Goldeneye (N64) can still surprise!
After eleven years, I thought I'd seen and done everything Goldeneye on the N64 has to offer, but I've found this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzdKr4qpDU&feature=related
Alright so it's something you'll only do once, but it's great that the game engine allows it.
Incidentally, if you've never played Goldeneye, then stop reading this, and go and get an N64 and GE. Flog your PS3 if you have to, just get GE, overlook the aged graphics, and play a game that trounces modern FPSs in every important way :wink:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzdKr4qpDU&feature=related
Alright so it's something you'll only do once, but it's great that the game engine allows it.
Incidentally, if you've never played Goldeneye, then stop reading this, and go and get an N64 and GE. Flog your PS3 if you have to, just get GE, overlook the aged graphics, and play a game that trounces modern FPSs in every important way :wink:
Post edited by ewgf on
Comments
The only cool thing I remember about it was the first level (iIrc) ... I haven't played it for something like 8 years actually.
And I wasn't impressed with the MP aspect of it (which most people love about it).
that's only cos' you didn't have enough friends to play against :p
2: i cant watch youtube vids they buffer every 2 seconds and is hghly annoying :(
3: i saw it was the silo level tho, god how i hated that level so fuckin' difficult
Hey now! I have plenty of friends! They may all be imaginary, just like you guys, but that doesn't bother me much.
Anywho ... I only played MP via split-screen and didn't like it ... too squished, squashed and crappy.
none of that internet fragging back then, you had to actually have friends and enough pads to go round.....and enough sofa for you all to sit on
disclaimer - i know there was the internet, and multiplayer games, but generally they were for the geekiest of the geeky :)
Well, objectively there's not too that's special about it nowadays, I suppose. By now most of it has been done better, sometimes lots better, in other games (A.I., graphics, in-game speech, etc). But Goldeneye still, to me and lots of other gamers, is ahead of the pack for what it is as a whole. The game just "works". Everything fits together to provide so much playability and replayability. I mean, I've had it for a decade or so, I've seen and done it all, yet I still play it for hours at a time (despite having two PCs, four consoles, a PSP and stack of emulators, so I'm hardly short of games to play). It all just feels right. The control, the excellently designed levels, the A.I. (yes it's limited by today's standards, but it's still rewarding, such as how some guards will stand and shoot, others will randomly run off for help, or run to the alarm switch, the way the enemies cannot see you if you peer through windows at them (not exactly realistic perhaps, but it allows you a small stealth advantage), the way enemies are momentarily surprised if they see you without knowing that there is an intruder, the way you can optionally use stealth to sneak past some enemies if you prefer), the great arsenal of weapons (still better than in most games), the way each weapon has a "Loudness" area, and if any enemy(s) hear a weapon they come running to investigate (so use a silenced pistol, or a knife, or a quiet weapon to avoid being cornered), the great atmosphere (although you'd have to get used to the blocky graphics before you get drawn in, I suppose, owing to today's games looking so amazing), the way you can shoot an enemy in the leg and he'll limp, shoot him in the arm and he'll hold it, etc.
And the way that there's so much desctructable scenery. And bullet holes everywhere when you've been playing for a while. The fantastic intro to the game (just boot up the cartridge and don't press any button or anything). The great music and sound effects. The endless relayability. And there are some great unlockables (I often start a brand new profile, just to unlock them again, as it's so good going through the game from scratch). You can configure the controls how you like them (I HATE HATE HATE how modern first person shooters, on the 360 at least, are coming out with less control configurability). You can go back and play any levels you've already completed, if you like. Each of the three different skill levels gives more objectives per level (map), and if you complete the game on the hardest skill level then you unlock an option (007 Mode) to decide the skill level by choosing different initial values for you and the enemy, to extend the game. And the game has autoaim (I don't like it, but it's good for new players or people who aren't used to a joypad) which is less effective on higher skill levels, which is a great idea, and typical of the thought that Rare put into the game.
In fact, the only things I don't like about Goldeneye are:
- No bots in multiplayer (perhaps understandable, given that bots weren't common in 1997),
- No in game speech, just text,
- In game, when you press START to pause the game and bring up the menu, for a second or so the game continues but you cannot do anything. This is because the game pause menu is on Bond's wrist-watch, so you have to wait until Bond raises the watch to his eyes and press it's button. This means that you can (and do) get shot whilst waiting for the menu to appear. Arrrgghhhh!!!!!!
* The framerate - this doesn't bother me at all (as I'm used to it, presumably), but some people don't like the way the game can slow down when there's lots on screen.
I never found it like that. Yes, it wasn't ideal, having only a quarter of the screen (or half, in a two player match), but it was still enormously fun (and it's Goldeneye that's often creditied with kicking off the popularity of social multiplayer gaming, especially deathmatch).
Granted full screen play (one player per screen, as in networked or online PCs) looks much better, but split screen play on the N64 gave you the following advantages:
1) It was cheaper, as you just needed one machine and one TV, as opposed to a seperate machine and monitor for PC gaming. And it was much easier to set up - no carrying around the computer and monitor to your mates, or having to set up the software to work over the phone/net.
2) Mor importantly, it stopped campers. In single screen deathmatchs, there are some people who like to "camp" (hide somewhere, and wait until you come along and then shoot you before you see them, which is no fun at all), but in splitscreen games this isn't possible, as anyone can see where you are by looking at your screen area. It also stops you camping (or strategically situating yourself in an advantageous sniping situation, as a camper would probably say) but true gamesplayers never wanted to camp anyway in Goldeneye, as the maps were too short for sniping matches.
3) Best of all, splitscreen gaming was fun! Yes, it took a little getting used to before you aclimatised to the quarter/half screen size, but once you did, nothing could beat the experience of playing against people in the same room as you. Yes, XBox Live! is great with it's headphones and everything, but it's far better playing against people you know personally, in the same room, who you can taunt and joke with and throw things at :):):):)
And Goldeneye's multiplayer was unmatched at the time (and for simple, non-teamwork games, it's arguable that it's only ever been beaten by Perfect Dark), being so enjoyable, configurable, and replayable.
Now, that was an answer! Thank you ewgf, you certainly reminded me of what the game was all about and I'm not talking about each level but the experience of playing the game and being involved with the storyline. I underscored the things which I remembered while reading your reply.
Thank you :-) As soon as I can get my hands on a new splitter-thingy for my TV/N64 I will be digging this game out again :-)
Are you not thinking of the Moonraker level? The one where you have to kill Jaws?
no.
it was defo a silo missle. hang on it wasn't the missle taking off at all. it was the silo door at the top opening.
Played Golden eye, never figured out what all the fuss was about..rather generic.
I'm the same.
Perhaps it was because I only played a little bit of it in the shops when it was first released. Maybe also because I didn't get an N64 until a few years ago and played it properly.
But I never liked the controls and jerkiness of it when I first played it. But then I was used to playing Quake on the PC at that time so Goldeneye looked a bit blocky and snowy to me.
I tried playing it last year at some point, but I just couldn't get the hang of it at all. I've probably been playing TimeSplitters 2 too much though ;-)
I saw the influences of Goldeneye in TS2 right on the first level. Mind you, it was done by the same team. I wish they'd hurry up and do a TS4 on the Wii though - that'd be great :-D
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
I thought it was great fun in multiplayer mode, but my mate that had it also had Duke Nukem 64, which was a heck of a lot better fun, in my opinion.
I thought Duke 64 was utter turd! It was cut and censored to death, and just didn't feel right while you were playing it.
At least Doom 64 attempted to improve on the tried and tested, wheras I thought Duke 64 took a step back.
yeah it was censored, but the secret levels were bunged in, a split screen multiplayer added, new guns added, and a revamp for the end of game boss.
i don't play games to look at badly animated sprites of naked girls, or the odd cuss word thrown in to make it a kidult game.
I'm the other way round... I wasn't keen on Doom 64, to be honest, the PSOne version was my favourite. It was super smooth and had better music than the other versions.
I'll agree with that one I think the PS1 version of Doom was probably the best one out there. Doom 64 wasn't really that great I just used it as an example, but it had it's moments.
Yeah but the original Duke on PC had online multiplayer, the secret levels, uncensored. and played better. I just thought the N64 version was below par, to add to the list of complaints about it, the controls were awful as well, absolute gash actually.
also by the time it was released goldeneye had come out so it looked even shitter. cos goldeneye was the bomb.
bty, did you ever play duke nukem 3d on the mega drive?
ive seen it on the rom lists but it never works on the emulators i try.
at the time of the N64 people who i spoke to generally agreed that the N64 was abetter games machine than a PC. not my words, just what people said to me.
I have played it, it's awful, but for being the Megadrive it's quite a brave attempt.
Try it on Genecyst, Kega Lazarus, or Gens, I guarentee if you've got the legit ROM it'll work on one of those 3.
Not that it's actually really worth playing.
i was trying to get it to work on a miggy emulator for my DS, ive got the game so prolly not much point emulating it on my PC. someone is trying to make a homebrew version of the game for the DS, but its at early stages. they did it with doom and it plays really well.
Just be prepared for the culture shock of the low frame rate, the lack of ingame speech and the ugliness of the faces on the guards. Hard to believe that the guards used to look good, eleven years ago.
Graphical advances spoil our gameplay tastes, don't they?
Yes, you can do that. It is supposedly a left over feature of an abandoned objective - abandoned by the developers, supposedly due to lack of time before relasing the game. There are some other well known things that were partially removed, like the motorbike on the runway on the third level (in the film Bond rides a bike to catch up with the fleeing plane, just before the start credits) and the island on the damn that you can't get to now (supposedly you had to go there to get your bungy-jumping equipment, and of course in the finished game you don't even seem to use any equipment to bungy jump). For more details, go to the excellent:
http://goldeneye.detstar.com/
Okay.... Still, I suppose you couldn't really enjoy the game, what with all the medication you're probably on.
Nurse! Beanz is out of his room again!
Yes, I thought Timsplitters 2 and especially 3 were great. I didn't much like TS 1 though.
Oh yes. And a map editor that didn't have small memory limitations would be great too. Across all three formats (XBox, PS2 and Gamecube) the games had the same memory limitation for the map maker, which was a real shame as the map maker was fun, easy to use, and quite powerful. Trouble is, you only had a very limited memory area which filled up very quickly. The XBox especially could have used far more RAM, and all of the versions could have had more pieces, additions and features, but sadly not. Hopefully there will be a Timesplitters 4 and it'll have a map maker with more features and far more available storage space.
DN64 was great, and most of the changes from the PC version (Duke Nukem 3D) were for the better; you now rescued abducted women instead of killing them (they were used as incubators like in the Alien films, so in the PC version you killed them to put them out of their misery, in the N64 version they'd been abducted, and you teleported them away), the explosions looked better, the new weapons were better than the removed ones, you got a four player splitscreen deathmatch mode complete with (stupid) bots, and the swearing was taken out (which I think is a plus, 'cos then more kids would be allowed to play it).
On the minus side, some levels were missing (though mostly the not so good ones), there were no mirrors or bitmap backgrounds (no city scape or stars in space, the latter was strange and disappointing), the strippers didn't flash you (who cares, it's in like 320x200 resolution anyway) and being a console game you couldn't play mods (that last point is hardly the N64's fault of course, but it's the one reason I still play the PC version occasionally).
Overall, the N64 version of Duke Nukem was great (and I think that the N64 only follow up, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour) was even better. At the other end of the porting stakes was Carmageddon 64, a conversion so bad that they even converted the wrong game (!), it was C2 not C1 that they converted. And the only reason C64* isn't the worst game on the N64 is because the N64 has Superman 64. Which. Is. Beyond. dreadful.
* Come to think of it, Carmageddon 64 was doomed from the start, if it could be abbreviated to C64.
I'm looking forward to the completion of the Goldeneye: Source project. Yes, indeed I am.
yeah i knew about that island, well from looking at it. :) a mag asked rare what it was about and they spilt the beanz, apparently it is a place you can go with a cheat. i remeber years after the game coming out, new things appearing like being able to jump back into the vents in the second level and the death match game, and the ability to unlock the other bonds with a button code.
didn't carmagedon get something like 8% review or something stupid. and yeah superman was supposed to be really shocking.
the only other game that came close to being that bad was that mortal combat rpg.:p
Also I've never played it, but it looked OK, did anyone here ever play that other Goldeneye? I think it came out on XBOX, and/or PS2.
Rogue Agent I think it was called?
Looked like in places it had bugger all to do with Goldeneye?
A few of my mates have it, they love it, I think it's very run-of-the-mill. There are much better FPS Bond games around now (and were then), 007: Nightfire is superb.
and Goldeneye source is nice, except for the jumping which I can't get used to.