Alright, I finally started playing Episode 5! But before that, let's clarify some things I said earlier. Turns out, I'm an idiot. Why? Because even though I had DirectX 12 installed (according to Intel Graphics Settings), when I went to install DirectX myself from Microsoft website, I then finally got sound and music working in World Tour! So it doesn't have anything to do with the fact I had WT pirated. The crashes I had before were random and since then, I didn't have any more crashes. I have also done episodes 3 and 4 but since I did first 2 without sound and music, I decided to turn off the sounds and music anyway for episodes 3 and 4 since I didn't enjoy playing the original levels through World Tour that much. The mouse aiming in this port is a bit messy and sometimes I miss my shots and get hit by enemies. To me the best way to play the original 4 episodes is still in DOSBox (versions 1.3D and 1.5, with default keyboard controls) and in EDuke32 (with proper controls and mouse aiming). I only replayed them in this port to see what else they changed and I have noticed a couple more things changed in some levels which I will list down below:
Sharks don't count/add as kills anymore (just like with the eggs, although I had no more missing enemies in E3, I still had some levels in E4 with missing enemies but there were few others that also had for example 70/69 kills, I suspect the slimers are once again the culprit as they eat enemies and cause me to have enemies missed at end of level)
There are also some noticeable map changes in E3L3, E3L7 and E3L8:
E3L3 - pedestal added in the small underwater room that holds yellow card
E3L7 - the area near firetruck has been "finished"
E3L8 - only one atomic health instead of two atomic health pickups
Related to last one, I noticed some levels had a bit different item placement because there were times I expected an item to be there and wasn't. I really wish someone documented all the maps differences at TCRF. The only thing I have seen listed there are the few maps changed between 1.3D and 1.4 which is exactly what I wondered years ago (before the TCRF page was updated with this information) but thankfully someone explained me here the differences. Now it's time for someone to list all the maps changed in World Tour. Yes I realize most maps have lights added and the developer commentary icons but I'd still want to have all differences listed.
Oh and also for some stupid reason, I died two more times in E3L4 because I jumped to get those tripmines and instead I got squashed inside walls??? Probably has to do with the fact that the earthquake got triggered and sectors overlapped and squashed me, not sure why. You can see the exact location where I got squashed in the screenshot below. As bonus, another screenshot shows a misaligned texture in E3L7 which I'm sure it didn't happen in the DOS versions 1.3D and 1.4/1.5.
Regarding the Dark Side wall texture, this is strange but it may have to do with the fact if you save game, quit game and continue later in E2L8, the texture may be glitched, which means you have to do the level in one go to not have the glitch occurring. It's not just that particular texture, even when riding a train, you will notice some parts are glitched too. What's funny is this bug may have also been happening in Megaton Edition. I remember reading the Megaton topic many years ago (when I was lurking on the forum) and noticed someone mentioning this glitch happening in megaton as well. I will have to test later in DOS versions as well when I get around to replaying all 4 episodes in CGS in Pistol Starting each level.
I also managed to die once more in Derelict because I wanted to grab that atomic health and was crushed after I grabbed it and was going back. I'm ashamed to admit I have died more on Let's Rock than I have died on Come Get Some. How? In summer 2015 when I last played Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition (in DOSBox) I did all episodes and EVEN the expansions (DC, Caribbean, NW) without dying once! (though I didn't do the extra levels E1L7 and E1L8 as I didn't know the command line parameters to access them back then). Now I died 4 fucking times while playing this shitty-ass WT port on the Let's Rock difficulty. How lame is that? Although to be fair, I only died by getting crushed which is instant death and very unpredictable due to the glitchy nature of BUILD engine and I don't usually die in Duke3D these days as the enemies themselves are predictable and easily dealt with but sometimes do quite a bit of damage on me and even if I'm low on health, I have medkit and there's usually health nearby that can save my ass. Oh and screw those random explosions happening in my face, nearly killed me in 2-3 levels!
(though that was my bad that I exploded some canisters and didn't expect those explosions coming RIGHT in my face where I was standing, even if I was a few meters away). Don't ask why I'm complaining, I don't care. I felt the need to rant a bit as I admit I get frustrated sometimes when dying in video games due to unfairness, glitchyness and bullshit that shouldn't have killed me in first place as I'm always careful and checking corners when playing. I even remember most of enemies placed in level so I know most of time what weapon to use against what enemy and so on. It's just that...I feel like sometimes it is luck based if you can make it out alive in certain levels.
I also learned a new lesson: Don't play on easier skill levels and instead play on Come Get Some as the game is meant to. Because from my playing so far on Let's Rock (I normally play Duke3D on CGS and I know most people do that as well), there was barely any difference between the two skills. If I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong), enemies that are scripted to spawn (if you touch a certain sector, kill a babe or finding them inside trash cans) will always spawn regardless of whatever skill level you are playing. Even if you play on lowest skill setting (which is usually Piece of Cake, though a Skill 0 also exists which can also remove all enemies from level), the spawned enemies are unaffected. It doesn't matter if you have half of the initial enemies to kill, Duke3D is full of scripted enemies spawning, which is one of reasons why is much tougher than Doom is. That and the BUILD engine randomness. This is just my opinion. Though the Doom games also have their own bullshit mostly in form of the RNG.
Oh and I forgot to talk about E5. So far I liked the first level. I have seen it on YouTube before and while I had to look out for the secret at beginning (i tried pressing on the differently colored wall, turns out it was an elevator and had to press in other direction), I remembered the other secrets just from what I watched years ago. A bit sad I waited 4 years to play E5 and back then I got spoiled a bit from those videos. But hey, better late than never!
I will play the rest levels later. I think the new levels and new music are top notch! I know there may be few people who don't like E5 but to me the new levels are great. It's only the WT port that sucks and the fact the expansions are missing. I mean I wasn't a huge fan of Megaton either but I can understand why people prefer Megaton over WT, mostly because of having more content.