GoldenEye Remake OP

You were expecting someone else?

Back From The Dead. No Longer Just An Anonymous Star On The Memorial Board At MI6

Perhaps the first time since last Thursday, Commander James Bond RNR of His Majesty’s Secret Service has given me my first cause to smile that is not about who I work with.

The rumour mill has been deeply awash with tales of the Goldeneye remake since just after new year 2022, the first of the Robot Republic articles about it at the time concerning the 'burst dam like' leak of Xbox Achievements.

Before there is any confusion, this is not a remake of the 1995 movie which firmly re-established James Bond as a fixture on our cinema screens (No Time To Die review). Nor a remake of the slightly less universally well-received Goldeneye: Reloaded from 2010 (for Wii) and 2011 (for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360).

That sound you can hear is a hefty microphone dropping. It indeed has left me, for one, shaken, not stirred. The 1997 game will once again grace our consoles, only this time, it is multi-platform.

After more than understandable delays rumoured to be owing to the ongoing war in Ukraine (something which may prove still a thorny issue for the release), many (including your Bond-obsessed scribe and fellow Double O devotee Calvin Dyson) had assumed that after missing the quarter-century anniversary in August this year, this game would not be vapourware, but it will be stalled.

At the Nintendo Direct of September 2022, the Goldeneye remake was announced as indeed, coming to the Xbox One and both Xbox Series consoles through the frankly exemplary Xbox Gamepass. Those who bought a digital copy of 2015s stellar Rare Replay will receive it as an update to that game. Last, but not least, the latest console from those who gave us the first crack at playing the original Goldeneye 007 game, the Nintendo Switch, will also host the Goldeneye remake through its Nintendo Switch Online N64 Expansion Pack service.

One of the very few drawbacks in Goldeneye and to an extent its spiritual successor Perfect Dark, also by Rare, Is the graphical and gameplay slowdown, especially when explosions are present. In Rare’s own announcement on Twitter, this release will redress this part of a quarter century ago that we might prefer stay away from this remake.

The frame rate will be improved to a more smooth 40FPS and though the graphics were once cutting edge, to say they have aged is perhaps putting it mildly. They will be upscaled to a 4K standard.

I would hope both consoles will be getting all these bells and whistles, they have promised that the absolutely exceptional multiplayer will make the port too. But with a minor tweak. Multiplayer has an online mode.

Let’s hope the near mythical ‘All Bonds’ cheat makes the leap too. Myself, I have little money right now, so anything looking to join my ever-depressing list of expenses will be sorely disappointed. However, the Kim Sherwood James Bond books and this game will surely join the list.

It is Bond, I hope those reading will join me in my assessment:

Nobody Does It Better

This news to me brings new meaning to the exchange:

‘For England James?’

‘No. For Me’

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