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Latest Wolfenstein trailer looks at what lurks in the shadows
Assassins are usually very discreet and very deadly, and those found in upcoming Wolfenstein appear to be no different. In the trailer above, we get a good glimpse at what these near-invisible, blade-wielding stalkers can do (see: stab you silly). Thankfully, BJ has his trusty Veil Sight to help him spot what's hiding around him, and lots of guns to put these baddies down.And because we couldn't waste this gem of a one-liner: Assassins do it in the dark.
Wolfenstein E3 trailer returns to familiar territory
Admittedly, there are plenty of new things in Wolfenstein. Veil Sight, a bigger, badder Nazi opposition, and new, destructive weapons are just a few of these things. But, as much as things change, some things stay the same, including protagonist BJ Blazkowicz and his penchant to shoot first and ask later. You know, if BJ tried to talk it out instead of resorting to violence at the drop of a Nazi helmet, he might have less problems in his life. But, then again, if that was the case, you wouldn't be reading this amazing post on Joystiq.com.
Wolfenstein 3D confirmed for XBLA and PSN next week
Big surprise, we know, considering the evidence of late, but we're happy to be able to officially confirm that Wolfenstein 3D is in fact coming to Xbox Live and PSN on June 4 and June 5, respectively (no price mentioned). Playing through Wolfenstein 3D will also offer more incentive than the sheer joy of mowing down a gigantic Hitler, as the classic will allow players to "earn accolades and be awarded gold for customizable weapon upgrades" in the new Wolfenstein, which is slated for an August 4 release. We've put in word for clarification on the price of Wolfenstein 3D and will get back to you as soon as we hear something.
Doom should come to iPhone next month
We wish all devs were as forthcoming as id's John Carmack. His update on the status of the iPhone version of Doom (or Doom Classic, as he's calling it) is exhaustive, but it's also rich with information and insight into porting an old-school classic onto new tech ... and doing it well.We've dug up a few nuggets for you, like the fact that Carmack says he should be able to submit the game to the App Store by next month and that the game will use the original Doom sprites, but you should really take a few minutes to read the whole thing, it's really interesting stuff.[Via Shacknews]
Doom, Heretic and Hexen: Now gibbing demons in-browser
Hey, how's it going? Having a nice day? Got a busy schedule, huh? Lots of work to do, right? We're sorry to hear that -- see, here's how we see the next week or so playing out: You'll fire up this recent, spot-on Flash port of Doom, Heretic and Hexen. You'll play them until you're about to starve to death. You'll eat. You'll repeat steps 2 and 3 until, regrettably, you forget to do step 3. Seriously, folks -- a Newgrounds Flash aficionado (simply named "Mike") has created one of the most accurate, free-est ports of three of id's gibbiest shooters (or wand-ers, in Heretic and Hexen's case). We highly suggest checking them out.[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]
Quake Live getting a new map every week for six weeks
As promised in an a forum post earlier in the month, id will be rolling out new maps for their successful in-browser shooter Quake Live in the near, near future. However, we didn't really expect their benevolence to come in such enormous portions -- starting tomorrow, they'll be adding a new map to the game every week for six weeks. Why, that's ... hold on. (Carry the one, find the square root, find the value of B ...) That's six maps!Tomorrow's new battleground is a remake of Hidden Fortress, ripped from the Dreamcast version of Quake III Arena. id has promised to include more classic maps in its upcoming downloadable salvo, so keep your eyes peeled for more familiar fragging grounds over the next month and a half.
id Software maintains 'games first, licenses second' approach with idTech 5
Sure, id Tech 5 may be an impressive piece of middleware which manages to get 90% of game code working across PC, Mac and the more powerful consoles, but if you're going to be a licensee you have to be special. id Software's CEO, Tedd Hollenshead, has told Gamasutra that the company's "philosophy really hasn't changed from what it's always been, which is games first, licenses second." Rage and Doom 4 are currently id Software's top priority.In terms of licensing the engine out to developers id Software has been focusing on "targeting developers" and "working with them on an individual basis," rather than offering it out to anyone with a devkit. Hollenshead says the company's "philosophy on that has been that we'd rather have a small number of good-fit, high-quality developer licensees than a bunch that aren't really good fits." Makes perfect sense to us, and could save id Software some legal heartache in the long run.
Disintegrate bad people with Wolfenstein's particle cannon
If destroying Nazis is on your agenda, nothing quite gets the job done like a particle cannon. Why futz with bullet-riddled corpses or, even worse, exploded viscera? With the particle cannon, enemies simply disintegrate, making for vary little mess and easy cleanup. You can see it in action in the latest trailer for Wolfenstein. This particular particle cannon is fairly effective, though it does seem to harbor one small design flaw: it disintegrates everything but hats.We're guessing the Allies probably consulted with the ACME Corporation on the particle cannon's design.
Quake Live update adding new maps, Mac and Linux support coming soon
We understand that much of the appeal for id's free-to-play browser shooter Quake Live comes from the rich veins of nostalgia that lie therein -- but that doesn't mean we don't expect the game to improve upon the franchise's roots. Fortunately, id Software just clued in their forumgoers to a few welcome additions coming to Live in an update that's due out mid-May -- an update that will bring new maps, tutorial modes and better mid-match team balancing.However, the forum post also mentioned a ton of changes they're planning on rolling out in the near future, like the addition of Mac and Linux support, private servers and matches, and the revivification of awards and leaderboards. For further details on their plans for improvement, check out id's latest forum update![Via Big Download]
April Fools: id reveals World of Quake Live
Imagine our surprise today when we tried to log into Quake Live for our usual 10 a.m. session of noob-fraggin' therapy, only to discover the image above. id has decided to do away with rocket jumping and replace it with epic mount riding, as it has revealed World of Quake Live. Much like the game of a similar name, this title promises epic mounts with up to four weapon slots (you can stack them with four BFGs!), as well as a new leveling system. Oh, and Aspir from Ludicrous Speed calls this the "best game evar." You should listen. Dude totally knows what he's talking about.
GDC09: Wolfenstein hands-on
During our Activision GDC preview, we got a closer looks at id Sofware's Wolfenstein reboot and the game's supernatural aspect, "the Veil" -- or as we like to call it, "turning on the HUD." This new Wolfenstein features mystical powers that are learned during the course of the game and activated through the d-pad or button combos. It's an element that's fairly common in many games today, but it's still the only feature of Wolfenstein that makes it anything more than a ho-hum World War II shooter.The drawbacks we noted in our Comic Con preview are still present in the current build, especially the poor enemy AI. There were times when enemies were clearly looking at us and tracking our movements, yet weren't firing their guns. It was almost as if they were saying, "Just go ahead and shoot us. We're Nazis. We deserve it."%Gallery-48833%
Wolfenstein 3D comes to iPhone, ESRB reveals possible PSN/XBLA release
id Software has announced that Wolfenstein 3D Classic is now available to download on your iPhone and iPod Touch via the App store (in addition to an open source version, released separately by John Carmack earlier this week). This new version of the game supports touch-based controls, as well as a tilt-based scheme, and a new top-down map that shows where you've been in each level. It's not all new, however, as the game features all 6 original episodes and the weapons we've all come to know and love. Plus MechaHitler. Oh, how we love to shoot Hitler in the face. Wolfenstein 3D Classic will set you back $4.99 in the App store.Classic Wolfenstein 3D isn't done there, it would seem, as a rating for the game just popped up on the ESRB website. The game has been rated for the Xbox 360 and PS3, suggesting a future PSN and XBLA release. With Doom being available for quite some time now, we're surprised it took id so long to get on this.
Carmack releases open source Wolfenstein for iPhone
The following post was assembled using two documents (Carmack_iPhone_development.doc and readme_iWolf.txt) written by John Carmack and included in Wolf3D iPhone v1.0 Source. The documents are posted in their exhaustive entirety after the break.Dear Diary,I love my iPhone. Unfortunately, things have conspired against us being out early on the platform. I had a plan for an aggressive, iPhone specific project that we actually started putting some internal resources on, but the programmer tasked with it didn't work out and was let go. In an odd coincidence, an outside development team came to us with a proposal, and we decided to have them work on the iPhone project. We should be announcing this project soon, and it is cool.After a little looking around, I found Wolf3D Redux at http://wolf3dredux.sourceforge.net/. The game was still fun to play after all these years, and I began to think that it might be worthwhile to actually make a product out of Wolfenstein on the iPhone. The simple episodic nature of the game would make it easy to split up into a $0.99 version with just the first episode. I was getting a little ahead of myself without a fun-to-play demonstration of feasibility on the iPhone, but the idea of moving the entire line of classic Id titles over -- Wolf, Doom, Quake, Quake 2, and Quake Arena, was starting to sound like a real good idea.
Achtung! Wolfenstein website is live
click to enlarge The official website for the latest iteration of Wolfenstein is now open for business. The site contains everything you'd expect from a game site, including screens, videos, forums and a blog. A handful of the screens are new, and there is also a hefty load of concept art, all of which we've compiled in the galleries below. Be sure to check out the concept art, as it contains a sneak peak at some of the game's multiplayer classes. The site also promises some upcoming webisodes, so stay tuned.Activision has also announced that this week's episode of GameTrailers TV will be dedicated to Wolfenstein. The episode will feature a new trailer, plenty of gameplay footage and a look at one of the game's bosses. The episode is scheduled to air this Friday on SpikeTV.%Gallery-48157%%Gallery-48158%
id's Hollenshead: Rage not coming in 2009
Part Mad Max, part MotorStorm, not at all happening this year. During his chat with GameTrailers TV's Geoff Keighley for last Friday's jam-packed episode of the show, id software boss Todd Hollenshead revealed that Rage, the company's id Tech 5 action-racing game, will not be released in 2009.It's easy to miss in the clip, so Keighley cleared things up via his Twitter feed, tweeting, "Todd said the game won't be out this year." Okay then. Rage was first seen back in 2007, and we're ... kinda of used to waiting for id's games. Perhaps the dev is still searching its spell book for some powerful magicks to squeeze three DVDs worth of game onto two -- without sacrificing anything -- for Xbox 360.[Via Shacknews]
PSA: You can actually play Quake Live now
Gone is the nuisance of Quake Live's pesky queue, as word hits via the Quake Live twitter feed that id has removed the long lines that have plagued the still-in-beta game since it opened to the public last week. We hopped on to give it a look ourselves and id has delivered. Jumping into a game only took us a few seconds and we found the experience of playing was nothing short of stable. So, head on over and frag somebody already!
In the category of "finally": Raid ID confirmation windows in 3.1
The 3.1 PTR has brought a lot of wonderful quality of life improvements, but here's one that players and GMs alike will undoubtedly appreciate more than a lot of them: you finally, finally get a confirmation window when you enter an instance that would lock you to it. You get the option to accept the lockout and stay in the instance or leave the instance and save your ID for later. You have 15 seconds to make said choice. This means no more getting screwed out of heroics by some idiot who forgot he already ran Violet Hold today or any other of the myriad ways you can lose your ID for the day (or week). It's about time. Our good friend BRK found this feature without even realizing it, as WI reader Brandon Tilley discovered it in BRK's screenshots of a PTR raid last night. Thanks for the heads-up on this exciting change, Brandon, and way to miss the boat, BRK! Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
John Carmack 'in talks' to make exclusive Wii game
Despite the fact that Nintendo really isn't his thing, John Carmack can't ignore how many Wii owners are out there. That's why he's been in talks to develop a title exclusively for the Wii, he told MTV Multiplayer."We've been pitched and talked about a project to do a title that would fit well on the Wii, and it's actually related to an iPhone title that we're doing," Carmack said. We know that id is working with Gameloft on the iPhone, but what game could he be referring to? We're going to place our bets on Orcs & Elves for the Wii."I'd like to do something there, because I love a lot of what Nintendo has done with the Wii and the DS, but it's just out of sync with the developments that are currently going on at id." So nothing is being worked on right now, but there's hope: Carmack has Wii on the brain. "I actually spend far more time playing Wii with my four year-old boy than I do with any other game console."
Quake Live public beta coming Feb. 24
Open betas are all the rage, and next week, id Software's free, browser-based FPS, Quake Live, is getting in on the trend. First announced as Quake Zero in August 2007, the game is derived from the classic Quake III Arena. The official site has been updated with a countdown (so in), wallpapers and the February 24 date. Quake Live is ad-supported, with levels containing prominently placed billboards. The game is currently a Windows-only affair, with id promising that Mac and Linux versions are in the works. While everyone is welcome to join the open beta, we're betting on the registration servers having a little trouble come next Tuesday. F5 keys at the ready![Via Big Download]
Doom 4 gets pro writer for storyline 'potential'
Graham Joyce's first order of business as newly revealed id Software writer should be to name Doom 4 -- or rather, to name the fourth game in the Doom canon currently without a proper title. With that task out of the way, Joyce should have no problem karate chopping through the dreaded writer's block. Seriously, we could pen this one in our sleep: Unnamed space marine walks down corridor, turns left, lowers shotgun, draws flashlight, sees demon, lowers flashlight, hears demon, draws shotgun, fires, hears nothing, walks down corridor, turns right ...For the unfamiliar, Graham Joyce is an award-winning British Fantasy scribe, according to CVG, though our extensive research reveals his literature falls under the more encompassing "speculative fiction" genre. "I can say that id have hired me to help develop the storyline potential," Joyce said of his new gig. Keyword: potential. Care to speculate on that?[Image credit: catsprks]
