Forever is too long

Apparently, it's true: A release date has finally been set for Duke Nukem Forever. Suddenly, the game that has been a laughing stock will finally see the light of day, after so many years in development.
So some thoughts on this revelation:

- Does anyone really care? The development has gone on for so long and, as such, Duke 3D has been forgotten or dismissed as tainted. I enjoyed Duke 3D when I was in high school and I liked it for it's sense of humor and character: Something that Quake and Doom seemed to lack. Indeed, seeing as FPS these days seem bound rigid to the notion of realism, an FPS with kooky weaponry and jokes would be more than welcome. So it may be far to say that DNF's time has come but are we ready to hand over the money for it?

- The reason 3D Realms used to explain the delays with DNF was: "When it's Done" Funny thing is, Valve and Blizzard use the same principal with their own games - only thing is, when a game from those camps is finally released, everyone falls head over heels in love with it and eagerly goes along with the developer's ambitions (I'm looking at you Starcraft 2!)

- Why did Gearbox take over? It's easy to imagine a huge sigh of relief upon the project's termination after years of delays and frustration. That being said, are Gearbox acting on the frustration that enough is enough? Or do they sincerely believe there is a good game just waiting to get out?



- Does anyone know what they're doing? Following the history of the development hell that has been DNF, it seems it's been a clutter of ambition, ideas looted from other games and a continual race to keep up with graphical advancements. Do the few remaining on DNF's team know what they're doing? Does anyone at Gearbox know what they're doing? I can easily imagine someone from Gearbox coming down and establishing order with loud shouting, proper guidance and a decent sense of direction. Is that what's happening? After all, it would be a shame to deliver a lousy product after a long wait (Too Human anyone?)

- Comparisons to the Guns N Roses album Chinese Democracy seem rather inescapable: Two projects that spent an incalculable time in development to the point where only the devoted few were the only one's keeping record. Thus, when Chinese Democracy finally got released opinions were divided. Sure some may dismiss and defend Chinese Democracy in equal measures but in the end, the Chinese Democracy Guns N Roses is indeed a completely different beast to the Appetite For Destruction Guns N Roses who had won millions over twenty years earlier.

- Does this mean Yahtzee's joke assessment of DNF would now rendered irrelevant? Would this also mean that the Zero Punctuation fans who voted in DNF as the best ZP would end up looking kinda silly? And, now that I think of it, did Gearbox take over DNF development purely for the sake of showing up Yahtzee?

- Would the wait be worth it? I suppose it would be easy to dismiss the game after the long wait but somehow, the idea that the game would be a triumph to end all triumphs is hard to imagine.

Sad but true.