14th March 2023, 9:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 16th March 2023, 6:24 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
So, the new Goldeneye port came out. To be specific, the Switch version is an emulated ROM while the XBox One version is a port. Why did this take so long? We've been blaming a lot of different game studios, mostly Nintendo, over the years. That isn't what did it though. MGM shifted to a new owner who didn't want lowly video games associated with her bond license, and she had gone on record as HATING Goldeneye and it's depiction of Bond. Goldeneye's original N64 release itself only JUST squawked by her demands because of a preexisting contract she couldn't override, but it still infuriated her enough that Rare and Nintendo lost the license and it went to EA. They went on to make TWINE though so... I really am not sure how the Goldeneye styled game got approved when Goldeneye itself didn't. Anyway, now that Amazon owns James Bond, that's all changed, and we are FINALLY able to see a rerelease after all these years.
However, it's barely even worth giving this port a full review. This is basically to say that while there are a few appreciated tweaks, it's almost exactly the same game as the N64 original. So what changed? The game now runs at a much higher resolution and frame rate, ranging from 2K at 60fps to 4k at 120fps depending on your system and TV. The game also supports a lot of new control options, modernizing it somewhat. I've got mine set to custom though, because the super fast diagonal run only works with the d-pad and not the analog stick. Further, "leaning" no longer works which makes corner shots a LOT more risky. Those speed runs involving turrets are going to be hell... There is no XBox Live online mode. There isn't even system link. Somehow, Nintendo has the online play and MS doesn't. This is a far cry from the enhanced port Perfect Dark got. In fact, a number of the visuals are actually worse. At a higher resolution, huge seams show between lots of geometry. Many textures go transparent in glitchy ways. In fact, texturing in general is done improperly. They use 4 point sampling in this when the original used 3 point. This issue also happened with Nintendo's Switch emulator resulting in all the textures in the game being displayed wrong, sometimes being very glaringly so. While the game does support widescreen (as did the original N64 release), it's a rather lazy implementation that letter boxes some sections and not others. This is better than how the N64 game simply stretched all the 2D elements to make it wide screen, but not by much. Heck, while they removed the N64 logo at the very start, they failed to scrub all the Nintendo references out of the XBox version. It feels barely tested.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aja9OWAWx_onhl6ZtY5c...h?e=vX50vm
But, there is another that they have and, after some bug testing, could release RIGHT NOW, and that's the 360 port:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:GoldenEye_00...rcade_Port
Look at this. LOOK AT THIS! This looks even better than the Perfect Dark port. They enhanced it across the board, with new multiplayer levels (Odd they didn't add cradle too, but hey it was in beta), new functions like making all characters the same height in multiplayer (Oddjob and Jaws matchups just changed a lot, and yes this feature can be turned off), oh and this one I really love. Hate the new look? With the press of a button, switch the graphics back and forth MID GAME. Perfect Dark's XBox 360 port also had this feature in beta but it was scrapped before release for some reason. Oh and yes, it had online multiplayer and system link. It also did a lot of streamlining so you no longer have to start a mission just to adjust game settings, and can see what par time to aim for without having to beat/abort a mission first.
This is absolutely the version we should have gotten. There's not even the excuse of "needing to port" it. The XBox One/Series runs a LOT of 360 games very well through it's excellent emulation. They easily could have just made sure this one was working and release it that way. Further, they should have integrated it with the Rare Replay game. Like most Rare Replay 360 games, this one would still be executable outside the Rare Replay interface, but by adding it properly, they could also put in those Rare Replay videos that they actually recorded for this, as well as giving us a music player for all the game's amazing music. So, why? I can only guess at one cause. I have no evidence for this, and it could easily be any number of factors none of us can guess at, but Nintendo may have demanded that MS's version not be obviously superior to Nintendo's version as part of their agreement to allow MS to release it at all.
Edit: Forgot something, and so did MS! So, DK Mode cheat is still called "DK Mode" in this version. They altered it to "Monkey Mode" in the 360 release of Perfect Dark.
However, it's barely even worth giving this port a full review. This is basically to say that while there are a few appreciated tweaks, it's almost exactly the same game as the N64 original. So what changed? The game now runs at a much higher resolution and frame rate, ranging from 2K at 60fps to 4k at 120fps depending on your system and TV. The game also supports a lot of new control options, modernizing it somewhat. I've got mine set to custom though, because the super fast diagonal run only works with the d-pad and not the analog stick. Further, "leaning" no longer works which makes corner shots a LOT more risky. Those speed runs involving turrets are going to be hell... There is no XBox Live online mode. There isn't even system link. Somehow, Nintendo has the online play and MS doesn't. This is a far cry from the enhanced port Perfect Dark got. In fact, a number of the visuals are actually worse. At a higher resolution, huge seams show between lots of geometry. Many textures go transparent in glitchy ways. In fact, texturing in general is done improperly. They use 4 point sampling in this when the original used 3 point. This issue also happened with Nintendo's Switch emulator resulting in all the textures in the game being displayed wrong, sometimes being very glaringly so. While the game does support widescreen (as did the original N64 release), it's a rather lazy implementation that letter boxes some sections and not others. This is better than how the N64 game simply stretched all the 2D elements to make it wide screen, but not by much. Heck, while they removed the N64 logo at the very start, they failed to scrub all the Nintendo references out of the XBox version. It feels barely tested.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aja9OWAWx_onhl6ZtY5c...h?e=vX50vm
But, there is another that they have and, after some bug testing, could release RIGHT NOW, and that's the 360 port:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:GoldenEye_00...rcade_Port
Look at this. LOOK AT THIS! This looks even better than the Perfect Dark port. They enhanced it across the board, with new multiplayer levels (Odd they didn't add cradle too, but hey it was in beta), new functions like making all characters the same height in multiplayer (Oddjob and Jaws matchups just changed a lot, and yes this feature can be turned off), oh and this one I really love. Hate the new look? With the press of a button, switch the graphics back and forth MID GAME. Perfect Dark's XBox 360 port also had this feature in beta but it was scrapped before release for some reason. Oh and yes, it had online multiplayer and system link. It also did a lot of streamlining so you no longer have to start a mission just to adjust game settings, and can see what par time to aim for without having to beat/abort a mission first.
This is absolutely the version we should have gotten. There's not even the excuse of "needing to port" it. The XBox One/Series runs a LOT of 360 games very well through it's excellent emulation. They easily could have just made sure this one was working and release it that way. Further, they should have integrated it with the Rare Replay game. Like most Rare Replay 360 games, this one would still be executable outside the Rare Replay interface, but by adding it properly, they could also put in those Rare Replay videos that they actually recorded for this, as well as giving us a music player for all the game's amazing music. So, why? I can only guess at one cause. I have no evidence for this, and it could easily be any number of factors none of us can guess at, but Nintendo may have demanded that MS's version not be obviously superior to Nintendo's version as part of their agreement to allow MS to release it at all.
Edit: Forgot something, and so did MS! So, DK Mode cheat is still called "DK Mode" in this version. They altered it to "Monkey Mode" in the 360 release of Perfect Dark.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)