'Despite the legendary length of time it has spent in production, Duke Nukem Forever feels terminally unpolished and often unfinished in too many key disciplines to be given a passing grade.' The toughest part is deciding where to begin.' Everything else becomes a sideshow when the main event is so obviously, heart-breakingly disappointing on almost every level. Indeed, Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead started his review by quoting Pitchford directly, but while he initially agrees with the sentiment, 'with joypad in hand, reviewing Duke Nukem Forever actually proves incredibly simple.

When Pitchford said that he, 'would not want to be a games journalist on this one,' he hit upon a concern that is discussed in virtually every appraisal of the game so far.

Which is just as well, because the reviews so far paint a distinctly unappealing picture. This game's gonna ship and we're all going to be there, so it doesn't matter what the score is.' 'You're just missing out on a ginormous aspect of videogames history if youįail to participate. 'One could not be a gamer in this world without consuming that and having that experience,' he told Eurogamer's Johnny Minkley. After all, it was Pitchford's apparently sincere respect for 3D Realms' vision that allowed Gearbox to take over development of the game last year, and since then he has beat the Duke Nukem drum with unwavering zeal, seizing every opportunity to impress the idea that Duke Nukem Forever is more than just a game it is a shrink-wrapped piece of gaming history, with an appeal that falls outside the ebb and flow of critical opinion. Randy Pitchford, Gearbox Software's ebullient president, obviously stands with the former.

To others, it will be the disappointing punchline to a puerile and aggressively overlong joke. For some, the game's success is a near miraculous conclusion to a saga that seemed destined to end in tragedy, the king restored to his throne. As this sentence spills onto the page, Duke Nukem Forever sits at the top of the UK sales charts.

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