Duke Nukem forever began development in 1997 and was scheduled for release in 1998. It wasn’t released until 2011, and when it came it sucked. But what if the game came out in 2001 as it was supposed to be at some point?
When Duke4.net report, a major leak surfaced recently on 4chan where someone uploaded a series of videos and images of what the poster says is a 2001 build of the game. They say that “all of the E3 content is there” from this year’s infamous presentation, and that while much of it is “fences without enemies” (basically empty areas), other areas have some villains and interactive sections.
The leakers also say that they have their hands on the editor and source code for this version of the game and will release both in June. It’s important to remember that the build they are posting and promising to eventually release is not a video game in the sense that it has any sort of structure, cohesion, or polish. This is a 2001 build from a game that wasn’t released until 2011, it’s essentially just a collection of almost empty stages for you to shoot guns in.
However, considering the notoriety of the game, this still makes this pretty interesting, if only so we can (roughly) compare what we can see here to what we ended up getting back in 2011. Here is one of the uploaded videos (although there is much more at Duke4.net):
George Broussard, the game’s original director, who oversaw development from 1997 to 2009, has commented on the leaks, saying that the footage “looks real” and that people should “keep expectations down a lot” because “it’s not a real game to play … only a few sparsely populated test levels”.
Of course, while what’s there at the moment is just a collection of junk, die-hard Duke Nuke Fans are hoping that if the editor and source code does release in June as promised, they can flesh out the project and see if they can create something of their own with it.
