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id, Raven Developers Discuss New Wolfenstein

CVG is running an interview with Kevin Cloud, executive producer at id, and Eric Biessman, who leads Raven Software's programmers and artists, about the upcoming installment to the Wolfenstein series. They provide some detail about what kind of weapons will be available, what those crazy Nazis are up to this time, and BJ Blazkowicz's new ability to "shroud" himself. "Press a single button, at any time, and you'll see the other side of reality: a green and violent dimension that's filled with strange creatures and whirling tornadoes of energy. Just being in the shroud gives you options: floating above the ground are 'collectors' - fleshy heavy metal album cover worms that are scavenging electrical energy. Pop them, with a single rifle round, and they'll blast apart, damaging enemies in the real world. They are essentially exploding, hidden, organic barrels. ...In shroud mode, too, occult symbols etched into the masonry are transformed into holes in walls that BJ can simply step, shoot, or lob a grenade through."

19 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. shrouding? by nimbius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    3DRealms has had duke nukem doing this for ages now.

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    1. Re:shrouding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      not only for ages, but FOREVER!

    2. Re:shrouding? by dr_dank · · Score: 5, Funny

      not only for ages, but FOREVER!

      A note to mods: click the button on this link for added effect.

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  2. Protagonist by Narpak · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't get over the fact that the main character is called BJ.

    1. Re:Protagonist by Narpak · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hehe. But 16 years ago I didn't "get it" :P

    2. Re:Protagonist by Bad+Ad · · Score: 5, Funny

      And odds are you still dont "get it" now!

      you are on slashdot after all! :-)

    3. Re:Protagonist by rossmills · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yo momma opens herself up often enough!

    4. Re:Protagonist by ZJVavrek · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hawkeye: Who would name their kid B.J.?!
      B.J.: My mother, Bea Honeycutt, and my father, Jay Honeycutt.
      Hawkeye: Oh! Bea Jay! B.J.! You honestly expect me to belive that cockamamy story? Now what does it stand for?
      B.J.: Anything you want.

  3. Is it just me, or... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does anyone else hope that Id will throw in the original Wolfenstein gameplay, but with updated graphics?

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    1. Re:Is it just me, or... by skelly33 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, please - and missions and story. The shroud thing sounds ridiculous.

    2. Re:Is it just me, or... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the original was a purely 2D game for 8-bit machines. Wolf3D was based (loosely) on this. Possibly the grandparent thinks Return to Castle Wolfenstein was the original. It had great gameplay - lots of running and shooting monsters that died in large numbers. Lots of variation between levels (from running and spraying the area with fire to sitting in a hole sniping at large numbers of people, and just enough of a story to be interesting, without being a major element. Very much like Half Life in that respect (I don't want a lot of plot in FPS games - for good plots I can read a book - just enough so the shooting doesn't get boring).

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    3. Re:Is it just me, or... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm just waiting for a FOSS, net-aware multiplayer
      M.U.L.E.

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    4. Re:Is it just me, or... by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You've never played Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Occult aplenty, including an unhealthy dose of zombies, and guards with superhuman eyes and ears that seem to detect you from 30 miles away.

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    5. Re:Is it just me, or... by Rick+Bentley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wait, which "original" Wolfenstein gameplay are we talking about? RTCW-ET (Return to Castle Wolfenstien, Enemy Territory), the latest one of the series, if you don't include ET4-Quake Wars, is *still* one of the best gameplays out there.

      Multiple Character classes (Soldier, Medic, Engineer, Field Ops, Covert Ops)
      Each class with its own set of weapons and abilities
      Multiple classes needed to complete any given map (which makes online multi-player gameplay actually compelling)
      All of which creates the need to coordinate with strangers over the internet in real time to be able to win...

      There is nothing like going covert-op, grabbing a uniform, and taking an engineer with you through the tunnel to blow the Fuel Dump while everyone else is still trying to construct the bridge and move the tank. It's better than sex (not that I know what sex is, being on Slashdot and all...). In any case, it's nothing like a generic shooter, it's nothing like identical looking mazes.

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  4. Re:Pseudorealism by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Think of Wolfenstein once id gets a hold of it less as a forerunner or relative to realistic WWII shooters, and more like a video game equivalent of bad fifties and sixties pulps about those shooters (since the original games were pretty much pure jail-break stuff.) Wolf 3-D was pretty much exactly that, replete with the occult stuff, Mecha-Hitler, etc. (Keep in mind Wolf3D had gun-chested zombies!) Newer sequels can be thought of as evolving in parallel by reproducing more modern, serious, and perhaps sorta conspiracy theory-ish interpretations about what the Nazis did or thought they were planning on doing. I guess the genre could be called Nazi Sci-Fi/Fantasy or something.

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  5. oh no, not again by thermian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know what it is with ID and their terrible 'revive our old games' thing.

    Seriously, good as the engine was, doom 3 was a bad game, it lacked much of the gameplay associated with the original games. Obviously things had moved on in many ways, but it played more like an AvP knockoff to me, and not a well designed one at that.

    Quake 4 was also pretty poor. There wasn't much to wolfenstein, so they can pretty much start from scratch and go any way they like. Looking at their recent track record in games sat atop their (undeniably excellent) engines, I won't be shelling out the pounds for this until its been around long enough to be cheap.

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  6. Yet another fps? Try something else, iD! by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Enough B.J. Blazkowicz, let's talk about his grandson: Billy Blaze, best known as Commander Keen. How about a modern reimagining of the old games?

  7. Re:Shroud mode sounds a lot like Spirit mode by Swampash · · Score: 4, Informative

    Twilight Princess, Clive Barker's Undying, etc etc...

    Not exactly a new concept.

  8. Re:Pseudorealism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Way to Godwin the discussion...