You know how we wrote about this 2001 build of the infamous yesterday Duke Nukem foreverand how it should be made available to the public in June? Yes, until “June,” they meant “the day after” because it’s now available to download and try.
All present in the 4chan leak has now been uploaded to The Internet Archive, from the screenshots to the videos to the build of the game itself (which also includes an editor). That means you can now play through parts of the game, although note that as a leak of an in-development build of a game that wouldn’t be released for another 10 years, it’s pretty rough. As the game’s former director George Broussard said yesterday:
Most of what is there is small level snippets, level designer tests or some fake expansion areas for an E3 demo. There are some weapons, yes, but pretty much no gameplay code or much AI/enemies or anything. It’s mostly just some art/levels.
A feeling repeated by Apogee founder Scott Miller:
Looks like someone leaked a 2001 build of Duke Nukem Forever. If you expect a lot from a playable game, you will be disappointed. The game’s brilliant trailer from that era definitely overrepresented what was actually playable in the game.
And supported by some people who have already downloaded and tried it, like this Reddit user:
Now that I’ve had some time to play around with it, it’s riddled with bugs, most maps are completely devoid of anything resembling gameplay, the renderer is buggy as hell (though to be expected given its age, could be improved over something like that like dgvoodoo) and the sound only partially works, but the glimpses of what could have been are tantalizing as hell. I’ll have to go into that later.
If you are interested in trying it yourself, those who have already installed it report—Unsurprisingly, this is an incomplete 21-year-old build for a broken game –that getting up and running is a tremendous pain in the ass. However, there are some tips in this thread to help you with that if you are Yes, really intention to light this.
The leak of the build hasn’t just given fans of the series something to check out this week; It also gives two of the most prominent men involved in the game’s difficult development a chance to air their grievances. Posted on Apogee official websiteScott Miller wrote a post entitled: “The truth about DNF,” blaming the disaster on the game’s “understaffed” and “adlibbed” development, and saying a plan to salvage the project by handing it over to war frame Developer Digital Extremes was “shot down internally in 2004” which “turned out to be a fatal suicide shot.”
In response, Broussard tweeted earlier today:
Scott is a clueless narcissist whose actions led to the Gearbox suits/frictions that caused us to lose 3DR and the Duke IP. It’s amazing what nonsense he spouts. Not surprising given his depth of manipulation and narcissism. At least I had the class to keep thoughts private.
I have *so* much more to say on that since I’ve known him since high school in the 70’s. You can only see him taking the opportunity to make himself look better by throwing an ex-boyfriend (age 40+) and business partner under a bus. Def a guy you want to do business with!
If you want to download the build and try it yourself, it’s available here.
