5. Pretend Duke Nukem Forever Doesn't Exist
I apologize for being melodramatic, but Duke Nukem Forever is the biggest tragedy in gaming history. Not the worst game - no, not by far- but definitely the most disappointing. The problems with DNF are endless beginning with its 12-year production, which came from 3D Realm's obsession with its star creation and was fueled by the character of Duke's own ego. After starting completely fresh twice with brand new engines brought on by Quake II and Unreal, 3D Realms ran out of resources, let everyone go, and geared up to fight a law suit laid against them by Take Two Interactive. The Duke Nukem Forever that did eventually get released by 2K Games was nothing like the original vision the creators intentionally had had in development. Duke never even gets the jet pack for crying out loud apparently because it would have meant serious changes to the game's level design (meaning the ultra lazy, linear layouts would have to be better). While the game does promote some much-needed nostalgia to make up for Duke being away so long as pointed out by video game reviewer,
TotalBiscuit, most of it is annoyingly force fed upon the player. Not to mention the somewhat lengthy parts of the game where the player is not shooting anything at all... Yeah, it sucks. So long and so drawn out was the release of DNF (the game was originally announced in April, 1997) a few gamers have gone on to say it is the biggest disappointment of their childhoods. One man even walked into a Walmart a decade after pre-ordering the game to ask for his money back. Let's just say that besides a few fun parts in the new game the entire debacle is better left forgotten.