Well, this is the last we'll see of Duke. So lets enjoy it - and leave aside that Forever really did live up to its name, much to our loss.
Here, instead, is an up-to-date modern re-creation of the now quite-dated original. But don't let that put you off. As long as you don't expect Modern Warfare 2 play style and graphics, you'll have a blast with Duke's humour, the tongue in cheek characters, and solid gameplay.
After all, you know it's good when the screening at the local cinema is called Attack of the Bleached Blonde Biker Bimbos.
The High Resolution Pack adds new textures four times the size of the originals, replaces the sprite-based enemies and weapons with actual models, adds a new soundtrack, and even updates the original engine with EDuke32 - a cross-platform port (yes Windows and Linux) from DOS with support for OpenGL hardware acceleration, and Duke-sized resolutions like 3072 x 2304. There's even a mod for Eduke32 itself that adds a [i]gravity gun[/i] - this from a game engine that was around before Windows could even run games.
The high-res textures propel Duke Nukem 3D almost into present gaming, but you'll still notice the very low-poly level design that was a must all those years ago. Look past this however and the pack will give the game a fresh lease - and if you played the original, you'll know it's worth revisiting.
Duke Nukem 3D is bargain bins now, if you can find it, but otherwise it's downloadable from a range of online stores like gog.com for five bucks, or try it out with the free shareware episode. The last official version of the game was the Duke Nukem 3D ATOMIC edition. So there you go, it's even got the Atomic blessing, you've got no excuse not to try it out!
Issue: 137 | June, 2012