In something of a boomer big deal, Duke Nukem Forever’s long-rumored 2001 E3 build has been found and a full version, including source code, will supposedly be released in June. In a 4chan thread that showed up late Sunday/early Monday, and various others since, the leakers provided video and promised a release in June.
A Reddit thread points to a news post on Duke4.net, which details some of what was shown so far. This is some normal gameplay, here’s a video with all the weapons and such, and another showing off some bike gameplay.
Much of this looks fairly complete, but apparently the later you get into the game the more stuff is missing. This is the state of the game around that 2001 E3, but not the actual build that was shown there, so it has a lot more stuff in it. Levels are built out but lack enemies, there’s rendering bugs, and so on.
These are the things the leakers say they are working on before they distribute it – likely via torrents and other semi-legal means – in June. Of course, having now announced it early, released footage, garnered attention, and been written about by ourselves and no doubt many others, fleets of lawyers are likely looking at their options. This might easily be the last we hear of this.
Duke Nuke Forever, of course, did not end life particularly happily – it was not a good game, and showed the telltale signs of something that went through many years of development hell. To see something from a simpler time, likely with ambitious goals but some dedicated vision, would be a nice capstone for a series that’s unlikely to return for some years.
Written by Ben Barrett on behalf of GLHF.
