Duke Nukem Forever

What was once the biggest joke in the game industry has now finally been released after roughly 15 years. An old superstar of platforming and first person shooting genres has at last returned. His personality is the same old. He has noticed some of the competition in the industry and makes funny quotes about them. His motivation is once again to get "his" chicks back and to save the world from the aliens bend on doing the same thing all over again: abduct the hot women, and mutate and/or kill all of the rest.

Duke Nukem Forever is released and personally I couldn't believe it. It's finally done? No more switching between developers, acquiring licenses not only on the copyrighted material itself, but also on the various game engines the game has been developed on? No more game trailers, no more teasers? NO more Forever jokes? Indeed, the game has now escaped from development hell, and I have beaten it.

What I have noticed is that DNF is one part the same old Duke Nukem gameplay, one part borrows popular concepts that currently dominate first person shooters, and one part completely forgets about some features that made Duke Nukem 3D back in 1996 a classic. Let's talk about those different parts.

The arsenal is the same, except that a few new alien weapons are introduced, nothing out of the ordinary though. You've got one guy against a horde of aliens, you've got various kinds of level design, with a few basic puzzles and driving sessions thrown in. Occassionally Duke Nukem also shrinks into a tiny size, resulting into some interesting scenarios, and there is even a whole "relaxing" chapter in the game, where the hero takes a break from all of the ass-kicking and blowing everyone's brains out.

Best of all, Duke Nukem's personality is still intact. First introduced in Duke Nukem II(1993), the man has some new hilarious one-liners up his sleeve, such as "My balls, your face" but some of the oldies are also still there, such as "Hail to the king, baby", as taken by the movie Army of Darkness(1992). If you didn't know by now, Duke Nukem likes to quote several movie and game titles.

Now let's look at what all of the developers on this had decided to really change. In Forever, Duke can only carry 2 guns at a time, reminiscent of many other shooters today. Next, the game got linear, where most of the time it would be obvious to know where to go next. And, last of all, auto regeneration of health is also present, making it truly similar to the competition. These are changes that really weren't needed.

Why did this have to happen, if Duke Nukem himself could carry all of his guns in one go back in 1996, had to find medkits or just splashes of water to keep healthy and at the same time be able to use several paths to maneuver through each level, primarily by the use of air ducts? Were the developers really concerned that change towards the actual status quo was needed, or otherwise it would not bring out newcomers towards the franchise?

I think this was a huge opportunity to bring out some old ideas back into the current generation and be proud of it. Some of the old ideas were even entirely missing(the jetpack!). Honestly, it's dissapointing to see that Duke Nukem Forever changed its gameplay more to the likes of titles such as Call of Duty and Halo. So when we are speaking of originality, Forever missed out big time.

There is lack of exciting new content, including weapons, enemies and since Duke can only carry 2 guns, it feels less exciting to uncover any of the game's secret areas(which are more easily spotted when compared to Duke Nukem 3D), and find a gun there that you can only take if you leave another one. Except for Duke Nukem's personality and it's infamous status of development hell, the whole game is an average first person shooter for today's standards.

Which is really sad, considering it's very long development time. I'm not saying that Forever should had surpassed 3D in every way, but unfortunately the game is just way more average and squeezed between the millions of other generic first person shooters available now, and the only way the game is still selling is because of the 2 reasons I listed.

Stick with the three old Duke Nukem titles instead(I have yet to play the first two thoroughly though) and try Forever out. It's nice that the game is finally released, but I hope that whoever is gonna develop an eventual sequal will especially look back at what made 3D really outstanding for it's time.

Or, if 3D Realms allows it, someone should develop a sequel towards a certain game that in my opinion, was even better than Duke Nukem 3D in the 90's, featuring a ninja bodyguard with his own kind of Eastern humor to battle demons.

Rating: 6.5

Samsung Galaxy S II

At first, I was hesitating on blogging about this. But when I remembered the infinity amount of applications being available for this device, including small games, I decided on reviewing this in my blog anyway. Not that I am about to talk about every application, but perhaps in the future, another blog about this could suffice. And keep in mind that I am by no means an expert on mobile phones, plus I have yet to explore everything it has to offer.

Supposedly the Samsung Galaxy S II is the thinnest smartphone at the moment, safe for one obscure Japanese mobile phone called the NEC Medias. And even better, it feels quite light too. The interface is very good for being able to swipe through the options by the use of the touch screen. I happened to own an LG Renoir before this, which featured a touch screen too, but not this feature, so this is a big improvement for me.

It has so many applications that it would take several full days to go in depth with each of them. The Social Hub for example, connects your phone to the various social media being available online, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, while keeping you updated with feeds and personal messages.

There is a dual-core processor inside, allowing for quick calculations of speed to be made. It allows Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which is always handy these days. And it also has some kind of Swipe feature for whenever typing out SMS messages, which I have yet to try.

Another application is the Android Market, which offers users free apps and charge apps for you to mess around with, play around with and be enthralled by it. Free apps like IMDb and Ebay instantly felt good to use, and I can't wait to see what is more available.

The camera application is gorgeous, not only is it 8.0 megapixel as before (the Renoir), it can also record High Definion videos, making it even more high-tech for such a small device. I have yet to start on the navigation application, but it looks great judging from first looks at it. And it's not just for driving, but also for when you're walking, which is a great feature for me.

And of course I had to check out on Angry Birds as well, the very famous app and a huge hype currently. As a veteran gamer, the game concept was nothing new, but I could see the charm the game brought to us, with it's cute sounds playing.

The S II's screen also apparently is well designed, plus it has multi-touch, making it great for games that utilize more than just one type of control. It even has SNES and PSX emulators already available somewhere, which is pretty surprising to see. At first I wasn't sure how these games could be controlled on a phone, but now I know.  

As you could see, I left out many, many features this phone has available. That's because I have yet to try them all out. But when speaking of first impressions, this is definitely a great smartphone to consider at the moment.

Top Ten SNES Songs

Purely out of fun, I decided on a new and simple Top Ten list. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System has so many memorable songs that it would be impossible to put them all up for only ten spots, but as I am typing this, and remembering certain SNES songs, I will share with you my current ten favorites. I decided to limit each song to only one game, and bear in mind, in this particular list, it doesn't mean that the number 1 spot is better than the other 9:

10-Mountains/Terranigma

It certainly made me feel like I could conquer mountains of conflict. Sadly the song eventually gets re-used a lot at the second part of Terranigma, but fortunately it gave me a strong impression the first time and whenever I listen to it again while trying to forget that awful second part.

9-Simon's Theme/Super Castlevania IV

What a great entrance theme to Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania in general. One of the best invitation themes towards the gothic atmosphere and Dracula´s castle the huge franchise brings to us. Many songs in the series have been remixed plenty of times, but Simon´s Theme has only been featured thrice. I was hooked the first time I heard this song as a kid and when I was whipping up the forces of darkness at the same time. 
 
8-Black Dream/Chrono Trigger

A thrilling and dangerous sounding theme. Upon first arriving at this monstrosity of a flying building, no one knew exactly what they would face. Turns out that it would be the hardest dungeon in the game, and Queen Zeal would wait at the top to show you who has a pact with Lavos. The Black Omen is a mysterious UFO from this legendary RPG, and certainly, no one who has played through it has forgotten about it.

7-Boomer Kuwanger/Mega Man X

This was a very hard decision, as Sting Chameleon has been my favorite for a long time, and for many fans, that would have to be Storm Eagle. But upon listening to this once again, the buildup is very rewarding, sounding full of action and even dramatic at the final part. Capcom really went all out with the first entry of the Mega Man X series, and still listening to this is proof of that claim.

6-Dark World/The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I will never forget the moment I beat Aghanim and teleported into the Dark World, where upon looking at the world map, I was stumbled by the 7 crystal icons appearing now, indicating 7 dungeons were waiting, not to mention Ganon's Tower. This game marked for me the first time I was introduced to the game concept of there being a good and evil world. The song sounds like evil creatures marching proudly on their world that was once known as the Golden Land.

5-The Oracle/Secret of Mana

One of the most unusual songs heard on the SNES, this song would had never worked for me, unless I knew that Thanatos was the main antagonist of Secret of Mana and was bent on a gruesome vengeance after his suitable "host" suicides and he unleashes his wrath on the party members, hence the terrifying connection with this creepy song.

4-Sinistral Battle/Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Definitely a serious contender for the best boss battle theme in the history of videogames. Of course, opinions always change, but the power that this song makes during the game is strong and everlasting. The Sinistrals were huge in size in comparison towards the party members, and their intentions were crystal clear.

3-Ankor Wat/Illusion of Gaia

Yet another song that is only more valuable once you have played through this difficult dungeon from Illusion of Gaia. And I won't lie to you; this song is the reason I am planning on traveling to Cambodia someday and witness the magnificent temples with their rich history there including Ankor Wat, Angor Thom and others. Isn't that just beautiful, how a song can inspire a person to achieve something?

2-Mute City/F-Zero

Such a badass song, it has pretty much been featured in every F-Zero game to date, and continues to be added in the Super Smash Bros. titles. Sometimes, I wish that Formula Zero races were already possible, if only we could start racing on the Moon for example, far away from the chaos on Earth, with high measures of speed, crazy courses and futuristic cars. A man can dream.

1-Booster's Tower/Super Mario RPG

And to finish it off, here is some nice elevator music from another great SNES RPG. I actually was searching for Booster's actual theme...until I heard the song playing right after the elevator music! So this link I provided is actually two songs in one! It doesn't matter really, as both songs come right after each other during the game anyway.

E3 2011 Thoughts

The main conferences are over, but the Electronic Entertainment Expo continues this week. Most of the announcements have already been made, as usual, so let's talk about that. Nintendo in particular, but first a brief summary about Microsoft and Sony:

Kinect games were rich on the show, as Microsoft attempts to achieve success with that. Regarding exclusivity, I still wasn't impressed with that, as the Xbox has always been loosely connected with PC games when speaking of availability. Of course, the Halo 4 surprise at the end was a great way to end it, but perhaps a bit too much simple games were shown on the Kinect, lowering the enthousiasm for any hardcore games still getting released on it.

Playstation Vita is a good looking handheld, with a fair price and promising upcoming games. The PSN issue was addressed and that was a good idea. The PS3 games were represented well, with Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Battlefield 3 and a new Sly Cooper. That Playstation 3DTV was actually interesting, what with it's way to improve upon split screen gameplay. Sony had a nice conference as well.

Nintendo is a master company at keeping surprises and secrets. And this year was no exception regarding the Wii U. I'm a little dissapointed that Nintendo didn't go for a complete new name, but we will no doubt get used to it. The conference itself was fantastic, starting with the Zelda 25th anniversary and ending with tons of third party support and great looking games. From Nintendo itself, there weren't much surprises when speaking of software, except for Luigi's Mansion 2, but perhaps later this week, they might have one more announcement to make.

                                 

So, the only thing that was missing so far is a true software surprise, something out of the blue. But look at what we've gotten. Upcoming Nintendo 3DS games, a new console and strong third party support. Hardcore games have always been playable on Nintendo systems by the way, but now, the haters and the graphic whores cannot use their excuses much longer anymore, talking about the potential graphics and games being developed. The popular mainstream games will finally get developed for all three companies. No longer only on PS3 and XBOX 360, when speaking of all those shooters for example.

That controller for the Wii U adds a whole new level of possible gameplay elements, while it enhances existing Wii peripherals and cleverly incorporates a supporting screen. It's a mix of plenty of Nintendo's past innovations, and more. And if this is the real console pictured above, then it looks just as good as the Wii.

But it all comes down to the games. Never forget, WHY the NES and the SNES were so popular. Those were generations when graphics really didn't matter yet. But I don't have to explain anyone this, as the message has been drilled to death; gameplay first, all else second. It's great to see that the industry is so alive, innovative and growing so huge.

P.S. I was hoping for a new F-Zero announced, but I'm sure that Nintendo will deliver somehow anyway. 

P.P.S. Oh and SUPER SMASH BROS. is considered for both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U!