No Surrender: Duke Nukem Is Baiting You

Ever get the feeling you're being played? The latest crudity salvo from the Duke Nukem Forever marketing cannon is this 'babes' trailer. If anyone was expecting a chauvinism climb-down following the controversy around the optional bottom-slapping in the 'capture the babe' multiplayer mode, they're certainly not getting it. The following video is just about safe for work, but it is entirely, consciously puerile.

I see what you did there. Controversy is being courted, and at the same time the reductive approach to gender is trying to be pushed so far that it could only be considered open satire (the belching and toilet flushing at the start of the video is but the first giveaway that Gearbox are baiting the world with this video). Satire of what, I'm no longer entirely sure. Of the game itself, I guess. Which raises the question of where DNF's worth really lies.

Well, for me it's all about whether it's a decent game or not, on levels far beyond the surface headline-courting. I'm certainly no fan of the "lol, boobs" approach, even when tongue in cheek (and I feel slightly annoyed with myself for having posted this trailer because of that), but only to the extent that I just find it kind of boring. Neither the titillation or the humour works on me.

Maybe it would if I was 15. I'm 32, and oh so very tired.