Retro game of the week: Duke Nukem 3D (PC)
This game changed everything. While I enjoyed Doom as much as anyone else, I had a craving for something a little less gloomy, something in an urban setting. I never enjoyed the generic hell-inspired levels of games (I'm looking at you, Oblivion) since they're all the same: fleshy tunnels, scarred lava landscapes, red skies, and so on. Boring, right? But along came Duke Nukem (3D-Realms, 1996). It had me hooked from the minute I played the shareware. Classic is just another word for it.
Gnome's Lair recently posted something about a high-resolution pack, essentially a graphic update that replaces the 2D-sprites of the original game with fully 3D-rendered objects, and upgrades the textures and skins (the original version is considered to be a 2.5D game). Now you can play the most infamous FPS ever without cringing because of the 640x480 resolution or puking from the nausea induced by circling pixelated sprites. 
And then there was the Build engine. My God... The days wasted on that level editor amount to quite a few. Sectors, grids, tags and numbers - it wasn't very user-friendly. But then again, me and my friend Stefan got really good at it, so I guess it was worth it. To be honest, playing the updated version still makes me feel slightly sick, but nevertheless, Duke Nukem 3D is one hell of a game. You shouldn't miss out on this.
I mean, it's got aliens, strippers, rocketlaunchers, pool tables, arcades, pipe-bombs, and features some of the best one-liners in a game, ever. When Nintendo released a port for their Nintendo 64 it had, not surprisingly, undergone some censoring. For example, smut stores had been replaced by... gun stores. Way to go.
Click here to download the shareware version (5.6 MB), and install it somewhere.
Then download the high-res update (190 MB). Get it here, or by clicking here (direct).
5 comments:
So, you're were really serious about Duke3d huh? Good for you, I guess :)
Haha, yeah, dead serious. I was quite the deathmatch god as well. At least, I'd like to think I was.
:)
"It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum."
His one-liners are to die for.
I loved its urban setting too, finding boring the hell/sci-fi of Doom and the like. I have only the original copy for PC of Duke Nukem 3D, and it doesn't work on Windows XP. I will not ever try the 3D-enemies version, it's a nonsense. Piece of cake ^__^
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