People are saying that you should always bet on the Duke and man I’m inclined to believe them. This whole Duke Nukem thing has been around since I was nine years old. This is just… I mean… seriously.

If you have been living under a rock, or just outside living a normal life and not following gamer news closely in your darkened bedroom like some sort of nerdy hermit, then you might not know what I mean when I refer to the Duke Nukem development saga. This is a game that has been in the making for at least twelve years and was supposed to come out on every console since the N64. The game has been scrapped and started again from scratch so many times that it’s become a bit of a running joke in the industry and a lot of people were convinced that the game would never see the light of day.

In the early part of last year, or was it the latter? I don’t know, that’s not important, but at some point last year the game looked, finally, like it was close to being released. The gaming community was shocked by the possibility that, yes, Duke Nukem was a game and, yes, it was going to come out soon. People were shocked, stunned and downright flabbergasted. But then 3D realms, the developers of Duke Nukem, went to their publisher, with arms outstretched like Oliver Twists, and dared to ask for yet more money to be poured in to the black hole of development to help finish the game. The publisher, quite rightly after so many years of procrastination, said no. In an instant Duken Nukem went from certified release to certifiably dead.

I thought it was gone with no hope of ever coming back but… I…  we should have known. We, as a collective of gaming nerds and nerdettes, who have seen this game survive years of development hell, should have had more faith that it would return like a phoenix rising from the ashes of bankruptcy. We should have learned that you can always bet on your friendly neighbourhood man without fear, the unstoppable, incredible, invincible, ever loving blue eyed Duke. In a risky move, based more on heartfelt admiration than business sense, the developer Gearbox have swooped in like a modern day robin hood to save the franchise and share it with so many fans that were weeping over Dukes pixelated grave.

Kotaku conducted an interview with the man behind Gearbox, one Randy Pitchford, on why he decided to help bring the game back, what he did to get it done and what it means to him. It’s well worth a read and can be found here.

This is great, I’m loving the news, Duke is being brought back but no one is really asking if it should be brought back. That’s another question entirely. Times have changed and I’m not sure if the franchise still works, to quote Goldblum in Jurassic park 2, “at first it’s all oooh aaah, but then there’s the running and, and, the screaming”. Will the initial surprise and elation created by Duke’s revival eventually fade and be replaced by something more negative?

I can’t help but feel that Duke may have lost its place in time, the sort of humour it used in the nineties might still work but… I don’t know. Sure, teenage boys will find this fracking hilarious, but will mature adults? The type of humour and tone the Duke brings could easily be considered crude and misogynist in nature; however if done correctly it could provide a subtle satire of that kind of person and create genuine humour.

I also find my self questioning what sort of gameplay this game, which is a first person shooter, will have. With such a long development cycle, what will the gameplay be like? Duke Nukem 3D was almost ground-breaking but that was years ago, games have come a long damn way since 97. I’m glad this game exists, at this point it’s become part of gaming history, part of gaming legend, and it should be released for that reason. Is it a game I want to play? I’m hopeful that it will feel like a fun modern shooter with an intelligent satirical sense of humour and is fully aware of how ridiculous Duke really is.

People are saying that you should always bet on the Duke and man I’m inclined to believe them. This whole Duke Nukem thing has been around since I was nine years old. This is just… I mean… seriously.

If you have been living under a rock, or just outside living a normal life and not following gamer news closely in your darkened bedroom like some sort of nerdy hermit, then you might not know what I mean when I refer to the Duke Nukem development saga. This is a game that has been in the making for at least twelve years and was supposed to come out on every console since the N64. The game has been scrapped and started again from scratch so many times that it’s become a bit of a running joke in the industry and a lot of people were convinced that the game would never see the light of day.

In the early part of last year, or was it the latter? I don’t know, that’s not important, but at some point last year the game looked, finally, like it was close to being released. The gaming community was shocked by the possibility that, yes, Duke Nukem was a game and, yes, it was going to come out soon. People were shocked, stunned and downright flabbergasted. But then 3D realms, the developers of Duke Nukem, went to their publisher, with arms outstretched like Oliver Twists, and dared to ask for yet more money to be poured in to the black hole of development to help finish the game. The publisher, quite rightly after so many years of procrastination, said no. In an instant Duken Nukem went from certified release to certifiably dead.

I thought it was gone with no hope of ever coming back but… I…  we should have known. We, as a collective of gaming nerds and nerdettes, who have seen this game survive years of development hell, should have had more faith that it would return like a phoenix rising from the ashes of bankruptcy. We should have learned that you can always bet on your friendly neighbourhood man without fear, the unstoppable, incredible, invincible, ever loving blue eyed Duke. In a risky move, based more on heartfelt admiration than business sense, the developer Gearbox have swooped in like a modern day robin hood to save the franchise and share it with so many fans that were weeping over Dukes pixelated grave.

Kotaku conducted an interview with the man behind Gearbox, one Randy Pitchford, on why he decided to help bring the game back, what he did to get it done and what it means to him. It’s well worth a read and can be found here.

This is great, I’m loving the news, Duke is being brought back but no one is really asking if it should be brought back. That’s another question entirely. Times have changed and I’m not sure if the franchise still works, to quote Goldblum in Jurassic park 2, “at first it’s all oooh aaah, but then there’s the running and, and, the screaming”. Will the initial surprise and elation created by Duke’s revival eventually fade and be replaced by something more negative?

I can’t help but feel that Duke may have lost its place in time, the sort of humour it used in the nineties might still work but… I don’t know. Sure, teenage boys will find this fracking hilarious, but will mature adults? The type of humour and tone the Duke brings could easily be considered crude and misogynist in nature; however if done correctly it could provide a subtle satire of that kind of person and create genuine humour.

I also find my self questioning what sort of gameplay this game, which is a first person shooter, will have. With such a long development cycle, what will the gameplay be like? Duke Nukem 3D was almost ground-breaking but that was years ago, games have come a long damn way since 97. I’m glad this game exists, at this point it’s become part of gaming history, part of gaming legend, and it should be released for that reason. Is it a game I want to play? I’m hopeful that it will feel like a fun modern shooter with an intelligent satirical sense of humour and is fully aware of how ridiculous Duke really is.