![]() ![]() Most encounters seem to end up in a straight forward stand-off, with Duke standing still and firing at the mutants before picking up one of the abundance of health packs. In such a case, there’s little scope for manoeuvrability anyway. The camera sometimes feels a little too close to the action making it difficult to plan ahead or see where the next enemy is coming from. Take that away and it’s just a bog-standard platformer with flashy 3D effects and eight three-part levels of depressingly drab scenery that would have looked tired in Manic Miner’s day. The misogynist hulk comes replete with an array of wisecracks and an abandonment of any form of political correctness sex-wise. It’s for the best that the game at least manages to attain a similar atmosphere to Duke Nukem 3D. For starters, the levels are full of cliches: exploding barrels, sewers and keycards. It may not betray the constrictions it sets itself but it doesn’t have to go out of its way to tease the player that this isn’t Duke Nukem Forever.Įven if we’re going to judge it on its platform game merits, it doesn’t fare as well as it should. Which also means it can often feel a little frustrating, having to find an alternative way to get past objects despite there being a huge gap just two feet away, or running past an enemy mutant on a different level and having no chance to shoot him there and then. Think back to games such as Pandemonium or Klonoa on the PlayStation and you’ll get the idea. It’s ostensibly a 2D horizontal platform game working in a 3D engine, Duke Nukem is restricted to either going left or right, with the camera swinging around on rails if he should ever turn a pre-set corner. What does this one do? Always With The Sewers The danger that 3D Realms faces in agreeing to push out this small franchise canape while they work tirelessly on the main course is considerable, as there's a chance of spoiling the player’s appetite altogether with a lacklustre game instead of whipping up a frenzy of excitement. Hence the lawsuit.And there was me thinking it was my birthday or something when I pulled this out of the padded envelope. ![]() Gearbox however took exception to that and saw it as a violation of their exclusive rights to all new Duke Nukem games. The cause of the lawsuit was because Interceptor/3DRealms attempted to make a new game under the the Duke Nukem Trilogy license that Critical Mass was the first part of. ![]() This is why they were able to make/release Duke Nukem 3D 20th Anniversary Edition. It was part of the terms of the settlement. After the lawsuit the series IP and its content are now wholly owned by Gearbox. Prior to the lawsuit they owned the rights to all new Duke Nukem games going forward, while Interceptor/3DRealms owned the rights and content to all the old games. Vice versa, 3D Realms owns the rights on the game resources, but can't publish them as they don't have the rights to use the trade mark. This creates the situation that Gearbox owns the rights for the name, but is not able to publish (and monetarize) the older titles due to the lack of rights on the content. I wonder if gearbox will release this and the other duke games on steam again in the future As far as I understand, Gearbox fully owns the trade marks and publishing rights for the Duke Nukem trade mark/franchise, but doesn't own the rights for the actual content of all older titles made by 3D Realms.
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