I streamed my first playthrough and have since
uploaded it to youtube, if there's anyone who wants to see the new episode and isn't willing to throw money down for it. I'm not the best gamer in the world, at one point i spent a solid 5 minutes running around blindly because I missed a button on the wall. I'm also sick and during the San Fran level I'm pretty sure I snorted loudly on mic. So sorry in advance for that.
The new episode is a real mixed bag imo, but pretty much everything I have to say about it has been outlined in this thread already so I'll keep it concise.
Regarding 'Alien World Order':
Pros: The new maps are good, the new music is good, some of the new Duke lines got a laugh out of me.
Cons: The incinerator sucks, the firefly enemy is lame, the constant encounters with 2-4 minibosses at once is too much imo, and the new end boss is laughably shit.
Regarding the port:
Audio quality is all over the map. Shit sounds muffled, like you're listening to your headset through a blanket.
Half of the re-recorded Duke lines suck. The iconic stuff like 'Hail to the king, Baby', 'Come get some', and 'Groovy' sound
TERRIBLE.
The new weapon select is horrible. It's way too slow, and half the time it seems like it doesn't even register my mousewheel.
Controls feel floaty. Nowhere near as bad as Megaton Edition, but still notably worse than eDuke imo
I only played with the new lighting effects on for about 5 minutes before I got sick of them, but I don't go in for that stuff generally. Never use polymer either.
edit: One last thing. The
final screen (spoilers) was cute and all, but I couldn't help feeling a little disappointment after sitting through the credits that there was no 'DUKE NUKEM WILL RETURN' sort of tease/sting at the end. It's probably just my own foolishness, having hoped for a new Duke game at all when that countdown site went up, but it's still hard to not feel short-changed.