3D Realms Bids Adieu

I'm rather torn upon hearing that 3D Realms will be closing down. See, 3D realms almost single handedly redefined what games could do back in the '90s. Starting off as Apogee Software, they introduced Duke Nukem (one of my gateway games - see my intro post) and Rise Of The Triad (which you can get now on Good Old Games). They helped produce or publish a number of other games, including Wolfenstein 3D. When they moved into the 3D playing field, they made one of the first FPS' with drivable vehicles (Shadow Warrior) and, of course, Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem 3D is the distilled essence of an FPS. It has a loud, vibrant main character who is a pastiche of genre clichés and a product of his times. It has satisfying weaponry, huge environments that react to your presence, a nice dose of mysogyny, and of course, lots of explosions, gore, and flying limbs. Duke 3D is juvenile, that's for sure, but it knows it and revels in it. Whether it's the Duke rattling off his crude one-liners (the best are outright stolen from Sam Raime's The Evil Dead movies) or the strippers that you can tip for a dance, Duke 3D reeks of adolescent fantasy. Duke is the ultimate badass, hell, take a look at him: Look at that haircut, those bulging muscles, that look of nonchalance as he wades through his enemies (alien invaders out to conquer the Earth and kidnap our "babes" for nefarious purposes) with a cigar clamped between his teeth, clad in a red muscle shirt and sporting a flattop haircut. Duke didn't just parody the '90s tough guy, he was the '90s tough guy. Duke stomps his way through cities, military installations, and alien spaceships, laying waste to alien and environment alike. Duke 3D was the first game to really feature interactive environments. Sure, you could push a button in Quake, but Duke let you so such things as smash apart fire hydrants - and then drink from the resulting spray to heal yourself. Duke could even actually heed nature's call in a restroom, something which still really hasn't caught on, for some reason. Of course, being able to break stuff isn't going to be any fun if the environments aren't interesting. Fortunately, Duke 3D delivers. The environments were varied, ranging from Death Row to a space station to a burnt out hotel. All were populated with destructible objects, beautiful backgrounds, and tons of little details that breathed life into the game and really made the locations feel like a world, and not just a level. There's lots more great things to be said about Duke 3d (most already said better by others,) but really the best thing to do would be to head over to Good Old Games and experience it yourself. So after Duke 3D became a huge hit, 3D Realms naturally followed up with a sequel, titled Duke Nukem Forever. This, unfortunately, would ultimately become 3D Realm's legacy. You see, Duke Nukem Forever started production in 1997 - and still hasn't been released. 12 years later. It's been a running joke for the past decade, with 3D Realms popping in every once in awhile to show off a screenshot or a trailer and insist that work is going great and the game will be released "when it's done" I actually think that the 2001 version would have been perfect: Massive environments, Big-Ass aliens, exotic weaponry (an antique cannon comes into play at one point), crazy vehicles, interactivity, babes, and enough testosterone to drown Cthulhu. It's so ridiculously over the top and epic. Las Vegas is the perfect setting for a Duke game, and it has such a Hollywood Blockbuster feel to it that's very Duke. More importantly, the technology presented would actually justify the game coming out 10 years after its progenator - such scale would never have been possible in 1998. Unfortunately, 3DR got bit by the "OMG GR4PHX!!!11!" bug and switched engines about 8 times, causing the game to never be released. It's sad that this has pretty much been all 3DR is known for, because in that time period they have been involved with some pretty important stuff. Max Payne, which they produced, introduced Bullet Time (which went from innovative feature to overdone cliché in about 6 weeks) and Prey, which they originally started developing but then outsourced when they found that they just couldn't finish the damn thing. 11 years later they actually published it, and to everyone's surprise it was actually good, thus proving that vaporware did, in fact, have a chance of coming out ok. But all in all, I'm glad that 3dR is shut down. First, they can go out with what little dignity they have left, and second, Duke should stay in his 1996 incarnation. PC gaming has grown up since then. A Duke game coming out today would be kind of like The Music Man being introduced to Broadway - that sort of wholesomeness, without a shred of irony, just wouldn't fit compared to Rent and Hair and Avenue Q and all the other "edgy" stuff that's all the rage now. Same with DNF - it simply wouldn't fit in with the likes of Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R. and Call of Duty. For example, look at the 2008 "No really, we are making progress, we Swear!" trailer put out by 3DR in 2008: Duke comes off less as a total badass and more as a egotistic prick. Which he is. But it's not cool anymore. And his one liner - insinuating that he wants to chase down aliens so he can shit in them- is just creepy. He's less someone you want to save the world and more someone you want to put on a sex offender list. Another interesting point: unlike the last trailer, this doesn't even have any in-game footage. Progress, indeed. Also, the difference in technology between now and 2001 has basically been negligable in terms of what can be accomplished - it just looks prettier. So Duke gains no benefit from coming out in this era then in 2001. In fact, it would have probably suffered for it, seeing how Duke is essentially a cartoon, a caricature. Also, note the tonal shift. The bright colors and over the top action of the first are replaced by Doom 3-esque shadows and grittyness - not exactly Duke's forte. Duke was a product of his time, and his time is gone. Let's just remember him in his prime. 3DR couldn't get their act together and so they went under. They are gone but not forgotten. But seriously, isn't that first trailer epic? I still want to play that game!