wolfenstein posts

As id Software prepares to say "good-bye" to their long time publishing partner Activision with their upcoming game Wolfenstein, the publisher is promoting its August 4 release with a series of animation shorts on Gametrailers.com that tells the back story of William "B.J." Blazkowicz before the events of the new game.

The first animated short (we might call it a "motion comic" since the animation is so limited) basically is a retelling of the original Wolfenstein 3D game, complete with a Hitler with multiple chainguns. Supposedly there will be new shorts like this released every week until the Raven Software-developed game is released next month. You can check out the video after the jump.

It's time for another system specs reveal for an upcoming PC game. Are you excited as we are? Well, let's get to it, shall we?. The game in question is (drum roll) Wolfenstein, the upcoming latest entry in the series that started the first person shooter genre. The game from developers Raven Software and id Software and publisher Activision is due out August 4 but you can find out if your PC rig can run the game right now, courtesy of a post on the game's official message boards:

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplay

The fallout (pun intended) from Wednesday's news of id Software being acquired by ZeniMax Media is still being felt and today our sister site Joystiq and other media outlets got to speak with id co-founder John Carmack and the other principles involved. Here's a quickie summary of the important bits:

• Joystiq asked about the possibility of the id Tech 5 graphics engine being used in other games that are being developed by ZeniMax Media. It's CEO Robert Altman said, "We'll certainly take advantage of the expertise and brain of John Carmack throughout the organization. Specifically, what we will do with the technology, the id tech engine, and the proprietary technology that's been developed here, is to be discussed. We haven't determined how we are going to handle that proprietary technology, going forward. So, it's just one of the agenda items for us as we integrate these organizations."

Yep, that headlne is correct. Bethesda Softworks's parent company ZeniMax Media had announced that it has acquired Dallas-based developer id Software, creators of some of the biggest PC game franchises of all time (Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein). Financial terms were not disclosed but the press release states that id will continue to operate under its founder John Carmack with the press release stating, "All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts."

Bethesda Softworks will now be the publisher for all of id Software's upcoming games with the exception of titles that already have publishing agreements. That means Rage will continue to be published by EA but Doom IV will now be a Bethesda Softworks title. We hope to have more info on this unexpected business deal later today.

Update: Kotaku has a little more info on the deal, revealing that id had actually approached ZeniMax Media about being bought out and that acquistion talks had started months ago. With the deal now complete id will be able to add teams to their game projects. It also quotes id founder John Camack as saying, "We're really getting kind of tired competing with our own publishers in terms of how our titles will be featured." The new deal with ZeniMax will solve that problem with Carmack saying, "They are triple A, top-of-the-line in what they do in the RPGs. And they have no overlap with all the things we do in the FPSes."

This trailer for Wolfenstein shows off The Assassin, one of many paranormal creatures players will have to battle against. The game is scheduled to release in August.

Download HD Wolfenstein 'Assassin' Trailer (21 MB)
Check out all Wolfenstein downloads

Wolfenstein 3D first came out in 1992 and pretty much set the standard for first-person shooters for its time. The series has seen a number of installments since then, with the latest developed by Raven Software, simply called Wolfenstein. Raven is looking to capture the key points that make the series stand out, meaning that B.J. Blazkowicz will being far behind enemy lines to single-handedly take on an army of Nazis seeking to harness the powers of the paranormal.

Download HD Wolfenstein 'Beyond Comprehension' Trailer (80 MB)
Check out all Wolfenstein downloads

If some of you need proof that booth babes will be back at E3 2009 consider this new blog entry over at IGN for the upcoming first person shooter Wolfenstein. Kevin Long, the head artist at the game's developer Raven Software, talks about designing the look of the game's Elite Guard, the sexy female enemies that first appeared in the game series' previous entry Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

So what, you may ask? So this. It's also mentioned in the blog entry, "If you are interested in seeing real-world versions of these femme fatales, they will be at our booth at E3." Oh yes, we are very much interested in seeing them . . . maybe too interested.

Ok, forget we wrote that . . .we are just a little tired from packing to go to LA to cover E3 2009. Back to your regular programming.

Usually with any game that has id Software involvement, the release date is "when it's done" However that may not be the case with Wolfenstein, the latest game based on the WWII-supernatural shooter series. The game's publisher Activision squeezed in a release date for the game today while promoting their E3 2009 game line-up.

In their mention of Wolfenstein, Activision states the game is "scheduled to be on store shelves on August 4, 2009." Which means we only have a little more than two months to take control once again of BJ Blazkowicz as he takes out the Nazis who have more plans that just winning World War II. The game, primarily developed by Raven Software, was first announced way back in 2005 but details didn't surface until last July.

As the days get closer to the launch of E3 2009 in early June, Big Download has been compiling wish lists of games that we would like to see during the revamped and larger trade show. We start out with a long list of first person shooter games. Some of the games on this list are indeed confirmed as being at E3 this year. Other games on this list are titles we think will be there. There are ever a few that we are just hoping might make an appearance at the show.

With that in mind let's head over to our list. Next time we will give our E3 2009 wish list over to the action game genre

Click on the image to continue reading Countdown to E3 2009: The FPS Games We Want To See

As the weeks tick down to the release of Wolfenstein later this summer, developers Raven Software and id Software and publisher Activision have picked a very familiar name to handle the music score for the WWII-supernatural shooter.Veteran game composer Bill Brown will be handling the soundtrack for the title.

Brown has a massive list of game credits including Return to Castle Wolfenstein. He's also handled other id-based games like Quake II, Quake III Arena and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. He also has a number of film and television music credits including Ali, Any Given Sunday, and Finding Forrester and CSI: NY.

[Via email press release]