Duke Nukem Forever 2001 is Fascinating

My concern isn't that modders will do their damnedest to finish this; It's Duke, they will absolutely try, even if it takes years. My concern is Gearbox or Embracer group sending out a C&D and killing all hope of that ever happening.

When you shot that glass, and the damage spread through the glass like a wave, I was honestly pretty blown away. You're absolutely right, that is more impressive than even modern glass.

"Remember kids, I'm a professional. Don't try this at school" Holy shit I didn't expect a Duke Nukem joke to age so well.

This demo has Half Life 2 interactions level, 5 years prior to HL2 release, that's honeslty very very very impressive, especially the glass physics

Seeing this version of DNF and knowing about all the stuff 3D Realms had gone through and how it ended for them makes this whole story even more depressing

For a build that was made 20 years ago, it has some of the most impressive glass physics on all time. The fact the shards actually make crunchy noise as you step on it made it somewhat immersive.

Apparently there is a build of this "iteration" of DN:F that's 90% complete (only one level is left incomplete and there's a good lot of placeholder assets/sounds throughout), which is from around 2002; it's basically this build but with an additional year of development done to it. Not even a month ago we had basically come to terms that we'd never see any of the scrapped DN:F builds. Now here we are playing and dissecting one from 2001. So I suddenly have hope that maybe, just *maybe*, that 90% complete 2002 build will surface and the community will do it's thing and finish up that last 10%!

This honestly just makes me hate the eventual 2011 release much more than I ever thought I would. Even in this state, they had such an awesome and promising foundation to work from.

definetely dont understimate the community, they have a road map already, plus I know inside there are so many talented coders and modders that they stated to pump patches already

I like how games from the late 90's/early 2000's look. It would have been nice if they finished it back then.

If the fact that this was trending on twitter for almost two days doesn’t clue Randy in to the fact that people do still in fact love Duke, then nothing will.

5:37 Isn't it amazing how the Pinball game in this unfinished build has better physics than the one in the final game?

9:46 Actual rope swinging in first person was a Half Life Opposing Force thing first. I guess Randy did have some influence in the best version of Duke Nukem Forever after all.

As someone who doesn't really have a deep attachment to duke (I've always been more of a doom guy, no pun intended) I still find this release to be fascinating, I always like seeing in development builds of beloved franchises because even through all of the unfinished jankiness it can't stop the fact that talent or at the very least visible effort shines through, like with the Half Life 2 beta stuff.

The whole look of the game is such an early 2000's time capsule.

I LOVE the Half-Life esque level design. And I love the flow of leaving the penthouse and going down to the casino. Honestly I wish they would have finished this, I love it!

10:39 All the italian item descriptions followed by "BASKETBALL (NOT ITALIAN)" is a genuinely good joke.

12:23 The entire sequence is actually scripted and working! Well, kind of... You're supposed to follow the NPC that knocks at your door, but the game bugs out like 75% of the time, and the NPC that's supposed to guide you to the studio stops in his tracks. However, occasionally the game doesn't brainfart at that point, and you can play through the entire introductory level as intended. It's pretty rad.

I like the idea of Duke being placed in a military operation he doesn't belong in, as well as being able to recall the price of all his gaudy furniture

THIS game version still looks more fun and better than the version we got in 2011. My favorite kind of level design are highrise like levels exactly at: 6:37. Just something about fighting in these kind of enviroments in a first person gets my blood rushing.