Infamous, early build of Duke Nukem Forever leaks, ‘looks real,’ creator says

polygon.com:

Duke Nukem Forever still won’t die.

A leaker claiming to have a build of Duke Nukem Forever similar to one shown at E3 2001 posted screenshots and a video of the game early Monday, and the creator of the one-time cornerstone of first-person shooter gaming, producer George Broussard, says it looks authentic.

The leaker — “x0r,” who posted their findings to 4chan (as first spied by fansite Duke4.net) — says they’ll release that build in June. But as Broussard warns, whatever this is is not much more than “a smattering of barely populated test levels.” So DNF fans should temper their expectations.

Yes, the leak looks real. No, I’m not really interested in talking about it or retreading a painful past. You should heavily temper expectations. There is no real game to play. Just a smattering of barely populated test levels. I have no knowledge who leaked this.

In the clip, Duke blasts his way through a burning, yet dimly lit strip club, encountering minimal resistance as he goes. Police in SWAT gear return fire, and when Duke blows them away, some kind of alien tendrils burst from their dead bodies. The HUD is the cleanest and most modern-looking feature, and it has an “ego” meter, apparently functioning like a damage shield, which refills when Duke offs another stooge.

The leaker — again posting on 4chan — claims that “almost every chapter is present in some form” of this build. “A huge chunk is playable, a huge chunk is block-outs with no enemies.” They say they will release the game’s source code with instructions for compiling it. This build of Duke Nukem Forever was made in Unreal Engine. As in, the first Unreal Engine.

Duke Nukem Forever, the sequel to 1996’s landmark Duke Nukem 3D, was first announced in development in