An interesting note is that weapons have a several second reload time, so you cant just slap in a new clip and go a-blasting.

In one of the Rental columns I asked for suggestions as to the best horror movies of all time, and got maybe 40 responses, which I considered pretty good at the time.

Then in my review for Armada, I point out that there was some kind of plot discontinuity between Armada 1 and 2, and fully 300 people wrote in pointing out that I had missed some missions near the end.

Now, the assistance in pointing out the error of my ways I appreciate, but the roughly 70 responses that insinuated that my missing the levels was somehow related to my mom, and more specifically to people or things my mom might have had sex with.

Too much, people.

Too much. I have half a mind (uh, poor choice of words) to take my ball and my videogame insights and go home.

A couple of months of buying games like Hot Wired and Dukes of Hazard: Racing for Home because you dont have me around to tell you not to, and youll be begging me to come back.

Capish Back when Quake 3 came out, I thought to myself (and was far from alone in this thought) cool graphics engine, but not a game.

Especially in comparison to Unreal Tournament, I felt that Quake 3 was lacking in just about every category, except the graphics engine.

Fast forward a little, and out comes Elite Force using the Quake 3 engine.

It was plot driven, with a sort of interactive environment, and it looked great.

The Icarus engine, or whatever they called the thingy that was supposed to dynamically allow you to alter the plotline, was a bust, but otherwise I felt it was a solid 1st person shooter.

Fast forward once again, and we come to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game that in the hearts of gamers had to be almost as anticipated as Duke Nukem Forever.

DNF at this point has had so much hype built up around it that it could never match expectations, and would perhaps be better off if it were never released.

RTCW isnt quite in that boat, but it does have so much history that I think it will find it difficult being everything people are hoping it to be.

I remember playing Castle Wolfenstein on my Franklin Ace in, oh, it must have been about 1980.

It was a top-down shooter at that point, looking a great deal like the old arcade game Berserk.

Your mission was to escape from Wolfenstein and steal the plans for operation Reingold (I dont believe Reingold beer is even sold anymore).

There was also a Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in which you had to break into the castle, find a bomb, and use it to blow up Hitler a pretty good vocation for a good Jewish kid from New York.

But Im sure the Castle Wolfenstein that most of you remember is the 1st person shooter for the PC.

I knew people who were nuts for that game, drawing out the maps carefully on graph paper and scouring the levels for every secret room.

Good times. The thing that I think made Wolfenstein the phenomena that it was is that its always been innovative, unlike anything else that you could be playing at that time.

In that sense, RTCW has an even harder fight on its hands in a market almost dominated by 1st person shooters, and in the shadow of the recent and excellent Max Payne.

So how does it stack up For those of you with short attention spans Ill come right out and say that its good.

Very good. It lacks real innovative sparks (such as bullet time or interesting puzzles or a greatly interactive environment) that would set it apart, but otherwise every piece of the game has been put together just about as well as I think it could be.

The graphics are excellent with fog, flickering torches, cobwebs, and all the nice touches that really bring the place to life.

The weapons are nothing new and different (and dont ask me if they are historical or not I have no idea), but they are well rendered and matched with sounds that are great.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein Online