RTCW 2 IS HERE

looks nice




faked?

Facts about the new RTCW game, RTCW 2



RTCW 2 - Why so secret?

The progress of the development of Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2 (RTCW 2) has been kept very secret (for some reason). Had id Software not talked about RTCW 2 at QuakeCon 2007, I would've thought they had scrapped the game completely (like with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory SP). Id Software showcased a video about RTCW 2 at X05 (in 2005) and that is the most recent footage from RTCW 2 that we've seen to date.

X05 video

"They [Kevin Cloud, the people working on RTCW 2] are trying not to say too much about it, but there's some neat stuff going on" This was said by John Carmack on the new Wolfenstein game, at his QuakeCon '07 keynote.

We have not seen one single in-game screenshot, which initially lead me to believe that the game is still very early on in development (and has not seen significant progress since 2005). But enough with the speculation. Let's list what we know about the game (which isn't a lot).

This site is supposed to gather all information that has been released about RTCW 2. And this is what we know about it:




Facts:

What we know about RTCW 2:

- It is currently in development:

- id Software is producing, Raven Software is developing the singleplayer part and part of the multiplayer, while Threewave Software is contributing to the multiplayer part only. Earlier on in development Nerve was going to develop the multiplayer, as in RTCW. But it is not going to be like that, anymore, as they have been reassigned to work on the 360 version of Quake Wars (and maps as well).



Technology & Platform:

- RTCW 2 is going to use a heavily modified Doom 3 (id tech 4) game engine. This is confirmed on id Software's website. John Carmack is hesitant to call the RTCW 2 engine "id tech 4": "Raven [Software] has lived with the Doom 3 code-base for so long, they've made it their own. They've made massive changes, the renderer probably has no relationship [to id tech 4] other than high-level architectural stuff to the original Doom stuff..."

- It is being developed primarily for the XBOX 360, but there will be a PC and a PS3 version, also. XBOX 360 is the main development platform because, according to John Carmack, the development tools that the 360 offers are better than those of the PC.

- It has been stated by Todd Hollenshead, that id Software is developing new technology especially for RTCW 2 (maybe in relation to the "seemlessly loading levels" stuff (see below).



Gameplay:

- RTCW 2 (singleplayer part only?) will not be split up in several levels, that will be loaded after each other, but will be one big world, where the world will unfold around the player as he explores it. "... what we're doing with Wolfenstein is creating this one, large empire that is seamlessly loaded to the player as he explores his world." This was stated by Kevin Cloud from id.

- Tim Willits from id stated similarly, that: "We've tried to do things in the game that is different from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, that expands the Wolfenstein universe and adds some play variety. Gamers nowadays want more, they want broader, they want wider choices and we're really trying to, without saying too much, make the game different and make something that people haven't played before on id technology."



Gameplay (multiplayer):

- At QuakeCon '06 there was a Q&A session with some guys from id. Kevin Cloud responded to whether the "Enemy Territory" gameplay would be featured in the new Wolfenstein game: "As far as the ET gameplay-style... We might actually keep that to the Enemy Territory title. You know, I can certainly see a future Enemy Territory title that is set in... something like the World War II universe or some other universe, maybe even like the Doom universe or something like that... For the Wolfenstein game itself, I don't think that we would really want to pull too much from that type of gameplay."

- As to whether or not original multiplayer maps from RTCW or W:ET will be re-used in the new Wolfenstein game, Kevin Cloud stated at the same event: "We would give it a thought, but I really couldn't give you an answer that I would know to be true, I mean, there are a lot of things on the table in terms of what the content would be for it, but we haven't made any final conclusions on whether or not we would pull... from, like, a Wolf MP map.



Will RTCW 2 be like RTCW?

At QuakeCon '07, John Carmack mentioned in his keynote: "It is a different type of game than either what we're doing, or what Wolfenstein has been in the past, but that's generally a good thing..."

Carmack then went on talking about simple gameplay, like Deathmatch-style Quake Arena gameplay. This could possibly be a hint towards that RTCW 2 will feature more simple gameplay. Coupled with the information that RTCW 2 won't use many features from Enemy Territory, it is, in my opinion, set in stone that RTCW 2 will have simple multiplayer. So in that sense, RTCW 2 could be like RTCW, but after reading Carmack's statement twice, it seems like simplicity will be RTCW 2's biggest resemblance to RTCW.



Further details / release date:

- In May 2007, an article about an actress called Carrie Coon, performing for motion-capture at Raven Software for the new Wolfenstein game, was brought by Yahoo Games. In this article, it is being said that Raven is going for a 2008 release for the new Wolfenstein game.

- In August we were told that we would get some more information soon. As soon as any rumor or official statement is brought to our knowledge, we will update this page. Id Software didn't show us anything about RTCW 2 at GDC 2008 (February 18 - 22), so I really don't know when we'll get any new news. Hopefully before QuakeCon '08!!




I will include some of my speculation about RTCW 2 below:

Speculation:

- At QuakeCon 2007, a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie was confirmed as being in production. We speculate that it would be very obvious to release the movie and the new game, RTCW2 close to each other for obvious marketing reasons. But as with the game itself, the movie is not very far in development. The only date I can find about the release of the RTCW movie is from www.imdb.com, which is 2010.... But I guess that 2010 is just a guess from imdb's side, as no official date has been released yet.

But the movie and the game should come out not too far from each other! (Which means 2010 for both??!)

People should keep in mind, however, that the multiplayer portion of RTCW was created by Nerve Software in just 4 months!!! With RTCW 2 having been in development officially for over 2 years, the singleplayer part should soon be near completion. So there is plenty of time for the development of the multiplayer part, thus making a 2008 release quite realistic.

Also, this statement by Tim Willits made me think:

"We've tried to do things in the game that is different from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, that expands the Wolfenstein universe and adds some play variety. Gamers nowadays want more, they want broader, they want wider choices and we're really trying to, without saying too much, make the game different and make something that people haven't played before on id technology."

The first thing I thought was: "Broader.... wider choices... Maybe he's hinting at customizable classes and / or permanent unlocks for multiplayer?" That's something we haven't seen on id Technology, at least, and that's something that certainly gives you wider choices and play variety!

It's also worth noting that Kevin Cloud said this in an interview in August, 2007: "I think our audience may shift. ... I think with Wolfenstein we might get a slightly different audience than with quake Wars"... Maybe this means that RTCW 2 won't have vehicles?

We'll see if this is the case. I'm counting on an update from id on RTCW 2 after the release of the console versions of Quake Wars (sometime this spring?).






IT LIVES: http://youtube.com/watch?v=G0Tp8zxxwYU