Spraying Links About The Place
2011 June 17
by linkpost bot
Another Friday, another quick linkpost.
- Dave Says Things: What’s Wrong With Duke Nukem Forever. Just a few minor quibbles there, then. (Linked within that is Ars Technica’s longer piece: “It’s like watching your uncle tell racist jokes at Thanksgiving and praying someone has the guts to tell him to cut it out, but this time it’s interactive—and you’re the uncle.” So, yes, there’s that! Don’t look now, but it’s our distinct impression here at BR Towers that somewhere along the line, a large, colourful beach-size ball’s been emphatically dropped!
- In the wake of E3 2011, Rock Paper Shotgun sends up the Booth Babe phenomenon.
- Doing the rounds a fair bit, but Caitlin Moran talks to Stylist Magazine, with accompanying commentdebate. Props to Sianushka for a sensible comment at 3.14 BST, if you feel like braving the thread. Some of us might contend the “there aren’t any feminist thinkers anymore” point in the column (Nina Power, anyone?), but what the hey, broad point, context, etc.
- And finally, The Mary Sue takes a look at the argument for romance comics.
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5 Responses leave one →
Every single review of Duke Nukem has been that scathing. My favourite is here. It’s just relentless.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-duke-nukem-forever-203658.phtml
“Duke does not come across as cool, witty or likable in the least. He comes across as a vile, callous, thoroughly detestable psychopath.” “Duke Nukem Forever is a festering irrelevance with nothing to offer the world. It’s a game with an odious personality, one that could only endear itself to the sociopathic and mentally maladjusted.”
They’re not holding back :) I think it’s especially great that major reviewers are calling 2KGames out on the misogynistic aspect of it.
As near as I can tell, Duke Nukem Forever is essentially receiving the attention it has because it’s a disastrous example of how not to make a game. 14 years plus “development” time, outdated gameplay, outdated graphics, humour that was outdated when they started making the damn game, etc. All of which leads me to conclude it’s simply not worth worry about – they dropped the ball years ago.
I think it was always going to get huge attention simply because it was so long in the making, but people used to *like* the series.
It was as un-feminist as having Arnie shoot things while making wisecracks, or quoting “They Live” endlessly, but it wasn’t grossly offensive. This one really is – not humourously crude, not ironic, not a pastiche of outdated macho-ness, just really disturbing and horrible. And it’s nice to see that’s not being tolerated (alongside the fact that the gameplay is also rubbish).
The lesson here is that when you spend a million years making an FPS, it only ends badly. See also: Daikatana.
StephenB: Yeah, when Jim Sterling calls out your game for being unfunny and offensive, you have made some bad, BAD choices.