http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1148581p1.html

does it the gameplay need to be updated or should they just stick with the old school stuff?

I say totally relevant, totally irreverent (which is what I love...).
I miss FPS games that were just FUN, not "dark, gritty, boring".

I miss those too. Now its either follow this or that group of AI or nothing nothing nothing army of doom coming at you nothing nothing nothing army of doom coming at you (think Serious Sam). My fav FPS's are still the old 90's ones. Like Doom, Wolfenstein, Blood, Duke Nukem 3D. Games where you had fun and weren't holding a marathon of dodging to live or being held by your hand and being told what you have to do next (or fail if you try doing something else). Been a long while since I've seen a good FPS. Seen many good looking FPS, but not good play FPS.

What is irrelevant is Duke himself.

I think using updated technology to support similar game mechanics to what classic Duke had is awesome, and I really hope this game is a blast with great multiplayer...

But Duke is a relic of the 80's, where he was actually born. Duke parodies the over the top raw machismo action hero of the 80s. Think of films like Cobra or Raw Deal. He smokes cigars, exploits women, blows shit up, and is mindlessly patriotic.

Nothing wrong with that, but audiences of both movies and games have grown up and look toward more complex heroes now. The Bourne Identity offers a model of what a modern hero is like. Sure, he's n ass-kicking machine, but he's smart and complex.

Nostalgia will help this game sell, and if the gameplay is great it will move units. But if you created a new game hero today (or movie hero) who was just a jingoistic, mysogenistic, walking beefcake, that game would not do too well.

It isn't about political correctness or any of that bullshit. Its just that gamers have grown up, become smarter, savvier, and demand greater depth from a game.

.

Still... if DNF offers me multiplayer action as fun as classic Duke used to be, I'll be there.

Gears of War?

I don't know... I haven't played it much but I do know those characters are beefcake :-) But are they really as 1 dimensional as Duke? Are they misogynistic? Don't they have a kind of complex (for a action game anyway) set of back-stories and interpersonal relationships?

But I don't know... I've been wrong before :-)

I'm not going to let IGN tell me what I'll like and what I won't like. Duke Nukem Forever is going to be entertaining.

Hmm... interesting points. But there is a flip side.

Just about every action hero these days has some sort of tragic back story or is otherwise full of angst. Granted. But ironically, this is what makes the throwback that is Duke so refreshing.

I'll be perfectly honest here, I cracked up quite seriously when I watched the recent trailer. I cracked up because it was so totally removed from pretty much every other po-faced "wow I iz epic!" trailer I've watched over the last few years.

So, as far as I can see, this can only be a good thing.

When Gearbox revived this you could almost smell the anticipation from mainstream game journalists to call it old-fashioned and cumbersome. They just couldn't wait.

Personally the older it feels the more I am probably going to like it, so every preview that questions how modern it is equates to a rave review for me.

Probably irrelevant, but not for the inane reasons given in the article.

the only thing that is Irrelevant in today's gaming industry is IGN