Our Second Podcast, Now On iTunes!

Less than a week later, and we have a brand new episode of the CRN Podcast for you. This time we chart the development of James Bond video games, from N64's GoldenEye to the upcoming 007 Legends. Not only that, we can confirm that the CRN Podcast is now on the iTunes store. Just search for Code Redd Net or CRN Podcast and you should be able to listen, and hopefully subscribe, via iTunes.

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Daniel Craig in... Moonraker?

This may be a week old, but timeliness has never been our main concern. Nevertheless, IGN has the first 007 Legends trailer up, this one showcasing an updated version of the absurd Roger Moore epic, Moonraker. We've kindly embedded the trailer below:

Moonraker is a decent enough choice (one of five classic films to be featured in the upcoming game), but I'm not sold yet on the do-over philosophy of these new Bond games, perhaps because I was not overly fond of the GoldenEye 007 remake. Seems like this one will have levels culled from Bond lore, but inhabited this time by Daniel Craig and his newfangled smart phone gadgets instead of the original actors. This may be unfortunate considering how much fun I had playing the retro-stylings of Sean Connery in the From Russia With Love remake for PS2, which kept all of the atmosphere of the original film but expanded it for a new medium and a new audience.

Luckily, with E3 looming, we're likely to learn more soon.

007 Legends Announced

Alright then. Instead of going with a straightforward video game version of the upcoming Skyfall, we get 007 Legends. According to the Guardian games blog, this means the next entry in the series will not only feature levels from Skyfall, but from five other classic Bond flicks. Exactly which five, nobody knows. Furthermore, this one is being put together by the same crew who recently redid GoldenEye. It's not yet known whether or not these classic excursions will be of a similar nature, featuring Daniel Craig and retooled stories to fit his version of 007. This is an intriguing development, especially in light of the mediocre GoldenEye remakes, not to mention the deplorably ho-hum Blood Stone and Quantum of Solace. Going back to the classics makes sense, too, considering that the last quality 007 game was From Russia With Love.

As for the speculation, I think we can expect to see Dr. No as one of the five chosen classics. It is, after all, the fiftieth anniversary of that one this year, and something I suspect the market discourse for Skyfall will obviously draw from. Goldfinger is a virtual lock, as well, being the most canonical film in the series and all. Personally, I would love to golf against Auric, but I shan't hold my breath. As for the other three, we can virtually rule out GoldenEye, and thank goodness for that. The Spy Who Loved Me strikes me as a strong possibility. Personally, I would like to see a few unconventional choices, like the often overlooked On Her Majesty's Secret Service (I can always go for some skiing missions), or maybe one of the Timothy Dalton joints, The Living Daylights or Licence to Kill.

For Your Viewing Pleasure, Chickenman's Top Ten Video Games (Part 4)

To Recap: Day one was The Sims (PC), day two was Star Wars: Battlefront, day three was Hitman: Blood Money. But today, nobody does it better.

Everything or Nothing is the best game of the world's greatest spy. Better than any other it captures the James Bond experience. Though most famous for first-person approaches, anybody can shoot a gun. It is only EoN that has any semblance of capturing Bond's martial arts skills. Also irreplaceable is the ability to jump off of ledges with reckless abandon (with or without a rappelling device). EoN offers some of the best and most challenging co-op gameplay as well. Check out the review here.

Honorable Mentions:

The World is Not Enough (N64), GoldenEye (N64), From Russia With Love (PS2)

PS2 Review: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)

Chicken Man once said, in his preview of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (dated June 6, 2004), that "I also like the idea of the game itself. Even though, I must mention, that if you've read the novel, Goldfinger, you'll know that Goldfinger only hires Koreans for henchmen because of their loyalty. But no one cares." Too true, my friend. Evidently we didn't care enough for this game to follow up our preview with a proper review, even though we beat the game soon after it was released. And why not? Because Rogue Agent was one of the biggest disappointments in the somewhat checkered history of Code Redd Net. From jump this was a flawed concept, one that tried to associate the storied N64 classic of the same name with another sub par semi-Bond shooter. You can just sense the exploitation and manipulation at work in the game's conceit, practically see the accountants and designers grasping at straws to find any narrative reason to affix the magic words GoldenEye to this product. Like children, they go literal. Hence why our protagonist, a disgruntled MI6 employee who fails to protect 007 in a training exercise, has a prosthetic "golden" eye that gifts him with all kinds of powers. You subsequently join up with Auric Goldfinger to duke it out with his rival, apparently, Dr. No. Kudos to the people who pitched this one for coming up with such a far-fetched idea and really making a go at it (no weirder than the plots for most Bond films, anyway), but they forgot one vitally important thing: we want to play as Bond. That's what we're doing here, that's why we play Bond games. Instead, Rogue Agent forces us to step into the shoes of a flat, uninteresting and forcefully presented "evil" character, one who has no predisposition for stealth or vehicular combat. While this might sound appealing to some players, and indeed the whole game is tailored for maximum shooting and minimum thinking, what this does is rob players of variety, whereas games like Nightfire and the excellent Everything or Nothing break up the firefights and keep you from getting bored. Rogue Agent gets old fairly quickly and only gets worse, especially once that mounting tedium mixes with some frustrating and unevenly paced missions later on. Bond fans might have some fun in visiting or revisiting classic movie locales, especially some of the multiplayer maps, but the lack of CPU bots puts a serious damper on things. Stay away from this one.

A James Bond Thanksgiving

Hopefully you're celebrating Thanksgiving like I am by watching the customary James Bond marathon on the SyFy network (or perhaps on some other network, depending upon your region or country). Unfortunately, they are presently playing one of my least favorite entries in the series, Diamonds Are Forever. Sean Connery seems very bored indeed; maybe he should take up writing so he can help out the inner-city youth. Thankfully, though, I'm lucky enough to own DVD copies of my favorite 007 films, and this is a perfect opportunity to talk about the Ultimate Edition box sets put out in 2006.

These box sets, and the DVDs within them, are not ordered chronologically but they are rather shrewedly haphazard, in the sense that most of the sets contain equal measures of the best Bonds, and a few stinkers thrown in as well. But for the James afficionado, your best bet is the wonderful Ultimate Edition Vol. 3. You get three absolute classics, From Russia With Love, GoldenEye (you may recall that Goldeneye won the Code Redd Net Award for Best Bond Film a few weeks ago), and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and even the requisite Roger Moore sleeze-fests, Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only, aren't too bad.

Amazon has it for pretty decent bargain, so get on it.

Code Redd Net Awards: Best Bond Movie

Our second Bond award is for Best Bond Movie. And the nominees are...

The World is Not Enough (1999)
Casino Royale (2006)
Goldfinger (1964)
From Russia With Love (1963)
GoldenEye (1995)

And the winner is...

GoldenEye

Code Redd Net Awards: Best Bond Game

In the category of James Bond, we have two awards to give out today. Up first, the award for Best Bond Game. And the nominees are...

Nightfire (2002)
Everything or Nothing (2004)
From Russia With Love (2005)
GoldenEye 007 (1997)
The World is Not Enough (2000)

And the winner is...

Everything or Nothing

Code Redd Net Awards: Best N64 Game

Naturally, our next award is for Best N64 Game. And the nominees are...

GoldenEye 007 (1997)
WCW/NWO Revenge (1998)
Super Mario 64 (1996)
The World is Not Enough (2000)
Winback: Covert Operations (1999)

And the winner is...

The World is Not Enough

Wii Review: GoldenEye 007 (2010)

I came of age with a Playstation 1, so I all but missed out on the GoldenEye N64 phenomenon. Unlike many of those so childishly attached to that object of shared adolescence, I'm clearly not a GoldenEye loyalist, and it was with a welcoming attitude that I greeted this Wii remake, not automatic disdain. The story is generally the same: nuclear space weapons are hijacked and Bond must work with the sole survivor of a Russian research facility in order to disarm them, only to discover that the heist was plotted by the former agent 006, Alec Trevelyan, his best buddy. Changes to the story are mostly cosmetic, usually involving the relocation of missions and shifts in characters' appearance and narrative function (in some instances). These shifts bring the story up-to-date, while simultaneously meeting the demands of Daniel Craig's version of Bond; less gadgetry, less stealth, and considerably more to outright brutality. These single-player missions are fundamentally tailored to meet Craig's Bond halfway, and though they play reasonably well, they are far too linear in progression. It is too easy to navigate through these worlds, too obviously marked where players should go next, and there is no room for exploration or multiple approaches to completing mission objectives as there were in the original GoldenEye. Furthermore, stealth is downgraded to a few short segments of silent takedowns, and only (as stipulated by the linear structure of the levels themselves) when the game wants you to be stealthy. In many ways, GoldenEye's single-player is like the last Bond film, Quantum of Solace, in that it doesn't feel like a Bond game without the stealthy portions and the ridiculous gadgets. Instead, it feels (and plays) more like your typical Call of Duty-style shooter. In terms of multiplayer, GoldenEye is solid, if unimpressive. Of course, the lack of computer-controlled bots to fill up the maps is as unsurprising as it frustrating; their MIA status in more recent games continues. Online multiplayer is fun for a while, but becomes tiresome after more than a few go-arounds on the rather bland maps. GoldenEye is a fun rental, especially for those curious to see the changes from the N64 original, but unfortunately it has little replayability to offer.

N64 Review: The World is Not Enough (EA, 2000)

Following the disappointing Tomorrow Never Dies game, TWINE for N64 is a true successor to the legendary GoldenEye 007 (though many would likely disagree). Some things are better, some things are not. However, as I try to list in my mind the things that made TWINE better (AI bots in multiplayer) and features GE had that it did not (cheats, extra levels, 007 mode), I find that the list of differences between them is rather small. In both, you play as James Bond in the first person, you wield firearms, you play with gadgets, etc. They share the important things. So why is GE so often touted as the far superior game? This is my theory. At least for myself, and I'm sure for many, GE was the first FPS that I'd ever played and therefore set a standard. Going back to it gives a sense of nostalgia, which can often be powerful in shaping attitudes towards games (objectively, a game like Winback might not impress more modern players; to some of us, it is like a little bit of heaven in a disaster area). Also helping GE to attain legendary status were the crazy glitches, which gave us another reason to keep playing it. But another thing is important as well. I believe that sequence is important. The degree to which we are let down by an inferior sequel is of much greater magnitude than the excitement we would feel with a superior one. For example, I would suggest that if TWINE had been released first and GE after, the feelings of GE superiority would not be to the same degree as the disappointment some feel over TWINE. It seems we have a greater disposition towards negativity than optimism. The point: TWINE for N64 is a fine game and more people would recognize it if it weren't for GoldenEye 007's shadow.