There’s a generation of gamers out there who may have never heard or played a Wolfenstein game and that makes me feel quite old and depressed. It’s fine for gamers to have Call of Duty as their #1 FPS game, but it’s always good to look back at what helped the FPS genre as things likely wouldn’t be where they are now if the team at id Software never created Wolfenstein in the first place.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wolfenstein series, id Software co-founder/current tech wiz John Carmack decided to do something special. No, he didn’t create a rocketship adorned with Wolfenstein signage since he has the money and knowledge to do such a thing, but he instead decided to do a special audio commentary of Wolfenstein 3D. John Carmack may do a fair bit of public speaking here and there, most of the time involving tech talk that goes over our heads, but rarely does he ever talk in-depth about a previous game he worked on, let alone one that’s older than most gamers today.
John doesn’t drop any megaton bombs about Wolfenstein or the inner workings of id Software back in the day, but it is interesting to hear his insight on the game and reminiscence about the glory days the company once had. There are a few candid moments in the audio commentary John laid down, but in general it’s a rather straightforward commentary track that manages to be entertaining and not snooze inducing.
All around it’s nice to take a trip back down memory lane, not only through seeing Wolfenstein again but back when id Software was a major force within the video game industry. For the sake of being nice I won’t go on a tirade about how id has declined over the years and how John Carmack seems more entertained by building rocket ships than cutting edge graphics engines, but I think it’s safe to say that the Wolfenstein/Doom era of id was probably the highest peak the studio will ever reach. So in a way seeing John reflect on Wolfenstein 3D may make some of the bitter feelings within gamers subside as they could be inclined to pop the game in and have a merry evening blasting away at Nazis.
To check out John’s commentary on Wolfenstein 3D just watch the video below and skip to the 9 minute mark if you want to go straight to the commentary.
