The C-E staff give their views on gaming's most important issues.

Goldeneye. The mention of the word springs up so many memories in Nintendo fans, fond recollections of time with Rare's finest game. Ducking behind the crates, messing about with mines, dueling with 006 in Cradle and taking that first, precious sniper shot in Dam. One of the N64's best games, to be sure. This week EA dropped the bombshell that they will be developing a sequel to the game, to sit alongside Agent Under Fire, Nightfire and Everything Or Nothing. EA are a competent developer, but will they be able to escape Rare's shadow?

Do you think EA will be able to do Goldeneye 2's namesake justice?

Jayseven:

Firstly; Any rumours about Goldeneye 2 coming bundled with Goldeneye 64 should be instantly dismissed. I will take the chance of looking a fool later on: I don't think this will happen.

Right, onto the topic.

Before I cast my opinion on the subject at hand, I'll have a 'brief' look at what I know about the game. You are a baddie! A once-potential double-oh agent who has turned to the darkside, you've found a pretty handy friends in goldenfinger (thought he was dead?), "fighting for control of the world's greatest criminal organization." Who you will be fighting against is a mystery -- I doubt it'll be Bond (although I'm sure he'll be 'squeezed' into the game at some point) so will it be against other baddies?

What else do I know? Well, the game has not officially been confirmed for the GC, and that the game seems to have absolutely NOTHING to do with Goldeneye 64. Will it even be first person is the BIG question, if you ask me. In order to retain SOME feel of the 64 original surely they have to make the game from the traditional viewpoint, but maybe they will want to continue from where they left off with EoN?

What do I know about Goldeneye 64? Well, apart from the fact that it was one of the biggest selling and highest rated N64 games, receiving a BAFTA award -- and rightly so, for it was groundbreaking in terms of console FPS'. It was a game which me and my friends spent many an hour simply enjoying the game, a game which, arguably, is yet to be bettered.

Now onto the matter at hand. Do I think EA will honour the Goldeneye 'brand'? No. Do I think EA are justified to even use the name Goldeneye? NO! It's not like they're going to base the game on the film (at least it doesn't seem at all that way from the little info we've heard so far) nor does it sound like they're carrying on from where Goldeneye 64 left off. It seems to me that EA are using the Goldeneye name merely for the fact that the 64 game had such a great amount of respect from gamers. EA are blatantly trying to milk the cash cow here, use the name of a once-great game to help shift a game which (so far) seems to have no bearing whatsoever on the original game of which it steals the name from.

I think EA are unjustly abusing their licence capabilities, and I hope Goldeneye 64's reputation will not be tarnished.

Boo EA!

Bas:

GoldenEye 007 is one of the best games of all time.

EA's last few Bond games were fine but never great.

Fortunately, buying the name of a succesful game to stick it on your own product will change this.

GoldenEye will once again set the standard for console FPS games!

Oh boy, I wish I could believe that...

Freddy:

GoldenEye still hasn't been surpassed yet by the console FPSs that have come in its wake. Not HALO, not Perfect Dark, not TimeSplitters 2, not anything else. EA can surely hold their own in the 'above average FPS' category, but with the expectancy levels that GoldenEye 2 will undoubtedly receive, EA aren't going to be able to deliver anything of note.

GoldenEye will suffer for this too, no doubt. I think people will look at GoldenEye after playing GoldenEye 2 and think 'well GoldenEye wasn't all that great really, so why did we expect this one to be?'

Joby:

To be honest, I'm still pretty smug as nobody believed me a whole year when I claimed it was being made. The game has been in production now for a few years and Nintendo are working closely with EA (from what I picked up last year). The original Goldeneye will never be done justice too in my opinion. It's going to remain one of the best, if not the best console game ever.

Goldeneye 2 is obviously a cheap way of selling a few million units of software. However, if thought and time has gone into the game - a rarity for EA games.. then it might just be a suprise hit with critics as well.

Schpickles:

It's absolutely impossible to say. The point I would have to make is how relevent is GoldenEye as a license to this generation of gamers. Sure, there's a lot of people on a Nintendo forum that would know the GoldenEye name by heart because they have come from a Nintendo 64 background, but if you took a straw poll of opions of gamers walking through an average GAME store, how many could tell you about the game? 2 out of 10 maybe?

I think the details that have emerged have perhaps reflected some kind of multiplayer mode, perhaps a novel versus mode? I can't personally see how EA internal producers would back a "wacky" Bond title, when they've been striving so hard to establish its credibility with recent releases, with so many well-paid actors etc. As a result, I can't really see the game being particularly closely related to the N64 GoldenEye game - I think from EA's point of view, it will be a coincidence that there was a very popular Bond game made years ago, rather than something they should dutifully be paying homage to. Developers may understand the importance of Rare's classic, but I doubt EA's marketing department can afford to try to educate gamers of why 'GoldenEye 2' should be considered important.

The botton line is that, taken from its original context, an update of the game can't really match up to modern FPS' on consoles. Even with the depth of TimeSplitters 2's multiplayer, few are playing the game months later, to the same extent the original GoldenEye game was. Don't expect much more than a retro-featured EA update to its long line of Bond games. That's not a snub to EA - they are just giving the public what they want, and what will sell well.

EA do put a lot of time and money into their games - more so than most other developers dare dream of. Their games of late have featured some of the richest production values available. With GoldenEye, the danger is trying to make a "hardcore gamers'" game, which is catering for a minority. EA aren't the biggest publisher on the planet because they cater for minorities.

Iun:

Updates and sequels are rarely better than original franchises/films/games etc.

Some manage it: GTA: Vice City; X-Men 2 (DON'T argue); And um... er... well, there you have it, sequels mostly just don't manage to build on what the original had and make it better. They mostly taking the original, make it louder and prettier and then cash in on the wave of hype generated off the original.

But to take something as legendary as Goldeneye, slap a "2" suffix on the the title and you're asking for a whole heap of trouble. Maybe that's what EA want. Maybe EA want everyone to go out and buy this game just out of morbid curiousity to see how pale it looks in comparison to the original.

So this could be an extremely big coup for EA, riding on the back of the name which inspired generations of first person shooters. Or it will really just show how average they are and how stupid the average gamer is. Personally, with EA's track record of mediocre but playable tosh that has come about in recent years, I'm leaning towards the zealotism view of "How Dare They!?" Maybe that's just because I'm a bitter old hack and they don't pay me enough. I don't know.

Matt:

I know I run the risk of sounding like the anti-christ here, but only having just experienced Goldeneye 64 within the last 1 - 2 years, I can honestly say that it isn't that good. I mean, it's a fairly competant shooter in its own right, but games like Halo are far better games. Granted, I haven't even touched the multiplayer portion of the N64 classic, but, in 1 player mode, Halo outstrips this classic in every way, shape and form.

As far as EA being to replicate the experience that Rare produced, I can only answer no - to me, from what I've read about it, they seem like completely different games - the only thing linking Goldeneye 64 and Goldeneye 2 is the name. Goldeneye 2 seems to have its own plot, independant of the Goldeneye film license.

So please, can we stop comparing every damn FPS to Goldeneye, even if they are mystically linked.

What do you think? Are EA just subjecting themselves to comparisons which they can never hope to win?