Duke Nukem Forever, the game that entered pop culture folklore for its mammoth 14 years of stop-start development, has finally gone on sale. But early reviews suggest Duke's long-awaited, gleefully peurile outing may not actually be very good.
Duke Nukem Forever is the sequel to 1996's Duke Nukem 3D, and sees gamers assuming the role of the titular Duke, battling through waves of aliens who have committed the cardinal sin of stealing Earth's hottest women, and drinking Duke's beer.
The Guardian awarded the game just two stars, criticising technical flaws, "Visuals are grainy (perhaps a deliberate throwback to older Nukem titles?), aiming is clunky and there are occasional frame rate issues and buggy moments."
Ironically, the review also suggested that one of the game's biggest problems is extremely long loading times.
While not a final review, gaming site IGN published a preliminary review of the game, and were similarly unimpressed. "The poor level design often makes stages unnecessarily confusing to navigate, and the inclusion of clumsy platforming sections is all the more off-putting."
German games site videogameszone was more positive however, awarding the game a reasonable 77 percent, saying it's "cool, but technically weak."
Crave has been privvy to several brief hands-on sessions with the game, which starts with Duke at a urinal, and the instruction to press RT (right trigger) to urinate.
We'd be surprised if early negative reviews hurt sales that much. Gamers have spent years anticipating Duke's newest adventure, which will appeal to fans of swearing, explosions and testosterone-soaked innuendo.
It will also appeal to fans who can additionally convince themselves that the game is an ironic, satirical masterpiece that holds a mirror up to videogame violence and misogyny, and that the big silly grin on their faces is proof that they 'get it' and are very, very clever.
