What the heck is going on at Activision!
yoyoyojo
Posts: 46MI6 Agent
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.
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.
Comments
1: Brosnan 2: Craig 3: Moore 4: Dalton 5: Connery and 6: Lazenby
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.
1: Brosnan 2: Craig 3: Moore 4: Dalton 5: Connery and 6: Lazenby
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
1: Brosnan 2: Craig 3: Moore 4: Dalton 5: Connery and 6: Lazenby
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.
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.
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.
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.