Oh, how glorious did Duke Nukem Forever look in 2001? My, how rubbish was it upon launching in 2011? The answer to both is "quite." But the dream we dreamed at E3 2001 never died, and now some fans have made it real-ish with a Duke Nukem 3D mod. Inspired by that trailer and E3 1998's offering, they've recreated its events and settings to make a weird and wonderful piece of 'What if?' fiction.

You'll get to ride a motorbike through the streets of Las Vegas, fight EDF soldiers with riot shields, and visit a strip club with a hillbilly. Just like you always dreamed of.

"This is, more or less, our idea of what Duke Nukem Forever would have been like had it been built on the Build engine," the readme file explains. "Our reference material consists mostly of the 1998 and 2001 Duke Nukem Forever trailers. While the mod is heavily oldskool in style, it draws some inspiration from more recent games as well and would not exist without the modern capabilities of the EDuke32 engine."

Duke3d.exe modders 'Gambini' and Mikko Sandt revealed Duke Nukem Forever 2013 on April Fools' Day then overshot their projected release date, so the project briefly seemed an elaborate hoax, but it finally launched yesterday. You can download it from the mod's Mod DB page.

Do watch the 2001 trailer again before checking out its recreation in the mod: