Wolfenstein

[deadman1]

Did any of you guys ever play Return to castle Wolfenstein? I did and I played the first Wolfenstein too ( damn I´m old  ;D). Well I just read in PC Gamer magazine (swedish edition) that the sequel called Wolfenstein will be released this august. Personally I can´t wait since I loved the previous games. Also looking forward too Modern Warfare that´s being released this november.

Update:
Here are the systemrequirements for Wolfenstein:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3,2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Grafik: 256MB Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT or ATI Radeon X800
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c-compatible soundcard
Harddrivespace: 8GB + 800MB for Windows swap-file

[Art Blade]

Played both, and I'm old too  ;D :-X

[PZ]

Oh yeah... I played the original Wolf3D until my keyboard was worn out - created maps of all the levels, changed them, and did basically anything you can with the old DOS games.  In fact, I recently downloaded it for nostalgia sake.

D_B posted a thread here about the new Wolfenstein.

[deadman1]

Ooops I completely missed that one  :-[. That was a cool video though, now I want that game even more  ;)

[Fiach]

I only played RtCW and really enjoyed it.

I've been following this new one, it reminds me a bit of Soul Reaver, with the parallel worlds.

Looking forward to checking it out :)

[retiredgord]

Ah thanks for jogging the old memory circuits guys.  I just was reminded that it can be one of the 1-3 games I take on holidays with me. RtCW Tides of War and the first Mercenaries will be played on the old Xbox. 
I took up a larger TV this yar so I don't have to put  aset of binoculars on to see the screen.  Those little 12 or 14 " screens are just too small to be able to enjoy.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I think the release date is now August sometime, so I'll be there when it happens.

I played the original Wolf3D a bunch too, downloaded & made mods for it (back in the days of dialup compuserve or AOL, no internet then, lol) then went on to Doom where I did literally break my keyboard playing. The CTRL key was use for fire, and it actually snapped off while playing one time. Had to glue the little post back on that held the key, and then had to wait for the glue to harden before I could play again!

[Art Blade]

that's hilarious  :-X

you remind me... I remember an online game of quake2 with very few people on the server, and all of a sudden one player whirled around left and right, real fast, and stopped moving (still alive). Then came the chat line on the screen "my mouse button just flicked off  !!" LMAO   ;D ;D

[Hacko]

I played a sh*tload of RTCW MP. Wasted alot of time playing that game. I also played a mod of RTCW called Wild West, it still has a few people playing it and I jump on and play once in awhile.

Looking forward to the new game, hopefully it lives up to RTCW. :-X

[Fiach]

I got Wolfenstein yesterday, not sure how good it is yet, its enjoyable enough though so far.

It's "veil" dimension adds a little extra to the mix, you can use it to find passages, or use it to solve puzzles, eg there are some tomb-raider-esque set pieces like crushing pillars and collapsing bridges, where you can slow down time, to progress or use slowing time as a kind of bullet time.

Also there is lots of exploration (small maps though), where you can try to find Intel Documents and gold for upgrades.

The graphics are quite good too, especially when you see all that is going on and travel into the veil dimension is instantaneous, no loading or anything.

I like the exploring, but sometimes it feels like it stops your momentum through a level, yet it does make the game feel more rounded, so its down to preference, whether you will get the most from the game.

The weapons are quite cool you have the standard "iron sight" weapons plus some sci-fi stuff too (no spoilers), some battles will have you stepping into the veil to kick some a$$ that is a bit more difficult in the "real" world, but the added bonus is you can use your veil powers in the real world too.

The story is quite good, usual Wolfenstein fare, the bad guys are dabbling in the occult in WW2, you have to go and sort it out, but its presented well, lots of NPC's to talk to, different cliques, like the Resistance, your own government, a secret occult society that is helping you, all giving you varying missions, that progress the story.

I'd give it an 8/10 so far, for being a bit different, but compared to other top class shooters, it would be found lacking, so a 7/10 compared to them.

Fiach : Playing games, so you dont have to.

[Art Blade]

You missed one thing I was already looking forward to seeing at the end of your article:

Fiach : Playing games, so you dont have to.

;D

Thanks for the nice info, Fiach  :-X

[deadman1]

I´ll second that, excellent info Fiach.  :-X Looks like Wolfenstein will fiind a home on my harddrive soon.

[Fiach]

Gimmie a break!  :P

Was just out of bed lol, How sad am I, first thing I do is hit the OWG forum  :'(  :P
I wanted to get my impressions up, in case anyone was considering the game, as its just gone on sale.

The game is short if you only just run and gun, maybe 6-7 hours, but it would warrent a replay after that.
Securing the intelligence and gold is important, if you want to upgrade your weapons, bringing the game time up to 10-12 hours, maybe more if you just have to find every last item, plus talking to all the NPC's really fleshes out the story and ambience.

It could have gone so wrong, making a sequel to such iconic games as W3D and RtCW, but the guys have done a really good job, there were times I felt, like I was playing parts of RtCW, which is a good thing.

Just a note on the MP side of things. I dont play MP, but the general consensus was that it sucked .... initially.... because people were expecting something like the RtCW MP, but now it appears that the MP is quite good, once people ditched their preconceived ideas about it and accepted it for what it was, they were very happy with it, the major letdown was apparently the small amount of players allowed, I think 12 is the max.

[PZ]

Excellent review Fiach - you and JRD each posted very informative reviews today.  I'm interested in this game and have been since (I believe) D_B mentioned it long ago.  Might need to go to the store soon!  :-X :-X :-X

PS: I agree with Art - your review signature line is great!

[JRD]

Yes... thanks Fiach... precious info on your post  :-X

But unlike you guys, I think I'll pass this one...

Wolfenstein was a big hit decades ago but I feel more inclined to play non-linear, long lasting shooters now.

Had my share of linearity / sci-fi with Crysis and that's enough for me... I get bored of playing it once, let alone the second time.

But thanks anyway and keep up the good reviews... you're right... you play Wolfenstein so I don't have to  ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Fiach]

I actually agree with you JRD, I hate linearity, I was going to pass on Wolf, but after the Batman demo, I figured that game wasn't for me, so I got Wolf instead.

As I said before, I usually play JRPG's, which are quite huge and definately non-linear games, so sometimes for a break, I will chug through something like Wolf or Too Human, something short and sweet, so the JRPG I am playing doesnt get stale on me.

I think shooters should be linear, because, as I alluded to above, they need to keep a certain momentum going, Far Cry (both iterations) would be the exception to the norm, but that is more particularly due to their huge and beautifully realised environments, you actually encourage yourself to remain in them as long as possible, but there are not many games like them, only STALKER and Boiling Point spring to mind, you could argue a case for Fallout 3, but there are so many side missions and quests vying for your attention, they enhance the environment, but dilute the visceral experience of shooting the crap out of everything in sight :)

[PZ]

Because I'm not familiar with some of the acronyms used in gaming, what is a JRPG?  I've heard of the term RPG as meaning role playing game, but have not had the opportunity to do such.  My son recommended a RPG that I believe is online only (Warcraft or something like that) in which you play a role and interact with others on the 'net.  He says it is extremely addicting.

[Art Blade]

I hear WoW is so addictive it ruinied marriages and emptied bank accounts (buy some virtual upgrades for real money). I only know MMORPG as in massively multiplayer online role playing games, but "J"RPG is new to me, too.

By the way, I always wondered why it is called massive"ly" because something can be massive (adjective) like a game, and you can do something massively (adverb) as playing, but something can't be massively.

[Fiach]

Massivly alludes to the amount of people that can be online together, 11 mill people have played WoW.

Another description of MMORPG is Many Men Online Role Playing Girls, which alludes to guys creating female characters and pretending to being girls in real life, in the hope that guys will give them free stuff .... which happens alot.

JRPG means Japanese Role Playing Game. Final Fantasy would be probably the most famous.

A common theme would be a main character, usually a guy, progresses through the game, periodically meeting new charaters with special skills, who then join his team. They have incredibly well written stories, very deep character progression.

Combat is usually turn based, which means that each charactr takes a turn in making an attack, after that attack, the turn goes to the next character (sounds complicated, but its automated).

This particular video is from Final Fantasy X, which incorportaes a game like underwater basketball which you can play kinda like PES or FIFA. So the video starts off with the game then some combat. The combat here is pretty unspectacular as its early in the game. Notice one of the guys uses a basket ball as a weapon. Thegame lasts 4 minutes then the combat begins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR45lcZVM4Y

Here is a video of some of the combat spells in FFX, the video is a bit crap, its incredibly spectacular in-game, but it gives you an idea of the higher level combat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo_7t_FxESI&feature=related

Final Fantasy X would probably be the best on the PS2.
Lost Odyssey would be the best on XBOX 360.
PS3 doesnt have any of note really, Bill Gates bought most of them up, before the PS3 got released, they would account of a significant percentage of the sales of the 360.

A short JRPG would be 50 hours and people would complain, 100 hours would be a common length, of course nowadays, games tend to be shorter, but the most recent JRPG on the 360 Star Ocean : Last Hope) probably runs to about 200 hours if you do everything, I am about 50 hours into it and about halfway through the storyline only and not any of the post game content.

Its hard to condense such a huge genre into a forum post, but I did my best lol :)

[Hacko]

A friend of mine I game with all the time bought Wolfenstein and said the Singleplayer is good, but the Multiplayer sucks. He didn't tell me why he doesn't like the MP part of this game, but I have been reading some pretty negative previews of the MP part of this game.

[Fiach]

Yes, as I said, I haven't played it, but people did hate it initially, I believe they are coming 'round to it now though.

It is a sign of the times though, with the MP and Co-Op being such important and core mechanisms in games now, more people buy FPS games now, for the MP instead of the SP, with the high roll out of broadband, they are much more accessible, Halo would be a great example of this, with people playing it online, that have never played the SP part of the game and would never even consider it either.

I think that the SP aspect of games will suffer immensely because of this, why spend money time and effort developing assets that will be virtually ignored by gamers, a case in point was raised with regard to Half Life, more people played Counter Strike (a half life MOD), than Half Life single player.

[PZ]

Great synopsis Fiach - I appreciate the time you took to give such a detailed, but information rich post.

Too bad about SP potentially suffering - I still can't get into MP much because it seems that all you do is try to shoot one another - great for releasing pent up frustrations, but becomes boring rather quickly. Without SP, I'd probably stop gaming again.

Back on topic - I wonder what D_B will write about Wolfenstein.  As I recall, The Mapper was quite interested in the game a while ago.

[Ricamundo]

I loved the original Wolf3d but havent bothered with any of the newer ones, although i seem to remember trying a demo of the 2nd one some years ago.

Like the others, im hooked on the non linear openworld sandbox, whatever you want to call it style now, so i've pretty much decided that my next game will be Fallout 3.

I saw some vids on YT that pretty much sealed the deal, and now im just waiting to see if they'll drop the preice a bit. it's still $50 in the U.S and $60 in Canada. Too much considereing it came out the same time as FC2.

[Fiach]

Yah Fallout 3 is still full price here too, its kind of a tribute to the game, its so good, they dont need to discount it, also they have released about 5 top class DLC's for it, which also gives it legs.

If you do ever get it, make sure to get the Broken Steel DLC, it raises the XP cap by 10 levels, Also I highly recommend the Point Lookout DLC.

The rest of the DLC is good too, but they are in a league of their own.

On the sunject of Bethesda, You could get the Oblivion Game of the Year Edition pretty cheap, it has huge DLC on the disc and a huge environment, its like FO3 with swords.

[spaceboy]

Ricamundo, I'm not sure for PC, but I think they're supposed to be coming out with a collection of the original game and all DLC add-ons for Fallout 3 soon.