Day of Defeat: Source Updates Impressions

Jagd takes place in Italy, but no spaghetti sauce will be flung here. Because it’s the US Army against the Wehrmacht, the former doesn’t have THAT much room to begin with. The Wehrmacht on the other hand, begin behind a church which contains the TNT. The US cannot enter the church, so they must camp around in the general area. There are three primary paths that lead straight to the vehicles to be destroyed. Once again, each vehicle needs to have TNT detonated on it twice in order for it to be completely destroyed.

The long awaited Film Grain graphic feature has been added, and the name speaks for itself. In an attempt to help make a movie appear more intense or cinematic, film grains could be used. If you watch an old WWII movie, it likely has a film grain, which shows it’s age. In the game though, it can help make the game feel more dramatic, and give you the idea that you are literally playing such a movie.

Color Correction is the other big mode that comes into play with the new update. In order to help further in making the gameplay a more realistic experience, the colors are adjusted slightly to give a more believable scene. Quickly testing a scene with Color Correction on, and then off proved no viable difference whatsoever. It may make a difference some aspects of the game, but I haven’t noticed it. Enabling these modes don’t affect HDR or any other graphic pluses.

One sad thing is that you cannot use the film grain filter DURING gameplay as far as I can tell. You will only see it when you first enter, are in spectator mode, or die. Either way, it’s a great addition that straight out looks cool.

This update contains more than just film grain and a few levels though. According to the press release, new shaders have been introduced which include image-based texture blending, light warping and phong shading. Gotta love the phong. Animations have also been amped up and DX8 capable GPU’s are now capable of the bloom HDR effect.

Gameplay specific though, the game has improved hit location detection. As long as you keep aiming for the head, you will not notice a difference. Player statistics have also been added, although we can’t elaborate on those until the game launches.

The best thing about this summer update is that it’s completely free to DoD: Source owners. If you enjoy some good WWII action, and don’t already own DoD: Source, then you really don’t know what you are missing. The game still retails for $20 on Steam and includes 8 maps. The gameplay is solid and the graphics and sound are incredible. The addition of the new mode is quite welcomed, and both coinciding maps are well thought out. Overall, this is an update that was well worth waiting for.

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