Officially, "When it's done." It's expected to be "done" in mid-to-late 2000.
Duke's Story:
(Gotta have a plot or it's just going around blowing
stuff up & looking at chicks.)
(Ok, maybe you don't need a plot.) :-)
But Duke Nukem Forever's got one anyway. The deal is Dr. Proton has taken over Area 51 and Nuked Las Vegas, and as always it's Duke's job to kill all the bad guys, stop Dr. Proton, and pick up any chicks he finds along the way.
The Game:
(aka: So what do I get for my $50?)
Quite frankly you'll be getting one kick-ass game. Unlike Duke Nukem 3d this game will be totally 3d, like all the new games now-a-days. Like I said earlier Duke will be facing his old nemesis Dr. Proton who's taken over Area 51 and nuked Las Vegas. You'll get to walk around and interact with almost anything, just like Duke 3d. You'll probably be able to drive some vehicles around like in Shadow Warrior, most likely a harley or a Hummer. As you can see in the E3 video, you'll also be able to ride on the back of a truck, take the stick of a fighter jet, and man the AAA emplacements and blow those alien bastards out of the sky. As the game goes on you'll be teamed up with the aptly named Bombshell who'll help you on your quest to defeat Dr. Proton. Overall, this is shaping up to be one great game.
The Engine:
(The what?)
The Engine. It's what makes the game run. Duke Nukem 3d used the Build engine, but that's just a little bit outdated now. (Read that with an incredible amount of sarcasm.) For Duke Nukem Forever 3d Realms isn't using the Prey engine because they want Prey to be the first game to come out with that engine. That's understandable, even though it is the better engine, it does mean that we get Duke Nukem Forever a little bit sooner.
Now, originally Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to use the Quake II engine, and they used that way up until after E3 1998. They did some amazing stuff with the Quake II engine, and you can see that on my E3 video page. The problem with it was that the Quake II engine doesn't do outdoor scenes very well, and that's okay if you spend all your time in the bar, but Duke's got to get out in the great outdoors every once in a while. Also, to make the Quake II engine do what they wanted it to do they would have had to do a great deal of work to upgrade it, so they decided to switch engines after E3.
The new engine that they've decided upon is the Unreal engine. They chose this so that they could do those outdoor scenes like Hoover Dam, and because it came with a better tool set, so that it would actually save them time in the long run. After switching over, it took them about a month to get back to where they were at E3, but then they were on to bigger and better things. And now they're working on all new stuff.
Weapons:
(It ain't Duke without 'em.)
Well, to tell the truth we don't know all the weapons in the game yet. The only sure bets as far as weapons go are the pistol, the shotgun, and the rocket launcher. The rest of the approximately 10 weapons will probably be original to Duke Nukem Forever, though there is a possibility the the shrink ray will be back, but it's nowhere near certain.
Enemies:
(Gotta have something to use those weapons on.)
The only bad guys back from Duke 3d will be the Pig Cops, but they'll be in military uniforms because they will actually be the ressurected guards of Area 51. I don't have any names for the rest of the bad guys, but here's a look at the bad guys shown in the E3 video.
Ant Man:Well, that's what I'm calling him anyway.
He'll eventually get a real name, but till then he's Ant Man to me.
Basically there's not much to say about him. He's got four arms and
a really weird head.
T1000: This guy's made out of liquid metal and he can supposedly change shapes like the T1000 in T2.
Predator: This guys got some kind of cloaking device, making him invisible like the aliens in Predator.
Well, that's all I've got on the enemie's I hope that holds you over for a while.
Multiplayer:
(aka: Hey, can my bud's join in?)
Once again, Dukematch will be back and you'll be able to play all your freinds over the internet or network, though not directly by modem. There will be a co-op mode, but the folks at 3d Realms are still debating whether to go so far as to put a Capture the Flag mode in.
System Requirements:
(aka: So, do I have to upgrade?)
Well, you can't really tell at the moment, but just to give you a wild guess, here are the specs for Unreal, the game Duke Nukem Forever's engine was made for:
CPU: 166MHz Pentium (200 MHz MMX recommended)
Memory: 32 MB RAM (64 recommended)
A CD-ROM drive
A Windows 95/98 compatible sound card
Video: PCI local bus
OS: Windows95,98, or NT w/SP3
Network and Internet play: TCP/IP
Of course, since Duke Nukem Forever
will be more advanced and will be released later, chances are the requirements
will be a bit higher, but this is probably a good estimate.
