The 2K Summer Sale is officially live on Steam, and it’s the perfect excuse to find your next great escape. Summer is about having the time to truly immerse yourself, dive deep into a world, and remember exactly why you fell in love with gaming in the first place. Whether you’re
The 2K Summer Sale is officially live on Steam, and it’s the perfect excuse to find your next great escape. Summer is about having the time to truly immerse yourself, dive deep into a world, and remember exactly why you fell in love with gaming in the first place.
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It's one of the great 'What ifs' of PC gaming. What if Duke Nukem Forever had not stumbled onto Steam in 2011 looking tired and confused in a washed-out Doom 3 engine, but had released as depicted in its legendary E3 2001 trailer , where it looked set to steal Half-Life 2's thund
It's one of the great 'What ifs' of PC gaming. What if Duke Nukem Forever had not stumbled onto Steam in 2011 looking tired and confused in a washed-out Doom 3 engine, but had released as depicted in its legendary E3 2001 trailer, where it looked set to steal Half-Life 2's thunder with its cinematic storytelling, imaginative set-pieces, and preposterous levels of interactivity... Read more.
Out of a mix of morbid curiosity, and an oh hey that's in my game library moment, I just replayed Duke Nukem Forever 12 years after its record-breakingly delayed release. And I've got opinions... Read more.
Out of a mix of morbid curiosity, and an oh hey that's in my game library moment, I just replayed Duke Nukem Forever 12 years after its record-breakingly delayed release. And I've got opinions... Read more.
fter a build of Duke Nukem Forever from 2001 was leaked earlier this year, a modder cohort now calling themselves Mighty Foot Productions quickly assembled to take on the task of reconstructing Duke Nukem Forever as it might have been in a better timeline. They're building on the
fter a build of Duke Nukem Forever from 2001 was leaked earlier this year, a modder cohort now calling themselves Mighty Foot Productions quickly assembled to take on the task of reconstructing Duke Nukem Forever as it might have been in a better timeline. They're building on the framework of the leaked version, which was an unfinished build made to demo at E3, and the result looks a lot like the kind of low-budget retro shooter a small studio might make today. In a good way... Read more.
group on ModDB is attempting to finish the in-progress build of Duke Nukem Forever that leaked online back in May. The DNF2001 Restoration Project team is taking the bones of that mythical 2001 build and filling in the gaps, extrapolating its story and direction while also lookin
group on ModDB is attempting to finish the in-progress build of Duke Nukem Forever that leaked online back in May. The DNF2001 Restoration Project team is taking the bones of that mythical 2001 build and filling in the gaps, extrapolating its story and direction while also looking to make it playable from start to finish with minimal hassle. The team recently released a "first slice" teaser trailer of their work so far, featuring previously unused DNF trailer music by Lee Jackson, a retired 3D Realms composer who wrote Duke's iconic theme, Grabbag... Read more.
I have to be honest here, AI art bots like DALL-E scare the hell out of me, our overly sanguine tech mavericks once again announcing, "Man creating a thinking machine in his own image is rad as hell, actually!" These little man-made horrors beyond our comprehension have given us
I have to be honest here, AI art bots like DALL-E scare the hell out of me, our overly sanguine tech mavericks once again announcing, "Man creating a thinking machine in his own image is rad as hell, actually!" These little man-made horrors beyond our comprehension have given us one unambiguous gift, however: some utterly sublime shitposts... Read more.
When the 2001 E3 build of Duke Nukem Forever leaked online the other day , emerging from its 90s strip club smelling of beer masked by a half-pack of Hubba Bubba, it pricked our curiosity. Sure, the build was obviously incomplete and buggy, but perhaps at least it could've helped
When the 2001 E3 build of Duke Nukem Forever leaked online the other day, emerging from its 90s strip club smelling of beer masked by a half-pack of Hubba Bubba, it pricked our curiosity. Sure, the build was obviously incomplete and buggy, but perhaps at least it could've helped us visualise a timeline where Duke Nukem Forever came out in the early 2000s and was actually alright, rather than the head-in-hands embarrassment we got with the 2011 game... Read more.
pogee, which also went by 3D Realms at one time, published a number of successful and super-influential games, but is best known for its greatest disaster: the 15-year-long development of Duke Nukem Forever, which was ultimately completed by Gearbox. After footage of a 2001 build
pogee, which also went by 3D Realms at one time, published a number of successful and super-influential games, but is best known for its greatest disaster: the 15-year-long development of Duke Nukem Forever, which was ultimately completed by Gearbox. After footage of a 2001 build of the game leaked this week, Apogee co-founders Scott Miller and George Broussard opened up, just a little, about what "killed the original 3D Realms"—and the former high school friends are pointing their fingers at each other... Read more.
Following the leak of a 2001 demo build of the troubled FPS game Duke Nukem Forever, the founder of Apogee has published some thoughts about what went wrong and ultimately led to developer 3D Realms handing the project off to Gearbox Software almost ten years later. It was Duke N
Following the leak of a 2001 demo build of the troubled FPS game Duke Nukem Forever, the founder of Apogee has published some thoughts about what went wrong and ultimately led to developer 3D Realms handing the project off to Gearbox Software almost ten years later. It was Duke Nukem Forever, he says, that wound up sinking 3D Realms.
"Anyone expecting much of a playable game will be disappointed," writes Apogee founder Scott Miller, in a post titled 'The Truth About DNF'. "The game's brilliant trailer from that period definitely over-represented what was actually playable in the game."
"DNF is the game that destroyed 3D Realms and ended up getting the company sold to an investor in Denmark," Miller writes. At the time the leaked build was created, Apogee was generating revenue from games like Max Payne and Prey, while Duke Nukem Forever was simply burning through money with no end in sight. He says the studio was understaffed, lacked a working development roadmap, and was constantly rebooting in order to adopt the latest in 3D rendering technology.
A new Duke Nukem Forever 2001 leak has appeared online, showcasing unrevealed screenshots, details, and even gameplay footage from the unreleased early version of the infamous FPS game - and the leakers promise to release a playable version of the Duke 4 early build and an editor
A new Duke Nukem Forever 2001 leak has appeared online, showcasing unrevealed screenshots, details, and even gameplay footage from the unreleased early version of the infamous FPS game - and the leakers promise to release a playable version of the Duke 4 early build and an editor next month.
While Duke Nukem Forever finally released in 2011 after being taken over by Gearbox, it did not face a warm reception. After a protracted development, it still felt rushed, unfinished, outdated, and ill-advisedly chased 'modern' FPS trends - like a two-gun limit and a harsh regenerating health bar.
Reportedly, the reason it took so long was that 3D Realms scrapped multiple versions of the game, so it's understandable that getting hold of one of these early versions has become something of a holy grail for fans - particularly the Unreal engine 1-powered 2001 build, which the E3 trailer was based on. There were hints that the Duke Nukem Forever 2001 build may get officially released, but now some leakers seem to have got hold of it, complete with screenshots and a brief bit of gameplay.
The version of Duke Nukem Forever showcased at E3 in 2001 is tied into one of the most infamous development hell stories in the history of the industry—which culminated, after 15 years of development, in a 2011 game with a design and tone that felt woefully out of touch. But inte
The version of Duke Nukem Forever showcased at E3 in 2001 is tied into one of the most infamous development hell stories in the history of the industry—which culminated, after 15 years of development, in a 2011 game with a design and tone that felt woefully out of touch. But interest around the game's incredibly protracted development endures, and it seems that the die-hard Duke community will finally get their hands on that long-lost E3 build of the game... Read more.
The sorry saga of Duke Nukem continues as Gearbox has launched a lawsuit against 3D Realms - again. Back in 2015, Borderlands maker Gearbox retained the rights to the troubled Duke Nukem franchise after a messy lawsuit with 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment over the Duke Nu
The sorry saga of Duke Nukem continues as Gearbox has launched a lawsuit against 3D Realms - again.
Previously, 3D Realms sold Duke Nukem to Gearbox, who finished development on Duke Nukem Forever and released the game in June 2011 - 15 years after the release of Duke Nukem 3D.
While it may not be as life-defining an event as it used to be, your wedding day should always be special. And what's more special than having the gravelly baritone of Jon St. John—the one and only voice of Duke Nukem —declaring you husband and wife. Or husband and husband. Or wi
While it may not be as life-defining an event as it used to be, your wedding day should always be special. And what's more special than having the gravelly baritone of Jon St. John—the one and only voice of Duke Nukem —declaring you husband and wife. Or husband and husband. Or wife and wife? It's 2019; it's all good.
I'm still torn on whether getting married by Duke Nukem would be a funny story to share with your kids decades later, or a terrible secret to take to the grave, but either way it's a thing that can theoretically happen now, thanks to Jon St. John becoming an ordained minister. Truly, a man of many talents.
He's even confirmed via Twitter that he's willing to switch character. Duke Nukem is all well and good if you're dealing with an alien invasion and/or abducted bikini babes, but not really my go-to for weddings, especially after Duke Nukem Forever. I'd much rather be wed by the eternally blank (but friendly) Big The Cat from Sonic Adventure, one of St. John's lesser-known roles. Or failing that, Mega64's totally unofficial Doug Huggem.
This raises a good few tangential questions. If you could pick any game voice actor to hold your ceremony in character, who would you pick. While Big The Cat would be hilarious, I can't help but feel that Deckard Cain from Diablo would convey the right tone. Just make sure everyone leaves after the rings and smooches are exchanged, no matter how much he asks you to stay a while and listen. Who would you pick?
It's hard to imagine that many games go from design doc to finished product without any twisting and turning along the way—we just don't get to see all the failed prototypes, scrapped levels, and deleted placeholder art. Every now and then, though, we do get a glimpse into the pr
It's hard to imagine that many games go from design doc to finished product without any twisting and turning along the way—we just don't get to see all the failed prototypes, scrapped levels, and deleted placeholder art. Every now and then, though, we do get a glimpse into the process, sometimes finding that the games we know today once looked very different.
There have surely been many, many mid-development pivots that we never heard anything about, but here are a few we do know about that stick out to us: games that may not have found the same success, or wielded the same influence over PC gaming, had they never made dramatic changes during development.
Splinter Cell Conviction
The original take on Sam Fisher's next adventure was going to be this melee combat-heavy game set in urban locations, and it didn't really look like Splinter Cell. It didn't look like anything, actually, other than a janky old third-person game with someone's dad as the lead character. When Conviction re-emerged it was a very straightforward stealth action game, but it was still a stylish update for Sam Fisher that people actually wanted to play.
Beyond Good & Evil 2
This one isn't even out yet, but at least one version of it has been in the works before—and it wasn't a co-op space game, or whatever the new one is going to be. It looked like a more conventional third-person thing, made in the wake of the Gears games. This doesn't look like much more than a proof of concept, but the project was canned in 2009, when Michel Ancel and his team went to work on Rayman: Origins. It at least reached the stage where Ubisoft were comfortable sharing footage of it in public.
Diablo
Diablo birthed the PC action-RPG as we know it today, but it was originally going to be turn-based—and designer David Brevik wasn't at all interested in changing that. He told Blizzard as much when they approached him with the idea. "What are you guys talking about? Realtime? No, no, no, no, this isn’t one of your strategy games," Brevik recalled himself saying during a 2016 GDC talk. The change came to a vote, and Brevik voted no, but was the only one to do so. And so it was decided: Diablo would be a real-time action RPG.
How did Brevik make the change from turn-based to realtime? It was shockingly simple. "I just made the turns happen 20 times a second, or whatever it was, and it all just kind of worked, magically," he said. "I remember taking the mouse. I clicked on the mouse, and the warrior walked over and smacked the skeleton down. And I was like, ‘Oh my god! ...That was awesome!’ And the sun shone through the window, and god passed by, and the angels sung and sure enough, that was when the ARPG was kinda born, at that moment. And I was lucky enough to be there, it was an amazing, amazing moment, I’ll never forget it."
Borderlands
Borderlands' signature comic-book style wasn't its original look. The change is common knowledge now, but still one of the most dramatic examples (that we've been able to see) of a change in art direction, a tonal adjustment made to stand out from other shooters of the time, namely Fallout 3 and Rage. It obviously worked, and it's hard to imagine Borderlands now as anything other than the goofy, colorful, somewhat messily-inked series it became. The sad side of the story is that, according to a trio of Gearbox leads (as relayed by Gamespot), the original art director quit the job and the industry after having all her work thrown out.
Resident Evil 4
Before it became one of the greatest action games ever made, Resident Evil 4 was a very different game—several times over. Between 2001 and 2004, several iterations of Resident Evil 4 were shown off at Tokyo Game Show and E3. The video above is probably the most well-known, from E3 2003. The graphics and camera are similar to what we'd see in the game that finally hit the GameCube, but Leon's coat model is different, it moves more realistically as he walks, and the lighting is also much moodier. The really big difference, though, is that this version of RE4 had a psychological horror thing going on, with a blue filter appearing over the screen as freaky stuff starts happening. You'll also spot Resident Evil's classic fixed camera angles and the "hook man" enemy this version is sometimes named for.
That version of the game was an evolution of the 2002 iteration, sometimes called "Castle," which had gotten a trailer the year before. None of these ever quite worked out—you can read more about them in this profile of Capcom's Yasuhisa Kawamura, and the struggles with the GameCube hardware that eventually lead Shinji Mikami to come in and direct the version of Resident Evil 4 that was finally released. But the best part of the story is that Resident Evil 4 was, once upon a time, an action game directed by Hideki Kamiya. As it diverged more and more from the survival horror of prior Resident Evils, the project eventually got a new name: Devil May Cry.
Halo
Bungie made its name on the Marathon series of first-person shooters for the Mac, but its more famous shooter series actually started life as a real-time strategy game. This is probably one of the most famous mid-development changes in gaming history, as Microsoft buying Bungie in 2000 was a huge blow to Mac gaming, and eventually the reason the Xbox got off the ground. Back in 1998, Halo looked more like the video above, evolving from a strategy prototype to some kind of third-person shooter before finally becoming the Halo we know today. You can read more about its evolution in our article about Halo's strange history with the PC.
Technically, Fortnite changed after development, and its original design remains intact and playable. But who's talking about the cooperative game Epic spent years working on when they say 'Fortnite'? Pretty much no one. Fortnite now refers to Fortnite Battle Royale, which borrowed the shooting and building from the original game, but completely overhauled the format to take advantage of the new popularity of last-player-standing battle royale games, namely PUBG. Without that sudden pivot, we probably wouldn't be talking about Fortnite at all today. Some of our readers might prefer that hypothetical timeline, but we don't want to live in a world without intense cube speculation.
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever is the ultimate tale of development hell. The first footage was unveiled at E3 1998. At that time, it was running on the Quake 2 engine, but that same year 3D Realms switched to the Unreal Engine, and so began the saga. Duke Nukem Forever continued to change over the next few years, switching to a new version of Unreal in the process and later a new physics engine, and publishing rights bounced around until they landed with Take-Two.
Jump all the way to the late 2000s, and it began to appear like DNF might actually be released—there was even a new trailer in 2007—but in 2009 development was shut down after an argument between 3D Realms and Take-Two over funding. The dev team was laid off, Take-Two and 3D Realms went to court. Though development would continue—including by ex-3D Realms employees—it seemed like DNF would never be released.
Come 2010, and a surprise re-announcement came at PAX thanks to Gearbox Software, which had helped reignite development and eventually purchased the IP, with 2K remaining publisher. And so Duke Nukem Forever finally released. It was not, however, running on the Quake 2 engine. (It also wasn't very good.)
Had the original development plan been stuck to, DNF would've released sometime in 1998 or 1999. Only a few people truly know what it would've looked like had it been finished then, but had 3D Realms put it out there and made its profit, the shape of PC gaming might be very different today.
Ion Maiden is the new game from 3D Realms being made in the same engine as Duke Nukem 3D, built to play like a first-person shooter from the 1990s. Its so old school its artwork, seen above, is a reference to the box art for the PlayStation edition of Doom . You may remember Ion
Ion Maiden is the new game from 3D Realms being made in the same engine as Duke Nukem 3D, built to play like a first-person shooter from the 1990s. Its so old school its artwork, seen above, is a reference to the box art for the PlayStation edition of Doom.
You may remember Ion Maiden's protagonist from a previous game, Interceptor Entertainment's top-down ARPG Bombshell, which Ion Maiden is a prequel to (not that you need to have played it first). She's got a history that goes back further than that, however. At one point, Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison was almost an NPC in Duke Nukem Forever.
She'd been conceived as the star of her own game back in 1997, inspired by Barb Wire (both the Pamela Anderson movie and the comic published by Dark Horse). When that game's creators left 3D Realms the decision was made to have Bombshell instead debut in Duke Nukem Forever, and then get her own spin-off. Early concept art from this period shows a version of the character very much like the 'bad girl' comics popular in the era, like someone straight out of Danger Girl. (Art by Dan Panosian and Paul Richards.)
In 2003, with Duke Nukem Forever still years away, Feng Zhu was hired to redesign the character with a slightly more practical look. But none of these versions of the character would be used in the final game, from which she was completely absent—a blessing in disguise, really.
It wasn't until 2015 that Bombshell was revived for her own game. While those early concepts had her as essentially a sexed-up female version of Duke Nukem, then as an EDF soldier, the next redesign transformed her into a bomb disposal expert—hence the nickname. This design kept the bionic arm that had been part of some of the early concept art, but not much else.
This brings us to 2018 and Ion Maiden, which details Bombshell's early career working for the Global Defence Force, building up to the 'Washington Incident' and the loss of her arm. Here, her look is much more practical, complete with armor. She even wears a helmet sometimes. (Art by Arturo Pahua.)
Finally, as a bonus these facial close-ups by Isabel Alonso, which were repurposed from concept art to become in-game health portrait expressions in the classic Wolfenstein 3D style.
Ion Maiden's 'preview campaign' is currently available in Early Access, giving you a Shareware-size taste of the finished product.
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get a steaming pile of half-baked ideas, geriatric technology and an exhausting cocktail of i
Have You Played?is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get a steaming pile of half-baked ideas, geriatric technology and an exhausting cocktail of ill-judged satire and straight-up misanthropy. (more…)
Despite it being 2018, Duke Nukem might soon get a film adaptation. The news comes via Hollywood Reporter , which reckons actor John Cena is "in negotiations" to star in the film, which has yet to lock in a director or writer. Production company Platinum Dunes – which is operated
Despite it being 2018, Duke Nukem might soon get a film adaptation. The news comes via Hollywood Reporter, which reckons actor John Cena is "in negotiations" to star in the film, which has yet to lock in a director or writer. Production company Platinum Dunes – which is operated by Michael Bay – is producing it. T
It seems like odd timing for a Duke Nukem adaptation. Not only did Duke Nukem Forever tank miserably (because it sucked!) but Duke himself feels like a fossil of the 1990s. He recently popped up as a DLC bonus for the Bulletstorm remaster, but aside from that and the most recent in a line of Duke Nukem 3D reissues, he's not been used in any new games.
One could reasonably suspect that this film adaptation may be planned to coincide with a new game. But that's only if we're really unlucky. If there is one, it'd be published by Gearbox, who acquired the property a couple of years ago.
Whatever the case, John Cena would probably make a good Duke – he looks the part.
Duke Nukem 3D turned twenty this year, which means it can get away with drinking hard liquor and smoking cigars in a strip club legally in some parts of the world, but might not think that s as cool as it once seemed. Mr Nukem is actually twenty-five years old, however, having ap
Duke Nukem 3D [official site] turned twenty this year, which means it can get away with drinking hard liquor and smoking cigars in a strip club legally in some parts of the world, but might not think that s as cool as it once seemed. Mr Nukem is actually twenty-five years old, however, having appeared in two platform games before his FPS adventures. Years of development hell later, he also appeared in Duke Nukem Forever, a game remembered more for its delays than its eventual release.
Today, we’ve been thinking and chatting about all things Duke, from wonderful level design to wonky nipples and weird space tigers.
Today's Deal: Save 80% on Duke Nukem Forever !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time
Today's Deal: Save 80% on Duke Nukem Forever!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
I don't know if Duke Nukem Forever is really as bad as the legend that's sprung up around it makes out, but it sure wasn't good. Which is probably why, aside from a little spat with 3D Realms and Interceptor over what eventually became Bombshell (with a heavy emphasis on the bomb
I don't know if Duke Nukem Forever is really as bad as the legend that's sprung up around it makes out, but it sure wasn't good. Which is probably why, aside from a little spat with 3D Realms and Interceptor over what eventually became Bombshell (with a heavy emphasis on the bomb, as it turns out), Gearbox has been content to let the franchise lie quietly for the past half-decade. But that may be about to change.
Point yourself at dukenukem.com, lie to the age gate, and you'll be confronted with a Happy 20th Anniversary banner Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996 a Coming Soon warning, and a countdown that's currently got eight days and change left on the clock. That puts zero hour at 8:30 pm ET on September 2, a date that means... [Update: I originally pegged it at September 1 but it's been pointed out to me that I got it wrong, and September 2 is in fact a date of significance. Gearbox is holding a panel at PAX West that day, which surely can't be a coincidence. The panel is scheduled to run from 4-5 pm PT, while the timer will run out at 5:30 pm PT, so presumably we'll find out what's happening a little bit before it goes live.]
Also of note: The Duke Nukem Facebook page has suddenly come back to life with its first new post since 2012, and a Duke Nukem Twitter account has appeared. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is currently bantering with it.
The King is back. Line up, ladies. pic.twitter.com/jiyifNvWzLAugust 24, 2016
There's no guarantee that all of this will end in the announcement of a new game: We could be looking at Duke Nukem Forever DLC, or DNF Gold, or a Duke Anthology of some sort. But that's awfully unlikely. This a lot of effort, relatively speaking, for anything less than a new game reveal, especially since that's so obviously what people are going to expect. I've reached out to Gearbox to ask about what's going on, and while I don't imagine I'll hear back why would they blow their own countdown? I'll let you know if I do.
(Final thing: I couldn't get the site to load properly in Firefox, only in Chrome, so if you run into a you cannot view this website message after entering your birthdate, switch browsers.)
