Aggrogate

Shake it Baby!

I’ve read a fair bit of Duke hate (notably from younger gamers that didn’t experience the man’s antics in the 90′s) on forums and blogs which I think has really brought home how much time has passed.

It’s weird, flaming is happening as we speak with one side asserting that DNF will not bring anything new to the table, that the Duke himself is a trope better left to an era featuring scantily clad women running down a beach in slow motion(Run Yasmine, run!). On the other hand a lot of gamers are saying get over yourself, go rent Kick-Ass or Zombieland, kick back, relax and acknowledge that this is DNF’s greatest strength.

Now, I’m gonna admit that I’m firmly in the latter camp. I remember playing DN3D back in the 90′s. I remember the early lan games. I remember the one liners and their more than passing nod to Army of Darkness. But most of all what I remember is the sheer unadulterated fun that my friends and I had playing. Which is what it’s all about surely?

I can concede that the Duke is not everyone’s cup of tea, but what I think is interesting is those voices complaining that he’s a relic of a bygone age or that DNF will be generic, boring and will add nothing.

Once we were all gamers together more or less united in our niche hobby. But time marches on, the niche hobby has become mainstream and the age bracket has widened to span decades. DNF might not be the first and certainly wont be the last game to split opinion, but due to its high profile status as the ultimate vaporware turned desired game fairy tale come true it means that most will have an opinion one way or the other.

We’re now seeing an almost generational divide. There are those of us who played DN3D grinning like idiots at the thought of throwing political correctness out the window and sticking it to the alien masses as the ultimate personification of an 80′s action hero. And there are those that were too young (Sorry if I’m tarring everyone with the same brush, I know that there are many exceptions to this but it just seems to be the way the flow of opinion seems to be) and don’t see any reason for the hype. In much the same way I argued about music and movies with my dad I can now see that the same arguments have been reinvented for video games except this time I’m on the other side of the fence. The moment that I thought, “You weren’t there, playing the original games.” was something of brick wall in my train of thought. Wow, I actually paraphrased my dad!

[...] desist letter, and with the recent reveal that Duke Nukem: Forever not only exists, but it's even coming out next year many feared the same fate for this HD remake. Now, they've given an official blessing for the fan [...]