The world's best known secret agent is back and this time, just so that no one gets too confused, he also looks like Pierce Brosnan. In "Everything or Nothing," his fifth interactive adventure from EA Games, the action promises to be even more intense.
Use espionage, tactical skills, and Q-Lab gadgets to analyze every situation, act like Bond, using your stylish physical skills, clever disguises, and bold personality to once again save the world. Every Bond moment is played out before you in an all-new, third-person cinematic perspective.
A vast amount of effort, new technological advancements and money are being poured into this project and the title promises to offer something most Bond games, since GoldenEye, lacked, an immersive and in-depth gaming experience.
Since the title is also expected for the Game Boy Advance so let's get those details out of the way first.
GBA Features
The GBA version of the game is still related to the console version, but it's original material, you're doing different stuff. The GBA is more of an adventure, there are RPG elements in there, you can develop skills so that you're more accurate with a gun, for instance.
-Visit exotic locales for explosive action on foot and behind the wheel as you race to accomplish missions only a secret agent would encounter.
-When escape seems nearly impossible, choose from a wide array of high-tech Q-Branch gadgetry, including devices exclusively for the Game Boy Advance version of the game.
Exclusive GBA Multiplayer Features
-All-out, arena-style combat with up to four players -- use the Game Boy Advance Game Link cable to hook up with friends on other Game Boy Advance systems.
-Multiple game modes and new maps featuring both co-operative and competitive play.
Special GBA Link Features
Link up with James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing on Nintendo GameCube to access exclusive features, including mini-games, gadget upgrades, and maps previously unavailable on the Game Boy Advance version.
Everything or Nothing will be made up of four acts, within those acts there will be different maps, variety is therefore guaranteed. So for instance you might start off rappelling down a building, then you have to chase a train, drive along the canyons of Egypt, catch up to the train and get on. Now you have to use stealth, trying to sneak through without being caught, and then you're actually fighting Jaws.
Beat Jaws and you have to chase after the guy who stole the nanotechnology, the top secret information that forms the basis of your mission, and you chase him by helicopter. So the gamer has a lot of gameplay options throughout the game. Hold on though, all that is just one act.
In the next one you'll be in New Orleans, which is much bigger...
Unlike most recent Bond games Everything or Nothing will be in third person, the reason for that choice, according to EA, is that since there will be no movie this year players will want to look at James Bond. It also seems likely that having acquired the license for Pierce Brosnan's face, they would want to use it as well. EA claim that this time it will feel like you are playing a movie.
Another difference to previous games is the use, of the now extremely popular, slow motion option. From Max Payne to the Enter the Matrix bullet-time and Chaser's Adrenaline mode, slow motion action is here to stay and the new JB title will utilize it although, details of exactly how that will be done have not yet been revealed.
According to recent information all versions of the game (GC, XBox and PS2) will not be identical, each version will have its own unique bits of polish aimed to highlight the format's strong-points.
Stealth
Riding on the trend which peaked with Splinter Cell's success, Everything or Nothing will place great emphasis on stealth and James Bond will have to be silent and deadly in order to succeed. According to the developers however, there is much more to the game, There's a combat system so that you can deal low and high blows, you can throw and grab opponents, there's counters, and it's definitely challenging - it's a difficult game. You can cycle through your weapons with the D-pad, switch through from weapons to gadgets.
Multiplayer
Whatever amazing details of the multiplayer aspect of the game we may reveal below, if you are an XBox owner you will, most likely, be disappointed. Until EA sort their dispute with Microsoft over the XBox Live service, only PS2 online play will be available.
There will be two multiplayer modes. A co-op mode where you will get 12 original maps not connected to the single-player game, which will be fairly extensive - you will have to work with each other to progress.
Plus there will be an arena mode where you will fight a buddy, and there will be much more going on, weapons attacking you, Jaws joining in, it will definitely be a party game.
Many of the complaints of Bond enthusiasts about the previous Nightfire game had to do with the skins for multiplayer since they didn't really resemble to characters from the films. This time around developers have been much more ambitious. Some of the best modelers and animators in the world have joined the Everything or Nothing team in order to address precisely that problem.
A long list of classic characters has also been recruited, as well as a host of multiplayer levels from the original films.
AI
Everything or Nothing is an action game, but it's a stealth-action game. First of all, it's going to be hard to shoot your way out of trouble every time. The enemy will beat you, the AI has been developed in such a way as to make it much stronger, they hide, take cover, all that sort of stuff. But if you're sneakier, you can actually increase your health point capacity, your capacity to carry ammo and your chances of survival.
There are areas where you have to be cunning, there's an area later on in the game where you're in a dark cemetery with limited ammo, and a sniper is shooting at you, you don't know where he is. So you have to rely on a flash of lightning to pinpoint his position, that's the only way you can locate him.
And there's a rewards system, so you can get bronze, silver, gold, platinum depending on how well you play through a level, and with the platinum award you'll be able to gain assets that you couldn't get before, or secret multiplayer levels. So there's a lot of incentive there to play through the game skillfully.
Another reason that the third person perspective was chosen for Everything or Nothing is that this time around great emphasis has been placed on the story. So Bruce Feirstein, who wrote the GoldenEye movie script and the Tomorrow Never Dies script, was brought in. He started writing the story, and developers decided, since there was no movie planned, to bring in Pierce Brosnan, his face and his voice, and eventually the whole cast.
The Cast
According to Kevin Chorney the use of original cast voices helps since, that way you recognise the characters, you can empathise with the characters.
Returning along with Pierce Brosnan in their film roles are John Cleese as Q, Dame Judi Dench as M, and Richard Kiel as legendary henchman Jaws. In the role of Bond's new nemesis, Nikolai Diavolo, is Willem Dafoe, joined by Shannon Elizabeth as new cyber Bond girl Serena St. Germaine and Heidi Klum as the malevolent Katya Nadanova. All cast members will contribute voiceover for their roles as well as accurate likenesses provided through EA's electronic cyberscanning process.
I look forward to returning as James Bond in Everything or Nothing, said Mr. Brosnan. Playing the role in the interactive realm lets me bring my interpretation of the character to a new generation of Bond fans.
Audio
The audio direction of James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing is taking place simultaneously in two parallel universes 800 miles (about 1300 km) apart. In Burnaby, British Columbia, the team is hard at work on the on-road, off-road, and in-the-air vehicles, while the team in Redwood Shores, California, is tackling the musical score.
The Redwood Shores team has the daunting task of creating a musical score that lives up to Hollywood standards. The ultimate goal is to create a game that is musically sophisticated in terms of both composition and how the music fits into the game itself.
The sound team is also experimenting with mixing music in Dolby Digital surround-sound for all next-generation consoles. The result will be a game with a movie-quality audio track that lives up to Bond fans' expectations.
Electronic Arts is sparing no expense to make the audio in Everything or Nothing an integral part of the game experience. The score for the game will be performed by a full orchestra plus other live instrumentalists. For sound effects, the Redwood Shores team is making wide use of Foley-the art of creating sounds with props-which delivers the same level of detail we hear in movies and television.
Vehicles
The team members creating the amazing audio for Everything or Nothing's driving missions have their work cut out for them, exotic cars are a big part of the Bond experience, so the team has to make sure they get the engine sounds just right.
Using new technology developed at Electronic Arts Canada, the team can create incredibly realistic-sounding engines that emphasize the over-the-top excitement of sitting at the wheel of some of the world's most powerful and expensive driving machines.
The team's aim with these new engine sounds is to enhance the excitement of being James Bond while driving a Q-branch ultra-machine. We can make vehicles sound more thrilling at high speeds, explains Jennifer Lewis, Audio Director for the vehicle missions. Using sonic encouragement, we can cue the player to continue driving (or not) at high velocities so that they can accomplish their mission in style.
The driving team actually auditions vehicles for their tone. A big, beefy, terrifying engine would be a good match for a menacing vehicle during intense game play.
Building the mechanics of a game that is coming out in 3rd-person for the first time is an incredible undertaking. The design team's goal is to amaze gamers and Bond fans alike with extraordinary mechanics. These mechanics will, in turn, enable phenomenal Bond Moments that bring players to feel like they are in control of a movie-quality Bond experience.
The first thing the design team had to do was develop the core mechanics of the game. They dug down into the details of how Bond would move, choose weapons, behave, punch, pick up weapons, and interact with his environment. They also had to make the non-player characters (the AI or enemies) highly intelligent and challenging.
The key to designing a game is to make the interface simple, but the game challenging, a process that can take as much as an entire year because it is so critical. The team made every effort to give the player as much control as possible, while still getting across the character of Bond and all his signature Bond moves.
Once the core mechanics were sorted out, the team went through an extensive series of brainstorming sessions. They imagined the most intense, action-packed sequences they could think of, and then picked out the most spectacular pieces. They then used those sequences to build even more awesome action. This was done again and again and again - each iteration becoming more spectacular until those incredible sequences could be blown up into even more intense missions, worthy of the action people expect of the Bond franchise.
The interesting part of the process is that, even with a remarkable storyline, it's the tiny details that really make an extraordinary game. Just like a film director may try many takes before he is satisfied with every detail on the screen, a game's designer must be just as particular. You can have incredible storylines, missions, objectives, targets, and enemies - but it's the Foley and perfectly timed vehicle engine roars, cyberscanned cast models and minor expressions on a character's face, as well as voiceovers, that really set a game apart.
Jason VandenBerghe, Lead Designer of James Bond 007 : Everything or Nothing is excited when talking about the mechanics and the amazing skillsets in the game Imagine Bond at a jazz club in New Orleans. He elbows a guy behind him, then turns and hides against a wall, aiming at a guy. He ducks for cover behind a table he just overturned and fires his AK-74, then quickly picks up a bottle off the bar counter and throws it at the grunt.
The mechanics in Everything or Nothing are just incredible. Some new features in the game will be the ability to take on your enemies one-on-one with the new hand-to-hand fighting feature. Bond can do combos, throws, counters, and disarms. He can also interact with objects such as bottles or pipes in the environment by, for example, throwing them or using them to club his enemies.
Bond will also be able to dodge and roll while strafing and flip over tables to take cover. These features add maneuvering capabilities that are essential during the heat of battle, especially against the new AI. Your enemies will have the ability to work as a squad by communicating with each other and take on a range of states such as search, investigate, evade, take cover, and raise alarm, so it will take skill and strategy to beat the game.