Third-person Duke and four-player co-op looked like the main focuses.
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A trailer for the cancelled, and probably long-forgotten about, Duke Nukem Begins has surfaced online. The game was in the works at Gearbox around 2008 when it was cancelled, probably due to legal issues surrounding the use of the IP, which is a battle that is still raging even now.

Animation studio Janimation was hired by Gearbox to put together a cinematic trailer for the game before it was scrapped. Gregor Punchatz, an animator who has worked on Doom monster models, led the creation of the trailer back in 2008. This week, Punchatz released the long-lost trailer on his YouTube page for the world to see. It doesn't show any actual gameplay, but gives you an idea of what could have been.

The game would presumably serve as an origin story for Mr. Nukem. It shows off some third-person shooting scenarios that may or may not have ended up in the actual game. We get a look at some iconic weapons such as the Freeze Ray and Shrink Ray. We also see that the team was looking to support up to four players for co-op.

If released, Duke Nukem Begins would have been the first Duke Nukem release from Gearbox. Instead, their first Duke Nukem release was 2011's Duke Nukem Forever, a game that redefined development hell.