Just downloaded the demo for the newest James Bond game that's coming out soon. As the previous Bond installments on the PC have been not very good from what I could tell, I was enthusiastic to see that this new one looked very promising. The demo weighed in over 600 megs, and luckily didn't take long to download. Installed it and got the main menu, which featured Daniel Craig as Bond, and not some generic looking guy which has happened in the past when they couldn't get the licenses straightened out.

Configured the controls, and just left the graphics at default.

First impressions: the camera pans up on Bond standing in what appears to be a sewer. The models are very realistic, though there are some hard edges where they ought to be softer, like I couldn't see his eyeball because his lower eyelid area sort of outcropped and looked very odd, though the angle I was at, it sort of makes sense, but that just bugged me for some reason.

The textures are done very well, as they should be for this generation of games. The frame rate was smooth, though I had to turn down the mouse sensitivity because it was WAYYY too fast. Overall the feel of the shooter reminded me very much of Timeshift for some reason.... Don't know why.

Apparently the objective in this demo level is to chase some guy that killed an MI-6 agent... Which, I have to say personally, I hate chasing people through scripted and linear events... Because even though I shoot them very plainly, I am forced to keep moving and chasing them. As it was here. I distinctly put in half a dozen bullets into the guy from far away, but since the whole thing is very linear and scripted, I had to keep chasing him, and taking down random bad guys in the process... Though the level literally was 100% linear (a stretch of corridor very briefly opening up to a large area, though with only 1 exit directly ahead), the environment was very intense in a good way. Stuff is blowing up while you chase this guy, and when you do get to the area where it opens up, it lends itself for some strategic placement behind pillars where you can duck behind and switch from 1st person to 3rd person and shoot from behind cover... But to really get a good shot, you have to aim, which makes you vulnerable while doing so, but your shots are more accurate.

The level itself probably took 5 minutes to run through, which surprised the hell out of me. Generally, demos are meant to showcase the novelty or highlights of the game, and/or show off the first level of the game to hook you into buying it.... What we got with this demo is like foreplay without the orgasm. You get to the end of one corridor and suddenly the demo is over and they show you a video with some clips from the upcoming game, which looks pretty sweet, though you don't really get to experience any of it.

One thing that was sort of annoying was the controls. To switch weapons, they suggest the 1 and 2 buttons, and picking up new weapons is awkward since you're running at such a fast pace.

I'd like to see what people say about this when it comes out. It's got a lot of promise, but the demo doesn't really show off what it can do...

I actually look forward to this new James Bond game. However, for my experience. It is very annoying to notice the fact that it keeps flickering every once in a while. Other than that, it is very smooth fluid gameplay and has a lot of potential to be the best Bond game since Rare's GoldenEye; which still claims the throne to be the best Bond game ever.

I'm still deciding if I should get it for the PC (fearing that flicker glitch), Wii or on my XBOX 360. However, I still have Need for Speed: Undercover on my list first so most likely I'll go for that first instead.

That and the fact I need to get Gears of War 2.

xboxrulz

I had no real noticable problems like this flicker thing you are talking about. Maybe your refresh rate needs to be adjusted. I know V-Sync gets rid of some flicker.

What kind of graphics card do you have?

My refresh rate is at 60Hz and it does VSync, I never run a game without VSync because I have an LCD screen.

My graphics card is ATi Radeon HD 3650

xboxrulz

I tend not to try video games based on movies / films, since most of them are not good. However, it is rated quite high on some gaming sites, so I may try it out.

Well as far as story goes, video games are generally very liberal when it comes to adapting movies... Game makers often throw in "inspired" levels to make the gameplay last longer (there's no real market for a $50 game if it only lasts 1 and a half hours like its movie).

There are some decent movie to game adaptations... Die Hard, for instance... Now the game engine wasn't the greatest, and some of the levels were kind of stupid, and the voice acting was so-so.... you know maybe it wasn't as great as I thought hahaha. But either way, I would say they did a decent job recreating the movie in a game as you can relive "moments" that stand out... Now if anyone were to re-do the game, I would hope they made it more free-form where you could literally crawl all over the building and do whatever you wanted (though they'd have to make it a stealth/shooter due to the fact that the Germans would tear you apart easily to prevent you from taking down the 12 of them in a half hour

It's the balance they need between making the game faithful to the movie, while adding in required gameplay that makes it enjoyable as a game itself. I think the reason why Goldeneye did so well for the N64 was because it gave you the objectives you needed to get through the level, while keeping close to the plot of the movie and having all the recognizable characters available.

What is cool about Quantum of Solace is that they actually got the actors (the guy who plays bond) to actually use their faces in the game... which is always a good thing. I just don't like it when they can't get the right people and have "generic" heros that are "supposed" to be "that" guy

I will have to see how the game gets reviewed before purchasing it. Story is mucho important to me, and hopefully they did a good job.

Ah, one thing I remembered... Another problem with movie-games is that they are stuck being sooo darned linear, because they are stuck moving at the pace of the movie. That's another reason why Goldeneye did well, because the multiplayer characters and levels added a new dimension to the game, and tons of replayability. With Quantum of Solace, I do hope they have a way to motivate players to go through the solo campaign multiple times, as well as any additional "gimmicks" that make the game worth playing. I was never one for multiplayer in games, because I've always been a solo gamer by nature, but the best value I've ever gotten was Battlefield 2, just because I've clocked in over 128 hours in it in multiplayer.... And for $9.99 (or $30 if you get all the expansions) that's the best purchase I've ever made haha.

Anyway, as far as the graphics flicker goes, try turning vsync OFF.... or see if the forums for the game have any tweaks available... Ugh, I love PC games over consoles, but I hate how we get shafted on poorly-optimized games... though the demo for Quantum of Solace seemed to play really well for me, so no complaints there ^.^


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I personally expected more, my computer runs it smoothly. I think the gameplay just isn't my style.

Yeah, the game looks great in the trailers, but there's just something ...off about it? I don't know how to explain it. I still have to find time to go see the movie in the theater and read some reviews before I go ahead and see if this game is worth picking up.