#i know this is fps game but activision should think about how i feel!

[caustickumara]

mw4 can we please have faralex wedding end scene because urzikstan has been liberated so farah can finally retire and settle down and they have a mixed wedding with hundreds of guests on farah’s side and only a scattering of aunts and cousins on alex’s but in the front row sits price and gaz and two empty seats (for their fallen comrades) then laswell and nik and they get to be all happy and at peace for once pretty please

[aion-rsa]

Why the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Was Cancelled

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If you’ve been keeping an eye on video game social media over the last few days, you’ve probably spotted this video of a YouTuber playing a remaster of GoldenEye 007.

While many people were quick to call this remaster “fake” or merely a fan-made tribute, recent evidence strongly suggests that this is the remains of an official attempt to remaster GoldenEye 007. Naturally, that information has left many people wondering why such an incredible remaster of such a beloved game never saw the light of day despite the fact that it appears to be nearly finished.

The answer to that question is complicated, controversial, and heartbreaking for legions of GoldenEye 007 fans who have been waiting for the chance to play one of the best multiplayer experiences ever released on a Nintendo console. Ultimately, though, it’s a story you have to hear.

What is the GoldenEye 007 Remaster?

The GoldenEye 007 remaster is an updated version of the 1997 N64 classic. It appears to be the same game content-wise (aside from a few additional multiplayer maps and a couple of relatively minor features), but it has been updated to feature 60 FPS gameplay, a 16:9 ratio, and various visual improvements. It’s been said that the remaster was designed similarly to the Halo remasters, which is to say that a team essentially just swapped out a few parts of the original ROM. Like those Halo games, the Goldeneye 007 remaster even offers the ability to swap between the old and new visuals on the fly.

The reason we know so much about this remaster (and the reason it’s been in the news lately) is that a YouTuber called Graslu00 uploaded a full playthrough of the seemingly lost project. While footage of the remaster had been uploaded online before (more on that in a bit), this was the first time that most people outside of Rare had seen it played from start to finish.

The extent of that footage (as well as the quality of the remaster itself) inspired many fans to ask new questions about this canceled remaster that many people long suspected had been abandoned before it could be completed.

When Was the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Developed?

Before we go further, now is the time to clarify that some of the answers to these questions are based on loose information and more than a little speculation.

With that out of the way, the public conversation about this remaster really heated up in 2008 when EGM’s rumor mill turned out a brief mention of a GoldenEye remaster that had seemingly been canceled by Rare. A 2008 article from 1UP elaborates on this story by suggesting that the game was just a couple of months away from being released on XBLA for Xbox 360 before the plug was pulled. Uncovered files suggest that work on the remaster began as early as 2007.

However, there are a couple of details in that story that don’t gel with what we know now. For instance, the 1UP article notes that the “XBLA version would have featured the same graphics, maps, and weapons from the N64 version” and that the big selling point would have been the “crucial addition of online multiplayer over Xbox Live.” That doesn’t seem to describe the footage of the remaster that we’ve seen years later.

So far as that goes, there are two things to consider. The first is that some of the information available in 2008 was simply incorrect. This really seems like the most likely factor given how much information on this subject was known at that time.

It should also be noted that the remaster itself has been improved in some ways by modern emulators. While I won’t name drop some of the emulators and uploaders involved with this process, it’s clear that some of the visual fidelity that we see in these uploads wouldn’t have existed in 2008.

Still, the bulk of the remaster footage certainly seems to be based on the game that Rare quietly worked on sometime around 2007 and ultimately had to abandon just a few months before it could have been released.

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Why Was the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Cancelled?

Unlike some of the details regarding the GoldenEye 007 remaster’s development, we actually know quite a bit about why it never got released simply due to the fact that Rare has talked about it a lot over the years.

For instance, in a 2008 interview with Videogamer.com, Rare engineer Nick Burton clearly stated that the game’s cancellation ultimately came down to licensing:

“I kind of wished that the differences got sorted out, but obviously there’s the licensing issue for Bond, even if it’s something that’s already come out,” said Burton. “It’s incredibly hard to solve because there are so many license holders involved. You’ve got the guys that own the license to the gaming rights now, the guys that have the license to Bond as an IP, and there are umpteen licensees. Me, just personally, I thought, ‘God, that’s a difficult problem to solve.'”

Over the years, the narrative regarding those licensing problems boiled down to the idea that Nintendo and Microsoft (who owned Rare by the time this remaster was in development) simply couldn’t agree on a deal that allowed either to re-release GoldenEye. This story is seemingly supported by a 2006 MTV interview with Reggie Fils-Aime in which the former Nintendo of America president stated that he’d “love to see [GoldenEye 007] on virtual console” but that “there are a lot of issues there.”

That quote reinforces the idea that between Rare being a Microsoft owned company, Nintendo publishing the original GoldenEye 007, and EA and Activision controlling the gaming rights to the Bond franchise in later years, there were just too many moving pieces that had to come together for the remaster or a re-release to ever happen.

What’s interesting is that many people seem to think that the reason Rare couldn’t release the GoldenEye 007 remaster on XBLA or as part of the Rare Replay collection is simply that Nintendo ultimately failed to give the port their blessing. That idea makes some sense as it would seem that Microsoft and Nintendo would be the two major players involved in a deal over that specific Bond game. On top of that, a remake of GoldenEye 007 that was published by Activision was released exclusively on Nintendo Wii in 2010. That remake reinforced the suggestion that Nintendo ultimately blocked the Goldeneye 007 remaster from being released.

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Is Nintendo Really to Blame for the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Never Being Released?

While Nintendo does seem to be a factor in this story, leaker Graslu00 shut down the idea that this is all Nintendo’s fault in an extensive message that they recently reposted on Twitter.

I've updated the pinned comment on my longplay video regarding "Nintendo and the cancellation of XBLA". I'd appreciate it if you gave it a read before saying that Nintendo is the main issue and I misunderstood or simplified the problem, I did not. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/79wPyHEU8r

— Graslu00 (@Graslu00) January 31, 2021

If you can’t read that message, it basically says that even if Nintendo and Microsoft had struck a deal, they’d still have to deal with MGM and Eon Productions who had their own concerns about James Bond video games. Those concerns may have required Rare to alter the original GoldenEye in ways that would have almost certainly hurt the game in the minds of many fans. The idea of a remaster of GoldenEye with “no cheats, no use of Bond theme, and no good vs good characters in multiplayer” certainly doesn’t sound appealing.

While there is some debate regarding the exact content restrictions placed on Bond games, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such restrictions. In a 2020 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Adam Foshko (Activision’s director of story development when they controlled the Bond gaming rights) explains that making Bond games requires adhering to certain ideas of the character.

“Bond is unique because the IP holders have a very particular view on Bond as a character and how he should be used,” said Foshko. “Having worked with them, it’s more about: ‘How does Bond get out of a situation?’ rather than: ‘Can Bond shoot a guy in the face?’ It comes down to the goals and things that are unique and special about Bond in particular — even though people would like to play Bond in a situation.”

Restrictions aside, the other factor that doesn’t get referenced all that much is Rare’s interest in such a project. In a 2015 interview with Polygon, Rare operations director Drew Quakenbush noted that one of the reasons GoldenEye wasn’t included in the Rare Replay collection is that the studio chose to focus on “characters and worlds that Rare made independently” when selecting the games for that collection. He says that the issue “wasn’t necessarily licensing” and that “GoldenEye doesn’t really fit tightly in with that particular boundary that we put on there.”

Even if licensing is more of an issue than Rare was willing to suggest, this idea that Rare wants to somewhat distance themselves from GoldenEye certainly isn’t new. In that 2008 interview with VideoGamer.com, Nick Burton is asked “Does GoldenEye almost haunt the studio?�� Here is his response:

“No, not at all. I wouldn’t say indifference. It’s nice to see people still talk about it. But I also think, and a lot of us think this, that you look back at it and it’s still good fun to play, but if I played it now with my gaming tastes as refined as they are now, would I still have the same reaction or have I really got rose-tinted spectacles on? It’s almost impossible to separate one from the other. I still look at it and think, no, it’s got great level design for instance, but then you think I’m saying that because maybe the control feels really good, but it’s not perfect. But it’s not perfect because the frame rate wasn’t high enough. It’s very difficult to separate your memory. As someone coined at work the other week. ‘You need some brain bleach’ so you can get rid of the memory.”

From everything I’ve seen, the issue basically comes down to a combination of licensing problems, content restrictions, and willingness. The long and short of it is that many people see GoldenEye 007 as a time capsule that has proven to be especially difficult to dig up and preserve.

Can You Play the GoldenEye 007 Remaster?

Recently, outlets and players have revealed that a full, working version of the GoldenEye 007 remaster has been leaked online and is currently playable.

While the process of downloading and playing the game is complicated and almost certainly wouldn’t be approved by anyone with controlling interest in this game’s license, it’s already clear that the game files are rapidly spreading online and is generally well-received by fans so far despite its obvious rough edges.

It should also be noted that those interested in playing a more modern version of GoldenEye should absolutely check out the GoldenEye: Source fan project which remakes the N64 game using Valve’s Source engine. It’s a brilliant experiment that almost perfectly captures nearly everything that made GoldenEye 007 special while updating the game in ways that even this remaster necessarily does not.

The post Why the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Was Cancelled appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[artyloreviews]

Destiny 2 - The Open Beta

A bad tech demo for a game that should have broken boundaries, but instead alienates its new playerbase by expanding to the PC games market.

The Destiny 2 Beta has come to PC and it looks greater than ever, boasting higher framerates, enhanced texture quality, postprocessing and particle effects. If I were to judge Destiny 2’s debut on PC just on its graphics, I’d say it was a rousing success. Having been liberated from the dreaded 30 FPS lock on consoles, people with a more competitive edge will welcome the higher refresh rates and lower response times in the predominantly PvP focused open beta with open arms. PvE players also get a taste for what is to come with an intro mission, revealing a new threat to the players and the new antagonist - Dominus Ghaul; along with a new strike - “The Inverted Spire”. Due to the linear nature of strikes, it does not offer a lot of replayability and therefore you could expect only about an hour or so of content to get your feet wet, if you’re not interested in partaking in PvP. Currently, the two available player versus player maps involve either a “Counter Strike”–esque deploy/disarm the explosive or a standard capture points gamemode. And judging by the current Twitch viewership for the game, PvP is the single driving force for the open beta. Which warrants another question – where is the rest of Destiny 2?

Considering that the original Destiny featured a semi-expansive open world with procedural questing, which are weirdly not present in the current build, leaves the beta looking like more of a tech demo for the PC crowd, rather than a representation of a game that is set to come out in less than a month. The original had hub spaces where you could meet other players, visit vendors, socialize and go off on missions, while the beta for the sequel finds having an expansive open world MMO completely unnecessary and forces you to play either with your friends over Battle.NET or with random players similar to World of Warcraft’s group finder, completely killing any involvement in the games story and world. Bungie and Activision seem to be unaware that expanding their horizons to PC involves selling this new playerbase the world of Destiny and not just pertaining to the people that have bought and played the original on console. On multiple accounts I’ve seen people refusing to part with $60 in order to play, what they think is a full AAA game, consisting of just a single strike and two PvP modes with no word of the game’s story or open world. I wouldn’t be surprised if newer players consider Destiny 2 to be something akin to the Call of Duty franchise – an extremely linear single player campaign, designed to be a tag-along to the multiplayer PvP modes, providing nothing that hasn’t already been seen on the PC games market for years.

More seasoned players can expect four new planets, featuring Io, Titan, Nessus and Earth’s European Dead Zone, which is said to twice the size of the original’s Cosmodrme. But oddly enough, there seems to be no word of this in the game’s promotional material, which proudly displays the pre-purchase or digital deluxe bonuses, yet the actual information on the game’s content is sparse. The Destiny 2 store page on Battle.NET simply mentions an epic campaign and the presence of cooperative and competitive multiplayer gameplay. Yet, you can clearly see that preordering gets you an experimental exotic trace rifle and a mysterious legendary sword, which for all we know might be the most overpowered weapons in the entire universe, putting you at a disadvantage compared to players, who are willing to part with some more money in order to get these desirable weapons. And the erroneous idea that selling an expansion pass for the so called Expansion I and Expansion II, for which there is no information whatsoever, solidifies the notion that players are still willing to put money on the table on the basis of a promise for future content, that may or may not be utter garbage.

The game itself gives you a choice of three classes, each with their own unique abilities and exotic weaponry – the Titan, the Hunter and the Warlock. Each class also features two sub-classes, which change up the abilities almost entirely. During my time with the beta, I managed to try all but the Titan, which is the designated tank of the three, boasting higher health and resistances, along with a small deployable shield or a charge, which makes him a preferred class for many players interested in PvP. Both the Hunter and the Warlock class seem to share a general damage dealer archetype, where the Warlock is seemingly more focused on using abilities, rather than the high mobility gunslinging of the Hunter.

Upon choosing your flavor of character, you are given an exotic weapon according to your class and you are thrown into the intro mission, where you are attempting to save the day and protect “our” home from that pesky Red Legion, determined to destroy “us” all, as if the writers are begging you: “Please empathize with our world and like our characters!”. Speaking of the characters, in the intro you are introduced to three plot significant individuals, representing the three player classes. Weirdly enough, I struggle to remember even their names, due to two thirds of them feeling like the brownest of cardboard cutouts, which are yet again begging you to empathize with the tragedy that is befalling “your” home, despite making no effort to explain anything at all and promptly disappearing in a cloud of smoke, never to be seen again. The other third of the cast is composed of the overly quirky comic relief character - Kay, who is always about two seconds before breaking the fourth wall and play opposition to the really serious and life-changing events about to unfold before your eyes, as if the writers are making a desperate attempt for their characters to have any appeal at all.

As you are taken by surprise by Ghaul, who strips you of your “light” and proceeds to reveal his genetic superiority by beating you to a pulp and eventually kicking you off the platform of his spaceship, you are magically launched into orbit by way of falling to your death, just after being shown how completely limp and powerless you are. I suppose the marketing team couldn’t be bothered to show any of the European Dead Zone, where I would suppose you would fall right after the intro. Instead of that you are sent to what I could only describe as a mission select screen, where you are again given the rich assortment for three entire modes.

PvP is divided into a “low intensity” and “high intensity” variant. The former of which is a supposedly casual capture points experience, which oddly enough isn’t all that low intensity. The latter competitive mode, called “Countdown” puts you in a “cops and robbers” scenario where one team has to set off an explosive, while the other team has to stop that from happening by either disarming the bomb or killing the entire enemy team. There is of course the caveat that upon dying in this high intensity mode, you are left waiting for upwards of thirty seconds in order to see if anyone is going to revive you or will the entire team get wiped out, trying to save a single dead member, which in term leaves you waiting a lot, rather that the quick kill – quick respawn action of the supposed lesser intensity mode. Despite that, it seems that Hunters get a very slight advantage, since both modes often take place in close quarters, and every hunter has increased maneuverability and gets an exotic hand cannon, which is more of a miniature shotgun, rather than a pistol.

The included PvE strike is a little bit more interesting, by featuring some colorful writing and actually showing a bit of the world this game inhabits. The Inverted Spire sets you on a investigation of a mining site where the Red Legion have apparently unearthed something ancient and terrible. Even then, you still need to traverse a fairly large map that provides multiple occasions for you to completely utilize your character’s kit. You are given platforms to double jump towards or tactical positions where you can take out enemies at long range by using your sniper, or even tight spots with high enemy density where you can utilize your abilities. You would think that The Inverted Spire would be the single redeeming quality of the Destiny 2 Beta, but upon closer inspection and a few more playthroughts, you start to notice that some design decisions were seemingly made on a whim. For instance, somewhere around the middle of the strike you start getting thrown about by jump pads, which sometimes negate fall damage, while in others they outright throw you against a wall, leaving you to fall to your death. Even one of the final boss’ mechanics involves him deleting the floor, yet being dealt fall damage is hit or miss, often killing you in zones with restricted respawn when you least expect it.

In the end, I have no doubt that Destiny 2 will be a great game, but seeing how Activision and Bungie are treating their sequel’s debut onto the PC games market, by botching an essential beta period, filled with bugs, pre-order and digital deluxe malarkey and overall bad developer practices is not going to be in their favor when the game eventually releases onto the platform. But then again, it might turn out to be a pleasant surprise for those, who are willing to give it a shot, despite the horrible pre-release.

[uberscoot557-blog]

Intro

The best way to really approach this issue is to break the idea of a video game into its core concepts, and see what makes that particular concept shine, then recombine those concepts into a conclusion that will tell you what I think makes a good video game.  Before I start this article there are a couple of things that I should tell you. First: Everything I say in this article is my opinion. I be no means want you to think that I whatever I am stating is a fact. Secondly, if you disagree with me, tell me what you think makes a good video game! Whether you tell me through Twitter, the comments, or anywhere you can find me. Let’s get on with the article!

Graphics.

Graphics are what you see the most whenever you’re playing a video game. While a popular belief is that the objectively best graphics are the most photorealistic graphics, but I believe that different styles of graphics in a game can shine depending on the tone of said game. For example, Borderlands has a cell shaded graphic style that mixes perfectly with its lighthearted tone. This combination lets the player take a break from the harsh realities of the real world while also letting them be invested in the story and world of Pandora. Meanwhile a game like Assassin's Creed which is much more serious in tone, a photorealistic graphic style helps the player feel more grounded in the story. Both of these games are renowned for their quality, and their graphics are a large part of how that game was so good. In general, the key to good graphics is not how photorealistic they are, but how well they pair with the tone of the game that the graphics belong to.

UI.

UI is the unsung hero of a video game. UI is how you find out how to get things done in a game, it tells you where your items are, how your health is looking, pretty much it tell you anything you need to know. However, if you have a poorly designed UI you could miss out on the advantages that an effective UI provides. The key to having an effective UI is to find the balance between not telling the player enough and telling the player too much. A good example of what kind of decision making you need to make when creating a UI is comparing the genre of game you are making with the style of UI that would be the most efficient. For instance, an MMO would require a much more detailed and descriptive UI, since you need to be able to have full access to your abilities, and their cooldown times to allow you to formulate a plan of action. Meanwhile an FPS requires a minimal UI, since an FPS requires you to be able to see as many things as possible, to let your reflexes kick in.

Sound/Music design.

When it comes to immersion in storytelling, the sounds of your game and your music choice is key. Sound/music design really needs to fit the story that you are trying to tell and the world you are trying to create. If you intentionally put the wrong sound in the wrong place, or the wrong music plays in a big story beat, it can completely derail the story or game itself. The key to good sound/music design is simply to pay attention to where you place your music and sounds.

Power Fantasy.

Power fantasy is my favorite aspect of video games. The feeling of going from some random Joe Shmoe to a super powerful being who can destroy gods is unmatched in other forms of media. However, a power fantasy must be balanced. If you feel too powerful, you will become bored of the game pretty quickly. Or if you feel absolutely powerless(unless the story intends to have you feel that way), you may become angry at the game and stop playing. I believe that a power fantasy should Challenge the player, but also make the player feel like they can accomplish their goal if they find the perfect angle of attack, or the perfect cheese, etc.

Progression in game

Progression is how you go from Joe Shmoe in the beginning of a game to a godlike being of infinite destruction towards the end of the game. Perfectly landing progression in a game can be tricky, since you don’t want your progression to be super slow if your player is supposed to be super powerful, but you also don’t want the progression to be too fast, since too much of either speed could drive players away. In my opinion, ideal progression would let the player progress at their own pace, allowing them to frequently acquire a new ability or weapon, but not so fast as to numb the feeling of acquiring a new ability/weapon.

Story

Story is both absolutely necessary yet one of those things that can be completely ignored if the other aspects of the game are solid enough. I say this because a great story with terrible mechanics and gameplay can still be a good game if the story is worth suffering through the bad gameplay, and vice versa with a bad story and amazing, satisfying gameplay. Frankly, telling a story in a video game can make your game a masterpiece, or it can be a detriment to your game’s quality.

Artistic Expression

Last but certainly not least, artistic expression is what makes a good game a great game. Passion in your project is what drives you to make every last detail perfect. A great game is a product of a team of people who all love the game they are creating with all of their hearts.

Artistic expression is what I feel is the most important part of a video game. Being able to communicate your thoughts and dreams in such a beautiful and complex manner is absolutely astounding.

Conclusion

I want to start this off by thanking you, the reader, for taking the time to read this article. It really means a lot to me that you took the time to take a break from your day to read this article about what makes a good video game, and I hope you took something meaningful from it. One common theme that I noticed while writing this article is that finding balance in your game is the most important part of making a video game, and I don’t mean a perfect balance, since that would be boring. A good games will always have their flaws, but those flaws are what help that game shine above others. If every game was perfectly balanced then there wouldn’t be a reason to play most video games. I say this because no matter what you say, video games are an art form. Just like every other type of entertainment medium out there. They deserve just as much respect and love that other mediums receive, and I think that we as gamers, or readers, or people who like to watch Let’s plays on YouTube are just the people to give video games the respect they deserve. I want to state one more time that most of the things in this article is my opinion (minus the whole deal about video games being art, that is an objective fact), and if you disagree with me at all, feel free to let me know! I would love to hear your counterarguments or corrections! My twitter is @uberscoot1232, and there is always the comment section! I hope you all have a fantastic day after reading this article, and thank you all again for reading!

Real quick bit that I cut out of the artistic expression section(that’s why it’s so short) but felt the need to say anyways:

An unfortunate reality of the games industry is that with the rise of gigantic games publishers such as EA or Activision, games are created more to make money rather than to create a genuinely superb product. While this is good for the industry of video games, it is not quite that for games as an art form. I say this because these gigantic publishers will pressure or force developers to implement pay to win, or microtransaction heavy additions to their already full price game. I’m not saying that the games as an art form are DOOMED or anything crazy like that, in fact there are still tons of fantastic Indie games being released every day. I just want to say that it’s a shame that those fantastic indie games are overshadowed by the gigantic, hungry video game franchises of today. All in all, artistic expression is the most important aspect when making a video game. It’s what helps the developers have their ideas and dreams reach us, the players.

[aion-rsa]

Project 007 Could Be the Spy Game James Bond Never Got

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Developer IO Interactive shocked the world today by releasing a teaser trailer for a new James Bond game known simply as Project 007. I highly recommend you check out the teaser trailer for this Bond origin story project if you haven’t already done so.

It has been eight long years since the release of the last James Bond game. If you’re wondering why it feels like it’s been even longer than that, it’s probably because 2012’s 007 Legends was a poor attempt at not only recapturing the glory days of Bond himself (its gimmick was that you got to play as every major film version of Bond) but the glory days of Bond video games. Its failure to do so was the sadly appropriate end of Activision’s run with the James Bone license which failed to produce a single title that felt worthy of legendary Bond games such as GoldenEye 007, Everything or Nothing, or the late Sean Connery’s farewell to the Bond franchise, From Russia With Love.

That’s what makes this announcement so exciting. If you had told me that Activision was producing another Bond game, I’d have rolled my eyes and made peace with being modestly happy to play it on Game Pass one day. Instead, IO Interactive secured the rights to the franchise. That’s not just a better case scenario: it’s the best-case scenario. On paper, there’s no studio better equipped to do James Bond justice.

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Why? Well, with their work on the Hitman franchise, the IO team has shown that they’re not only capable of making a great James Bond game but that they’re capable of giving James Bond the proper spy game that he’s never really had.

If you think back on some of those great Bond games I mentioned before (as well as many others like The World is Not Enough and Agent Under Fire) you may realize that the vast majority of them have been action-heavy experiences. While latter titles such as Everything or Nothing tried to incorporate a bit more espionage in an attempt to replicate the variety of a James Bond movie, most levels ultimately resulted in Bond needing to dispatch waves of enemies. Honestly, 1998’s James Bond 007 for Game Boy is one of the few worthwhile Bond games that at least tried to make you feel like the world’s greatest spy rather than a trained killer that occasionally ducks behind a box and presents forged credentials.

You could make the argument that Bond was originally written to be that “blunt instrument” that Dame Judi Dench so callously referred to him as in Casino Royale, but I can’t help but think back on how Sean Connery’s Bond used underground passages and hidden contacts more than a gun in arguably the best Bond movie ever, From Russia With Love. I wonder what would have happened if George Lazenby’s more measured version of the character hadn’t been replaced with the wacky Roger Moore era and the action-focused adventures of Timothy Dalton. Being a spy is very much part of Bond’s resume, but it’s the aspect of the character that has often been pushed aside in the films and often downright ignored in games.

Maybe there was a time when the limitations of video game technology essentially forced developers to make more action-heavy Bond titles, but we should be well beyond that point now. I’ll never say that GoldenEye 007 should have been anything more than the revolutionary FPS that it was, but there’s a part of me that can’t help but feel robbed that a developer never looked at Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell and thought “Something like that, but with James Bond.” If they did, then they certainly never got the chance to make it.

IO Interactive has that chance. With the Hitman franchise, they’ve proven that they’re one of the few modern studios that seem to have figured out how to make compelling stealth-based experiences exciting at a time when so many major developers have all but abandoned the genre. How did they pull that off? There’s no one quality that makes the Hitman games succeed where others have failed, but the one thing that IO does better than almost anyone is find ways to make stealth in video games feel like an opportunity rather than a punishment.

Hitman games (especially the modern entries) are all about exploring the possibilities. Can you drop that chandelier on the target? Is it possible to disguise yourself as a waiter and poison their drink? If all else fails, what are the odds you can store a cache of weapons in just the right spot and use them to blast your way to the exit? Whereas even some of the best stealth games of all time rely on avoiding danger, Hitman is more about flirting with danger in such a way that it never even realizes you were the operative until you’ve sidestepped it.

It’s that philosophy that makes IO the dream team for a James Bond game. 007 has never really been great at by the books spy work, but he excels at finding creative ways to think on his feet. He remains cool under pressure. Whereas other spies may see a civilian on the arm of their target, Bond sees someone who is a glass of Dom Pérignon and a taste of Beluga caviar away from becoming a double agent.

We’ve played Bond games that have let us be nearly every version of James Bond except the James Bond who dynamically decides what he is going to be based on what the scenario calls for him to be and, perhaps, his own imaginative whims. Through their work on the Hitman franchise, IO has proven that’s exactly the kind of game they can deliver. At the very least, they’re the studio best equipped to let us recreate Bond moments such as this one using just the mechanics of the Hitman titles:

My immediate thought about IO doing James Bond is it 100% deserves a mission based on the clown sequence in Octopussy pic.twitter.com/TN2ll411LL

— Alec Meer (@bonzrat) November 19, 2020

We don’t know exactly what Project 007 is, but for the first time in years, I’m excited about what a James Bond game can be.

The post Project 007 Could Be the Spy Game James Bond Never Got appeared first on Den of Geek.

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