Kicking Ass and Awarding Licenses: Gearbox Okays Awesome-Looking Duke Nukem 3D Remake

Posted 10/14/2010 at 3:30pm | by Nathan Grayson

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Of all the many videogame genres out there, first-person shooters tend to age the most like a borderline illiterate person's grasp of the English language – which is to say, “Not goodlyish.” Duke 3D, we love you more than mere words can even begin to express, so we're going to be as gentle as possible about this: you're hideous. Thankfully, some intrepid modders have taken to the task of giving Duke 3D an Unreal Engine 3 makeover, and – better still – Gearbox has no intention of stopping them.

“I contacted George Broussard and Scott Miller, to start a conversation about the project - The shots managed to convince Scott Miller to a certain degree - But the project was only doable if Take-Two would approve it,” project head Frederik “Fresch” Schreiber said on Gearbox's forums. 

“Thinking that Gearbox might have a better relationship to Take-Two than 3D Realms, I contacted AdamF, who passed me through to PJ Putnam, Vice President and General Counsel of Gearbox Software. Luckily Gearbox was interested in supporting the project, which resulted in a personal non-commercial license to Duke Nukem.”

Duke Nukem: Next Gen, as it's been tentatively titled, will include both single-player and multiplayer components, with a free multiplayer demo scheduled for “sooner than you'd think.” For now, though, bathe in nostalgia with this video. It's quite an impressive sight, and it has Duke shooting lasers out of his hands, which is one of those things you never knew you wanted to see until you've actually seen it.