ORYou what's ironic about Duke Nukem being non-serious/non-pretentious/non-artistic? That by subverting the current trend and going all out on stupid and testosterone it vaguely becomes a self-depricating parody that actually has *gasp* some cultural comment in there. Think of the recent movie Machete for reference. I guess FPS had to again come to a state of generic blandness for the stars to align and the Duke to retake the helm of B-game humor.
they're just being lazy guys, trying to score the big money over the name of some old video-game character after wasting everyone's time for 12 years.
Because this "bland ego-shooter" you're talking about.....we have that already. Remember this guy: http://wire.ggl.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/serioussam1.jpg
That's what you were describing. Minus the cultural comment-stuff. DNF as we've seen it so for has neither of it. Although I'm sure they'll come up with that explanation to justify their lack of any interesting concept.