Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Harrison

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This remains one of my all time favourite games. The Single player campaign was brilliant, and the multiplayer just as much so.

I still own my original copy, but got a second 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 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 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. Unusual because normally we all remember games we enjoyed in the past, but go back to them and ruin the 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. Great fun and well worth it. And if you need the patch drop me a PM.

Update: Update pack download added.

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.
 

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I played the XBOX version - not sure if it was that much different to the PC version. I really enjoyed the game - it was a big game - seemed to go on for ages in single player mode on the XBOX - great fun. I actually liked Wolfenstein when it came out on the XBOX360 - thought it was pretty good but a lot of people hated it!
 
Yes, RTCW is one of the best first person shooters ever to appear on a PC screen. I completed it for the first time four years ago on a Powermac G4 (the Mac version is exactly the same as the PC one) and I have to tell that it still looked great after all these years and on a low spec machine as the Powermac.

One can also try the 'new' version (named plain 'Wolfenstein') which appeared on PC & XBOX a couple of years ago but I think that the 'soul' of the game was lost on this one...
 
A great game indeed, and I also enjoyed the Multiplayer back in the day.

I really miss old Skool FPS gaming. I was a big fan of all the Q3 Engine Games like Soldier of Fortune 2, so easy for modders to make maps and for Clans to mod their servers, everything could be modded easy and lost of custom maps out there :)

All that is lost today (n)
 
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RTCW was nice, the new modern FPS style "Wolfenstein", not so much.
I got it when it was on sale and bleew through it in a couple weekends, but it felt fairly generic all in all.

I did replay RTCW a couple years ago and had a good time. :LOL:
 
thanks Geraldine, i'll grab them tonight(y)

just re read my post there and it is a bit ooeerr Mrs!! fnar, fnar!! snigger, tee hee




It says £5.99, but I bet you could find it cheaper
http://store.steampowered.com/app/9010/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

How about Amazon? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Cast...N5F0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344331747&sr=8-1

EDIT: Getting a retail version is better in my view because you don't need to leave the disk in the drive to play! (y)

EDIT Mk II: The Widescreen Patch www.deaconstomb.org/uploaders/uploads/rtcw-sp-1.42-win32-bin.zip
 
I've added the update patch I used to my first post. From the same patch developer as the one Geraldine lined to, but the slightly newer version.

Playing through the first couple of levels again yesterday I remembered I was always intending to attempt to replay the game to find all the secret areas. So I think that's going to be my goal this time. ;)

BTW, who fancies a MP game some time? I used to love the map where you had to capture the gold and transport it back to a waiting truck.

ok, will let you know once i have bought it :)
 
I have played a bit this one some weeks ago on my Mac Mini G4 and actually i found it quite ugly, far worst than on my memories on PC.
 
I've added the update patch I used to my first post. From the same patch developer as the one Geraldine lined to, but the slightly newer version.

Playing through the first couple of levels again yesterday I remembered I was always intending to attempt to replay the game to find all the secret areas. So I think that's going to be my goal this time. ;)

BTW, who fancies a MP game some time? I used to love the map where you had to capture the gold and transport it back to a waiting truck.


will let you know once i have it
 
Did you adjust the graphic settings? By default the game loads on the lowest resolution with everything turned down to low.

Personally I was impressed when I loaded it up for the first time in years. Most games from around 10 years ago look a bit sparse graphically compared to these days. Most support higher resolutions so do scale well for the more powerful PCs of today, but because they didn't have the CPU or GPU power to populate areas with as much furniture as they do now, or the ability to use such complex textures, lighting or particles. But RTCW holds up well IMO. Even the enemy character models still look OK.

For me the biggest thing that I noticed compared to current FPS is the weapon mechanics and accuracy. Newer games do get the feel better, but other than that it is still great fun.
 
epic multiplayer games. I have a vague memory of somehow jumping to reach a top of a tree near some kind of chapel, I think it was a winter level with snow on the ground. I would let the enemy go there in the chapel even though I had possibility for a clear shot on them for like 10 seconds while they approach... so I let them get to get the top secret documents. They never saw me at the top of the tree... I was not supposed to be there so they never looked up. And then when they get out of the chapel I just casually fire my bazooka at them from behind of them so they would never know what hit them. And I think it was always a one hit kill with it. And same victim would fall to it many times during one round.

Fun times :cool:
 
Enemy Territory is a standalone Multiplayer only release. It was created after RTCW when the developers released the game code and another team developed it. Completely free to download and play, so well worth it.
 
I don´t know about Enemy Territory. I played it a bit but never got quite the same excitement out of it. Maybe it was the levels weren´t quite as good, I don´t know. Still, it should be pretty much the same experience for someone not familiar with any of the maps.
 
I agree with you there. The Maps were great in the original RTCW MP. The beach and aircraft hanger levels especially.
 
Well done for bringing back memories! RTCW was great on the PC, my now wife got me the game for my birthday all the way back then.

I remember being blown away by the speed and graphics on my Geforce 2 GTS and AMD Thunderbird 1.4ghz :) happy days. A real step up from Quake 3 for me.

Sadly I only ever played the single player game, back then I didn't have an internet connection at my uni accomodation. These were the days when you got patches and updates from magazine DVDs! I remember updating this game with one of those discs!

How times change.

Also I really did like Return to Castle Wolfeistein Tides of War on the original Xbox. That had a great multiplayer aspect that I did manage to play, you could even make a dedicated server out of your Xbox. They should bring back a download only version of that for PSN/XBLA.
 
Plays great on Morphos 3.1 btw. I have a Radeon 8500 and gameplay (with all goodies turned on)on a 1ghz peg II is awesome...

Looks great just like it does on the pc...
 
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