This year Activision had only one title that was specific to a Nintendo platform in GoldenEye 007, however they were eager to show off multi-platform titles as well.
For the most part, the appointment with Activision was less hands on and more watch the demonstration than anything else. This held true for Call of Duty: Black Ops and to a certain extent, DJ Hero 2. I was able to get a few minutes in with GoldenEye 007 however and it feels as it did when I played it on the Nintendo 64 ten plus years ago.
My tour began with Call of Duty: Black Ops, presumably for either PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, I wasn’t sure which build. I was seated in a small room with a huge screen and loud speakers. The demonstration rolled out with helicopter noises and gun fire aplenty. In between fire fights and action, they’d pause to tell us a bit about the game. One time they talked about the fact that while this takes place during the Cold War era, this doesn’t have any particular conflict in mind. More action and jungle scenery assault my senses, though I can’t help but be at least somewhat impressed by the visuals and sound. The end comes around and yet more information is dispersed, such as how authentic the weaponry is in the game and the fact that the FBI tends to watch all the developers who research said weapons. All in all it wasn’t bad and it seemed Treyarch is putting their own spin on the CoD franchise.
Next up, I was yet again put into another booth, this time the atmosphere was more relaxed. So relaxed that someone who was apart of the small audience requested a beer and received a Heineken. I couldn’t fault anyone for it since it was the end of the day at around 7PM on Wednesday of the show. The title we were all waiting to see was GoldenEye 007 for Wii. Eventually the lights dimmed and we were shown the venerable James Bond, this time skinned to look like Daniel Craig as opposed to Pierce Brosnan. I inquired as to the reason for the switch and was informed they wanted to modernize the game and keep it current with the franchise. It also didn’t appear that Sean Bean was reused as Alec Trevelyan, otherwise known as Agent 006. With new blood came a new start and the emphasis this time is being put on stealth take downs instead of flashy gun fights. You’ll be able to choose either way however, so the flash isn’t taken away from those who with to shed blood. I was briefly able to play a bit of the multi-player and it took me back to my days of playing in front of a tubed TV with a cardboard separator on the Nintendo 64. Unfortunately, because I was feeling tired and strange, I decided to try the inverted controls, which made it near impossible for me to score a kill. After awhile I had them correct my error and I managed to score a kill. To control the action I was handed a Wii Classic Controller Pro and the controls were straight forward and typical of an FPS game. There was so much they were touting about the multi-player, such as online play, experience over time (ala Call of Duty I’m willing to bet), and all sorts of modes like Golden Gun and Paintball. With more content and attention to details, I hope folks can get over the way they may feel this looks and try it out, if only for nostalgia.
Last but not least was DJ Hero 2. Having only played the first for a brief period of time at my local Best Buy, I can’t comment much on the differences between the first and this version. What’s new in this from what they told me is being able to drop in and out of a song at any time as well as multi-player. Also new is the ability to be able to change difficulty on the fly. When it came to the multi-player aspect there are areas where you’ll be “fighting” for control of a solo area and will need to out scratch the other player in order to succeed. I asked about a possible Renegade edition or special edition of any sort and was told there won’t be for DJ Hero 2. For those who enjoy scratching and mixing their music, this looks to improve on what they’ve already built in DJ Hero.
