For
a one-year period
beginning in July 2002,
Wes Desjardins was quite
an energetic presence in
the Wolfenstein
community. He usually
had an ambitious plan
for an add-on in the
news, and most the time
we were presented with
an actual release.
However, there was also
a lot of vaporware, for
Wes made these
announcements that never
saw the light of
day:
Operation:
Barbarian
(7/22/02)
Area 51
(08/05/02, later
renamed to Area
511)
Pray for BJ
(08/05/02) with Ryan
de Haast
Return to Castle
Rodenburg
(08/30/02)
Operation:
OrinTrigger
(09/14/02)
The Thing:
Biohazard (11/04/02)
cancelled
12/01/02
Phoenix Rising
(12/01/02) cancelled
02/10/03
Colonial Marines
(02/10/03) with The
Alien Fan
Escape From
Castle Osrenberg
(03/12/03)
Heretic: Return
Of D'Sparil
(07/14/03)
Phoenix Rising
(restarted 01/02/04,
later renamed to
Vampire:
Heinnemann)
Dusk Of The
Dead (March
2004)
Way Of The
Ninja (May 2004)
with Wolf
Skevos-Jones
Doom 2: Return Of
The Dark One
(08/03/04)
Wes
has also requested the
removal of some of his
earlier releases:
Astrostein
2525 (07/21/02)
removed 02/24/03
Shadows Of
Despair (07/28/02)
removed 02/24/03
Operation:
MDK (08/26/02)
removed 02/24/03
Operation: Aliens
demo (03/12/03)
removed 05/23/04
Beyond the Gates
of Wolfenstein
(03/17/03) removed
05/23/04
Despite
all this, Wes has made
several add-ons of
mostly enjoyable
quality. Borrowed
graphics mixed with
original ones,
intriguing titles,
attractive title
screens, and later,
unique sounds made for
very interesting mods.
The level design was
fairly good too, but was
sometimes marred by too
many "inattentive"
guards.
"Wolfenstein:
Resurrection" is
probably the best of the
lot, introducing a set
of bizarre and amusing
sound effects (do I hear
Commander Keen in
there?) and winning a
Dome Award. "Predator"
has an excellent outdoor
atmosphere with animal
sound effects. "METEO"
actually inspired an
add-on of its own, an
honor previously
bestowed only upon
"Chokage" and "Project
Totengraeber" to that
point.
Wes
left the community after
a dispute that started
when someone expressed
irritation about his
many announcements and
cancellations. He had a
series of Wolfenstein
web sites, now gone.
The
Archangel Software
Cabin
is Wes' current site,
but is not Wolf-related.
Andy
Nonymous.
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