GoldenEye: Rogue Agent - new images

Here are three new images of Electronic Arts' GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, the forthcoming Bond game where you don't actually play as 007 himself. The pics are pre-rendered images - so don't expect the up and running game to look this good - and feature Dr No, Goldfinger and what looks to be an infamous Bond villain's base.

Goldfinger is considered by many film buffs to be the best Bond movie and this is in no short measure due to the brilliant character of Auric Goldfinger (not forgetting the silent but deadly Oddjob). Arguably the best quote from any Bond villain is from the laser torture scene where Bond asks, "Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?" "No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die," is his brilliant retort.

Dr No is the villain from the first Bond film - most noted for the rather fruity entry of Ursula Andres as she emerges from the sea. Dr No is an understated Bond villain when compared to subsequent incarnations of evil lunacy. Still, he did have a top welcoming committee - a collapsible walkway that spewed its contents into a piranha infested pool. Nice.

While the artwork doesn't reflect the true look of the game in motion, the likenesses captured are nonetheless impressive and indicate that publishers and developers Electronic Arts are paying great attention to detail with this one.

When we played the game recently at E3, we were impressed by its graphical quality, its very solid feel and, even though it has a long development path to tread, our first look at the game has inspired high hopes for Rogue Agent: looks like it might actually live up to the legendary GoldenEye moniker after all. Indeed, so keen are the game's coders to live up to the incredible standards set by Rare's original GoldenEye for N64, that some of the development team even have the Nintendo game set up on their desks as they work.

One of the neat features Rogue Agent has in common with Halo 2, though, is that while using dual weapons (you can use two different types of weapon), each has an independent trigger, activated by the relevant trigger button on the pad. Nice.

The early build of Rogue Agent that we played was pretty tricky and, while there is tons to do and balance out yet, it would be neat if it were a toughie. N64's GoldenEye was very difficult on the high settings and look at the legendary status that has achieved.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent will be released around Christmas on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube