What the heck is going on at Activision!

yoyoyojo

I heard somewhere that Activision is obligated to produce one JB game a year. Based on what we've seen it kind of makes sense. Seems like they produce a lot of halk-baked efforts. I am not too hopefull about 007 Legends, I am afraid it will be "just another" boring FPS. Here's how I break down the releases in reverse order:

2011 Golden Eye Reloaded, PS3/Xbox - Very little to do with the original GE or even anything JB at all. A few cut scenes (far and few bewteen) and the beginning of each mission is the only time you got a hint of anything that resembled anything you would see in a James Bond game. Not much of a stealth game, no real stealth system. Occasionally a choice to sneak or kill but rarely. Mostly just a lot of endless killing. Even though we were told the graphics were rebuilt from the ground up the character models look dated. This game also suffered from market momentum, everyone kept saying this was a remake of a remake (Wii version came out a year prior), and they released this at the same time as COD and BF. Multiplayer complete bust, no one ever plays, ever never ever. Overall a boring game that did not feel like Bond.

2010 Golden Eye, Wii - I did not own this game. It did get some critical praise mostly due to the fact that the Wii finally had a viable FPS that some multi-player. Based on my experience with the HD version on PS3 my guess is this game suffers from the same issue above except look crappier.

2010 Bloodstone - Now I actually really liked this game. I played it on PC which has better graphics than the consoles. This was a 3rd person shooter (so you got to look at Bond) mixed with car racing. They did a fantastic job with the environments and made this game feel the most like a Bond movie. Great music, original story, a lot of cut scenes and cinematic moments and just felt like Bond. They even went so far as to give the graphics a film like quality. Kid you not BS is one of my favorite Bond ... movies! The character models were not quite up to par and this initially gave me issues but having gone back to replay it recently it doesnt seem to bother me anymore. Halfway through Golden Eye I stopped playing that and came back to BS. I heard they did an original story because this game was supposed to tie in the Bond 23, but as you know 23 was delayed for several years. Unfortunately this did not get too much attention and was not very succsssdful. Consider this a hidden gem of a Bond game. I am afraid becuase this game was not successful they will not try to take chances like this again and instead pump out just another FPS.

2008 - Quantum of Solace - Quite literally a skin of COD MW. The cut scenes suffered from too much compresion. Better than the mess that is GoldenEye Reloaded but another boring FPS skin of COD.

77007

I like FPS, variety is nice too though. The original GE FPS on N64 was huge in gaming history. You can understand how it may be tough to abandon the genre for too long.

GoldenEye85

Keep in mind though, if Activision starts putting out below sub-par games in for the series, Eon Productions can yank the license from them with no questions asked. That's what happened to EA having the license. From what I've read, they were suppose to do a Casino Royale game and it just never came into being so they pulled it. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the same thing happened with Activision and there would be NOTHING they could do about it either.

GoldenEye85

I think some people completely missed the point for Reloaded. It was never intended to be a REMAKE of the N64 Golden Eye, but a complete re-telling of the story using Daniel Craig's style of 007, hence all of the hand to hand combat in the new game. I am currently playing through this game, it is PHENOMENAL, everything handles so well. It is one of the most challenging FPS games I have played in a long time.

Unless Nintendo can be persuaded, the N64 GoldenEye will most likely never be seen again, and never on the PS3 or PC most likely. All the companies involved have a say. Microsoft, simply because they own Rare. Rare since they made the game. Nintendo, they held the license at the time GE was made. Lastly, Activision since they are the current holders of the license.

welshboy78

I sort of agree with the OP

Goldeneye reloaded didnt at all feel like Bond in anyway let alone Goldeneye.

Bloodstone got crap reviews but I actually liked it and felt like I was Bond playing it. The opening credits were superb and I liked the cliffhanger / continuation ending.

QoS was terrible graphics wise

yoyoyojo

Well I guess my point is Activision has been putting out sub-par game and I never got a sense that Eon cares that much. it seems to me their MO is to put out a game with a movie tie-in and cash in on that.

Jamesbond007571985 wrote:

Keep in mind though, if Activision starts putting out below sub-par games in for the series, Eon Productions can yank the license from them with no questions asked. That's what happened to EA having the license. From what I've read, they were suppose to do a Casino Royale game and it just never came into being so they pulled it. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the same thing happened with Activision and there would be NOTHING they could do about it either.

yoyoyojo

Well they did market it as such and they obviously wanted to cash in on the original, otherwise they could have called it any other name other than GE. I think it's a solid FPS. My point is it does not feel like a Bond game. Have finished GE Reloaded and now playing Bloodstone a second time I realize BS is much more of a stealth game.

I tried replaying GE and had to bail after the first mission. But to each his own.

If agreed with your point I think it would be even worse. Then that means Activision was simply using the name to cash in.

To be honest though I had actually waited for GE for months and was probably the only person in American who pre-ordered it. My expectations were not in check.

Maybe I'll try GE in a year, I might have a different perspective.

Jamesbond007571985 wrote:

I think some people completely missed the point for Reloaded. It was never intended to be a REMAKE of the N64 Golden Eye, but a complete re-telling of the story using Daniel Craig's style of 007, hence all of the hand to hand combat in the new game. I am currently playing through this game, it is PHENOMENAL, everything handles so well. It is one of the most challenging FPS games I have played in a long time.

Unless Nintendo can be persuaded, the N64 GoldenEye will most likely never be seen again, and never on the PS3 or PC most likely. All the companies involved have a say. Microsoft, simply because they own Rare. Rare since they made the game. Nintendo, they held the license at the time GE was made. Lastly, Activision since they are the current holders of the license.

PPK 7.65mm

I agree. Activison it seems as of late cannot make good decisions in running the business end of thier company. Remember how in late 2008 they canceled Ghostbusters: The Video Game even though the game was ready to ship to consumers, but Activision said no becuase they thought that gamers did not want more games based licenced properties.(A big mistake on thier part if your ask me, since when Atari picked it up Ghostbusters was a big hit with gamers.) Also prior to Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions most of the Spider-Man games coming out were total stinkers. Also at times it seems like thier marketing for games outside of Call of Duty and Marvel comics based properities is poorly done. Even with a big name like James Bond, they still cannot get it right, I remember in fall of 2010, it was Goldeneye for the Wii getting all of the marketing, while BondStone was not marketed well at all,and when coupled with the fall release period of Call of Duty and other big name games it is not hard to see why it flopped.


Also I think that the whole put one game out every year stratgey is tough to adhere to, since if no Bond movie coming out that year, than they have go with an original storyline which as EA demonstrated is a challenge but if done right can be a hit like Everything or Nothing.

Mr Beech

Blood Stone had the looks of Bond and his espionage, which made me hopeful for a similar follow-up, or a use of that game's graphics and style to create the SkyFall game. I don't think it was great and some of the plot was iffy, but it was good and a step in the right direction.

I enjoyed QoS because of all the movie inspirations from Casino Royale, but the game was very much a budget Call of Duty skin.

The new 007 Legends appears to be another ho-hum licensed game from Activision (their specialty outside of CoD) using re-skins of that dated Call of Duty engine that won't go away.

GoldenEye85

I see the essence of Call of Duty in GoldenEye but to me it's done in a far superior way than the original product. An example are the weapons. On CoD, they don't feel like you actually have control over them, on Reloaded it feels like the gun is actually in my hands. Another would be the just the way the entire game handles, story, enemies, AI (I have never seen AI like in Reloaded), the sheer difficulty in some areas. I'm not saying it should be Game of the Year or anything but beyond a few things borrowed and made better, this is far from just another CoD clone

Keep in mind the reason QoS felt like CoD is because it was done by Treyarch, GoldenEye Wii, Reloaded and Legends are done by Eurocom and releasing it to Activision. Eurocom has done some mighty fine work with Bond games over the years, N64 World is Not Enough and Nightfire come to mind with this.

I have to believe that Legends will be good as well. The one mistake I think they are making is releasing it in October right in the middle of the big games coming out at the time.

yoyoyojo

I am hopeful but not optimistic, if that makes any sense. I hope Legends is awesome, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Lucky for me GE lowered my expectations considerably, so going into Legends I have a better chance of being surprised. Looking at the trailer it appeared that they are using the same game engine ( the character models looked very much the same and they even use the same phone). However recently I'm getting caught up in the marketing hype and am a bit more optimistic that they will introduce new elements into the game.

Jamesbond007571985 wrote:

I see the essence of Call of Duty in GoldenEye but to me it's done in a far superior way than the original product. An example are the weapons. On CoD, they don't feel like you actually have control over them, on Reloaded it feels like the gun is actually in my hands. Another would be the just the way the entire game handles, story, enemies, AI (I have never seen AI like in Reloaded), the sheer difficulty in some areas. I'm not saying it should be Game of the Year or anything but beyond a few things borrowed and made better, this is far from just another CoD clone

Keep in mind the reason QoS felt like CoD is because it was done by Treyarch, GoldenEye Wii, Reloaded and Legends are done by Eurocom and releasing it to Activision. Eurocom has done some mighty fine work with Bond games over the years, N64 World is Not Enough and Nightfire come to mind with this.

I have to believe that Legends will be good as well. The one mistake I think they are making is releasing it in October right in the middle of the big games coming out at the time.

Trigger_Mortis

Activision, arguably the largest gaming company in the world, are (and always have been) a by-the-numbers development studio. Their games are to the industry what pop is to music; accessible, not too sophisticated, extremely marketable, technologically reflective of where the industry is in its contemporary state and overall a familiar brand for the masses to rely on. They have had some great games, but over the years, i've learned not to expect too much of them since their reluctant to offend their stakeholders.

Call of Duty of obviously a respected and comfortable brand, so it goes without saying that there are so many risks that Activision are willing to take when processing the 007 brand through their machinery. This leaves for little innovation in gameplay and story telling style which was evident throughout the Goldeneye reimagining. Sadly, 007 Legends seems to follow this trend.

GordoLeiter

They really need to stop pasting Daniel Craig into the stories he didnt even star in. I was really hoping 007 Legends would feature all the Bonds like GE64

Jamesbondjr

Joel wrote:

This leaves for little innovation in gameplay and story telling style which was evident throughout the Goldeneye reimagining. Sadly, 007 Legends seems to follow this trend.

Innovation in gameplay is not often done in big releases. The recent Goldeneye was very good but it wasn't innovative but the fact that Legends is being developed by Eurocom, the same people who developed the Goldeneye re-imagining give me hope that it will be as good if not better.

If you want innovative gameplay then the indie game sections on PSN and Xbox Live are where you will find it.

SilentSpy

I don't own any Activision games. From what I've seen they are crap. Complete on rails shooters with good graphics and Hollywood voice acting so people can think they are good games.

Eventually, I'll get around to Bloodstone and check out the Goldeneye remakes. The last Bond game I played was Everything or Nothing. It was ok. Not the best complete Bond title. That honor would go to Goldeneye on N64. A game I thought would be just a straight forward FPS. But they tuned the gameplay and difficulty structure almost perfectly so you felt like Bond playing the game.

I know the Bond game I would make. It's really an obvious idea too. But EON and whoever is in charge with game development probably doesn't like Bond enough to make the game.