Alternate history first-person shooter (of Nazis, specifically) Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a spin-off from the main Wolfenstein games. It’s set in 1980, and developers Machinegames don t go halfway on it. The game is soaked with 1980s references, from early electronica and synthpop in the French Underground to 3D glasses and UVK Tapes (VHS tapes but, um, more Nazi-like). The in-game explanation is that Nazi dominance is so complete that it pervades popular culture.

The music of our 1980s is rooted in our postwar reality, tied to its precedents of the 1970s – particularly punk music and punk culture – and a further evolution of postwar youth culture. But how could musical ideas like New Wave possibly have flourished in an alternate postwar world dominated by Nazi occupation? Well they couldn t have. All this stuff isn t in the game just because it looks and sounds cool. It creates an important storytelling dynamic that empowers the player to fight evil for a culture worth keeping.

(more…)

Wolfenstein: Youngblood was one of Nvidia’s big ray tracing poster children last year, and it was even one of the free games you could get if you bought a new RTX graphics card over the summer. However, whereas its other freebie stablemate Control teleported its ray tracing support in at launch, Wolfenstein: Youngblood positively dragged its cybernetic heels over it, with months and months passing after its initial July release date without any word on when it might finally pitch up. Finally, the reflection gods at Nvidia have spoken, and it’s going to be patched in as part of their latest CES GeForce driver update available this week. Hoo-rah.

(more…)

Every time you find a new gun in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, B.J. Blazkowicz’s twin daughters gush about how their daddy killed a bunch of Nazis with it. “Cor”, Jess will say, “remember when Dad told us about all those Nazis he vaporised?”. “Yeah”, Soph will respond, “that was tubular.”

When I think about how best to sum up Wolfenstein 2‘s co-op semi-sequel, tubular is not the first word that comes to mind.

(more…)

It’s twenty years after Blaskowicz’s last big bash. When a night-out goes wrong on a foreign business trip, BJ’s gone and done a runner in Paris (it’s lovely this time of year). This summer, Twin kids Jess and Soph are on the case in Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The Blazkowicz sisters are about to take on a Nazi-slashing road trip from hell across the city of lights. C’est la vie!

We’ll have a full review up on the site tomorrow, once our reviewer’s worked out how many dead Nazis is enough dead Nazis.

(more…)

Because reasons, compunauts will get to play Wolfenstein: Youngblood one day earlier than our console brethren. The cooperative Nazi-smashing shooter was slated to launch on Friday the 26th, Bethesda have shouted across millions of dollars of marketing, but now they’ve quietly mentioned it’ll be out on PC from Thursday the 25th. Alright. Sure. Thanks. Inform your co-op partner that plans have changed. Or if you’re playing solo, well, you already know so we’re done here.

(more…)