Some may believe that it's blasphemous to update historical properties with new actors likeness, in a sense that it tarnishes the original. See the recent releases of Star Wars on BluRay, wherein George Lucas digitally adds Hayden Christensen to the end of Return of the Jedi. It's minor, but I can understand the arguments. In the case of the new "remastered/re-envisioned" GoldenEye 007, some may say that replacing Pierce Brosnan with Daniel Craig ruins the integrity of the original; but I say "nay" - Daniel Craig is a better Bond than Pierce was any day. Though, GoldenEye was his best, the others lowered the bar pretty dramatically.
Continue reading our full review of GoldenEye 007
With this weeks release of GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, we're treated to an all new presentation of the original Nintendo 64 classic. This new iteration is not much of a departure from last year's GoldenEye Wii release. This time developer Eurocom utilized a new engine, built from the ground up for HD graphics on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so this is the best GoldenEye has ever looked, and he looks so at a blissful 60fps; at least that's what the accompanying documents explain. And they're right; the game, though based on a 14-year old title, looks pretty amazing. Graphics, and animation, and effects all look superb in HD. The controls feel a bit more arcadey than we've grown used to in the day of Modern Warfare's and Battlefields which require a little more precision, I enjoyed having it simplified a bit, as it just let me enjoy the game, instead of worry about controls. It was a little jarring to begin with though as I had just finished a few hour session with Uncharted 3, which is a) in 3rd-person, and b) one of the titles which require greater skill in aiming. But after a few minutes of playing the opening level tutorial, the game started off with a bang, and a stunt off the infamous damn that keeps up with the set pieces the aforementioned game (Uncharted) can dish out.
The story is slightly altered to coincide with the Bond change, but otherwise, it's (mostly) the same game from before; specifically the Wii version (see our review from near one-year ago here).
Multi-player is back, (of course) as the original title is one of the Grandfather's of the genre. To fit in with that nostalgic feeling, one can even play 4-player split screen on the same system, back before the internet had proliferated our daily lives, we had to actually go to friends house to hang out...I know, so passe! There's also a more robust online that supports up to 16 players. There are also more maps, weapons, load-outs, characters and online game modes than previous versions of the game. This is truly THE edition to have.
 |
| Seeing 4-Player Split-screen action on today's consoles is a true blast from the past. |
The gaming crowd continues to grow, and with it, an entirely new audience can experience a gaming legend re-envisioned. A whole new generation that wasn't even born in 1997 can now have a chance. Unfortunately, it's likely this title will suffer from a little Activision cannibalization, with this week's release of the juggernaut Modern Warfare 3, but GoldenEye still has reason to be on everyone's Christmas wishlist.
Mashbuttons.com gives GoldenEye 007: Reloaded an 8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment