The game was just about done, or so it seemed. After those shots were released, 3DRealms gave another long silence which has lasted until now. The new Duke Nukem Forever trailer is simply astounding. The Unreal engine has never looked this good. Buildings look super-realistic.
Explosions are huge.
And people look amazing. This is actual real-time lip synching on characters. Other Unreal engine games have tried this before, but never to such an effect. Deus Ex made one of the first attempts, and Clive Barker's Undying expanded on facial expressions, but DNF takes it all to another level. Maybe it's just the fact that the eyes move, but for a game, that's something big.