On January 29th, 1996, 3D Realms released the shareware version of its classic first-person shooter, Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem 3D is one of the best shooters released, featuring some clever one-liners that were voiced by Jon St. John. And in order to celebrate Duke’s 22nd birthday, we are presenting you some of its greatest mods.
First things first, Duke Nukem fans should download EDuke32. EDuke32 is an awesome free homebrew game engine and source port of Duke Nukem 3D that fixes an insane amount of programming errors, allows players to choose between two different hardware accelerated OpenGL renderers, supports high resolutions and adds tons of optional new features that make the player’s life easier including modern status display/HUD, support for loading mods from the startup window, and modern, WSAD-based controls with thoroughly reworked mouse aiming.
The second must-have mod is the High Resolution Pack. This pack works with EDuke32 and features 32-bit high resolution textures with (at least) 4x the detail of the original textures, polymer renderer for EDuke32 offering advanced effects like normal/specular mapping, complex lighting system and more. In addition, the Duke Nukem 3D High Resolution Pack can replace the enemy sprites with new/custom 3D models.
Those wishing to replay Duke Nukem 3D’s campaign can also use the Duke Nukem: Weapon of Mass Destruction mod. Duke Nukem: Weapon of Mass Destruction is a gameplay mod that features tons of new weapon modes, enemies, and player abilities, such as UT style dodge moves, spinning hook kicks, and a Duke bot companion who fights by your side. In some levels you can even get in your skycar and fly it, doing bombing runs on enemies. In this mod, Duke collects glowing coins from slain enemies which are used to purchase various upgrades via a mouse controlled menu. In addition, each of Duke’s weapons has its own experience level which increases with use.
The fourth mod we recommend is the Duke Nukem 64 mod. As its title suggests, this mod aims to bring all the stuff that were present in the Nintendo64 version of Duke Nukem 3D to the PC version. This is a similar project to Doom 64 and we believe that some players will find it interesting.
The fifth mod is a project that aimed to bring the world of Doom to the Duke Nukem 3D engine. Hellduke! TC is a Doom based total conversion which allows many features to player such as environment changes, new art, new levels, new music and many more. While this project was never finished, PC gamers can download a version that features two episodes.
Of course we do have to mention the Duke Nukem Forever 2013 mod for it. As its title suggests, this mod recreates everything that was shown in Duke Nukem Forever’s 2011 trailer in Duke Nukem 3D. It’s an amazing mod, so be sure to download it.
Duke Forces is another cool mod for Duke Nukem 3D. This modification inspired by the Star Wars Dark Forces series and automatically converts weapons, enemies, textures, sprites, music and pretty much everything into Star Wars content.
PC gamers can also check out Duke Nukem Eternity. This mod aims to deliver a more modern looking experience from a very advanced an updated version of the BUILD engine. Duke Nukem Eternity features new real-time lighting techniques, as well as true 3D geometry.
Fusion Redux is also a cool mod for Duke Nukem 3D. This mod mixes weapons, enemies, art and level concepts from diverse FPS games, including Half-Life, Unreal, Quake I and II, and Blood. It looks absolutely retro-gorgeous, so be sure to download it.
Last but not least, you can give a go at Duke Hard and Metropolitan Mayhem. Duke Hard adds 17 maps and is inspired by the Die Hard movies, whereas Metropolitan Mayhem adds 15 maps and it’s themetically very close to the original first and third episodes (LA Meltdown & Shrapnel City) of Duke Nukem 3D, concentrating almost exclusively on classic urban-themed maps.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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