Duke Nukem Forever 2001 build leaked, ‘looks real,’ says creator

Duke Nukem Forever still won’t die.

Unidentified leaker claims to know of a build Duke Nukem ForeverSimilar to the E3 2001 game, screenshots were posted and a video was uploaded early Monday morning by producer George Broussard. He claims that the game looks real.

The leaker — “x0r,” who posted their findings to 4chan (as first spied by fansite Duke4.net) — says they’ll release that build in June. But as Broussard warns, whatever this is is not much more than “a smattering of barely populated test levels.” So DNF Fans should be realistic in their expectations.

The clip shows Duke blasting through a dimly lit, burning strip club. He encounters little resistance. When Duke blows the SWAT officers away, some sort of alien tendrils explode from their dead bodies. The HUD is the cleanest and most modern-looking feature, and it has an “ego” meter, apparently functioning like a damage shield, which refills when Duke offs another stooge.

The leaker — again posting on 4chan — claims that “almost every chapter is present in some form” of this build. “A huge chunk is playable, a huge chunk is block-outs with no enemies.” They say they will release the game’s source code with instructions for compiling it. The following build is Duke Nukem Forever Unreal Engine. This is the original Unreal Engine.

Duke Nukem Forever, the sequel to 1996’s landmark Duke Nukem 3DThe first time that a symbiotic relationship was announced for development was 1997. Quake 2.’s engine. Developers switched to Unreal after E3 1998. One of the many features and changes that would prolong this period was Unreal. Duke Nukem Forever’s development for another 13 years.

3D Realms, the game’s original studio, showed footage of the game at E3 2001, partly to placate fans who were worried about its lengthy development. However, it was slowing down and 3D Realms vs publisher Take-Two Interactive became more at odds over Broussard and Scott Miller financing the game, meaning their publisher did not have any launch windows or deadlines.

Take-Two sued 3D Realms in 2009 over the studio’s failure to complete Duke Nukem Forever. Gearbox Software acquired the Duke Nukem IP as a favor in 2010 to 3D Realms. This was to assist it with its legal issues. Gearbox launched its final product Duke Nukem Forever In 2011, the Xbox 360 was released for PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. Although it was an utter failure, Take-Two stated that the game eventually turned profit.