Rumour Short webms of what appears to be Duke Nukem Forever (2002) turned up on 4chan

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

These webms got posted on 4chan today. These are either very good fakes or someone has their hands on the fabled 2002 version of the game. This could mean that Gearbox are finally going to release it, as they've been promising for years at this point. Or else, someone has acquired a build. We'll have to see.

 

[RionaaM]

Please be true! I'd love to try the 2001 DNF version. Or any of the other 3 or 4, since it was rebooted so many times. Gearbox could release a whole anthology of different DNF prototypes and versions, and I'd buy the hell out of it.

 

[fantomena]

Woah, would like to try it.

I feel like one of the very few people on the planet who actually enjoyed DNF. Played through it all + dlc.

 

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

Please be true! I'd love to try the 2001 DNF version. Or any of the other 3 or 4, since it was rebooted so many times. Gearbox could release a whole anthology of different DNF prototypes and versions, and I'd buy the hell out of it.

I think the version most people are interested in is the 2001-2002 version, because from what we've heard, that was the only version that was anywhere close to a complete game. The big question mark is HOW complete it was. Frederik Schreiber claims that the December 2002 build was in a good enough state...

1999 - 2002

-This is the famous "2001" version.
-This was 90% completed. Id say 14-16 hours of gameplay.
-It was way darker and more serious than the final product. It also played partly as an RPG in terms of your goals.
-You basically had Mission Objectives on your HUD you could activate - Like quests. You also had an inventory with ID badges, keycards, etc. Things you would use in the world. Think Deus Ex Duke.

-You meet and save NPCs. Solve puzzles, and try and solve the mystery of what's going on.
-Then you meet the infected EDF who's attacking you. And the story evolves from there.
-But all very dark, cinematic. Lights going out, flickering in the distance. Moster closets etc. all with cinematic music to fit. Screams in the distance etc.

-VERY serious and dark.
-Nothing campy or slapstick at all. It feels like a horror game
-It's always raining, lighting strikes in the distance, rumbling thunder
-The bike is probably the most impressive. !z2_l1 you get the bike and the game turns half open world
Hub style
-So you can drive out of vegas, and you get a loading screen. Different parts of vegas also has loading screens in between. But you get these missions from NPCs and then solve them (a bit like deus ex)

-Oh.. there's also a subway in vegas you can take to visit different districts in the city.
-It's super fun in multiplayer. 12 maps are pretty much done.
-Specific for Dukematch.

-25 ish levels.
-!z1_l1 to !z5_l7

Have any of the builds of Duke Nukem Forever ever leaked?

I mean the 1997-1998 or 2001 builds? Have any of them ever leaked?

rpgcodex.net

But other people have claimed that the 2002 builds were a loose assortment of levels. We do know why the 2002 version went off the rails, though.

Doom 3 was leaked in late 2002 and I think had been shown off earlier that year. George Broussard decided that since Doom 3 had bump mapping and various other nice features, DNF had to have them, too. The game was on track, kinda-sorta. Implementing the new lighting systems completely screwed the game. They had to go through the game and redo all the levels to work properly with the new lighting. This is why games need sensible producers. People who put their foot down and say, "No, you're going to polish up what you have and ship it." DNF was a testament to unrestrained scope creep. And while we can only guess at some of the pros and cons of DNF ~2001 vs the final product, it's very clear the original product was far more sophisticated. In the process of chasing the technology of contemporaries (all these features being bolted onto Unreal 1), the game itself became simpler and simpler. The graphics got shinier, the underlying game got more and more rudimentary and simplistic.

 

[MJunioR]

Not the biggest fan of Duke since I never really played a game in the franchise other than Forever, but damn I want this 200x game so bad after watching those webms and reading a bit about it

 

[uraizen]

A serious duke with no humor that's a horror game? I dunno about that one.

 

[gabbo]

Woah, would like to try it.

I feel like one of the very few people on the planet who actually enjoyed DNF. Played through it all + dlc.

We should start a club. I enjoyed DNF and its dlc. But id be lying if i said i dont want to try the older versions even if theyre a mess even more.

 

[RionaaM]

A serious duke with no humor that's a horror game? I dunno about that one.

I imagine it like the 2nd episode of Duke3D, only darker. Which is coincidentally my least liked one, and the one I replayed the least. Those space stations and corridors got old fast.

 

[Alextended]

If that's what whoever acquired it has to show it doesn't inspire confidence on it actually being a full near complete game.

Decent visual style for that era though, like a next gen Duke Nukem 3D with the skybox and everything else.

 

[ScreamingTrees]

We should start a club. I enjoyed DNF and its dlc. But id be lying if i said i dont want to try the older versions even if theyre a mess even more.

Can I join the club? I also finished it and all the dlc. I had the balls of steel edition preordered!

 

[ISee]

The 1999-2002 version sounds interesting. Even a bit too good to be true tbh.

And to all the people liking DNF. You should check your temperature, you all seem to have fever.
The base game was terrible, the DLC was a bit better though.