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Returning to Castle Wolfenstein
Robert writes: "Voodoo Extreme has posted an interview with id Software regarding its upcoming next-generation engined sequel -- Return to Castle Wolfenstein. " Mmm ... this may be the first person that gets me back into it. Sounds gorgeous.
The Nazis in the German version will be replaced by big purple dinosaurs that sing children's songs and fluffy pink bunnies with menacing looking buck teeth. The guns will be replaced with bubble blowers and the sound effects will all be replaced with sounds of children giggling. The environment will be changed to be bright pastel colors and the mission will be to blow bubbles at as many pink bunnies and purple dinosaurs as you can before they grab you up and hug you to the point that all the joyous love bursts your heart. It's so cute. Castle Fluffenstein.
From memory, I thought there originally only were three missions. I thought 4, 5 and 6 were added later as a bonus pack. It was a long time ago now, and I could be mistaken, but I'm reasonably sure that's how it was.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Actually, Germany would probably have banned the game anyway. From speaking to friends who develop games, they typically have to make modifications for the German market such as using green blood, rather than the traditional human red variety. Apparently, realistic violence isn't allowed in German games. However, they release the "full gore" versions anyway, and usually have up to a couple of weeks of boxes on sale in stores before it's banned, and they have to replace it with the tamed down version. They do this, because there's a certain status to owning the full gore version, and it helps drive initial sales (which apparently are sufficient to justify the cost of the recall when it does get banned).
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
What the HELL kind of first post is this?? NO misspelling of "first", NO reference to sex, and, worst of all YOU APPEAR TO HAVE ACTUALLY READ THE FRIGGIN ARTICLE!!!
You clearly HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK YOU ARE DOING!
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Liberty uber alles.
heh. I remember. But..
I doubt they can recreate the best parts -- like hand copying cheat codes with friends over lunch, or the friend who got ahold of a level editor and a good map of our school, and changed the guns to shoot pencils and the various gaurds to resemble 'favorite' teachers and admin...
the big nasty guy was our principal.
yeah...you can never go home.
rark!
My experience of the original CW and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein was on the Atari 800 - I don't think I ever played the Apple version - but it was a *great* game with much more depth than Wolfenstein 3D.
Don't get me wrong, the graphics and controls were clunky, the speech was barely recognizable, but it still had loads more strategy than Wolf 3D. The emphasis in the original Wolfenstein was on stealth -- in order to avoid detection you could sneak up on guards, stab them silently, steal their uniforms, and hide the bodies. If another guard saw you, he'd raise the alarm and chances were you were soon toast.
Wolf3D was a fun game, and very visually spectacular for the time, but I even playing it for the first time, it seemed shallow and repetetive compared to the tense cat & mouse play of the original game.
Also in the game are these other highly creative enemies: knights, dogs, zombie dogs, zombie x-creatures, zombie knights (with red arm band), and the truly innovative SS Officer Who Turns Into A Zombie Before Your Very Eyes.
Don't forget the red raccoon zombie dogs, the teleporting SS officer, the teleporting SS officer with missles, and the truly innovative teleporting SS officer that fires missles in eight directions at once!
All this from iD, the "we spent five minutes making up this cheezy sci-fi plot so that parent groups and the media won't crucify us for making another realistically violent game" people.
..we are able to add some incredibly creative enemies like the zombies, zombie knights, and x-creatures
Also in the game are these other highly creative enemies: knights, dogs, zombie dogs, zombie x-creatures, zombie knights (with red arm band), and the truly innovative SS Officer Who Turns Into A Zombie Before Your Very Eyes.
Of course I remember.. however, Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple II also had the guards at the desks with the alarms. "Halt! Haus pass!"
You're referring to Beyond Castle Wolfenstein.
It was a great game, though.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
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The original Wolfenstien on the Apple ][ was so sweet. I think for me it was the first PC game that had actual speach sounds in it. The first games that I ever played on the Apple ][ was "Dragons Eye" and the "Olympics". Wolfenstien was ten times as cool as those games. Only "Wizardry" was cooler.
Someone you trust is one of us.
Enemies will patrol, or work, or talk to each other whether you are there or not, and often without you triggering their action.
... if the talk and no-one is around to here them, then do they make a sound?
~Keelor
"However, through the genetic mutation, experiments, occult overtones and raising of the dead, we are able to add some incredibly creative enemies like the zombies..." I wonder how long into the "creative process" it took Gray Matter to jump to the incredibly creative enemy of a zombie. I can see it now; Dude1 - "Okay boys, we can make human enemies and undead enemies. Lets be creative in our selection." Dude2 - "Well why don't we put zombies!" Dude1 - "My god, you should get promoted for your ingenius efforts!" Blah
The only "decent" card I have seen in standard high end mac's is the Rage 128, which IMHO blows. I have never dug around inside a mac, but hopefully you could throw a G3 in there. They have APG slots right?
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
German here too, and actually i liked the first part. I also love Indiana Jones wich is about the same Nazi Hunting stuff like Wolfenstein, so wheres the problem? But anyway, one thing making me wonder were the Cyborg Nazi-SS-Demons in the shots...man, thats creepy, is this how you are seeing us germans?? I hope not... Greets from sunny Munich, Lispy
My kids have grandparents, great-aunts, and great-uncles who can talk to them first-hand about WWII. I make sure they get a chance to spend time with those relatives. I also talk to my kids about things like this when they come up. And they do come up often enough to provide ample opportunity for education.
Come on folks. Teach your kids about the world, so that they can handle its challenges and face its dangers. Don't just try to shield them from the icky parts...that is a losing battle.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
Well you know with this new AI, the guards have a resting state where they'll 'smoke and check maps'. Still that doesn't mean the poor guys get bathroom breaks. After all, they're nazis.
Well, I seem to remember a couple of FPSes that got some bad press for just the reason you mentioned. I haven't any of these, but I saw some stories here and there. The first was Kingpin--I think--where you run around in the inner city blowing away drug dealers who, according to the short piece I read, were invariably black. Then there's another game called Nam. You're running around killing black pajamaed VCs. I mainly heard this game sucked. And, Red Neck Rampage pretty much turned the entire rural South of the US into a caricature. I'm not concerned with Castle Wolfenstein because the target is the uniform rather than a caricature. Even so this is something to look out for. And, hey, if you're offended, don't buy it, talk to your friends and community about it too. Freedom of Speech works both ways.
Please, my dear clueless friend, SHUT UP. This game is completely legal in France.
And, once again, once America frees itself of its absurd anti-nudity laws, maybe it will be able to teach lessons.
Macs were the first computers to have the GeForce 3!
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
All I remember is running out of ammo and searching every chest to find some, only to find "Sauerkraut" or "Bratwurst".
--
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
I remember a smurf patch for Doom. All the explosive barrels were replaced by smurfs with TNT around them. When you approached one, they started to shake and tremble, and when you shot them, they exploded in a great blue splash. I nearly died laughing first time I saw it...
The guy uses the word "incredibly" four or five times in this short interview, to describe just about every aspect of the game. I think the game will be credibly realistic, but I doubt it's nearly as much of a quantum leap as this guy says it's going to be...I doubt any of us will really be incredulous.
Apparently, realistic violence isn't allowed in German games.
Violence in games and movies are allowed, but it's illegal to advertise for them, and they have to be sold in specific adult-only stores (usually the same stores where you find hard core pornography). This will of course cripple sales beyond the point of a german port, so as a result, most violent films released in Germany are heavily cut, and most games have green blood or none at all.
Swastikas, and other nazi symbolism are of course strictly forbidden, but I've read somewhere that Gray Matter will be making a Swastika-free version for the german market.
That would take all the fun away from killing nazis if you ask me...
A penny for your thoughts.
A witty
I was just thinking about this. I just deleted thief 1 off my system. The first level was great but the second was insanely hard and I have no idea what I am exactly suppose to do. I did pick the hard level so maybe the could of thrown me off. I have no idea who this begger is and where the stupid arm is. Anyway I am really waiting for doom3. IT looks like its going to rock! However I am older now and want a better gae then just fraging deamons and eyeing the graphics. Anyway games take away productivity and I am quite poor right now in my life and plan to use my computer to jumpstart my once promising IT career. Perhaps in a few years I may give it a try after I use my comptuer to like learn things and beniefit myself. Oh, one more thing. How do you beat the second level of thief 1 with the hard difficulty level selected. :-)
I might as well ask.
Anyway I hope doom3 is loaded with atmoshpere as doom1 and thief are.
http://saveie6.com/
You could use the same argument against a kid watching Indiana Jones. Actually, I watched it when I was young and I think I knew enough to understand that Nazis were bad, and I did play Wolf3d when I was young too.
The only other games in that era I remember with speech were "Impossible Mission" (or was it "Mission Impossible" and Beach Head II for the C64.
Will they be supporting a Linux version? The article didnt mention specific platforms. Here's hoping!
I'm rather hoping for a Mac port, myself. I suppose the nice thing is that if they make it for OS X, then the people buying it would have to have a reasonably high end machine already -- would cut down on some of the "oh, I thought my video card was better than this" returns to Best Buy.
--saint----
Yes, I know, "it's just a game", but I can't think of another game anywhere where you run around and kill an identifiable group of people, no matter how evil they are deemed to be. Can you imagine a game where you're a US GI trying to escape from a Japanese POW camp with Rising Suns everywhere, killing caricatures of (probably bespectacled) Japanese soldiers and invading Japanese labs where experiments are being conducted on Filipinos and Chinese and American servicemen ? What about if a game were released where you are a Palestinian in an Israeli prison and you walk through Star-of-David-festooned hallways trying to kill Israeli stormtroopers while trying to halt their nuclear weapons research program ? How well accepted would those games be ? What kind of uproar would we expect then ?
They could perhaps take the same approach the developers of Giants did. When shipped, blood was green and breasts were covered. Remove/rename/edit a file, and the red blood returns and the breasts are uncovered. This little feature wasn't documented, but made it into PC Gamer's review of the game, and most likely showed up on many a gaming site.
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
I'll grant you that Final Fantasy has not been over hyped. I'm fairly satisfied with the amount of preview that I've seen. My skepticism stems from the fact that I am very excited about seeing it, which makes me nervous that its going to be a let down.
Wait for the reviews before you get all hot and bothered. I can't count the number of times I've been all excited about something and found out later that it was complete and total rubbish. Pearl Harbor is a notable example. Or to be all excited about something and then find out that its really bug ridden and mediocre ( Black and White - if you played it for more than 10 hours ). The only thing I can think of that has come close to living up to expectations is Tribes 2, despite the bugs.
Before you let the screenshot mania kick in, just take a deep breath, and go play some tribes, or counter strike. When the game comes out, we'll see how it is.
BTW, I hope that the upcoming Final Fantasy movie proves me wrong about pre hype.
Captain_Frisk
Judeging from the screenshots, this is the game that's finally force me to upgrade my P2-233 to something with a bit more poke.
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"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"
It's not about the engine, it's about the gameplay experience. Having the latest and greatest 3D effects and the prettiest pictures don't mean jack if the gameplay sucks. This is where I'm hoping RTCW excels, and if the graphics look really good then that's just a bonus.
Most people don't play games just to look at the pictures.
Say "NO!" to tax money for religious groups.
As if Columbine has not taught us a single thing, here come ID with another Nazi-glorifying festival of blood, guts and gore.
Yeah, I remember Columbine! I can't wait for this game to come out so that I can be persuaded to don a trenchcoat and shoot all of my high school classmates!!! This will be so awesome!!!
Oh wait...I'm 28 years old and not in high school. Damn. Now what? Hold on...the 10-year class reunion is coming up! Kick ass!
(And yes, this was supposed to be sarcastic. I'm not a violent person at all.)
Say "NO!" to tax money for religious groups.
Yeah. When the hell are the full immersion games showing up? We've been promised for years. I want the gogles and the surround video effect! I'm sick of staring at a monitor, I want to lay back in a lazy boy, slap on the goggles, and have some (clean, non x-rated) fun.
Non-xrated fun? You must be either gay or a woman! (Just kidding...don't kill me.)
Seriously though, there is more to a game than just how pretty it looks. There are some games that are very highly immersive without having to use Else 3D glasses or multi-million dollar VR technology. "Half-life" was fair at it when it came to immersiveness. But the all-out champion in the category was "Thief: The Dark Project." I don't think that there has been a game since (with the exception of Thief 2)that has come close to creating such an intense sense of environment (especially when played with EAX audio). It was unbelievable. Granted, the graphics weren't all that hot, but the gameplay + the immersiveness of the game was enough to get me hooked.
The comments about using stealth and the various "states" of the guards awareness are very much like the way that Thief worked. I'm hoping that RTCW will be a nice Half-life/Thief hybrid. Looks like fun. That, and the pictures are pretty.
Say "NO!" to tax money for religious groups.
Do the SS still yell "Rach-Rach" when they see me?
When I am out of ammo, can I still trap a standard guard in a corner by walking up to him, hold him hostage, steal his ammo, load my gun in front of him with it and shoot him?
Do I get to have someone else aim and shoot while I move?
GOD, I hope SOMEONE remembers the 80s version of this game, or this is going to to look REAL stupid!! *grin*
All that said, I wasted SO much time playing that original version.
What woulde really cool is to put that version as some kinda easter egg in the new version
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
I remember these situations as being particularly immersive:
1. Thief (and Thief II), played on hardest mode such that you couldn't kill anyone. (BTW, you're a thief, there's no reason you should be able to kill a guard in a swordfight. Thank goodness one game FINALLY got the thief character correct, at least on hardest mode.)
2. Duke Nukem, running through the mountains with the eerie alien siren/engines wailing (don't know which.) That went on for hours and really got you feeling despaired.
I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
Some people have far too much time on their hands.
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
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yes that is true, but the case is still different here. normally games like doom with explicit violence dont get banned on the first day because the government doesn't ban the game themselves. they don't do anything against this until someone comes to them and says: there's so much violence in this game, it'll have a bad influence on kids yada yada. so they'll play the game and decide about its potential danger then. this usually takes a few weeks. but even then the game doesn't get banned because of the violence (it's put on the index as they call it), you can still sell it to adults (people >18) but you cant advertise it etc.
but with the swastika it's a different thing. it's actually illegal to display the swastiak in public so they wont wait until some concerned mum or dad will come to them, they will ban it right away themselves. and ban means it won't be allowed to sell it AT ALL. i think it's even illegal to own it.
keep it simple.
hmm they will have some problems because of the swastika they use everywhere in the game. i know that germany will ban the game on the first day it hits stores (or it probably wont even hit stores).
but what about other countries? is that an issue in the US?
guess i'll just have to import the game from the UK or the US.
keep it simple.
> But the all-out champion in the category was
> "Thief: The Dark Project." I don't think that
> there has been a game since (with the exception
> of Thief 2)that has come close to creating such
> an intense sense of environment (especially when
> played with EAX audio).
I agree with that. It was probably the first game, that really treated sound as essential part of the overall game-play, as opposed to a mere background filler. Incidentally, it came with my Soundblaster Live Platinum...a good choice for a bundle. Of course, the fact that Looking Glass folded after creating such an awesome game was shocking, to say the least. Eidos performed some CPR and is now selling the games (Thief III is in the works).
Unfortunately though, it's not available for Linux (yet). If you're interested, I strongly suggest calling their support number specifically requesting a port to Linux. As an alternative, vote for it on the Tuxgames.com petition site.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding here, but the engine for this game will do a LOT that Half-Life doesn't already do. Half-Life was made using the Quake 2 engine. Since then, iD created the Quake 3 engine which added (most noticably for most gamers) pretty graphic effects like curved surfaces. Now I don't know much at all about this generation of engine (I imagine it must be, what, the 6th generation for iD, starting at Wolf3d and counting up with each game except for Doom 2?) but from looking at those screen shots, the visuals are light years beyond what Half-Life could do.
Now maybe, as far as an interactive environment goes, this offers very little. But isn't half of creating any realistic envoronment whether or not it LOOKS like a realistic environment?
This certainly looks more realistic than a lot of games I've seen.
-NeoTomba
Heh, this reminds me of when a bunch of kids in my high school got in trouble for installing a few copies of the Wolf 3D on a couple of the computers.
Did they get in trouble for installing games on school computers? No. They get in trouble because it was violent? No. They got in trouble because the game "displayed Nazi symbols." i.e. Sometimes there would be a swastika on the wall, etc..
I tried explaining it to the vice principal of the time, "Uh... in the game you're an American soldier and you have to kill the Nazis. I even think your guy is Jewish." But he would have none of that. There were Nazi symbols on those computer screens, and darnit, somebody was in big trouble. I don't remember what happened to the kids, though. I suppose nowadays they'd get expelled because the game involved shooting. Add Nazi propaganda, and I guess they'd be in jail for life.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Maybe this time they won't have you kill off Hitler in only the 3rd of 6 misssions. And hopefully they'll keep all the german sound bites for when the guards die, etc. "Schutzstaffel!" Bang! "Mein Leiben!" That was my sole reason for owning a Soundblaster. One more thing I notice right away from the screenshots is that they've gone and made the world all dark and depressing like Doom and Quake was. Wolf3D was kinda cool in that all the rooms were brightly lit, of course that was cause there was only one brightness level throughout the game...
Maybe this time they'll put in some of the old game functionality, such as bribing guards, keeping your passes in order, etc. I think I'm getting TMJ from all these shoot-em-ups. Aus pass! There is!