Nightfright writes:

Reports about various glitches in some entries of the EDuke32 Addon Compilation have reached me in the past two months. This gave me enough reason for yet another release. In latest version 3.1, hopefully the majority of all remaining annoyances will be addressed.

This time however, it’s mostly a maintenance release – so better don’t expect as many additions as you got previously. There’s four smaller new addons (one of them requiring WGRealms 2: Siege Breaker) and two entries which received content enhancements (Space Map Pack and Starship Troopers TC). Other than that, it’s about issues or visual glitches you may or may not have noticed if you have played previous versions.

Side note: It’s now a lot easier for technically ungifted users to launch the compilation since a batch file for fast startup is included. Just click on addons.bat in your EDuke32 installation folder and you are ready to play!

Changelog highlights (Check the readme for details):

• 4 new addons with 19 additional SP levels
• Space Map Pack received a content update with 8 additional levels
• Starship Troopers TC now features two bonus episodes with 7 levels
• Oblivion improvements: Muddlelizer fixed, missing music restored, ep.5 hidden from main menu and critical fixes for OBLVN102
• Including fixes for 19 more addons – e.g. corrected MIDI tracks in Age of Evil, potential showstopper fix for WBASE07 in Last Reaction and more

Screenshots from some of the additional levels:

Download the EDuke32 Addon Compilation v3.1 HERE!

In other news, you may have probably already heard that Gearbox will release Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour”on October 11. The definite highlight of this re-release of the original game will be an additional episode with eight new levels created by designer veterans Allen Blum III and Richard “Levelord” Gray, with new music tracks composed by Lee Jackson. You will also get a new weapon (the Incinerator) and face a type of enemy you have not encountered so far – the Firefly!

Other changes of this edition appear to be more questionable and are controversially discussed, e.g. in the Duke4.net forums. For example: World Tour will feature a new port with different/upgraded lighting system and normal mapping. Not everybody likes the new lighting (which seems overdone in many places) and applying normal maps to the original textures, however. The new high-quality Duke speech recorded by Jon St John also gives reason for criticism as it seems to collide with all the other sounds which remain untouched and therefore sound kinda “muffled”. The product also appears to be overpriced according to many statements, especially considering that none of the commercial add-ons (Nuclear Winter, Life’s A Beach, and Duke It Out In D.C.) will be included. Randy Pitchford’s recent Twitter statement that the $20 for “World Tour” will only be charged for the new episode while the previous episodes are a “bonus” also didn’t exactly solve the pricing discussion.

Some of these issues certainly can be solved/improved even after the release of the game. What about you? Do you think this is the “definitive” edition of Duke Nukem 3D as claimed by Gearbox? Do you intend to buy the game (or maybe you have even pre-ordered it already)? How excited are you about the new content? Feel free to let us know and discuss “World Tour” over at the Duke4.net forums!