id, Raven Developers Discuss New Wolfenstein 162
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."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
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 much hope out in that regard since Call of Duty II / IV have apparently wrapped up those two eras of warfare...
In any event, I don't care much so long as they make it fun -- I'm not expecting a seminal work of art here. It doesn't sound much like a breath of fresh air -- Prey did something similar three to five years ago? With id's idTech4 Engine (i.e Doom 3 engine), no less...
Re:Shroud mode sounds a lot like Spirit mode (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pseudorealism (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re:Is it just me, or... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm just waiting for a FOSS, net-aware multiplayer
M.U.L.E.
Re:shrouding? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Nazis again? (Score:0, Interesting)
I want a game where I can walk into the Capitol in the middle of the day and just blow the living shit out of Congressmen and all the police who show up. Hitman: Blood Money came close; you have to infiltrate the White House and kill the Vice President, but it is dark, raining, there are not enough guards, and the guards are pushovers. It just doesn't feel right. I would also like a game where you have to kill somebody at a baseball or football stadium during a game with thousands of NPCs walking around.
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.
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!
Re:oh no, not again (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.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:oh no, not again (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 added story elements were weak and unnecessary.