There have been 11 total games bearing the Wolfenstein name, and this is the third one in this particular series. I have no idea why some dingbat decided to name it “Wolfenstein II”. You might argue that we’re doing a Grand Theft Auto kinda deal where some titles count and others don’t, except in the case of GTA, the ones that count don’t get subtitles.<\/p>\n
Grand Theft Auto III (2001)<\/strong> The ones with numbers are usually major generational landmarks with new graphics engines and gameplay systems, while the ones with subtitles generally stick with the same engine and focus on gameplay refinement and experimentation. It’s an unusual numbering system, but it works. <\/p>\n Having said that, I have no idea what Wolfenstein is doing. Since the reboot, the games have been titled:<\/p>\n Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) That’s… weird.<\/p>\n Anyway. I liked the last couple of Wolfenstein games, but this time around I am not having fun. <\/p>\n The biggest problem is the overall performance of the game. It’s a nightmare. The framerate is wildly uneven. I don’t mean it wavers between 60fps and 50fps. I mean is shoots up to 100Assuming you have it uncapped, which I did for a while during my testing.<\/span>, then down to 5, then holds around 40, then down again. The framerate dips when you’re moving your camera around and there are a handful of guys onscreen, which incidentally is when you’re really keen to aim at things<\/em> properly. The way this game handles mouse input is highly dependent on framerate, which means all this variation makes a mess out of aiming. I’ll just about have a guy lined up, but suddenly my framerate dips and I’m turning in dreamlike slowness. I’ll move the mouse faster to compensate. Then the frame drop is over and the framerate shoots back up and suddenly I’ve spun around in a circle. This feels awful<\/em>.<\/p>\n I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the graphics options, but lots of settings require you to restart the game and there’s a ton of unskippable splash screens, company logos, safety warnings, and legal disclaimers you have to sit through every time you do this.<\/p>\n I’m using an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780. That’s four years old. Maybe you want to argue that I’m too far out of date and I need to upgrade. That’s fine. I know I’m behind the curve. But look, we understand that we need new hardware to support new visuals, and this game is nothing special<\/strong> in terms of visuals. The last game was dandy. This one looks about the same but demands drastically more horsepower. Even when I turn the visuals down to complete garbage levels so the game looks like something from 2003, I still get horrible stuttering at the worst moments. Upgrading might fix the problem, but something is clearly wrong with their engine. <\/p>\n To be clear: I am<\/strong> above the minimum requirements, so I don’t think I’m being unreasonable to expect a playable experienceYes, I tried the beta that came out yesterday. It killed<\/strong> my framerate. Rather than jumping up and down between 60 and 15, it just stayed at 8.<\/span>. And surprise momentary dips to 5fps in the middle of a gunfight is not playable.<\/p>\n The glitches don’t help. Sometimes the entire right third of the screen will be covered in black. For me it happens when entering and exiting vehicles. Loading a save doesn’t fix it. Exiting to the main menu doesn’t fix it. So far the only solution is to exit the game entirely and endure another round of unskippable logos.<\/p>\n
\nGrand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
\nGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
\nGrand Theft Auto IV (2008)<\/strong>
\nGrand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned (2009)
\nGrand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony (2009)
\nGrand Theft Auto V (2013)<\/strong><\/tt><\/p>\n
\nWolfenstein: The Old Blood (2015)
\nWolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017)<\/tt><\/p>\n