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id, Raven Developers Discuss New Wolfenstein
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Aug 17, 2008 10:29 AM
from the ach-mein-leben dept.
from the ach-mein-leben dept.
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."
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Early Look At the New <em>Wolfenstein</em> Game 88 comments
Attendees of this year's GDC were given an early look at Wolfenstein, the new shooter in development by id and Raven. We've previously discussed the "Veil" ability that protagonist BJ Blazkowicz uses to hide himself, and much of the coverage relates to how it affects gameplay. "Early on, Blazkowicz stumbles upon an experiment and manages to blow it up, releasing waves of ethereal blue material. The Veil seems to turn gravity on and off as Blazkowicz tries to escape the area, making for some very original gunplay. ... The folks on hand told me that the Veil would be incorporated into game's multiplayer, but wouldn't go into details." A trailer for the game is available at Joystiq, and they had this to say: "Wolfenstein's look and gameplay is dated — and not in a retro chic way. Without the Veil, the game could be mistaken for a last-gen title, so the game's success rests on how compelling this feature will be throughout an entire playthrough."
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shrouding? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:shrouding? (Score:5, Funny)
not only for ages, but FOREVER!
Parent
Re:shrouding? (Score:5, Funny)
not only for ages, but FOREVER!
A note to mods: click the button on this link [instantrimshot.com] for added effect.
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Protagonist (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Protagonist (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Protagonist (Score:5, Funny)
you are on slashdot after all!
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Re:Protagonist (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Protagonist (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Protagonist (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Interesting)
Does anyone else hope that Id will throw in the original Wolfenstein gameplay, but with updated graphics?
Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The ridiculous shroud thing sounds like something that should be reserved for more mystical games like doom, etc. Wolfenstein was cool in that there was no monsters, just human guards and german shepherds. Shroud sounds lame.
Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:4, Insightful)
You obviously missed the "Electric Butts" in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And zombie things. And lord knows what else I've might have forgotten.
Parent
Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, 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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Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:4, Insightful)
Even outside of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Spear of Destiny had plenty of sci-fi elements. Wolfenstein isn't mundane by any means...
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Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Insightful)
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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Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm just waiting for a FOSS, net-aware multiplayer
M.U.L.E.
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new meaning (Score:2)
Wow, sounds like it gives new meaning to "god mode"
or a violence induced psychoses.
I kind of like this. (Score:2)
the supernatural element has been in Wolfenstein 3D since Spear of Destiny. It's nice to see iD taking that just one step more.
That's great, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd really rather have another installment in the Hexen/Heretic series.
Pseudorealism (Score:2, Interesting)
I understand that the Wolfenstein series et al. has never been about realism in the strict sense. C'mon, you can take ten bullets to the face and still shoot perfectly until you drop dead...
All the same, this does sound a little ridiculous. I realize that the Wolfenstein series has never been all that grounded in reality save the connection to the Nazis (see -- mecha Hitler, zombie things?), but really? Then again, it might give a nice shot in the arm to the vanilla WWII realism shooters... but I don't hold
Re:Pseudorealism (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Pseudorealism (Score:5, Funny)
Way to Godwin the discussion...
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The Thing is (Score:3, Interesting)
Also it seems like FPS's in general have been trying more and more to make us use an extra-dimensional elements, PREY's spirit form and 'shroud'. What else could developers do to expand on the game play without overwhelming players? Any ideas?
The "shroud" ability looks a lot like Prey ... (Score:2)
(awesome game btw., highly recommended)
and other games too... (Score:2)
Before that, Soul Reaver [wikipedia.org] had similar shifting between real world and spectral world, required to solve some puzzle.
Even "Spear of Destiny" (wolfenstein prequel) had a (scripted) shift to a parallel world once you picked said spear. (Although not an "at-will" ability used for solving puzzles)
And lots of old 2D games had similar "shift", as far back as SNES games (Zelda : Link to the past) and Megadrive games (Sonic CD had a system with past/present/future time shifts).
Shifting between alternate world isn't a
How about a good story (Score:2)
to go along with the shoot em up?
Or is that too much to ask...?
oh no, not again (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.
Re:oh no, not again (Score:4, Insightful)
> I don't know what it is with ID and their terrible 'revive our old games' thing.
If they end up with more revivifications like RtCW than Doom 3 then the industry as a whole benefits from it. There should always be a Castle Wolfenstein game available on a fairly modern engine. RtCW is a little long in the tooth now, so let's have a new one. Works for me, I loved RtCW and there are damned few servers left whenever I reinstall.
Id's "first party" games are just tech demos for their latest engine anyway, have been for a while. That explains Doom 3 right there - they really weren't trying to make an awesome game, they were demoing an awesome engine.
Waiting until games become cheap is an excellent strategy. If it's any good, there will still be a healthy online community. If there isn't, you didn't miss much.
Parent
Doom III was an awesome shoot em up. (Score:3, Funny)
I don't understand why everybody says Doom 3 was a 'demo'. It was not. It was an awesome game. Highly entertaining, as it kept the player on the edge with different events, an awesome atmosphere, amazing environments, high adrenaline etc.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
it lacked much of the gameplay associated with the original games
Wha? Original Doom = identical mazes, randomly scattered weapon/health pickups. Find key, open door, move to next key/door. Shoot random monsters hidden in closets
Doom 3 = identical sci-fi mazes. randomly scattered weapon/health pickups. Find key/switch/computer terminal, open door, move to next terminal/door. Shoot random monsters hidden in closets
Doom 3 was a faithful a sequel as anybody could expect. The problem was the the FPS genre has moved so far beyond the original formula.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
D3 was never frantic enough. Painkiller and the Serious Sam games were much, much more faithful to the original Doom formula. D3 tried to be the original (reason's out the window, monster closets everywhere) while trying for a more modern, atmospheric scariness (booooo, it's all dark, you're afraid!) and placing greater emphasis on the story (hey, look, audio logs!)
IMO, they failed to do any of that well. Too few enemies for a classic Doom feel, too predictable for a creepier kind of fright, and the adde
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Yet another fps? Try something else, iD! (Score:5, Insightful)
BJ Joins Aperture Science (Score:4, Interesting)
Remember our motto: There's a hole in the sky, through which things can fly.
Now you're thinking with Portals!
alternate dimensions? metal worms? what? (Score:3, Funny)
Wolfenstein used to have a simple and timeless premise: a Polish-Jewish supersoldier invades a Nazi stronghold and singlehandedly defeats everyone whose path he crossed, including a cyborg Hitler with rail guns for arms.
I don't see why they had to go and complicate the story with "shrouding" and "occult portals" and whatnot.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
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Re:Shroud mode sounds a lot like Spirit mode (Score:5, Informative)
Twilight Princess, Clive Barker's Undying, etc etc...
Not exactly a new concept.
Parent
Re:Shroud mode sounds a lot like Spirit mode (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyone else think that the shroud mode sounds a lot like the spirit mode in Prey? Especially the part about symbols on the wall changing into things when you go into shroud mode.
Its way older than that. Prey only came out fairly recently. There was a vampire game, one of the legacy of Kain series from 1999 http://www.dark-chronicle.co.uk/sr1/index.php?id=2 [dark-chronicle.co.uk] I think. Perhaps even earlier implementations of shroud/spirit/reality shift etc. And I'm sure there are movies with this plot device too that pre-date even that.
Even Zelda on the Wii has this switching realms thing as a plot device. Pretty cheap to do too. change the lighting, put different texture maps on the models and characters, and you have double the gameplay with less effort. Put a switch to remove collision detection on the enemies in one ream, and you can even do things like walking through people when travelling in the ghost mode.
There is no reason to not use such a plot device. After all, a FPS is a FPS. The details and setting may change, but when it comes down to it, shoot the monsters, pull the switches, collect the tokens, and move on to bigger better monsters and weapons... and repeat on new map. Is there really any FPS that deviates much from this? Its a well tested successful format for a game, People like it, the engines, once created can be used to make more similar games, and making third party maps and mods is a well established shelf life extender.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Oddly, Prey was developed by the other game company in Madison, WI: Human Head.
Raven must be stealing stuff from across the city now!
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wow, a new Wolfenstein title. (Score:4, Informative)
Other than the "style" in which this was written, why is this marked "Troll"?!? The person is right. It's the same thing over and over coming out of the gaming industry.
:\
That said, would I buy another Wolf3d? Yea, probably. I bought the original and the "addon" 5 missions (I never did get Spear of Destiny, though), then Doom, then Doom2, RTCW, Doom3, etc. I've rather liked id's work from the very start. Doom3 was a rocky start [slashdot.org], but it's OK these days. I guess it's not "ground breaking", but it's a departure from the norm.
I guess that's the best we can hope for these days; a departure from the norm.
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Re:The occult, really? (Score:4, Insightful)
That and Nazis were actually tied to Occultism. This theme has been done before in other areas and it the whole basis behind the Indiana Jones movies.
So while it may not be the most realistic game it's not trying to invent something new to be different it's taking it's same twist on real facts about Nazis.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Not since Romero left at least...