Key events
14th September 2009
14th September 2009
21st August 2009
28th May 2009
15th July 2008
Revisiting Raven's Wolfenstein
The forgotten order.
With Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus due out next week, I'm sure I'm not the only one revisiting some of the highlights of the series. Wolfenstein 3D invented the FPS genre. Return To Castle Wolfenstein provided a refreshing alternative to the proto-Call of Duty world of Medal of Honor. Wolfenstein: The New Order rejuvenated the franchise.
John Carmack to get this year's BAFTA Fellowship award
C++ for acceptance speech.
Legendary and maybe part-machine programmer John Carmack will receive this year's BAFTA Fellowship award, joining the likes of Gabe Newell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright and many others. He'll receive the award at the BAFTA Games Awards 7th April in London - an event happening alongside EGX Rezzed.
UPDATE: Bethesda makes it official. Out later this year.
UPDATE: Bethesda has announced Wolfenstein: The New Order, a first-person shooter due out on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and unspecified next-generation consoles at some point during Q4 2013.
Bethesda reveals video teaser, possibly Wolfenstein, possibly Project Zwei
Can you guess what id is?
Bethesda has revealed a short, untitled video teaser for a new project.
Wolfenstein 3D celebrates 20th birthday
Get psyched!
Rage developer id Software's seminal first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D is 20 years old.
Brutal Legend demo now on Live
Wolfenstein sampler there too.
EA has released a Brutal Legend demo on Xbox Live Marketplace.
Swastika prompts German Wolf recall
Activision taking no chances.
Activision has recalled Wolfenstein in Germany, reportedly because you can faintly see a swastika on a poster, which is a big no-no in the country.
Xbox 360 vs. PS3 Face-Off: Round 21
Wolf, BF1943, Virtua Tennis, Juarez, GI Joe, Fight Night, UFC, Overlord II.
The cross-platform console games having been gradually piling up over the summer, and it's about time the decks were cleared to best ready ourselves for the upcoming Q4 gaming tsunami. On this particular occasion, eight recent titles are put to the test, including our very first multi-format PSN/XBLA face-off.
As is the norm, the analyses are backed up with a comprehensive range of assets: full 24-bit RGB framebuffer dumps of each game (including 1080p shots where supported on PS3), embedded comparison videos using the very best in h264 compression, along with new high-definition clickthroughs in order to get the full picture. These Eurogamer Face-Off features have been gradually evolving over time, and once more the range of available data has increased: discrete frame-rate and v-sync readings have been added to the HD videos.
Onto the gaming line-up then:
UK charts: Wii Sports Resort on top
Wolfenstein resurrection out-ranked.
Wii Sports Resort edges past newcomer Wolfenstein to top the UK All-Formats chart for the week ending 22nd August. There are only 2000 sales between them, though.
Two wrongs don't make a Reich.
Can we appreciate games ironically yet? You know, like how people will say a film is "so bad, it's good", or how people (well, students mostly) will dance to a rubbish pop song, precisely because of its naffness.
That's the feeling that the 2009 model of Wolfenstein evokes. A belated series reboot, arriving the best part of a decade after the rather good 2001 Xbox outing, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it's a wonky, glitchy and often idiotic game. It's also occasionally amusing - certainly more than a game with this many issues should be - but I often can't tell if I'm laughing with the game, or at it.
Once more, you step into the sweaty combat boots of BJ Blazkowicz. You're summoned to the German town of Isenstadt, where your talents have been requested by the local resistance. The Nazis are doing something peculiar at a nearby archaeological dig, and it involves something called Black Sun energy. Long story short, they've found a hellish alternate dimension called The Veil and are siphoning its power to help create yet more supernatural ubermensch.
Wolfenstein MP team axed on release day
Endrant Studios cut back.
On the same day that Activision releases its latest title in the Wolfenstein franchise, our sister site GamesIndustry.biz can confirm that a number of the team responsible for the multiplayer portion of the game have been laid off.
Your money back if Wolf bests Madden
Raven man makes Twitter pledge.
A man from Raven Software has promised to pay for your copy of Wolfenstein if the game outsells Madden NFL 10 in August.
Wolfenstein multiplayer modes detailed
Supernatural powers, persistent upgrades.
Endrant Studios has detailed the online portion of the new Wolfenstein game, which arrives on 21st August on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
For "simultaneous global release".
Raven's upcoming first-person shooter Wolfenstein has been delayed until the week beginning 17th August in the US.
Veiled threat.
"Everybody hates Nazis so they're just more fun to kill," beams Peter Sokal, id's community manager. That notion has, in essence, been at the pumping heart of the WWII shooter genre's popularity since Wolfenstein 3D took aim at the Führer in 1992.
Wolf and Wolf 3D European dates
A Reichly story.
Activision and id Software have firmed up European release dates for the upcoming Wolfenstein game and the downloadable version of Wolf 3D.
Reich on target.
Reich on target.
New Wolfenstein title gets release date
It's coming to PC and consoles in August.
Activision has revealed the new instalment in the Wolfenstein series is coming this summer.
According to a press release promoting the publisher's E3 line-up, Wolfenstein will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on 4th August.
It's not clear whether that date applies worldwide, but seeing as 4th August is a Tuesday and games are usually released on Friday in the UK, it could be US-only. We shouldn't have too much longer to wait though.
The Reich stuff.
"Have you ever played an Xbox first-person shooter before?" says the man supervising the Wolfenstein hands-on demo. "You know, like Halo?"
New Wolfenstein coming this summer
Plus: next Bond game delayed till 2010.
Activision has revealed that the new Wolfenstein title will be released this year.
Nazi but nice.
Although it was to be bettered (perhaps even battered) a few months later by Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, our memories of Return to Castle Wolfenstein are probably fonder. Thinking about it, it might be down to clarity of recollection. Set-piece Nazi clashes bled through an MOH stencil into a dozen successors, but RTCW was the Serious Sam of the Second World War: a brutal, relentless tour of late-'90s FPS clichés, preferring rooms full of baddies to more fashionable scripting. We miss that. So, inevitably when we sit down with the newly-minted Wolfenstein from Raven Software, it looks completely different.
"We can't do him in yet!"
Id Software and Raven may be returning to Wolfenstein to blow up a legion of new Nazis on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, but Adolf Hitler won't be among them.
Avary writing Wolf movie "right now"
Hollenshead: Writer's strike held it up.
The Wolfenstein movie is still in development and Roger Avary is "working on the script right now" according to id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead.
John Carmack's QuakeCon Keynote
All the highlights. Voxelising is the future, you know.
John Carmack delivered his annual QuakeCon sermon to devoted id Software worshippers in Texas tonight. Following a few announcements and brief trailers of Rage and Wolfenstein, introduced by CEO Todd Hollenshead, Carmack took the microphone and (after a while) a seat and rambled absorbingly about everything from mobile games and in-game ads to his admiration from Nintendo and his thoughts on the rest of this console generation. Here are few hastily transcribed highlights.
Nazis. I hate these guys.
Nazis. I hate these guys.
First Wolfenstein details emerge
"The ultimate supernatural thriller."
Activision has finally revealed new information on the long-awaited Wolfenstein game.
Previously known as Castle Wolfenstein, the latest nuggets of info bill the Raven-developed game as "the ultimate supernatural thriller".
Wolfenstein will once again be set in a fictional reinterpretation of World War II, where you control OSA agent BJ Blazkowicz. He is sent hurtling into the unknown where he will biff Nazis, "otherworldly forces" and dark science on the nose.
Wolfenstein and Quake Live at E3?
If not, QuakeCon's later this month.
The long-awaited new PC/Xbox 360 Castle Wolfenstein game could be pitching up at E3 next week, judging by a teaser press release put out by GameTrailers TV.
Toned down for big-screen.
Hollywood director Roger Avary has been chatting about his big-screen take on Wolfenstein.
Roger Avary to direct.
id Software has announced that Wolfenstein will become a major Hollywood film.
Carmack building fancy engine.
Id Software's Todd Hollenshead has revealed that the Quake and Doom creator is working on a new gaming franchise, powered by a brand new engine from developer John Carmack, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.
id Software fills us in.
id boss Todd Hollenshead has given us an update on the progress of the new Castle Wolfenstein title - but don't hold your breath, as its release is definitely "not this year".
But 360 leads the way.
As we speculated on the night of X05 (us being clever-boots and all), id and Raven Software's new Castle Wolfenstein title will lead on Xbox 360 but is definitely also coming to PC.
X05: Carmack praises platform.
id Software and Raven are collaborating on a new title based on the Wolfenstein World War II franchise, which will lead on Xbox 360, we've just heard from Amsterdam, where the X05 press conference has now finished. For now the game's called Castle Wolfenstein.
