GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (GameCube) Preview

The game (criminally) will be available on the PS2 (boo) XBOX (hiss) and the GameCube (horay!). What we are still finding hard to work out is why make a sequel, a game based on a film...when there was only ever one film? Its all a bit confusing to us, and the fact that it is a game famous on the N64, to see it on the PS2 and XBOX will be slightly odd to say the least.

You play a 00 agent, thrown out by MI6 for being a bad, bad boy. You are hired as an 'enforcer' by Auric Goldfinger, a wealthy super-villain with a passion for fashion...or gold perhaps. But wait, it gets even better! Goldfinger is licked in a ruthless war against his archenemy, the 'brilliant scientist' Dr. No (who else gets the idea that EA did the plot by picking out random Bond characters and scenarios?). Anyway, the prize of this 'war' is control of the world's biggest and most evil criminal organisation (like the Bush Administration, only even more evil).

Now this is the bit we really love; in a battle against Dr. No, you lose an eye, but not to worry Goldfinger and his crazed cronies have made you the hugely original and ever so slightly stupid golden eye, or as EA put it ' a gold-hued, synthetic eye', we despair. This appendage earns you the name GoldenEye (we thought this was a big EMP device in space, but EA are aloud to arse about with the 007 series quite a bit it would seem).

In what seems like a ludicrous move, EA have confirmed that players will be able to update and increase some sort of 'evil meter'. Yes folks, that's right, you can customize and upgrade your 'evilness' and 'villain-ish persona' in order to cause mass havoc and enable you to rise up through the ranks of 'eviltastic-ness'.

In a 'radical' twist, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent makes it the player's goal to rule the world, rather than prevent someone from doing so. Throughout the game player's will bump into (with guns, not for a friendly chat) famous faces like Oddjob, Scaramanga (*begin evil hissing*), , Xenia Onatopp, and, of course, Pussy Galore (No jokes!

Featured modes include story-driven campaign missions, deathmatch style simulator trials, and objective-based war games. A four player multiplayer will certainly be in there, and PS2 owners will get masses of online play. So all in all a very interesting announcement, admittedly we are sceptical, but we would love to see this game do the original GoldenEye just a modicum of justice. Whatever the outcome, Cubed3 will be there every step of the way!