{"id":26146,"date":"2011-06-24T18:34:06","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T17:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=26146"},"modified":"2011-06-25T05:09:33","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T04:09:33","slug":"duke-nukem-forever-in-3d-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/duke-nukem-forever-in-3d-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke Nukem Forever – in 3D!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What about the game, Duke<\/em>? Was it any good?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yeah, but after twelve f***ing years, it should be!”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> is the ridiculously long-delayed sequel to Duke Nukem 3D<\/em>, released in 1996. It was finally released last week by Gearbox Software and 2K Games for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and Play Station 3 on June 14, 2011 in North America and a few days earlier world-wide. Duke Nukem is a fictional character and action hero who has been the protagonist in over a dozen video games, comic books, and an upcoming live-action feature film. The premise of Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> is a continuation of the adventures of Duke Nukem who single-handed stopped a mid-1990s alien invasion of Earth.<\/p>\n

Duke Nukem first appeared in the 1991 (PC-DOS) video game Duke Nukem<\/em> developed by Apogee Software. The Duke has since starred in multiple sequels developed by 3D Realms, and currently by Gearbox Software who now have the rights to Duke Nukem and who own its intellectual property. Duke Nukem Forever <\/em>has big shoes to fill as a cult following has grown up around Duke Nukem 3D<\/em>. Fourteen years ago, reviewers mostly praised the game. It was also a commercial success selling about three and a half million copies and it is not without controversy due to the game’s erotic elements and its portrayal of women.<\/p>\n

After fourteen years in development limbo with many announcements of its imminent release followed by delay after delay, the sequel was finally released <\/em> and we are going to give you our impressions of Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> as well as a performance evaluation featuring 3D Vision\/Surround (1920-5760×1080 resolution) featuring the GTX 580 and the 560 TI as well as GTX 560 Ti SLI to run 3D Vision Surround.<\/p>\n

Ever since Duke Nukem 3D<\/em>, the tough guy character has been constantly and expertly voiced by voice actor Jon St. John. It is fortunate that the Duke remains pretty much the same egocentric macho over-the-top action character throughout the entire video game series, as the Duke does much the same violent things, retains the same attitude toward women and he delivers similar corny and heavy one-liners all throughout.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> has updated the visuals from the 1996 game to DX9c (not DX10 nor DX11 as it runs on the Unreal 3 engine) but it is still not quite on a par with the most graphically intensive DX9 PC games of 2011. Therefore it runs very well on a GTX 560 Ti and will also give excellent performance results for 1080p resolution 3D Vision. Besides updating the visuals, Gearbox created a single player sequel, <\/em>as well as adding online multiplayer.<\/p>\n

This review is only going to focus on the single player content and especially on playing with Nvidia’s 3D Vision (1920×1080) and in 3D Vision Surround (5760×1080). Playing a game in Stereo 3D (S3D) will definitely increase immersion of a good game but nothing can save a real pig of a game if it is a disaster in 2D. Before we look at the merits and flaws of Duke Nukem Forever<\/em>, we need to look at Nvidia’s 3D Vision and the hardware we used to play it on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround<\/strong><\/p>\n

We received a 3D Vision kit from Nvidia about 3 months ago that we have been continuously evaluating with well over seventy (70!) PC games for a forthcoming mega-review here at ABT. We have also played Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> from start to finish and replayed much of it in both 1920×1080 in 2D and in 3D, plus in 3-panel Surround (5760×1080) and in 3D Vision Surround.<\/p>\n

Consider this Duke Nukem Forever<\/em> review as our introduction to stereo 3D reviews at AlienBabelTech and to our 70-plus game mega-review of 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround evaluation which will be published within the next week or so.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3D Vision requires a Nvidia GeForce graphics card, the 3D Vision bundle consisting of the LCD shutter glasses and IR emitter that drives them, and one or more 3D Vision-ready true 120Hz 3D-capable monitors. We are using three ASUS VG236H 23″ 120Hz displays.<\/p>\n

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For Nvidia’s Surround or 3D Vision Surround, you must use SLI and should use 3 identical displays to match color and characteristics across all of the screens. It will work however, as long as all of the displays are the same native resolution, size and orientation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3D Vision works by sequentially displaying offset “left” and “right” versions of each frame in a game, and blocking the vision from one eye or the other by darkening the shutter glasses in synchronization with the display. Putting on the glasses and switching on 3D Vision immediately darkens the scene compared to in 2D, and you will definitely need a bright display to compensate. The ASUS displays are excellent in this regard.<\/p>\n

The 3D effect appears real as images seem to extened back into the space behind your 2D display, as if it were a window instead of a flat plane. You can even have objects appear to extend out from the monitor’s screen surface as most of the 3D ads show. Unfortunately, this is the best way to “show” someone stereo 3D (S3D) on a 2D plane although if it actually happens often in a game or a movie, it becomes quite disorienting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The best S3D appears to take place inside a 3-dimensional space “inside” of your display – like inside of a clear-glass aquarium instead of on a flat screen and the illusion of depth is very convincing. Nvidia’s software works by examing the “Z” co-ordinates already programmed into every PC game which means it works with virtually any video game. Some games work much better than others with 3D Vision and some (all OpenGL) games are not supported by Nvidia’s drivers at all.<\/p>\n

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Please note that there are also performance penalties with Nvidia’s active shutter method of rendering 3D images. Two frames (left and right) must be generated for each frame in 2D, so your game’s framerate will drop by approximately half when 3D Vision is enabled.<\/p>\n

There are also limitations to some PC games that will affect the 3D appearance of some objects in the game in relation to others. For example, some effects may be rendered without full 3D information; common are heads-up displays (HUDs) or crosshair sights for targeting. If this happens, items like these will appear at the wrong depth relative to other items in the game and it can be quite disconcerting and\/or distracting.<\/p>\n

In some of these cases, the game’s graphics effects can be disabled or minimized to work around these issues, and Nvidia’s 3D Vision GeForce driver usually supplies its own crosshair sight in these cases. To help 3D Vision users, Nvidia pre-defines six levels of game compatibility with 3D Vision and it pops up as an green overlay in every game that may be disabled by ctrl+alt+ins.<\/p>\n