Why not use the Quake II engine, as originally announced?
Originally slated to use the Quake II engine, in July 1998, 3D Realms announced that Duke Nukem Forever was now in development using the Unreal engine. Here is what 3D Realms’ George Broussard had to say when the switch was announced: “It’s very important to note that this was a tough decision for us. It does not stem in any way from hard feelings, nor in fact, anything to do with id software. Our relationship still remains very good. This was a business decision and based on what we wanted to do with Duke Nukem Forever as a game.” Another main reason that has been talked about since then is that the DNF development team will save time by not having to program features into the Quake II engine which are already in the Unreal engine. This allows them to focus more on the game, and not on getting the engine up to date. Also, keep in mind there will be no LameDNF or any early versions of DNF using the Quake II engine for legal reasons.
