Following the worldwide critical reaction of utter disappointment to Duke Nukem Forever, the gentleman who provided that signature exaggerated action man voice that is the Duke’s has snapped back at reviewers who spoke ill of the decade in development Duke Nukem: Forever.
Voice actor Jon St. John said how he had “no comments regarding bad reviews by clueless critics,” and went on to angrily say:
“They seem to want to compare Duke Nukem Forever to Call Of Duty and other FPS’s and they are missing the point. My thoughts about Duke Nukem Forever: It freakin ROCKS! Lots of action, lots of fun, sexy, funny, irreverent… It’s everything I hoped it would be.”
It seems that the macho voice box behind the outdated cringe worthy slab of what-gaming-has-happily-left-behind is himself utterly out of touch with our evolving industry. The fact remains that nearly all the major game critics in the online and magazine gaming community gave Duke the thumbs down. The average review score is currently struggling to stay above a pathetic 50%.
Despite all this though, Duke Nukem: Forever is enjoying a healthy start to its sales, or as Randy Pitchford puts it “With sales data, it seems like *customers* love Duke,”.
Perhaps they should consider that just because it is selling doesn’t mean it’s a good title. It’s more likely that there was just a lot of expectation for it. The funny thing is, Mr Jon St. John doesn’t seem to realize that gamers will be comparing Duke Nukem to other FPS games because, well, games aren’t released into a neutral context-less environment? Videogame retailers regularly stock this thing called ‘competition’.
People like to, you know, ‘think’ before they slap down cash for a full priced game. Anyway enough negativity about the Duke’s latest failing (sorry), they’ve got another ten years to get the next one right? Or work on a more relevant IP.