That duke3d lookalike game just looks like duke3d.
Except that it runs in eDuke32/Polymer, so no more distorted perspective. Also, it is set in the world of Duke, so it's quite normal that it looks like it. 

The main differences in the shots you linked are the lighting and the texture filtering. The Build engine doesn't use lightmaps. 

looks good IMO.

I think the key is that it's being built in an actual retro engine rather than being faked using something modern. This makes it feel far more authentic as a result.

I have no problem with build engine games. I think they look good. Blood is an especially good game and has aged much better than Duke or Shadow Warrior IMO. Although that could just be a subjective bias since it's darker in theme like Quake. 

http://www.pcgamer.com/17-years-after-rune-human-head-studios-announces-an-open-world-sequel-rune-ragnarok/#comment-jump 

Finally! I loved Rune back in the day and always regretted that there was no sequel. Hope it'll be good. Human Head have just made my day :D 

Now that is a very worthy sequel / reboot / whatever. I wasn't blown away by Rune but it was definitely good and solid and on point and old enough that a more expanded sequel gets two gnarled thumbs up from me.

Wheel Of Time next?? 

 

https://www.twitch.tv/megmn

But probably at some later point! 

I liked the bit where it was offline tho. 

I didn't get on with the first one as the combat was stupid hard and there was so much bollox to try to understand in the first village I got bored. This has a nicer intro anyway.

TBH I'm more after an evening chillout Grim Dawn style RPG at the mo but I figure it's worth a shot... 

I guess the four times we played 1 were fun. But a sequel... Is this L4D/2 all over again? 

 

I haven't played the game in 17 years and got it to install and run last night on Win7. I remember really loving the SP and didn't recall there were bots in the MP part of the game.

Has anyone here played this recently? 

I remember playing it back in the day but it bored me a bit. Never been into the "realistic" military kind of FPS. 

I played it in randoms as well as with func_ and enjoyed it.

I hope they're able to keep the game feeling fresh, not sure what else can be done in this universe. 

...but yeah it does need to progress. 

I tried DOS1 because I'm a sucker for attractive ARPGs (although this is pure RPG rather than Grim Dawn ARPG). Seemed far too complicated and although the turn-based combat was cool I got my arse kicked so far sideways my PC fell off the desk, and I uninstalled it. For some reason recently I decided to try DOS2. Seemed far too complicated and I got my arse kicked so far sideways I got a nosebleed. But I reloaded, turned the difficulty down, avoided any combat and focused on gathering loot until I sort of got used to it....

And now I'm really enjoying it. It's a pretty different RPG experience for me. I don't know where the fuck I'm going, I don't know what the fuck is going on. Half the paths take me into combat that is instant death. There's a billion incomprehensible skills and items and crafting options. I'm out of my depth, my little party is out of it's depth....and surprisingly I'm really liking that. It feels genuine and "real", we're dumped in this world, banded together, with a decent knowledge of our basic skills, and just have to get on with it. It makes a refreshing change from the "player is god" style of Diablo 3 etc. It also looks really nice. So yeah a pretty good timesink so far.... 

....but nice themes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjAgPt7R3Z4

TBH the settings look better done than Elex / Destiny 2 even though the tech is probably based on the Quake 2 engine.... 

Finished DOS2 early access. Got 20-30 hours gameplay out of that alone. While waiting for the full release I re-purchased and re-tried DOS1, knowing full well it will be fucking complicated and fucking hard. I did much better this time, with a lot of trial and error (a lot around the first town can fuck your shit up), and a lot of quicksaving for the instant death traps / instant death combats. And I've really got into it. So with the rest of DOS1 AND 2 I got my RPGing sorted for the rest of time.

What I will say is that DOS2 has a lot of little improvements over DOS1, here's a few I've noticed:

+ much nicer GFX all round
+ body-looting after combat easier than hunting loot in general
+ better and more informative portraits
+ physical and magical armour system better and logical
+ gigantic skill bar is much better and easier to use
+ auto-adding skills / useable items to bar is helpful
+ much bigger inventory screen and all chars inventories on one page is helpful
+ streamlined combat AP system seems to work well
+ health numbers on enemies

There might be more.... 

- Bioshock devs
- Roguelike FPS
- Arabian Nights theme
- You have a whip
- Early access
- ????
- Profit

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/09/18/city-of-brass-early-access-review/#more-477963 

procedurally generated leaves a big question mark over the whole thing but I have quite fond memories of Arabian Nights from back in the day, so I guess wait and see will be my motto here. BioShock devs are a big plus, though. 

Three things I really like in games:

Exploration
Progression
Sense of being in a cool other world

Two things that fuck that right over:

Rogue-like
Proc-gen 

 

not a big fan of proc-gen either (except minecraft). Amazed at how handmade the environments look though.

Gameplay looks better than most of the "retro shooter" games i've seen. 

The first person horror game "Outlast" is free at humblebundle at the moment. It's the deluxe version that they are giving away, meaning you also get the DLC-s.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/outlast-deluxe

As of the time of this post, there is still 10 hours or so before this offer ends. So go and grab it when you can!