Duke 4 was originally slated to use the Quake 2 engine that so many others have licensed but roughly a year ago George Broussard (head of development at 3D Realms) announced that development would be shifted over to the Unreal engine (Epic's little money spinning box of tricks). What this means for us is that Duke 4 will no doubt offer some of the richest visuals seen in a first person shooter on the PC, in Duke's unique style of course. The Unreal engine is exceptional and proven. With texture sizes up to and above 512 x 512, volumetric fogging, super realistic colored lighting in real time, detail texturing (looks real sweet) and support (or will support when Duke 4 ships anyway) for GLIDE, OpenGL, Direct 3D and PowerSGL every 3D card holder should be in good hands. Licensing the Unreal Engine also means that the useful UnrealED editor tools will be fully inclusive. This should bode well for DIY map enthusiasts.

Duke 4 is slated for a release "when it's done" which doesn't really say much. With the game in development for over a year now, we can at least hope for a Q4 '99 release but nothing is certain. A recent announcement was made stating that 3D Realms would NOT be showing off the game at this year's E3 (oh well there's always Daikatana and Daikatana 2 eh?). While you wait though, we've got a few shots for you to look at, these shots are from the official website and running off of the Quake 2 engine but nevertheless we feel they'll at least give you an idea of what to expect in terms of visuals.

Developed By: 3D Realms
Published By: Unknown
3D Card Support: Yes
Multiplayer Support: Yes
Web Site: http://www.3drealms.com
E.T.A: When Its Done