140°

No Nazis in the German version of Wolfenstein: The New Order

In little more than a month, Wolfenstein: The New Order is released on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4. The game is set during the 1960′s in a fictional world where the German Nazis managed to win the second world war. In an interview with GameSpot during PAX 2014, Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines says that they will remove all swastikas from the game in the German version since “they have a thing about Nazis there.”

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gamespot.com
ZodTheRipper4068d ago

Great, a game about killing Nazis without Nazis, what's next?

robtion4068d ago

It is fair enough, it was an extremely terrible war after all and there are still plenty of people alive who lived through it. Nothing wrong with a bit of cultural sensitivity, it's not like it changes the gameplay.

ZodTheRipper4068d ago (Edited 4068d ago )

I'm not German but I'm currently living here. Every day there are documentaries (full of Swastikas) about Nazis, Jews and WW2 in public television. Movies about those topics (e. g. Iron Sky) are running uncensored in cinemas with rather low age ratings.
I don't think this is about history - I think it is more about the interactive medium of games & it's impact and acceptance in our society. I for one don't see the difference in watching Nazis getting killed and killing Nazis yourself in a game ...but some might see that different of course. To me, games are about fun and if you remove all Nazis from a Nazi game much of this fun gets kinda lost because of the missing context.

robtion4068d ago

Zod: I am not German but have visited Germany and have friends there. I take your point but they are not removing whole people from the game just the little symbol printed on everything. How does that really change anything in terms of enjoyment of the game?

ZodTheRipper4068d ago

Didn't he say "the game will be completely stripped of all Nazi references" ?

It's just as with any story, it loses appeal if you just fight "A random, made-up hoop of bad guys" - imagine that in other games (Halo, Metal Gear, etc.) and you should understand my problem.

robtion4068d ago

Zod: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Please look this reference up if you don't take my meaning.

Anyhow, the game is looking like it will be great, I will be picking it up. All the best. ;)

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4068d ago
Beastforlifenoob4068d ago (Edited 4068d ago )

The Swastika is pretty much banned in Germany, but I mean if they object to Nazis in the game why do they also object to KILLING nazis? Shouldnt killing them be encouraged :p

AgentSmithPS44068d ago

Guess they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot ;).

lazyboyblue4068d ago

Should have changed the Nazis into something completely leftfield like Latvians. You know just for laughs. ( do Germans laugh?)

GuruMeditation4068d ago

They probably would laugh at that. They have a somewhat...esoteric sense of humour imho.

SamPao4068d ago

Haha
I thought we were past this? Iron Sky also released with all the naziStuff. Hmm whatever
Imma get the UK version then.

matt1394068d ago

That's like having no cars in GTA.

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140°

Ex-Bethesda Veteran Explains Why Games Like ES, Fallout & Starfield Will Always Have Loading Screens

IGN : One former Bethesda developer has cautioned that loading screens will probably always be a part of its games because of the way they're designed. Here's why.

Obscure_Observer30d ago (Edited 30d ago )

Thanks for the insightful information!

Now I wanna see if all those that were complaining about loading screens on Starfield will give a hard pass on both upcoming Bethesda RPGs like TESVI and Fallout 5.

If you can´t stand load screens, stay away from those games. Period!

-Foxtrot30d ago

I don't think you understand the difference between them though and what makes Starfield and TES / Fallout different when it comes to loading screens.

When you're playing TES or Fallout, if you are doing a mission you have the choice to walk to your objective where on your travels you will run into many different encounters getting completely sidetracked, it's fun as it feels like you are exploring the world more. However with Starfield you don't get that choice because you can't walk to a new planet, the loading screen is more mandatory, even the Outer Worlds fell into this issue, so when you are constantly going to space, travelling from planet to planet there's a lot more loading screens involved where it slowly becomes more tedious in comparison.

What Bethesda needs to do is work on reducing the loading screens and fitting more within it. For example when you enter a town in TES it should load the entire town, houses, castles, sewers etc included, same goes for Fallout, take the Vegas Strip in Fallout New Vegas, it was chopped up into multiple segments where going back and forth doing missions become a chore nearer the end.

IAMRealHooman29d ago

if they scaled down the "1000" planets to 10, 4 main hub. 6 unexplored, but actually filled with tings to do and explore, the thing Bethesda used to be good at. People like Obscure thin we shit on Bethesda just to shit on it. No we want better games.

Christopher30d ago

It's a design choice they've chosen. RDR2 kind of proves the whole 'loading interiors' or 'having different events go on' isn't what's stopping it.

crazyCoconuts29d ago

RDR2 didn't have you walk into a massive structure like a Starfield base/facility though, right? I'm sure log cabins are a lot easier to handle

Christopher29d ago

That won't affect the need to load content. That's just static designs with a few interactibles. And did we forget RDR2 has towns you don't load into with multiple buildings, dynamic events, and ties to the world as a whole. You load areas to manage the specific scripting and the number of elements that need tracking constantly in that area. Bethesda designs it so you can leave a trail of cheese wheels from town to town, RDR2 designs it so the world interactions are randomized by a few factors and come to you.

Like I said, it's a design choice.

isarai30d ago

Ok but you can still have more seamless "loading screens" starfield has no excuse for how much its gameplay flow sucks. You're basically saying it will always suck because we don't want to spend the effort on improving that aspect. Hell every open world survival game has object permanence, from valheim to the forest, and that doesn't have tons of loading screens

anast29d ago

These guys/gals are sleazy.

DivineHand12529d ago

I haven't played oblivion as yet but does it have loading screens? No one is talking about it.

Fun fact, the remastered version of days gone still has loading screens. It is not the instant load like you see on PS5 and series titles but you will have to wait a bit to load into certain sections. I am not sure why they didn't polish them out and no one is talking about it.

victorMaje29d ago

Oblivion has loading screens but it’s nowhere near the wait times it used to be (from what I remember) so the whole experience feels a lot better.

Agreed about Days Gone remastered, it definitely feels like it’s mostly a visual & feel (dualsense) remaster without much focus on optimization (I expected no loading times & in some cases I encountered the same kinds of bugs & audio issues that were on PS4).

Still love the game though & I hope the remaster will help pave the way for DG2.

Christopher29d ago

That's not something you can do without remaking the whole game from scratch. It's a remaster, not a Remake. They aren't changing the core code and methods, only updating graphics and using more modern plug-ins for similar graphical enhancements.

To do what you're describing, they would have to do something like what Square did for FFVII Remake. And that was such a huge undertaking that they couldn't do it all at once.

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60°

Fanatical's Explosive bundle is now live and lets you save big on 16 Steam Deck-friendly games

Fanatical has launched its new Explosive bundle, and this one can help you save big on a collection of Steam Deck-compatible titles.

200°

Bethesda Should Abandon Creation Engine For Unreal Engine 5, Says Former Dev

The former Bethesda art lead, Nate Purkeypile, argues that the studio would do better with Unreal Engine 5 despite the many performance concerns.

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tech4gamers.com
-Foxtrot162d ago

I feel like Bethesda are being stubborn simply because they know the Creation Engine and getting something new would mean they'd have to learn all about the ins and outs, experiment, re-learn things, put money into it, cause longer dev times initially as they learn as they go etc.

They've said in the past aswell that the Creation Engine has certain elements and features that helps them pull off things within their open world games, things you might not get to do with other engines but I think if they re-learn a new engine they'd be able to get these things working eventually through trial and error. It's not like the Creation Engine is a beast, look at how long it took to add climbable ladders.

I get them being reluctant, I do, it's hard to let something go and learn new things but the longer they put it off the harder it will be later down the road when it comes to finally biting the bullet. If they haven't done it for ESVI then I think they need to do it for Fallout 5.

neutralgamer1992161d ago

Issue is if Todd doesn't want to switch they can't force him. He could simply leave Bethesda. MS bought the company not his rights. So as much as we want them to upgrade to a newer engine the choice might only be for Todd to make

TheColbertinator162d ago

Unlikely. Bethesda is refusing to budge.

At this point the bugs are features and everybody has accepted brainrot Bugthesda.

Michiel1989160d ago

i don't think it's just being stubborn, there is no way that UE5 will be a good engine for supporting a game where every item you can get is actually a physical object. ES is one of the very few games that does this and I doubt much engines are equipped to handle a game like that.

RaidenBlack162d ago

Starfield's execution was dated ... but seeing how normal less-interactive games perform with UE5, I'd say BGS-esque games with Creation level of object permanence and scripting will run very sluggishly ... maybe they have to forcefully limit the scope/area ... like Obsidian had to do for New Vegas.
Maybe it's a possibility in PS6 gen, a BGS structure replicated in UE5 ... but this gen seems a bit questionable.
One thing they can do is remake any old title using UE ... to test if it works, by collabing with another team/studio like Virtuos, like recently leaked/rumored.
This way, their main team/devs won't have to split work and they can also test the waters how feasible UE is from BGS perspective.
I definitely don't want future BGS game to limit scope & lose their uniqueness just for switching to UE like any other studio. A modern Skyrim with some jank >> another generic UE RPG.
I say a UE BGS game will be very different.
Anyways ... ES6 was already underway long time back was started using a more modified Creation Engine than Starfield. If any engine change do happen, that'd be for Fallout 5 but that's 2030+ launch anyway. Well into PS6 gen.

isarai162d ago (Edited 162d ago )

Abandoned creation engine? sure for unreal engine 5? Hell no!

Unreal is and always has been trash for open world games, especially for RPGs, also a far cry from an optimized game engine, there's far better out there.

Honestly, I don't even think they HAVE to abandon the creation engine, but rather really put the effort into overhauling it like they did when they first created the creation engine modifying it out of the gamebryo engine

Like seriously they have money. They could hire some class A programmers to build them something really special and yet they just refuse to for some reason

RaidenBlack162d ago (Edited 162d ago )

^This
Stop the total conversion of industry to UE
# keep proprietary engines alive

DarXyde162d ago

Don't think anyone is in favour of a mass Exodus to Unreal Engine 5. It has its uses, but it's very pared back on console.

Plenty of great proprietary engines: FOX, Doom, Decima, Naughty Dog's engine, etc.

But the Creation Engine just doesn't seem good for modern games. Characters look weird. FOX could be great if updated to scale the lighting properly with the same attention to detail for things beyond faces. Decima, Doom, and ND Engines are already ahead of their generations, but of course refinements are always welcome.

All of those engine would benefit from updates, but Creation should probably either be scrapped or completely overhauled.

RaidenBlack160d ago

@DarXyde
Konami has abandoned Fox after Kojima left and has moved to UE primarily.
And you forgot to mention Remedy's Northlight, Capcom's RE and Rockstar's RAGE ~ the third party engine trio, showcasing you dont need UE5 for best visuals. Plus there's still CDPR's Red Engine, getting continuous updates still even though studio is moving to UE.
Crytek is also developing the next CryEngine, id is also developing the next idTech engine, Monolith should also be developing the next lithtech, unless they've also migrated to UE like other WB studios, then that'd be sad.
Other misses were, discontinuation of Eidos'/CD's/IOI's dawn/foundation/glacier engines ~ all three studios moved to UE.
But last but not least dont forget Ubisoft. Games maybe crap but their engine department is actually the better one. AnvilNext and Snowdrop is going strong.

DarXyde160d ago

RaidenBlack,

I'm pretty sure I said "etc". The short list I gave was absolutely not intended to be comprehensive.

And yes, I'm aware the FOX Engine was abandoned, but my point was that this is a good engine in that it would be great if adapted for the current generation.

I'm a bit iffy on RE though. I'd say it's great, but it really needs to be kept in context. Great linear game engine, but I question its utility in an open world. Naughty Dog's engine, I suspect, is very similar, where its limitations become clear in an open world setting.

162d ago
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