Because its a hoppin weekend why not pick on 3DR a bit? I think most everyone had at least some fun with Duke3D back when it came out many years ago. I've got many fond memories of LAN parties at the house with friends battling it out and having a blast. Ah... back in the day. Well since Broussard just loves to have his messageboard comments quoted (and its slow as hell today) Here is what GeorgyB had to say (Thanks Mike Z.) about Duke4 interactivity compared to Duke3D's:

You cannot even compare the interactivity in D3D to DNF.
It's like comparing a B&W silent film to THX Star Wars. Remember that scene at the start of Pulp Fiction talking about comparing rubbing a woman's foot to, er, um...well you get the idea. Let's forget about Duke 3D and move on. It was ok for it's time, but it sucks now and we're sick of it, and we're gonna kick it's sorry ass up and down the street.
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Hail to Technology, Baby.

Dukeworld has an updated official Duke Nukem Forever FAQ, which of course they could update because 3D Realms is incredibly generous when it comes to information about the game </sarcasm>. But hey, maybe you find something you didn't know.

Word on the 3DRealms website is that they have hired a new artist (Tim Wilson) to work on Duke4Ever. The front page also has some purty scans of the latest Next-Gen showing Duke scoring some tittie action.

Stomped has a Q&A with Mark Rein of Epic, asking him if the Epic team has been doing any Unreal engine optimizations like 3D Realms has been doing for Duke4.

I generally shy away from posting comments made by 3DR guys on messageboards but this post by Brandon Reinhart talking about working on the DNF engine is pretty interesting stuff. (Thanks Eric). GreenMarine however talks quite a bit (Thanks Unreal-Universe) of the CPU bound limitations of the Unreal tech and how they are dealing with it at 3DR. Here's a bit:

The Unreal engine is heavily CPU bound, so our focus on optimization is more on releasing that CPU tension. For example: the Unreal engine uses span buffering for occlusion. This approach has a lot of benefits, but is CPU intensive. We have saved a lot of framerate by reducing the complexity of the span calculations and reducing the number of required calculations. This kind of optimization is unrelated to the render API layer. [...]

There's a little Duke history article on the G.O.D website, looking at how the sidescroller game progressed to the 3D game we've all been waiting for - for some time now. Of course there is some PR spin since the Gathering is now publishing Duke Forever.

There's a quick Q&A with Scott Miller on Stomped, answering some questions about the change of DNF publishers. Regarding the release date mentioned in the press release Miller says "That’s as good a guesstimate as any other I’ve heard."

The guys at Blues News received this press release which states that the Gathering of Developers/Take Two have acquired the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever (previously with Infogrames) as well as the complete catalog of already-released Duke Nukem products and "certain rights to future products".

"As we have been committed to publishing cutting-edge games, it's obvious that Duke Nukem Forever belongs on the g.o.d. label," said Mike Wilson, CEO of Gathering. "Between this game and Max Payne, 3D Realms will be regarded as the undisputed king of both first-and third-person shooters by the end of next year. To be part of that has been a dream of Gathering's since our inception."

Taking place in and around Las Vegas, Duke Nukem Forever is the latest game in the incredibly popular Duke Nukem series and will feature Duke's infamous off-the-wall wisecracks. Using Epic Games' Unreal engine, Duke Nukem Forever strongly pushes the limits of gaming and gameplay for the first-person action genre, establishing new standards in interactivity, variety and pure fun. In keeping with the cinematic aspirations of 3D Realms, the game will be one of the first to support wide screen format and Dolby Digital surround sound.

The press release states a second half of 2001 release date for Duke Forever by the way.

Always hotly debated around here, the fact that Duke Nukem Forever is taking..forever. 3D Action Planet has a feature where they look if the fact that 3D Realms is releasing absolutely zero info on the game is a good thing. If you look at the comments here, most people would say it's not :) However Daikatana had plenty of screenshots and an early multiplayer demo so people were somewhat prepared for what they were getting. In this case they don't but still seem to already have made up their mind.

Hellchick: I have to admit, by not revealing much, 3DRealms is actually heightening the anticipation as we get closer to the game's finish. Regardless of press coverage, I'm looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever, having been a Duke 3D fan myself. And I hope 3DRealms does indeed let us see a tiny bit of what's to come so we can anticipate the game even more.
G'Money: They will. And when you see it, you won't have to wait years to actually play it.

And FYI, Duke really only has been in full developement since mid 98 (the Unreal engine change) so all this 4 year development time is BS. Sure they had some art from the Quake engine work that they could port over but that's about it. I wouldn't mind a Christmas present either though ;)

In the spirit of the Fake DOOM3 screenshot contest, The 3DRealms guys have decided to run a fake Duke4Ever screenshot contest. Obviously this contest has something to go on though, since there are already some real screenshots out there.

We usually try to ignore the Duke4 forum posts (hi George!), but since this message was one where George asked for input on what multiplayer type you would rather see, I thought it would be good to mention here, see what the hardcore crowd thinks. I'm pretty sure that I know which one will receive the most votes

What type of team based game do you want to see in DNF?
1) Standard CTF
2) Class based Team game (ala Team Fortress or CounterStrike).

George later mentions they are not interested in making a clone, so it's not like we will definately see Duke Nukem Fortress if most of you decide a team game. Also, if you were hoping to see some new screenshots soon (it's been like a year), don't count on it as they will probably only release some new ones close to release.

George Broussard from 3DRealms was kind enough to stay up late last night and answer quite a few questions people had following the news item with an interview. He spent so much time in there answering I thought you guys would enjoy seeing how he answered some of the most common questions:

[link] [link2] S3TC , Start Date, Shipping before DOOM?
[link] Terrain, TF2 tech, Restarting a game midway, Loki on OpenGL
[link] [link2] Nudity in Duke4?
[link] [link2] Glide support

Also, back in March the Shack readers actually came up with a bunch of questions for George in an interview (and a follow-up). Probably the most information with actual game details I've seen. Sorry George for linking your comments, they were just some excellent stuff. :P

There's a Duke4 interview with Scott Miller at the Daily Radar that, while not exactly having any hot new info, gives us a little update on what's up with 3D Realms' FPS that no one really knows anything about. Here's a bit concerning the release date

As we make Duke Nukem Forever, we experiment with new styles of gameplay and other never-been-seen innovations, and this often takes time to figure out and implement correctly, or just completely drop if it's not working out. Luckily for us and gamers, we have the financial independence to do this research while making the game, and when DNF comes out, everyone -- I hope! -- will be happy with the innovative results. The bottom line is that if we pick a release date and very likely miss it, people will be more upset than had we not picked a release date, so that's the path we take.

The 3D Realms website has been updated with info on the new Duke4 programmer who was announced a few days ago, Scott Alden. Scott previously worked at 3dfx and Ritual Entertainment, where he worked on SiN and Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Scott will be working on the multiplayer side of things for the Duke Nukem Forever project. Since they still look so good, how about some Duke4 screenshots

More Duke4 shots

update Scott already made his first .plan update.

Well today is my first day at 3D Realms. It was a tough decision for me to leave Ritual Entertainment, and I have had a great 3 years working there.
I'm really looking forward to get started on the Duke 4 multiplayer code, but it looks like I'll have to study this Unreal code a bit before I jump in. It's kind of a shock to be working with Quake tech for 3 years, and then jump over and work o Unreal. Well at least I get to see how both systems really work.

George Broussard has updated his .plan file with news that they have finally hired another programmer for Duke4 after a few months of looking around. More details will follow on Monday.

Normally dont mention these posts but George Broussard at 3D Realms answered some questions regarding Duke4 weapons that you might be interested in.

George Broussard posted on the 3D Realms forums saying that Duke Nukem Forever will not have the new technology that Epic is offering to its Unreal engine licensees. Thanks CygnusX-1.

1) We've had skeletal/motion capture/facial animation for over a year. We aren't doing 40 bones in the face, but then again DNF will be out a couple years before this next gen stuff ships.

2) Landscape is cool. We had our own landscape engine capable of ten's of thousands of polys at 50 fps a long time ago. They are about the simplest rendering engines to write. We decided a bit ago that merging that tech into Unreal for DNF was beyond the scope of this game. Same goes for adding in Epic's stuff (which looks sweet). Added to which, Epic's new tech is targetting hardware that won't be commonplace (a majority of the market) for 2 years.
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The Stratos Group has an interview with Jess Crable, one of the programers working on Duke Nukem Forever. That should also tell you how much they talk about that game :) It is actually more of a "where are you from / what have you done" type of interview.

George Broussard from 3D Realms updated his .plan file saying they are still looking for a fourth programmer to add to the Duke Nukem Forever project. Now there's even referral fee ($2000) if you know anyone who fits their description and gets hired. All Unreal-engine experienced programmers fluent in C/C++ check the .plan.

ayarger let me know about an interview on PlanetDuke with the WEB Corp. guys, who will be producing the Duke episodes game that was announced yesterday.