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The canceled Xbox 360 version of Goldeneye 007 has now been uncovered – and this image of virtual Pierce Brosnan bungee jumping from the closing section of the first level is a good indication of its scope. Some of the base geometry is identical, while some important aspects have been updated, notably the character models and background geometry.
Graslu00
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The dam and the surrounding mountains have never looked so detailed.
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But other aspects have remained largely untouched, such as the menu system.
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Dam, intro sequence. That is much less grainy and alias than on N64.
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The camera turns to James Bond.
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Is that who I think it is?
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Let’s do some work for England, James.
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This island at the end of the Dam is much clearer in the X360 version. You still can’t get there, but it’s a nice touch.
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I have a bad feeling about this guy.
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Explosion sprites have been updated and no longer bring the game to its knees.
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A different kind of ‘tank control’.
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Much longer viewing distances are nice stuff if you don’t want to take out your sniper rifle in a snowy environment.
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Familiar briefing interface.
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Updated pre-mission intros.
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That’s definitely a more refined model, although of course it’s still not quite as hi-fi as you’d expect from the average Xbox 360 fare.
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Natalya looks very different with her new model.
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Updated screen animations can be found on the game’s computers. Also note the full Russian keyboard.
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Battle time.
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Textures and models have been updated, but the animations remain identical to the 1996 original, so they’re still wacky ’90s robots (which I’m fine with).
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One sign that this is a legitimate leak: that’s a scanned version of longtime Xbox producer Ken Lobb around 2014, around the time production on this remake was nearing completion. (He also helped produce the original N64 version as part of the Nintendo of America staff in the 1990s.)
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A romp through a dark jungle.
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Xenia didn’t stand a chance.
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New Brosnan-ized character, but the dorky elevator music remains.
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Get out of the way! I’m trying to minimize the number of victims here!
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The end credits (with a glitch in how they depict a surrounding jungle) remain largely the same, with two touch-ups. First, there is the addition of Xbox-specific language.
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And second, this is an obvious plea for Bond’s titleholders.
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If you’ve clicked so far, here’s a fun Easter egg for you: a teaser of the unreleased game’s Xbox 360 achievements, as delivered to Ars by Graslu00.
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The other results are as follows. 00 Agent: Complete the game on Secret Agent difficulty setting. (25G) Bullet Proof: Complete a level after collecting all bulletproof vests. (5G) Sprinter: Complete the game from start to finish in less than an hour. (30G) Slapper: Complete a level without firing and killing 5 guards. (10G) Agent: Complete a level on any difficulty. (5G) Bullet Shy: Complete a level without getting hit. (20G) Secret Agent: Complete the game on Agent difficulty setting. (15G) License To Kill: Complete a level after killing more than 50 guards. (10G) Dual Wield: Dual Wield for any weapon. (5G) Ammunition Expert: Complete a level where you hit enemies with more than 300 shots. (15G) 007: Complete the game on 00 Agent difficulty. (40G)
Goldeneye 007The official remake project from Rare, Microsoft and 4J Studios, before it was quietly canceled, is one of the game industry’s wildest lost projects. We’ve covered this canceled Xbox 360 game at length over the years, with updates usually coming in the form of increasingly detailed leaks – and this week is definitely the biggest yet. The rumored N64 update dam has cracked open, as it were, with a legitimate playable copy leaked.
An old Spanish game streamer, going through Graslu00, got the real GoldenEye key in the form of one of the game’s near-complete ROMs, as created by Rare in the 2010s for Xbox 360 consoles and then indefinitely on the shelf. Graslu00 loaded the ROM into a PC emulator, confirmed it was real, and pre-recorded a full “00 Agent” gameplay session (meaning the hardest difficulty with the most required targets) before staging a chat while the footage was on were shown to viewers on Friday. Which made me wonder: How the heck did he get the ROM?
“I was sent the build anonymously and had to wait” until a certain date to reveal it, Graslu00 told Ars Technica in an email interview. The files came with a curious note: “Never say never, release soon James.”
From the look of Graslu00’s channel, are years of it Golden Eye-connected streams may have caught the attention of a ROM leaky and his last two-hour video shows a distinct N64 Golden Eye expert who efficiently tackles every remade level. Therefore, the video is not only considered the first independent recording of this holy grail of lost video games, but also the very first speed run.
Not your father’s RCP90
If this is all new to you, rewind to my last piece on the X360 Goldeneye 007 remake, which breaks down the base. As I’ve reported before, this is a note-for-note remake of the N64 classic, as opposed to a revision, and it’s so allegant that it includes a “graphics switch” button, similar to some Halo remakes games. You can switch back and forth between the game’s original assets and a completely new coat of paint (and much more realistic-looking actors, including a James Bond who finally looks like Pierce Brosnan) at the push of a single button.
Graslu00 chooses not to test that feature in his recordings, although he confirms in emails to Ars that the graphics toggle button works without hooking or pausing the game. (He admits to having noticed a few funky graphics mismatch bugs when switching back and forth, but says they’re mild.) For this two-hour video, Graslu00 chose not to show off the switch because he uses the ” flow “wanted to maintain and prove that the canceled project can indeed be played from start to finish … at least, on the Xenia emulator (not to be confused with Goldeneye 007 character Xenia Onnatop). In emails with Ars, he claims the game runs identically on 360 hardware and is “signed as retail”, making it easier to run on emulators (and needs a patch to work on developer 360 hardware). That means the small number of bugs related to sound volume imbalances, disappearing and recurring assets, and dummy textures are inherent to the build it got anonymously, unlike a problem with emulators (although exactly what build this is remains unclear since the menus do not contain a version number, for example).
Meanwhile, the full scope of the project has never been more apparent than in this two-hour video. Each campaign level is not only defeated, it’s defeated, with occasional pauses to linger at revised skyboxes, textures, props, and revamped character faces – and the scale of this game’s enhancements surpasses that of the Perfectly dark X360 remake, as proven by elements like completely revamped mountains in Dam, higher resolution posters in Archives and a total overhaul of Egyptian bonus level. Still, this video counts more as a speed run than a careful analysis. Graslu00 clearly knows his Golden Eye, thanks to high-speed strafe-running, manual aiming, and the kind of rapid-fire PP7 gunfire you’d swear came from an RCP90.