Return to Castle Wolfenstein

[Harrison]

This remains one of my all time favourite games. The Single player campaign was brilliant, and the multiplayer just as much so. So many memories of playing through the Single Player campaign. Definitely still one of the greatest FPS created to date.

I still own my original retail copy, but got a second copy last weekend as part of the Steam bundle QuakeCon, so thought I would let it download and give it a quick play.

However I hit a problem on first loading the game... it crashed! It loaded to the menu screen, I setup the graphics to everything full, clicked save and crash! Seems the game doesn't like Windows 7 or modern graphics cards, plus it has no idea about widescreen resolutions. Quick Google and discovered a Steam forum thread discussing this very issue, along with a download to fix it. Nice. The fix was developed by those using the now freely available source code for the game engine. They have fixed the issues causing it to crash, but also added support for widescreen modes and a few other things.

Updated with the patch and the game was up and running. Everything set to full, and now able to set my monitors native 2560x1440 as the resolution. Nice.

Now the game was released originally in 2001, so you might expect it to look fairly dated. Many games of that era do. But it instead stands a great test of time. Obviously it doesn't have the poly-count or the increasing realism of current releases, but it still looks good, the graphics are smooth and the textures still look nice. And the atmosphere remains.

And most importantly the gameplay is still there, just as I remember. very unusual because normally we all remember games we enjoyed in the past, but then decide to go back to them and end up ruining our memories because they never live up to them. Not so here. It was just as I remembered and just as much fun.

So if you have never played Return to Castle Wolfenstein then why not grab a copy from Steam and give it a play. It's about £5 i think on there at the moment. Great fun and well worth it.

Update pack download attached

I've attached the RTCW update pack. This is required to make the game stable under Windows 7, and also to add support for widescreen displays. This patch works with both the retail install and steam versions. You just navigate to your RTCW installed files and copy the patch files over the top of the existing ones, then launch the game.

Note: I recommend deleting your config file for the game when adding this patch, then the game won't have any old settings stored and will create a new config file and run the game correctly with the better resolution support.

[Tiago]

I remember playing something "wolfenstein", i do thing it was "return to ..."
i did play a bit, and enjoy it a lot, till a part that inside some house it apear some type of spider monsters....
i didn't play more then that. I love WWII and war FPS, but remember i didn't like those "monsters".
But till i found them i did like a lot the game. Maybe i try it again.

[Harrison]

There was a newer sequel called just "Wolfenstein", released in 2009, but it wasn't so good. Still an OK WWII FPS, but nowhere near as good as Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

RTCW was also a sequel itself to the original Wolfenstein 3D, which was the game responsible for starting the whole FPS gaming genre and Doom is really an indirect sequel. Graphically the original is very blocky (more so than Doom) but still a fun little game. You can buy a bundle containing the orginal and RTCW on Steam if you fancy playing both.

[Tiago]

Oh yes, the original was a very special game, i remember well, what a big jump it was.

[Harrison]

I remember all of us with Amiga's just having to sit there a little envious of what the PC could suddenly do. I think the first time I saw Wolfenstein 3D and Doom running I knew the Amiga had lost the fight and top end gaming had moved on.

[Tiago]

Yes i had that feeling.
Other game where i saw that PC was getting better was in the first Formula 1 Grand Prix from Microprose.
After playing for hours, days, months in Amiga, then i saw it in Pee Cee, and i was devastated by it's loading speed and frame rate.