James Bond 007: NightFire Preview

By Amer Ajami, GameSpotPosted Jul 18, 2002 6:00 pm PT

Secret agent James Bond is gearing up for his debut on the PC. Get all the details here.

It's a good time to be James Bond. It's the suave superspy's 40th movie anniversary this year, and this winter's upcoming release of Die Another Day will be the 20th film that's featured the debonair MI6 secret agent. Electronic Arts and MGM are commemorating this momentous occasion by releasing a quartet of 007 games later this year, one for every major platform. And while Bond is no stranger to consoles--developers have been constantly trying to match the level of commercial and critical success received by Rare's GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64--EA's James Bond 007: NightFire will mark Bond's first appearance on the PC. It's interesting to note that Electronic Arts had a Quake III Bond game based on The World Is Not Enough in development a couple of years ago, but the game never saw the light of day. NightFire will be a different story, though.

Do you have the time? This may look like a normal Rolex, but it also doubles as a laser.

The game has been in development for nearly a year and a half at Texas-based Gearbox Studios, the company made famous by its work on Half-Life: Opposing Forces and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for the PC, as well as its upcoming releases of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Halo PC. We recently saw the latest version of NightFire for the PC at EA's Redwood City headquarters, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that it isn't a port of its three console brethren. While all four versions will follow a similar plot and share some locales, the PC version of NightFire is truly the unique one among the bunch. For starters, the game lacks the five driving and flying levels that the console versions will have--this is strictly a first-person shooter. To make up for these missing elements, Gearbox has added a pair of PC-specific levels that you won't be able to find in any of the three other iterations of NightFire. These areas--an Austrian airfield and an underwater level in the South Pacific--are just as large as any of the game's other levels, which makes this version the longest of the bunch. NightFire for the PC will also be the only one with any kind of online support for its multiplayer component, and it's being created using a proprietary 3D engine, not the one that's being shared by the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions of the game.

NightFire's 3D engine is certainly impressive, as illustrated by this Austrian mansion.

In creating NightFire, Gearbox took the latest version of Valve's Half-Life engine, modified it extensively, and dubbed it the Gearcraft engine. The engine's renderer was written specifically for this game, and, according to associate producer Michael Condrey, "there's so little original Half-Life code in NightFire that it's practically using a brand-new engine." To put it plainly, this will be Gearbox's best-looking game to date, and this point is clearly illustrated in one of NightFire's early levels. Here, Bond will find himself in the middle of a social gathering at a posh Austrian mansion. The walls of this expansive level are lined with sharp, detailed textures that do a good job of reflecting the environment's rich setting. The high ceiling is supported by gold-trimmed columns, and many parts of this small castle are decorated with priceless oil paintings, murals, and ornate rugs, all of which are textured very cleanly. Subtle lighting and shadow effects from numerous chandeliers and track lighting round out this level's impressive appearance by giving it a realistic look. NightFire's new engine is just as adept at rendering visually pleasing outdoor areas as well. Water is drawn with specular environment-mapping in order to create lakes and rivers that undulate and reflect their surroundings in a realistic manner. Procedurally rendered skies allow for moving clouds, and at times, you'll be able to make out lightning flashes and other ambient weather effects too.

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 3, 2006 1:13 am PT

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