For those of you who entered gaming in the mid to late 90’s, you might not know about the history of Wolfenstein. This is the shooter that really launched FPS into the stratosphere. Wolfenstein makes its foray back into the gaming world and in next-gen for that matter. Wolfenstein follows the formula that made it great: killing Nazis with bad ass weaponry. Does this iteration do its predecessors justice? Put it this way, vaporizing Nazi’s with a particle cannon is about as fun as it sounds.
Middleton, Wisconsin native Raven Software (makers of the recently released Wolfenstein game) are supposedly firing yet another 30 to 35 workers on its development team. The Raven team, part of the bigger Activision family, is known for their great games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and the clawed up X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It seems that the studio was forced to let go at least 30 to 35 employees, effectively taking the studio from a 3 game at a time developer, down to a 2 game developer.
This comes immediately following release day layoffs for the Endrant Studios developer responsible for creating the Wolfenstein multiplayer part of the title, which had to let go an unannounced amount of members on the 17 man team.
What in the world is possibly better than enjoying a free game? How about a free AAA game? I really can’t think of too many things off the top of my head that trump that? Well, as long as the game isn’t Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 3 or Ice Road Truckers! BLEGH! I would definitely take free cake and a ZJ (whatever that is) instead of those two games. The cake and ZJ might just edge out the free game, but you heard that right, Wolfenstein COULD be free for all of us if we save our receipt after purchasing it in August when it comes out.
The catch? There is no catch! That’s awesome right? (Good times!)
Well, I don’t think there is a catch? (Semi-good times!)
Okay. Just one. (So-so times!)
It involves Madden NFL 10. (We’re listening to the not-so-good news.)
Wolfenstein has to beat the August NPD numbers for Electronic Art’s Madden NFL 10. (Awww crappers!)
Ever walk into a building and just get the feeling that a whole lof ot creepy shit went down? That is the feeling they want you to get when you are going to be playing Wolfenstein. The legendary Nazi shooter is coming our way soon. Get ready for some killin’.
What is the only thing worse than a Nazi? A Nazi that can creep up on you with chicken wire. Can’t trust Nazis. Can’t trust them one bit. We return to Castle Wolfenstein on July 30. It’s been too long.
[Editor's note: This is a new series from Loot Ninja where we'll all be bringing you the origins of our online gamer ID's. Check back as we delve deeper into what makes each of our online personas.]
When we game, we tend to hide behind a certain degree of anonymity. With the advent of online multiplayer gaming, what’s in a name can often sum up everything we’re up against in another player. PumpkinHeadRex, my gamer ID, is an odd handle for sure. To understand the name, you have to understand the player.
Before I’m a gamer, before I’m a writer, I’m a horror filmmaker. Some of you may recognize Pumpkinhead as a low budget horror flick from 1988. Directed by Stan Winston and featuring his insane creature FX work, it starred professional badass Lance Henriksen, fresh off his duties in the legendary bloodsucker romp Near Dark. The other half, the one represented by that long-haired, toothy fella up there, is Rawhead Rex. Based on a lesser known work by Clive Barker, Barker’s disappointment in the finished product ultimately prompted his taking complete creative control of the now classic Hellraiser adaptation. As for Rawhead Rex … it’s aged well, what can I say? I think I’m won over by the sheer ballsiness of the urine baptism scene. Currently out of print, an official DVD (or even VHS) can run you a good chunk of change. On the other hand, Pumpkinhead just got a new Collector’s Edition DVD last year. Oh, and the name’s case sensitive, too. On video, Rawhead Rex was always written out as RawHeadRex, hence PumpkinHeadRex. Get it?
Now, does this mean I only play horror games? No. Not that I don’t like a good horror game, it’s just there are very few of them out there. I am looking forward to the new Wolfenstein and Castlevania. If either of them have good multiplayer, look for PumpkinHeadRex.
John Carmack, being the genius that he is, decided to port Wolfenstein 3D to the iPhone. With Wolfenstein being one of the godfather’s of the FPS genre, I’d say it was a good move. If you haven’t played Wolfenstein at this point, you need to have your gamer card revoked. Being $4.99 on the iPhone now, there’s no excuse to not play this game.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was one of the games that started the FPS genre. Playing it on PC in the computer labs at school and getting detention for it is a memory of mine that makes me reflect on how far games have come since then. Wolfenstein is going next gen and it looks awesome. This is the debut trailer for a game that a lot of us forgot about for awhile. Shooting Nazis who have been corrupted by the Occult? Yes please.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t really played a Wolfenstein game in a long time. While I dabbled with Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the Xbox, it didn’t pique my interest enough. I did play the shit out of the original game on the PC back in the day, though.
While Activision wasn’t allowing press to play the game yet since it’s still very much pre-alpha, a few developers were on hand to play through and tell us all about what changes the series has undergone. Wolfenstein is now running on a modified Call of Duty 4 engine, which means you know it’s going to look and play well; that much was evident already in the preview build. But where the series really takes a turn is the story.
Raven, an upcoming gaming desing compnay has announced that they will bring the Wolfenstein series back to the forefront and to next gen consoles reports Yahoo. Based in Wisconsin, the company shares some ties with the University of Wisconsin at Madison and some of the thespians at the school have been involved in some state of the art motion capturing technology. The company has used this technology before, like in its 2006 released game “Marvel Ultimate Alliance.” Raven designers said that the new technology is invaluable. Look for this game to be released later this year for the Xbox360 and PS3.
Coming Soon!
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