The game's Bond: 007 on the consoles
GoldenEye was a blockbuster in the gaming market as well as at the box office. So will Quantum of Solace be a worthy sequel? Rob Sharp dons his tuxedo and goes undercover
It is understandable to be nervous when meeting a man who shoots first and asks questions later. An agent who mainlines Martinis and sleeps with a Walther PPK under his pillow is generally not known to be the most sympathetic of company. So it was no surprise that when game developers Treyarch arrived to meet current Bond actor Daniel Craig for the first time at Pinewood Studios earlier this year, the usually tough technology experts were filled with trepidation. The developers' mission was to get Craig to approve early shots of forthcoming Bond game Quantum of Solace, so that they could use his likeness and voice in their product. If the pictures failed to meet his approval, the lack of continuity between the game and the eagerly-awaited Bond movie of the same name could prove deadly. When Craig turned up late for the meeting, it only compounded the designers' anxiety.
Thankfully, the thespian had a good reason for his tardiness. "He had been playing Guitar Hero III on his PlayStation," says Adam Gascoigne, co-design director of Quantum of Solace, who was at the meeting. "He is a bit of a gamer. People often don't believe that but he is. He said to us that he would need to sit down and play the game a few times and work out whether he was satisfied with it before he could let his image be used. It is unusual for the lead in a title to be into gaming so we knew our work would have to be up to scratch." Thankfully it passed muster. Craig, along with the film's other main actors – including Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and Dame Judi Dench, who plays "M"– all lent their talent to the finished product.
While cinema-goers look forward to the latest instalment of the Bond movie franchise, released on 31 October, gamers are just as excited by the tie-in game, released on the same day. Bond games have a history of shaking – not stirring – things up. N64 game GoldenEye 007, based on the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye, sold more than eight million copies worldwide after it was released in 1997. With its multiplayer deathmatch mode, it is considered one of the most influential first-person shooters (FPS) ever...
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http://commanderbond...n...&item=50312 - The Independent