Duke Nukem's Relevance

[Rivers Wells]

I love a "fun" (i.e. low brow) shooter. What they lack in refined aesthetics they make up for with a wild abandon approach to fun. Or rather, that's the goal. Personally, I think the best games combine that with a great story and great characters.

Bulletstorm is a kind of hyper masculine melting pot of guns, gore, and other grotesqueries that make me all kinds of happy. However, it knew what it was. It's a quick, fun shooter not looking to revolutionize so much as refine. Which, by the way, it did beautifully.

Now though, It makes me look a lot closer at Duke Nukem Forever. It's finally coming out but...I just can't care and I'm actually a little insulted. I've tried to appreciate that he's supposed to be a gaming icon but I'm in my early 20's so I just don't have that outlook. Sorry. This was almost a response to an earlier thread discussing the ESRB's MA rating for DNF, but it was a enough I wanted some other opinions.

From what that article and other information concerning the game tells me, DNF has racist, sexist, idiotic stereotype-focused humor that doesn't, like say South Park, comment on a broader topic, but is there purely for its own grossly ignorant sense-of-humor. Unlike Bulletstorm, it seems to approach it all with a straight face. It always comes across to me (and I completely understand that my take on it might be unique only to me), that DNF is getting a free ride because its just "supposed to."

The humor itself is something only a 13 or 14 year old actually finds funny without being ironic. So either the developers are intentionally targeting a younger audience (HEY, EA's got a new friend!) or they feel the gaming community is a bunch of whacked out, man-children with a need to over compensate.

To go back to Bulletstorm, BS was a game that made no excuses. It was a Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. It could take the occasional wink to the camera to recognize its own camp while pulling off some truly great gameplay. But Duke? This is my "legendary gaming icon"? A 40 something psychopath with zero motivation beyond murder, sex and greed? A game whose originality died out a decade ago?

No. No, no, and nooooo. I do genuinely hope the game is fun and I applaud the developers efforts in bringing back a long abandoned franchise which is always risky, but I don't see a gaming icon getting his due. I see an unimaginative shooter that does nothing for the landscape of gaming in terms of gameplay or story and will succeed only on the merits of people who take it all quite seriously. It'll come, it'll go, and FOX news will make fun of me for it and threaten my rights over it till its finally forgotten.

Where do you stand? Do we really need Duke these days? Not because shooters got too smart and forgot basic fun, but because he's just not really that impressive anymore. In all honesty, it actually all seems a little pathetic.

On a final note: This is my own opinion. I am not saying I'm right and others are wrong. I just wanted to dip my toe in the water and get a feel for the Escapist communities opinion as a whole.

 

[Zaik]

Oh gee, it's someone on the internet making wild generalizations and speculation about something with very little or no actual knowledge of the subject in question.

I've never seen this one before.

 

[Duruznik]

Unlike Bulletstorm, it seems to approach it all with a straight face.

Wait, what? Duke Nukem doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's all tongue-in-cheek. That's the point.

 

[Jonesy911]

"they feel the gaming community is a bunch of whacked out, man-children with a need to over compensate."

You say that as if it's not true.

Anyways yeah the whole point is that Duke Nukem exists to offend. But what was offensive in the 90's isn't anymore and they've ramped it up accordingly. Also I don't think it is racist (what makes you think that?) but yeah definitely sexist, but so are most games involving women (yes, Bulletstorm included) so I dont see how it's something you can accuse DNF for.

But in the end it doesn't matter maybe with this and Bulletstorm we'll finally get out of this "realistic shooter" slump we've been in for about 4 years now.

 

[Rivers Wells]

Unlike Bulletstorm, it seems to approach it all with a straight face.

That's where you lost me. Duke Nukem has never taken itself seriously as a series. They (the developers) know exactly what it is and what it isn't. The whole philosophy behind Bulletstorm is based on Duke Nukem, so how you can sit here and tell me that BS is all in good fun while Duke Nukem is deserving of our ire is beyond me.

That's a good point and I should have acknowledged that. BS is definitely from the DNF school of thought, I won't fight that. I guess the idea that Duke is a gaming icon, and icon whose concepts get us sent to the the supreme court, that rubs me the wrong way. It isn't that the game itself is bad purely for its choices in subject matter, its that explodes in popularity for just those reasons, not for how well it can be made.

 

[Axolotl]

I think you just don't really understand Duke Nukem, at all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire]

 

[Osaka117]

Yeah as was said, this game surely isn't taking itself seriously. DNF is banking on that most of the people that are gonna buy it are people who grew up playing Duke games and are familiar with his over the top immature sense of humor. I, being one of those people, am shitting my pants and chewing my gum in anticipation of finally being to play the real sequel to one of the most innovative FPS games of all time.

 

[teh_Canape]

you know

it's actually the other way around, Bulletstorm took itself way to seriously to be a pure silly shooter (like, say, Serious Sam or Painkiller)

and in my opinion, yes, we need this kind of games more than before, before paranoid realistic military shooters take over

 

[Drakmeire]

Games can be serious and I love some for that (Bioshock, Mass effect)
but if you play nothing but serious things it just gets depressing. I can enjoy serious games but I prefer insane over the top fighting, goofy characters and crazy weapons. if I wanted realism I wouldn't play games.
Duke Nukem and Bulletstorm are a godsend for people like me who are sick of Brown/Gray military shooter trash it's a waste of an artistic medium to limit yourself to reality.
Also, Duke is not an icon for "an amazing unique game" he was created as a satire for the nineties gun toting anti-hero that was popular at the time. Look at 90's comic books and you will see that duke is a parody.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Games can be serious and I love some for that (Bioshock, Mass effect)
but if you play nothing but serious things it just gets depressing. I can enjoy serious games but I prefer insane over the top fighting, goofy characters and crazy weapons. if I wanted realism I wouldn't play games.
Duke Nukem and Bulletstorm are a godsend for people like me who are sick of Brown/Gray military shooter trash it's a waste of an artistic medium to limit yourself to reality.
Also, Duke is not an icon for "an amazing unique game" he was created as a satire for the nineties gun toting anti-hero that was popular at the time. Look at 90's comic books and you will see that duke is a parody.

To add to this, all of those one liners that he's so famous for? Taken from cult movies, comic books, and the like. For example, the famous "Hail to the King" line came from Army of Darkness. Manly Guys Doing Manly Things had it right when they said that Duke Nukem was one of the biggest geeks you could possibly meet. Think of him as a male, chauvinistic version of Zoey from Left 4 Dead.

Edit: Fun fact; I almost referred to him as "The Duke" at one point in this post, and then mentally slapped myself, because there's only one Duke, and his name is John Wayne.

 

[D Moness]

I will expect something like this from the media

"Duke Nukem 3D moves the 'shooter' through pornography stores, where Duke can use XXX sex posters for target practice. Duke throws cash at a prostituted woman telling her to 'Shake it, Baby' his gun ever ready. In the game bonus points are awarded for the murder of these mostly prostituted and partially nude women. Duke blows up stained glass windows in an empty church or goes to strip clubs where Japanese women lower their kimonos exposing their breasts. Duke is encouraged to kill defenseless, often bound women.

Media Watch

Just replace the 3d with forever and we go full circle again. Funny bit to add killing women made the game spawn more enemies(so it is not really encouraged to shoot defenseless women).
I do not really like shooters but i can not wait to get my hands on this game. I know i will have as much fun as i had with Duke Nukem 3D the day that was released.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Duke strikes me as immature and the most self-indulgent, self-entitled video game character since the last Most Triumphant Example on TVtropes.

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

I think you just don't really understand Duke Nukem, at all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire]

This. This. 1,000 Times This.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

"Your ass, your face, what's the difference?"

With generic on-liners that are surprisingly hilarious, why should we take Duke seriously?

 

[SwimmingRock]

See, when I was a kid and DN 64 came out, I thought he was awesome. Then I replayed it in my teens and just laughed at it. When DNF comes out, I'll make sure to only play when I'm hopped up on caffeine, because I'm going "Cole train" on that game. If you haven't played Gears of War, that won't make much sense, but I'm basically going to laugh my nuts off while shouting at and talking smack to a videogame. Because that's what DNF is for, dude.

 

[RA92]

Actually, it's BS that irks me with its plot line. It's not all cohesive with the whole 'fun' value and breaks immersion.

On the other hand, why does Duke fight? Because they started messing with our women.

It's satire, dude.

 

[gostlyfantom]

Actually guys ya know whats the weird thing.
Game devs are starting to be "different" by making their games based around humor and swears
How many more times is this gonna happen? Until there are no bland "Grr look at my serious face!" games to compare them to.
Oh...MY...GAWD!
THATS IT!Duke Nukem and Bulletstorm have already done it.What...IF...IT BECOMES A TREND!? CoD FEATURING CLOWNS BIOSHOCK WITH STRIP CLUBS!AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!*hides in panic shelter*

la la la.la la la.la la la la la la la la la la.la la la la

(Saria's song when I go insane)

bioshock had a strip club, but the dancer was murdered with a pipe, anyway its been said before that DUKE NUKEM IS SATIRICAL.

 

[FalloutJack]

Oh gee, it's someone on the internet making wild generalizations and speculation about something with very little or no actual knowledge of the subject in question.

I've never seen this one before.

Oh hell, it's some guy making unwanted and unconstructive sarcastic comments to a guy that wants to "get a feel for the Escapist communities opinion as a whole". Yes, that's very helpful, now isn't it? Can't let it slide when he probably hasn't been here that long, huh? Very nice. Here's something constructive, from me to you. Don't do this. It makes us look like bad people.

OT: Now, where were we? Oh right. The Duke. Yeah, Duke's games are pretty much the epitome of being semi-serious and somewhat not. I mean, his motivations are all over-the-top machismo kinda' things, but in order to keep that secure, he's willing to put his ass on the line and genocide some aliens. It's sort of like the human race's salvation was put in the wrong hands, but it turned out alright anyway. That's the point of the Duke.

 

[Realitycrash]

Okey. Duke Nukem is tongue-in-cheek satire. So far, everyone except the OP seem to know this. But we know this because we have played the original. Now, what worries me is that the new Duke Nukem won't get its point across. It might become one of this inside-jokes, only funny for those people that "get it", and offensive to everyone else (like everything spawned on 4chan).
Now, I haven't played new Duke Nukem yet, and neither have anyone else except the Dev-team, so I seriously hope that the humor have wit enough to be understood as satire.
If you can't tell that it is edgy humor or pointed satire, it just becomes bad taste, and if you do this, Jonathan Swift cries in his grave. Don't make Jonathan cry.

First troll in history, best troll in history.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Duke's more of a 'you had to be there' kind of hero. If you didn't witness his awesomeness in his glory days then he probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you.

Okay I understand Duke is satiracal but explain to me how YOU know that stripper was killed by a pipe if everything screwy happens before you get there

You find several things in that room. Shoes, a smoking pipe and a lead pipe. Couple that with the brutally beaten corpse, an audio diary as well as say... a flashback scene to it happening.