Duke Nukem Forever update to increase weapon slots on PC
Gearbox has announced that Duke Nukem Forever will receive a patch on PC that, among a few other changes, will increase Duke's single-player weapon slots from two to four.
Duke Nukem's arsenal is about to double, ladies and gentlemen.
According to Gearbox Community Manager (and Shacknews alum) Chris Faylor, a patch is currently in the works for Duke Nukem Forever that will increase Duke's inventory slots, allowing him to carry up to four weapons at once during the single-player campaign.
According to the post from Faylor, the weapon update is currently PC-specific, though he notes more details about the update "including those coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360" will be revealed "as they're finalized."
The PC version will also add support for Valve's Anti-Cheat System (VAC), push-to-talk voice chat, the ability to adjust field of view, and other unnamed "fixes and improvements" currently being tested.
Though four weapons is better than two, it is still far from Duke's origin, as the character could once carry every weapon he found during his past adventures.
In 2003, 3D Realms boss George Broussard pondered whether or not Duke Nukem Forever could "get away" with reducing Duke's arsenal down to two at a time in in Shacknews' own Chatty in the face of shifting first-person shooter design.
Following Duke's re-reveal to the world at PAX 2010, Chatty users threw blame at Gearbox for limiting Duke's weapon slots to two; however, Broussard was quick to note it was a decision made long before Gearbox became involved in reaction to a growing console market:
Yeah, blame us for it if you want. It may change in the future and I don't know what will happen with it, but it was us. I stand by it too, as you cannot discount designing games for a modern world and part of that world is consoles where the bulk of the sales can be. And on those consoles you have a controller. We tried for a long time to support lots of guns but we simply could not find a nice way to map it to a controller, despite trying 4-5 designs. We gave it enough time and decided to stop swimming against the current and adopt what was basically the "standard". It's not 1996 anymore.
Shacknews has contacted Gearbox to learn whether or not upcoming console updates will include the new 'four weapon limit,' but has not received a response at the time of publishing.
What is the sweet-spot for you, Shackers? Is four weapons good enough, do you still long for the days when Duke was bad-ass enough to carry every weapon he came across, or did Broussard get it right in 2010?
[Thanks, Tech T]
-
Shacknews
replyXav de Matos posted a new article, Duke Nukem Forever update to increase weapon slots on PC.
Gearbox has announced that Duke Nukem Forever will receive a patch on PC that, among a few other changes, will increase Duke's single-player weapon slots from two to four.-
-
-
I Applaud that effort
-
-
If you are talking about an option for consoles (Article indicates this is a PC only update), then sure that makes sense. As for PC, there is no reason for this (it would likely fuck up your aim/groove with a mouse), but as an additional option and not a replacement for the typical 1234 option i don't see any harm.
-
-
Yay!
-
LOL
-
Glad I haven't played it yet then! Waiting for a $20-25 price range.
-
Bless you, Gearbox. Bless you.
-
I like it; considering that I'd agonize over the three mainstays (pistol, shotgun, ripper), and then have to cast one of those aside for the mandatory RPG that would trap you right next to an ammo crate, then force you to dash to the next ammo crate.
And now, to revise the Yahtzee Croshaw Duke Nukem lamentation scoreboard ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1546-Battlefield-Bad-Company-2 ):
...just please let me play another shooter where I can have more weapons than eyeballs! FIXED
Where if I get bored, I can clear out a room with a transfunctionating cyber-blasty-bollocks-cannon I was saving for the next boss fight! ACHIEVABLE
Where I can run out into the open with the tactics of a suicide bomber and suffer no damage that can't be fixed by Sellotaping a first aid kit to my chest! I'll be glad when the modern warfare bubble blows over and we can end the tyranny of "realism"! Well.... you can always chug a beer before barreling in with all guns blazing.-
It was also disappointing to see a developer literally throw in the towel and go 2 weapons because "it's too hard for console controls" and "it's not 1996 anymore", despite other console shooters like Wolfenstein 2009, Unreal Tournament 3, and ports of old shooters (Doom series, Duke Nukem 3D itself, etc.).
Try harder. Embrace weapon inventory diversity. Encourage experimentation. Stop the "magic crate" scenario-based weapon swap madness.-
-
"We tried for a long time to support lots of guns but we simply could not find a nice way to map it to a controller, despite trying 4-5 designs." -- GeorgeB3DR
-
-
Nice... now when can I buy it for $10?
-
-
This would have meant more when it first came out. Now most of the people who were going to buy and finish the game on the pc already have done so.
-
Yeah, it would have helped the PC version reviews a little bit too if they did it then. Still, it's better than never doing it.
-
-
The greatest number of weapons (or items) I could imagine being easily accessible would be 12. Four categories with three weapons each, using 1-4 or a d-pad to switch to a category, then cycling through that category's weapons with repeated presses. MGS:PW meets Borderlands.
As for the least, it depends on the game type. CoD-like or GoW-like games work well with two weapons since the player is encouraged to decide on a combat style, switching out weapons to match each area's combat theme. But something like Duke or Sam needs at least four, since the player is faced with a much wider variety of engagement types in the same period of time. Use less weapons when you want the player to be conscious of their loadout, more weapons when you want the player to be able to react to a range of encounters.-
They wanted to use up the D-pad for fast binds to all the various pickups. Up = Duke Vision. Left = Steroids. Right = Holoduke. Down = Beer.
Not enough imagination in console controls. I liked the Shadows of the Damned approach where holding down triangle exposed a D-pad submenu where you could select any of the three drink types. Why not use that kind of menu for weapon selection? BAM! Four weapon slots.
-
-
Wow, awesome.
-
4 is much better overall and would make stuff like getting the Carry the pistol Through the Whole game a LOT easier. It was manageable, but man there were times I wished I could be using more than just the one gun.
Plus I think 4 is a perfect number as I'm pretty sure I only cycled between 3 or 4 guns for my second weapon for the majority of the game. Sure it would be better to be more like the old days and have all guns available at all times, but it's not really needed.
And it would be easy to do even on a console d-pad with a Half-Life 2-esque systen (pres a button to click through a menu of 1-3 items then fire to select. -
multiplayer fixes?
-
[deleted]
-
I just started DNF yesterday on PC. Good thing they announced this now so I'll postpone my playthrough until the patch is released.
GG Gearbox!
Keep updating the PC version and fix the flaws! Regen health would be fun to get rid off, but a little bit too much work as an update I guess to change the whole game. :-) -
Multiplayer need more than two weapons as well. Also - dedicated server and net-code overhaul.
-
"We gave it enough time and decided to stop swimming against the current and adopt what was basically the "standard". It's not 1996 anymore."
Only in the console world will technology and standards go backwards, and be recognized as an improvement. Blows my mind.
Anyhooo, thank you gearbox for improving the PC game play back to its 1996 capabilities! -
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
... thanks? Still was over it a few years ago, meh
-
That's pretty cool, even if weird. Keep supporting the game after the launch so new players can at least enjoy it better. I applaud Gearbox for doing that.
I wish Borderlands had this kind of support, like adjustable FOV, making me able to play the game and not having terrible headaches. -
-
-
^^^^^ Exactly this. The game's weapon placement was designed around the fact you'd only have two guns at a time. Unless they completely repopulated the game with ammo and weapon placements, this is a moot point.
-
It's kind of sad. This changes the dynamic of the game quite a bit but it's too late. This is a big design choice that needs to be made BEFORE weapon and enemy placement. What's the point of allowing you to have say - a sniper rifle or RPG if enemies in that area are in close because it's a "shotgun designated area"?
I mean, kudos for trying I guess. -
I'm not sure this is the case. In fact. I think this will make it better.
The game may have been made with this sort of decision in mind, but it's often that the ammo/weapons the game were throwing me were of the wrong type. It was pretty common that I'd be running with a railgun ignoring all the machineguns from the dead pigcops the game was throwing at me, only to have the railgun run out of ammo and forcing me to drop it and backtrack until I found one of the machineguns again.
With the ability to carry all guns, I could switch to the machinegun and blast enemies away, knowing I have a railgun in my inventory if the need arises and ammo comes by.
The guns are so different in the game that it makes sense to allow the user to just collect them; I'd often ignore an RPG or Shrink Ray or Freeze Ray just because I know I couldn't bet on them for all situations. They just turned into gimmicks. Having them at my disposal at any time (not taking any other gun's slot!) would make me use them a lot more.
-
-
-
Well no. Think about it. If I keep the pistol I'll never again get ammo for it after the beginning. Why would I? The game would just assume I threw it away ages ago for the other guns. Or getting an RPG with say - 10 rockets. After I leave the area there won't be ANY rockets until I was supposed to come across the RPG again with the weapon limit. The game is designed to hand you what guns you need
So yes - I can hold every gun now, but I'll only ever get ammo when I come across the designated weapon change areas. -
[deleted]
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
-
-
ban
-
-
-
-
-
-
succinct
-
Oh, God. This deserves more love.
-
Cool. I haven't played it yet so no butthurt here. Still waiting for the game to hit $20 or less before I'm in
-
Four is better than two. What I'm concerned most about the upcoming patch is if it's going to fix the cpu running at 100% issue with dual core processors making the game damn near unplayable with the constant hitching and super long load times. That's the most important thing to fix and there is no mention of it. I guess it's wait and see.
