James Bond games after GoldenEye 007 |
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| BY Matthew Razak May. 13th, 2008 | More on: |
Nightfire
Veering away from their made up Bond look, probably because EA realized they were rich and having Brosnan’s face would sell more copies especially with the success of the current Bond film, Nightfire brings Brosnan’s likeness (but not his voice) back to gaming. Nightfire was basically Agent Under Fire perfected…or as perfect as the game could get. Driving was tweaked a bit better so that open city racing and car shooting was way more fun and easy to handle, level designs were moved from slightly boring to pretty clever with plenty of variance in style (from riding on a snow mobile to sniping from a moving helicopter). Plus the Bond moments in this game all seemed just so right. My personal favorite being after a car chase, driving my Aston Martin V12 Vanquish off a ramp, across a river and through a glass ceiling all to land in a large pile of boxes or something. But there were also levels where you were forced to use some stealth or simply walk around a party and mingle with gorgeous women. Perfect Bond.
I have to admit I played the hell out of this game and in all honesty it might be my favorite Bond FPS, yes, even over GoldenEye, which I always sucked at for some reason. The game was seriously just fun and full of that Bond ‘je ne sais quoi.’ This is a Bond game that feels like you’re playing through a Bond movie and it also hints at the third-person games to follow by continually taking you out of the first-person perspective. It might also be one of the best one-on-one multiplayer shooters ever. Or at least I remember it that way since my roommate and I played the multiplayer against each other non-stop.
Multiplayer levels were set up amazingly well, mostly ignoring size and complication for smaller and easy to understand levels. My favorite was ‘Ravine,’ if memory serves. It was basically two buildings on either side of a gorge only connected by a thin strip of land. This level made for some great distance shooting especially with the games surprisingly un-cheap hand controlled missile launcher. In my mind, this was one of the last FPS games to design their multiplayer around smaller groups of friends playing together, as opposed to massive online battles.
So I’m ecstatic. I’ve got a new Bond game where I love the multiplayer, love replaying the levels for ‘Bond Moments’ and can actually stand the not-as-stupid-as-it-could-have-been plot. I figure EA has it down pat, they couldn’t really do much better. So imagine my excitement when I first read about: Everything or Nothing.
May 13th, 2008
at 5:57 pm
I am also a huge james bond fan. However, I will say that the more that I think about it, the more I realize how careful people need to be before playing first person shooter games such as 007. People need to keep in mind how these games can potentially affect them, causing an increase in aggressive behaviors and thoughts. Just something to keep in mind!
May 13th, 2008
at 7:58 pm
What are you on about Brent? Shooters are relaxing, unless they’re really poorly made of course :)
May 13th, 2008
at 10:36 pm
Brent, please give up on what you are trying to accomplish. We are here to play James Bond games. If you wanna discuss politics, there are plenty of forums to do that. We are responsible adults and we will take any actions we commit in our own hands. I hope you understand.
May 14th, 2008
at 11:19 am
No reason to be rude to the fellow. Brings up a possible point that has been shown scientifically (I do not know the articles off hand, although I’ve read about them long enough to believe they are there, although I would like to actually read some of the research) that for a brief period (No studies have found a long lasting correlation to be found) after playing games you may feel more violent, or whatever the tones of the game are.
However - this is nothing new to media. After watching the Fast and the Furious you can’t tell me your friends don’t want to go use their e-break around the upcoming corner.
May 14th, 2008
at 11:23 am
My usage of the term rude is a bit heavy-handed. You guys were much more civil than many other responses I have seen in the past. I understand your opinions but I also believe that this is as good as any a place (probably better, cause you’re reaching the directly affected audience) to discuss this kind of stuff.
September 21st, 2008
at 6:13 pm
though brent does have a point on the somewhat possible outcomes of how someone takes a shooter, goldeneye was made in a time before the more realistic games came out that really blurred those lines between reality and fiction. if you play goldeneye, its all polygons and it’s hilarious how fake it really is. if your going to put blame on real violence today on anything, put it on GTA, not that they’re bad games by any means (i still think GTA3 was the best), but GTA really puts you in a world thats literally based off real buildings and neighborhoods, and lets you mow people down and even kill cops.