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Today's post was going to be a review of Braid. But <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever">Duke Nukem Forever</a> was released yesterday, and, well... I have comments. So, next week: Braid. Now: Angry Feminist Rant.<br/><br/><strong>Trigger Warning: descriptions of rape and violence ahead. Please do not read if these things may be harmful to you.<br/></strong><br/><br/><strong></strong>First, the backstory - Duke Nukem Forever was released after a decade of anticipation and shifting release dates, with the game being dropped and picked up by development houses and publishers along the way. And now that it is out? Almost every review of Duke Nukem Forever has been negative. It has an abysmal <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/duke-nukem-forever">metacritic score</a> (although higher than it deserves, it seems to me). Many of the reviews have pointed out, in addition to poor graphics and boring gameplay, the blatant misogyny that fills the game in place of interesting content. Even Destructoid, which doesn't have the best <a href="http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=4860">track record</a> when it comes to sexism, <a href="http://www.destructoid.com/review-duke-nukem-forever-203658.phtml">lambasted the game</a> for its immaturity and offensiveness.<br/><br/>The game doesn't just support rape culture incidentally by propagating misogynistic tropes, though; it absolutely revels in it. According to the Destructoid review:<br/><blockquote>...at times, the game's attempts to be funny come off as downright horrific. One level in particular takes place in an alien nest where Earth's women are being inseminated by giant penises. The women writhe and moan in a fairly humiliating fashion, and they regularly sob with no small amount of implied misery. In essence, the women look like they're getting raped. In fact, they <em>are</em>. That's the big joke of the level. The aliens are raping the women to create babies... By the time <em>Duke Nukem </em>finally makes a "You're fucked," joke, which he makes in front of two girls who are about to die in the process of getting sexually assaulted, Duke does not come across as cool, witty or likable in the least. He comes across as a vile, callous, thoroughly detestable psychopath.</blockquote><br/>I was speechless after reading this. This is simply heinous. It completely falls flat as humor. Even for people who are regularly amused by harmful, offensive humor, I suspect this just isn't funny. It's sad and disgusting that the writers of this game felt the need to use violent sexual assault as a setup for an excruciatingly bad joke.<br/><br/>In light of the bad reviews, The Redner Group, the PR agency responsible for sending out review copies got angry and <a href="http://2gays1joystick.com/2011/06/attention-pr-agencies-dont-use-twitter-if-youre-stupid/">lashed out</a> on twitter, saying:<br/><blockquote>too many went too far with their reviews... we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom</blockquote><br/>So, if someone writes a massively harmful misogynist game that includes the premise 'rape is funny', and you have the audacity to point that out, you deserve to be punished by losing access to review any game from that publisher. I mean... look. While Feminists often talk about the silencing tactics that people use to keep rape culture intact, we don't usually get such a blatant example. You're blatantly saying "if you speak out about this, we will blacklist you". It is a direct threat to damage the career of anyone who calls you out for your misogyny. If nothing else, Redner Group, thanks for such an illustrative example.<br/><br/>The Redner Group isn't the only group that has issues with the negative reviews. We have some fine apologetics going on <a href="http://kotaku.com/5811449/in-defense-of-duke-nukem-forever">over here</a> on Kotaku. One user in particular, with the outstanding handle of 0LunarEclipse0, had this to say:<br/><blockquote>Just because you can't handle shock humor does not make it not funny. Everything can be funn
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