Duke Nukem Forever's mishmash comeback

You may be familiar with the long, strange history of Duke Nukem Forever. It had been in development since the mid-1990s, the adolescent years of the first-person shooter, before Halo and Call of Duty. Last year, it was finally rescued from the scrap heap by Gearbox Software, the studio behind 2009's superb role-playing shooter Borderlands.

What Gearbox has assembled is a mishmash of poorly paced, archaically designed chunks of action. Along with the gunplay, DNF incorporates driving, running-and-jumping platform antics and even some rudimentary puzzle-solving, all of which would be welcome in a modern-day shooter if they were better executed. Instead, when you finally get to do something fun like driving Duke's monster truck, the game grinds to a halt by forcing you to stop and find gas.

The worst game issues are reserved for the excruciating boss battles. At the end of the Hive section, for example, you face off against the alien queen, who can only be taken down by high-powered ordnance. Every time you score a hit, though, she knocks you off your feet, so you have to hide from her while your "ego" (this game's equivalent of health points) recovers.

That's right: During one of the core battles in DNF, the hero established as the toughest, most fearless hero Earth has ever seen spends most of the time hiding.

RATING M for Mature

PLOT Duke is back to battle aliens

DETAILS Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $60; PC, $50

BOTTOM LINE An ugly, mean-spirited mess.