Wolfenstein 3D was one of the first games I can remember playing on my PC, along with Lemmings, Ghostbusters II and some form of Pengo clone.  For a long time I even had to play it with the only sound coming from the internal PC speaker (which could produce blips and screeches) due to the lack of a Sound Blaster card.  I’ve always held a soft spot for the game, mostly due to fond memories and nostalgia more than anything else, so I was chuffed when I heard it was coming to Xbox Live Arcade, especially at the appropriate price of 400 Microsoft points for all 6 episodes (which still include the secret levels from the original).  Naturally, I snapped it up on release.

So far I’ve completed 4 out of the 6 episodes.  The port has its plus sides, mainly that its the easiest version of Wolfenstein 3D to control that I’ve ever played – in the original PC version you had to hold down Shift to strafe, making movement anything but intuitive by today’s FPS control standards.  Also, the addition of achievements adds extra incentive to complete goals such as finding all the secrets in a level, 100% kill count and 100% treasure looting.  Sadly, the port is not without its flaws, which is pretty disappointing given the age of the game (17 years old at time of writing).  One of the biggest flaws of the port is the dodgy collision detection between the player and pick-up items on the ground (e.g. treasure, health, ammo).  Its often the case that you need to be facing the item to pick it up and that walking over it backwards will only work half the time.  The fact that this issue was not present in the game 17 years ago makes this even more disappointing.  Also, the music plays at a much slower tempo than the original version, perhaps not an issue for players new to the game but apparent to those who played the original a lot – unnecessary (why the hell…?) and degrading to the music.  Other minor glitches include a small pause before toggling a secret wall, the boss kill cam playing too fast (with the sound not in sync) and a few graphical glitches such as edges of walls flickering and slight gaps appearing, as well as being unable to stretch the game to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Its still good old Wolfenstein 3D, a game that perhaps doesn’t hold up these days to those who don’t have the nostalgia of having played the original, but enjoyable to replay for those of us who did.  Its disappointing that a port of such an old game can still have issues, but thankfully the issues are minor enough to still allow for the nostalgia to shine through.  For 400 points its nice and cheap with a good few hours of gameplay throughout its 6 episodes.

Last night I got back from Majorca.  We stayed in Palma Nova, which was a great place with nice people and plenty of sunshine!  We also checked out Magaluf – a bit more lively but a bit less respectable, though great if you’re in the party mood.  I’ve uploaded plenty of photos and some videos to my Flickr account.  You can check out the full set here.  Here are some highlights:

And finally, how brilliant is this sand castle fortress we seen on the Palma Nova beach?  Breathtaking skills and attention to detail:

Majorca 2009 on Flickr.

I’m off to Majorca for a week later this evening.  Everything is packed and the PSP is loaded with films and TV episodes for the trip (hoping the battery holds up so I can watch at least one item on the plane).  I’ve a few plans for blog posts I want to write once I get back to hopefully get back into the swing of blogging.

Adios!