By Jim Rossignol on May 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am.
This splurged its way all across the web yesterday, but we might as well report it for The Eye of RPS to gaze down on it with a fiery stare. It is apparently a demo reel from developer Bryan Brewer, who worked on the game until the recently closure of 3D Realms. Various sources managed to grab the video before he pulled it off his site, presumably at the sabre-rattle of parties who remain interested in what exists of the game. The actual game footage is spliced with a lot of modeling roughs and concept stuff, but it gives us a fairly good idea about how Duke might have played: it’s a first-person shooter videogame.
Shame. Could have been a blast.
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(b)Ryan Brewer, even.
Forgive me. I couldn’t resist.
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Wow, these shooter videogames in the first-person could really catch on.
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Having now seen the smattering of footage present in the demo-reel, my curiousity is forever satisfied, and I have no need to see the game published.
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Having seen it running I really hope someone slings it together with what they’ve got now.
Even if it’s visibly not a finished game, I’d give ‘em a fiver for it, as I’m sure many other would.
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Wow, that looked surprisingly good. If only they had been competent at managing themselves, this could’ve been Duke Nukem Fivewordplayhere with Fourever being the real version of the 2001 trailer, put out in 2003.
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A first person shooter?! Egads.
It does seem very . . . first-persony.
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From what I read at Shacknews, this is stuff that doesn’t represent the final game. But Brewer turned some stuff off to highlight his work: animation.
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The levels somehow look empty, and bland. I like the middle finger though.
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Hmmm, I’m surprised that they had enough there for a decent alpha footage demo. Thought they were still just throwing us new concepts for engines every five minutes.
I would have gotten it, especially if they made several more pig cop skins and actually gave Duke lines of his own. Also, anyone catch the crates in the footage :p.
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Some parts of that were very shiny indeed. I did like the scale of the bosses, especially the part where you have to climb on his back.
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What? No pool table?
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It looks like a fun first person shooter. Not much more or less than that.
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It’s like you’re seeing through his eyes!
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I’d buy it for the boss fight in the american football stadium.
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I’m disappointed that this will never be finished. It’s like a prophecy has been broken, a great and terrible promise that will never come to pass.
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Maybe it was hearing the theme tune again, or perhaps Duke’s silly twattery, but that made me rather sad. The day I first saw Duke in action was the day I knew I had to retire my Amiga to the attic and get myself a PC. Poor Duke.
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Man, some of the animation looked quite good (piggies climbing over the building, the door dropping on one of them). Not to mention the giant bosses.
But the one-liners and the humor remind me that I was in high school when 3d came out. Sadly enough, I think that were this to come out now, I wouldn’t enjoy playing it.
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Wow, this looks so… 2007.
Well, what I mean is: I’ve seen it before so many times. If an FPS is going to appeal to me now, it would probably have to reinvent the whole genre.
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Here’s another fine example of shooting people in the first person. Russian military installation? Frogmen? Snowmobiles? They must be remaking the NOLF series. Hurrah!
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Seeing this begs the question: What could possibly have taken them so long? It looks like a decent enough FPS (when finished) but there’s nothing in there that would explain why it wasn’t out years ago. There are amateur groups, like the Black Mesa Source guys, who seem to have accomplished more in a fraction of the time. Ok, they weren’t writing their own game engine but from the video there isn’t anything in the DNF engine that was going to rock the world.
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Alexander the Great managed to conquer the known world in the time it took 3DR to ‘produce’ this ‘footage’.
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More FPS games need the middle finger emote. Is the epicenter of violent passive-agressiveness.
@Meat circus: The strategy of the persians whas the suck. Simply zerging the enemy, and negotiating. The greeks where more like a professional shock force of something. Anyone could have conquered the world at that time.
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That actually looks fun. I hope someone picks it up and gets it finished.
I think they should get Croteam in to do it. They know how to do oldschool action.
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i’n not entirely keen on the music remix, but I do like the Mike strutter-esque ‘OOoooohhh’ vocals over the top.
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The shooting of the pig cops with the shotgun towards the end looked really fun and satisfying. It looks like it would have been and solid, competent shooter with over-the-top action and juvenile comedy. If they had released that game, I would be satisfied with it. Too bad it took them 12 years to come up with it. I’m just glad I never bet on Duke.
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I would have bought this game solely if it promised to have a button for “flip off overwhelming alien invasion force”.
I never understood the pig people thing, why do people suddenly turn into pigs in Duke 3D in the first place? xD
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It looked pretty good, to be honest. I like this kind of more old school shooter, with set pieces and also environments where you fight multiple crazy enemies with crazy weapons. Serious Sam is the last game that fully delivered this to me, even though Painkiller came close (the combat wasn’t as satisfying, though).
There were some nice bits of flair here and there too, including the middle finger bit. And I am mistaken or did they really name the health bar “Ego”?
Of course, it doesn’t look like something that would have changed the world or that was worth 10 years of work.
But it was nice.
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Why pig people? Who cares, they oink and you shoot them :) Not much logic in the Duke Nukem universe anyway. I hope some dev/pub snags this one, it looks like it could’ve been fun.
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The reason they were pig people is that they were mutated cops. Cops = pigs. Simple as.
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Maybe it’s just the years of anti-hype, but that just looks so … ordinary. It’s like Half-Life 2 never happened in 3DRealm’s universe.
Of course, it’s unfair to judge from a demo reel, but is this really it? Has twelve years of design resulted in a game where you shoot aliens in construction yards with laser guns?
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I wonder in which of their presumably numerous development iterations they chose to put in QTEs…
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A minecart sequence? All those years of hot house creativity and they were going to give us minecart sequences?
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It’s OK. They were going to use banjo music to go with the minecarts.
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Well, that’s ok then.
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Damn, that actually did look pretty good fun, just the kind of game you’d want a current gen Duke to be.
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@phil: I love you. Have my babies. My many, many babies.
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I think everyone should remember that this is a demo reel of one man’s contributions and therefore has a somewhat narrow focus. The last run down the fairly dull hall I think would have been chosen to showcase some of the death/recoil animations and maybe the little bit of environment destruction. I’m pretty sure if it was say a level designers demo reel we might have seen structurely more interesting levels etc.
Still I think even in this limited amount of footage there was enough of the little detail touches and Duke buffoonery to suggest that this was the same 3DRealms that made that legendary 2001 E3 trailer and they hadn’t got all grim and GoW on us. It wouldn’t have reinvented the wheel but I think it would have been ‘all killer no filler’ and a damn good time. I hope that somehow it gets picked up and finished because god knows I could do with some over-the-top FPS action with a mouthy protagonist.
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I think that Duke Nukem Forever probably failed because it was so ironic about shooting aliens in warehouses that it just imploded on itself. xD
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It had half naked strippers, I would have played it.
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I think all those people who are down on this wouldn’t have been impressed with anything. This looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Lots of set-pieces, very solid combat, great animation, big boss battles, colourful environments, etc. I don’t think you could real ask for any more from this style of shooter.
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I won the 3dr caption competition twice, and I never spent the $30 games vouchers they gave me. I was saving them for DNF. =(
Now if it gets released by a third party at some point, I’ll of course have no credit with them. I’d still pay for it though, based on this footage which looks at least up to a halo standard, with lots of attitude thrown in.
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I’m glad this turd has finally been laid to rest. The very concept of Duke Nukem was always dated to me, even when it first came out. It was a thing of the 90′s and should always remain a thing of the 90′s. There is plenty of other shooters out there that can and already have filled any gap that the Duke Nukem franchise may have left. Leave it and move on.
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Those shots of Duke getting up off the ground and looking down at his body are strange. It’s like his neck is 2 or 3 times too long to be in proportion to his body.
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I’m really sad. That footage looked like a lot of fun, that kind of mindless over-the-top fun which I haven’t seen in years. None of those Gears of War or CoD or any other shooter from recent years can match that. I’m tired of these oh-so-serious cheesy games.
BRING DUKE BACK! Someones needs to finish this game, I really want to play it dammit.
I’m so sad now. :(
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Such a shame, it could have been fun.
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Looks like a fairly solid, no-brainer shooter from that video. I like the fairly minimalist HUD (especially Dukes health being his Ego – I guess so long as he feels invincible, he IS invincible), and the bosses look definitely a couple of grades above your usual FPS standards too.
So, this is.. what, footage of the third restart or something? I recall reading that the final version had been in the works for only about 2.5 years, which isn’t *absurdly* long by game standards.
Sad to see a potenitally fun game get canned like this, but it’s no grand surprise. The amount of money frittered away on this must be enormous, and given the number of times they’ve apparently scrapped everything and restarted, it seems that they could have just made a game and there sequels in that time.
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After over 10 years in the making and no material released, the most hype produced for this game is after the developer closes down and the staff release material to job-hunt.
This would be and excellent time to bring out the game…
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The most frightening part? The nippleless stripper.
They’re happy to show all that violence and mutilation but are afraid seeing a pinkish circle will lead to moral collapse of the community. American broadcasting standards are crazy.
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Ah man. Now I’ve seen the footage I know I’m always gonna be disappointed it never got made.
Duke lives in his own genre – Yeah Wolfenstien 3D did it first with the 3d first person (with it’s cute beeps and hidden walls) and Doom followed that up with its 3d/2d non mouse look world. But Duke Nukem 3d just took that gratuitous first person blow sh!t up to it’s pure level.
With quotes like “Those alien b@stards have stolen all our women.” and “Blow it out your @ss” this demo shows exactly the type of first person shootem up we don’t have anymore – plain old simple blow stuff up with ‘style’ enjoyment.
Yeah Bioshocks great for enemies hiding round corners and attacking you from the dark, and Half life defined enemy troop AI (remember the first time you came across a group of soldiers who used cover and flushed you out with grenades).
But Duke. Just how cool would it to be to watch pig man leap off the top of the car towards you to take that shotgun in the face (no hiding behind boxes for thicko pig boy), or climbing in through the roof to be shot off into space by take the missile launcher at close range, immediately followed by a quote “So pigs do fly”. You’d be peeing in your pants.
These epic moments of satisfactory 3rd person kills are really what define how enjoyable a game can be, and Duke just oozes with classy kills, lines and its own unique style.
It’s a very sad week for the real world has once again raised its ugly head and consumed a hope and dream of many old school gamers.
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If the game had come out and had the general vibe and personality of this demo reel I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
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The most frightening part? The nippleless stripper.
I dunno which video you’re watching, but the DNF one linked in the article certainly features nipplage.
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@Marilena: Yeah, the “ego” thing appeared in Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. It was a hybrid of health and Duke’s “force of personality” (read: you regenerate health by killing enemies and being awesome.)
@jon_hill: Hell yes. I thought Serious Sam 2 wasn’t as inventive as it could’ve been, but hand Croteam the engine and assets and I’m sure they’d throw together something that was a winner.
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Looks like it would have been fun but painfully ’90s. And they definitely needed a better voice actor, if those are real voice clips from the game.
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I’m fairly sure the audio is a mix of the Megadeth cover of the Duke Nukem theme, and voice samples from earlier Duke games. I doubt they had any voicework done for the game – I’m fairly sure that’s one of the last things that happens when making a game, as you have to have the levels/script all worked out first.
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its a shame. I would have bought this game. Looks to be on par with painkiller and serious sam 2, both games i really enjoyed.
People need to pull their heads out their asses and realise that Half Life 2 and Bioshock are not the entire FPS scene, just a small part of it.
I think Duke Nukem Forever would have been an entertaining, macho, humerous shooter. Remember when we had games that made us laugh??? What happened to those?
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Looks pretty fun. I’d play it.
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I think the footage highlights how little FPS gaming has progressed and how awesome DNF would have been.
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That did look fun.
Not all shooters have to aspire to be HL2. In fact, I wouldn’t want that.
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It looks like a good game. The setpieces look like standard fare, and not much better than something infinityward could have throw togther in a year or so. To an extent, I don’t think we would have ever had a game to live up to the DNF moniker, but it would have been nice closure for us all to make up our own minds… it is genuinely sad this will probably never see the light of day, but really after 10 years unless it cured cancer and make us all bikes out of sandwiches it wouldn’t have been good enough.
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@Duoae
But how the hell could an fps be different? Whenever they differ too much they are put into another box, such as action rpg or whatever. Look at the differences between Serious Sam and Deus Ex, or maybe Thief.
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From what I read at Shacknews, this is stuff that doesn’t represent the final game.
What final game?
There is no final game.
Maybe there would be, though, if George Broussard spent less time posting bullshit on Shacknews.
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I think alot of people seem to miss the point slightly. Duke isn’t redefining any genre it’s just kicking ass and chewing bubblegum. You laugh at the one liners, blow shit up, then kick back and crack open an alcoholic beverage of your prefered choice.
One problem might have been that DNF was completely self funded, and the lack of the ever hated, feature removing, game destroying publisher always breathing down the neck of the developer might have led to the constant restarts and slow progression of the game. The whole ‘last 10% takes 90% of the time’ rule sticks strong and i feel that there was a mass of tweaking on extra fine details when they still had the rest of the game to get sorted.
Either way, maybe one day Duke’ll finally see the light of day. I really hope so atleast.
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The animation is really stellar, a cut above even most current games. It also looks like they were placing a high priority on the “embodied” perspective done so well in Far Cry 2.
Not saying it would’ve been a good game, but I feel more regretful after watching that clip than I did before.
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The minecart sequence dates back to the Quake-engine ’98 trailer (and also appears in the 2001 one).
Like I said in the previous thread, though: Enh. Too grey, too brown, too shiny. Boss fight that looks like “kill it three times, with button to press after each”.
And what happened to the pig cops’ glowing red eyes? If you’re going to have a dark level, at have some of those glaring back at you. Bipedal ungulates are not exactly stealthy assassin types.
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Shame, it looks pretty good.
Considering the time they had spent on it would expect a little more polish.
I did like to pole dancer just standing around waiting for the show to start…..Sadly she is going to have to wait a little longer
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@Benny:{{The whole ‘last 10% takes 90% of the time’ rule sticks strong and i feel that there was a mass of tweaking on extra fine details when they still had the rest of the game to get sorted.}}
The good thing: now we have a cautionary tale for newborn game dev’s. “Finnish your stuff!, If you run it forver, maybe you will never end it”
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The industry really needs this game to be finished. Someone needs to prove you can make a shooter that isn’t gray/brown, with regenerating health mashed into a ‘realistic’ combat system.
I want rockets, I want lasers, I want stupid enemies, I want awful, so bad it’s funny humour.
Basically, I’m tired of the Gears of Duty games. I want something that is based on fun, not shoveling new buzzwords at me.
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Wholeheartedly agree, Erlam. Gray and brown is so boring. :<
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This whole argument is stupid, I would argue that the FPS genre has had more innovation than any other.
You have your standard point and shooty such as:
Doom
Serious Sam
then you have your team based shooters, requiring co-ordination and planning:
Battlefield
Unreal Tournament
For story please turn to:
Bioshock
Possibly Fallout 3
What, exactly is the problem?
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@jon_hill987: Seconded.
Oh, wow. Through all the delays and everything, it never occurred to me that THEY WERE ACTUALLY WORKING ON A VIDEO GAME. Jesus. This makes it worse. This is just a tiny little snippet of footage, most of it going through the motions of stuff we’ve seen before. But look at it! It looks like Duke! It looks like a fucking blast!
Aaargh, I’m so gee-darn pissed right now.
I’m going to play a little DukePlus and pretend it’s a new game.
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Okay, I have to admit I was sceptical, but seeing duke flip the finger to the alien ship warmed my heart :D
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How the hell do make an original shooter nowadays?
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@psyk right, exactly. Duke wasn’t really that inovative anyway. Okay so it added an extra dimension of interaction with destructable objects etc but apart from that it was another FPS back then, too.
I think most people want to play duke as a remake. They want the trademark humour to be there, and the silly, kick ass action stuff still there too. That’s why I love duke 3D and I was hoping Forever would bring that.
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Looking back, was Hexan not seen as a bit different too? With all the spells and such?
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Come get some!
Making bacon, I could do this all day.
Don’t worry girls there’s plenty of Duke to go around, forever…
The king is dead, long live the king of the world baby.
RIP DUKE NUKEM FOREVER
…. /cry
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The entire plot was leaked. FFS.
I ain’t gonna read it.
Here’s a link:
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46948/Duke-Nukem-Forever-28-Hi-Res-Screenshots-Entire-Plot-Leaked
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Shame, looks like it would’ve been silly, over the top fun. Though with those weapons, bosses and enemies it does look a bit like more of a remake of 3d than a whole new game. Where was the new stuff?
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having just watched it again it seems like it was going to use the Prey engine?
The shotgun “pump” animation was weaaaak. In Duke 3D he really pumps away at it, made you feel all manly. ¬_¬
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Looks great.
SNIFF SNIFF. SNIFFUS. :’(
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Damn, what a stupid plot. Probably still woulda been fun, though.
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Hm, looks like they actually made good progress with the levels.
Someone really should take over this and release it.
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sad…sad world we live in when a bad ass gets canceled. Pour some out for Duke who can’t be here. Hopefully the game will get picked up by someone who has played the shit out of Duke Nukem 3d
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It may be nothing but misguided nostalgia, it may be that the passing of 3D Realms has clouded my mind.
But damned if I don’t wish this game saw the light of day, and damned if I don’t wish I could play it.
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I was all ready to mock it, but then I watched the clip and it looks… really fun. Refreshing in its cartoon-campiness after the seriousness of shooters nowadays, exactly the same way the original was refreshing after Doom and Doom II.
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Who would have thought that it would actually turn out this well? I was expecting a mess of half developed ideas after this long in development (and probably redevelopment!)
Of course it never saw release so all we get are cut scenes :(
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It’s rare that I rescind my completely worthless two cents, but having looked at the design documents and the leaked hi-res images, I’m actually now convinced this would have been quite good fun. Pity, that.
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Health is for women. Real men have ego meters.
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So, with the serious info dumps and like that have gone on people are starting to speculate that this is some sort of utterly genius PR campaign. Case from that being that there are usually really strict agreements that govern what people are allowed to post about a game – even after it’s cancelled and that in other cases it’s many months before you start seeing stuff from cancelled games on peoples portfolios. An interesting theory, but I fear that it’s little more than that.
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I doubt a 90s throwback would be the answer to the averageness of the average shooter these days.
Though it would have been nice to have a game like this around.
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Dang. Some of those SirKicksalot leaks aren’t grey.
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Oh dear god. The plotting documents. So bad. So reads-like-Duke-3D-fanfic bad.
Someone has pointed out that they start on April 1st. Please let this be a sign that they are an injoke, hoax, or such.
And at one point you have to give Duke a lap tance, as Bombshell, who I thought had been ditched some time before 2001. “Press X to shake it, baby”. “Press Y to feel dirty and cheapened”.
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if you asked me the duke is not dead … the brand’s potential is just too big to let it die that way … i am sure one day we will be able to play the duke again!!!
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