Wolfenstein: The New Order

Console: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Release Date: May 20, 2014

Date Reviewed: June 5, 2014

Wolfenstein has always been a huge part of my life. I have played every single one including Wolfenstein 3D. I have always held this series close to my heart and always found each game in the series to suck me into the action and story. This is my review on the newest edition to the Wolfenstein series. Wolfenstein: The New Order. I am reviewing this for the Xbox One version.

Game play:

Wolfenstein: New Order is not your ordinary FPS. It has two campaigns, mostly very similar to one another but different outcomes. Without spoilers you basically choose a campaign for one of two characters. At the beginning you do not have that option. You have to select which character is part of your campaign right off the first mission. Once the game has been beaten you are able to go back and choose the other character for you campaign. Wolfenstein has stealth mechanics and well as full blown action packed mechanics. Depending on which difficulty you choose you will be using more stealth the harder it is and more running and gunning on the easier difficulties. Wolfenstein is a very challenging game. If you're looking for a real challenge then go and try the Uber difficulty. You may throw a controller or two. Wolfenstein has a mixture of good FPS action, movie like cinematics, stealth gameplay, a perk system, and a fantastic story that action made me use some of my emotions.

The Perk System is great!

The perk system is a fantastic way to customize your play style. Whether it be stealth, demolitions, run and gun, etc... Each tier of perks has it's own prerequisites you need to do in order to unlock that perk. One example is you have to kill 5 guards while being stealthed with throwing knives. Once you do this challenge you unlock a new perk allowing you to carry more throwing knives with you. If you're a completionist then you will want to try and get all of the perks. But that is not all there is too do for you completionists out there just like in the other Wolfenstein games in the series.

In New Order, there are a ton of things to collect. Some of them are harder to find then others due to them hiding in secret locations. Sticking to the old Wolfenstein system you are able to find secret doors and switches to open up secret areas to add to your collectables. One set of collectables that I really enjoyed finding are the golden items. They are scattered everywhere and most of them are tough to find on your own. They can be hidden behind the smallest cracks and you will walk past them. Besides golden items you can also find encryptions. When you find all of the encryptions you can go into the main menu under extras and try to encrypt the codes to unlock cheats and funny little additions to your campaign. There are also things like models, letters, and audio files to collect which make exploring much more enjoyable.

The gameplay overall is very fun and addicting. If you rush through the game you will complete it in roughly 5-6 hours. But if you spend the time exploring and collecting everything it will take you 10+ hours. Keep in mind that there are two campaigns you can play. The cinematics and cut scenes pulled myself into the game even deeper. Some characters make you hate their guts and want to hunt them down while other events and characters make you want to sob and weep. Each character has their own unique

story and some of them you really get to know. Finally, there is a wonderful easter egg hidden in the game. When you are in your hide out go to the very top floor. You will see a mattress with pictures above it. Look at the mattress and it will show an icon to examine called "Nightmare". Hold X to sleep on the mattress. When you fall asleep you will be in the very first Wolfenstein game and you have to fight your way out of it.

Duel Wielding guns!

Graphics/Visuals:

This review was done on the current gen consoles. It was reviewed on the Xbox One so it will be graphically superior to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions although it still does look great on the last generation.

The graphics in Wolfenstein are overall very well done. I wouldn't say exceptional due to it being on Xbox One. It doesn't look "next gen." The cut scenes are very beautiful and cinematics are great and really get you involved in what's going on as well. The gameplay visuals are good but like previously stated, doesn't feel "next gen". Overall I was still impressed with the visuals in the game. There is a lot of gore in the game and some people may feel uneasy. In one cut scene after you escape the labour camp there is a cut scene that happens and it was even making me somewhat uneasy. But it added great effect to the game overall.

Soundtrack/Music:

The audio in the game was really great. The soundtrack really impressed me overall. I have always been a fan of heavier music. As soon as you enter the main menu you hear this wonderful soundtrack. It has a "Wolfenstein" feel to it. The music in game and music in the cinematics and cut scenes were all very well done and added to the already great experience of the story and action within the game. Overall it was fantastic!!

The Main Menu music.

Overall Rating: 9/10

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War§ow 1.0 released

Yesterday the long awaited version 0.7  1.0 was released and thus after 7 years of development War§ow has gone out of beta.

For those out of the loop, here is a short description of it by the developers:

Warsow is a fast paced, deathmatch game. It has your classic things like bunny hopping, rocket jumping, and general mayhem. There's many game modes, including, Bomb & Defuse, CTF, Instagib, and the classic 1v1 Duel.

You can see the full changelog (including many nice screenshots) here, and if you want to give it a try, head over to their download page.

They also made a nice release trailer:



For those wondering, there is some discussion here with War§ow developers trying to justify their decision to keep the art assets non-free and why there isn't a open source-code repository.
Personally I am not convinced, but at least they release their engine code and promise to keep the overall game always freeware...

However besides that, it's a fun FPS! So try some crazy parcour-like moves yourself ;)

AlienArena reloaded edition

The PR machine behind AlienArena seems to have found out by rigorous focus-group testing and public surveying, that a re-branding of the idtech2 based arena FPS, was in order...
But here on the uncompromising last resort of free and unbiased game journalism we call it what it is: a nice new release, bumping the version number to 7.60; because as you should know... a higher number is always better :p

New alien spider bots!

Obviously it wasn't just the number that changed, and the list of engine, art and gameplay improvements is actually quite impressive for this release.
Another thing they updated is their website (the old one was quite horrible), and while this is a open-source game only by its engine code and sadly not media, I really like their new slogan:

Open Sourced. Ever Evolving.

Which has a certain ring to it ;)

Speaking of PR efforts, there is now a dedicated PR team for War§ow and the long awaited 0.7 release is slowly moving forward and you can see (incl. many nice screenshots) what kind of changes you can expect here.

Screenshot from the War§ow 0.7 changelog thread

There is also an BETA release of the version 0.7 (which according to standard version naming schemes should be a beta itself I guess ;) ) which can be downloaded here.

BananaBread, Sauerbraten in HTML5

Bananabread is the spiritual successor to Syntensity (which added a Javascript scripting layer to Sauerbraten) only this time running inside the player's browser. It was ported using Emscripten, a C++ (LLVM) to Javascript compiler, and seems to have quite a lot of Sauerbraten's functionality ported over, including bots, multiple weapons, map editing, and even a Javascript api to control camera cutscenes.

It currently runs in the development versions of Firefox and Chrome and seems to get about 1/3rd to 1/4th of native fps. Get the source here: https://github.com/kripken/BananaBread

OverDose now officially... hmm?... open-source?

Somehow I was under the impression that the team behind Overdose had realized some time ago that by using the idTech2 base they would be bound to the GPL licensing requirements, and abandoned plans to buy a separate license just to keep the code closed... however that was never officially announced until now:

This now means that OverDose is totally open, totally moddable, and totally complete with its own mod tools, which include level compilers, map editors, font tools, custom HD .RoQ video compilers, texture compression tools, model format tools… Lets just say, a decent package of tools with a fully written SDK and developer wiki. So you don’t just get the game source code, you get the full shebang, everything. Of course media still belongs to OverDose, but the above should be great news to any mod people or budding game makers.
Whats more, the code is available… Right now! Get in touch at odium@team-blur-games.com for a link to the codebase which is constantly updated! Any budding coders out there who want to be part of the OverDose team be sure to get in touch, we always, ALWAYS need more coders ;)

In their recent news they also mention that they have realized that keeping the source closed doesn't help against hackers (a realization that comes better late then never :) ) and that their updated (GTK-Radiant based) level-editor is now available. That they add all their other (AFAIK Windows only) tools into the open-source mix too is an unexpected but very nice bonus!

Some recent automatic foliage tests

I assume by asking for code access they will point you to the "hidden" repository here, but giving them some positive feedback by asking for it, will probably be the "right thing"tm to do ;)

Oh and don't miss the long WIP thread with some nice (but over post-processed) screens here.

WIP weapon model

Last but not least: To avoid sounding too negative *again*, I think this is a great development and this could become a really nice open-source modding platform, specially if they make at least a base set of assets available under a more liberal license *hint* ;) So show them some support by helping out or maybe donating.

CS: GO contest!

I am giving away a copy of CS: GO! All you need to do win is go to ANY of my youtube videos and post a comment and like the video. I am not asking you to subscribe or favourite. I will be picking a winner in the next few hours so stay tuned! Good luck as well!

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Aerialslayer

I will be picking a name using random.org so it will be completely random on who wins.

Tesseract, Cube2 next-gen'd

A FOSS gaming engine stalwart made a major leap forward today. Sauerbraten/cube 2, everyone's favorite octree, in-game editing game engine has finally implemented modern dynamic lighting, making its innovative mapping system a lot more intuitive and easy to use, as well as allowing for all kinds of new game play. Tesseract loses the backwards compatibility of Cube 2 in order to take full advantage of modern gfx cards.

Personally, I'm looking forward to games that utilize to implement destructible terrain, and the inevitable Minecraft clones that come with it. So go out coders, and create!

                            

You can find the sourcecode on Github here

EDIT: Well, that was quick! Hirato from Sandbox / Redeclipse pointed out this day/night cycle made with the new code: 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer (Part 1 of 2)

I will be breaking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 into two separate
reviews. The first part will be the multiplayer aspect of the game.
The second part will be the campaign and spec ops portion of the game.
The multiplayer portion of this review will just be on big review. The
second part will be my original review style where I break it down into
other parts (gameplay, graphics, audio). Lets get started!

MW3 Multiplayer Review (part 1 of 2)
Since multiplayer is the most important part of the game for all of
you gamers I decided to do this part first. So MW3 has improved on the
multiplayer once again. I will begin with the positives and then move
on to the problems and negatives.

First off the multiplayer is as good as ever. There are tons of things
to be unlocked. There is a huge roster of guns to be unlocked by
ranking up. There are new and additional titles, emblems and
camouflages. If you are an elite member or and elite founder you
unlock a winter camo and new titles and emblems for your playercard.
There are 16 maps that shipped with the game with map packs soon to be
added. If your an elite premium member you get monthly DLC for free.

So essentially the multiplayer is the same. You rank up and as you
rank up you unlock guns, perks and equipment. The max rank for MW3 is
80 which is pretty high up there and can take some time. As I am
typing this review I am currently first prestige rank 19. You have
your basic gun classes and they are the Assault Rifles, Sub machine
Guns, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, and shotguns. I would like to
note that shotguns are now used as primary weapons. MW2 had them as
secondary weapons. A cool feature that was added to the multiplayer
portion would be the ability to level up your guns. The more you use
the guns the more attachments and camos you unlock for them. The max
level for primary guns is level 31. At level 31 you will have unlocked
everything for that gun including the gold camouflage which looks much
better in Modern Warfare 3 than Modern Warfare 2. Another feature
added are strike packages. This is also a great addition. The strike
packages changes up your play style. For example if you want to play
the regular MW style of multiplayer you would pick the Assault strike
package. This is your standard killstreak rewards. You kill 3 in a row
you get UAV. You die you lose your kill streaks. The other package is
the support package. This package is really neat because you get
points towards your killstreaks by killing enemies as well as doing
objectives like capturing a flag in domination. When you die your
points towards your killstreaks do not reset. The support package
offers different types of streaks which will support your team. For
example you get an advanced UAV which you cannot get by using a
assault strike package. The last one is the specialist strike package.
This can make you a god in multiplayer if used right. Basically your
kills do not go towards killstreaks but they go to perks. So if you
get three kills you will get an additional perk to help you out so
instead of three you will have four. These perks are customizable. You
can choose any order you want your perks to appear.

Overall the maps are pretty good. There is a huge variety of maps for
multiplayer. The maps are much smaller then the maps from MW2. This
can be a problem for campers, there are a lot of campers in
multiplayer but it is due to the game just being released so people
are not as familiar with the maps yet. There is a lack of sniping maps
for all of you snipers out there. I am sure some will be added with
the map packs. Some maps are a lot darker and very hard to see some
areas and can be sucky because that's where people camp the most.
Another negative thing about the maps is there is way to much stuff.
The open areas don't really feel as open anymore because there is
always stuff in the area to hide behind and pick people off.

There are new modes added to the multiplayer. These new modes include
Team Defender and Kill Confirmed. These very fun game modes and highly
recommended. Kill confirmed forces people to come out of hiding. With
Kill Confirmed the objective of the game is to kill your enemies. When
you kill your enemies they drop dog tags which count for one point
towards your team. First team to collect 65 dog tags wins the round.
The cool thing about this is if one of your team mates dies they will
drop their dog tag. If you don't want the enemy to get that point you
can run over the dog tag and deny their kill. Team Defender is exactly
like Team Deathmatch with a little twist. So regular kills don't
reward your team as much for points. In Team Deathmatch you get 100
points per kill for your team. You get about half in Team Defender.
The main objective in the game mode is to hold on to the flag as long
as you can. If your team is holding on to the flag and you kill an
enemy you get a bonus towards your experience and towards the team
score. So if you hold on to the flag most of the match then you are
sure to win. Both modes are tons of fun, go try it out!

Now the negatives. The main issue I have with the multiplayer in MW3
are the re spawn points. The maps are small so in game modes like
Domination the re spawning is terrible. At points I re spawned right in
front of the enemy. Another time I re spawned in front of three
enemies. This is extremely irritating. Another problem is the cheap
weapons every tends to use. For example the Type 95 can kill someone
with one single burst fire. Another cheap weapon is the UMP45 which is
by far the most over used weapon in the game. This gun has insane
accuracy and really high damage. Another problem is the shotguns. The
shotguns were awesome weapons in MW2 and Black Ops. The shotguns in
MW3 need a major buff up. Using the model 1887 that gun was a one shot
kill in MW2. In MW3 you get 3 hit markers before the guy dies even up
close! One other annoyance is the Light Machine Guns. These are a huge
disappointment. These guns are so underpowered that literally nobody
uses them.

MW3 was just released so there is still lots of time for them to fix
some issues with the multiplayer. Almost every game at launch has
issues and usually they get fixed. What they recently said in one of
their interviews is that they added a new system to the multiplayer
where they can tweak things on the fly instead of waiting three months
to produce a patch. They already had a small patch where they
apparently increased the power off shotguns.

Overall the multiplayer is as fun as ever. I know a lot of people are
upset with the multiplayer due to the problems. This game just came
out, give it a chance before quitting and bashing it. They need time
to fix the problems. Be patient. I highly recommend people pick this
game up. The multiplayer is fantastic! Enjoy!

Battlefield 3 Beta Multiplayer Review

I myself am not a big fan of Battlefield but I know it is a big game and very hyped up so I am going to do a small review on the multiplayer beta. Remember each section is ONLY regarding the multiplayer beta.

Gameplay:
I am actually impressed with what they allow you to do with the beta. Only one map and one mode is available for the beta but you are able to test and take advantage of all of the unlockable content from ranking up and completing challenges. I personally think they should allow a second map to test out the vehicles as well. They may add it at the end of the beta but I have heard nothing as of yet. So Battlefield 3 is running on a completely new engine as most of you have my noticed. The game is extremely realistic as your running, jumping and even killing enemies. We will talk more about that in the graphics department.
BF3 multiplayer plays the same way as most online FPS's do now. Which is ranking up, and unlocking new items, perks, attachments, etc... What I like about BF3 is that the more you use a specific class the better equipment you will unlock for it. For example, if you only use the assault class and nothing else, you will notice as you kill enemies or accomplish certain challenges with that class you will notice a small experience bar going up with that class. Everytime the experience bar makes it to the end you will unlock something for the class wether is be an ACOG scope or a bipod attachment.

While you are playing you will earn basic experience by killing enemies. You will get 100 per kill. Just like Call of Duty if you do a unique kill or save a team mate or anything along those lines you will be awarded with bonus experience. When you do something say like get 5 headshots in a row you will unlock a ribbon which can be worth 200, 500 or more depending on what challenge you do. Everytime you capture and objective, in the case, defend or destroy the targeted objectives you will also receive experience for that as well.

Anytime you get your experience bar all the way up you will increase your rank. Currently I am ranked 16. The higher your rank the cooler your unlockables will be. Whenever you rank up, the odd rank, you will receive a new gun or new piece of equipment for you to use and customize with your favorite class. Everytime you receive a rank up it will take a little bit more experience everytime you want to go for the next rank.

The mode you are able to play on is called rush. Basically what you do if you defend two objective from being blown up by the enemy team. Each time the two objectives get blown up you get to progress to another area of the map to defend more objectives. As the enemy team your goal is to blow up the objectives to win. With this type of game mode you need a lot of communication. It even helps if your playing with friends. One other thing I would like to mention gameplay wise is the two new features they added. The first one is squads. You can choose to make your own squad with friends or you can opt in to automatically be assigned to a squad. This works well via communication as well as an added option. Say if your entire squad dies except for you. If you can stay out of harms way for a certain amount of time you squad will actually respawn where you are standing. One other feature is the battle log feature. Just like Call of Duty Elite you can track your games, stats, and see recent matches and things your friends have done. Pretty neat.

One more thing about the gameplay is the cons. I understand that this is still in early beta and that is the point of betas is to test out the game and find any bugs or errors. This is my personal list of a few. So generally it is a decent game online, not a personal favorite but it isn't to bad. Some of the bugs I have found is a graphical bug where the screen will randomly flicker while you are turning around or running. Another one that really annoys me is the odd time when you are aiming down your sights, let go of the trigger and try to re aim again, you are unable to do so for a little bit and it sucks while you are in the middle of a fire fight.

Rating: 8/10

Graphics:
So as stated above the graphics to this game are beautiful. They look very realistic and the environments are very well done. What I love most about this is if you throw and grenade or use an explosive near a tree, the tree will actually fall over. Almost everything is destructable in the game so if someone is hiding behind something just blow it up and you will get them. The running and walking animations are top notch. It looks very realistic how an actual person runs and walks. The animations are very well done. The only main issue is that the beta has a few graphical errors which I am sure they will fix up for the release.

Rating: 9/10

Audio:
This is one of my favorite things in BF3. The sounds are so realistic and sound amazing. When you fire a gun it sounds like a gun! When you blow something up, oh yeah, it sounds like an explosive. The running and walking sounds are well done. Even when your running on grass, dirt, water or stone it all sounds realistic. Everything you do in the game as a realistic sound. Overall very impressive.

Rating: 9.5/10

Conclusion:
So as you all know I am not a big Battlefield fan but fair is fair. A lot of people are and this is a really big and hyped game. So I tested the beta and these are my thoughts on the game. Overall the multiplayer from what I have played is pretty impressive. They did a great job of adding in new features and a new engine to the game. Other than a few errors, bugs, and gameplay issues, it is really a great multiplayer experience. I do say this, it is a lot more fun with friends. So make a squad and go have some fun!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Purity

A long time ago, on the old FreeGameDev forum, I heard of Purity; an original game based on the idTech3 engine.

Recently, I was wondering what the project had become, and with the help of a few people on the irc channel, we managed to find the website, unfortunately, it appears the development stopped two years ago.

But the game is pretty cool, let me explain you what makes it interesting:

In Purity, there are no enemies! The enemy is the map, and you have to get you to the end.

In order to do that, you have 4 weapons:

-The PULS attack : a red rocket.

It allows you to activate red switches, and it allows you to jump. Right, in purity, you have no "jump button". You wanna jump? Shoot your feet, and you'll be sent in the air.

There is no lives or damage in purity, so it is not a big deal to shoot right between your feet.

You can also shoot the walls while you're in the air to project yourself higher. People who know DeFrag won't be surprised by this technique.

-The TRASE attack : a blue laser (Allows you to activate blue switches).

This laser works a bit like a hook : you can drag yourself to blue surfaces.

You can also repulse yourself from some other special blue surfaces.

-The BOM attack : a green grenade (Allows you to activate green switches).

This grenade implodes rather than explodes : if you are in the range of the grenade when it explodes, you'll be dragged to the center, and when the explosion finishes, you'll keep that speed, so you can use the BOM attack to project you to a other place.

There are also special surfaces where the grenade sticks.

-The SPHEER attack : a white shield (Allows you to activate white switches).

The SPHEER attack allows you to bounce like a bouncing ball.

Activating the SPHEER attack while you are running makes you dash, which permits you to jump over some short holes.

Combinations :

combination of bom+trase

And what makes Purity really great is that you can combine these attacks:

-Shooting a BOM attack with a TRASE attack makes it explode

-Activating the SPHEER in the range of a BOM attack makes it explode

-Using the TRASE attack on a PULS attack drags you to the rocket, basically letting you fly (I think this combo should be less powerful, maybe even removed, to make the puzzle game interesting)

-Activating the SPHEER while catching up a PULS attack makes it explode and projects you in the air

What still needs to be done in Purity:

-Audio needs to be redone, sounds are horrible and there is no music (though there is one really good in the video on their website)

-Some graphic effort could be made : some surfaces aren't really pretty.

-MAPS! Purity only has the 8 maps that train you to use the weapons and their combinations. Other maps available are training grounds with no end, just for practise.

Try and beat this!

So, I beg mappers here, please do some puzzle maps for Purity, it's all it lacks to be a great FOSS game!

PS : If you are an archlinux user, I made an aur package that allow you to install it easily in /opt : http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=46512

Ufo:AI and A3P updates

A long awaited update of one of the flagship FOSS games has just been released: UFO:AI! UFO:AI (for those not in the loop) is a turn based strategy game very similar to the classic X-COM.

The improvements of the new version are multi fold; Besides big improvements to the render engine, game-play was also overhauled, but head over to their full change log to get the full picture.

Speaking of pictures, here a nice one showing the new glow effects on the world map:

(Maybe qudobup will be so nice and make a video of it too *hint*)

A3P 1.0

A3P (we mentioned it before) was also updated to its first non beta release today. You can check it out directly in your browser (a feature of the Panda3D engine used) or download it as a normal version (currently Windows only).

A3P Gameplay