3D Realms shows new Duke Nukem Forever footage

It's hard to wrap your mind around the absurd amount of time 3D Realms has had Duke Nukem Forever in development. The game was announced back in 1997, and the Quake II engine was licensed to fuel the title. This was big news, and even now, Duke Nukem 3D is still warmly regarded as one of the better early first-person shooters; the combination of violent game play, strippers, and inventive weaponry made for some great multiplayer. If you've never placed a trip-bomb inside a teleporter and then waited for someone to come through, you missed out. The sequel has since gone through multiple engine changes, multiple publishers, and has become one of the lamest running jokes in the industry. Today, we finally get a sneak peak at Duke Nukem Forever as ShackNews has the exclusive 70-second look at the game.

This isn't the first time we've seen video of the elusive title. In 1998 there was a short video shown at E3 that depicted a busty sidekick and the signature Duke Nukem wailing guitars. Then the Quake II engine was promptly dropped for the Unreal Engine. The next video was shown at E3 again, in 2001. This time the setting was Las Vegas, with a modern look and alien antagonists. When Carl of Game.Ars visited E3 in 2001 he spoke about Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa, and he then made a joke about the length of Duke Nukem Forever's development cycle.

That was six years ago.

"Last Saturday we had our annual company Christmas party. It was a lot of fun as usual but it featured one special surprise. It turns out that several people had been secretly working late nights and into the wee hours of the morning preparing a special video for those at the party," George Broussard, director of the title posted on the official 3D Realms board yesterday. "They created a short teaser for Duke Nukem Forever." After promising to share the new footage today, the message boards across the Internet went insane with jokes and incredulous comments. Surely there can't be much to see, the punters cried. There is no way the game exists!

After watching the footage, there isn't much to talk about. There are only quick blasts of what appear to be in-engine play between scenes of the newly updated Duke Nukem doing bicep curls, although the tentacled aliens still seem to be a large part of the game. The pig-based aliens also make a return from Duke Nukem 3D. "I'm looking for some alien toilet to park my bricks," Duke drawls, "Who's first?" Not the most grammatically correct tough guy on the planet, but it gets the message across.

We're promised more looks at the game in the future and, while this shows almost nothing of the game, its setting, or the graphical quality, it does show that work is being done. One day, far in the future, Duke Nukem Forever will be released. And then what will we make fun of?