No Hitler in new Wolfenstein

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.

That's according to id's lead artist Kevin Cloud, who laughed off the question at QuakeCon. "No, he's not in our game," he said with a smile. "We've got to save something for future Wolfensteins. We can't do him in yet!"

The new Wolfenstein first-person shooter, due out "when it's done", pits series hero BJ Blazkowicz against occult-hungry Nazis following the conclusion of 2001's PC title Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

The central premise is that the Nazis have uncovered an ultimate energy source, the Black Sun, and are using it to try and achieve world domination.

Unfortunately for them, their activities form a sort of rift between dimensions called The Veil, and player-character BJ is able to use it to his advantage in the fight against them. The only Veil power we've seen so far allows players to slow down enemy movements, but we're promised others.

But back to Hitler! You may remember he appeared in the original Wolfenstein 3D as a robotic boss character, and Cloud certainly hasn't ruled him out of future instalments.

"That's one of the cool things again about the Wolfenstein universe: we go back and we pull some of these things from real history and spin this what-if story for some of it, and some of it just kind of blows out," he said.

"So like the Kreisau Circle originally is more of a group of aristocrats working behind the scenes in hopes to overthrow Hitler. Here, they're gun-toting resistance forces fighting on the streets. But it's kind of nice to take those elements, have a framework of reality, and build it out."

But no Hitler.

Check out the Wolfenstein trailer from QuakeCon for more, and the first screenshots, and watch out for a preview soon.