Amidst the usual barrage of less-than-note-worthy DS titles, this week's big release is the sequel to the 2001 FPS Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Hitler's got the usual evil army, and it's gonna be up to you to infiltrate and beat them from the inside. There's a few more you might want to check out, so read on for this edition of On Shelves This Week.

As E3 draws nearer, we've got more publishers coming out guns blazing with their E3 lineups. Up next is Activision, and well, well, well, look who's packing the big guns for the expo! They've covered a lot of genres with this lineup and I would love to win a hypothetical contest to win everything on this list. Check it out.

Lazyone is most certainly not being lazy with this latest release of his DS homeberw, Wolfenstein 3D Test Release. While it's only a few days old, and there may be some things missing, it should be palyable.


Download: Wolfenstein 3D Test Release

Id Software, the guys responsible for Doom and Quake, recently branched out to create Id Mobile, who in turn will be developing games for mobile phones, the DS and the PSP. They recently came out with Orcs & Elves for the DS. So what are their plans now? Wolfenstein on your mobile phone. Read more in the full article.

First off, if you hate spoilers, you have no business reading the succeeding paragraphs. Just back away from this one, read another QJ article and be completely happy playing this nice title. Skipping this one won't ruin your life, we assure you.

Still reading? Don't say we didn't warn you. If you haven't bought The Simpsons yet but are planning to, you'll either be real happy or real pissed with what you'll find out. This is your last chance to back off.

 

Destructoid reports that EA gave them a spoiler of sorts regarding this title. It turns out that there's a Wolfenstein level hidden in the game which can be unlocked. For the uninitiated, Castle Wolfenstein was one of the fathers of FPS and is certainly an icon of modern gaming.

Destructoid explains "in the Medal of Homer stage, Bart and Homie are hired to steal white flags from a town trying to surrender so that they can get firebombed. However, if you put your chores aside and transform into Bartman and fly across the channel you can snake around an abandoned warehouse and find the hidden area. Smash a few boxes out of your way and you'll find a door to Duffenstein, a replica of the great old-school FPS Castle Wolfenstein."

So there you have it. If you feel like revisiting the old school, The Simpsons will give you a chance to get some nostalgic treats. Otherwise, just enjoy the game and the nice movie, too. The Simpsons is available on Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP owners everywhere.

Though it's probably a stunner to hear from the makers of Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and all other iterations of the first-person shooter forerunners, id Software decided that it was high time they laid down their side of the gaming violence controversy, oft opposed by one crusading Florida lawyer.

  

If Take Two wasn't high in the possibly politically-driven campaign against games, it was Doom that critics often placed the blame on for violence sparking from video games. The Columbine massacre was one such tragedy linked to id Software. Caught in the middle of all the heated discussion, id appeared to have let out a heavy sigh in an interview with Games Industry and speak out on gaming from the gamer's perspective.

"I think the media is always looking for stuff to make headlines, and they sensationalize things. They take something that they know will make news and they run with it and then figure out whether it's true or not later," said CEO Todd Hollenshead.

More on id Software's opinions of hostility against gaming right at the Full Article!

Wolfenstein 3D (aka Wolf 3D) is a video game that made the PC FPS genre into what it is today. In that game, players take on the role of American soldier BJ Blazkowicz. The goal is to escape from a Nazi camp heavily guarded by armed men as well as attack dogs. Along the way, BJ must find a number of hidden rooms containing various treasures, food supplies,medical kits, and weapons.

It was only a matter of time before a DS homebrew developer took on this game and that guy is Lazyone. Last we heard of Wolfenstein 3D port for the DS project, developer Lazyone was working on its sound, music and building a control panel "in case someone needs to adjust the gamma correction or remap their keys."

Then silence. Complete and utter silence. But that's how Lazyone works. Nothing wrong with working at your own pace. We're actually delirious with envy that he could work at his own pace. Anyway, today, Lazyone has released the latest WIP about Wolf3d. He says the next release is creeping closer now that the status bar has been finished.

Meanwhile, he's moved on to the music. So for those of you wondering, BJ Blazkowicz is still alive and is coming to your DS.

First, Lazyone lures us in with news that he had successfully ported Macintosh System 6 on the DS but has not released the emulator yet. Just to show us though that he is in the process of perfecting the emulator and that indeed the news is real, he posted a video on YouTube showing System 6 running on DS. But in a world where some people get a kick out of tricking others, we cannot exactly blame the DS community for doubting the truth of the System 6 emulator. Lazyone's answer to the doubting thomases? He did not fake the whole and thing and he "never will fake any sort of release or software".

Just to assure you guys that this is not a hoax, he is posting photos of the emulator running on a real DS. In addition, he promises to release a proof of concept version as soon as he's able to fix a few issues with the mouse code.

I hope (and I'm pretty sure so does Lazyone) these pictures have put all your doubts to rest. And come on, Lazyone has already released a nice homebrew game that I'm sure most of you DS owners have been enjoying. Remember Wolfenstein 3D? Yup, that's his! So let's all shut up with the "It's a fake!" accusations and wait patiently for the emulator to be released.

After what seemed like forever (just five months, really), and after we'd previously told you about the project, Lazyone has finally released the Wolfenstein 3D Port for the Nintendo DS.

This first-person shooter project is still in its first test release, though, so Lazyone might determine bugs and possible fixes. He notes that up to now, there are still some features lacking in the game. These include the following:

• No status bar yet, so information about the player's health, ammunition, etc. is unavailable
• No sound and no music
• Player may get stuck in certain menus
• Some high scores will show up with no name
• Loading, saving and access to other control panels are unavailable
  

Wolfenstein 3D does have features that work in case you're wondering if this game is actually worth downloading.

• The frame rate has been improved to 30fps
• When a large image needs to be displayed, it's increased to 320x200
• The native 256x192 display works properly for menus and in-game
• Proper color correction has been made
• Picking up items won't slow the game down anymore
  

Here are the controls for the game:

• Left arrow: Turn left
• Right arrow: Turn right
• Up arrow: Move forward
• Down arrow: Move backward
• L Shoulder button: Strafe left
• R Shoulder button: Strafe right
• A: Shoot
• B: Use
• X: Next weapon
• Y: Run
• Start: Pause
• Select: Back to menu

Download [Wolfenstein 3D Port]

For those who thought that the Wolfenstein 3D game for the DS wasn't coming out at all, think again. The first-person shooter port for the DS' developer has posted some updates he has made to the project.

The developer talks about having done Major changes to the original SDL source port. The 3D renderer and most menus now run at 256x192 resolution with 320x200 for larger images.

The game will not have a washed out look to it as the colors are brighter now with the palette conversions and gamma correction done properly.

Even though with there are many sprites on the screen, it will still run at 30 fps. Remember the gameplay window with the status bar? That has been removed now, so the top screen will be solely used for 3D display while in-game. The status bar might be recreated on the bottom screen.

Check out screenshots of the old and new versions of Wolfenstein placed side by side.