Like any other sub-30 geek, I’ve had my fun with the Duke Nukem series. From its humble side-scrolling platformer beginnings, up until Duke Nukem 3D, the franchise made sure I never considered Bruce Campbell the originator of “come get some” until much later.

I missed out on Duke Nukem Forever’s announcement however, with the legendary game-that-never-was only entering my consciousness once it became fashionable to mock it’s eternally-delayed production. Do phrases like “Duke Nukem Never” ring a bill?

And now, months after DNF’s development was officially halted, a meticulously researched article on Wired chronicles the game’s lengthy development process—and the reasons behind it:

[Duke Nukem co-creator George] Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.

As new games and technologies appeared, Broussard’s perfection kept forcing the development team back to the drawing board. He was flush with cash (thanks to the Duke Nukem series and other successful titles developed by his company, 3D realsm), and the financial freedom turned out to be his—and Forever’s—downfall. With no urgency to get an income-generating product on to the market, no discipline existed to make that happen.

It seems that somewhere along the way, Broussard forgot that games are successful when they are fun to play, not because they are perfect. Modern Warfare 2 is far from perfect. It isn’t a revolutionary game that changed the FPS genre forever, nor does it feature a memorable story. And don’t get me started about the borked multiplayer of the PC version.

Still, while MW2 may not be a classic that video game historians will write about years later, it was still fun. That’s something Broussard apparently missed in his quest to create the perfect game:

Ironically, the end was within reach, even if Broussard couldn’t see it. Raphael van Lierop, who was hired in 2007 as a creative director, was given several pieces of the game to play. It took him about five hours. Broussard was stunned; he’d thought those levels would take half that time to get through. “You could see the gears turning, with him thinking, ‘Oh wow — maybe we’ve got more game than we think,’” says van Lierop. Broussard had been staring at the game for so long, he’d lost perspective.

Even if another development team gets you off the ground, you will never be the same again, Duke Nukem Forever. Rest in peace. It just took 12 years to kill you.

Source (Image from Wikipedia)

So you’ve got the money (via hard work, or, you lucky fool, through someone’s Christmas generosity). How do you spend nearly $2,600 wisely? The funds are virtually unlimited, but you still want to get the most out of your budget, right?
Computer enthusiast website Tom’s Hardware (TH) recently answered that question, through their latest System Builder Marathon (SBM). A regular feature on the site, the SBM features three gaming PCs built on three different budgets. For the months of December, they were $700 (”Gaming”), $1300 (”Enthusiast”), and $2500 (”Performance”).

Seems he can’t seem to decide on what to wear for the holiday season:

Help him choose by sharing your favorite Mario outfit below. And if you also know who made this, let us know as well!

Have you heard? Over the weekend, El Reg reported on Verizon Wireless forcing subscribers to use Microsoft Bing on select smartphones:
Verizon has unilaterally updated user Storm 2 BlackBerries and other smartphones so that their browser search boxes can only be used with Microsoft Bing.
The move is part of the five-year search and advertising deal Verizon signed with Microsoft in January for a rumored $500m.
The search boxes previously allowed searches via Google and on other websites like Dictionary.com. Yes, affected users can still visit the actual sites and search from there—going to Google.com on their mobile browsers for instance—but they’re rightfully …read more

As a life-long Windows user, with a smattering of System 9 and OS X experience, the following table is so true:

For those who can’t get the symbolism presented (or for those who see the world with their five other senses, and thus need text for their parser to interpret) here’s a boring text-only version:

Linux
Windows
Mac
As seen by…

Boring plain vanilla workstation
Blue Screen of Death
Awesome multi-display workstation
Mac Fanboys

Hard-to-understand terminal
Awesome multi-display workstation
A toy for kids, with limited capability
Windows Fanboys

A laptop that’s literally the center of the universe
Microsoft screwing Windows users over
Steve Jobs holding up a wad of cash
Linux Fanboys

What do you think? Is this …read more

Aside from the HP Mini deal available from netbook (which runs until December 22), the PC maker has its own deals available from hp.com, covering both desktops and laptops. All the offers listed below also include free shipping, a minus $29 over the final price, and last until December 26, 2009, the day after Christmas:
HP Desktop Deals
Save up to $545 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9250t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

$250 instant rebate
Free 6GB memory upgrade (-$80)
Free 640GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
35% off a 21.5-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$90)

Save up to $515 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite …read more

Online shoppers who visit buy.com benefit from the site’s widely varied catalog, which includes a variety of tech-related trinkets and gadgets that for a limited time are available at a lower price.
Feel free to take a look at the following list and see what piques your interest. Various items are available on the cheap, including Xbox games, themed flash drives and portable media players, and even an all-in-one PC! All discounts or offers below last until December 22, so it’s your chance for some very last-minute Christmas shopping!

Save 62%
Free Budget Shipping
Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle Crackdown, Perfect Dark Zero, Project …read more

Andrew McDonald, perhaps known as the writer of The Greatest Blogger in the World, recently came up with a fool-proof plan to get his camera back—just in case he ends up losing it to theft or carelessness.
The author will simply leave a series of pictures on his camera, never deleting them. A masterful mix of actor-worthy facial expressions and witty copy on a portable whiteboard entertains whoever finds the camera with a bit of over-share, before finally instructing them how to return the gadget. The first two shots are below:

With a total of 26 shots, the total size of the …read more

The reality is that while Facebook’s new privacy settings are actually pushing people to share more of their personal life, we simply can’t just drop the social networking site. Right? Right, especially if you’re addicted to your online life—and if you’re an online marketing professional who wants to keep tabs on what the masses are up to.

Anyways, it’s harder to be private on Facebook, and Facebook is a sort of must-have these days. Both are currently facts of life, so reading Yahoo’s recent tips on improving your privacy on Facebook makes sense. Aside from reminders that some parts of your …read more

Select markets have enjoyed access to the Nokia N900 for quite some time now, which was why I was happy to finally try out the Maemo-powered phone. “Phone” though is such a mild name for the N900. While it continues the Linux-based legacy of Nokia’s previous Internet tablets, a key difference is the inclusion of a SIM slot and thus telephony and wireless broadband functionality. Here’s a 3-minute video of me fumbling with the N900, as featured on Technograph.
As you can see, the N900 benefits from its powerful ARM processor, handling multiple apps with ease. I just wonder though what …read more