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Headscratchers: Duke Nukem Forever
  • While most fans hate the boxart, I like it. Except for one little thing. What the eff is up with Duke's left arm? Does it have 3 sections or something?
    • His left hand is not visible, and is probably touching his buttock; that hand on his hip is probably a woman's, as can be inferred by the nails and structural differences.
    • No, I realize the babe's hand is on his hip. But look at Duke's actual left arm. What could be called his shoulder is hanging a good few inches from the socket. Look at you left arm, then look at his. Don't you notice anything odd about Duke's?
      • Duke dislocated his shoulder fighting aliens, but he's just too damn badass to care.
      • Also: Perhaps his oversized ego causes him to thrust his chest out. That and the bandoleer (and difficulty in drawing pictures from high/low angles) causes this?
    • I'm guessing it's the woman's right hand, coming over his shoulder and into his tanktop, making his left pec look too big and throwing off the proportion. Or a dumb art error, whichever works.
    • Not a dumb art error, at least not of the cover artist. Look at his in-game model during the Press Conference. All your questions will be answered, he's just drawn that way.
  • Ok, i can accept that puny bullets don't harm the mighty dukes' health, but why does he gain ego while hiding for cover like a coward? Wouldn't it be more appropriate that he gains ego immediatly after slaying those chick stealing pig aliens like a boss? Diablo II did this by introducing life leech, so why not in an ego shooter?
    • Duke gains permanent increases to his ego by doing manly things like beating bosses, winning arcade games, lifting weights, admiring himself in the mirror and urinating in a toilet. Besides, regenerating health actually made this troper more reckless, as he didn't need to worry about conserving health for later. Just outlast every alien bastard that dares attack Duke.
    • Well, performing an execution on a downed enemy immediately restores your ego to full, so there's that.
    • The way I interpret it is that Duke getting hit hurts his self-esteem and ego, but when he ducks into cover or avoids fire, its his equivalent of shaking off the hits to his self-esteem and psyching himself up to step back out and kick some ass.
    • Still doesn't excuse the fact that one to two shots from the aliens can kill the Chuck Norris of video games.
      • Duke's ego may shield him, but it doesn't shield him that much.
    • Duke doesn't gain ego while running and hiding, it just goes back to its normal size whenever he is not being stuffed with bullets. Duke is so self-absorbed and narcissistic that his spirits rise all by themselves if there is nothing to keep his ego at bay. Simply because he is the Duke.
    • Again, that may be all true, but if he truly is so self-absorbed, he should have the ego the size of Europe. Unless, his small ego is telling us something else about him.
      • Well, at least he's not overcompensating...
  • Why does the reveal trailer call Duke "the man who disappeared without a trace"? He looks pretty famous in the actual game... Or is that another meta-joke from the line of "did you think I was gone forever"?
    • I think it's a fourth wall breaking moment. After all 15 years is a hell of a long time in development for a video game.
  • Why doesn't Duke get electrocuted when he jumps on the dead body in the electrified water in the Duke Burger? Human bodies conduct electricity too — that's the whole reason people get electrocuted.
    • Actually, humans get electrocuted and die because human bodies don't conduct electricity well. The damage done to a human body is because there's a lot of resistance as the electricity goes through.
    • It'll still conduct onto the next thing it touches. Which is why if you get a line of people to hold hands and electrocute one of them, everybody will get a shock, particularly the last person.
    • It's Duke. the electricity knows better than to fuck with him.
  • So, the production of Duke Nukem Forever took fifteen years, yet they were able to make four other DN games in that span of time?
    • None of those four other games were by 3D Realms.
  • Why did 3D Realms (or Gearbox) insist on sticking Duke with modern gaming aspects (2 guns only mainly as the ego/health while lumped it could have counted as something different)?
    • I'd imagine it was a side effect of the long development cycle and various attempts of bringing Duke up-to-date with then-current gaming trends that got out of date fairly often.


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