78 replies to this topic

[YouKnowTheName]

Opinions is opinions. I seem to spend about half my time online hating on EON, and I do consider it a catalogue of How Not To Make a Bond Game, but I can't illustrate my point any better than in my review, typos and all.

I will say that I'd take QOS over EON any day of the week, though. The game IS genuine fun, shortcomings aside. I've never been albe to play through EON in one sitting without getting bored.

[Sharpe]

I don't get the EON hate. Loved that game. EA's best effort, in my opinion. Yeah, shooting was frustrating, but it afforded such a wide range of the Bond "experience" and made such good use of the brand, I'd rank it second behind GoldenEye in a heartbeat, in terms of all the Bond games.

For that matter why does FRWL gets so much hate? I loved that game - it was very 60s bond and had a great feel. I actually just played it for the first time since I finished it back in 2005...and it's still a great game. The graphics are surprisingly very nice for a 3 year old game made for a last gen console.

[Blonde Bond]

As I suspected. Not a really good game. It's like EA had really done this game.
I'm not really expecting much from the next game; coming in 2009, if it's going to be like this.

The shooting mechanics were good. But where was the spying? Next-gen crap-hicks? I swear EON on ps2 looked better than this game. Well, character-wise. Looking at the characters in few cutscenes that were in the game, showed me a bunch of wooden uptight looking polygon lumps that are passing as people. With next-gen game, you'd think they'd afford making more real looking people. Like I said, EON managed to do this on ps2.

But when the game looked good it looked good. During gameplay the graphics very decent enough, and Craigster looked pretty good hiding behind covers and walls. By good, I mean he looked like Craig. So the crappy graphics didn't raise it's head during that section of the game.

Everything was about shooting and I would've hoped for some covert missions, like following your man through airport, the opera and what-you-got. It was like John McTiernan's 'Casino Royale'. Not Martin Campbell's one. The game was basically a 'Casino Royale' game with only few levels taking place in 'Quantum of Solace' environments.

Don't expect to win me over with crap like this Activions. You can do better than this. As it is, my favorite game are still EON and Nightfire, because they managed to give me a Bond feel of some degree.

[YouKnowTheName]

What always confuses me is not only why people like EON, but why those same people don't like FRWL. It's basically THE SAME GAME, only about 50% less retarded.

The stupid enjoyment destroying auto aim is back, except in FRWL it has an actual chance of locking on to something useful, and the uneccasary hand-to-hand combat is far simpler. It's not good, mostly for the reasons EON isn't good, like crappy vehicle sections and a stupid engine, and it takes the prizes for stupidest story ever, biggest rape of a good film and the coveted Missing-The-Point Award, but seriously, it IS EON, with the messy gameplay cleaned up.

It makes me worry that the reason EON is so popular is that graphics and spectacle, which it has, and not the gameplay, which it sorely lacks. But neither game is a good example of a game or a use of the license.

I'm doing it again aren't I? Okay, nobady mention EON or you'll aggravate my condition that causes angry posts. I'm THIS close to starting my own website...

[Blonde Bond]

eonisnotabondgame.com?

But seriously, I've had a ball with EON. It's like Brosnan's 5th adventure... or Die Another Day 2... just better.

[bond_azoozbond]

you know what the problem with QOS the game is that we compare it with the movie .So it's really hard to do a game from a movie and be good in graphic and story .and the reasone of the successful EA game EON is that it's not movie based and of course with the good graphic and gameplay .

the QOS game producers say that they get some of bond fans and ask them what kind of gameplay they like this game to be and they said FPS !! I understand Know that these people are not bond fans but they are Goleneye fans !!

the first point you should know about QOS and CR movies that they are not good to do in FPS !! but Treyarch want to make a new GE for this generation .

now we see QOS game and play it but if they didn't made a good game from 2005 until 2008 then how they will do a good game for 2009 !!!!!!

And I don't Know why they thought always that if you want to do bond game it should be shooting from the beginning to the end !! why they don't use the huge bond materials spying (not stealth) , adventures , RPG's , vehicles (of course) . May be will not see a perfect bond game for a long of time .and you know how the game is good or awful is when you playing it you feel like watching a bond movie .

[PlayItBogart]

Indeed, Casino Royale isn't very suited for an action game. Neither was From Russia With Love, and really, neither was Goldeneye. That's why there's been action sequences implanted where there were none before.

But then that's the advantage that EA had with their Bond games - half their library (not including Rogue Agent) were brand new stories where they could tailor they could tailor the action to fit their story as opposed to the story to fit their action.

But then where do we draw the line? When does altering the source's story for gameplay become sacrilege or acceptable?

There will never be a proper successor to Goldeneye because gaming itself has become too cinematic. Left right and center there's a cutscene, a quick time event, or a scenery-altering explosion. Many of Goldeneye's maps were large and sprawling. You also didn't have someone yelling in your ear every twenty seconds (Seriously, Bond is never in constant contact with someone at MI6, why do I have to hear from M and Tanner now?)

Goldeneye told you before every mission to do X Y and Z, and that was it. No cutscenes, quick time events, cover systems, driving sequences (Save for tanks), stealth sections, or anything of modern day gaming. You could spend 45 minutes just running around in Surface blowing people away at your own leisure.

So could it be that the Bond experience we are looking for is not a Bond experience at all?

[YouKnowTheName]

I disagree that CR or QOS "wouldn't work in FPS". No film is inherently better in one perspective than another, it depends on the excecution.

Havind said that, Bond IS a bit of a special case. It should always, always be in first person. this isn't just about character identification, which is important to all games, but with Bond it goes further because BEING Bond is a fantasy we all want to live, much more so than being Sam Fisher or Marcus Fenix, and the game had to make YOU feel like YOU are Bond. The only way to properly accomplish this is by putting you in Bonds head. When you have to deal with camera issues, bad aiming (or worse, auto-aiming!) ect. you know you are playing a videogame, thus destroying the illusion. QOS is great in that it mixes the two in such quantities that you get the best of both worlds. Since the split between fans is so great, all Bond games must incorporate both (which many games do) or continue with a QOS style hybrid.

But it must be understood that games are a different medium from films, and should be treated thus. EON was stupid, but saying "well, yes it was silly, but it's only a videogame" is not an excuse. Look at Bioshock. The only reason the games were silly is bad developers.

If you are playing a Bond game and you feel like you are watching a Bond movie, you are playing a bad game. You should be feeling like you ARE Bond, and your decisions are what count. Watching is a reactive experience, so is EON, so is FRWL, both games are only interactive at the most basic possible level. a game should be PROACTIVE. In GE, whether or not you used stealth was up to you, you're route was often for you to decide, as were the order you completed yur objectives. It let you BE Bond. EAs games just let you go on a Bond themed fairground ride in a tux.

The recipe for the perfect Bond game: Bioshock (in-game first person storytelling without long jarring cut scenes) Condemned ( First person combat you can FEEL) Quantum of Solace (can't aruge with those action mechanics) Hitman (free form spy gameplay where shoot is a last resort, not a gameplay crutch. Seamless choice between 1st and 3rd person gameplay.) Ian Fleming ( READ it, and understand what Bond IS. No space staions, lasers, metal hands, Jaws, invisible suits, arbitrary girls ect) Stick a DECENT story on that and we're in business!

Edited by YouKnowTheName, 08 November 2008 - 12:48 PM.

[Smooth*Vodka]

I'm a hardcore Bond Fan, Vodka Drinker, and Gamer and all I have to say is this game sucks. If I were you I would only buy the game just to add to my 007 collection, but will not play it. What's really bad is that they hyped this game up SO MUCH and then we are left with nothing more than a lazy title. Seriously though, I don't think Activision should have even had their name on the game box because I am currently playing Call of Duty World At War and this game is amazing, so I'm puzzled how they could even have a pity part in making this QoS. Anyways, I took the game back the next day.

P.S I had the game for the PS3 so there should be no reason why the game should be this horrible.

[bonds_walther]

Heck, I like QoS: The Game. Yeah, it's a no brainer shoot 'em up, where it's more about guns than stealth, but it's fun to play. I've been so addicted to it over the past couple of weeks that I finished the game on Field Operative two days after getting it and just polished it off on 007 earlier today.

On certain levels it's more about luck and skill (though good timing is important) - but I like it.

Now to get those achievements...

[deth]

I don't know what it's like on consoles, but on PC this game is very very generic.

So they've used the COD4 engine? ok. But COD4 looks wayyy better when both are cranked to max. It feels like a 3 year old game.

the multiplayer... generic generic generic. This is almost the same junk that we got for Nightfire! I also wish there was music in multiplayer, but that's just a personal preference.

Is this supposed to be good AI? shoot/cover/shoot/cover. Brilliant.

I hope it's better on the consoles, but on the PC is seems like verything went into making Bond look exactly like Craig (which he does, minus the humanity)... shame.

when people were drooling over the early gameplay videos and screenshots I kept saying wait and see... this a a movie tie-in game after all... the track record for those is shoddy at best. A lo and behold, it lived up to my expectations. I wish it hadn't.

[Le Chiffre87]

It seems like so many games turn out disappointing.

This is sooo true!

All this hype for a game, then its such a let down. Especially QOS they rushed it way too much, it would have been better for them to wait for the movie to have been released then built the game on the movie.

Like Goldeneye, that had been out for 3 years before a game was released.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Yup, back in the day GoldenEye was a revolutionary game that fortunately incorporated the Bond universe. These days it seems game adaptions of films are merely another front of the advertising campaign- they are handled with little care. The most important factor is pushing them out the door to coincide with the film.

[BlackFire]

This game needed at least 6 more months, and I'm talking just to polish details.

But seriously, this game needed all the damn characters in it, a deeper dialogue and cutscenes to see what is going on.. more levels and a driving level.

And of course, choose Bond in the multiplayer!

[Bond_Assassin]

It was a fun game. I wish it was third-person, not first person though. It could've been better but it's acceptable. I still think "Everything or Nothing" is the best Bond game so far.

[007karl007]

i enjoyed this game. the only faults i found with it where that it was too short and the cutscenes were awfull.
btw does anybody play QOS online??

[jamie00007]

Wow, I think "incredible disappointment" is a little extreme. Anyone who had that reaction to the game had unfounded expectations for it. Movie tie-ins inherently suck. So do 90% of Bond games. Who really expected QoS to ever really be great?

QoS is a solid but unoriginal and uninspired game. Above average as far as movie tie-ins and Bond games go, but as average as it gets as far as games in general go.

[YouKnowTheName]

I think the disappointment comes from the fact that this one COULD have been good. EA just didn't have a clue what Bond was all about and this was obvious from the start with AUF. They tried with doing something "a bit movie style" before giving giving up on making a coherant game at all and just stick stars in and letting them do the work.

We had a whole new developer, who really SEEMED to "get" Bond, a whole new Bond, a proper FPS, like Bond should be, none of that 3PS lock-on crap, and some good footage. It COULD have been the GoldenEye successor we've all given up waiting for. Yes, unreasonably expectations maybe, but still, you couldn't have hoped for agood Bond game with EA at the helm. You knew that when you bought them. This could have been different.

At the end of the day, there is only one good Bond game - GoldenEye. You may have had some fun with another at some point, but the big G is still probably the best FPS ever made. You can't have a best games ever list without GoldenEye in the top 5. The very idea that any other Bond game could make top 100 is ludicrous. Many would appear on WORST games ever lists. Like the worst Bond films, they only stand up next to other Bond games. Which is better, EON or FRWL? Who cares? They are both awful, and both have sunk into obscurity except for on "Bond game" lists. Look at the market as a whole. GoldenEye stands. Perfect Dark stands. There are no other Bond games in sight. I think we have to accept now that that will not change. Give the developers a message and stop buying them. I will.

[Jeff007]

Anyone know how the sales are going?

[BlackFire]

The last thing I heard was that this game had awesome selling for Christmas.

[Blonde Bond]

Goldeneye the best FPS? I don't think so. It might have been the first for consoles, but it definetely is not the killer of all fps's. IMHO .


Anyway, I rank EON , FRWL and Nightfire above Goldeneye, which are all better tha 'Quantum of Creativity'...


Goldeneye and Quantum of Solace are just shooting games insprired by movies of same name, where as Nightfire had original plot and some great nods to the film series, great driving / diving / flying missions. EON has the same, but presented in more of interactive movie form. Which I liked. From Russia With Love, although altering the plot, gave me a real Bondian feel.


Treyarch made some great spiderman games and I own two of them. So I would have thought that they could make a great Bond game. As much as they held hip parties with purdy girls, trying to sell us the game, they gave us less than EA ever gave.

Then again, I never found 'QoS - The Game' that interesting. I followed more of making of the movie, than I did of the game... and the game was no good... where as the movie was ... slick.

[Safari Suit]

I don't know if I'd call Goldeneye the best FPS ever; I mean, frankly, I'm not a good person to ask, but it's not just a crazy Bond fanboy opinion, it's a reasonably common opinion among gamers/game critics.

[YouKnowTheName]

I'm sure the PC gaming crowd are happy to wave thier mouselooks and a bunch of specs only PC gamers would understand at you, but GoldenEye still stands as at least being in the top 5 FPS....es(?) ever. Only last year it was crowned the best on gamesradar, and still has little to rival it on consoles.

QOS at least does what EA never did in that there is a great game in there, A great game called COD4, but if you're going to make a great Bond game, you might as well take a great FPS to begin with and make it Bond. It also had an authentic Bond feel to it that matched the movies. EON and FRWL both felt like they were made people people who'd never heard of Bond, but been told enthusiastically about him by a mate down the pub.

Also, I did then and do now praise Activision for ommiting driving levels. It seems the law that every action game has to have a crappy driving section tacked on, and while AUFs driving sections were somehow the best bits of the game, EONs were godawaful and FRWLs make me shiver still. Who'd have thought they could make something more linear and automated than the on foot sections? You can get plenty of variety with on foot sections. I'm not pretending Activision left them out for any other reason than time constraints and can't-be-arsed, but it was welcome all the same.

GoldenEye is best because it involves the player. You make decisions, you decide and execute you combat tactics. You just can't do that any other Bond game. Following a linear route takes any kind of pathfinding or plotting from the player and EON and FRWL went that extra mile and took any tactics away too. Squeeze lock-on, squeeze shoot. FOREVER. And the original plots felt like something a 13 year old ADD sufferer would write.

GoldenEye is a true Bond game, and incredible experience, and something that despite showing age in places, still holds up as one of the greatest games ever made. Yes it doesn't have any voice acting or cutscenes to speak of, but it was made before we really had those things anyway. And it STILL rules.

EAs output feels like a desperate scramble to cover a bunch of bad games with thick layers of license. Like they had brilliant graphics artists but designers who'd only ever worked in Lego. In fact, EON and FRWL really do feel like games for kids. So does QOS, but at least there is some challenge there.

None of them will ever be remembered as more than average at best, the downturn the series took after GoldenEye. Like the Connery of Bond games, GoldenEye will forever be remembered as an all time classic.

Edited by YouKnowTheName, 07 January 2009 - 11:16 AM.

[Blonde Bond]

EON and FRWL really do feel like games for kids. So does QOS, but at least there is some challenge there.

Oh, please! I could play through QoS with my eyes blindfolded and my arms tied to my back, controlling Bond with my toes.



Regarding Rare , EA and Activision;

At least EON games gave me that interactive Bond feel. I think 'FRWL' , although limitly, is the only Bond game that gave us Bond investicating through files.

And if you're going to give us a shooter, at least put some paint on it, like EON and Nightfire did.

I firmly believe that Goldeneye is on the lists, year after year, because of large amounts of simple nostalgy. It feels like half of the gaming world's first touch to the whole Bond franchise was through Goldeneye 007 on N64.

And it was one of the first 3d first person shooter released on the consoles. The trouble with everything is nostalgy. Whether it's games, movies or the music.

[YouKnowTheName]

I don't understand how people, especially Bond fans, actually get some enjoyment out of EON or FRWL but they do seem to and I suppose I have to live with it. Its like going on a protest against the Nazi party only to find that everyone else is standing behind you debating their merits while you get left standing alone waving a banner that says something you logically thought everyone could see was true.

The problem is that EON and FRWL DON'T give an "interactive Bond feel" because they steadfast refuse to BE interactive. You don't really play as Bond at all, the third person aspect means that you are always watching Bond rather than being him (which is, for those with bicycle pumps lodged in their skulls, the point) And you don't really get to control him because everything is automated anyway. For Gods sake, we have shooting games THAT DON'T LET YOU AIM YOUR OWN GUN. All you seem to do is make helpful suggestions to Bond, which he largely ignors in favour of aiming where he damn well likes, while trying to control the camera, usually equally in vain.

Almost all QOS's problems can be found in EON/FRWL. Linear level design that leads you by the hand for the whole game? Check. Boring, obvious objectives and patronisingly obvious clues? Check. Dull, generic weapons? Check. QOS wins out because it is at least great fun to play, with brilliant action mechanics, just nothing else. And it at least stays as true to the films as it can, without being some homogenised mess. Jaws and Pierce Brosnan? For crying out loud....

GoldenEye and QOS let you BE Bond. You are him, you aim and shoot your own gun as you want. GoldenEye let you explore as well, and really BE Bond within an interactive world, which is why it is still so far ahead of the competion.

And I played GoldenEye through again right before QOS came out to see if I really WAS being nostalgic. It has happen before. And you know what? It put almost every action game of the last eleven years to shame. Yes, it shows its age in many places (the A.I is hilarious by todays standards) but the aiming and hit detection is so good and the core mechanics so much FUN that it still shines, and while a bit kill heavy, is very varied. Somehow sneaking though the Bunker picking off guards from behind feels way different to blasting out through the Archives. Just goes to show that variety is in design, not tacking on some awful driving bits. Even eleven years on, it puts every other Bond game EA choked up to shame.

QOS makes a step in the right direction. It puts the camera back in Bonds head where it belongs, focuses on the shooting mechanics and doesn't rely on crappy gimmicky driving bits. It just falls into too many of EONs pitfalls.

To use Blond Bonds phrasing QOS is a small, well built game with too much timje spent on the paint job. I'm not defending it, after all I made this topic, but by contrast EON and FRWL aren't good games served up some paint, they are broken piles of scrap wood with a gallon of paint poured on top.

It seems that if you coat a turd in enough sugar people will buy it. If people would give these games the crucifying they so richly deserve, maybe devs would get some idea of what to do withe the next one. Keep this up and they'll be pulling that 3rd person again.

Possibly the longest post I've ever written...

Edited by YouKnowTheName, 07 January 2009 - 11:56 PM.

[Bondian]

I don't get the EON hate. Loved that game. EA's best effort, in my opinion. Yeah, shooting was frustrating, but it afforded such a wide range of the Bond "experience" and made such good use of the brand, I'd rank it second behind GoldenEye in a heartbeat, in terms of all the Bond games.

For that matter why does FRWL gets so much hate? I loved that game - it was very 60s bond and had a great feel. I actually just played it for the first time since I finished it back in 2005...and it's still a great game. The graphics are surprisingly very nice for a 3 year old game made for a last gen console.

I agree. Loved the game then, and still do now. An added bonus for me is to have Connery in it. Well, his voice anyway.

Haven't had much time to play Quantum of Solace yet, but it is very impressive.

[MattofSteel]

So I've played the game through once, dabbled in the multiplayer, and I have to say that yes, I'm disapopointed.

But for some reason I can't put my finger exactly on why.

Maybe it's because it's insanely short. Perhaps because it's repetitive. Perhaps it's because it falls into the same gimmicky and aesthetic pitfalls that bothered me about Nightfire. Maybe it's because I spent 2 hours in the bloody "Science Centre" and "Sinkhole" without so much as a peek inside the African embassy, the most outwardly video-game-able component in either of the two films.

There's just...something. And that's a shame, because the aspects of the game I liked, I loved.

In terms of an FPS aspect, it's far better than TWINE, AUF, and NF - but the multiplayer lacks the iconic innovation and design that would have catapulted it past GE.

EON is still a vastly superior (and underrated in its own right) game, in my opinion. And this doesn't even begin to touch Goldeneye for any claim to the title of being the best.

[Safari Suit]

I don't understand how people, especially Bond fans, actually get some enjoyment out of EON or FRWL but they do seem to and I suppose I have to live with it. Its like going on a protest against the Nazi party only to find that everyone else is standing behind you debating their merits while you get left standing alone waving a banner that says something you logically thought everyone could see was true.

I'd say it's remarkably little like that.

[sharpshooter]

I don't understand how people, especially Bond fans, actually get some enjoyment out of EON or FRWL

Difference of opinion makes a forum. In my opinion, EoN is the last solid Bond game outing. I didn’t think FRWL was up to that standard, but it was a joy to play as Connery in a 1963 world nonetheless.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

For Gods sake, we have shooting games THAT DON'T LET YOU AIM YOUR OWN GUN.

You mean like the auto aim in our beloved GoldenEye?