Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Duke Nukem Forever - Artifact(s) 3(4/5)

Below are 3 adverts for Duke Nukem Forever, They vary in style and each carry the feel of the massive franchise of Duke Nukem. The Franchise of Duke Nukem really took off with the sheer mass popularity with the original games released since 1991. The popularity of the Duke games came from the character of duke and the 'balls to the wall' action. The level design of the maps for the older games was immensely complex and had many hidden secrets to add 'replay-ability' to the game. There are many factors to which made the old games so enjoyable and what gave them a huge fanbase. The character of Duke is modeled around old school action heros and is also stylized around the 'gun ho' way of doing things, to shoot first and don't bother about asking questions. The simple 'shoot at stuff' feel to the Duke games is another thing that made fun to play over and over.

This picture for instance captures the feel of the game with is showing a strong man holding a gun and a enemy from the game, this is a slight throwback to the franchise as that type of enemy the 'pig cop' is monster that's tied in heavily with the game. It is a iconic 'mob' (the word mob, in gaming terms means a simple non specific creature or entity that exists within the game)











These two images convey similar feelings and also use the borrowed interest from the previous games for the latest one. However, with all the hype and expectations that the franchise has built up over the number of years of releasing products it then makes it much harder for each preceding game afterwards to follow up on that hype and expectation. After the release of Duke Nukem 3D a gap appeared within the releasing new Duke games. A few ports and add-ons were released to keep the name and the franchise alive whilst development on the latest proper Duke game was developed. A port is when a game is adapted to run on different consoles or systems, for example ps3 to pc or similar. A Add-on is an expansion to a game or a extra bit of 'story material' that used the same game engine as a previous version. A problem occurred when during a economic fall the company that was developing Duke Nukem: Forever closed down and stopped work. After a span of time a few companies decided to pick up the ball and publish the game after reworking it. Thus creating a record for the worlds longest time spent developing a game for release. The release however of Duke Nukem: Forever didn't live up the the expectations of many fans. It did give a nostalgic feel and did feel slightly like a Duke game but it picked up a few of the mechanics of more modern FPS games, such as being limited to 2 weapons at a time and regenerating health and many other features. Some people argue that this is a good thing and that the game has evolved for modern times but the majority say that is isn't what a Duke game is meant to be, it lacks the feel of a Duke game and the fun of a Duke game. One of the worst points that the fans have made clear is the linearity of the level design and how the game actually punishes you for exploring, for example; if you divert of a few areas certain triggers are set off causing harm to the player. Duke games were praised for their old level design and the many secrets that could be found within them. The borrowed interest that Duke Nukem: Forever acquired from its previous games was seemingly misled as the game has so many critical marks against it for being so unlike a Duke game. It does however still have many of the crude jokes and the attitudes you'd expect from a Duke game.

All of these media texts i've linked on my blog may be about Duke Nukem but they are intertextualy linked via the relation to Duke Nukem. All the artifacts are individual media pieces but are linked via Duke Nukem and they all couldn't exist properly without Duke Nukem. The video by totalhalibut however has its own pull via the fanbase of Totalhalibut (AkA Totalbiscuit). 

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