On April 27, 1997, an announcement was made that would shake gaming for years to come. The incredibly popular PC game Duke Nukem 3D, currently the only thing giving Doom II a run for its money, was going to get a sequel. Yes, Duke Nukem Forever was going to come out guns blazing, powered by the amazing Quake II engine. And then, a year later, a switch to the Unreal engine bumped its release date back. A few years later it moved on to the Doom 3 engine, and now it’s 2007 and the release date of “when it’s done” hasn’t changed a bit.

There’s still very little info out there on Duke Nukem Forever, even after all these years. A small handful of screens from its various stages of development, a little chatter about potential features, and… that’s it. But that’s not the important thing.

What matters is that someday there will be a Duke Nukem Forever. He’ll be back to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m willing to bet the gum supply will be significantly diminished, possibly to the point of nonexistence, before he even starts. There will be big guns, big explosions, clever levels (if Prey is anything to go by), strippers, pig-cops, and snappy one-liners ripped from the best B-movies. In the meantime, though, it’s been a decade, and any impatience or hype for Duke Nukem Forever has long since died, replaced by the knowlege that it’ll be along someday and there’s no point in getting excited over things you can’t have.

So Happy 10th Anniversary, Duke! See you when you get here, but no rush.