Jon St. John: Duke Nukem Forever haters "don't understand what Duke is all about"

Radio personality and interviewer Matt J. Horn recently got the chance to talk to the legend that is Jon St. John, who is widely known as the voice of Duke Nukem. Here, Jon talks about Duke Nukem Forever, his response the the negative reviews the game has received, and who he thinks would win in a fight between Duke Nukem and Chuck Norris.

[NewMonday]

the game was criticized because its an out dated technical mess

[Welshy]

I understood and loved what Duke was about back on the PS1.

Forever was just stuck in a time warp and wanted the same old formula to work when games have moved on.

So much potential to bring back a personal favourite franchise ruined, noone will trust a Duke game anymore... =(

[palaeomerus]

It wasn't the same formula at all.

2 weapons, regenerating health, rc-car/truck racing, turrets, dumb QTE's, and a few mediocre fights in dark hallways is NOT what a Duke Nukem FPS is about.

It's just an ugly, unpolished, highly linear, hodgepodge of badly implemented gameplay features from other games that didn't fit together well and ended up being tedious, lame, tiresome, and disappointing. Older builds of the game actually looked more fun and frantic!

Jon St. John did HIS job well. Sure the writing could have been better but the writing was not the main problem. Good solid fun gameplay can overcome bad writing. The main problem was that it was a poorly conceived mess. It was a hideous frankenstein clumsily built from mismatched parts and unfortunately the lightning never struck and so it never really came to life. It just twitched a little and smelled bad. The design was bad and it just didn't work.

This was not a game release so much as an exorcism. It certainly needed to happen but it wasn't pretty and almost nobody wants it to see anything like it ever again.

Hopefully the new Serious Sam game will come closer bringing a decent Duke/Doom style game with crazy weapons and inspired silliness into the current era of video game graphics technology.

Hopefully Gearbox can rethink this and give us a GOOD Duke game that plays well and makes sense and do it in a timely manner once they get Borderlands 2, Furious Four, and Aliens Colonial Marines out the door.

[Getowned]

i would if they made a new one but i never got duke nukem for ever i will wait for it to go on sale for real cheap maybe on steam idk xD

[dragonyght]

@newmonday the not the only thing that was dated his persona as well

[NarooN]

I'm a Duke fan, but I'll admit that DNF was a pile of shit. I was in denial at first, but after having played it...It's pretty clear what happened in the dev period. They should've released the game way back in the late 90's/early 00's when it was still relevant, then they could've done some modern sequels that didn't have such ridiculous dev cycles and rebirths.

[Kee]

Nah, we do know, now.

[El-Fenemeno1213]

Why does the link take me to his picture lol

[BakedGoods]

Yeah, the article needs a fixin'

[Raider69]

A technical piss of shit is what DNF is!

[L6RD7BLU3]

They don't, because it's to immature for the immature gamers that are online all day saying immature things and on gaming sites raging on how they don't like the game.

[archemides518]

if ur making a smartypants comment at least make sure it reads right (it's "too" not "to")

[L6RD7BLU3]

OHHH Snap another grammar officer, man you guy's or always on point. I'm sorry if your ass got hurt by my misconception of "to" and "too." Your comment proves a point of what I was trying to say DUMBASS gamers who are raging for no reason. Now the reason why I'm raging right now is because of your immature comment... so SHUT THE FUC* UP.

[palaeomerus]

You're raging because you can't get attention any other way. You can't come up with anything intelligent, relevant, or interesting to say so you act like a boring middle school kid and hope someone somewhere is impressed by it.

[Godmars290]

Can't help but think that if he carried more than two weapons at a time complaints wouldn't be so bad.

[hilyou]

he looks like a fat chuck norris who wont be able 2 fight.

[hilyou]

wat da heck the link is broken! i think pozzle put the picture link in da story url.

[Cereal]

I wish more FPS games had puzzle & platforming elements like DNF. These days it's only about shooting. No more innovation in shooters anymore.

[Cpt_kitten]

hey, nothing wrong with wanting to play a N64 throw back with silliness everywhere

people are so serious these days

[Camb31691]

I was so ready for this game and i understood what everyone told me and i still bought it and played it. Then i realized everyone was right. I'm sorry DNF was terrible. But if Gearbox makes another and THEY start from scratch im sure it will be awesome.

[Der_Kommandant]

I understand what the Duke is all about, that doesn't mean i'm gonna like the mediocre game they released.

[MasterD919]

IMO Duke would have done fine if he evolved to todays standards and graphics.

This game was a let-down because its 13 years overdue. 13 years ago it would have been fantastic but by todays standards its not worth the time for the average gamer.

Nostalgia couldn't even save Duke. Gearbox is still alright in my book though as I love Borderlands and they were involved in Halo CE.

[jdfoster00]

It was shit. Deal with it.

[dorron]

Maybe they failed to make people understand what Duke WAS all about...

DNF is a complete mess and a crappy outdated game.

[zero_cool]

From what i heard that there will be a re-release of duke nukem forever & i heard it's duke nukem forever atomic edition which is suppose to be an improved version & add additional content.Just take take it with a grain of salt because nothing is concrete at this time but hopefully it turns out to be true so we get the duke nukem forever game we were all meant to get in the first place.

[Tzuno]

Yea right what do you want this guy to tell about duke it's his bread after all.

[xtremegamerage]

Isn't duke nukem, the typical american who thinks he can shoot anything and not give a toss.

or have i got that completely wrong.

[Thoreau]

actually if anyone is old enough to have played the first duke nukem fps, the stage design was great.

somehow the reinventions of duke failed because the game is trash.

[SITH]

Duke is a dinosaur that never should have been resurrected.

[Pozzle]

I truly believe the whole 'dinosaur' aspect could have worked if the developers had played on it. Duke is an 80s action hero stuck in a 21st Century world. It could have been funny if the game acknowledged and played on the fact that Duke is an old fish in new water.

[gcolley]

just give us a real sequel and we will pretend this little incident didn't happen

[Mikeyy]

Duke nukem forever SUCKED FUCKING ASS, because it was NOTHING like Duke 3d.

We all wanted Duke 3d part 2. Not this fucking run though endless sewers and tunnels turd we got.

[hazelamy]

seems to be a standard defense for a substandard product these days, "you just don't understand it"

it didn't work for lair, and it won't work here.

[Canary]

Duke Nukem has always been garbage.

That this new game would also be garbage should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm sure the same idiot 11-year-old-boys that loved the first game love the new one, too.

[PS360PCROCKS]

duke nukem is chuck norris's bitch, this guy obviously doesn't understand

[Miiikeyyy]

Sorry you said something? *stares at your picture*

[Tommykrem]

I really liked one of the older Duke Nukem games I tried once, but Forever was awful. Writing was at times funny, but shooting is outdated and the solution to every little problem is basically handed to you.
For instance, when you have to put out fire that's blocking your way they place the fire extinguisher right next to the fire and the text "shoot the extinguisher to put out the fire" appears on the screen. And that happens several times! What's the point of that!? It's no more creative than making you walk down an empty corridor.

[Ingram]

I thought DN was about non-regenerating health, lots of weapons, imaginative scenarios...but DNF, well perhaps we did not understand what it was about, was it about WAITING, maybe?