James Bond, An Agent Under Fire?

<p>Remember when Bond games were about as solid as games got&quest; If so&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re probably old&&num;8230&semi; It&&num;8217&semi;s been a long time since <a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"007&colon; Agent Under Fire" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;007&percnt;3A&lowbar;Agent&lowbar;Under&lowbar;Fire" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Agent Under Fire<&sol;a> &lpar;2001&rpar; and <a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"James Bond 007&colon; Nightfire" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;James&lowbar;Bond&lowbar;007&percnt;3A&lowbar;Nightfire" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Nightfire<&sol;a> &lpar;2002&rpar; <span class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink">came out<&sol;span>&comma; and even longer since one of the most iconic games of all time&comma; <a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"GoldenEye 007 &lpar;1997 video game&rpar;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;GoldenEye&lowbar;007&lowbar;&percnt;281997&lowbar;video&lowbar;game&percnt;29" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">GoldenEye 007<&sol;a><span class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink"> &lpar;1997&rpar;<&sol;span><span class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink">&comma;<&sol;span> arrived on the <span class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink">N64<&sol;span>&period; The simple fact that GoldenEye&comma; perhaps the most successful of the Bond Games&comma; came out on the N64 is enough to prove my point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;47796" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-47796" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignleft"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;06&sol;05224059&sol;Goldeneyeemulated4lw&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-47796" alt&equals;"James Bond in GoldenEye" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;06&sol;05224059&sol;Goldeneyeemulated4lw-300x207&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"207" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-47796" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Remember this bunker&quest; We do&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>So where did all the good Bond games go&quest; After all the last Bond game to receive generally positive reviews was <a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"James Bond 007&colon; Everything or Nothing" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;James&lowbar;Bond&lowbar;007&percnt;3A&lowbar;Everything&lowbar;or&lowbar;Nothing" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">James Bond 007&colon; Everything or Nothing<&sol;a>&comma; released almost a decade ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Do we have the new direction of the Bond franchise&comma; an undeniably more serious&comma; Jason Bourne-like tone&comma; to blame&quest; Have we in the gaming community matured to the point where we are incapable of enjoying a game that takes itself less than seriously&quest; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure&comma; but the receptions recent releases in the Bond franchise have received suggest that the series has nothing more to offer us&semi; at least not until they reassess their standards for what is an acceptable product to release on the market&period; These new games are really bad&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What&&num;8217&semi;s even worse is the fact that it&&num;8217&semi;s not as though game developers don&&num;8217&semi;t have some really great templates to work with&period; I remember spending countless hours matching wits with the AI on Skyrail&comma; one of the best maps in Nightfire&period; Admittedly this was hardly a difficult task&comma; but it was fun nevertheless&comma; and in the end isn&&num;8217&semi;t that all we&&num;8217&semi;re looking for&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">I understand that some of what made Bond games fun&comma; the gadgets&comma; the girls&comma; the silly one-liners James delivers&comma; may not appeal to some of these new-age gamers&comma; who only care about stats and K&sol;D ratio&&num;8217&semi;s&semi; you know the type&period; The ones with the modded controllers&comma; and as many empty energy drink cans as hours spent using the Striker and camping in <span class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink">Modern Warfare 3<&sol;span>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">However&comma; to those of us who are just looking to pick up a simple game and feel like a suave secret agent&comma; capable of taking down even the most dubious of villains while maintaining hairstyle perfection&comma; the James Bond video game was exactly what we needed&comma; when we needed it&comma; and the fact that the franchise no longer seems viable is just sad&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;47805" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-47805" style&equals;"width&colon; 192px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;06&sol;05224044&sol;jb-007-nightfire-screenshot-1&lowbar;656x369&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" wp-image-47805 " title&equals;"James Bond" alt&equals;"James Bond&comma; Nightfire" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;06&sol;05224044&sol;jb-007-nightfire-screenshot-1&lowbar;656x369-300x168&period;jpg" width&equals;"192" height&equals;"107" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-47805" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Keep her warm for us until next time Jimbo&period; Just make sure next time is actually fun&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"zemanta-pixie" style&equals;"margin-top&colon; 10px&semi; height&colon; 15px&semi;"><img class&equals;"zemanta-pixie-img" style&equals;"border&colon; none&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" alt&equals;"" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;zemanta&period;com&sol;pixy&period;gif&quest;x-id&equals;e062ddd0-55b6-482d-acd8-dbf8d92a415e" &sol;><&sol;div>&NewLine;