You Need to Give Me Something, Just Because I Want It...

This seemed like a logical follow-up to my previous post. There is a horrific disease that runs rampant through the industry. That disease causes people to act like ass-hats and prevents any sort of meaningful progress to be made. That disease, is an overgrown and misplaced sense of entitlement.

First, let's look at the primary carriers of this disease; the players. For some reason, a specific group of gamers have begun emerging in droves over the past couple years. This group, for some reason, believes that games are made easily, made cheaply, and are supposed to be made to meet their individual specifications. Of course, developers are going to try and make a game that appeals to as many people as possible. But there's never enough time, enough manpower, or enough money to give everyone everything they want. Even if they could, they shouldn't really need to appease everyone, especially since these requests are often baseless and lacking any sort of real thought. I once saw someone ask if Gearbox was going to implement a Gears of War type cover system in Borderlands. At which point, I quietly shut down my computer, stood up from my desk, and immediately went upstairs and went to bed. My day needed to end after reading something like that.

The problem with situations like the one I just described, is that the people that are making the suggestions (and often speaking the loudest) are the people that have not researched the game they are trying to "improve", know nothing of actual game design, and more often than not, cannot form a whole sentence that is grammatically stable. Social media has done wonders for game developers as both an advertising tool and a method of communicating with their player base. Unfortunately, it also allows far too many people to post things like "add dis gun fur free or elz I stahp playin." Its too much effort for people to make a clear and well written argument as to why a feature should be added, yet they are the first ones to complain about how long something is taking, or how lazy the developers are because their desired feature has not yet been added. These are the same people that go to indie development pages/sites and say "how can I make a game?" That's it? No more information? Are you trying to make a particular type of game? Any specific features you had in mind? It speaks to how accessible this industry has become (in both a good and a bad way) that people think they can just sit down and make a game. It doesn't work that way. Games take months of planning, mounds of technical knowledge, a cohesive team environment, and more often than not, a lot of money. The sooner more people begin to understand this, the better off the gaming community will be. That's not to try and dissuade people from becoming indie developers. I'm trying to get there myself. But I've spent many many hours watching tutorials, studying workflows and asset pipelines, and have written tons of documentation. Guess what? From a technical knowledge standpoint, I am sub-par when compared to most professional developers.

Now, to be fair, I'd like to examine the other side of this disease. Unfortunately, developers themselves seem to become afflicted from time to time. A development team is bringing their vision to life, and they are not obligated to appease anyone with their creation really. However, since creating a product that people enjoy is how they feed their families and stay in business, it is important for them to listen to solid feedback. There are far too many developers out there that have gotten too big for their britches and ignore overwhelming feedback from long time customers (we buy a product, we ARE customers), who state that a gameplay mechanic is either broken just not fun. I feel like the publishers that loom over developers and push release dates and ramble on about share holders are partially to blame for these situations. However, developers still need to be in tune with the wants of their communities. It is virtually impossible to make a game that will please everyone. But, if swarms of your fans are saying that a new concept doesn't work, or are telling you to bring some new concepts to life because you have gotten stale, you should probably listen. There have been several situations lately where this has occurred, and to their credit, the developers have eventually gotten the message and changed things for the better, but the mark has been left and a reliable group of customers have suddenly become wary of any future products you release.

Let's make this simple. Gamers; unless you buy a game based on the promise of certain included features, and those features are missing, developers don't really owe it to you to implement everything you want, just because you want it. Developers are people with families and goals and passions, and they do not exist just to make you happy. Developers; if the people that regularly buy your products stop buying your products because you didn't listen to clear and concise feedback, you have no one to blame but yourselves. Your customers are the ones that make sure you get  paycheck, so always keep your ear to the ground, even if you have to listen to absolute nonsense some of the time.

The Hellgate Fiasco and the Importance of Being an Informed Consumer

Hellgate: London was originally released on Halloween in 2007. I was pumped. I had a collector's edition waiting for me at my local game store, and my parents had offered to buy me the lifetime subscription as a late birthday present. It was pretty much the amalgamation of everything I had ever wanted in a video game. It was also the first game I ever played during its beta phase. There had been a lot of issues during the beta, but I was sure Flagship had cleaned them up in time for launch. I took it home, installed it, and twenty minutes into the game, it crashed. I fired it up a second time, and I only made it another ten minutes before it gave me a memory error of some sort, crashing again. Patches were released at least once a week, but only for the multiplayer component. The single-player component was always two or three patches behind. Such is the story of Hellgate. A game that had enormous potential, but also seems to have been cursed from the onset.

A 1st/3rd person Diablo type title that takes place in a futuristic and post-apocalyptic London, Hellgate had no real reason to fail. It was developed by former Blizzard employees, contained plenty of loot, skill points, and hellish monsters, and was published by the gaming giant EA. What could go wrong? Well, for one, the game was released in what I would call a late alpha/early beta condition. Bugs ran rampant, content was clearly unfinished (they used the same three tilesets for most of the game), and the game was not feature-complete. A faction ranking system was in place, but did nothing. In other words, it was a mess. Some people blamed Flagship studios for dropping the ball. I know that at one point they utilized the time and resources necessary to get a playable build onto the Xbox 360, despite having no plans to port it over. Some people said that EA forced Flagship to release it, despite its unfinished state. I don't know what really happened, but I would imagine it was a combination of mismanagement and lofty goals. Flagship had even built their own engine, "Prime," to be used as Hellgate's foundation. Admirable, but I wouldn't recommend writing a new engine when you have a brand new, untested IP on the line. The game, and Flagship studios, crumbled in a matter of months.

Fast forward to 2011. T3Fun, a Korean developer, had the rights to Hellgate. They re-released it as Hellgate Global, changing the game to a (mostly) free to play format, adding an item shop, and updating the game with the content that Flagship had actively been working on when they went under. Things had seemed to take a turn towards good fortune. But then, after releasing the Tokyo expansion (which was, once again, developed by Flagship and merely implemented by T3Fun), T3Fun ceased all real support of Hellgate: Global, outside of the occasional server maintenance. According to what I've read, T3Fun did not acquire the rights to access the Prime engine's source code, or something along those lines. Therefore, they were able to implement the completed content that Flagship couldn't, but couldn't add any new content, bug fixes, and general updates of their own.

It has been almost three years since Global was updated. The Hellgate forums on T3Fun's website do not function. The servers are ghost towns. The supposed sequel that was in development was shut down in July because the team was unfamiliar with the Unreal engine (which is a joke, right?). Then, a few days ago, there was a halfhearted update on Hellgate's Facebook stating that Hellgate was on Steam Greenlight. This has caused absolute chaos a midst what is left of the Hellgate community.

Misinformation is running rampant. People think its a new game. People think its an indie game. People think its a sequel. And, worst of all, there are some people that think this means new content/updates for Hellgate: Global. Unfortunately, if any of these people had followed this fiasco as long as I have, they would know this is a last ditch effort to make some money off of the in-game cash shop before the game dies entirely. If I'm wrong, then great. But there haven't been any updates in three years. I'm not wrong. T3Fun did the same thing with Mythos, the other Flagship IP. They bought it, implemented the finished content, and then let it run its course until the servers were shut off.

Now, to the crux of the matter. These types of situations are exactly why we need to educate ourselves as consumers. Research the company developing a game. Research the game's history, if it has any. Read comments, articles, and other bits of information so that you know what's going on. T3Fun conveniently left many of these details off of their Greenlight page, but posted the original Hellgate trailers, and are using the Tokyo expansion as the main image for the Greenlight page, making some people think it is a new Hellgate title. The bottom line, is that knowing what you are buying before you buy it is incredibly important. And, I have to say, most games and their development history are not nearly as complicated or as much of a cluster-fuck as this has been, so we have no excuse for not doing our research on titles before spending our often hard-earned money on them. If a developer states multiple times that a game will not contain a particular feature, we have no reason to bitch when the game does not contain that feature. The buyer beware.

I would like to make a special mention of the folks over at Hellgateaus.net. I was one of the first members over there, and it has been the best place to go for Hellgate: London mods and information for several years now. When it comes down to it, Hellgate was the game we always wanted. We wanted to see it succeed with all of our hearts. But sometimes, things don't work out the way you want. The majority of the Hellgate community is a good group of people, who all happen to be extremely passionate about the same thing.

Hellgate gave me my first real insight into the gaming industry. Up until that point, I had just kind of played games. It was the first time I had seen a studio struggle first hand with completing something into which they had poured every fiber of their beings, and it was painful to watch. Members of Flagship would post replies to our questions and concerns, and I would say "a developer, talking to me?" But then they would say how they had been up for over 48 hours straight trying desperately to crush a few more bugs. Towards the end, there were stories of some of the employees sleeping on the floors of the office so they could take round the clock business calls to try and save the company. My seeing this side of the industry taught me a lot, but it also destroyed part of my childhood; part of the wide-eyed wonder I had always felt when playing games was gone.So, with these latest developments, I think its time to let go. There will some day be a sequel or a spiritual successor that will hopefully live up to the potential of the Hellgate IP, but until then, let's take a break. I've been riding this particular roller coaster from the beginning. I think I'm ready to get off now.

Company of Heroes Multiplayer: Part 1

I am really enjoying the multiplayer for Company of Heroes 2, despite the fact that I am a sub-par player. I purchased the Western Front Armies the day they were released, and have spent the past couple weeks trying to figure out the best strategies for the American army. I will be uploading several of these replays over the next couple weeks. Some will be victories. Some will not. Either way, I hope you enjoy them.

My Body Is Ready For...Homefront: The Revolution

I intentionally left the new Homefront off of my E3 roundup. It deserves its own post. I know what you're thinking. The original Homefront had a few problems. It is the only game I've ever played that literally gave me headaches from the low texture resolutions and draw distances. I didn't think an Unreal Engine 3 could have poor visuals. Still, the premise of America being occupied by Korean armed forces in a very near future and average Americans having to become resistance fighters is a pretty solid concept. So, after THQ was broken up, Crytek purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise. After reading the previews and watching footage from E3, I am confident that Crytek is doing all that they can to make the most of this renewed opportunity.

Homefront is about an everyman becoming a resistance fighter, but to be honest, I couldn't care less. That's not to say I won't come to enjoy the story down the line. Its just that my focus so far has been on the details of the gameplay. The Revolution is about Guerrilla warfare in an open world environment, so the idea is not for the player to destroy the enemy all by themselves, but to employ more subtle tactics. The footage I've seen involved raiding explosives and an RC car from a hidden resistance stash. The player then assembled a mobile bomb from the components, and used their in-game cell phone to drive it up to the entrance of the local police station. Apparently, the KPA are holding prisoners there. The player pressed the "call" button on their phone, and the bomb exploded, setting all of the Korean forces into motion. Gunfire erupted from the defensive positions in front of the station, and the player utilized the game's cover system to hide behind a concrete barrier, and then pop up to fire bursts from their assault rifle. Later on, the player swapped the entire upper receiver of their rifle for one that functioned like a light machinegun. Interestingly enough, this is an actual feature of the AR-15 platform, and only requires that two pins be pushed out, although the thought of carrying around multiple upper receivers is a tad unrealistic.

At its core, the new Homefront doesn't seem to do anything that other first person shooters don't do already, but the context and the smaller details, combined with the open world playground inject quite a bit of potential into this. Being the underdog, crafting my own equipment, and tackling objectives in a manner I see fit all sound like a good deal to me.

The Verdict....Wolfenstein: The New Order

Warning: This review may contain minor spoilers.

Wolfenstein: The New Order truly surprised me. Not because it is an amazing game. I fully expected to get a polished shooter filled with buckets of blood, and plenty of Nazi killing. It delivered those things. It also delivered a thoughtful narrative, and true, raw emotion. 

Just fifteen minutes into the game, I was vertically scaling the wall of a large Nazi fortress as a giant three legged machine stalked the trenches behind me, killing other allied troops as they attempted to join the assault. Wolfenstein starts in 1946, and "The world has gone to shit." It is clear within the first five minutes that the war did not go the way it should have. In the first level alone, I saw armored attack dogs, the aforementioned machine (called a "Monitor"), advanced Nazi fighter planes, and hulking monstrosities comprised of both metal and flesh. It created an unbelievable, yet familiar aesthetic for me. My submachine gun was clearly a Thompson that was given a few extra years to be modified and improved, just as the Nazi assault rifles I was happily dual-wielding were some derivation of the MP-44. 

The assault on the compound fails, leaving the protagonist, B.J. Blazkowicz in a sort of coma, and the antagonist, Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse very much alive. B.J. spends 14 years in an asylum, watching helplessly as the Nazis come and take the "sub-human" patients away in small groups to become test subjects for Strasse's experiments. He also is very much aware of the young woman that cares for him, Anya. When the Nazi's come to shut the asylum down and begin executing everyone, it shakes B.J. out of his catatonic state, and after watching a Nazi execute several helpless people, I gleefully pressed the appropriate button to execute him with the knife I had grabbed from my nearby dining cart a few seconds earlier. I grabbed the fallen Nazi's gun, some form of futuristic Luger, and set off to escape from the Asylum and rescue Anya, who had been dragged away by the troopers. They escape to the home of Anya's grandparents, where they explain that the Nazi's won the war, and rebuilt the world in their image. 

And that was just the first hour and a half.

First, let's examine the gameplay. Every weapon feels great, and dual wielding weapons feels suitably heavier and more powerful. I played much of the game with an assault rifle in each hand. Bullets tear into enemies, leaving them broken and bloody on the ground, and the LaserKraftWerk (my new favorite word to say) causes most enemies to simply explode. Something that all of the Wolfenstein games has contained is plenty of Nazi cannon fodder that don't require an entire magazine of ammo to dispatch, which makes it all the more difficult when the big guys show up. Stealth combat is also present, and is not some half baked gameplay mechanic thrown in for the sake of variety. In most situations, and stealth and the balls to the wall approaches are equally viable, especially with the game's perk system. The player unlocks perks as they complete certain tasks tying into their play style. So, after getting five knife kills, I unlocked the ability to throw knives, making me a more efficient stealth killer. There are three full perk branches. Health is regained through pickups, which include medical kits, meals on tables, and yes, dog food. Armor is present as well. Health can be overcharged for a limited time. All of the weapons can be carried simultaneously. In other words, Wolfenstein utilizes many of the old school gameplay mechanics that I grew up with in first person shooters, while modernizing it simultaneously with the perk system, the presence of viable stealth combat, and weapon upgrades. The levels are varied and well designed, providing multiple paths with which to approach most situations. This, once again ties into the varied combat options, and provides quite a bit of variety in the gameplay, and has thus far prevented fatigue from setting in, even as I was replaying levels to find collectables I had missed.

Killing Officers Quietly Prevents Them From Calling Reinforcements.

The visuals are, for the most part, gorgeous. Id Tech 5 is still a new engine, and has some room to grow, but it is definitely powerful. I had some minor performance issues until I downloaded updated drivers for my GTX 660, and there was visible texture pop-in whenever I turned too quickly. Beyond that, the characters, weapons, and environments are all varied, and extremely detailed. After the prologue, the war-torn European aesthetic is left behind, replacing it with the monitored, almost sterile look that a Nazi world in the 1960's would possess. Huge buildings draped with swastikas, security cameras on every street corner, checkpoints with armed troops (and mechanical guard dogs), and a massive prison right in the middle of downtown Berlin, all help to establish that the Nazi's are indeed in control. 

The characters are quite a rogue's gallery. Each character has a real presence, and the dialogue is extremely well written. B.J. is still the stoic Nazi killing maniac, but there's much more to him in this game. His inner monologue especially paints a much larger portrait of who this man really is. I felt a supreme sense of loss, hatred, and pain in everything he said.
"Such raw sorrow. Can't partake. Mine would flood oceans. I would drown...if I let it out," he thinks during one particularly emotional scene. The other characters are all just as extreme, and feel right at home. Anya, B.J.'s savior and love interest seems fragile at first, but ends up being stronger than I could have imagined. Caroline Becker, who somehow survived being shot by Hans Grosse in 2009's Wolfenstein, is wheelchair bound, but still an excellent resistance fighter in her own right. Fergus, the sarcastic Scot with a foul mouth. Wyatt, the young soldier that looks up to B.J. Frau Engle, the Nazi officer that loves to play games, especially when other people's lives are at stake. Deathshead, the sick man that likes to dissect still-living humans and is responsible for crafting the war machines that stomped the world into submission. They all come together to paint a story that, if you pay attention, is more emotional and thought-provoking than anything I've seen in an FPS since Half-Life 2. Yup, I said it. 

I beat my first playthrough of Wolfenstein in about 15 hours. I played on the second to hardest difficulty (I Am Death Incarnate), and did not manage to find all of the collectables. I have just started my second playthrough in order to find the rest of the collectables. There is also a fairly large decision to be made in the prologue that affects the rest of the game in several ways, and I am enjoying seeing the other side of that. I was not bothered at all by Wolfenstein's lack of multiplayer, as I'm up to almost 18 hours of game time, and I feel as though I am getting my money's worth, and then some. Some of the collectables I still need to find include Health/Armor upgrades, records of 1960's German music (which often imitate real tunes from that time period), enigma code pieces that unlock extra game modes, and of course, pieces of gold that serve no real purpose whatsoever. In other words, there's plenty to do if you take the time to look for it. One of the extra game modes I've unlocked is 999 mode, which starts the player with 999 health, gives them unlimited ammo, and sets the game's difficulty to Uber, which is the most difficult. 

I'd like to make a special mention of the song "I Believe" which can be heard during the end credits and is sung by Melissa Hollick. I won't give anything way, but it really helps to convey the emotion found in Wolfenstein: The New Order and was an excellent addition to the game. 

In closing, Wolfenstein: The New Order is an excellent shooter with a heart and a soul. It also provides plenty of ham-fisted Nazi slaughtering that we've come to expect from the Wolfenstein franchise. In many ways, it is a return to the roots of first person shooters. At the same, it takes a step forward to the future, adding depth and emotion to a genre that is often seen as stale and lifeless.

Verdict: Play it. Now. Just do it. 


   

Assessing...Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Camper: Someone that continuously picks up the only good weapon/item in a map. This can obviously only occur in games that start every player off with the same basic, awful weapon every match.

Well, I know I'm a little late to the party, but I've watched the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare a couple times now, and I'd like to share my thoughts on the matter.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am the ultimate COD cynic. The original Call of Duty was one of the best games I ever played on the PC. It had an exciting (and sizable) campaign, and focused on some of the most important battles during World War 2. The campaign was longer than four hours. The weapons were authentic and there was a certain level of realism to the whole thing. Now, COD seems to have strayed so far from its foundation that I barely recognize it these days. I feel like its the rich uncle of shooters. The uncle that brings a somewhat hastily bought gift to each of his nephews every year, and doesn't seem to care about their reactions because, well, he's rich either way.

With the Call of Duty franchise, its not even the perceived lack of innovation that bothers me, although I've seen the "each sequel is a glorified map pack" statement more times than I can count. Its the flagrant disregard for anything resembling balance or what I consider to be solid gameplay design choices. I consider a game-ending nuke to be one of the worst "features" ever to be added to a game. The multiplayer design is centered on ridiculous weapon balance and killstreaks that allow someone to essentially bitch slap an entire team. And I know that it is designed that way intentionally, and I know that there are some really good COD players out there. But the multiplayer of the last several installments are designed to, quite frankly, appeal to the fast-food, instant gratification, least common denominator members of the gaming community. Are you a terrible player? That's OK. Just spray bullets (or fire off rockets like an ass-hat) and you'll get kills. Even if you're incapable of that, just dive through a window five times or run a specified distance and you'll get experience points. Maps are often so small that players begin a match by chucking a random grenade, and will frequently earn kills this way. Anyone attempting to utilize tactics of any sort are berated and accused of "camping."  To put it succinctly, COD doesn't sell because it is a good game, it sells because it is easy to be good at the game.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed Black Ops 2. It tried new things. I think the ten slot kit system and the score streaks were large steps in the right direction. But COD has become TOO accessible, if that's possible. I don't want to sound like an elitist, but I feel like I have to be to a certain degree, because every shooter stands in COD's shadow these days, and that shouldn't be happening. People should NOT be dismissing other shooters as garbage simply because they don't allow the players to have a kill-death of 33-4 every match.

As negative as all of that was, there are still elements of COD that I really enjoy. I think the perk/killstreak system is awesome, when its properly balanced. I like the fast paced gunplay and the objective based game modes. With a new studio and a seemingly new approach, I'm hoping Advanced Warfare will really shake things up.

From what I've gathered from the trailer, the game will focus on PMC's (Private Military Corporations) in the future. It will contain thermal mapping technology, exo-skeletal suits, deployable cover, remote drones, and gloves that allow for wall climbing. And, it will contain the not insubstantial acting prowess of Kevin Spacey. Sounds good to me, as long as Sledgehammer Games takes advantage of the full potential of all of these features. I want to be able to use the exoskeletons in multiplayer. I want them to be tied directly to my abilities, and I want to be able to use those abilities dynamically instead of only being able to use them for brief scripted moments in the campaign. That wall climbing tech should be fully functional in multiplayer, to give snipers and scouts a better vantage point. However, they would theoretically be easily countered by someone wearing an exoskeleton that is leaping from rooftop to rooftop. And the deployable cover, if implemented properly, could modify how each multiplayer match plays out to no small degree. The campaign will hopefully be an intense examination of both the advantages and the dangers of privatizing the military. However, none of these things will address the core issues with the COD experience. Here's a list...

*Host advantages in multiplayer matches
*Absurdly short campaigns
*Killstreaks that allow someone to control the outcome of a battle by themself
*Shoebox sized maps
*An unhealthy focus on k/d ratios that destroys objective/team play

If Sledgehammer can address the issues above, I will come back to the COD franchise with open arms, because in my heart of hearts, I really want to. In a few months we'll find out if I'll be reigniting my spark of passion, or if I'll be losing this one's phone number for good. 

Titanfall Beta Gameplay

Here are a couple of videos I recorded while I was playing the Titanfall beta. I will be posting more footage and a full review in the near future.

Path of Exile Gameplay: Volume 1

Here are a pair of videos I recorded a while back of Path of Exile. It is an excellent Diablo style game, and in many ways, the Diablo 3 we were all hoping for. It is important to mention that Path of Exile is also 100% totally free. The only thing you can pay for are aesthetic character modifications and stash tabs.

Try Path of Exile Here!

My Body Is Ready for...Wolfenstein: The New Order

The History
Despite what many people think, Wolfenstein 3D was not the first Wolfenstein game. It was actually a title released in 1991 called Castle Wolfenstein. It was a stealth adventure game about stealing secret plans from the Nazis. Having said all of that, Wolfenstein 3D was the game that really put Wolfenstein (and first person shooters) on the map. It revolved around slaughtering Nazis by the hundreds, stopping their nefarious projects, and stealing their gold from them while you did it. Killing a mechanized version of Hitler occurred at the end of Episode 3, only halfway through the game. You shot Nazi mutants, ate dog food to survive, and if you were a committed player, pressed the "use" key against every wall tile in sight, just hoping for a secret room filled with ammo and gold.  

The New Order
There have been several Wolfenstein sequels over the years, some more successful than others. I personally have enjoyed every entry in the series, even the ill fated "Wolfenstein" that was released in 2009. However, I can say with no hesitation that Wolfenstein: The New Order has me more excited for a first person shooter than I have been in a long time. It appears as though it is going to be a glorious amalgamation of old school and new. The New Order is being developed by MachineGames, a Swedish developer comprised largely of ex Starbreeze Studios employees. The New Order starts off in 1946, and from the footage I have seen, it is clear that the war is not swinging in favor of the Allies. Then, through an unfortunate turn of events, B.J. Blazkowicz (the protagonist of this and all other Wolfenstein titles) suffers brain damage and spends the next 14 years sitting in a mental hospital, in a sort of catatonic state. In that time, the Nazis win the war, and rebuild the world in their image. B.J. is helpless as all of this happens, but when the Nazis come to slaughter everyone in the hospital, it shakes something loose, bringing B.J. out of his condition, and putting him back in the fight. So, what's so special about that? Why is this different any number of modern day shooters with an underdog hero taking on a massive war machine? Its all in the details folks.  

Old School is Making Love to New Age
What I am loving about the new Wolfenstein, is how it perfectly melds things that used to be prevalent in old shooters, with things that we now expect to be in new shooters. B.J.'s health only regenerates up to the nearest multiple of 20. Beyond that, the player must find health packs. That's right kids, you can't put the character behind a crate and wait for him to breathe a few times in order to get his health back. The player needs to scavenge the environments for supplies. Health can be overcharged past 100, but it immediately begins counting down back to the normal maximum. Armor is also back in play in a retro fashion. Enemies drop their helmets or other small armored pieces that can be picked up to give the player a few points of protection here and there. Ammo and weapons are taken primarily from defeated enemies. Dog food can be eaten for health once more, although I haven't seen any footage of B.J. slurping up blood puddles, which was another desperate way of gaining health in Wolf 3D. The player can also carry all of the weapons simultaneously, and can dual wield many of them. Oh, and there's one more thing I'd like to mention. Wolfenstein: The New Order will not have multiplayer.

 I have seen a lot of disappointment and anger from the gaming community due to The New Order's lack of multiplayer. In my opinion, a lack of multiplayer is a good thing, at least for this game. Too long have we dealt with shooters focused on multiplayer that have a wimpy 4-6 hour campaign tacked on to keep us "old timers" happy. I've seen several people say that a game isn't worth $60 if it doesn't have multiplayer. I guess they forgot about Half-Life, Far Cry, Bioshock, and other shooter franchises that either did not possess multiplayer game modes, or had multiplayer that felt so unnecessary they were barely touched. I don't know about anyone else, but Far Cry 3 was totally worth the money, and I played two matches of the multiplayer before calling it quits. I would rather have a lengthy, polished single player campaign (kind of like the original Wolfenstein and Doom games) than an imitation Call of Duty with a Wolfenstein coat of paint.

 I believe I mentioned The New Order possessing elements from new shooters, and I did not forget about that. Apparently, neither did MachineGames. The New Order runs on ID Tech 5, which will make it a very attractive game in my opinion. I thought Rage, the first game to make use of ID Tech 5, had excellent visuals. Of course, PS3 and XBOX 360 visuals will suffer some, but that is to be expected when running new game engines on hardware that is almost a decade old. In addition, The New Order includes things like unlock-able perks that reward your preferred play style, weapon upgrades, stealth kills, and other mechanics that reassure the player that they are playing something that was made in the past couple years. Speaking of stealth kills, the knife assassinations look excellent, with different animations playing depending on the enemy type and their current position in relation to B.J. All of this speaks to me as someone that loves the classics, but is always looking forward at the same time. Its going to pay homage to the humble beginnings of the franchise. A franchise, I might add, that in many ways is the reason why modern shooters exist. At the same time, its going to give us the level of depth and visual fidelity we have come to expect from modern games. At least I hope that's what it will do. We won't know for sure until May 20th, but rest assured, I will be picking up Wolfenstein: The New Order on the day of its release.


 

The Greatest Doom Mod Ever Made

So Brutal Doom, by Sergeant Mark, is something I have been following for a while now. Today I recorded some footage of the mod in action. Check it out.