Return To Home Page		October 6 2008

Release Date	Distributer	Publisher	Developer
19/11/2008	Activision	Activision	Treyarch
Offline Players	Online players	Price	Anticipation
1	2-12	$109.95

QOS switches to third person when taking cover.

While the James Bond movies go from strength to strength, and were certainly reinvigorated recently with Daniel Craig taking over the role as the worlds most famous super spy the video games have rarely made an impact on the gaming world following the massively popular GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64 way back in 1997. Following the success of that title Electronic Arts held the rights to the franchise and released seven main titles, with some semi-admirable titles but nothing extraordinary. A couple of years ago Electronic Arts gave up the James Bond license, with Activision picking up the rights for a truckload of money in 2006. It has taken two years for the company to develop that game, but it is almost upon us.

One of the sequences from Casino Royale!

Quantum of Solace: The Game focuses on the upcoming movie due out in a couple of weeks, but approximatley half the game will include missions based on events that took place in the previous Daniel Craig reboot, Casino Royale. Given that this second Daniel Craig movie continues where the last left off that's not a bad thing at all. Fortunately for Activision the filmmakers have given Treyarch materials from the movies filming including photographs and dailies so they could ensure the game was authentic as possible. This extends to re-creating many of the more thrilling moments from the movie such as the brilliant crane jumping sequences from Casino Royale but even includes some locations and sequences that were cut from the final film!

Daniel Craig's likeness is superb.

In terms of actual gameplay Quantum of Solace: The Game is primarily a first-person action title, however the game does switch to a third person persepective when taking cover and for those special 'James Bond' moments including hand to hand combat. You won't, however, find any driving segments in the game as Electronic Arts tried in previous titles - the developers wanted to concentrate on the core gameplay - that being the action and stealth segments. Perhaps the most exciting aspect about this game is the knowledge that Treyarch are using the same engine that powers the brilliant Call of Duty 4, but obviously with over a year of technological improvements and tweaking to suit this game.

Seems there has already been some action here.

There is still a lot to be revealed about this game and as is the case with almost every movie tie-in we don't expect to see or hear much about this game until right on release. What we do know is that the game will include mutli-player for up to 12 gamers online and that the game will include unique Bond styled modes. One such mode is a "Bond Vs Bond" mode, and another the "Golden Gun" mode. With the same technology being used to power the multi-player as that in Call of Duty 4 we have little doubt that this will be something to look forward to.

Another final piece of cool news is that the game will support Trophies, and we believe that will be straight out of the box, no lengthy wait for a patch here.

The game will have plenty of stealth moments.

Visually the game is very impressive. We have already mentioned that the game uses the Call of Duty 4 engine for the graphics, but can also confirm that the game will be the first to feature Daniel Craig's voice and likeness (not surprising since this is the first game since he took over the role), as well as those of Judi Dench, Eva Green, Mads Mikklesen, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Almaric.

Unless you've been living under a rock you have probably seen the trailers for the upcoming movie upon which this game is based. If anything, it looks even bigger and better then Casino Royale which makes it pretty special. This video game tie-in has been in development for a long time now, and rather then rush the product to market when Casino Royale came out they have wisely waited until this second movie was coming out and based the game on both movies. Expect a release in mid-November to coincide with the movie.