Wolfenstein: The New Order

While its sequel got a little too lost in the cinematic sauce (not that it’s a bad thing), MachineGames’ first crack at the Wolfenstein series felt just right in its delivery of story and bloody action. Sure, there’s also plenty of stealth play, but when it came down to steamrolling over hordes of enemies, dual-wielding assault rifles and chunking away with the shotgun, it was a visceral breath of fresh air.

On top of the current-gen ports, an update is available for other platforms with new features and improvements. For example, the Brachiosaurus from the Turok beta has been added and now roams the Treetops. The ability to swap ammo on the fly for the Tek Bow and Shotgun from Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has also been added.

Other quality-of-life improvements include a Run/Walk toggle, finally allowing players to sneak up on enemies by walking. An option to set a single button for various weapons to cycle through is also available. There are also new HUD options, graphics options (including SMAA and FXAA), and more.

Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here. A new title in the franchise, Turok: Origins, is currently in the works. Head here for more details.

PATCH NOTES

NEW FEATURES

• Optimized renderer for Vulkan and Nintendo Switch.
• Support for high refresh rates.
• Ported to Series X and PS5.
• Improved gamepad functionality and vibration support.
• Localized Achievements/Trophies.
• The Brachiosaurus from a Turok beta rom has been found and recovered. You’ll find these dinos stomping around in the Treetops level.
• You can now swap ammo types for the Tek Bow and Shotgun whenever you want, just like Turok 2.
• The Run/Walk toggle button has been added from the original game. By moving at walking speeds on the ground, you can get closer to enemies from behind before they notice you.
• You can now bind multiple weapons to the same button to cycle between them.
• Restored the High Priests homing blue magic attack and the Purlins unused leap smash melee attack.
• Restored the Gallery cheat code with the addition of viewing the Bosses and Turok. You can also preview animations on each of the enemies.

NEW MENU OPTIONS

• You can reset menu options to default with the “Reset to Defaults” menu option.
• The Input Bindings menus now shows icons instead of text.
• Added binds in Action Bindings menu for Changing Ammo Type and Walk Toggle.
• Controller Options: Button Prompts (PC), Look Smoothing, SouthPaw (Swap Sticks), Enable Vibration and Intensity, DeadZones.
• Gameplay Options: Radial Fog, Player Shadow, Enable Walk Toggle, Enable Change Ammo
• Head Bobbing Options: Added strafe and jump bobbing options and you can now adjust the scale of how much the screen is tilted for each bobbing option.
• HUD Options: Automap Show Player, Automap Show Compass, Show All Health Stats (Shows health when you have Armor), Show Alt Ammo, Flash Intensity, Shake Intensity, Horizontal Positioning of the HUD.
• Graphic Options: Always Show Lens Flares, Antialiasing: SMAA, FXAA, FXAA Fast, Off
• Audio Options: Master Volume, Audio Output, Low-Pass Filtering, Enable Underwater Music, Ambient Environment Sounds
• Video Options: Switch between Vulkan and Direct3D (PC)
• Save file level names are now localized. The most recent save file is marked in green. The date displayed is now in the format yyyy/mm/dd hh::mm::ss.

Firewatch

This Campo Santo-developed first-person adventure was released in 2016 and sees players taking the role of a man named Henry who is a fire lookout at a national forest. The game has some great art direction which is also minimalist, alongside quality voice-acting. Firewatch does not have much in the name of action, but the beauty of nature and its environments remains constant throughout. Players will also have to choose dialogues from an options tree, which can significantly impact your relationship with other characters.

As mentioned before, the games industry is an ever-changing place, and Turok’s evolution as a franchise had a lot to do with the scenario of the industry at that time. Ever since the first major first person shooter games started to hit the market in the early 90s, the genre simply blew up in a big way. Every developer wanted to put its own spin on the trend – which then spawned an extraneous number of shooters, including but not limited to Duke Nukem, Quake, among others.

Iguana Entertainment would go on to put its own spin on this formula by replacing your generic enemies with dinosaurs and introducing a world with equal parts emphasis on adrenaline-pumping action and lore. The result – Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was released in 1997. The innovative gameplay at the time along with a plethora of distinct environments to explore made Turok an instant hit among fans, although not to an extent as say, Goldeneye 007. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter currently stands at a Metacritic score of 85, which for its time was simply put amazing.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was the first third-party developed game for the Nintendo 64, which is quite interesting when you consider that Turok doesn’t shy away from violence in any way. Another fun fact about the original is that it reportedly sold for $80 in the US and $129 in Australia. Sales were naturally lower than contemporaries, but its reported 1.5 million sold units is a pretty respectable number given the markedly higher price tag.

However, the critical and commercial success of the original quickly called for a sequel – and Iguana Entertainment delivered it with Turok: Seeds of Evil in 1998. While the game did release just a year after Dinosaur Hunter, it received similar praise from critics and fans alike – establishing Turok’s reputation as one of the best in its class. Turok: Seeds of Evil also had a multiplayer mode for the N64, where players could compete against one another in deathmatches. Arguably not the center point of attraction for the game, but Turok: Seeds of Evil’s multiplayer is considered to be a great incentive to keep playing once players are done with the campaign.

With the first two games in the franchise being great hits, more eyes than ever were set on what Acclaim Studios was on to next. Acclaim Studios released Turok: Rage Wars in 1999, which took a radically different direction from the previous entries with a heavy focus on the multiplayer mode of the game. Of course, this might have rubbed many fans the wrong way since most unanimously wanted more single-player content that the franchise was best known for. The fact that Rage Wars was exclusive to the N64 also did the game no favors, since the console didn’t have internet connectivity features and nor did Turok. That being said, Rage Wars is a non-canon entry in the franchise, which does lessen the blow of its considerably lower rating of 72 on GameRankings.

Acclaim would return in 2000 with the third mainline entry in the franchise titled Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion. The game introduced two playable characters each with a set of skills and weapons, that allowed for some new gameplay avenues. Turok 3 didn’t garner the critical acclaim that Acclaim had hoped for, and most fans agree that Shadow of Obvilion kickstarted the downfall of the series. The turn of the century bought with itself games with a heavy focus on storytelling such as Perfect Dark releasing around the same time as Shadow of Oblivion. Of course, it also doesn’t help that Turok 3 was hopelessly outmatched in terms of scale and visuals when compared to the games of that time.

With two mostly unsuccessful entries in the franchise, Acclaim Studios Austin was in a hard place at the time. With publisher Acclaim Entertainment on the steep decline in terms of finances, it isn’t an overstatement to say that Turok: Evolution Hunter was a do-or-die situation for the studio. Releasing in 2002 as a multi-platform title for sixth gen machines, this prequel failed to impress critics and fans in a similar vein to Turok 3. Reviews of the time frequently compare the game to Halo: Combat Evolved, a game that inarguably revolutionized the first-person shooter genre a year prior to Evolution.

In 2004, publisher Turok IP Acclaim Entertainment filed for bankruptcy – thanks in large part to poor sales of its products. The Turok IP was sold off, along with a number of Acclaim’s internal studios being shut off and hundreds of employees being fired and left unpaid.

Despite this, Turok would return again in 2008. Developed by Propaganda Games, Turok is a reboot of the franchise and veers far away from its roots in terms of characters and storyline. On the gameplay front, Turok seems to be a natural evolution of the franchise – but in actuality, is trapped between conventional linear shooter design and its traditional arena shooter roots. This did spell disaster in terms of critical reception, which was mostly mediocre at the time. However, the sales figures were relatively strong – with over a million copies sold in the first 2 months of release. Propaganda Games was given another shot at the franchise with a Turok 2, which sadly didn’t make it to release due to massive layoffs and subsequent closing of the studio in 2011.

It isn’t easy to explain what ultimately caused Turok‘s downfall, and remains a difficult puzzle to crack given how the series has repeatedly performed well enough on a financial front. However, what can be pieced together from this narrative is that Turok suffered from a gradual downfall in quality with its third canon installment, which also came at a time when player interest veered towards more mature experiences. Turok also hit the scene at the tail-end of the golden era of first-person shooters, which didn’t do the franchise any favors. An attempt at revival was plagued with a lack of direction and focus, which ultimately led to the franchise’s death.

Of course, that’s not the complete end of the story – as NightDive Studios recently remastered Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for modern systems. While it’s not a full-fledged remake, both titles are a great way to relive these games. The studio is also currently working on a System Shock remake, which looks great – and with strong sales figures for Turok‘s remasters – it isn’t too far-fetched to imagine the studio developing a full-fledged remake in the near future.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Augment Your Pre-Order

Based on anonymous reports, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided faced a number of issues in development including a possible sequel that may never see the light of day. However, Square Enix decided to start early with ruining consumer interest by introducing the “Augment Your Pre-Order” campaign. Basically, depending on the number of players who pre-ordered the game, a subsequent tier of bonuses would unlock. So one unlocked tier gave new costumes, another provided an extra in-game mission, four days early access, you get the idea. This didn’t go down well for a number of reasons. Even if you did pre-order of your own volition, you were at the mercy of other players pre-ordering to get all the benefits. Square Enix was probably banking on players to “encourage” others to pre-order through word of mouth, making this a low-key pyramid scheme. The publisher later explained that it was an alternative to different rewards for different regions but why didn’t it just give all the rewards to anyone who pre-ordered? Fortunately, it scrapped the campaign and did just that.

Remember Turok? Sure you do. The dinosaur hunting shooter originally came out on the Nintendo 64, and ended up spawning a franchise. Turok, the original game, eventually came to the Xbox One a few years ago. And now, it might be returning home to Nintendo, because it seems as though Turok has been listed for a Nintendo Switch release on the Nintendo eShop.

This appears to be the same remaster of the N64 game that came to the Xbox One some years ago. It will allegedly launch later this month (specifically, March 18), and cost $20 USD/$25 CAD.

It’s extremely interesting that this game is coming to the Switch—why, exactly? Maybe the publishers are banking on some nostalgia from former N64, and currently Switch, owners. I have to imagine that will end up pushing some sales, at the very least. Hopefully enough that the far superior Turok 2 also launches on the Switch some time soon…

The modern remasters of the popular dinosaur hunting action games, Turok and Turok 2– both games originally came out on the Nintendo 64, and were popular with the shooter crowd on the console that was the home of shooters back in its time (surprisingly enough).

Both the games’ remasters launched on PC a while ago; now it looks like console gamers will be able to relive the classics too, at least console gamers who are on the Xbox side of the fence. Both Turok and Turok 2‘s remasters have popped up on the Xbox Marketplace, with their listings indicating that the games will be available next Friday- that’s March 2, for those of you who don’t want to pull up a calendar.

Both the games are actually available to pre-order right now, and will cost $20 each; which isn’t a bad ask per se (though I don’t think I like either game enough to spend that kind of money on it).

[via ResetEra]