Not that it really matters, but the original spelling IS "Nukem". "Nukum" was only temporary.

http://www.3drealms.com/duke1/

Lol, they cite an "overseas character thought to be copyrighted" as the reason for temporarily naming him "Nukum". I can think of one Stateside character named Duke Nukem other than Apogee's. And Captain Planet premiered the year before DN1 was released.

For those in the UK you can get it from play.com for £50. Just put my preorder in.

It's basically the same with zavvi and probably other uk retailers. I guess I'll bite the bullet.

Well it probably is now but if anyone preordered it from shopto.net earlier they are charging £85 for it which is a ripoff.

Well I pre-ordered it.

Why?

- I pay only €10 more than a regular retail game and get tons of extras
- I loved Duke 3D and even it's a classic FPS, I love playing those still
- too few anti-PC games these days and it will be refreshing to play another one again
- It's DUKE!

I was one of the few who always knew it would get released. Even after they went bust, something told me it would still end up being finished. I still think I'll have a real blast playing it, too.

With anti-PC I meant anti-Political Correctness, not the computer ;).

But yeah, Duke Nukem 3D has a very very special place in my heart. This was back in 1995 when I was starting to get into game modding. I had already added custom music and graphics to Doom but the Build editor was a big step up from the buggy Doom editors. It came with a big ass manual and while I never got a complete hang of it (there were a LOT of tricks to make the game look as good as it did) it was just fun to edit the game's art. I'd uncensor the naughty posters, make comical weapons, replace sounds, etc.

The most fun I had, was when my friend took his PC to my house to hook it up over null modem. I had downloaded a very cool Duke map which was like a city with a bank, a big pool, a bar, etc. with a crossroad in the middle (I wish I could find it today - I've been to so many map sites to get it) and, the idea was that me and a few friends would have a tournament. We'd each take turns playing against each other 1 on 1.

Now, by then I already knew how art files worked: the main DUKE.GRP file contained the files and you could extract them and the extract files would override the ones inside the GRP file. So what I did was: I replaced all the ducking animations of Duke by a rat. This meant that every time he ducks, he'd turn into a rat. Then I placed the ART file on the computer of my friend. On mine, you'd see Duke perfectly fine when ducking. On his, it would be as if he disappeared.

So in the end, I'd simply duck and walk until I saw my opponent and then stand up and surprise him - if I lost too much health, I'd run around a corner, and ducked so if he followed me, he'd think he lost me.

This was one of my best gaming days in memory because I can't remember ever laughing so much. Especially when explaining it to two friends who got their asses kicked (the third friend was in on it and used my PC during the competition).

I just noticed that I bought the game for €50 so about 42 pounds. Now the price is €60. My receipt still stands. Lucky I guess :)

Per Gearbox's Twitter the game is a Steamworks title. I chuckled. Gabe has balls of steel!

Really getting sick of all the games using Steamworks lately. I had some spare store credit to throw at a pre-order, and every game I was remotely interested in is forcing Steam on me once again. Frustrating, and also a no purchase until it hits a lower sale price for me. I just can't support paying full price for nothing more than a subscription to a game.

Balls of Steam edition.

Actually, does anyone know if Duke's "Balls of Steel" table makes another cameo? Maybe playable this time? I mean REALLY playable, not "oh look at that, you push the 'use' key and it looks like you're playing the pinball machine" playable.

It offers DLC, DRM, multiplayer, achievements, patching and community features all in one handy client package, it's not surprising publishers like it. To knock Steam down a few pegs someone is really going to have to get a real competitor going that offers all the same things.

It annoys me because most of that stuff I view as a negative, not a positive, but the majority obviously disagrees with me.

Pre-ordered today. Cy has Balls of Steel.

Valve have said countless times they will ensure every game is playable via a patch should steam ever be shutdown. They've even tested the steam free solution and it works.