The Duke Nukem franchise has deep roots in PC gaming history. The trash-talking action hero made his debut some two decades ago in 1991 on MS-DOS followed by a sequel (Duke Nukem 2) in 1993. Three years subsequently, Duke Nukem 3D took the industry by storm. Armed with cigars, a mean flattop and a badass quip for every situation, Duke captivated gamers. I was just 13 years former at the time and I recall loving every infinitesimal of Duke Nukem 3D.

Naturally, fans of the serial couldn't wait to get their easily on the next installment and in 1997, 3D Realms promised to deliver a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D. Unfortunately, the development process faced various hurdles. In 2009, more than a decade afterward announcing Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms closed its doors. For most gamers, that news was the final blast in Duke's coffin and frankly, nosotros didn't expect Knuckles Nukem Forever to launch either.

As it turns out, nosotros were wrong. Around the same time 3D Realms went nether, the company passed Knuckles Nukem Forever off to Triptych Games and Gearbox Software (Piranha Games handled the multiplayer). Some 14 years subsequently 3D Realms' initial announcement, Gearbox confirmed that Duke Nukem Forever was finished. The long-awaited title launched in nearly markets on June 10, while folks in N America had to wait until June 14.

Because it spent 14 years in creation, many gamers had extremely loftier expectations for Duke Nukem Forever's gameplay. Others remained skeptical that it would even ship, let lone evangelize an earth-shattering experience. Y'all could say nosotros were somewhere between the two. We remained hopeful that the Knuckles would make a successful comeback, only had strong reservations about DNF's quality -- especially later on playing the mediocre demo final week.

Personally I agree with most of DNF'south bad rap in the gaming press: the graphics are sub-par, the gameplay is repetitive and the old Duke's witty charm is… well, non witty or charming. The game might spark a little more involvement in me if I was however xiii, simply I'm struggling to become through this one. Other TechSpot editors take checked information technology out and have a more than positive outlook than mine though.

As noted in our news coverage before this week "Duke Nukem Forever reviews are in: the game sucks," console reviews have been harsh, with the PC version doing a bit improve. However in the last two days its metascore has gone from 76 to 57, with latter reviews giving the game a beating. User reviews seem to exist a mix of lovers and haters. If anything Duke Nukem Forever's long history of controversy will not rest for now.

With that off our chest, this review is less about DNF's gameplay and more than near showing yous how the game runs on a broad spectrum of today's (and yesterday's) PC hardware. Considering information technology was built with a modified version of the very much dated Unreal Engine 2.5, it'due south fair to assume that DNF won't exist crippling Nvidia's GTX 590 -- in fact, nosotros didn't even bother to include it this time. Instead, nosotros've focused on budget to mid-range graphics products and a few integrated solutions.