Blaze Entertainment ran into that particular forest with its mouth agape over the remastering of the first two side-view platformer Duke Nukem games.

The publisher has announced a new Duke Nukem collection for its retro handheld, the Evercade, featuring remasters of the blond macho’s first two games. The snag is that the promotional image was created with the help of artificial intelligence. At first glance, it looks innocent, but Kotaku pointed out that the legs, but especially the weapon, are not in proper perspective, and the finger on his right hand, intended for the trigger, can be especially noticeable to a layperson.

Blaze took down the image in response and then posted an apology from Andrew Byatt, the company’s CEO: “An artist was commissioned to produce a lead image for the new Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered game developed by Blaze Entertainment. It is abundantly clear from the response on social media that the work on this commission has fallen below the expectations and standards demanded by fans due to the artists’ use of AI. We are immediately removing the art where possible and will announce a replacement commission in due course that better meets the high standard expected. We would like to apologize to you, all of the fans, who have felt passionately about this enough, and please be assured are working to remedy this. We also would like to thank everyone who’s worked on the project for their input.”

Blaze initially defended Oskar Manuel, who describes himself as a “professional hybrid concept artist.” Still, after many on Twitter highlighted other examples of him that were the work of artificial intelligence, the company immediately changed its tune. For example, the stormtroopers don’t all look the same, while another user, an artist for nearly 20 years, highlighted further details from elsewhere, saying that a true artist has to pay attention to every little detail.

However, one believes that artificial intelligence is also a tool, and anyone who complains is like them expecting the artist to paint on canvas instead of using Photoshop…

Source: PCGamer