Duke Nukem's Relevance and Future

Is the Duke Nukem franchise still relevant today? And how does the future look for it as well?

I've seen quite a few hardcore Duke fanatics who keep Duke Nukem 3D alive with terrific source ports and mods, but at the same time, they're extremely negative about Gearbox and keep predicting that the franchise will die under Gearbox's ownership.

So I figured I'd ask you guys for a hopefully much more straightforward answer over this...

Doom could influence it. As well as Gearbox simply learning for past mistakes.

Duke Nukem himself as a character very much is a relic of the past, an amalgamation of popular characters of that era, namely Ash Willaims and Arnold Schwarznegger - where wise cracking unrepentant male oriented movies was the order the day.

That spirit lives in a few titles, Shadow Warrior, but it's relatively tamed and the style of humor tends to fly over peoples heads unless you grew up in that era. The concept that the humor is deliberately crass, puerile and generally unsophisticated, doesn't gel well with the Polygon age, where everything is obligated to be progressive.

Gearbox understood that one of the main aspects that made Duke Nukem appealing was it's interactivity and character, which was in stark contrast to Quakes sterile brown corridors, but it played like a generic console shooter.

If you want to play Duke Nukem, probably better just booting up Duke3D than putting much faith of a modern adaptation reaching the same heights.

Yea, and here's something to keep in mind as well: Even though I like Duke Nukem as a franchise, from my POV the one and only game in the series that deserves fame and recognition is Duke Nukem 3D. IMO, none of the other games in the series (past, present, or future) need to be as monumental as that one game.

I like a lot of game franchises, but most of the time I expect EVERY game in the franchise to be great, like with DOOM, Street Fighter, and Mario. Duke Nukem is one of the few exceptions to that, alongside Sonic (only 1, 2, CD, 3, & Knuckles matter from my POV) and Gauntlet (Legends and Dark Legacy (my very first favorite game of all time from 10 years ago) are the only really good games in that franchise IMHO).

EDIT:
Just for the record, am I correct in that only treating one game out of an entire franchise with utmost honor and respect is much easier than treating EVERY game in the franchise that way? And can I still favor said franchise by doing it that way?
Sorry Archangel3371, I've been careful about asking questions like this, but this will help me to ask fewer questions later on...

@Spineratti:

As of now, it looks like Gearbox doesn't give two shits about putting Duke Nukem in the modern world. If they did wanna put up a modern DN, they could easily follow Doom's example. Doom guy was a stone cold badass and Duke is just like that.

It's funny you know, i thought about it a few days ago, Duke were one of my strongest and most deep memory chilhood video games, (among with Wolfenstein and Doom, didn't played Quake). i think Duke is one of the coolest protagonist ever, and 2016 DOOM is a proof that those renews aren't taboos anymore.

I think that a decent developer that will take this project to make a new Duke Nukem game can make a massive video game, the last DOOM is a great example, maybe ID Software should think about it, they creating exceptional FPS games.

Yea, as much as I like Duke Nukem , and as much of a good history as I have with the game, I'm just gonna put it to the side once and for all and pay more attention to DOOM (My REAL Favorite FPS franchise) and other, better game franchises.

That doesn't mean I won't ever play Duke Nukem again. Hell no. I always go back to old favorites every now and then...

Changed my mind. Just verified the hard way that only treating one game out of an entire franchise with utmost honor and respect REALLY IS much easier than treating every game in the franchise that way. At least for me.

So in conclusion, it doesn't matter to me what Gearbox does with the franchise. I'll always have Duke Nukem 3D to fall back on and enjoy over and over again...

You should listen to last weeks Giant Bomb Podcast where they go over this a bit (12/6/16).

Personally I think they buried him with Duke Nukem forever, but hey, maybe they'll copy Doom again and make a successful "clone" again just like they did back then.

Guess it depends on the series. Quake/Quake II/QuakeIIII are all excellent titles and it seems peoples opinions aren't so fixed, as they are all great in their own ways.

Mario as well, pretty much a stream of great games. Love Mario Land 2, but alot of people love Super Mario 3, Mario Galaxy e.t.c..

Duke had a couple of good spinoff's, Time To Kill, The Manhattan Project but it seems fair to say none of them came close to the imprint Duke3D left.

Here's a video about Duke Nukem nostalgia.

As others have said, there's only been one really good Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem 3D). The original side scrollers were kind of fun, but not really the Duke we know and love today.

So really, we gotta ask: do we love Duke as a game, or Duke as a brand? And are we kidding/deluding ourselves? Because there really has not been a whole lot of good stuff to play concerning Duke Nukem given how long the franchise has been around.

I think Duke's future is secure, but his relevance? I don't think Duke has been relevant for a long time. Hell, when Duke Nukem Forever was announcer, I subscribed to PC Gamer magazine...hard physical copies of the magazine! I remember it, actually, big deal when they announced it: picture of a cop with a tentacle coming out of his mouth standing in front of a dam or something. And it came out just a few short years ago. It was a joke for over a decade and its release cemented that fact.

Like I said, I hope for the best, and Duke is awesome as a brand. But as a game series? I could and have lived without it.

3d realms went about it the wrong way with the later games. They need to ditch the best-in-industry visuals in favor of solid gunplay, level variety and objects / npc interactions. If you take a look at this gameplay trailer , there's a big focus on those elements. While the game does not look that incredible, visually, it looks like it is a lot of fun.

The duke games should have that specific focus to succeed.