When the Nintendo 64 released in Australia, there was one title not starring a fat Italian plumber that no 64 gamer could be without. With its classic 4-player deathmatch and a unique approach to stealth gameplay, Goldeneye proved a tremendous success, both critically and commercially. Not only a fantastic movie adaptation, it is regarded by many as the best first person shooter of its generation. When James Bond returned to consoles in 1999 with Tomorrow Never Dies, fans would be left painfully disappointed and even today, left wondering when they would next be blessed with a James Bond outing to rival those ‘golden’ years. In 2006, the James Bond licence began afresh with Casino Royale. A more brutal, less gadget orientated super spy had been created and it was time for Electronic Arts to finally pass the licence on, with Activision ready and waiting to bring Bond to life.

In today’s instalment of Games On Net’s Activate Asia 2008 coverage, we’re going to take a look at the latest Bond title, Quantum of Solace, and see if Activision has what it take to deliver the Bond experience that fans have been craving. Keeping with the movie-to-game theme, we’ll also take a look the new kids’ titles, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Transformers Animated.

Madagscar: Escape 2 Africa

Returning to the presentation room bright and early one morning after a ‘few quiet drinks’ the night before, things kicked off a bit slower, with Chris Hewish, the head of Global Interactive at Dreamworks, introducing Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.


Following the events of the upcoming animated blockbuster this summer, the game builds on the simple platforming gameplay of the previous Madagascar title, taking players through twelve distinct levels to save the African savannah as they play with a full jungle cast, including Alex the Lion and Melman the Giraffe. Missions are straightforward, from jumping around looking for lion cubs and a spot of jungle photography, to bumping trucks off the road as the crafty Penguins. Madagascar 2 is definitely a title designed with the little ones in mind, with plenty of variety and bright landscapes. Most interestingly for me though was the Volcano Rave minigame found in the ‘Africa Arcade’. Posing your arms in time with the rhythm, it plays like the often-overlooked Sega Dreamcast gem Samba de Amigo, albeit without maracas.

While visually it looked the business on next gen consoles, really capturing the look of the film, in action the frame rate seemed to stutter, leaving me feeling nauseous… although I think I’ll choose to blame that on the countless Jagerbombs from the night before. It should prove a popular title with younger gamers this Christmas.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa hits stores on November 26th, with the movie hitting cinemas locally on the 18th of December.

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007: Quantum of Solace

Slyly swapping over his Call of Duty: World At War cap from his earlier presentation, Vince Fennel from Treyarch returned to the stage, to present the video game adaptation of the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Quantum of Solace is a game of firsts. As a film, Quantum of Solace is the first direct sequel in Bond history. This is also the first videogame to feature Daniel Craig’s likeness, with a highly detailed face scan that the man himself approves of. As such, the game covers not only the upcoming Quantum of Solace, but also 2006’s Casino Royale and the events that take place between the two films. More importantly, Quantum of Solace is the first James Bond title since Activision took the licence away from Electronic Arts’ seven year vice-like grip, and it seems they are determined to start off on the right foot. Perhaps I’m being a little unfair. Admittedly I enjoyed playing through some of EA’s offerings like Nightfire and Agent Under Fire, but it was at their core that they all seemed to fail at capturing the distinctly suave style that is charismatically James Bond.

In capturing the essence of Bond, as Vince explains, you have the choice to either go in “guns blazing” or play as a “cunning James Bond”. To illustrate the differences, Vince played through the scene from Casino Royale when Obanno’s henchmen break into Le Chiffre’s hotel room, firstly by taking the ‘guns blazing’ approach. Firing rounds off straight down the hallway, enemies began to swarm on the location. Bond was soon outnumbered and outgunned. Spying a bright red fire extinguisher behind his foes, a carefully aimed bullet made for a quick escape as Bond ran to the next room, only to run straight into a new wave of enemies. Vince informed us that for the gung-ho style player, levels have been designed with elemental hazards to aide the player, such as grand chandeliers and explosive barrels, but charging straight through will draw more attention and you’ll encounter many more enemies as a result.

Restarting the section, Vince began to demonstrate the ‘cunning’ approach. Bond carefully snuck down the hallway, observing the henchmen’s movement patterns as he shifted from cover to cover. Approaching an enemy from behind, a button prompt appeared at the bottom of the screen, as Bond hastily disposed of the henchman with a silent takedown. Checking a map of the area by way of his mobile phone, Bond chose to exit out the window and avoid the mass of guards patrolling within. Re-entering the building, Bond was quickly spotted by the enemy. Before they could call for back up though, Bond had slammed them into the floor and knocked them unconscious. Sneaking down the hall, Bond encountered an array of security cameras. He needed to be careful to slip past undetected when they were pointed the opposite direction. Entering the next room to disable the security network, Bond made short work of the next hapless guard to cross his path. Vince turned to the crowd to inform everyone that using the new face scan technology they were able to import many of the development staff in the game as henchmen and that he had in fact just killed himself. Spying an air vent overhead, Bond scaled a nearby laundry trolley and escaped into the night.

After the demonstration from Casino Royale, we were then shown a level set between the events of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Little was said of the details of the level (I believe the words ‘under threat of death’ were thrown around) but what we did know was that Bond was in pursuit of a man, but mustn’t kill him. The level played out like a rollercoaster ride, running down hallways in hot pursuit, with henchmen on Bond’s tail. It all looked fantastic in action, with brilliant graphics and huge explosions.

Quantum of Solace was certainly one of the stars of the show at Activate 08. Perhaps what makes Bond look most promising is the fact that is running on the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game engine. Working with such a praised engine has its benefits. It “delivers a familiar feel to a lot of players” as Vince explains, but importantly has allowed Treyarch to “not worry too much about the technology and focus on making a great game”. For a returning COD4 player like myself, the aiming system felt a little different than I’d expected and did take some getting used to, perhaps because I was simply expecting the game to handle like a re-skinned version of Call of Duty. It wasn’t long before I’d adjusted to the new controls, which prove solid and perfectly suited to the action. The newly added cover system also integrates seamlessly into the gameplay. As one man up against the world, you better believe it’s going to prove essential.

That trademark Bond flavour has been retained in the translation from the big screen. As Bond moves closer to death, the classic spiral shaped rifle barrel pulls further on to the screen. In one section that we were shown, Bond attempted to sneak past a hotel window with guards patrolling the room within. The picture split into two, showing an internal view from the room at the top of the screen with a stylised camera angle of Bond creeping across the outside ledge on the bottom of the screen. The game really seemed to capture a great sense of cinematic style of the recent film adaptations.

Bond is really shaping up nicely, it looks like Activision are off to a great start with the licence. Although multiplayer wasn’t on show, if it’s as good as the single player, we could finally have a worthy successor to Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64.

At this stage, the game should to be releasing on the 19th of November, with the film hitting the box office on the 27th.

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Transformers Animated

Little mentioned in the presentations of the event, Transformers Animated was another game that cropped up when it was time to get hands on with Activision’s upcoming releases. Based on the new Cartoon Network animated series, Transformers Animated is a side-scrolling platformer for the Nintendo DS. It’s the classic story of Autobots versus the Decepticons in pursuit of the Allspark to claim control of Cybertron.


Side-scroller by nature, the game plays out like a puzzle title as you band together with the likes of Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Prowl and Bulkhead to utilise their unique traits and abilities to overcome obstacles in your path. Bulkhead can use his wrecking ball attachment to break down walls, Optimus has a grappling hook to climb platforms and so forth. Each Autobot has their own set of unique abilities that will need to be used to overcome specific obstacles and can be switched between on the fly. For example in the opening level, Optimus Prime is trapped behind a door at the top of the zone. Bumblebee will need to power on an elevator for Bulkhead to ride to the top of the stage, so he can then use his strength to break down the door. Once Optimus is freed, he will need to grapple on to a platform to send a guided axe (controlled by way of the stylus) into a switch, to finally unlock the next area. Working as a team and combining the abilities of each Autobot is the key to recovering the shards of the Allspark before the Decepticons.

What good would a Transformers game be without some transformation? So to break up the side-scrolling gameplay, you’ll get behind the wheel to take part in several fast-paced driving challenges, with some good old-fashioned slot-car racing inspired driving mechanics.

Transformers Animated should be out in stores in October.

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Tomorrow is the final instalment of our week long Activate Asia 2008 coverage, where we take a look at the latest offerings from Sierra, Crash: Mind Over Mutant and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. Check back to find out why Spyro is a game to watch this holiday season.