You have to feel for Eurocom , what you say ? For it is Rare that are forever associated with one of the greatest games ever written ,Goldeneye on the N64 , my favorite game of all time . You may not know but Eurocom have been coding James Bond games since 1991 ,if you count the NES
James Bond Jr
they also gave us the console versions of James Bond 007 Nightfire and of course the N64 The World Is Not Enough . Rare's Goldeneye is one mean Albatross that`s followed Eurocom through coding all these Bond games . Their
T.W.I.N.E tried so hard it's practically a flattering homage to Rare.
Goldeneye 64 is not just revered as the finest console fps , multi player fps , film tie in , no it is also considered THE best FPS , multi player FPS period and THE BEST GAME ,across any format , developed over 5 years , perfected like no other game before or after it , and playable with SKILL , and style . All its contemporary PC FPS colleagues , were just point and shoot , reload , grab health , point and shoot , watch the cut scene , and then buy the sequel ..... Just go play through the initial level and the game will engage you more as a gamer than any of today's contemporary 4 hour FPS games ..You don't even have health packs in Goldeneye 64 !
Goldeneye on the Wii ,the second attempt at exploiting the fame of Goldeneye 64 ,if Rogue Agent qualifies as an attempt, seems to be based on the thoroughly modern game mechanic of destructable cover and sights to nose Call of Duty school of twitch shootemup .
So have Eurocom finally driven that Rare Goldeneye Albatross away ? Moneypenny please .... of course not but as they say in dear ole Blighty , they gave it a jolly good try.... according to initial reviews.
Nothing can touch the design of Rare's
Goldeneye n64 , if you want to check out it's spiritual sequel , seek out
Perfect Dark on the N64 or Xbox Live , or if you really know your games Innerloop's
Project igi and it's sequel on the PC..
In video game history before Goldeneye 64 , and even after FPS games are just corridors with moving targets . The corridor may be a jungle in Nam , a hedgerow in WW2 France , a Helghan/Covenant space ship , or an Afghani mountain range, but all you do is walk from the start to the exit of the corridor , unloading weapons of choice , stopping behind cover to reload/recharge . And this formula has not really changed since Doom . Although Doom at least had secrets!. Skill is not required , and this is why even on the hardest settings you can walk the corridor of most modern day FPS games in 4 hours , tops .... oh you can spend more time hiding behind walls to make it last a bit longer ...it's why they tag on the experience based multiplayer!
With Goldeneye 64 , Rare gave us diverse objectives, in real world locations , based on the sets of the film . Weapons were more realistic and useful than any other game , giving feedback through the rumble pack , choice and combination , with multiple , up to 3 different uses for each kind crucial and key to completing mission objectives . Throw in time challenges , sniping missions , snapping missions , difficulty settings that gave you more complex objectives to complete , and not just more enemies to shoot and you had the perfect single player game.
With half a decade of time devoted to this game's development , something unique happened , each of the levels was polished to perfection , so the sniping level is not just a sniping level , its THE best sniping mission in a game period , the jungle mission is not just ... you get the picture ...
Then you come to playing the game with skill , and I don't just mean the section where you take the guy out on the toilet . Let me show you what I mean , say you just completed that cool act [well he was a bad guy] , now you wait for another guard to enter the toilet , you take him out and open the door , to the right of you are crates , so what you say , to the bottom of the stairs past the crates is a locked door containing guards , now in any other fps you simply rush down with guns blazing . But this is Goldeneye the greatest FPS or game ever , take your silenced pistol and put one bullet in each crate , you will see the bullet holes in each , now take precise aim at the locked door , use the AK47 you took from the guard in the toilet and shoot the door and at the corridor, you want to make noise to get the bad guys attention , alarms sound and around 7 guards are heading your way , you are about to take out 7 guards with one bullet , now wait , wait they get to the stairs , and reach the crates, take your 1 bullet shoot the crates , which you loaded with 1 bullet each before hand , they go boom , and take all 7 guards with them , and you , well you are so James Bond now aren't you ...... at least you will be when you manage pull this off ...
Which is just one example of how you can mess with with the AI in this game , its never been bettered, better graphics can never improve on its perfect game design.
Will I able to do this sort of thing in Goldeneye Wii ? Well I'll find out soon ...
Did I mention that the multiplayer that would lock non gamer friends to your spare N64 joypads? They would actually pass on Mariokart 64 to play this game!
Or the 2 secret levels you unlocked for beating the game on the hardest settings?
Now for the name dropping part , I once met J Romero after sneaking a pass to a games show , he was plugging some game called ... Daikatana ....showing me the game . he asked me what my favourite game was .... of course it was Goldeneye ... he asked why ... I gave what seemed like a 30 minute lecture .... he looked shaken and stirred and asked me who I was .... hmmh I said ..me ?I play games .... and then I went off to take photos with the booth babes .... who all had shorter hair than Mr Romero if I recall correctly....
The point dear friends is Rare outdid every game going on a humble N64 , through refined games design , their design dictated to the hardware , unlike many other coders , who to this day let hardware dictate games design. You can see some of this happening in Perfect Dark Zero , which is nowhere near the genius of Goldeneye 64 and the original Perfect Dark...and you will feel the pain of it when you finish your latest modern day fps and shortchanged turn to the tagged on experience based multi player ....
I do not look back at
Goldeneye with nostalgia , when I look back at it I see the genius of design , that design is timeless and gave a lot of joy to a generation of games fans who revere it as the greatest video game ever written.
So if at the very least Eurocom's Goldeneye for the Wii gets people talking about the original , that's way cool in my books.... it may mean the coders of tomorrows FPS games make a change from the 4 hour corridor traversing fps +/- experience based mulitplayer+/- zombies tv dinner games that we are served up annually.
Moneypenny... please...not now....she's incorrigible you know
And the IGN fellows review ..... he likes it ... I wonder what Miss Chobot makes of it?
for £28.97 is the cheapest it has been ,if you have a couple of hours spare to run through another cookie cutter fps blindfolded and one arm tied behind your back , thereafter spending months been ridiculed by the social gaming sheep tween hordes that are fleeced long time every year by Mr I am not bad the media made me so Kotik , then join up .
