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So only a handful of the original Goldeneye team still exist within Rare today, most left and created their own company Free Radical Design, a couple joined Retro Studios and are as of now working on new Nintendo First Person Shooter, Metroid Prime. Others have joined Acclaim and other such companies including Capcom. But despite losing the majority of the Goldeneye team, Rare did still have something that they could use to make a claim as the real sequel to Goldeneye, the Goldeneye engine. The Bond license may have gone from their grasps but nevertheless with the Goldeneye game engine in place, creating a new game that feels and plays very similar to the original Bond outing was highly possible. Enter Perfect Dark, a game that is so popular that a third is already planned for Gamecube, the first N64 game featured many elements from Goldeneye, including the control system, certain multiplayer levels and even Goldeneye guns (or close relations)! But it isn’t just the Bond license that this game is sorely lacking. Robert Booth successfully headed the Perfect Dark project but lacked the skills and unique insight into the Goldeneye project that lead designer of Free Radical Design, David Doak had. It also created some complaints, many moaned that it lacked the experimental fun that made Goldeneye so great. Personally Perfect Dark was great in many parts better than Goldeneye, despite this the elegance and mystery surrounding Goldeneye was not carried forward into Perfect Dark.
People believed Dr. David Doak and his band of men left Rare due to disliking Nintendo, this is in fact untrue it was to do with wanting to come up with their own original ideas rather than being dictated on what to do. But their first game, Timesplitters, was released just for Playstation 2 and that helped fuel the rumour despite the PS2 being the only console available at the time that Free Radical Design could make their idea successfully on. Timesplitters wasn’t like Goldeneye, it didn’t have a good story (in fact it really didn’t have one at all) but the multiplayer was stunning implementing ideas such as Deathmatch editor, which proved to the world that the originality and ingenuity of the Goldeneye team did exist within Free Radical Design. Yet you must consider this has no relevance to Bond in anyway, featuring nothing from Goldeneye and going against the slow paced stealth multiplayer mode used in Goldeneye in favour of a faster more action packed one. So how can this be seen as the true follow up to Goldeneye then? Well it can’t but its sequel that is destined for a Nintendo console (Gamecube) this September can. Featuring a similar control system, a decent enough storyline, the general interface feels like the teams first smash hit FPS and even certain levels are a definite tribute to Goldeneye including a Dam level. Timesplitters 2 looks very promising indeed and does look like a game that borrows heavily from Goldeneye as well as mixing clever new ideas that Free Radical Design are famous for.
But no game engine or no genius design team can replace that brilliant feeling of actually playing as James Bond. Something with EA and their various teams are in charge of, The World Is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire and the upcoming Nightfire are three of the five Bond games from EA and the only three that are actually first person shooters. Eurocom heads two of them (TWINE and Nightfire) and to be quite honest despite not having a world-renowned game engine or critically acclaimed design team these games aren’t too shabby. They all borrow heavily from Goldeneye, trying to get the dynamics similar to the worlds best, they even try to suck you into the world of Bond more than Goldeneye with actual voices and longer cut scenes. But none of EA’s attempts beat Goldeneye be it Single player or Multiplayer (despite maybe the vehicle levels in Agent Under Fire). Also the ability to explore and the beefy feel of the weapons were sadly missing. It successfully put you in Bond’s shoes but they won’t be breaking any records anytime soon and they haven’t created anything as stunning and long lasting as Goldeneye did, it is just a well-rounded effort.
So what do you class as the sequel to Goldeneye, if you wish to re-create the feeling that Goldeneye presented you with what game would you choose? As for me well I don’t know, originality is always what I go for so probably Timesplitters but lucky for me I’m in a position where I can play and enjoy all three. Maybe one day the awesome game engine, the brilliant team and the most sort after First Person Shooter game license will reunite and we can enjoy the true sequel to Goldeneye but lets face it, we may be waiting a very long time.
Here's to the future.
Dringo.
> I heard that only 2 of Goldeneye's devellopers left Rare for Free
> Radical Design. And what you said about Perfect Dark was a load of
> bollards.
Nah only 2 major members including lead programmer and head designer. As well as many smaller members.
> Although people didn't toy with Perfect Dark as much as Goldeneye,
> this was mostly because they'd already done it to death on Goldeneye
> (not as much fun the second time round).
>
> If you HAD felt like messing around, there was hundreds of things to
> try ranging from Punching windows, uncovering a secret pole dancing
> club (in the chicargo level), shooting passing spaceships (on the
> first level), using various cheats to mess around with weapons like
> the farsight and the brilliant psychosis gun.
>
> I don't remember hearing anything about Time Splitters having such
> ideas...
>
> The only real complaint that ANYONE could have about PD was the
> slowdown, and that was more down to the N64's lack of power than
> Rare's creativity.
> And it's not like Timesplitters had any depth in it's sinlge player
> mode...
I agree Perfect Dark was far more incredible sadly many do not.
> Mr Doak and co. have obviously taken a little bit of Goldeneye with
> them, but Perfect Dark was much more the Goldeneye sequel than
> Timesplitters down to the playing style.
>
> Timesplitters was all out arcade (suitable for fast multiplayer action
> but not like Goldeneye - btw, why put a multiplayer based game on a
> two player machine???) while Perfect Dark took and evolved Goldeneye's
> "secret agent" subtlety.
I actually did say Timesplitters had all these faults and wasn't like Goldeneye so cheers for backing me up.
> Time Splitters 2 DOES look pretty interesting, and it seems to be
> paying some pretty neat homages to Goldeneye too, but I wouldn't go as
> far as calling it Goldeneye's true sequel.
>
> It does retain some of Goldeneye's spirit, but I think that Perfect
> Dark can claim much more heretige than Time Splitters can.
Maybe so but Perfect Dark will always be a sequel... updates on Goldeneye, imagine if it really had ingenius features that made it completley new and fresh as Goldeneye felt. Yes PD incorperated hundreds of new ideas but nothing shockingly different... now Timesplitters is a fresh take on the FPS genre, Free Radical Design are experts at that.
Although people didn't toy with Perfect Dark as much as Goldeneye, this was mostly because they'd already done it to death on Goldeneye (not as much fun the second time round).
If you HAD felt like messing around, there was hundreds of things to try ranging from Punching windows, uncovering a secret pole dancing club (in the chicargo level), shooting passing spaceships (on the first level), using various cheats to mess around with weapons like the farsight and the brilliant psychosis gun.
I don't remember hearing anything about Time Splitters having such ideas...
The only real complaint that ANYONE could have about PD was the slowdown, and that was more down to the N64's lack of power than Rare's creativity.
And it's not like Timesplitters had any depth in it's sinlge player mode...
Mr Doak and co. have obviously taken a little bit of Goldeneye with them, but Perfect Dark was much more the Goldeneye sequel than Timesplitters down to the playing style.
Timesplitters was all out arcade (suitable for fast multiplayer action but not like Goldeneye - btw, why put a multiplayer based game on a two player machine???) while Perfect Dark took and evolved Goldeneye's "secret agent" subtlety.
Time Splitters 2 DOES look pretty interesting, and it seems to be paying some pretty neat homages to Goldeneye too, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it Goldeneye's true sequel.
It does retain some of Goldeneye's spirit, but I think that Perfect Dark can claim much more heretige than Time Splitters can.
> I am looking forward to Die Hard Vendetta, but I don't know an awful
> amount about that.
YOU-AH NOTA HEARDA THE MAGIFICANT WONDAR OF TAH DAI HARDA VENDATTAH?
I might make a thread, Including all the cool (UNIQUE?) features that could make it a goldeneye beater!
> I am looking forward to Die Hard Vendetta, but I don't know an awful
> amount about that.
Die hard looks awesome, but it could inevitably turn out to be a stinker. Heres hoping they don't sod it up.
So only a handful of the original Goldeneye team still exist within Rare today, most left and created their own company Free Radical Design, a couple joined Retro Studios and are as of now working on new Nintendo First Person Shooter, Metroid Prime. Others have joined Acclaim and other such companies including Capcom. But despite losing the majority of the Goldeneye team, Rare did still have something that they could use to make a claim as the real sequel to Goldeneye, the Goldeneye engine. The Bond license may have gone from their grasps but nevertheless with the Goldeneye game engine in place, creating a new game that feels and plays very similar to the original Bond outing was highly possible. Enter Perfect Dark, a game that is so popular that a third is already planned for Gamecube, the first N64 game featured many elements from Goldeneye, including the control system, certain multiplayer levels and even Goldeneye guns (or close relations)! But it isn’t just the Bond license that this game is sorely lacking. Robert Booth successfully headed the Perfect Dark project but lacked the skills and unique insight into the Goldeneye project that lead designer of Free Radical Design, David Doak had. It also created some complaints, many moaned that it lacked the experimental fun that made Goldeneye so great. Personally Perfect Dark was great in many parts better than Goldeneye, despite this the elegance and mystery surrounding Goldeneye was not carried forward into Perfect Dark.
People believed Dr. David Doak and his band of men left Rare due to disliking Nintendo, this is in fact untrue it was to do with wanting to come up with their own original ideas rather than being dictated on what to do. But their first game, Timesplitters, was released just for Playstation 2 and that helped fuel the rumour despite the PS2 being the only console available at the time that Free Radical Design could make their idea successfully on. Timesplitters wasn’t like Goldeneye, it didn’t have a good story (in fact it really didn’t have one at all) but the multiplayer was stunning implementing ideas such as Deathmatch editor, which proved to the world that the originality and ingenuity of the Goldeneye team did exist within Free Radical Design. Yet you must consider this has no relevance to Bond in anyway, featuring nothing from Goldeneye and going against the slow paced stealth multiplayer mode used in Goldeneye in favour of a faster more action packed one. So how can this be seen as the true follow up to Goldeneye then? Well it can’t but its sequel that is destined for a Nintendo console (Gamecube) this September can. Featuring a similar control system, a decent enough storyline, the general interface feels like the teams first smash hit FPS and even certain levels are a definite tribute to Goldeneye including a Dam level. Timesplitters 2 looks very promising indeed and does look like a game that borrows heavily from Goldeneye as well as mixing clever new ideas that Free Radical Design are famous for.
But no game engine or no genius design team can replace that brilliant feeling of actually playing as James Bond. Something with EA and their various teams are in charge of, The World Is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire and the upcoming Nightfire are three of the five Bond games from EA and the only three that are actually first person shooters. Eurocom heads two of them (TWINE and Nightfire) and to be quite honest despite not having a world-renowned game engine or critically acclaimed design team these games aren’t too shabby. They all borrow heavily from Goldeneye, trying to get the dynamics similar to the worlds best, they even try to suck you into the world of Bond more than Goldeneye with actual voices and longer cut scenes. But none of EA’s attempts beat Goldeneye be it Single player or Multiplayer (despite maybe the vehicle levels in Agent Under Fire). Also the ability to explore and the beefy feel of the weapons were sadly missing. It successfully put you in Bond’s shoes but they won’t be breaking any records anytime soon and they haven’t created anything as stunning and long lasting as Goldeneye did, it is just a well-rounded effort.
So what do you class as the sequel to Goldeneye, if you wish to re-create the feeling that Goldeneye presented you with what game would you choose? As for me well I don’t know, originality is always what I go for so probably Timesplitters but lucky for me I’m in a position where I can play and enjoy all three. Maybe one day the awesome game engine, the brilliant team and the most sort after First Person Shooter game license will reunite and we can enjoy the true sequel to Goldeneye but lets face it, we may be waiting a very long time.
Here's to the future.
Dringo.