Doom II: Hell on Earth is the follow up to the one of the most influential games of all time, and while it seems like it is treading familiar ground, the devil is in the detail. Doom II‘s levels are much larger and more intense, and the combination of these larger areas with the more dangerous enemies makes for a more challenging game.
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams, the oddball instalment of the Commander Keen series, is now available for Android devices.
Taking place between Commander Keen III and IV, Keen Dreams has you fighting against vegetables to save the land of Tuberia…all of which takes place in while the Commander is asleep. Unfortunately for Keen, in his dreams he doesn’t have his trusty blaster – no, he has to turn everything into flowers instead.
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams will set you back $AU1.05 on the Google Play store.
id Software’s groundbreaking first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D has returned to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN after being delisted in 2012.
Bethesda mouthpiece Pete Hines stated that the game’s delisting was due to the way the ESRB works. Essentially, a rating is issued to a publisher, not a product – so if a publisher purchases another company’s IP, they have to go through the ratings process all over again. Since Bethesda bought id Software and Activision was behind the previous Wolf 3D release, Bethesda had to cough up to have it re-rated.
Seems a bit archaic, no?
Wolfenstein 3D for the Super Nintendo is often used as an example of Nintendo of America’s hardline approach to censorship in the early 1990s. All signs of blood and Nazi symbolism were removed, the attack dogs were changed into mutant rats, and Hitler’s moustache was neatly excised from his portrait. The port itself isn’t that bad, but few felt the need to play a hacked up version of the game.
Wolfenstein 3D was one of the most popular games of the early 90s on the PC, so eventually plans were laid to bring it to consoles. Unfortunately the first of those ports ran straight into Nintendo’s strict censorship policies and the game was sanitized – all elements linking the game to the Nazis were removed (including Hitler’s moustache), the dogs were changed into rats and all blood was removed. The number of levels was halved, but two new weapons were added – a flamethrower and rocket launcher. In spite of all of the changes, the game actually still plays okay.
Doom II: Hell on Earth was one of the most anticipated releases of 1994. While not drastically different from the original game, it added the double barrel shotgun and a seriously refined set of 30 levels (plus two secret ones paying homage to id Software classics).
Sega teamed up with id Software and Raster Productions to bring Quake III: Arena to the Dreamcast. It’s a pretty impressive port, but the best aspect was that you could play against PC players, provided that they ran a patch version that was compatible with the Dreamcast version.
Bethesda’s Doom 3: BFG Edition, the prettied up version of id Software’s 2004 hit, will be released on October 16 for North America and October 19 for Europe.
The package includes The Ultimate Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, remastered versions of Doom 3 and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil and the new 7 level pack “The Lost Mission” and will set you back $US29.99 on the PC and $US39.99 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
We look forward to getting our monster closet action on then.
Bethesda has announced that they will be releasing an enhanced version of id Software’s 2004 hit Doom 3, entitled Doom 3: BFG Edition.
Doom 3: BFG Edition will give the game a partial makeover, giving the game’s visuals a slight spit and polish, along with adding 7 all new levels created for this version of the game. The Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil expansion pack will also be included. Of course, no Doom re-release is complete without ports of Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth.
It will be interesting to see how this game runs on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, given that the history of idTech 4 games on those systems hasn’t exactly been rosy. We’ll find out when Doom 3: BFG edition releases later this year.
Wolfenstein 3D is 20 years old, and Bethesda and id Software are celebrating by releasing the first-person shooter classic as a free browser-based game.
The iOS version, Wolfenstein 3D Classic Platinum, is also free on the App Store for a very limited time.
If free games were not enough, creator John Carmack has recorded a director’s commentary for a special The Bethesda Podcast where he reminisces about Wolfenstein 3D’s development.
You can play the browser game here, and watch Carmack’s video below. Happy birthday, Wolfenstein 3D!
