that are running around is really difficult. I find that its easier just to smack them with the melee key while you're looking at them than try to trigger the stomp animation.
- The two weapon limit is kinda bleh, but thankfully you're given so many weapons and ammo that it isn't a problem.
- Monster truck takes some getting used to. Once you know how to control it effectively, its really fun to drive.
Honestly, I think DNF is a more than worthy successor to DN3D. If you're expecting DNF to be an overglorified expansion pack to DN3D based on misrepresentations about what Duke3D was about (Serious Sam-type gameplay, extremely non-linear levels, etc), then it is average, but if you're expecting a new game with Duke's classic humor, enemies and weapons, it's awesome. I'd say that DNF is a fresh breath of air for anyone that likes modern shooters, but want old-school weapons, enemies and feel like they're actually playing a game and being in a world instead of strapped into an interactive movie. I think it should appeal to both old school and modern FPS fans because its a good mix of the elements that make both types of FPS great.
I've heard the console versions (at least the X360 version) suck, which is unfortunate, because I think it gives people a bad image of what DNF is actually like. People really should give the PC version a shot, because it sounds like its the best by far.
This post has been edited by MYHOUSE.MAP: 03 June 2011 - 01:00 AM
#2 Posted 03 June 2011 - 02:19 AM
#3 Posted 03 June 2011 - 02:37 AM
Still, if nothing else, the demo has confirmed that it will run awesome on my machine! I've actually forgotten to switch my system from silent to high-performance mode and it didn't drop a single frame, at HP my system runs almost twice as fast (I usually leave it on silent though since I like the quiet ). Unfortunately I can no longer run the demo because it looks like the Steam authentication servers crashed or something, retried it 5 times now, it just sits there and doesn't get to the point where I'm logged in. Did I ever mention that I really hate being dependent on an online system that can go at any time? Publishers really need to be shot, it's not like DRM will actually slow down pirates by anything more than a day or two, unfortunately people are smart, and if there's a will, there's a way.
I was going to show my brother the demo, but as I mentioned, steam won't log in and I can't get it into offline mode. So I guess I'll have to wait till the demo is cracked and leaked online so I can play it again
#4 Posted 03 June 2011 - 02:52 AM
I spent around 40 minutes in the locker room staining towels with **** and turning things on and off and pissing in every toliet, my fun with the crap ended only when it got stuck in the bath, I tried to get it out but couldnt.
Then I drew a dick squirting into Emperors face and signed it, I broke every box, punched every object (including every body and EDF soldier) before going out to beat the crap out of The Cycloid Emperor, which I did and had a ball doing.
By this point Im loving it and drooling for next bit.
On to the desert, the truck handling is great it feels weighty and solid as does it when you run down Pigs, after mashing a bunch of cactus's and splating a few Pig-Cops Im over the jump and playing with the guns.
The Railgun is EPIC! feels solid as do all the rest of the guns I found, satisfying thuds and bangs are the soundtrack to the mutilations of stinking Pig-Cops, BANG! there goes a leg, BANG! there goes a head, BANG! that pigs head just grew and exploded. Fun.
The Pig-Cop are super aggro just as they were in Duke 3D, I like this, its a sign of good thing to come, I got my ass kicked on more than one occasion until I found the pibe-bombs and it all went downhill for the little piggys from there on.
Duke himself feels solid and the running is cool just fast enough (nowhere near as fast as 3D though, but we can leave that to the modders )
I loved the oneliners that I heard, especially the Predator reference "if it bleeds then I can kill it", its gonna be fun hearing the rest and I cant wait, as Im a big movie fan, especially the kind of movies the Duke is influenced by.
The envoirnments seem to be really destructable, I aimed a rpg at a water tower to see if I could "kill" it, and yep you can, I hope the game is full of breakable objects like this.
I like the punching but it doesnt seem that you can use fists any time you want, but the melee it good enough so I dont mind too much.
The sound effects are great as is the music, very film like.
The graphics are no suprise, they are ok they have style and some parts look really good where as other parts look average, they are in no means crap and pretty much what you would expect from a 2006 game, anyway they are more than good enough for me, and many of you too Id bet. (on 360 anyway)
Complaints? Sorry I had too much fun to notice anything really negative, and next week cant come fast enough for me, its gonna be a beautiful, fun game, if you dont get it then enjoy missing out on playing history bitch.
Cant wait to try multiplayer.
#5 Posted 03 June 2011 - 03:44 AM
Some things I hope and DEMAND which will be fixed, because they're very basics:
- Possibility to change the language in the game (german synchro SUCKS bad)
- Possibility to change the FOV (this was requested the first time when the DNF section opened @Gearbox)
- Weapon balancing (Ripper too weak imho)
- Proper 16:10 / 16:9 support...something feels wierd there. I think it's the same issue like with Bioshock (1+2), that the upper & lower parts of the screen are simply cut.
Everything else I enjoyed and most important: for me it feels like Duke!
And I can live with the two weapons limit. I'm glad that the "mine" part hasn't been taken out like Scott Miller mentioned before.
Performance: very nice, except the very LONG loading times @ Xbox version of the game. On my PC it runs very smooth (40+ fps) with GeForce8800 GTS (without FSAA/FXAA). Imho the FSAA/FXAA settings are bugged, because they slow down the game way too extremely.
Controls are OK with Vsync off and some mouse sensitivity settings, but it's nowhere near as clear/smooth as Q3/Q4/idTech engine powered games.
Skill level: I really like the difficulty settings, feels right for me. Harder on the xbox obiously, because of gamepad-controller
#7 Posted 03 June 2011 - 04:46 AM
MYHOUSE.MAP, on 03 June 2011 - 12:59 AM, said:
+ The puzzles were a nice break from the action. It's a step up from Duke 3D's dumb button “puzzles” and definitely a major improvement from what you see in modern FPS games.
+ The fighting was surprisingly good. The weapons feel really powerful, both in sound, look and their actual strength.
+ The gold pistol is sexy.
+ I loved Duke's one-liners.
+ Lots of attention has been paid to details, like being able to destroy trees and signs. I know that sounds silly, but little things like that show that a lot of care and love was put into the game, and I appreciate that.
+ Runs like a dream. Load speed is really fast, and I had absolutely no slowdown.
- FOV makes me feel strange. I can live with it, but a fix would be nice.
- The gibbing system is weird; you fire a few shots into something, and suddenly it disappears and gibs appear in its place. Other games do that as well, but they do a better job hiding it than DNF does.
- Ego is basically regenerating health. I don't mind it, but I was expecting some of the innovations they talked about in interviews, like how killing enemies gives you health.
- Ripper needs to be more powerful.
- Triggering the “stomp” animation for shrunken enemies that are running around is really difficult. I find that its easier just to smack them with the melee key while you're looking at them than try to trigger the stomp animation.
- The two weapon limit is kinda bleh, but thankfully you're given so many weapons and ammo that it isn't a problem.
- Monster truck takes some getting used to. Once you know how to control it effectively, its really fun to drive.
Honestly, I think DNF is a more than worthy successor to DN3D. If you're expecting DNF to be an overglorified expansion pack to DN3D based on misrepresentations about what Duke3D was about (Serious Sam-type gameplay, extremely non-linear levels, etc), then it is average, but if you're expecting a new game with Duke's classic humor, enemies and weapons, it's awesome. I'd say that DNF is a fresh breath of air for anyone that likes modern shooters, but want old-school weapons, enemies and feel like they're actually playing a game and being in a world instead of strapped into an interactive movie. I think it should appeal to both old school and modern FPS fans because its a good mix of the elements that make both types of FPS great.
I've heard the console versions (at least the X360 version) suck, which is unfortunate, because I think it gives people a bad image of what DNF is actually like. People really should give the PC version a shot, because it sounds like its the best by far.
I thought the EGO system wouldn't be simple regenerating health, i thought it would be like DN manhattan project.
Also, most of the the bugs ( or all of them ) are fixed in the final version, well, that's what i saw.
Gibbing is fixed, the FOV is fixed.
The stomp animation wasn't hard for me, just look at them and run at them.
#8 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:09 AM
Get it. I was throwing shit at the walls. It's hilarious.
Now on to the bad:
1. Fov is set at around 70 -- needs to be adjusted to 90
2. Mouse acceleration is turned on by default (CPL Mousefix doesn't even help it)--NEEDS to be able to be disabled and manually via number adjust sensitivity
3. 2 Weapons at a time (annoying)
4. Halo regenerating health?
1 and 2 can be fixed I'm sure in config files. 3 and 4 bother me. A lot.
However, the demo is really short, say 30 minutes to an hour. So it's too hard to tell right now how it will all play out. I will say the interactivity is just what I expected in a Duke game--LOTS of it. It did however feel slightly on rails but--it was a demo so it is meant to be. Some of Duke's one liners were funny. I'm still going to get the full game--I mean, it IS Duke.
Probably the only thing that irritated me was not being able to run while strafing? That was kind of odd. Duke was always able to run while strafing. Heck, that's what those early FPS's are all about--ridiculously fast movement and lots of gun.
I guess my main complaint is the demo was too short! I want more... now!
The more I think about item #4 the more it bothers me. Duke doesn't need regenerating health. He's too studly for it. Pansies need that crap. Duke only needs atomic health packs (didn't see any at all).
Also, WHERE was the mighty FOOT?! Didn't see it at all. I really... really hope modders get rid of the two weapon limit.
What about running while strafing? I couldn't do that either.
I myself really don't care for modern FPS gaming style. I still play Doom 1/2/3 these days, still play Duke 3d, play Team Fortress 2 daily, still play Quake 1/2/3 so I'm hoping duke can be more of that.
Overall--lots of things that can be addressed.
#9 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:12 AM
#10 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:19 AM
I already made a topic about reviews, you could have posted yours there to keep this section less cluttered.
Mad Max RW, on 03 June 2011 - 08:12 AM, said:
Be reasonable man. What did you seriously expect? Haven't we already expected only shit from this?
I think it's a great competitor for hl1 and hl1 was an epic game.
The reason why I say hl1 is because I felt the gameflow of hl1 with a hint of duke 3d.
The game has a profound 90's feeling. It's surreal because after you've played it, it feels like you are playing a great 90's game that you haven't gotten to play yet.
It's as if would have played hl1 for the first time today and even though it's graphics suck, the game feels awesome.
This post has been edited by Mr.Deviance: 03 June 2011 - 08:27 AM
#11 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:26 AM
Besides, this game is nothing like half life other than the fact it has guns and aliens in it. So I don't get the relevance.
#12 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:27 AM
This post has been edited by Mad Max RW: 03 June 2011 - 08:28 AM
#13 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:28 AM
MysteryMeat, on 03 June 2011 - 08:26 AM, said:
Besides, this game is nothing like half life other than the fact it has guns and aliens in it. So I don't get the relevance.
The gameflow was more like hl to me, not the story or action.
That thing Randy was saying about DNF being a new game with an old school fps gameflow, is true because I felt it too.
However, if we are talking about new gamers, I definitely don't see them understanding this demo.
#14 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:34 AM
Don't ever believe anything Randy Pitchford says. Trust me on this.
This post has been edited by Mad Max RW: 03 June 2011 - 08:35 AM
#15 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:35 AM
It felt for the most part like an old school FPS with Duke in it. Which was the point. Though, as you state, it's going to be lost on people who didn't grow up with these type of games.
#16 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:40 AM
Other than that--the Ego system made it WAY TOO EASY. You get shot... no big deal, just go hide behind a wall for a second and viola! You're superman again. Pretty lame.
Duke uses healthpacks and atomic health--nothing else.
#17 Posted 03 June 2011 - 08:41 AM
Alithinos, on 03 June 2011 - 04:02 AM, said:
Lots of problems with it.
I never ran into one single problem. Never saw one visual or programming bug or glitch at all. The whole gameplay experience was picture perfect.
MysteryMeat, on 03 June 2011 - 08:26 AM, said:
HL1 needs a competitor because there needs to be more games like HL1.
Quote
It's like Half-Life in that it has action sequences and puzzle/exploration sequences. It actually reminds me a lot of Half-Life more than any other shooter.
#18 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:13 AM
This post has been edited by Sinisterambo: 03 June 2011 - 09:30 AM
#19 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:15 AM
not too difficult, just gotta use tactics on the armored pigcops and on the alien ship. @ the end of the mine, i've just gone and layed out a mesh of tripwires and a pile of pipe bombs for those pesky lil buggers!..
the full version will truly be THE best game to be released since Duke Nukem 3d. Period.
#20 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:16 AM
I don't know, Half Life 1 (and 2) were great games and yeah DNF and HL1 share similar gameplay elements but they've (at least to me) two different sides of the same coin.
Duke is like Half Life's alcoholic cousin who brings questionable girls to your home but he also buys you beer and smokes you up. You can't take him seriously, but he's a cool guy.
#21 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:21 AM
coheed82, on 03 June 2011 - 09:15 AM, said:
Can tripmines official be found in the demo? Or access with "dnweapons" cheat?
#23 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:37 AM
#24 Posted 03 June 2011 - 09:39 AM
me, i give it a 9/10 only two things bug me the most
the two weapon only at a time thing
ego health i knew there be a ego bar but not to where it regerates automaticly like modern FPS
ottom line, its what i wanted and more i can;t wait for the full game
#25 Posted 03 June 2011 - 10:20 AM
DI-MeisterM, on 03 June 2011 - 09:21 AM, said:
in the desert when you fight the main alien ship, you'll find yourself hiding in a wreck... just outside that near the ammo crate thingy and a fire is a pile of "Explosives" containing Tripwires....
#26 Posted 03 June 2011 - 10:59 AM
I think most of us enjoy games from the past, so I don't see why this is such a big deal.
Bugs and errors? Hell yeah... that is WAY a different subject than how game play feels. That would bother me too. But I still play tons of old games and enjoy them.
I am buying this game as though it came out around 2005 and I never got it back then. So unless it is buggy, I can't imagine it being a disappointment.
MrBlackCat
This post has been edited by MrBlackCat: 03 June 2011 - 11:00 AM
#27 Posted 03 June 2011 - 11:56 AM
#28 Posted 03 June 2011 - 12:05 PM
MrBlackCat, on 03 June 2011 - 10:59 AM, said:
I think most of us enjoy games from the past, so I don't see why this is such a big deal.
If a game is based on gameplay from the early to middle 2000s it sucks ass and is a rehash. However, if its based on 90s or 80s gameplay then its totally awesome and nostalgic and we need more of them.
#29 Posted 03 June 2011 - 12:13 PM
MusicallyInspired, on 03 June 2011 - 08:41 AM, said:
bugs and glitches aren't the only problems a game might have.
do you really want me to tell you the problems ?
1) Unbalanced weapons.
The railgun is obviously far better than anything else. It has a very fast rate for a one hit killer and it's easy to hit somebody without even without using the zoom faction. A weapon that kills with one shot,is so easy to handle,and has such a fast fire rate automatically makes shotgun,ripper,pistol and shrinker useless.Ripper is extremely weak when a pig needs 30+ bullets to die. The shrinker lost its usefullness since even shrunken enemies shoot you,and except that if you step over them it isn't enough,you have to press E to squish them. Trying to find the tiny enemy by looking on the floor to press E while others are shooting you gets you killed and makes you choose another gun.
2) Bad collision detection / invisible walls
The demo is full of invisible walls. I tried in the first level to get in the jacuzzi and BAM! an invisible wall stopped me from getting in. In the desert level there are even more of those. For God's shake,invisible walls are absent since Goldeneye on the N64 which was in 1998....
3) Duke lost his movement.
Duke moves slower,jumps lower,and reach less places. The freedom,flexibility and agility Duke had in DUKE3D is missing..
I couldn't jump on a rock half the size of Duke. In dn3d Duke could jump at a height three times his height.The feeling of freedom to go wherever you like isn't there.
4) Weapons get lost
Sometimes when you exchange the weapon you already have with another you found on the floor,the weapon you left down stays there.. Sometimes it doesn't. Guess which weapon got lost on my first playthrough at the desert level ? The RPG. And the dropship wouldn't die without it. I spent 30 minutes shooting it with ripper,railgun,pipe bombs,whatever for nothing.
5) No fucking SAVE function!!!
Are they serious ? I can't save my progress whenever and wherever I want ? And I have to rely on check points ? That's BS.
DN3D had saves. Why in Earth remove a precious feature for a bad substitute ? It's such a bad decision.
6) The game spoils puzzles by having things you have to interact with glowing light. Dn3d didn't had that. I don't want the game to babysit me and spoil me the exploration feeling by having things glow like that. It breaks immersion.
7) Where are the secret rooms ?
8) Graphics are messed up.
It is obvious that the game has been through lots of changes.. Some textures are far better than others. While most of the textures in the first level where OK, the desert level was ugly. WORSE than a 2007 game. Zelda the Twilight Princess came out that year,and has better soil and rock textures. And it's a fucking gamecube game. Even the first Halo on the original Xbox had better textures.
Oh and you know what ? The small bushes on the desert area are 2d!!!!! They are sprites that move around as you move lacking the dimension of depth. Like Wolfenstein 3d.
9) Sound is lacking.
They needed more MORE recordings. In DUKE3D Duke had 5 different 'jump' sounds playing randomly when you jump. The demo had only 1.
We went from 5 to 1. Oh,and the npcs say the same lines of dialogue again,and AGAIN... It's like "get out of here stalker" all over again.
10) Where is the extraordinary level of interactivity ?
Crysis 1 and Red Faction beat DNF in that.
It's not oldskool,not even retro. It's a good idea badly executed due to a series of bad decisions.
This post has been edited by Alithinos: 03 June 2011 - 12:20 PM
#30 Posted 03 June 2011 - 12:33 PM
1) It has significantly less ammo. And who knows if the weapon is even that plentiful in the game. Maybe it's rare or restricted to a few levels. You don't know.
2) That's an exaggeration. But if it really bugs you that much then I'll give it to you.
3) Firstly, this isn't Duke3D. It's about time people got this through their heads. Secondly, I thought Duke jumped WAY too high in Duke3D.
4) I think this is a standing/aiming problem. I managed to pick up every weapon I could find/dropped with a little effort. Granted, maybe the detection should be a little more sensitive, but it's not impossible.
5) It's a demo. Demos rarely have save/load functions. Wait until the full game comes out to complain about that.
6) I never saw anything glow. I believe that's a function of in-game hints that you can TURN OFF in the game options.
7) In the full game.
8) I don't know, maybe it's your video card. On my machine the textures looked great. modern, even. In fact the only part of the game I thought looked at all dated would be the models and their polygon count but even that most of the time still looked spectacular. You're nitpicking. Just enjoy the experience and stop trying to find everything wrong with it.
9) Maybe they cut some sounds out for the demo? Again, complain about this when the full game comes out.
10) This is a DEMO. And there's plenty of interaction in the first area. If you use DNCLIP, you can even go down to Duke's Penthouse and play with all the lightswitches and the pool table. Of course, you weren't meant to do that, but if you want more interactivity there it is.
11) This statement is based on nothing. It felt positively retro-with-a-facelift to me. Like Half-Life 2. Exactly what I was expecting and exactly what I got. With Duke.