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After hearing that not only was Duke Nukem Forever not dead but that Gearbox, developers of the recent Borderlands were going to finish and ship the game some time next year the words that ran through my head were probably the same exact three everyone else thought; "what the heck?"

Only replace heck with a less family friendly word starting with F, you know the one, I'm trying to swear less in my writing, professionalism and all that.

The big question on everyone's mind is of course, will the game be a complete steaming pile of out-dated jokes, average shooter gameplay and a mish-mash of levels, enemies and ideas from 13 years worth of development, or will Gearbox somehow turn whatever Forever is now in to something that actually he's gonna kick ass and chew bubblegum again, maybe matters in this modern era of games where shooters have evolved to be more sophisticated.

Bioshock, Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare and even games like Gears of War have so much more going on in them from a character, story, gameplay and design viewpoint than Duke Nukem has or ever will so its safe to assume a very large part of why anyone even cares about the one-liner spewing muscle bound womanizer's long-delayed sequel is rooted in nostalgia. These same feelings are what lead to the creation of such games as Painkiller and Serious Sam; shooters that are purposely designd to be simple old-school throwbacks where the emphasis is on shooting and nothing but because back when they were the norm, thats all that developers could really accomplish with the genre.

Duke Nukem Forever isn't trying to be like that though, at least that's what the screenshots and limited footage has shown so far. Which is probably what will ultimately result in the game being a disappointment for alot of people when it does finally hit store shelves. It isn't going to be entirely nostalgia and purpose-built old design, yet it cant possibly be on the same tier as an Uncharted or a Modern Warfare so how can it end up as anything but an average game a best with a few gimmicks and some nods to a simpler era of gaming.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm one of those insane people that was excited to play Forever since it was first announced back when Dinosaurs roamed the earth. Of course my enthusiasm died down whenever 3dRealms went quiet, but every time a new version showed up it peaked again.

hail to the king of delayed sequels baby!The last trailer 3dRealms put out I actually thought "holy crap it might actually be released!" and then their studio got shut down.  Months went by and I  stopped being in denial and simply accepted the game was dead.  Apparently though, I and many others were all wrong because it is actually happening now, and its kind of terrifying.

No game in history has ever gone through this kind of process and ended up releasing, at least not without becoming one of the worst games ever made, which sadly is a list that grows exponentially every year still.

 

I dont know why, but I have to play Duke Nukem Forever.  Duke Nukem 3D was a huge part of my early years of gaming and I miss the days when a shooter could just be a shooter and still be amazing but I'm also worried that just like with Painkiller and Serious Sam I'll play the game for a couple hours, get bored and remember why I love modern games so much more.

Lastly, because I couldn't not mention this; I turned 24 just two days ago, Duke3D released before I hit puberty.