One Gamer's Opinion: Thank You for Duke Nukem Forever

I want to say thank you to 2k Games & Gearbox Software for releasing Duke Nukem Forever. Does Duke Nukem Forever have it's share of gameplay and design problems? Yes. Does it look outdated graphically? Yes. Is any of this 2k Games & Gearbox Software's fault? No.

What everyone out there seems to be forgetting is that 2k Games & Gearbox Software didn't "make" this game. Once 3d Realms went belly up and all the dust settled from the various lawsuits, 2k Games was left with rights to the franchise and the code to the game that 3d Realms had been working on for over a decade. Rather than see all these years of work go down the drain and start completely from scratch Gearbox Software fixed up the code as best as they could and released Duke Nukem Forever as is, in the form it was made by the people at 3d Realms. Why did they do this? Because the President of Gearbox Software, Randy Pitchford, once worked for 3d Realms, many years ago, on Duke Nukem 3d. Pitchford left the company before production on Duke Nukem Forever began.

In an interview by Pitchford, done during the games PAX announcement, he said that this is not their game, it is 3d Realm's game. He wanted to see "this" game released, that way fans of the series could finally play the illusive game they had been waiting for, for soo long, as it was intended to be. In addition, he also wanted all of the untold number of people that worked on this game for the past 14 years to finally see their hard work and dedication pay off. In the same interview, he also said that once this Duke game was released Gearbox would eventually begin working on their Duke game.

2K Games & Gearbox Software should be commended for saving this game from the dead and releasing the title as it was intended to be, knowing full well it wasn't going to be up to par. The game has been in development hell for 14 years, there was no way it would live up to anyone's expectations. Once Gearbox releases their version of Duke Nukem then I will judge, until then I'm just glad that I FINALLY got to play Duke Nukem Forever.