Review & Story Discussion: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus (Spoilers!)
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Gameplay & story disucssion about the two new Wolfs. Spoils both of 'em.
Fun fact: Machinegames does not internally refer to their Wolfenstein reboots as "shooters." They are "action adventures."
What as a german really liked about the new Wolfenstein games, and of course I played them uncensored against all regionlocks, was that they got actually german voice actors to do the german dialogues. As a german you can hear that from the very first line, that those must be people who speak german fluently. The grammar is on point, there is no "Denglish" in there, no broken half-englisch half-german mix, all the texts, posters and dialogues are just plain normal, real German. That is something I really loved and that made the atmosphere for me so much more immersive.
I'm a dane, and I speak some german. Gotta say I enjoy the real german language in the game too!
Yeh, the bad german can be funny in something cheesy like Wolfenstein 2009, but in the more modern games it wouldve been pretty bad.
When I heard that guy say "No I'm from Arizona" in German, it sounded so familiar. Then I remembered Germany has, like, 3 voice actors.
Fun Fact: that dude Hitler shot was supposed to be Ronald Reagan in his acting heyday. No, seriously: look it up on UA-cam if you don’t believe me
Is he German Yuri Lowenthal?
I found this such a fascinating take George. I didn't agree with your thoughts on the difficulty or stealth structure, but I learned a lot from your thoughts on the way the Nazis are presented in this game vs the last, especially the parental overtones. Thanks for your work- continues to be a benchmark.
I feel similar
Considering he praises the story, that benchmark that exists for you must be really tragically low.
One of the True "Gaming Jurnalizt" out there.
Skill Up yay Skill Up. I used to watch your videos on The Division.
It makes sense when you think about it. In current use, "Nazi" has become code for "just like the parents I hate."
If the series goes to the 2000's, there's gonna be a "Moves Like Jäger"
The reboots do include Castle Wolfenstein, it's the main setting of the Old Blood.
It's only Chapter 3 of the 8 chapters in Old Blood. Most of the time you spend in the docks, prison, ruins and ruins of the village. Of course Chapter 3 is one of longer chapters, but still.Is the whole millitery base called Wolfenstein, or is just the castle in chapter 3?
Olyphantastic I thought the prison and part of the docks too were counted as part of Castle Wolfenstein, pretty much most of part 1 was in Castle Wolfenstein I think, I could be wrong though
I always wondered if The Old Blood was originally meant to be two DLCs. With the first one taking place in Castle Wolfenstein and the second one, the follow up, taking place in Wulfburg. The first half focuses on Rudi & the second half focuses on Helga.
the old blood is "return to castle wolfenstein" but remade - so of course you don't spend most of your time in the castle, but it is there.
Horton's character calls up some of sorts of Socialist activism present in the American South through the 30s, a bit of a historical footnote. You know, Woody Guthrie and the like.
specifically Myles Horton
Liberation theology is a thing in South America, despite their marxist leaning of their leaders, hence Fidel Castro and his family seems to be indifferent towards Catholics in his country
This machine kills fascists
Huey Long
Today we all learned that George doesn't know any Jewish or Polish people.
It's a bit weird when you keep referring to surnames with the -icz suffix as being Jewish. These surnames have been a part of slavic culture for about a thousand years (the -icz suffix is exactly the same as -son in surnames like Johnson, it refers to an ancestor). Names ending in -icz or -ski or -cki were considered traditionally Polish (though you can find them in other slavic languages as well), but were adopted by people of Jewish origins (and by peasants who rarely held family names) at the dawn of the industrial age.
To be clear, I'm not saying that what you said was offensive. And I get the point that you wanted to get across (though I feel that B.J. being Jewish was retconned). However saying that Blazkowicz is a Jewish sounding name makes as much sense, as saying that Anderson or Johnson sound Jewish. I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of Jewish people using those names. But their origins are different, and the overwhelming majority of people using those particular names aren't Jewish.
Sorry for the nitpick, but I felt that you are the kind of guy who might appreciate being corrected.
With one thing out of the way, we should now inquire who the hell came up with the "BJ" thing ;)
Those names are associated with Jews because of Jewish immigrants. Same reason why "Tyrone" and "Johnson" were associated with African Americans. There are also German names with the similar treatment (-berg and -stein).
Yes, I'm aware of this. I'm just pointing out, that this association is only visible from a very narrow perspective and is in stark contrast with the bigger picture. Like I said, I'm not saying that this was offensive, just that there was probably a better way to get that point across.
It was a retcon, I've read it on Polygon or Kotaku but I don't think I'll find it now.
William ("Bill/Billy for short) Joseph Blaskowitz.
BJ Blaskowitz.
I agree with you, though Slaves were on roughly the same tier of race (I feel terrible even writing this) as Jews, so it really doesn't make that huge a difference if you shoot up Nazis as a Jew or as a polish man
21:06
As a big fan of MrBTongue's work, I laughed so hard at that.
It made the vid for me
Was about to make a comment about him but you beat me to it. Oh well, nice to see more of his fans around.
Where's he been? I miss his stuff
@Aras Finn
He wrote a bunch of articles about Game of Thrones over at Twenty Sided.
Can someone fill me in on this?
Blazkowicz and Oliwa are both Polish names, not Jewish in the slightest.
~ Pole
This Wolfenstein is another example of a great game series tarnished by virtue signaling leftists. Though daring to criticize this game's politics gets you called Nazi, even if you loved the past entries of this once great franchise. Bethesda and MachineGames are both guilty of putting out this dumpster fire of a sequel. Wolfenstein The New Order alone was superior to Wolfenstein The New Catastrophe. Resident Evil 7 & The Evil Within 2 are the only great AAA single player focused games this year. This Wolfenstein even has a $24.99 season pass. For a game this short. Bethesda is truly as bad as EA, Ubisoft, WB, etc...
+Iwo Herka Change it to "Blaskowitz", and it sounds pretty Prussian... O.o
Or , maybe, you know, the writers believe what they believe and so wrote what they wrote. Not to mention the game isn't really great, as George pointed out. Its ok, what makes it good is the story and narrative, same as the first one.
Genome Soldat Evil Within 2 is a great game? Okay, so the fact that every single animation in the game seems oddly uncanny doesn’t exist and the fact that the game has inconsistent mood doesn’t exist. Evil Within 2 in my eyes is a mediocre game at best. Secondly, don’t be blinded by the atmosphere around the game when looking at a game critically. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is not a great game, but I wouldn’t consider it a disaster either. I will agree that the story is a bit tone-deaf and the game should be more outrageous (like Doom), but in the end, you have a competent game with a toxic background.
Also, how do I know you’re not a Nazi? Soldat is German for soldier. /sarcasm/
"Resident Evil 7 & The Evil Within 2 are the only great AAA single player focused games this year."
Really? What about Zelda BotW, Mario Odyssey, Neir Automata, Persona 5, Sonic Mania, Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hellblade, Pray, the list can go on. I mean this is one of the best years for gaming ever, and that's without bringing up indie games or games with too low of a budget to call it AAA.
To answer some of the confusion about the weird depressed southern anarchists. Socialism and Anarchism where for a time (especially in Louisiana) a suprisingly strong and fairly unique presence in southern politics and society (more in the 30's and 40's than the 60's). Although southern leftists continue their struggle to this day! The best detail they have is the importance placed on one's ability to drukenly argue about revolution over the actual content of the argument for making friends. The worst detail is that hammer and sickle has never really been popular though and is much more a European thing (obviously).
21:13 - You do realize that for American Communists, Anarchists, Left-Libertarians and the like World War 2 was a very strange moment. In many ways they realized the storm ahead and acted upon this (the Abraham Lincoln brigade in the Spanish Civil War, for one). They were, for the majority of the early 20th century, an unwanted fringe demographic ruthlessly singled out and persecuted (not nearly as bad as in other countries, but just look at the first red scare in the 1920's for one big example, or series of examples, rather). Then the war kicks off in earnest and all off a sudden the formerly-ambivalent US government opinion towards Hitler and vaguely approving opinion of Mussolini turns to abject hate and opposition and those rejects from the AL brigade and those union activists and socialists etc are now suddenly good American fighting the forces of Fascism along with their allies.
They join the military....they fight, they die, and then the war ends and they come home....and then the Cold War kicks off along with McCarthyism and many of those Lefties end up blacklisted and hauled off to testify about their actions before the war and yeah....THAT is what Horton's group represents. Seems like the Devs DID get something esoteric right about American society and history - something even you didn't pick up on.
To my knowledge there was also a bit of an isolationist anti-imperialist current among those groups aligned with the SU that opposed intervention against Germany due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Woody Guthrie regretted it, I recall.
The first red scare was in the 1900s, not the 20s, in response to rising Anarchist trends, especially among new immigrants. It's why voter registration became a thing.
fuck lefties
Cry more, Vordivask.
EDIT: To Jetset, I've never heard about that. From all of the information I have read, they label the first scare as starting in 1919 and then continuing on-ward. Perhaps it means institutionalized?
yah there are only few little glitches with America fighting Nazis such as IBM, CocaCola, Ford, George Bush and the rest of which are many.
Conveniently allies only opened the 2nd front after the breaking point in the war when USSR started to push nazis back and allies realized that europe is going to be part of the union unless they joined the fight asap.
To me it looks like allies were fighting not nazis but blocking socialist USSR from advancement. this is further backed up by the fact of immediate start of cold war following ww2 initiated by the so called allies.
also the fun period during McCarthy right about post war time where many American suffered from political repressions left jobless, jailed and so on. The land of the free - funny.
I would really like to note that King's advice on writing began with the exploration of "write what you know" but concludes with advice that is essentially write what you would LIKE to know
It is funny how you can say "Germans should write German jokes" and "Black people should write black jokes" in the same sentence, implying that people with similar skin tone share the same culture. Cause I am pretty sure that third generation immigrant from Paris and a guy from Los Angeles would have waaaaay different everything despite them sharing skin color. Which for a guy from Europe shows how Americans view the subject and it is quite different from ours.
In the United States, there's a reason for this distinction though. Most white people here can trace their family back generations, and thus maintain that cultural heritage. Many black people were forced to come here and lost that cultural identity, meaning their heritage has a lot more to do with being black in America and all that entails(*cough*racism*cough*) than any historical ethnicity.
That doesn't mean that there aren't problems that arise from studying a white person's history and a black person's skin color, but it's not totally unfounded either.
I'd say the New Orleans faction is pretty clearly modelled after two groups: the first one being members of early labor unionism who went on to start the second folk music revival and the beat movement. The second group they're inspired by is the amalgamate peace movement of the mid-60's. But they are characterised as anarchists (or at least anarcho-syndicalists) and marxists more than peaceful flower-power hippies. To me that mixture feels pretty realistic in an America that never got to experience the optimism of "The Booming 50's", or the crap that came after like the Cold War, Eisenhower's foreboding farewell address, the assassination of JFK, and the Vietnam War. Which means the working class of the labor movement would have a lot in common with the civil rights movement. Something that is implied with their ties to the "Black Revolutionary Front". Also, Horton actually says he just picked the robes off the street. He's not a preacher, he's clearly just messing around. having fun before the world he fought for long before the war is burning down (quite literally) all around him. So, I disagree with it being hard to tell what group they're supposed to be modelled after, but I agree that neither Horton nor Grace gets enough characterisation. The New Colossus had a great story, but I felt the pacing (maybe partly due to the gameplay) had some major issues. They could have given his character some more room and focused on class issues, adding even more depth to the story. But if they leave that for the third one, I'll forgive them for it ^^
Also I'm relly not sure if you approve or not of how "the atrocities of the nazis are forgotten" in The New Colossus. Isn't that the point? An identity forgotten? "Like water? Like it never was?" The New Order was about revenge, loyalty and the duty of a soldier trying to redeem himself for the 15 years he missed. In the first game he's eager to fight, he's partly desensitized and consumed with the idea of "setting everything right". This is a game where he literally can't do it anymore. He can't stand the fighting anymore. His own (justified) violence only brings back memories of his violent father. He's so haunted by the thought of becoming his father, that it literally gets him killed. After the confrontation with his father his fear and disgust turns to a re-kindled desire to fight - not for himself but for his children. His body is mirroring his psyche throughout the whole game. He's a broken man after the events of the last game, but he puts on a mask (or rather a suit) and "soldiers on". However, it's not until he's free of the suit, Caroline's "wings", and the lie he's been feeding himself ever since he enlisted that he's reborn as a supersoldier again. But this time he doesn't fight for his country, he fights for his unborn children. And he's almost happy again - he's ready. And to me, that along with the acting and the vulnerable dialogue makes this the best written character arc in video games and I really hope we get to see it concluded in a future installment because both MachineGames and the characters deserve it. I was surprised by the choice of music fot the end credits, but it is fitting. The actual rise of the resistance doesn't happen in the game, it happens after Engel is assassinated on national television and the people finally get force fed an overdue wake up call.
You might say that this game is "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame", The New Colossus is to The New Order what the Statue of Liberty is to The Colossus of Rhodes. ^^
one of the biggest problems in this game (and new order) is the utter lack of feedback
somebody slightly off screen shooting you ? you wont notice because the damage indicator is barely visible, the guns dont make any sounds, your health bar is a tiny number on the edge of the screen and you're dead before the game warns you about the fact that you're about to die
Spot on
Man, the Steam reviews for this game are solidly "meh"....
it's actually quite good, but i think the consensus is it wasn't absurdly above the previous one, or the hype it had around it, basically same ol same ol with tools that if used correctly could land a big hit in either the next game or a new IP the might work on
Mostly because of its broken release.
Mostly from patching issues iirc
The release seem to be fine. But people complained about the steam overlay, and it seem there was a reason they disable it, because after they patched it, they game broke. I went back a week after completing the game to do some side missions, and I had to go through several work arounds to get the game start, and when it started I had crashes and graphic issues.
The release was fine, but tehy had mess with it.
This game needed a month or two of polish
For some people the game straight up crashes at launch!
Even if they meet the minimum requirements
Bethesda's answer?: either update the drivers (this one actually made the problems worse) and lower the graphic settings! Even tho many people cant even go to the menu! good job bethesda!
I liked the game overall. The story and overall atmosphere of the world is great. But so often i asked myself "why did they start you off with 50 hp? Why do 200hp feel like 50 when you don't have armor? Why are enemies shoot left, then right, then above you, then hit you every time? Why don't give the player gimmicks like the gadgeto-legs earlier? Why stop there?" I never asked myself so many whys in a game.
Agreed, glad someone else was able to call out the court level. The only thing I'd add is that the story dropped the ball on answering anything. Like, basically anything. Almost any question, concern, or sub-plot brought up, was forgotten, half-assed, or is somewhere so hidden and obscured despite being IN THE MAIN PLOT that I still haven't found it yet. The end of the game literally just comes with a fade-in sequence and they tell you tip-toe over and kill the bad guy. That's it. Oh and in between the credits, there's the ring thing building up that got crudely slapped in like that. Just about everything else is unaccounted for. Story really dropped the ball here, and it was really good while it was going. But yeah, tack that on alongside things like "wait, so there isn't much KKK killing? And the nazis... are just angry parents?"
jgunner280 don't forget this game is about half as long as the prequel. At least when it comes to the primary mechanics (as in not collectables or journals.)
This game was disappointing.
They promoted the whole run and gun thing that looks awesome but in reality the level design is not made for that since you're always getting stuck on something and your character is more fragile than the people getting offended by this game.
A great story alone can't make a shooter with boring combat scenarios a great game.
Edit: And this reminds me why you shouldn't give a shit about Metacritic. The people that reviewed this game played the same game that i did ?
Furisco people have very different tastes.
Sure, that's fair but i'm talking about dubious design decisions that collide with the enjoyment of the game. You can like it but you can't deny that doesn't make any sense when we have those great moments of badassery in trailers, overcharged health, big ass guns and a high movement speed when you can't tank shit or properly dodge the bullets.
The game looks great, sounds great and the gameplay itself ain't bad but everything around it that should support it is very flawed.
Thats because in the original BJ was a bit of a glass cannon only taking 3 shots.
Furisco it's why I don't care about reviews in general.
Yeah I felt the entire first half of the game was mediocre because they didn't make it that fun to blast through enemies. The enemy variety and environment was lacking and disappointing, the final area of the game didn't even feel like a boss, I thought it was the introduction of a new enemy type. The weapon variety is sub par and most aren't that fun to use. I felt the weird comedic tone they twisted into the dialogue didn't clash well with the mediocre serious writing they also put in. The story felt like an expansion on the previous games without actually going anywhere.
This game is EASILY one of the most underrated games of the last few years. The mountains of hate this game receives is astounding when there is so much talent, and love and care put into it. A fun story, even more fun gameplay, and metal as hell music make Wolfenstein 2 a great game.
I think the stealth is more used as a ticking time-bomb of tension before the explosion of violence. Gameplay cadence is more about the transition of stealth to combat and back to silence when it's over than it is about sticking to sneaky headshots or guns-blazing through the whole thing. Being unable to hide bodies or your axes sometimes not working contributes towards this feel.
7:55
why would I wanna make my bjs faster??
To increase your productivity.
Great breakdown, you said literally everything I've been thinking about, especially when it comes to the difficulty and the second half of the story taking a hard left turn into absurd Grindhouse comedy. I still really, REALLY enjoyed the characters, but the second half of the game had none of the weight of TNO, or the first half of TNC. Hopefully they find a better balance between TNO's tone and TNC's tone in the finale.
The dude screaming at the end actually has a good point
I remember that scene of the court on Switch, it was pretty difficulty, then I discovered that I could save any time, so I created my own checkpoints and I was able to pass it.
"one of the best written character in video game history"
wat
TNC Nazi honestly feel like cartoon villains with how overly despicable they try to be for the sake of being bad guys
all wolfenstein nazis always were cartoons, like, always, this is nothing new, it was never a series trying to depict reality
if something the last two games are the ones who get closer to have verosimilitude, but it still is a cartoon game with pregnant woman cover in blood killing 30+ nazis and a guy in a wheelchair making the mother of all bloodbaths and single hand killing thousands of nazis
and nazi always are the bad guys, be they wearing polos, confederate or american flags, no matter how they look like, thing is, the game isn't showing reality at all
Lucas Melo I suppose, but something about this game’s Nazi feel vastly different
You are aware Hitler used conscriptions --- so yeah not all of them were brave, many were forced because of Government forcing men to join up.
"Jewish last name".
Huh? Blazkowicz is a Polish last name dummy.
Tom Hall said Blazkowicz mother is/was Jewish, so yes, Blazkowicz is Jewish (Also Blazkowicz can read hebrew).
His mother was Jewish, but that doesn't make the surname jewish.
I know. So? The last name is still Polish not Jewish.
It wasn't. He's still Polish and he speaks polish in the last game.
In one part they even say that Blazkowicz's mother was a Polish Jew. So both work. She's Polish. But also Jewish.
The number of steam and reddit posts about how the game was sjw and anti white was astoundingly stupid. I'm glad some peps played the game and actually thought about it's meaning
Well it was deliberatly inflammatory , you cant deny that.
"I CARRIED A MP40 AND YOU... YOU CARRY THAT SMALL HEALTH BAR!"
I think it will be able to sustain because we're starting to see the comeback of games like Doom and Wolfenstein which return to a character that can carry 20 guns at a time, have intense combat, tell a good story, and break out of the COD/Battlefield roadmap of "serious" military shooters that has captured the genre for the last 10 years or so.
> playing fps games with a gamepad
> complaining that it was too hard afterwards
It's like eating soup with a knife instead of a spoon.
It's like eating oatmeal with chopsticks
I'm pretty sure a game that was designed with consoles in mind should not have to rely on the player using a mouse and keyboard...
The mere fact that it is too difficult until you switch to mouse and keyboard controls says that it wasn't designed with consoles in mind.
In what universe is any FPS that isn't Halo ever designed for a console.
@@chrislee5268
Well, there are games like Goldeneye 64 that were made purely for console, but you can usually tell which ones are and aren't. The ones that release on PC alongside consoles are generally made with the PC in mind since you can't very well use a console (Without some hacking) to program a game.
I honestly had to rewind that big where, within (practically) a second, Gorge went from 181 health and 100 armor to literally dead. Seemed like it happened out of literally nowhere, and if that's on Easy, I think Machinegames needs to... do some balancing.
Wait, they gave him the name "Blaskowitz" to make him sound Jewish? Hahahaha, that name sounds so Slavic it is a wonder you never hear Blaskowitz shout "kurwa!".
"Kurwa!" Is one of the first things that came to mind when I saw B.J and Anya's faces in this new game.
So last week I was looking through a Half Price Books' game section, and found Wolf 2 TNC for $5.99. So I finally got the game, and I've just played through it. So now here I am, almost 4 years later, ready to watch George's thoughts on the game. I can not tell you how many times his Simpsons/Futurama inspired title card showed up in my recommended videos list, how many times I 'almost' clicked on it. But I held off, because I didn't want spoilers. Was it all worth it?
Just played it on game pass and I had a similar situation lol. Okay game, but not as fresh and fun as the original
@@JohnDoe-uf3lj Did you bother doing those Commander missions after you beat the game? The gunplay was fun enough that I went through them all. But after that, I was done, I've never turned it back on.
@@facerip2222 I did a few to grab the upgrade kits and the other two abilities, but I haven’t done them all. I know there are three paid missions on the season pass, but I don’t wanna pay full price for it.
@@JohnDoe-uf3lj Yeah those DLC missions, I looked up some user reviews to see if they were any good, most of the reviews I found said don't bother wasting your money, so I never bought them. Oh well.
It took me over 30 tries on that panopticon type big room. I kept it on Do or Die because each death game me just a little more information about what I could do. It took a lot of running and knowing where weapons and armor are. Exhilirating to finally get it right. Hilarious and harrowing to see what happens after.
I think what Gorg is experiencing with the squandered American setting is the feeling that us Europeans experience when we see American portrayal of European conflicts like the east and west fronts in the world wars.
That MrBtongue reference.
I really agree with your thoughts on the story, SPOILERS ahead.
The first half of the game was, as you said, The Empire Strikes Back. All of our characters are at their lowest point. The feeling of hopelessness and the humanity, and BJ's struggles against the Nazis, that was present in the first game, was at play during this first half, and amplified due to Caroline's death. BJ now not only is facing the burden of him dying and not being able to be a father to his unborn children, but he now has the burden of carrying the resistance and carrying on being a father to them, despite him knowing he won't be around much longer. The game's narrative just builds up and up to what, as you said, is perhaps one of the greatest climaxes in gaming ever. My mouth was open in amazement the whole time, it was INCREDIBLE, and felt like the point that the first game and the first half of the second was building up towards for BJ's character.
But after BJ gets _ahem_ better... it seems that all of the stuff that made the first half of the game (and the first game) is just lost. There isn't that feeling of hopelessness and humanity anymore. Maybe part of it had to do with, "how the fuck do you continue to develop a character in an interesting and meaningful way after their resurrection" (looking at you, Jon Snow; there should've been far more of an emphasis on him being a literal Jesus figure, which the show just doesn't seem to do outside of a few comments) seems to be a hard thing to tackle, hell, even Jesus himself hasn't figured out that part.
The characters and the cinematics are still excellent, and the Venus section with a surprise guest in the form of Hitler making an appearance was another excellent highpoint. But, with the way the story goes downhill from the first half, and the way that America as a whole seems to be really underutilized and chopped up to be used in the Enigma code missions instead, I can't help but feel like the game was _unfinished_. It certainly doesn't stand on its own like the first game did - and did so with flying colours, thanks to how the story from beginning-to-end was excellently consistent thematically (whereas in TNC that only was the case in the first half). Like, I feel like things were just plain missing in the story, for example, I was expecting Anya to give birth, or maybe Anya to be captured and/or killed to bring back that feeling of hopelessness and humanity present in the first half/the first game. But the only major deaths outside of the beginning happen during the excellent climax, and that's it, so I feel like that's also another reason why the game lost some of its momentum there.
But anyway, I still very much enjoyed the game, but I don't think I'll bother with the enigma missions, or the DLC (unless the DLC is good). Here's to hoping that Wolfenstein 3 ends the series at a high note, and is excellent story-wise from beginning to end, rather than just the first half.
Set it to Easy. Play it for the campy story, interesting characters, and the ability to dual wield basically anything and mow down Nazis. I agree completely that Normal is WAY too difficult. Especially at the start of the game where your max HP is a paltry 50. An enemy gets the drop on you in Normal and you're basically done right there. Nazi bullets tear through BJ like he's made of wet paper. Which is... thematically appropriate.. I guess, considering his physical condition but... it ain't fun.
The stealth mechanics are also raw garbage. You get spotted by ONE guy and every Nazi within a ten block radius knows right where you are and the commander that's summoning waves of reinforcements runs to the ass end of the room. Good luck finding him, though, because the level design is kind of awful and the waypoint system pops up and disappears so fast that you'll never even SEE the waypoint marker it brings up unless you spam the button.
The game seems at odds with itself. It lets you slide and dual wield everything so you'd think it wants you to run and gun and just shoot from the hip and blast away, and yet your character feels like he'll fall over in a stiff breeze if you wade into a firefight. Yet you can't use stealth, either. It's unforgiving and managing a stealth kill on one enemy will often alarm another to your presence.
game on normal is totaly fine. the problem is that alot of other fps are just very very easy.
The normal difficulty isn't hard at all. And the first level is filled with explosives and traps in the environment so that you don't have to really hit enemies or alert them before they are gone.
I finished it on the hardest difficulty initially available.
The game sucks ass.
Level design, stealth, difficulty balancing, story, characters, cutscenes... It's all utter shit.
I'm glad you included the clip of the Japanese noodles
So how about how the first actor Hitler shot was Ronald Reagan? Also a couple details I'd point out that you seemed to have missed: the food source in the State Building was visible if you look around during the level and district, they have a garden in there; there are KKK members as enemies in most of the side quests; and as for Horton's group look up the history of the American Communist Party (they were VERY vocally opposed to the US entering the war) and Louisiana Senator/Governor Huey Long (a man who in reality died a few years before the war, but who Horton is most definitely based on).
May Sparkle also "Jimmy Carver" is Jimmy Carter, for some reason I don't understand. They even accidentally call him Carter in a couple notes. I don't know why a peanut farmer would be a talk show host in this alt history.
I would have thought he was Johnny Carson.
Aw shit, that MrBtongue reference.
Really, though, the question "What do they eat?" is a good question to ask in lots of games that are trying to build believable settings. Glad MrBtongue brought it up in one of his videos. It's made me ask it many times in RPG's since.
I highly recommend anyone check out his videos. They're a great source of "really makes ya think" material.
I haven't played the second game yet (just the first) but could that pacifest, communist type group be a reference to Louisiana's Governor Huey Long?
E V E R Y M A N A K I N G
For me, I’ve spent the last couple of days playing and beating the three Wolf games in reverse on their hardest difficulties (Below the permadeath mein leben mode). As for how I feel, well, its mixed honestly. Personally I think from a mere gunplay perspective that TNC is much more refined and is very enjoyable in that regard. Stealth sections are much more difficult, but can be tactically viable and completed on the harder difficulties. As for TNO, I think that the game is much more fun being played as a stealth shooter, when I first played it, I wanted to run and gun and that was the death of me. Much of that game had to be played as a cover based shooter when you weren’t given the stealth option. If I had to decide which game balances out both gameplay aspects the best, it would have to be TOB. That was the first game I played in the trilogy and I must say its stealth sections/gunplay arenas are both balanced to a key. It does unfortunately feel not as polished as the either two but the gameplay flow and pacing is almost perfect. Overall, this is becoming one of my favorite game series, but if I had to decide which type of game I want from the third and possibly final game, it would be something more akin to Doom 2016. Truth be told, playing the first two games on Uber felt remarkably easy. The stealth is so supremely easy with the silenced pistol that scoring headshots comes as a second nature and it just kind if feels boring. Comparing this to the heightened and fast paced battles of TNC which had me on my feet and feeling triumphant when powering through it all. Honestly, at this point I just want more Wolfenstein. And I’m sure the upcoming DLC will work upon and improve both gameplay elements to eventually satisfy both players. Personally I would like for an experience that provides tough stealth and gunplay, but both are interesting and neither feel required over the other.
I'd like this game a hell of a lot more if you could take more than one f'ing bullet. If you let me duel wield a shotgun and assault rifle, I want to run and gun. Not creep around and knife people.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought the Nazis weren't very Nazi in TNC. Thanks for re-affirming my opinions George - this is what I pay you for!
You know, just when the weight of the confusing nature of humanity was pressing down on me most harrowingly, this video popped up, reminding me that there is art and beauty in all of the confusion. Sometimes I'm sure there's a greater nature giving us what we need.
Horton wasn't a preacher - he found the clothes and liked 'em.
I would say that the marketing for this game was "shameless and provocative".
It certainly caught a lot of attention but I think that the kind of attention it attracted hurt the game.
21:30
I think they're supposed to be the Metropolitan Community Church. I haven't played the game, so I don't know the details of these characters, but they sound like these guys. They were a distinctly gay-friendly Christian community, officially founded in California in 1968 but going back much further than that. They were (and still are) left leaning and communal, organizing protests and rallies while dealing with their own hate attacks. Check them out. There's a Radio Misterioso podcast with Mike Marinacci that goes into them (and other Californian cults and fringe religious groups).
Oh boy can't wait for this comment section.
it's bad, it's really not a good comment section.
By far one of the most under-appreciated youtubers
" The gold standard in weapons animation and sounds " ?!
What about Killing Floor 2
Would be incredibly interested if you did a break-down on how you structure your notes for your reviews.
These games always annoy me because Nazis are really played out and their being enshrined as secular Satans has actually diluted how evil they really were, and it has blinded people to the fact that evil is rarely as obvious as a Nazi.
People don't realize that they could very well have been Nazis themselves if they were in those circumstances at the time. And yes, Nazis are rather cartoonish at this point and have lost their luster as villains.
I guess they are getting old, thats all, its been 70 years or so since their defeat, time to find a new, more updated villain? ISIS?
@Luzur We only got proper Nazi villains after their defeat, so you'll have to wait little bit more on that.
I wouldn't say that nazis are played out as villains when very little in media is actually willing to go far enough to show how evil nazism was. In fact people typically have a knee-jerk reaction to anything to do with fleshing out the evils of nazism when it isn't in written literature or movies. Take Imagination Is The Only Escape as an example. It could never find a publisher despite its clear earnestness and even capability because even bringing up the holocaust in a videogame set in that period is controversial, let alone making it a significant focus. In an odd way nazism has sort of been canonized as being exclusively for the more respected forms of media and even discussing it in the context of cultural ghettos like videogaming or television is abhorrable.
Everybody wants to hate nazis but they want to hate nazis in the easiest way possible, which is to point at the human slaughterhouses. While not necessarily wrong that focus and the desire to avoid getting into the nitty, gritty details is what makes them ineffective villains more often than not. Its just a pipeline of Star of David, ghetto, death camp. Its practically a template for an Academy Award nomination at this point. If more media would step outside of that using the nazis as villains wouldn't feel as played out.
On the one hand I kind of wish that media would reach for other kinds of historical villains as well, more to expand the appreciation and awareness of other nations, demographics, and time periods more than anything, but on the other hand the Nazis left a very personal impression on the U.S. and, as you yourself stated, made some very blatantly evil decisions. It's hard to usurp a king as established as the Nazi's are as "the Face of Evil" when it comes to national conflicts, at least when talking patriotically for the U.S. They'll probably be a core focus for the rest of our foreseeable lives.
this and the comments are reassuring me im not just a whimp for playing it mostly on the lowest two difficulties.
i constantly found myself either wishing i had rainbow 6 style cover mechanics and other stealth options, or that it just took a note from doom. but it just stays in an awkward in between area. oh and love having to check out guides just because i cant find the one barely visible tunnel in the huge darkly lit sewer system Im supposed to go through.
Knackwurst is actually a normal term without any wordplay. Its just named after the crackle when you are biting into it.
A killing of a despicable abusive human being is not always tied to Oedipus Complex even in case when said despicable human being is a father. This connection you made here is very flimsy.
I also don't think an Oedipus complex suits BJ's situation, not once did BJ imply that he wanted to bang his mum. I personally really enjoyed the story telling, and I felt the somewhat silly nature at times fitted in with the black comedy nature of the rebooted series.
I think you kinda got the whole oedipus complex wrong (not disrespecting). As far as I am concerced, it is not directly linked to our conscious thinking (or, as someone posted up there, wanting to "bang your mum", quite explicit), but it happens and develops in our unconscious, according to that really short Psychology course I took in college. The game just exteriorizes that process through B.J.'s actions (killing his father and methaphorically "marrying" his jewish mother). Just wanted to point that out, have a nice weekend!
MILF porn.
I still don't understand why people think the story and characters are really good. I just never saw it in The New Order.
I honestly thought every character in the opening of TNO was excellent. its when you go to that resistance hideout that shit really goes sideways for me.
The idea that you need to 'stay in your lane' and only ever joke about things which have affected you personally is the first step in a road to total division. Intent matters.
When Super Bunnyhop posts a new video of a game you haven't played but you want to watch the video so badly :(
I have to some homework for this video now lol.
Currently at Minute 9 and it's spoilerfree so far, but I'm not gonna risk it further.
Well you won't get any spoilers until you reach 10:52 when he start talking about the story that's a given.
About the nit picking: I can see in the future them fleshing out more sequels, (as fans ask for more), however I can also see them going back and "remastering" their games to make them better. To fix things they hadn't gotten to, as you've figured out. But, that's up to Bethesda for them to do that, I would like to see them purifying it.
The whole recharacterizing of Nazis may have something to do with the fact that the marketing for this game was directly feeding off the "punch nazis" meme.
When it was saying "let's kill some nazis" in the marketing, it wasn't just talking about the fictional ones, but the ones that the crazier of the left call nazis. Thus,
they blur the lines and recharacterize their villains to engage with the player's impression of modern day US.
In this way I feel it was somewhat exploitative.
Yeah, the people marching in Charlottesville with torches yelling "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us" while carrying swastika flags are totally not Nazis. Silly crazy leftists, seeing Nazis everywhere.
@@FwendlyMushwoom "I don't understand why leftists call me a Nazi. Just because me and my friends goosestep around the neighborhood with Nazi flags and chant anti-semetic slogans doesn't mean I'm a Nazi."
Referencing Trump with "Make America Nazi Free Again" seems like the marketing was deliberately trying to ccorrelate it with Modern Politics. Perhaps the game itself wasn't trying to make that statement but the marketing sure as shit was trying to do that, which tainted perspective on the game itself.
Everything Bunnyhop says is correct about the difficulty. The solution is to lower it to "don't hurt me" and be the Terror-Billy. Be the nightmare of Nazi's and fuck them up. Any higher and its like the character of BJ and how the game makes you play are constantly fighting it's self
I played it on switch on normal and had no problem
I personally found the most enjoyment playing on the highest difficulty that wasn't the one life run on pc, where I would stealth until I killed the commanders then shoot and never stop moving. The gauntlet at the end of the game was one of the most adrenaline boosting moments in gaming in years for me
I feel like your trying to avoid the topic that the "New Colosus" story is just so cringe. I would also argue to a small extent that guns got a downgrade. Like for instance you used to have grenade launchers and shotguns as attachments.
I know I'm late but HOLY FUCK what a game. I just finished. This is really one of those "Games as art" things without being pretentious about it. Literal SJW's, feminism, racism and more jammed into a game about shooting Nazi's in the face without being annoying. GOTY
I'd just like to point out something awesome yet non-political, if that's somehow allowed here: Fergus / Wyatt did not get killed in the second game so that they don't have to make many cutscenes twice. They did not take the easy way out like many other games with "split timelines" do (looking at you, Telltale Games). When Fergus arm got cut off I was like "Aaand the timeline is fixed. Great. Fuck you." totally not expecting him to survive because I was so used to the easy way out. But nope. Fergus and Wyatt recieve equal love in completely different ways in both timelines. I loved that. And I guess the "propaganda" as some would call it could have been worse. I'm very tired of this constant war of left VS right in our modern world, yet this game was a lot of fun to me anyway.
It's better than most in terms of politics, the message was clear and there was political discourse with characters who weren't the bad guys.
If "Nazis are bad" is propaganda to you I don't know what to tell you.
WartortlePrince almost no one thinks Nazis aren’t bad. The idea that all American PoC, women and any historically marginalized need to unite against “nazis” meaning every right leaning individual is probably the propaganda lilsmoky92 was referring to. This kind of polarizing rhetoric is what pushes center right to alt right and center left toward violent communist. I haven’t played the game I’m just going by George’s description of the cathartic fantasy the game presents. I personally have never voted republican before but not every one who does is a nazi. I’ve heard enough of this shit from “my own” side that I’m done supporting the left wing. Y’all are just as bad as the evangelical conservatives ever were when it comes to demonizing people you’ve never met. Sad!
My previous comment was way too long and rambling so here's a shorter version:
If you define "Nazis" as "right leaning individuals" then Wolfenstein is a game about killing right leaning individuals. If you define Nazis as "buttered toast" then Wolfenstein is a game about murdering buttered toast as well.
But, if you're a normal person who knows what words mean, Wolfenstein is a game about killing Nazis and only Nazis.
Nazis are shit and if right leaning individuals want to come together with everyone else to fight them they're more than welcome to do so.
WartortlePrince the only thing I would theoretically take issue with is conflating those two things. From what I can tell you have to really want to see that in order to interpret Wolfenstein that way.
"What do they eat?" Btongue,Mr
You know, tagging video as spoilerish does not do it justice, if thumbnail itself is a spoiler.
So I think part of why a lot of people have trouble with the difficulty is that the game’s structure encourages you to become a super-mobile lunatic. I rarely aim down sights in Wolfenstein 2. Instead, I run at full speed constantly, dual-wielding with an assault rifle in one hand and a SMG in the other. The enemies cannot properly track you if you move constantly, especially if you’re not moving in a straight line.
In my opinion, The New Colossus lacks that feeling of depression, which was dominant in The New Order and The Old Blood.
I kind of like that in a way. Wolfenstein TNO represents the sad and depressing realization that Nazis took over the world and Wolfenstein 2 represents perseverance and fighting spirit.
You're not going to review Cuphead? I was *sure* you'd post a video on that!
I think George is at a point where he only makes review when he feels like he has something to say. He probably just didn't have much to say about cuphead that you can't get anywhere else. On that note, this review brings up a lot of points I haven't seen, since most people haven't delved into the history and writing process of this game the way George just did.
It's a MS/MS-involved game, so he wont touch it, it seems. He IS willing to talk about Sony exclusives, though. Interesting that. I know he has a ps4, but he also has a PC and can play most of the MS games on that, especially the ones on Steam. So I really have no idea why he is basically ignoring anything-MS this gen. Nintendo you can understand due to how they treat people on UA-cam.
One wonders if he was sent a free X from MS, since they sent those out to A LOT of tubers, even the blind haters. Guess we will see in the coming videos - or not.
Volpe2077 it's a shitty contra clone with cool 1920s music.
git a more interesting and orignal game
What's to say about Cuphead? It's a bland game that looks really nice.
admittedly, the second half is kinda tone def, but i like the ambiguity as to whether or not it's... you know, actually happening.
Not their fault that aiming with a controller analog sticks (which usually have 25% deadzones) sucks. If you're on a PC and want to game on your couch, I would really recommend gaming with a Steam Controller. If you know how to tweak the settings, aiming with it can come very close to mouse precision. The trick with getting most out of your SC is to never ever use the default profile that steam recommends as they will default you to XInput and set the track pad to mouse like joystick which doesn't work well because of the limitations of XInput itself. You want to switch trackpad to Mouse, select emulate trackball, high friction, medium acceleration and double sensitivity over the default. This setup will allow you to make really small and precise movements when you're not moving your finger that much while allowing you to cover alot of the screen when you make bigger swipes. Some games will allow you to use XInput and Mouse at the same time, in those situation I set TP as mouse and everything else as XInput. Some games will make you choose between XBox controller vs KB+Mouse, in that situation you'll have to set analog stick to WASD emulation and buttons to KB.
Its pretty lenient to think that the game's mishandling of Americana and the complete nonsense tone-shift towards the second half is just due to those silly Yurops not knowing how it works in the New World, rather than it being a pretty transparent attempt at political pandering.
politics aside, the game is only okay, had some good moments, some awkward moments and ended really abruptly.
politics considered, the game is... a mess, a lot of odd bits and pieces of writing seem just outright hostile, and were clearly forced into the game later during development. you could see it in the marketing too, blatantly trying to make a statement but the final product only comes off as... cringy, for lack of a better word. really, really cringy at times.
and as time goes on this will only get worse, TNC will not age well at all thanks to the forced politics in it and around it.
overall, definitely a disappointment for me since TNO was really solid.
I totally agree with this
That clip from the music video at the end was genius
*Colossus
It’s some niche history, but there is actually a precedent in American history, specifically in Louisiana, for people like Horton. Check out the history of Louisiana governor Huey Long, who actually attempted massive wealth redistribution and increasing public services.
You sound bored most of the review.
You didn't mention the absolute horror of a scene where the eyeless Fergus or Wyatt get their brain removed while they are still alive.
The first game didn't fuck around.
21:32 Glad I'm not the only one that awkward about handshakes.
Hi, if you're reading this, stop scrolling down. Don't read the comments. Be nice to yourself.
Love that Mrbtongue reference at 21:06. May he rest in peace
what are you talking about? The New Order doesnt have a "stealth game" character. I never used stealth and always play on the highest difficulty.
focus on stealth? No.
not exactly.
horton boone is a reference to old school american syndicalists like eugene debs (founding member of the IWW) who used the language of christianity to espouse socialism. the socialist movement they represent was superseded by the marxism-leninism of the soviet union and were then dismantled by COINTELPRO from 1956 onwards. so it's *sort* of alternative timeline weirdness, but horton boone also does represent a very real ideology that exists to this day.
Lol this video is all over the place but it's pretty good.
TheCrimsonSeven to be fair I fell this game is all over the place and he hit all of my points basically.
Feels good to hear George's voice after a long time
Hitler isn't the grand leader of the German-Verse of Wolfenstein, its just someone's grandpa going crazy with his luger again.
playing wolfenstein really makes me wish there were more video games depicting the evils of communism as well, and not necessarily the ussr
The thing is that communism is hard to demonize because done poorly its, well, open a history book, but done well its Star Trek. With Nazism its hard to tell if its worse when its done well or when its done poorly. Further, for most of the world communism was very closely tied to anti-colonialism. Its not exactly shocking that people seeking liberation from colonial oppression jerk in the opposite direction. It only makes things more entangled when capitalist nations would exert their force onto other nations to try and force them into being capitalist, even at the cost of democracy. For examples, see: Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, basically every country in South America.
Not only are nazis an easier target but you don't have to grapple with the history of colonialism and CIA intervention to do the matter any justice. Those sorts of topics are harder to sell in a videogame than "nazis are bad."
Probably because there were a shit ton of people celebrating the 100th anniversary of the October revolution( at least in well Russia) but neo-nazis are still a fringe minority.
WW2 can be told as a romanticized, fairy-tale-like story of the good guys coming together and conquering the evil empire trying to swallow the world. Communism isn't that simple since there was never an easily adaptable open conflict with them and most victims of communist governments were their own citizens, not soldiers and foreigners.
Papers, Please might be the closest thing right now, depicting the mistreatment of human rights and the atmosphere of paranoia in an inhuman totalitarian system.
Mattchester Paper's Please is a representation of the post-Soviet Eastern Europe situation, not communism. Borders weren't locked down and militarized within the USSR, but they were as soon as that source of external stability left. The PP scenario of like eight different tightly packed countries that all hate each other and have cross border terrorist violence is 90s Eastern Europe to a tee. The USSR pretty strictly enforced a "no individual state Nationalism!" rule. It's a good rule, but rebellion against it played a big part in destabilizing it in the 80s. Slovacs and Serbians just really, really wanted to kill each other.
+Jetsetlemming Which is strange considering they have no common border.
Both of these games are amazing. I can't wait for Youngblood and eventually Wolfenstein 3. I really hope they put all of their creativity into the ending.
HA, no.
Very late reply here, what did you think of Youngblood?
@@mitchboland9591 6/10. Would not recommend.
dude! best review ever! thanks bunnyhop
Did you seriously call a Wolfenstein game, the franchise that Half Life copied, a Half Life clone?
gonna be honest this is my favourite in the series i played it on very hard (i am terror billy) and i had a blast, im trying not to just say get good but im gonna stand by this game because i had the perfect ammount of focus on gameplay and story and i had a blast throughout.
This review is -on point-. The tone shift was so damn jarring, even if this is probably not a bad game.
I'm conflicted. because if automata didn't come out this year i would say new colossus had the best narrative presentation this year. But automata did come out this year and what we are left with with new colossus is a game that doesn't know how to balance difficulty properly, whose waypoint system highlights that the level designers needed more time and whoever designed the waypoint system needed even MORE time, whose pc port raised some eyebrows, and whose attempts at humour should be the definition of hit and miss. It also feels too short in terms of writing while feeling too long in actual gameplay. The design of the encounters felt bad in any difficulty i played and towards the end i just gave up and switched to easy because the drawing force was the narrative.