I played duke nukem when I was 7, and thought that the protagonist is the epitome of being cool. Once I decided to try a certain cheesy one liner on my mom, and so I'm still being fed from a tube since I lost all of my teeth on this faithful day.
Dook Nuckum from Forever is. Duke Nukem from Duke Nukem 3d is more of an 80ies Action Movie Actor turned up to 11 and inbred with whatever Memes you could find at that time.
"It's been a decade since Dukes last game and over two decades since his last good one" -> me, who really liked Manhattan Project, gets really angry -> checks Manhattan Project release date -> May 21st 2002 -> feel relieved as to the (technical) correctness of above statement -> realize I'm old :(
Manhattan Project does not get the recognition it deserves. I'd say it's in the top 3 Duke games, those being in no particular order: Duke 3D, Duke Nukem 2, and Manhattan Project.
Felt exactly the same lol... Manhattan Project is the best for me. A mix of Duke3D and the original platforms done well. And has some of the best Duke Nukem one liners (and a really amazing performance by Jon St John).
@@modernmobster Then Zero Hour as Good Duke Game 4 and Good Duke Game 5 would be the original Duke Nukem (Quaint for the time but outdone easily by it's sequels)
The early 2010s were such a horrible time for the revival of pre-half life games and characters. There was even talk of reviving Doom as a brown Call of Duty copy with demons. The thought sends shivers down my spine to this day.
@@garlicbread1107 call of duty itself is a great game, I replayed COD2 this month and it is an incredibly good game. Problem was EVERYONE trying to cash in on the success that COD was, pretty much how everyone jumped on the FPS bandwagon after DOOM came out in 94.
@@garlicbread1107 Call of Duty was the palate-cleanser to help us appreciate what we'd lost. Doom 2016 wouldn't have been as brilliant as it was if it didn't have crappy trends to consciously subvert.
There’s a little known DLC for Bulletstorm that replaced your character with Duke Nukem. Not only that, but it added all new dialogue for duke and put him into the cutscenes, having characters address and respond to him differently than in the base game. They wrote Duke as a fish out of water in an alien world. No one knew who he was or thought he was a big deal. They essentially did an extensive reimagining of the game as if Bulletstorm had been intended to be a Duke game all along. Maybe it had, I have no idea. For anyone who’s interested, RU-vidr Yung Junko did a really good video about it called “Bulletstorm 10 Years Later: A Groovy Duke Nukem Game that Deserved More”. His opinion was that it was way better than the base version of Bulletstorm and was a great Duke game overall. I recommend checking it out if you haven’t heard about it. Sounds like they went way more in the direction DJ Peach Cobbler wanted.
Honestly one of the best versions of the Duke is him in the comics. Him telling a dying ww2 black soldier that his fight wasn't for nothing because MLK would eventually exist is just incredibly in character. And that panel where he appears behind Adolf and just says "yo shitler" which scares him enough to commit suicide never fails to make me laugh. (Worth mentioning, after watching Hitler scatter his brain, Duke just grabs his cigar out of his mouth and mutters "Pussy")
3DRealms missed the forest for the trees when developing DNF. What made Duke 3D so special wasn't Duke being crass or the sexualization, it was the life and interactivity in the world. Duke 3D had working light switches, destructible walls, interactable objects like pool tables, and a character that spoke and had his own personality and goals. No other game at the time had this level of detail and life, and where other shooter games were mechanically sound they felt static and lifeless compared to Duke. With a self-aware tone and compelling gameplay and interactivity, Duke can and should live again.
I think you missed the mark a little bit. For 2011 DNF had a lot of these gimmicks you said made Duke 3D. And ofc. Picking up a turd and throwing it around isn't exactly glorious game design, nor does it even fit the character set by 3D remotely, as doesn't anything else in DNF. In DNF everything is about Dukes Massive EGO, like literally the entire world has been built around it. It's a little more on the nose with his HP bar being his Ego. In 3D Duke was just a larger than life 80 action hero with a tendency to throw out one liners and a healthy dose of Macho. He wasn't Mysogonistic (bar the programming oversight where you could give that one girl cash to undress that isn't a stripper which everyone seems to ride like their pink bedside toy when talking about this topic all the time), no, he was just a guy that somehow got into being humanities last hope and pushed himself up to be up for the task. I was someone that ignored all the things in DNF and just played through the game because why not but when I picked up 3D which was slightly before my time it became really apparent. There's a massive difference in Humor, delivery and character, which DNF's Duke doesn't do justice.
I think one big point this video missed is that Duke was never meant to be an unlikable asshole, but just an action hero parody. You could totally make Duke work and not make him an asshole in modern day, just focus on his over-the-topness and less on him shitting on other people. That's what DNF's final release got wrong and you could tell Gearbox rewrote a lot of the dialogue since it feels very cynical and gearbox-like even at that point. And Duke isn't meant to be a cynical 'i just want chicks and thats it, the rest of you can fuck off' sort of character, because he's a parody and homage to action heroes. Key word being 'hero'. Like for example, say a kid at Duke's book signing had brain cancer and was coming to Duke through Make a Wish. The cynical take on Duke would make him go 'haha sucks to be you pussy, next time don't get cancer', and that would be the joke. A proper reaction from Duke would be "Hold on lil' guy, I got this shrink ray here. I'll personally get in there and blow that cancer back to hell" Then your tutorial level would be going into little Timmy's brain as small Duke to blow up his brain tumor. Sure he might have a lisp after, but the key aspect here is that Duke wants to be a HERO. An over the top, badass hero that all the chicks dig, sure, but still a hero.
@@wydu2566 Duke Nukem should have a scary ex as resident evil Mr.X women for more jokes and as a reoccurring challenge. Best of both gameplay and Duke Nukem one liners. possibly also escort mission involve Duke carrying the escort (pet, babe, baby, artifact, president or other official) with one arm. "Don't worry about the Whitehouse Mr.President. It's honestly kind of crap."
It's worth remembering that the very first outing for Duke had his goal being to defeat the big bad in time to watch Oprah. The guy is a massive dork with a very narrow skill-set that just happens to be the thing we need to save the world every now and then (like a cruise missile that collects Pogs).
"A competent asshole" is the best quote that describes him. He sure does kill lots of alien to save the world just to laid chicks later. It is goal and end pasted into a character. It's a infinite formula if you think about it. Write proper jokes, make fun gameplay, good design and you will have a blast of a Duke game.
Why eternal ? its horrible; doom 2016 actually has ammo pickups and no run around and wait for chainsaw timewaster mechanics if you want to force me to wait on refills for my slowly refilling chainsaw just try refilling ammo like overkill instead .. i naturally fast switched my weapons and with an actual working reason !
@@Kroenchkin Did you know that Doom: Eternal was built around you and you only? The limited ammo supply was intentionally put in in order to make the player think about what they are doing beforehand. There are also movement abilities like double-jump and dash. And, by the way, there are guns other than the SSG.
Yahtzee’s best quote in my opinion is “you demand innovation while at the same time refusing to leave your comfort zone” I don’t remember what video it’s from but I think about it a lot
Honestly if someone were to actually finish the original early 2000’s dnf, I would be down to pay for it. They can even keep the graphics from that time but just have it support modern resolutions, I’m confident it would do very well, at least among people who love boomer shooters. I’m a gen z gamer but I absolutely love old shooters, especially since the market is over saturated with cod clones. It just boomer shooters just have something about them that’s just pure unadulterated fun. 😊
The real difference is that 3D and Manhattan Project treated him like Austin Powers with a serious "blood knight" streak: He's, at his core, a hero that *will* save the Earth, and simply enjoys the company of babes when not kicking ass. Nevermind clearly being upset at the fates of the trapped babes, and never perving on the female monsters (3D Alien Queen, for example). Forever... He's actually kinda psychotic in that one. Ignoring he makes more than a few perverted jokes in the hive level, he casually jokes when his "friend" bleeds out in front of him.
Part of the flaw in DNF Duke isn't Duke himself, but the world. DN3D is a hyper stylized world of theme parks and movie studios, and it's a world Duke Loves but doesn't revolve around him. DNF by contrast is a world that revolves entirely around Duke. Duke is so popular, so beloved that he can do no wrong. He can assault actors, he can make rape jokes, he can do whatever he wants without consequences. That doesn't work; it's an attempt at power fantasy but it just comes off as tacky, tasteless, and weird
I’d argue Duke 3d did quite a lot to distinguish itself from its contemporaries, gameplay and level-design wise, Duke being so lovable was just the icing
the level design in a duke game is so important, it needs to be "place based" like a micro machines playset but you can walk around in it with things to interact with, EDF troops and babes to rescue, and alien counter attacks on parts of the map that demand your attention
@@Daburubareru Context matters, although I'll admit a Half Life esque linear Duke game could absolutely work in the right hands Thouh those set pieces are gonna need to be crafted carefully so that the game flow doesn't slow down to a crawl like in DNF yet still feel entertaining
My friends from high schools dad is John st. John (the voice of Duke Nukem). We used to pay him 20 dollars to leave voicemails pranking our friends. He was legitimately bummed about the games reception and 2 gun, on rails gameplay. Anyways, awesome video good to see a less cynical take Cobbler.
Such a great take on the games. You've nailed it down perfectly, from the issues, to the fact that Duke himself is NOT actually the problem, but the game's total writing still was. Duke should still be back, and "fun", but he could be played a bit more for laughs with a world operating on normal logic. Or Duke could even be seen struggling to adapt in dumb ways like trying to steal more modern one liners. But the gameplay needs to keep to what it did best in 3D, and stay far away from aping COD or Halo.
Amen. Just make him an overgrown kid who quotes Evil Dead, but kicks so much ass that evil craps itself in terror. Just the fact that he thinks handing a woman money to see her boobs is adult and makes him a ladykiller is worth exploring a bit in the hands of a writer who knows what they're doing. When someone that innocent and that horny is humanity's savior? It's everything M rated 90's gaming really was, but lacked the self-awareness to acknowledge.
I mean, the meme culture *gets* him. Like look at any of the memes with voiceovers- it's him literally either being Johny Bravo, a man with a brain of a teenager who can't adapt to absolutely mundane things but is still somehow cool or a bro who wants to cheer you up but does it in such a silly way you aren't sure if he's serious
Yes!! Reminds me of why I love South Park. The polarity between Randy and Sharon, or especially Randy to the kids, the kids being the most normal thing about the show. Their goofiness makes sense to their age and personality, but the absurdity of the adult culture in that universe makes it hilarious when the kids clash with it. Imagination Land episodes, or Satan's birthday party, or the World of Warcraft episode showing the adults absolutely losing their minds
Playing Duke straight in today's era would actually work a lot better than back in 2011, (for people without sticks up their asses at least) because things are so shitty nowadays that we're all looking to the past.
I like to imagine him struggling to think of or say modern one liners or being bored of using one liners of the 80's in the beginning and then saying modern one liners with full confidence Like saying "Remember... reach? Something like that..." to "I outgunned your outsmarting!" Or something along those lines
The problem with the argument that Duke should be a joke is that it falls apart at the point where you're supposed to feel awesome when playing as him. You can't identify with a goofy idiot everyone laughs at but keeps around because he's good at killing shit. The problem with DNF isn't that Duke is sexist but rather that he's super disconnected from everything that happens: he doesn't save the chicks, he shrugs off his babes getting impregnated and killed, he makes fun of dead soldiers constantly, he's an asshole throughout the whole game and that just feels terrible as a player since "you're" supposed to be the protagonist. On top of that DNF's world is super goofy to the point where you can't take anything that's happening in the game seriously, that's a problem because the story should at least be engaging on a very basic level. How do you fix all that? You just stop doing any of that shit, tone the world back to where it was in Duke 3D (somewhat serious setting, not serious protagonist = Evil Dead 2) and as for Duke? Just let him be Duke and be sexist, that's all fine if the character can redeem that by being heroic and just giving a shit about what happens to other characters in general. Duke doesn't have to be a joke to be a good character, he's already a good character for an FPS that's mostly about shooting everything that moves.
Yeah I'm kinda confused where he got the idea that Duke is a joke character, when he's essentially the result of tossing in a bunch of 80's action movies into a blender with an exploitation film or two tossed in for a little spice. Lighthearted and vulgar for sure, but he's a wild badass at his core, a macho power fantasy of a character :p
This is the moment I had to question if this guy even knows who Duke is. His take is some soft liberated Duke. This is exactly why Duke wouldn't work today. In most peoples eyes he would be a shell of his former self.
In regards to the question as to what Duke Nukem even is, ie, is he a parody of 80's action heros or a love letter to them, the answer can actually be found in a little known subgenre of films known as exploitation movies. Exploitation films were low budget, amateurish films that made up for their lack of quality by being as obscene and unapologetically shocking as possible. Common tropes that can be found in the subgenre are: appeal to drugs, over use of sex and or sexual imagery, a complete disregard for authority, gratuitous gore and action, aping and at times deliberate plagiarism of larger more successful works, stereotypes, and writing so bad that it borders on genius at times. These were low brow films for a low brow audience who just wanted to have dumb fun, and within that context Duke Nukem makes perfect sense. He's an exploitation, specifically an action-sploitation, protagonist. One of the big problems with that today is no one even seems to know what an exploitation film even is, unless you watch Cinema Snob who specializes in reviewing them.
Not entirely true. You forgot Duke nukems debut as a side-scroller with Duke nukem 1 and 2 . (Watch Civvie 11 videos about duke and you will maybe see it too .) Duke is a mash up of an Sci-fi hero mixed with Arnold Schwarzneggers commando . The Sci-fi hero aspects who rescues the women from the clutches of evil alien overlords with wits and sheer skill (Flash gordon) and the aspects of a muscle packed super soldier with an attitude to bite steel like a chewing gum and having nerves of stainless steel (John matrix from commando ) .
@@Snyperwolf91 Oh yeah! I forgot about the side scrollers. I guess it might make more sense that Duke just kinda apes whatever happens to be in at the time. Which, now that I type that out I realize that that alone is another trope of exploitation. Huh. I guess Duke kinda always had it in his blood at some point, Duke 3D just made it obvious. Still, good observation.
I think the correct term you’re looking for is satire not parody. Like in films like blazing saddles and Spaceballs in the core it’s the same movie genre that they are doing a homage. Even the first scary movie was a satire of the 90s thriller slashers. Compared to parodies most of the time it’s very mean spirit towards to the genre of movies that they are making.
Another big problem is that even if people _did_ know what an exploitation film was, a new film or game would _never_ be made for mainstream audiences today for _all_ of the reasons that Cobbler rather dismissively mocked in this video as if they weren't real...
@@Zakanuva ...except there's plenty of offensive media in the modern mainstream? Like I never get the idea of "you couldn't do X today" when shit like South Park is still ongoing regularly taking the piss out of every side of culture while being as vulgar as it can be
I keep rewatching this, not because it's the best thing, but the honest passion joking with the fitting editing. thank you cobbler, your words are riveting to hear.
I don’t think Duke should be completely unlikable by the NPCs of a game he’s in. He’s a parody of/homage to generic 80’s action stars. He’s a roided up, rocket launching, cigar smoking, one liner spewing machine who fights aliens in LA before they steal all the hot babes of Earth, then he shits down the boss’s neck after he blows his head off his shoulders. It’s ridiculous, and I like Duke Nukem to be ridiculous. But Gearbox just seemed to never learn anything about subtlety. It’s like it takes itself seriously while trying to appear not to. They go past being an homage to just leaning into it way too hard and going to just cringe garbage. If the revival of interest in Duke has taught me one thing, it’s that Duke is best when it points out how fucking stupid it is or juxtaposes itself with something completely different. Like Duke playing on Xbox Live with the boys and just trash talking like a normal person. Or getting told how nothing he said makes sense.
“You can’t make Duke Nukem today” I sincerely think that the over the top, absurd, puerile videogame culture that Duke Nukem pokes fun at has become too much a part of “gamer culture” for the average gamer to take as a joke. Case in point, the gamergate losers of the type who are now following people like Andrew Tate (who directly exploits women for profit). I think this is the exact reason the other characters revere Duke in Forever.. it’s the publisher sucking up to the player’s toxic self-image
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 While I think gamer culture has cooled off some in the last 10 years, there’s a reason these concepts exist. I was there for gg and it was the most childish bs I could have imagined grown adults engaging in.
Special thanks to Thigikna for the thumbnail: ru-vid.com/show-UCFDeP0t1UaVu238w5qGNnAQ I'm going to be streaming after this uploads for about an hour, here: www.twitch.tv/dj_peach_cobbler DISCORD: discord.gg/s3FpMrzYPz
As a boomer, DN3D was a perfectly adequate parental figure when my own father locked me in an abandoned office building. I was disappointed in DNF when I locked my own son in an office building, and I really hope 3DRealms can fix the next version so that my office born grandchildren can be less of a disappointment than my son.
You’re absolutely right. And gearbox might as well make duke Nukem public domain so we can do what we want with him with no legal barriers. These AAA major game developers are not to be trusted.
Actually, the Duke Nukem Forever DLC, The Doctor Who Cloned Me, shows some level of movement towards this. It's not quite there, but there are more characters that act like people and not just breathing ego strokers for Duke. Duke's attempts to come across as "the coolest" unknowingly backfire on him (like when he quipped to a scientist lady "I've got your Planck length right here", clearly not knowing that a Planck length is absurdly small). Even Duke shows interest in saving someone in trouble and takes it seriously, instead of just shrugging it off because he's too awesome to care. All you've got to do is have everyone think Duke's a washed-up has-been while Duke never gets the hint and still thinks he's the greatest. Of course, we don't want a fat, bald, out of breath Duke cracking one liners because that goes too far on the side of pathetic - we're looking for a character that you want to go along with for a brief departure from reality because he's having so much fun, then get grounded again once other people enter the scene again. Balance is key, and I think that it's possible to find a balance that puts Duke back in the running.
Duke Nukem was a product of its time. It was the best thing ever. If Deadpool is currently successful, of course they can do the same with Duke, but only if they take away all the greed and bring in people who are really committed to the character.
The DNF dlc, The Doctor Who Cloned Me, was already proof that they could course correct from the main game, and this is coming from someone who doesn't think the main game is as bad as people make it out to be. It's got its problems, but I can still make it from beginning to end without getting bored (although there are some cheap fights that annoy the hell outta me).
Nah, now that we've had Duke Nukem: Forever get lambasted for sucking and putting nipples on Duke's wife beater, we need Duke's Nukem Begins to make a gritty reimagining of the character
You've opened my eyes to how funny interactions between Duke Nukem and normal human beings would be. Having this walking SlimJim converse with people coping about the horrors of an alien invasion would be really, really entertaining.
12:07 - Dude, you blew it. I feel like a proper Duke response would've been "Sure, *I* will do the right thing, and you bet your candy ass I'll do it hard!"
Forget Duke Nukem when is Caleb from Blood returning I mean we haven’t seen him since 1998 like come on Serious Sam returned, Doomguy returned as the Slayer, Lo Wang returned hell even Postal Dude came back. At least Duke Nukem came back with Bullestorm but Caleb got no love
Ah, the countless hours of me playing the shooters (mostly Doom, Duke Nukem and Dark Forces) back then with my cousin on local coop. How? Him on the arrow keys, moving and aiming, me on the spacebar and control (I think), shooting and opening doors.
Aww, yeaaaaahhhh! I remember playing like that at least a few times! Those were the days! (In retrospect, it was kinda rubbish to play like that, but at least you could do something with your friend or sibling, nowadays it's all internet this, and internet that, not even gaming consoles come with two controllers anymore 😒)
Tbh. Add a weapon wheel, fix gun play (no aim down sights not cod here) open up the world, make Duke fast and jump higher. Modders probably could do this other than the more open worlds. Hell you could make a horde mode with the multiplayer maps.
@@ddsjgvk ugh, i hate weapon wheels. What is this, the Xbox? But modding DNF is apparently not so easy, because to this day, there's only a handful of mods, and they're all fairly basic. Given the amount of people that unironically liked the game, it's hard to say that it's just too unpopular to have proper mods done for it.
Downside of DNF was that it used Unreal engine, which wasn't as friendly to quick experiments for that sort of stuff. Duke 3D did it better for the creative side of things. There, making interactive stuff was pretty easy. Just a matter of placing a few special sprites and adding the appropriate tags. Your toolbox for modifying sectors was pretty varied, though Blood and Shadow Warrior would go on to add more options. If you had an idea for something that used existing behaviours, you could cobble together a rough version to test in a few minutes and have it loaded into the game a minute later.
You know what I want? I want a story where Duke realizes "Hang on a fucking minute, why do *I* always have to save the world? It's cutting into my BJ time!" and then becomes a Commander Shepard for a team of skilled, specialized, and most importantly (at least to him) *HOT* ladies. Written well, we could end up with a fantastic cast of memorable supporting characters to go with Duke and act as his foil.
You know, one day you just gotta play ultrakill. It’s got pretty good story, great soundtrack, it’s REALLY fucking fast, metal as fuck, has a reason for the 6 weapons and all of their variants, and while the game may not be 100% complete, it feels complete, and on your first play through it may only take 10 hours, and probably just 2 hours on the second, it’s still really, really fun. It also has all the old boomer shooter ideologies like no reloads, secrets, keys, and the ability to hold all your weapons at once. Also it’s published by the same guys who made DUSK and Faith, New blood.
@@NebLleb it does actually have a pretty well written and though out story, but you do have to look for it, it’s not really explained that much through the game on a normal play through
I love the TES:6 realism. Everybody cooming themselves over Starfield/TES:6 are gonna be very upset when Todd takes a steaming dump on quality and expectations (for the 15th time this month).
You're just being cynical to protect yourself from disappointment/hearbreak. Assuming no weird external factors. ES6 is most likely going to be good. It's not like developers suddenly forgot how to make good games
@@drlemon7729 I don't think the games will be awful but I think if recent stories has told us anything then it is to remain skeptical. We should not discredit the games before we see them but neither should we sing its praise.
Since the 2001 version of duke nukem leaked a team is currently trying to work on finishing the game, they are even adding new VA's and Duke's voice is on point.
Wonderful video as always, but I'd thought I would point out that George Brussard was incredibly demoralized and upset by the end, and signed the game and IP over to Gearbox just to give it a slim chance. He's now retired from game development, and even said he didn't want to talk about the 2001 leak because it brought back bad memories. So I think his egomania has waned. Doesn't excuse his direction on the game, but what's done is done, though the hope of Duke's return is growing less slim by the day.
i remember i promised my dad that i’d learn my abcs if he’d install duke nukem again, he knew our computer was too new to run the game anymore but still agreed. i ran upstairs and practiced til i had it right came down the same day and that’s when i found out we couldn’t play it anymore…. a truly sad day. such a fun game.
We love duke for being duke thats all we want. DNF 2011 went overboard with the comedy but the 2001 one proved that it was meant to be a awesome fun shooter.
We got the Doomslayer to return with so much ass-kicking glory that it made a new genre of metal and DOOM-like is now a term I see for stuff like Ultrakill. If one of the kings, the ogs of fps games, can return with such a kickass game, and now 2 games plus dlc, Duke can make a comeback and hit really fucking hard too.
I agree for the most part but Doom 4 didn't "make a new genre" of heavy metal. Alot of Mick Gordon's soundtrack for Doom 4 and Eternal is Djent influenced, and Djent as a genre has been around for a while.
@@megatokyo2113 Well, you're wrong, but not wrong at the same time. The style of mixing required for Argent Metal was really popularized first in 4. The soundtrack is actually heavily electronic, it's less djent in that instance. And while yes, there's djent influence in the soundtracks, the actual genre, Argent Metal, is often considered a sub-genre along the lines of Djent, but it's not djent, as there's too heavy of a focus on electronic sound, which means it's ended up working more like really heavy dubstep, just more along the lines of metal. You aren't wrong, it is just specialized djent and electronic music, but you certainly ain't right. Argent metal is almost always instrumental, very heavily edited sound, and low and powerful alongside an accompaniment of synthetic sounds. So you're only half right, it is its own genre, and the fact is, even if i say all of this, you can't decide what is and isn't a genre, the community does. Sure it wasn't new, there's been music like it before, metal is a pretty broad genre, but this particular sub-genre is called Argent Metal because it got really popular due to the latest games. The community stands over you in this instance. Like I said, you aren't wrong, but that doesn't mean you're right.
I'm an actor by trade, I've worked with method actors, they are literally the worst, Jared Leto's method acting means literally nothing, all it means is that you're difficult to deal with because you refuse to deal with stuff like an adult when they say cut
I think Faith is one of the scariest games to be made recently, and it is using atari graphics. It is far better than any AAA or AA horror game that keeps getting released recently. We are slowly tapping into the past, which gets me pumped for things like Signalis.
Duke Nukem needs the Doom Eternal treatment, since the devs of Eternal were absolutely awesome and respected it a lot, a duke nukem game whos devs actually respect the franchise would be the GOAT
it's the wrong gameplay for duke nukem. no form of regenerating health belongs in duke, and no glory kill system. duke explores intricate levels not arenas
Cyberpunk's aftermath could have been easily prevented had they learnt from Duke Nukem's mistakes. If either developers had just stopped their maniacal undertaking of so many useless mechanics and bland characters to focus on the core essence of the game both would have been great games, if not, masterpieces. History truly does repeat itself, it's best to learn from it.
Um... Duke is beloved by the world at large. He even wrote a book titled "Why I'm So Great". It was featured in the intro of Duke Nukem II. There's like, 15 games in Duke's history and the world loves him in all of them.
Bro how the fuck do you keep uploading such high quality videos so often? I can't even imagine how many times you've gone over this script and editing and gameplay. You're terrific. Thank you for the content 🙏
One of the best Duke games is Manhattan Project. There Duke is a Hero with a little self-irony, good jokes and self-awareness. And first and foremost, the game is fun. And Zero Hour, where Duke is showed like more or less competent agent. And this game is fun too! Btw, in comics Duke has a heart of gold, comforting the dying soldier. Yes, he is a narcissistic douche sometimes, but he is our narcissistic douche and fighting a good fight. Because nobody steals our chicks, and lives.
I feel like with correct mixing of tones, Duke would work these days. Like you could have some cringe stuff there, but would need to be mixed up with things that are actually bad ass (like change "power armor is for pussies" to "save it for someone who needs it"), or are that bad ass it's ridiculous (like instead of key hunting, Duke would just rip open a door like in DNF, or would do increasingly over the top things to pass through, like actually body blocking a concrete wall to pass somewhere).
Dj peachie does it again! Makes a video that expresses exactly how i feel about something even if I didn’t ever put it into words. This is by far my favorite channel.
I think you’ve completely missed the whole point of Duke’s character. From the start of his first game, he’s supposed to be the “COOLEST DUDE IN THE WORLD” and make you feel like the coolest dude in the world while playing as him. Of coarse the characters don’t act like normal people, of coarse they just simply rely on Duke to do everything for no reason, but that supposed to be the fun of it (only DNF did the job so poorly that it really is an extremely unfair example to use). Duke was never meant to be some misogynistic asshole despite how arrogant and irresponsible he may come across, he was meant to be a man who took and gave no shit from no one, a hero who sticks by his promises through thick and thin and cared not for what other people thought, a hedonist who may have been a hit with the ladies but never once forced advance onto them. And above all else I want you to think of this for a second, you’re asking for character and story depth in a game about a guy saving strippers from aliens. Why don’t you just ask for deep lore and Satan references in a game about a blue hedgehog that runs super fast? Oh wait, they DID and look how that turned out. As a true fan, I think I can speak for the majority when I say the last thing I want is another DUDEBRO character being like “HAHA I WAS IN A BAD GAME ONCE! LOOK AT ME I’M SO META AND QUIRKY HUEHUEHUE!”
I think a game where everyone treats Duke as an incredibly competent but utterly reprehensible self-styled hero would require writers that studios that can afford to buy the license for Duke Nukem would never hire. I think the only well-known game writer that could do it would be Suda51. I'd kill to see his spin on Duke Nukem.
I think you've got dukes character off in the sense that he's not actually supposed to be an insufferable asshole who only thinks about sex. Let me explain. In Duke Nukem 3D, he'd just got done kicking some alien ass, and he entered earth's airspace only to be shot down over L.A. by an alien weapon. He's originally just kicking ass because that's what he does, and those alien bastards are going to pay, in case for shooting down his ride. But they can also pay for drinking all his beer, or for stealing all the babes. Hell, those aliens bastards would pay for interrupting his pizza delivery, anything that (and I can't stress this enough) minorly inconveniences him. He's chomping at the bit to kick more ass, chew more bubblegum (but he's always out), smoke a cigar and rescue babes because... well... they're more fun to rescue than the dudes. Duke was supposed to be a spoof, not an homage, this much is clear when you look at Dule 3D's brothers, Blood and Shadow Warrior, spoofs on the horror and kung fu genre that were also popular alongside 80's action heroes like Dutch. Duke Nukem is the embodiment of the cover of every action movie and game, rippling with muscles, a blond/brunette jarhead look reminiscent of a marine with a square jaw, machinegun in one hand, dead alien in the other with bikini clad babes hanging off his legs. It's the cheesy, over the top hero male power fantasy embodied into what was the original GigaChad before being reduced to the 2D stereotype of a horny teenager. He saved the innocent, uplifted the weak, gave mercy to the suffering, kicked the ass of the alien invader and didn't just get the girl, he got ALL the girls. In this modern day in age we've heard allot about "unrealistic standards" in media and games as it relates to women, and we can lambast the genre all day for objectifying women... but let's be real, I'll never look like Duke, I'll never be that unrealistic mountain of testosterone, Chadmaster5000 of a war machine. Honestly. I'd love to see Duke brough into more of a renaissance man sort of personality, lines like: "Now if you're done waxing philosophical, I'm about to go Diogones on these alien bastards" "I... I don't follow-" "Ever see a plucked pig?" "I'll... I'll leave you to it" "Smart choice" You know, give him some wit that doesn't rely on plagiarized lines from some action movie. The fanservice was fun, but I'm ready for the Duke to be his own man in the modern age and show the class we know he's got under that steaming pile of arrogant developer it's been suffocating under. He's better than this. Give us GigaChad Duke, we miss GigaChad Duke, keep the babes intact and keep duke the hulking mountain of "wtf is that" that god intended him to be. Also, it makes sense for the aliens to not only attack Dukes vices to antagonize him, but also attack humankind by attacking their reproductive capability, a relatively sound strategy on their end... just so happens you don't touch the chicks when you've got a brick shithouse of a man with a more than healthy sex drive living planetside.
We did complete 360: there was a market for over-the-top cool musculine guys, then we got rid of them because it was "offensive and old" and now we crave more musculine badass heroes because we didn't get them for too long. I think Duke is ideal for movies/games now. We just need good devs
it's a shame you can't get all the amazing DLC anymore like duke nukem carribean island adventure where he literally chucks exploding coconuts and pineapples at aliens dressed in hawaiian shirts "oooooooh who detonates pinapples under the sea DUUUUUKE NUKEM"
When I was a kid my dad worked at a computer store and I would go to work with him sometimes and played all the original Duke games and other classics. I remember playing Duke and Commander Keem and Wolfenstein. When rose of the triad came out, that game changed everything. Then when DOOM hit the shelves, that was a game changer.
If you want to bring Duke back, do it in his original genre: the side-scrolling platformer. That's where he really shines. Duke 3D was a fun outing to another genre, but platformers are his home. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project was a damn good instalment, only let down by a few too many levels using the same music.
Thank you for bringing that up! Someone had to! People seem to forget there was a generation between the Baby Boomers and Millenials and that was us, Generation X.
I’ve had a pitch in mind for Duke Nukem’s return, with the establishing line of “If the doomed space marine can come back after a bad sequel, so can I!” A sort of Doom 2016/Eternal style return where you get the great mechanics from Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem Forever but with improvements. Fourth Wall breaks and goofiness like that would work well with a “reboot”. Just thinking out loud.
I'd just say that Duke isn't a competent asshole. Competent, yes, asshole, not necessarily. To me, he's more of a power fantasy character, like the Doom Slayer. A guy you wouldn't be in real life but you can be in the game. That's something game companies have forgotten about: games can be about making you experience something through the eyes of someone completely different from you. It's escapism! Of the best kind ever!!!
Duke Nukem is the kind of man, the little child inside every male on this planet secretly wishes to be. Just do what the fuck you want, no morals, no hard decisions, no limitations, no consequences - just 100% fun from start to finish.
I don’t care for the Johnny Bravo angle makeover of Duke. The issue with Forever was that Duke’s personality was perfectly fit for the occasional one-liner and fun, it doesn’t translate into a long serious narrative with characters spitting pages of dialogue at Duke. The boomer shooter throwback could work by just taking Duke back to his roots, no need for a predicable ironic take on the character. The game should be 99% shooting aliens and 1% one liners and occasional crass behavior.
