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Return to Castle Wolfenstein Ships
Screaming Lunatic writes "Woohoo, Return to Castle Wolfenstein has finally shipped. Check this story out at Yahoo. You should be able to buy it at the regular gaming shops. I highly recommend buying it rather than hacking it, as noted in Graeme Devines .plan file." CD: I am seriously flashing back to the Apple II game with a similar name, hope this doesn't suck like daikatana.
It must be really hard producing a sequel of such a classic game after such a long period. They will be judged against people's rose tinted rememberances of the original Wolfenstein 3D. And no matter how good it is, people will say 'Ahhh I enjoyed the original more.'
It's also hard, because the FPS genre is not new anymore. Can RTCW be a better game than Deus Ex or Counterstike? Maybe. But whatever it is it will be hard for it to be revolutionary.
That said, I'm sure I'll buy it as soon as it hits the shops. Just as soon as I finish Civ 3 that is!
*r
--- My dad's political betting
I think most /.ers will agree that the multiplayer test map was very promising. I heard complaints about the "mod-ness" of the game play but really feel that the graphics are well put together. And from what I understand, the single player action is even more promising. Cross-site link me to the Geek Wish list. This is definitely on it.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
For those of you who are wondering the minimal requirements, it works fine here on both my Tiger K7 and my trusty old BP6 with 366Mhz celeron and geforce2MX 400, I can play at 1024x768 with compressed textures, high details, but I've putted the display to 16bits (anyways, it's not like you'd notice a big difference from 16 to 32 in a fast-paced game). It's smooth, it rocks...
:) but for single player and 10-20 people it works okay... worse case scenario, you reduce the resolution from a notch.
:)
Of course if you're planning on joining a 40 people server you might want a bigger cpu than a Celeron 366mhz
As for the graphics, it's about like Q3A (same engine) but there are a lot of visible changes, one that you will notice right away is the details on the characters, and also all the motion, probably John will step in and talk about some of the aspects of the design, it looks like motion capture applied to the characters. The graphics aren't a big step up like from quake 1 to quake 3, but the overall mood and gameplay is really good. When I first played the demo, I thought that game would really suck because of the respawn time and the choice of weapons, but when you get to know it and get a well-balanced team that knows how to play, the level, and use special habilities like medic, or engineers defusing,etc.. it's really starting to get addictive. So to anyone who didn't like the test, do like I did, play it a bit more, and if you like the quake style and the RTS style, wolf is a good balance of both.
The single player is good, when I read the interviews, I was expecting a "max payne"-like story line in between each level, it's not as good, but the mood is really there and the levels are really nice. Like I said, it's not a Revolution, but it's an evolution. It's worth to buy if you're into that kind of games.
Hope this is useful to anyone out there
Happy Reading.
Try Ebay. Within a month you can get most games for much less than retail.
Hmmm. I just saw this at my local BestBuy today. And here I thought I simply missed the release announcement on Slashdot . . .
.). However, suppose the keygen has produced a key that has been posted on the Internet and shared. I doubt that id would just say, "Oh, that's yours? Well, we'll just take it off of the list of banned keys." Hopefully, the customer could fax a copy of a receipt or something and get a new key mailed if this was to happen.
Regarding the CD key banning, there's something I'd like to point out: what happens if you buy a copy of RtCW and the CD key that you get has already been blacklisted? Say someone uses a keygen. Keygens come up with apparently valid keys which can be used to install software/etc. However, the same CD key could very well also be sitting in a box on a store shelf somewhere. This happened to a friend of mine with Diablo II (although they do not blacklist keys; he just couldn't log on because of it), and Blizzard killed the other guy's account (seems justified . .
On a side note, I'm surprised at the note that Graeme Devine had something to do with this. Last I heard of him was in the interview at the end of the 11th Hour strategy guide. Good luck Mr. Devine, wherever you are.
I found a link to a pretty good review of RtCW while scanning Fark today.
& order=0
:-) It is really not breaking new ground with different player classes and objectives but I think it is the first big name game (read: going to get a boatload of press) that incorporates objectives into the shoot and slash multiplayer scene.
http://www.newsgeek.net/article.php?sid=964&mode=
If the Multiplayer is as cool as this guy thinks it is I could be digging myself out of my two year deep Counter-Strike rut.
I didn't do the multiplayer test. Does anyone else have any input on how cool/lame it is?
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
Although, the characters are supposed to be much more detailed in the full version, especially in single-player mode--I'm assuming that they may leave character models less complex for multiplayer mode for better performance, although I can't confirm this yet.
But overall, it looks like it'll perform pretty well. And there's always the details settings to adjust for slower systems. I know one game that'll really spank all current systems will be Doom 3. :P
Uhm, hold on a sec, perhaps it was before your day but Wolfenstein 3D was NOT the original! The original was "Castle Wolfenstein" for the Apple (not Macintosh here, we're talking Apple II IIc kind of Apple).
Check the link from the front page to see what the real Castle Wolfenstein looked like.
Man, I loved that game... :)
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Are these opened and used games being sold on Ebay? If so, it's interesting that it's apparently illegal to re-sell Windows OS or Office but not a game. Guess it comes down to the legalease that the company chooses to use in their EULA.
MSRP on the cardboard box edition is $49.99 while the collector's tin is $59.99. Seems to just meet your limit of $50.
The real big thing to be cautious tho is if the owner has kept a copy of the CD key or has distributed it beforehand. Without a unique and individual CD key (only one person can use it at a time supposedly), you're going to be out of luck regarding Internet multiplayer until they put in a patch that doesn't check the CD key (they haven't done it yet for Q3A, which has been out for some time now, 2 years maybe?).
If you're patient, wait until this weekend's ads in Best Buy and CompUSA. They usually knock the price to around $30-$35, and my local TX stores always still have them in stock. Your mileage may vary. Or if you're really impatient, buy it now and bring the receipt back later within a few days.
I actually picked it up yesterday right before class.
The guy at Software Etc was still unpacking the boxes.
I'll confess, I never bought a single PC game in my life. And after playing the tests, I was already sold. (I remember playing Wolf3D, becoming unbelievably sick not more than 10 minutes.)
I had a shoddy G400 Marvel (for games? yeah right.) I went out and bought an MX400 card just for Wolf. (But I wish I had some kind of GF3... 'cause the game is simply stunning.)
So the game itself. The single player and multi-player are literally two different games. If you've played the test, and though mp_beach was huge... yeah right. I think that's the smallest map in the game.
I'm finishing up mission 2 for the single player mode. I don't know what to compare it against since I haven't played the likes of Half-Life or any other story based FPS.
I think it's too awesome though.
Sorry for being vague... but those who have played other FPS and RtCW... could you enlighten me if this 1 player story mode is ground breaking?
Seems like it to me. (Oh, I have played GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on console... but I can't compare it... since the control on the computer is so much easier.)
The linux version of the mp-test 2 came out the day after the windows version.
Here is a section of Todd Hollenshead's
So there ya go.
I have been looking, but I see no final linux version yet. But it's been just 1 day. I just hope that Timothee isn't on vacation or something, because the tin box is sitting right here just waiting to get installed... (Timo: hint hint)
-geekd
The first was Castle Wolfenstein, a great old game originally for the Apple computer (as in II, II+, IIc kind of thing, not Mac).
For those looking to re-live the past, a copy is available here.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
I can't be the only one here who uses cracks of my favourite games (that I've already bought) just to avoid having to swap CDs all the time. In fact I have a laptop without CD drive and this is the only way I can run games on it.
The CD-key is similarly annoying. I can see the point if they are going to check for online gaming, but why do they insist on needing it for single player games? (I rarely game online at all) Even for online gaming, they can only block 2 people trying to connect to the same gameserver with the same key - they could do this just by storing a serial number that the game uses on each CD, avoiding the silly mistake-prone key typing.
I can't understand why they keep using these methods of "copy protection", when they obviously don't work and the games sell huge amounts (the good ones anyway).
(BTW, I'm sure the game is great, I can't wait to relive the glory days of SS impersonating and grenade throwing I used to have in school.)
The first real first-person-shooter game (sort of), would rightly be Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. I think it would be the game that started the FPS revolution, except that Wolfenstein 3D and later, DOOM, brought the revolution into full gear.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
Before I'm halfway through? Hah! Not the way I play! Man, you've never seen moves like these- super-backspin-kicking-slash-shoot attacks! Bang ka-POW! Of course, with my luck, the first patch will screw with all the timing settings and my descending laser bullet of CERTAINDEATH will miss horribly, thus deciding my fate before I've even had a chance to say goodbye to my loved ones.
Damn, I love FPS.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
As the guy above pointed out, there will be a Linux client download available. So you're not really SOL. But I put a provocative subject line on my post anyway to get people to consider this.
You see, I'm glad that there appears to be one primary platform for computer games. I don't cae that it's Windows. It could just as well be Linux or Mac or whatever for all I care. But I do care that most new computer games are developed for one given OS.
You see, unlike the console world I don't have to have 3 or 4 different expensive bulky boxes in order to be able to play all the cool new releases. I just have to have one expensive bulky box. And I don't have to boot to 3 or 4 different OSes either--I just run Windows when I want to play a game.
Now, sure, I wish all games came out for every OS. Who wouldn't want to be able to just use whatever he likes, be it a Windows or Linux PC, or a Mac running either OS X or OS 9, and run any game he wants? But that will simply never, ever, ever happen, because there is no money in eating into your thin profit margins to make ports to every OS and architecture in existence. Instead, most developers pick the most popular OS--the one with the most users, that is--and code for that.
The result is a unity in the PC gaming world that will probably never come to the console world. I'd like to be able to just buy one next-gen console, and play all the console games on it. I wish I could buy either a PS2 or Gamecube or even an Xbox and use it to play Luigi's Mansion, Munch's Oddysee, Soul Reaver 2, DOA3, and all the other cool console games that are coming out. But I just can't and that's that.
Comparing it to the PC gaming scene, I'm glad I wouldn't similarly have to have Linux, Windows, and a Mac just to play most of the cool new games. Instead, just having a good PC running Windows means I can run almost every cool new PC game I could want. Rare is the really cool game that's Mac or Linux only. Almost all come out for Windows, and almost always first.
Would it be nice if the primary PC gaming platform were Free Software? Of course. But it isn't and I'm fine with that as long as I don't have to boot between many OSes or worse yet keep several different boxes to play different games. Windows 98SE can play almost every game ever written for the PC from the DOS days of the early 80s to the present, and of that I'm glad because I can and do play many of them, old and new. I'm glad that, as outdated and technologically weak Win9x is, it has kept almost-perfect game compatibility. It's like if Nintendo offered a machine which played all games from every console and region from the NES on through the Gamecube. AS a man who likes his games, I think it's perfect for what it is in that respect.
Now of course soon games will start to be targeted for a newer platform. I wish it were Linux or something else free and Free, but it will be WinXP and again I am fine with that as long as it maintains the sort of unity of platform we enjoy in the PC gaming world. Again, we are lucky that it isn't how it is in the console world, where there are several major platforms with exclusive games, which completely change every few years and with the exception of the PS2 completely break all chance for backwards compatability.
Complain all you want, but we have it easy. I'd never complain about having a near-universal gaming platform with nearly universal backwards compatibility. Neither Nintendo nor Sony are any better than Microsoft either when it comes to corporate behavior, so I count myself lucky and look at the good in this PC gaming platform.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
I don't think I ever wasted as much time in high school as with ROTT. Every day, we'd install it on the LAN, and every night Mr. Murray would uninstall it. Eventually, he gave up.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
From the link about CDkeys:
So, I don't have a CDKey and download a CDKey generator to get one, and it is actually a virus attack to steal my good cdkey? Does this seem like a stupid statement to anybody else, or if it is true, don't the CDKey authors seem stupid? Who would write CDKey generators to steal CDKeys, when most of the people who try to use them want them because they don't want a CDKey? Am I missing something?
-N
This would be at least one of several classic scenes for a movie someday. The grandma teaching kids how to play doom. or is the local champion, or something. classic
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
If you care about the future of Linux gaming, please, please wait and buy it from Tux Games. If you buy it from your local Best Buy or whatever, if just looks like another Windows sale, but if you buy from Tux Games they will see that it was sold from a Linux games retailer.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Things that are good:
Bad Stuff:
Now, for the comparison: Halflife versus Return To Castle Wolfenstein. What if RTCW came out the same day as Half-Life? I would be VERY impressed with the image quality in RTCW over Half Life and the high res textures would be amazing. However, I would still choose Half Life as a better single player game, because the variety of monsters is what made that game so amazing. RTCW seems to have some surprises in store for me, but nothing too exciting yet.
As of the first four missions (each containing four levels) of the game, I would rate this game 7/10. It's a good FPS, but it borrows more ideas from the genre than it gives back to it.
The only blatant rip off that I can see is the delayed spawn or "reinforcements". Like DOD, the RTCW multiplayer is a war simulation, with objectives and classes, which are not unique to either DOD or RTCW.
DOD is for comps that can't handle the Q3A engine or people who don't want to shell out $50.
Journal
Oh yeah, text hanging in your view. That makes it so much more lifelike!
The only reason that argument even begins to make sense when the Anime nuts use it is because they dub OVER the original voices with no-name voice actors. Here, the English was the original.
This is really a lot more realistic. BJ (the main character) can speak German, so this is what it would feel like to be him, hearing the guards talk and understanding them.
(cut and paste from my site)
Well I just got the game and let me say I am impressed. The graphics in the game are phenomenal - similar to the multiplayer test but with a lot more details. There are cobwebs on archways, skeletons bones littering the floors, and characters even blink when giving a speech talking. The nice thing is that game has little details that didn't have to be added, but were. The so far plot is interesting and easy to get into.
Gameplay is balanced and fun. It feels like a cross between Halflife and the Wolfenstein levels from Doom. I just started and have already observed a few interesting features.
I fought my way into a room with a wooden floor. Some of the floorboards were missing and you could see under you. Unfortunately, the nazis could also see up. They let loose and opened fire as wooden chips started flying. When they shot the right place, part of the floorboards just shattered! It seems like a small touch, but it was very impressive to look at. In my opinion its the small things that can help make the videogame.
So far, from my first impression the game gets an A+. A more detailed review will be given in about a week when I have played the game further.
Liquid Gaming - Your daily dose of gaming news
Why the hell would you need winex? There have been linux clients all along...and they're going to rellease a full version linux client soon.
AFAIK, it's impossible to generate a real key that works online. Your key is verified at id's master server when you try to join a server. You may generate a valid key (56bit des) when you play single player, but it's not gonna fly online. Do some research on Quake3 being 'cracked' if you want proof. Q3 online was uncrackable, as is RTCW.
Why does nobody object to iD maintaining an internet database of activation keys, but all get up in arms with Microsoft does it?
From my experiences with the multiplayer test, I observed you inflict more damage whenever your target has his back to you. Even if you aren't taking care to be quiet, if you run up behind someone with a knife you can cut them down in one or two shots from full health. Compare that to half a dozen or so required if you strike them from the front. My most often used multiplayer tricks, therefore, are to (1) hide around a corner and wait for enemies to run past you, exposing their back, and (2) never flee with your back to the enemy.
Remember to rename the exe file to 'quake.exe' to squeeze out a better frame rate!
--jeff
ipv6 is my vpn
Disregarding the individual stages or parts to each mission, is there a full count of all the missions? I'm on 4 now, and I'm hoping it goes much, much higher... :)
So far so good, the only downside is that I got shafted by Electronics Boutique on the price, but when you're individual demand is high, and price is inelastic, well, you're willing to pay $59.99.
At any rate, at least the game runs without the need for a no-CD crack. All this business of CD keys seems rediculous to me. Companies are trying to protect themselves from rampant piracy. How many times do you install the game that typing a CD key is so incredibly painful? I mean, you did buy the game right?
On a more personal note, I'm enjoying RTCW so far. The view bob is making me a bit sick (which is unusual) but that usually means I'm really into the game. It also means I lose track of time and play until 2 AM when I have work the next day. But the animation is very nice, and the graphics are visually appealing (although not "revolutionary"). But best of all I get to kill hordes of evil Nazis. It really doesn't get better than that, and it never gets old either.
I'm looking forward to Medal Of Honor as well.
And for any Gray Matter employees reading this: Great work! I hope to see some new multiplayer map packs soon!
More soon.
FIn
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
Heck, the original had subtitles in it.
And the original was in German, too-- "Aus Pass!" and a gun usually learned one which button to hit...
The only keygen I ever saw for Quake 3 wasn't a generator, it was a VB app that had a list of keys that were valid. If you kept hitting 'generate' you'd notice that the keys would be the same and in the same order. Eventually I'm sure they all got added to the banned list.
Nobody every managed to make a key generator for half-life that would work online either.
I don't recall if they added more sayings in the sequel Beyond Castle Wolfenstein...
Castle Wolfenstein
written by Silas Warner
Muse Software
couldn't get it to load (even in safe mode) on my TNT2/Athlon 500 (asus KVM mobo) but on my 1.4 athlon with a -=16 meg rage 128 pro (all-in-wonder)=- heh, phear me -- I'm getting great play at 1024x768 (16 bit only though). I've seen screenshots from a Gforce3 and they are purty...
Thing is, the game is pretty boring so far. Run, shoot, get more ammo, shoot more, run, hide die die die die die shoot. save. it's *not* Deus Ex or System Shock - it reminds me, for some reason, of Hexen.
I liked Hexen, but, you know, it's just Hexen.
closed minded is as closed minded does
It's amazing to see that Graeme actually stuck with the game industry after such a catastrophe with the fall of the company that tamed the CD-ROM for gaming. See Haunted Glory [gamespot.com] for the misadventures (and silly pictures) of Mr. Devine at Trilobyte.
What I wish to know is what ever happened to Rob Landeros? Last thing I can find on him is quite depressing. [justadventure.com]
Here's to expecting more good things from Graeme,
-Rob
Obviously, Graeme thinks the people who read his
Picture me sitting here with my brand spanking new downloaded copy of RTCW. I run a keygen.
Oh no! That evil virus attack just sent my valid Wolf key to some insideous pirate! Except it didn't.
PIRATES USING KEYGENS DON'T HAVE VALID KEYS.
He used this same stupid assed scare tactic when Q3A came out. It was stupid then, and stupid now. But at least he added the evil terrifying file corrupting ability bit.
I'm tempted to just download the game and play through the singleplayer game for the heck of it.
Traditionally, id software has been the only major game manufacturer to contiually support joysticks in their games. However, I have heard in many newsgroups and posts that this is not the case with RTCW. I think that this is sad.
Surely, the VAST majority of gamers use the k/m combo. But I contend that it is a small matter to add (or continue) joystick support. I have always used a joystick in gaming (did the Atari 2600 have a k/m? No. It had a joystick). Notwithstanding the inherent ergonomic nightmare that using a k/m presents, the joystick I use (pantherXL) is superb--a trackball on the left for looking and aiming, and a joystick on the right for movement. 14 additional keys around the stick and trackball can be bound to what normal k/mers would use. I never even have to reach for the keyboard.
I guess I'm in the dwindling minority of gamers who still use the joystick. If id won't support us, I see a dark future ahead for joystick users.
The first computer I got had Rogue Spear. I think that's it, a Wolfenstien progenitor. 2D pixel Nazi shootin'!
:-D
Now, one night I downloaded that Wolfenstien demo, you know the one. It's been all over Gamespy. Well... I've been killin' Nazis for 2 hours every night on the same map! Did I mention on the same map?!?!!!
War is HELL. Let's go! Shnell shnell!!! Watch out for turkey dinners.
Can you see vital signs in hexadecimal? If not, it's a waste of bits.
Someone remembers the joys of Blood 1 besides me?
I thought there wern't THAT many of us left. I had the game at some point and loved it.. played mplayer with it ALL the time. Then I got used to Quakemultiplayer and gave up blood for a while. Got the itch for it last year and couldnt find where I had placed it so I went and bought another copy.
Blood didnt have a true 3d engine like quake did but for single player Blood was SSOO much better. If you listen carefully you can still hear the wise cracking caleb and the cheesy showtunes. . .
BTW: in blood it was a "hairspray can" and a match.. not a true "flame thrower" but operated in the same way. Still good.
You forgot:
"Kamarade" ("I surrender")
Disclaimer: I don't know German, but I remember the soldiers in Wolfenstein would say this when you stick them up.
Remember the AI of Wolfenstein? If you keep your pistol hidden and then pull it out when you are right next to a soldier or even an SS, the enemy would raise his hands and let you search him.
After which you shot him. Or used the knife in BCW.
Bye the way, Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple ][ was the FIRST computer game I ever bought. And it was still one of the most playable. Except for Three Mile Island. Now that game was a bitch.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
I admit, I don't buy games very often; the last (full-price) one I bought was Black and White. I do have to take some issue with your comment, though - most games ship with the version of DirectX that they require (although I've noticed that some of the more recent ones I have don't...), so that's not really a problem. Further, there really is no excuse at all to be running Win3.x on a gaming machine, and 3D accelerator cards have been standard PC hardware for about 3 years now.
:-)
:-)
I guess I'm probably just spoilt because I have a fairly standard 700MHz P3 + TNT2Ultra + Win98SE; as always, for more unusual configurations, YMMV
Anyway, I have only ever had one game that required a particular type of processor - Unreal, which apparently needed the MMX extensions of a real Pentium, and refused to run under my Cyrix. Beyond that, assuming your hardware isn't archaic, you really shouldn't have any problems beyond poor frame rates. Of course, for some of us, poor frame rates are the reason we occasionally spend more on computer hardware in a single go than we do on clothes in a year
Cheers,
Tim
It's official. Most of you are morons.