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MI6 quizzed Senior Producer Chris Plummer about the
forthcoming "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" game...
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GoldenEye Rogue Agent - Chris Plummer Interview
(1)
13th September 2004
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Tell us about the improvements that have been made to
the game since E3; such as the hostage taking, dual weapon
wielding and melee combat and other differences?
Some of the things since E3, honestly the biggest difference
across the board is performance. The frame rate was certainly
not what we wanted at E3, we�ve had massive improvements
there, optimizations which allow us to get a lot more guys
into the action... Let's us do a lot more with the FX. Just
makes the game better, obviously we want to make sure the
frame rates really fast, and it�ll continue to get major
improvements, but I think that has actually changed the
way the game feels pretty significantly.
In terms of game mechanics we had the melee system partially
implemented at E3, so it was important for us to have a
way to take guys out at close range but we couldn�t finish
the thread so you couldn�t actually throw guys around. So
now you can actually grab them, you can throw them, throw
them into each other and knock guys over. You can throw
them out the window, you can do all those things and it
actually affects the other AI�s, so when they see you doing
this stuff it can actually influence their behavior.
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Above: Chris Plummer talking to MI6 about the latest game
"GoldenEye: Rogue Agent"
"...We have surrender capabilities
and stuff like that so you can actually intimidate the AI
to the point where they�ll surrender. "
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Evil Intelligence
So we�ve uncovered a lot of depth there that I�m really happy
with. Also the AI�s been tuned a lot more since E3, we have a
lot of cool behaviors, we were showing human shield which players
would do at E3 and now they do even more. We have surrender capabilities
and stuff like that so you can actually intimidate the AI to the
point where they�ll surrender. That�s something we actually score
you against as it factors in later in the game.
Getting a much bigger level together has been a big improvement
since E3. Fort Knox is really the preamble back-story, it shows
you�re trained at MI6. But you aren�t the true villain yet and
you don�t have the golden eye. And that arguably is the most important
part of the whole thing, you�ve got to have the signature element
that defines you as the bad guy that�s unique and sort of worthy
of being a Bond villain. The goldeneye is now in and we have the
activated features as well as many of its sort of automated features
in the game now and it makes a big difference. I think when we
get the rest of the golden eye features in it's really going to
change how the game plays more.
The explosions seen in the game at the moment are lacking
a bit of "oomph", are we going to see those improved for the release
date?
Yeah, absolutely. We're pre alpha so you're seeing a lot of things
that aren't implemented fully. Right now with explosions you see
bodies flying, but obviously your see fireballs and cool particle
effects and stuff like that. We focused mainly on the effects
that the weapons make in the environment, that�s one of the things
that were still kind of working on, but in certain parts of the
game you can see some interesting feedback when you fire your
weapon and you watch walls getting chewed away and stuff. The
next step will be to add that kind of detail into the explosives
and that�s everything from rocket launchers and grenades to fighting
against air vehicles and allot of death traps which have explosives
associated with them as well.
With the MI6 agent switch, what sort of similarities do you
think there are between the Goldeneye character and Alec Trevelyan?
Well the biggest one is the fact that they are both MI6 gone
bad. So that�s one of the things that I thought was so cool about
Alec Trevelyan, first of all he had a personal relationship with
Bond that dated way back. They had the same background, he trained,
he was there, he was a 00 agent. So with our character being MI6
trained we thought that that would be a really cool think, Trevelyan
is like my favorite Bond villain, maybe next to Onatopp. So he�s
very much the inspiration, but your motivations are completely
different, its a different type of revenge.
A Dish Best Served Cold
Trevelyan had a much deeper issue he was trying to resolve and
get even, whereas you're after revenge for Dr No. As people do
you wrong throughout the game there�s a lot of getting even for
revenge that your character gets exposed to and you get the taste
for power, which is something that Trevelyan wasn�t in it for.
He wasn�t in it for power and control, for us we're in it for
ruling the world instead of saving it so it�s almost anti-Bond.
You're doing the opposite, Bond's trying to save the world, you�re
trying to rule it.
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Above: Concept artwork for Goldfinger's
Midas Casino in Las Vegas.
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What about the locations we're going to see throughout
the game and how do they correlate to the movies? What locations
are you going to be using?
Because we have both Dr. No and Goldfinger playing key
roles in the game we're experiencing their corners of the
universe if you will, and that means Fort Knox is an important
part from the end of Goldfinger so you�ll actually begin
the game there. You go to Auric Enterprises which is obviously
Goldfinger's headquarters but we�ve had Ken Adam, who designed
the original Auric Enterprises, re-invision it as if he
had an unlimited budget, and of course Ken's the guy who
came up with brilliant things like the headquarters inside
the volcano.
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Enterprising
He�s kind of taken that idea to Auric Enterprises and now it's
kind of this domed palace at the top of a mountain covered in
snow, and when you go inside the dome is actually this tropical
paradise and deep underneath that is a whole gold smelting operation
of Goldfinger's and his laboratory where he�s thinking up all
his devious plots. So this is kind of cool because it�s a place
you went in the movie Goldfinger but now its done full production
value, no budget what would the ultimate Goldfinger palace be
like. There are other places like going to Crab Key, we have original
locations that are consistent with the Bond universe and those
which are designed by Ken Adam which aren�t, like Hong Kong.
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So you�ll spend a lot of time in Hong Kong, which you�ve
been to before but specifically these locations. Dr No has
influence there in Hong Kong. And so as you're going through
Hong Kong you're not only going through exotic settings,
but occasions you're going to be in his territory, his Armour
lab for example.
You will go to Goldfinger's Midas Casino on Las Vegas strip,
which is another original location. It�s a real cool place
to have a fight, and you�ll ultimately get to go to the
Hoover damn and get to destroy it, which is one of the benefits
of being a villain. From there we have a few other locations
which we haven�t disclosed yet, it�s going to be very cool.
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Above: Concept artwork for inside Auric Enterprises. |
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