After years and years of rumors, whispers, fan outcry, and limitless web theories, Uncommon’s beloved Nintendo 64 first-person shooter, GoldenEye 007, is lastly out on trendy consoles. And whereas for a lot of that is one thing to rejoice, these new ports aren’t fairly nearly as good as they might have been.
First, the excellent news: After 20+ years of ready, GoldenEye is now absolutely playable on Xbox consoles and the Nintendo Swap. And no matter every thing else on this publish, it’s nonetheless very nice to have quick access to this traditional N64 recreation in 2023. Positive, emulation has at all times existed, however that is completely different. Now a random individual with Sport Cross, and no data of ROMs and such, can simply obtain and play GoldenEye like some other trendy online game. That’s cool. And it will be foolish to disregard that, particularly as a result of—up till at the moment—that simply wasn’t doable as a consequence of numerous rights holders not seeing eye-to-eye on letting this recreation exist on extra platforms.
Okay, now the dangerous information: This port is fairly barebones and fundamental. We knew earlier than at the moment that the Xbox port would lack on-line multiplayer—solely Swap is getting that—however since its launch final night time followers have discovered different shortcomings, too. To be clear: When you simply wish to expertise GoldenEye once more for a couple of minutes—which I feel is true for most likely 70% of people that’ll be attempting this recreation out this weekend—this Xbox port is ok. It nonetheless helps the traditional split-screen multiplayer, too (do you continue to have your cardboard display screen divider?). Nonetheless, if you wish to spend extra time with it or have performed the unique recreation endlessly, perhaps even by way of emulation, you’ll probably be upset by some issues.
For instance, the sport is locked to 30 frames per second. In accordance with the devs behind the port, it is because the unique ROM code is getting used to emulate the sport on Xbox. Which is smart, the unique recreation was designed to run at 30fps. Nonetheless, followers have found out methods to interrupt this cover and for years now individuals have been enjoying GoldenEye 007 on PC at twice the framerate. And watching footage of one in every of these fan-created mods factors to a different situation within the newly launched Xbox and Swap port: low-res textual content. It’s arduous to learn how a lot ammo you may have left as a result of it’s so fuzzy. Oddly, in-game belongings look higher and sharper. Once more, it is a drawback followers mounted years in the past.
Different points contain bizarre audio bugs, incorrect decals and textures, and noticeable rips and seams within the geometry when strolling round ranges. The devs behind this port counsel that is only a results of the recreation shifting from SD to HD and that many of those points are current, however tougher to identify, within the unique N64 model of GoldenEye. However GoldenEye fan tasks like 1964 GEPD have drastically lowered flaws like seen seams within the stage even when enjoying at 4K.
Some particularly diehard GoldenEye 007 followers are asking for an replace to patch the sport, enhance it, and repair a few of these points. However that’s unlikely to occur because it appears outdoors the scope of this challenge, which roughly seems to be centered on merely getting GoldenEye operating on trendy {hardware} utilizing the identical N64 emulation tech developed for 2015’s retro compilation Uncommon Replay.
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In the end, whereas I’d love for this port to get some extra enhancements, like 60fps assist, I additionally perceive that, given the authorized baggage the sport’s saddled with, it’s type of a mini-miracle that GoldenEye 007 is playable in any respect on an Xbox console. If I need extra bells and whistles, I do know the place to go and get it operating on my PC. But when I simply wish to sit back on the sofa and play some GoldenEye for a couple of minutes, this new port will do exactly high quality. And perhaps in the future that awesome-looking remake that leaked in 2021 will formally see the sunshine of day…
