I say we speculate/wishlist on Duke 5 more in here, like we did for DNF in the old days.
Ideally for me it would be a new team, and preferably a bigger one with more of a budget. Maybe bring in the Tripytch/ex-3DR guys, bring in some industry veterans from Raven, Ritual and Remedy or something, I dunno, poach developers from everywhere. Make a new team, call it Team Atomic.
(I know Remedy is busy, but hell steal one of them anyway. Get Sam Lake to write a genius Duke story. We know he can do humor too, all those crazy TV shows and whatnot in Max Payne games.)
Everybody suggests the devs of the RoTT remake (hey I do look forward to the Bombshell build thingy), and the dev of the Shadow Warrior remake, but I'd rather see a bigger team. We've seen how long and rocky the road can be for an ambitious game like this with a smaller team. And in general I think they can aim higher than those remakes mentioned. Or in general, just put together a good team fit for the job. Doesn't have to be somebody who released an FPS in the past couple years.
I'd love to see some of that crazy interactivity 3DR always teased about, at least sometimes, to some degree. Not to make it a DNF topic, but I did love the mini-games like air hockey and pinball in DNF, but organically stumbling upon an arcade like in Hollywood Holocaust would be fun, instead of it being a separate area. And many more little touches like that we haven't seen before. I like it if objects in the level can be picked up and thrown, etc.
More "hub" style levels, like say a Red Light District-ish block with several stores and streets to explore, and some kind of mild puzzling to proceed. Though I wouldn't be against some Half-Life or Max Payne style linear sections as well if it fits the plot and transports us to the next "hub" area. You could mix a bit of both the older and newer styles of FPS level design.
And of course, bring new ideas to the table. It's one thing to recreate the magic of a classic game to some degree on a modern engine, like the new Doom is trying to do. But you still might as well be as creative and innovative now as 3DR was 19 years ago. Do some cool new stuff with level design and gameplay that we haven't seen in a shooter before.
And I like the idea of lots of new enemies, not just being the old Duke 3D enemies. Maybe not even having the Duke3D enemies, I know that was a goal of DNF at one point in time. There's no particular reason he has to fight the same aliens again, there's a wide galaxy of aliens and ideas out there. Granted, I'd be cool with a bit of both, maybe a new alien leader brings together aliens from all over the place.
And I'll just throw in one more, I'd like duke to be able to have two pistols (like in Duke Plus), call me old fashioned. Back in the day once when 3DR had a chatroom about DNF, I asked if they'd have akimbo guns, and they said it didn't fit Duke's style. I can see where they're coming from, Duke being more about big beefy weapons than sleek coolness, but he could always have two huge pistols. Something kinda like the Duke3D cover. I say more guns the merrier.
There's been plenty of discussion about the tone, and I agree a less nutty tone than DNF would be a good place to take it. Though I also don't think it needs to stay as "Doom-ish" and desolate as Duke3D often is, humor can help Duke stand out from the pack I think. Again I think a mix is good, some dark dreary feeling sections, some funny sections, and Duke generally maintaining an unfazed devil may care attitude. Keep the one-liners coming.
And of course, bring back the quick kick. It's fun to write lots of random wishful thinking and speculation about the king.