Finishing Duke Nukem Forever

"The line itself is okay, the line is a fuzzy, amorphous line and that's where Duke lives. He lives in that realm there between what is absolutely wrong and what is not even in question."

In the context of the fiction, it may seem absurd to raise serious arguments of moral impropriety over a game whose sense of humour is so knowingly, coarsely adolescent, whose very first gameplay action involves pissing into a urinal, and whose first Achievement involves faeces. You either buy into that wholesale, or find it idiotically puerile.

But the game's portrayal and treatment of women has sparked a very specific debate. In particular, a multiplayer mode named Capture The Babe. At the very least, this was surely designed to provoke a reaction?

"It's not supposed to be provocative, it's a Duke play on Capture the Flag, so the name has to be derived from Capture the Flag," Pitchford argues, not entirely convincingly.

But it's the mechanics of the mode, specifically the on-screen prompt to "spank" the Babe when she's thrown over the player's shoulder, which have provoked the fiercest criticism.

"Duke is absolutely a playboy kind of character."

"Duke is absolutely a playboy kind of character," says Pitchford, clearly exercised by this issue. "He's like Hugh Hefner meets Superman. I realise there's going to be some people in the world that have a problem with that, but the minute you try to suggest that Duke would himself commit an act of violence against a woman just because she's a woman, or advocate that, that's offensive to me.

"Duke is... Absolutely not a Chris Brown kind of character. I think Duke would kick that guy's ass. That guy's not a man, he's an asshole. And I think Duke would hate a guy like that. That's where I'm actually offended by the association some have tried to make."

Controversy alone won't stop the Duke juggernaut. What matters now to the fans who've loyally clung on to hope for so long is that Forever is finished.

"It's not just finished, but it's worthy," insists Pitchford. "It succeeds at its goal. Which is astonishing, if you think about it. So much better than the other story, which was, 'It's over and that's it', and it fizzles out."

Crucially, the myth, the legacy, and the game in this improbable saga are now out of Pitchford and 3D Realms' control. The public can, at last, judge whether the journey was one worth taking.

And so thoughts turn to the future. "Imagine what could happen if we were treated to great Duke Nukem games at a more frequent pace," Pitchford muses enthusiastically. "But right now we have Duke Nukem Forever and we'll see what the future holds.

"Hopefully we won't have to wait another 15 years to spend time with the Duke again. But just in case that turns out to be that case, we should enjoy this moment. This is a rare moment in gaming history and we should enjoy it."