The Tomb Raiders games were campy and so was Duke Nukem.Shooting raptors with desert eagles or just saying cheezy lines all the time.The characters were fun despite having little depth.Should Duke Nukem get rebooted and turn more serious like Tomb Raider did?

Instead of being fun and campy person why know today, he is a serious 18 year old teenager that got enrolled into a space academy.He's cold, calculating and serious.He fights against alien monsters in space and kills them.It would be like a horror space movie.Horror space movies are so scary for me.

Thoughts?

Duke Nukem should just die.

Why not ditch the Duke Nukem name altogether then? Tomb Raider was never nearly as campy as Duke Nukem was, so it has more room to move. Take away Duke's attitude and what do you have? Another alien shooting FPS.

Duke Nukem cant be serious. That's what makes Duke Nukem...Duke Nukem. Make it serious, and you take away the soul.

How can your name be Duke Nukem and be taken seriously? You just can't.

If they redo a Duke game, it needs to be ballsy like fuck and have wonderful gunplay.

Not a bad concept but that wouldn't work for Duke Nukem.

Duke, if we're really gonna ask this, should go for a different kind of non serious. When DNF came out, Jeff mentioned a way the formula could totally work is the approach that Duke is totally insane and everyone knows it, and they just humor him because it gets shit done. That might work in a really sort of cynical silliness way.

I think Bulletstorm strayed closest to what a modern, fun take on Duke Nuken could be. Far closer than Duke Nukem Forever ever did.

Dead Space Nukem

@moywar700 said:

Instead of being fun and campy person why know today, he is a serious 18 year old teenager that got enrolled into a space academy.He's cold, calculating and serious.He fights against alien monsters in space and kills them.It would be like a horror space movie.Horror space movies are so scary for me.

But if they did that, all you'd have is a generic shooter hero.

Personally I think they should make a Duke game that embraces the criticism Forever got, about an out of shape has been, living off the increasingly dire remains of his past glories, who has to figure out how to become relevant the modern era and kick some alien ass while doing it. Add an upgrade system that starts him out slow and limited Forever-style, and then lets him add more weapon slots and run for longer, etc., until he's back to his Duke 3D prime.

Duke Nukem needs to be able to flex his bicep at everyone in the game, and they all make a remark.

Adding seriousness to Duke Nukem is a terrible idea.

Personally, I'll have to wait and see how Anthony Birch's writing plays off in Borderlands 2, but honestly, him writing a Duke Nukem game is what would save it.

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era but making him serious would kill everything he is about. I fully believe that a fully developed Gearbox Duke could be awesome.

I am sick and tired of serious games, so no, not every game or game protagonist needs to be serious.

Serious no, but if Gearbox is gonna make a run at the franchise they need to seriously change the tone. Old Duke isn't gonna cut it anymore and I'm sure they know that from the reviews they got. I think they have the ability to make a really funny Duke game. I'm hoping for the best.

But serious? Heeeeell no.

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Duke Nukem needs to know that no one gives a shit about him anymore. His character should reflect this fact. They should go the route of the new Muppet movie, by that I mean the writing should reflect the fact that Duke wasn't what he used to be and his new game should be one last chance to rise up to the top again.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

I don't think so. After all he's just a parody of 80's era machismo, and Z-grade sci-fi. He's a product of his time. Duke just doesn't work anymore.

@shivermetimbers said:

Duke Nukem needs to know that no one gives a shit about him anymore. His character should reflect this fact. They should go the route of the new Muppet movie, by that I mean the writing should reflect the fact that Duke wasn't what he used to be and his new game should be one last chance to rise up to the top again.

This

@Demoskinos said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

I would play that game. They need to make the story less serious, and write actual clever jokes. Not dated pop culture references.

@Demoskinos said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

The Megadeth cover of Duke Nukem's theme started playing in my head when I read this plot synopsis.

I want to see a Duke Nukem where he acts just as he did in the last game and everyone is really tired of him. He's aware that no one wants him around, has an existential crisis, and questions who he is why he's the way he is. He then develops a new, better sense of humor that everyone loves. Just as he beats the bad guys and wins the game he also wins over the hearts of every good guy in the Nukem universe. Just as he is about to give a big speech to his newly won over audience he flips the audience off and yells "Fuck you, I'm Duke Nukem!" and moves back to some sense of humor and some form of Duke Nukem between obnoxious Duke and legitimately funny Duke. It would be called 'Fuck You, I'm Duke Nukem!"

The camp factor isn't what ruined Duke Nukem forever. It was the gameplay. Personally, I enjoyed the talk show scene, throwing feces, the strip club, etc. But the gameplay was poor.

The bombast had ideas about Duke.

@Demoskinos said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

Possibly the best post, or idea I have ever come across!

Props lol.

Someone get on this shizzle.

Also, the imposter could get laid lots by pretending hes Duke. Then the real Duke comes in later to the same girls wanting some. And their like duuuuuuuuke, nooooo. THen Duke nearly attempts rape.

@glyn said:

@Demoskinos said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

Possibly the best post, or idea I have ever come across!

Props lol.

Someone get on this shizzle.

Also, the imposter could get laid lots by pretending hes Duke. Then the real Duke comes in later to the same girls wanting some. And their like duuuuuuuuke, nooooo. THen Duke nearly attempts rape.

It could be some sort of meta commentary of Duke Nukem in today's gaming scene. ITS SO DEEP MAN.

@JasonR86 said:

I want to see a Duke Nukem where he acts just as he did in the last game and everyone is really tired of him. He's aware that no one wants him around, has an existential crisis, and questions who he is why he's the way he is. He then develops a new, better sense of humor that everyone loves. Just as he beats the bad guys and wins the game he also wins over the hearts of every good guy in the Nukem universe. Just as he is about to give a big speech to his newly won over audience he flips the audience off and yells "Fuck you, I'm Duke Nukem!" and moves back to some sense of humor and some form of Duke Nukem between obnoxious Duke and legitimately funny Duke. It would be called 'Fuck You, I'm Duke Nukem!"

Would Duke Nukem also day-dream about his past, when he was a hero. Dreaming about how he went to war, in a montage style with Dubstep and Linken Park playing in the background?

- EDIT -

Or how about all the past events which have happened to Duke Nukem were all a dream. The reality was he was stuck in a coma. Duke then wakes up from a coma, looks in the mirror to find he is a thin somewhat uncool, geeky nerd. But he still thinks and acts like duke nukem.

@glyn said:

@JasonR86 said:

I want to see a Duke Nukem where he acts just as he did in the last game and everyone is really tired of him. He's aware that no one wants him around, has an existential crisis, and questions who he is why he's the way he is. He then develops a new, better sense of humor that everyone loves. Just as he beats the bad guys and wins the game he also wins over the hearts of every good guy in the Nukem universe. Just as he is about to give a big speech to his newly won over audience he flips the audience off and yells "Fuck you, I'm Duke Nukem!" and moves back to some sense of humor and some form of Duke Nukem between obnoxious Duke and legitimately funny Duke. It would be called 'Fuck You, I'm Duke Nukem!"

Would Duke Nukem also day-dream about his past, when he was a hero. Dreaming about how he went to war, in a montage style with Dubstep and Linken Park playing in the background?

I'm thinking there could be a dream sequence a bit like what was done in MGS 4 where Duke is replaying the first level of Duke Nukem 3D but with the old graphics. But the music is a dubstep version of the older Hollywood Holocaust music and when he tries to pay the strippers to dance two blackholes appear where there breasts would be that suck him in waking him up. This is when he comes out of the existential crisis and the sucking in to the breast blackholes could serve as a cue to the player that the old Duke Nukem is dead and a new Duke Nukem is born.

Absolutely not. 
 
I have a lot of nostalgia for Duke 3D and I actually enjoyed DNF. I just didn't go into it expecting it to be something other than what Duke has always been, and I think that's where the issue arises. A ton of people like to talk a ton of shit about DNF, but the game just wasn't for them in the first place. I mean, the game was in development for 14 years, and you have to go into the game knowing that. 14 years doesn't mean it's going to be the greatest game ever made; it means it's miraculous it even came out.

The next Duke Nukem needs to be a self-parody based on the failure of Forever. No seriousness, please.

Yes.

Hell no. They simply need to refine him. Maybe make a Saints Row: The Third-like game ?

@BlastProcessing said:

The next Duke Nukem needs to be a self-parody based on the failure of Forever. No seriousness, please.

Call it Duke Nukem: Foreverer.

Games that are all about the humor usually suck. Really what they need to do is focus on improving the gameplay, and then they can worry about the story and humor. Really all they need to do is stop making bad, dated pop culture references, and have the world react to Duke in a funnier way rather than having them all fawn over him.

That just turns Duke Nukem into the games it makes fun of. I don't think there should be any more Duke Nukem games. Unless they go the post-modern route, which could be incredible, but I doubt they'd ever get that self serious and not try for the cheap sex jokes.

I think that idea would play out very poorly. The Tomb Raider games may have been a bit over-the-top in a video gamey kind of way, but to nowhere near the extreme Duke Nukem was, nor were they as heavily based around the novelty of the main character. If Duke is to be reinvented, there are two problems to deal with; firstly, the kind of Schwarzenegger-esque action movie hero and ridiculous sci-fi the Duke Nukem games embody doesn't really exist in the current age, and secondly, Duke needs to look more pathetic as a character.

With Forever it was hard to tell to what degree 3D Realms and Gearbox understood that they were making their lead character look very dislikeable, but when you have your protagonist making bad jokes, acting like an arrogant dick, and even cracking wise about the rape and brutal death of people he knows, and that game makes no acknowledgement what he's doing is distasteful or even pats him on the back for it, that's not entertaining, that makes it look like your lead character is a complete sociopath and that you don't understand that what's going on is just uncomfortable.

If Duke is coming back the world around him needs to treat him as the sad human being he is, and there may also be some mileage in reinventing him to be a caricature of macho video game heroes, as opposed to a parody of dated action movie heroes. Perhaps there's room for a somewhat serious component in Duke Nukem, if that component is the message that a lot of the super-macho attitude that many games assume is often pretty immature and is not always the most appealing thing.

Hmm...I love Duke Nukem, some of the earliest PC games I ever played in fact. I think if Gearbox is really intent on taking that franchise and running with it and making it relevant again, I see it happening with a Duke Nukem Jr. Make a "new" Duke, like his nephew or something, who resembles and plays like a more modern action hero with modern gameplay mechanics, but has all of his uncles attitude just with a current timelyness. And have OG Duke as his crazy mentor "set in his ways" on how to be an action star, just falling flat every time, thereby referencing how out of time he is. I think it could work that way.

Reinventing Duke Nukem as a serious character probably isn't a good idea. Nothing about him plays to that, what with a name like Duke Nukem. Am I the only one who thinks that maybe Borderlands' general off-kilter goofiness and gun-crazy insanity could inform a possible reinvention of Duke Nukem? When I see a guy like the Gunzerker, I see a lot of possibilities in him in terms of rebooting the Duke Nukem character. He doesn't need to be serious, he just needs to be something else.

@Donkeycow said:

Duke Nukem should just die.

just what i was thinking.

How about not make a Duke Nukem game ever again?

OP sounds like a troll.

@mderbs311 said:

Hmm...I love Duke Nukem, some of the earliest PC games I ever played in fact. I think if Gearbox is really intent on taking that franchise and running with it and making it relevant again, I see it happening with a Duke Nukem Jr. Make a "new" Duke, like his nephew or something, who resembles and plays like a more modern action hero with modern gameplay mechanics, but has all of his uncles attitude just with a current timelyness. And have OG Duke as his crazy mentor "set in his ways" on how to be an action star, just falling flat every time, thereby referencing how out of time he is. I think it could work that way.

I'd say it would be better if Duke Jr. is constantly living in the shadow of the old Duke and acts as the modern perspective, he constantly is amazed that people tolerate/adore old Duke's personality. It ends with young Duke saving the world and everyone gives old Duke the praise, young Duke walks towards the camera and says "Fuck Duke Nukem!" roll credits.

Making Tomb Raider more serious makes sense. The original games were campy adventures.

Making Duke Nukem more serious is just plain idiotic. The Duke games are intentionally immature, silly and ridiculous. You can't suddenly make them serious. Worst idea ever.

Duke needs to become self-aware. A post-modern Duke is what's needed.

I think its embarrassing that Duke Nukem ever appealed to anyone, ever. I wish it would just disappear and award the human species back at least some of its forlorn dignity. Then we can focus on the important things, like the wrestling.

I can't imagine a more focus serious Duke Nukem. But in there next game Duke begins which is an origin story. I'm sure there going to change his personality abit after hearing the feedback. They will probably make him less goofy and more of a badass. So I guess they will have like a balance between being serious and not so serious.

Still there not going to develop the next Duke Nukem game until the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines. But aleast this time gearbox can make there own Duke Nukem game from scratch. Duke Nukem Forever was develop by 3drealms not gearbox. Gearbox only updated the game and got it working.

But before Duke Begins I hope we get to see Duke Nukem: Reloaded. Its a fan made remake that was looking good. It was almost finish but the developers had some issues with gearbox. So they stop production of the game until gearbox approves if the game will ever be published.

As much as I love to kick ass and chew bubble gum....its time to retire, Duke.

Honestly I'm just shocked Gearbox managed to pull something (as bad as it was) out of the rubble that was DNF. Should of just faded away, though. At least then we'd still have the jokes.

@Demoskinos said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@Demoskinos said:

I think they need to step back and re-invent the character a bit for the modern era

Exactly.

Its sad when Greyson Hunt of Bulletstorm fame is a better Duke Nukem than Duke Nukem. Which gives me an idea... they should have a storyline revolving around something insanely dumb. Like, instead of the aliens stealing the babes they create a fake Duke Nukem to frame Duke for various crimes and then everyone HATES Duke Nukem and Duke has to clear his name by finding the impostor Duke and kicking his ass.

So Duke Nukem: Sunshine then.

They need to go back and make it take place where Duke isn't an idolized douche and just a man nobody knows, trying to save Earth's chicks from those alien bastards.

@Donkeycow said:

Duke Nukem should just die.

I prefer "retire," but yes.

You can't make a "serious" Duke, you can't make a more self-aware, self-loathing Duke, and the gameplay is tired and leapfrogged by literally any other shooter outside of Gods and Generals.

@moywar700: Tomb Raider wasn't all about the camp though. It was about some British chick doing Indiana Jones stuff and the series kept that. Duke Nukem is all about the camp and the goofiness. If you take that out, it isn't Duke Nukem anymore. What they should do is modernize the gameplay and actually make the camp and goofiness fun.