There's a difference between expecting a golden disc that sings like a choir of angels when you open the case, and expecting something passable. As you wait, the anticipation blurs the lines, but expecting something passable rather then concentrated fail is not unreasonable.
I laughed when I read people were buying the balls of steel edition. I snickered when the first reviews came in, and were as bad as I assumed. I started to pity the game when the reviews started to get nasty. I remained hopeful that anticipation was distorting perspective. Then I played the game...
Duke Nukem isn't being unfairly criticized. Considering the manpower, money, and time that went into this it should have been like two Crysis ninjas taped together to form one giant Crysis ninja (it is a bit far to go for a Venture Bros. reference). What we got was slightly more vile than dish water, and infinitely less polished than Duke 3d.
Fallout 3 has better graphics, a larger world, just as much gunplay, and never made the news question if gamers were all adolescent morons. That from a series that was resurrected, developed, launched, and had a sequel on the market in the time that it took Duke to cross the finish line once. I call shenanigans, and no amount of denial will make this game less of a disappointment.
DNF is passable, you can laugh at BSE owners, but being one myself, I'm glad I bought it. I personally felt I had to have my hands on a sexy BSE, after all it is the longest a game has ever been in production and successfully hit the market, it's a part of videogame history.
As far as it being unfairly critsized, I wouldn't say it has been. 3DRealms fucked it up, they put their scope far too large, to say "this game was in developement so long it should be the best game ever x50" doesn't make much sense. the longer a game sits in dev the better chance it has to be utter crap, it will just be out dated by the time it releases. Which is what it is, it's a shooter of 5 - 6 years ago. But if you are sitting there buying a DN, you better damn well be buying it to play Duke, thats what I bought it for. There isn't another main character like him, and I enjoy playing him.
As far as looking worse than FO3, I would have to say that is completely wrong. FO3 has horrible player models, horrible animations (hold forward and strafe then zoom out) that animation isn't even in the game, hasn't been since Oblivion. To compare Duke to the Gamebryo games is fitting though, as those games release buggy as hell, with missing animations, and the community polishes them and makes them look great. Hopefully DNF mods are possible, if not thats fine. I will enjoy my DNF, I will laugh, and I will most likely buy the next one.
Waited too long, not interested and I'd rather buy other games.
Were you stuck in a feverishly anticipated state for 10 years then got exhausted?
