The game that turned the story of shooters: Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64
- Transfer
The GoldenEye 007 game from the Nintendo 64 console, or as it is also called, GoldenEye 64 , is considered a timeless classic of the system. This year, the game celebrated its 21st birthday (so Bond will finally be able to try one of its legendary cocktails ), so we decided to contact those who played this game, wrote reviews on it and developed it to understand as it was then, in 1997.
Just another movie license.
GoldenEye 007 was originally planned as a two-dimensional side - scroller like Donkey Kong , as another game that the British developer Rare created in the era of SNES . However, lead developer Martin Hollis suggested that it become a three-dimensional first-person shooter for Nintendo 64 , a system and technology that was not fully formed then. He insisted on and gathered a motley team of newbies in game development.They began to work on the game, which was conceived as "another project with a license for the film." Such games usually exploited the fame of the film, but did not become huge hits, neither among critics nor in sales.
The office of the team is in Rare, a hair net is put on Bond's head, and a roll of toilet paper is on the gun. (Photo courtesy of David Douk)
Chris Koler , editor of Kotaku : After the release of console 64, it was pretty obvious to everyone, especially in 1997, that Sony would win all over its PlayStation. Nintendo made some serious mistakes, for example, used cartridges instead of CD-ROM drives. Since Nintendo had to stay with cartridges, it became important for her to release as many games as possible that could fill the market.
In addition, for some reason, the N64 has shown itself to be much better in the United States than in Japan; therefore, there is a need for games targeted at the American audience. It was then that Rare appeared on the scene and invited Nintendo to become its main developer a variety of games with American aesthetics, which would support Nintendo’s game library when it was absolutely necessary. This is how the environment in which GoldenEye was created appeared .
Carl Hilton , Lead Surrounding Artist: In the early stages, the concept of GoldenEyewe created with Martin Hollis and Bea Jones. We went to the location of the film in Leedsden to take pictures of everything that we could find, from props and costumes to scenery and even models with miniatures. I took hundreds of photos on a 35mm film — we used them later as references to create the graphics for the game.
Mark Edmonds , gameplay and engine programmer: It was a terrific experience, I never got to the place where the movie was shot. Sometimes, when we had dinner, Pierce Brosnan could go to the buffet, but we did not see a single scene in which he was filming.
David Dook , developer:Then there was no paradigm of what should be 3D-games. Everything had to be encoded from scratch, especially if you were creating a 3D game for such a completely new equipment, like the N64. We programmed the engine, literally sitting with textbooks on graphics and sorting out with each step along the way. Since we received a very general license, we were soon allowed to use everything from the Bond universe, and we collected all the data we could reach.
Hilton: They even gave us drawings for the film sets, so that we could plan the levels based on the real schemes from the film. We were also given a very early version of the screenplay, so we knew all the characters and the plot twists. In addition, we learned about all the places abroad in which the action of the film was to take place.
An early working document of the Depot level, drawn by Carl Hilton - all notes and notes are made during the communication process of the development team. (Photo courtesy of David Douk)
Mitchell K., content developer for the site dedicated to GoldenEye 007 modding ( GoldenEyeVault.com ): Models and textures of the single-player mode very closely match the situation on the set - even the Russian-language text on the doors and barrels corresponds exactly to the film. From time to time I reviewed this film, after which I immediately wanted to play the game and see how they coincide.
Douk: Very mysterious detail - in the film there was a character named Jack Wade [he was played by Joe Don Baker]. This is the guy who helped Bond in a difficult moment. And this is the only character that we were forbidden to copy in the game. This is a very insignificant part of the film, but I remembered it because we could not use it in the game: the actor did not sign the consent to the release! This is the only character that does not appear in the project.
- Jack Wade, CIA. - James Bond, crazy Englishman.
Game creation
When the development team started working on Bond, Nintendo 64 was not there yet, which turned the development into a dangerous game: without knowing the limitations of 3D, the team could only guess what was possible and what was not. But the developers were young and eager to show themselves, and since the N64 was released after the film GoldenEye , the deadline was very flexible. It was the perfect combination of innovation, cheating tricks and fighting for every bit. The result was a masterpiece that changed the video game industry and set many standards that are still present in modern first-person shooters.
The development team GoldenEye 007 . (Photo by Bea Jones)
Dook: by modern standards, it was a tiny team - we were less than 10 people, we were all a little less or a little more than thirty years old, many were unmarried. Therefore, we had no special duties outside of work, which means we could spend a lot of time on it, and we did. In the last months of development, it was usual to work 100 hours a week. We all suffered from the impostor syndrome, so we thought we were lucky to at least work on the game. The guys were very worried that she would not be good and that we would all disappoint.
Hilton:For all of us, this was the first job in the gaming industry. In fact, we were a bunch of university graduates who have more enthusiasm and ambition than real experience in game development. We knew that we wanted to create a first-person shooter, and we all enjoyed playing multiplayer games like XPilot , DOOM , Bomberman and Battle Zone . We spent a lot of time and money in the local hall of Sega World arcade machines, playing in Daytona USA and in Virtua Cop , which became the first sources of inspiration for creating GoldenEye .
Dok:When we started, the final version of the N64 controller was not ready yet, so we used a hacked controller from Sega Saturn . We basically worked like this: “Let's connect several elements, see what it looks like, whether the plot reflects, and whether we need to add something else.” Then I went back to Mark Edmonds and said: “If we can do this, then we can do better.” Mark tried to experiment, and then said: "For this we do not have the tools, so it is better to redo everything from scratch."
The Silicon Graphics Challenge XL was a million-dollar graphic machine that developers used as a replacement for the Nintendo 64 before the release of the system. (Photo by Tim Stamper)
Edmonds: Collision checking and recognition most likely came about because we initially created the game in the arcade style of Virtua Cop and Time Crisis , in which aiming and getting into the right places was a crucial part of the gameplay. Martin Hollis wrote the collision check code, and then I took it and tried to remake it so that they could check and hit when shooting. Then I added characters and other props, for example, boxes, cubic hitboxes to limbs, so that they could really shoot at them and destroy them.
Douk: It was a very organic process - we had a gameplay scheme, but I saw it only in 2015! There was no one design document that everyone should strictly follow. If someone had an idea, and it was appropriate to implement it, then we added it. We created different aspects, played the game and looked for problems. It was a very iterative process. For example, all the minor characters in the game are actually Rare employees and members of our development team. I first put myself in the role of Dr. Douk, a scientist and double agent at the Facility level , just as a joke. But then the team realized that this was done simply, that is why we did so further.
Edmonds:During initial testing, huge clots of rendered blood were sprayed from the enemies upon hit. Therefore, then this effect was slightly smoothed, replacing it with brief flashes of red. We were worried about whether it would be possible to preserve red marks on the enemies in the places of impact, but, fortunately, no one cut them. Attempts were also made to add the feeling that in reality everything was “pretend”, all the people the player shoots are not real, they do not die, they are just characters in a video game!
Hilton: Yes, Nintendo of Japan was worried about the number of killings in the game, and they offered to remind players that Bond is a fictional character and he is taken from the film. [Martin Hollis told the Guardian earlier that there was even an ideaBond's trip to the hospital so that he could shake hands with all the people he shot .] It was definitely not like the standard Nintendo-style game for the N64 console. It seems that management realized that the console game market was growing up, and for Nintendo this was part of the growth process. Our game has become a counterweight to the games about Mario!
Edmonds: In addition, it was important for us to get a Teen rating so that as many people as possible could buy the game.
Douk: We had an idea that no one took seriously: there was a slot on the N64 controllers , and everyone wanted to use some kind of additional equipment in it. So I suggested: “Can we use it in GoldenEye? ”Our only source of knowledge about weapons was movies, so someone suggested,“ What if we plug in a reloading thing? ”So that the game recognizes when it is connected. But when we tested the recharge, it turned out to be nonsense, so we refused it, and it all turned into a big joke.
Legendary multiplayer (which could not be)
The multiplayer mode GoldenEye 007 was one of many ideas that would not have been realized if everything went according to the original schedule with the release of Nintendo 64 and the film. Most first-person shooters were only single-player games, and it was expected that GoldenEye 007 would follow this tradition. But when the developers learned that the console would have four connectors for the controllers, they became interested in how a multiplayer mode could look like: without saying anything to Nintendo, they created their own. The longer they worked it out (read: they played it), the better it got.
Right before the release of the game, the team decided to show it to its management and Nintendo: as they say, everything else went down in history - the players were cut into multiplayer for hours, so keen on them that the GoldenEye 007 cartridges almost melted in consoles.
Early sketch level dam. (Photo by David Douk)
Kohler: At that time, we had to concentrate on the single-player mode, because it was in him that people played on consoles. Consoles usually had two connectors for the controllers, but Nintendo 64 changed the situation, making the standard four connectors. This made it possible to arrange parties for four people without buying additional equipment, so developers were more likely to add four-player functionality to the games.
Dok:The multiplayer mode, which is now considered a necessary condition for serious success, has long been on the wish list, but we were not sure that we would implement it. N64 had four controller connectors, that is, it supported the idea of split-screen for four players, but we were only going to write multiplayer code if we had time.
Edmonds: I remember how I wrote the code to work by dividing the screen into four players even before we were given permission to add a multiplayer mode. Therefore, when it would be decided whether multiplayer is needed, I could say: “Well, we already have a working split screen mode - it would be a pity not to use it!”
Dok:Another programmer, Steve Ellis, finished work on the main game, and Martin told him: "So, you finished with Duncan, we still have three or four months, see if you can create multiplayer before the deadline ..." We always knew it would be difficult, and they set to work as a tiny team of two people.
Edmonds: We already created a simple demo mode, and it was interesting. Therefore, we all decided that we need to turn it into a real part of the game with different modes, leader boards and the like. I do not think that I perceived it as a revolutionary innovation, but we all liked to play it ourselves, and we enjoyed its development. That was enough.
Douk: When we finally told the management and Nintendo about it, they were very impressed.
The design of the "front-end" - the screen on which players save files and select games. According to Douk, he was “assembled in a hurry at the end of development”. (Image courtesy of Martin Hollis)
Hilton: I personally always liked the Golden Gun at the Complex level , partly because I loved the speed and accuracy that the Golden Gun needed, partly because Complex was one of my levels, and I really liked it structure. I added “cheat” invisible cubic holes in the Complex, and for several days I did not tell about them to other team members. I did it only to win, and not a bit sorry about it.
Edmonds: Different people have different preferences, but I personally like grenade launchersat the Temple level , or at any other level. There is nothing better than to blow someone away or from around the corner. And the melee with a grenade launcher turns into a real mess!
Mitchell K .: I play multiplayer for Xenia , because in the film it was an interesting character. My favorite multiplayer level is basement , License to Kill , or a two against two fight with a Golden Gun at Facility level .
License to Kill, Basement, Pistols: There is nothing better than this!
Detmatch for all Bonds
Among the fans of the Bond film series, there are often debates about which of the Bond is better: Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton or (for true rebels) George Lazenby? (Do not forget that the game went out for a good nine years before muscled Daniel Craig started playing the character.) With such a broad license for Bond’s universe, the development team wondered why not use this situation for the benefit of GoldenEye 007 , sticking everything into the game previous bonds?
A fan-made concept of what the de-match of “Bonds vs. Bond” would look like - unfortunately, this opportunity never got to the release of the game.
Hilton: We worked, realizing that we can use anything from the Bond universe, so for most of the multiplayer content, we went through previous films.
Douk: That's why the game was Oddjob (Ojobb) [who originally appeared in the Goldfinger movie1964]! People constantly ask me how he got into the game; in films he was short, and therefore remained the same in the game. But apart from the other characters, it seemed natural for us that the player could play for any of the Bonds (more precisely, we chose four): Connery, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan. The idea was to play for them in multiplayer, as for the unlockable characters. And we liked the idea of passing the game a second or third time for Roger Moore or Sean Connery. The player would see them only in the cutscenes.
But it was already quite late - because when MGM studio heads came to us, I worked on the Aztec level with Baron Samedi [who first appeared in the film Live and Let Die1973]. They really liked the presence of Samedi, because he was a landmark character. Therefore, we showed them that we have all the Bonds ... Soon we received a notice that there could not be all the Bonds in the game , because only GoldenEye actors signed the consent to use images in the games .
Edmonds: Therefore, in order to put Sean Connery, Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton into the game, we would have to contact each of their agents to obtain rights. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very expensive.
Douk: They especially emphasized that Connery would want money, and if Connery received it, others would also want money. Therefore, they were removed from the game.
Edmonds:Nintendo's legal department was also worried about possible lawsuits from various weapons manufacturers. Therefore, we had to replace the real names of weapons with fictional ones, which of course was frustrating.
Hilton: So the whole team just started coming up with names that seemed suitable for weapons - except for Klobb , which we named after Ken Lobb, who was then one of the biggest bumps in Nintendo and strongly supported the game in the Nintendo team.
Douk: Klobb is known for not shooting in a straight line. I remember how delighted Ken once told us: “Guys, you called a gun in my honor!” We replied: “Yes, it's great, of course, but we called it that because you are loud and sloppy.”
Edmonds: Today, in most games, the real names of weapons are used without any problems, but at that time the situation was uncertain from a legal point of view.
Douk: The bonds were still in the game, but we made it so that the player could not use them in the final version. We decided that the best way to say goodbye to them would be a dematch up to the first 100 murders involving all Bond. It was a marathon, we played about a couple of hours. I, Martin, Duncan and Mark took part. Mark won for Roger Moore. In fact, it is a pity that we had to give them up, so the fans could settle disputes about which of the Bonds is better.
Cheating with Ojobb, "karate punch" and all random modes
Being obsessed with the game and having such flexible deadlines, developers could add small cheats and random ideas to the game. The paintball mode, Ojobb, big heads and “karate punch” were funny “tricks” that were added during the development process, and as a result, to the pleasure of the team, they remained in the finished version. In any other game with strictly prescribed gameplay and deadline, such ideas would never have reached the final product, but luck was on the side of GoldenEye 007 .
Douk: In the last year of development, we constantly tried to complete the game as quickly as possible, but the release date constantly shifted slightly, and then a little more, so we continued to work and add new features.
Hilton:Many of the cheats were added by a team of coders from Martin and Mark, as well as Dave and Duncan. I remember how we liked to play dematmatch with big heads, because it was very funny.
Edmonds: I don’t remember exactly who invented cheats, but I think that ideas came from all the team members. Probably, different programmers added different cheats: I added the mode of big heads when I wrote all the animation code, and it became my favorite, because it looked just hilarious.
Hilton: A karate strike should have been a hit in a much more deadly style of martial arts. But in the end, we all decided that this "slap in the face" was funny - it corresponded to the team's slightly immature sense of humor. Therefore, we left a blow like this and implemented the " Slappers Only " mode (“slapper” - this is also a British slang expression for a woman of easy virtue].
Edmonds:Yes, "punch karate." For some reason, during the development process, the name “slap in the face” stuck to it. Multiplayer mode, in which it was possible to use only this blow, was called “Only a slap in the face”. Probably, so did everyone else know about this nickname.
Hilton: We all believed that using Ojobb was a kind of cheating [because of his short stature, auto -aim was aiming at his head ], but he was too funny to get rid of him. Obviously, he became part of the culture and folklore of the game - I noticed that playing GoldenEye for Ojobba was mentioned in the movie Ready Player One (“First Player Prepare”).
Edmonds: Playing for Ojobba is 100% cheating! But this only adds to the fun when all the players are sitting next to the TV and scolding and pushing the one who chose it. I personally like to play Jaws [who first appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me1977], and then defeat the one who chose Ojobb to teach him a lesson! We could somehow solve the problem with this obvious cheating, but why not let the players invent their own rules?
Mitchell K .: Ojobb is cheating: it is forbidden. I always play with people who would never choose him, so there are no problems.
Difficult release of the game
When the game was finally released a year after the release of the N64 - two years after the release of the film! - The developers (and Nintendo) did not know what to expect from sales. On the one hand, they have developed many revolutionary features for first-person shooters; on the other, until the shooters were their genre, as well as multiplayer for four people. They didn’t know that the game would sell eight million copies worldwide, win in all five categories in which it was at E3, and become the Console Game of the Year ( and also receive four more AIAS awards ), forever changing the world video games
One of the latest faxes sent to the development team, listing the remaining bugs from the game. (Image courtesy of Martin Hollis)
Kohler: Until 1997, people called first-person shooters " DOOM clones, " just like people today look at every game coming out in the battle royale genre and say, "Well, someone copied PUBG again ". Over time, the term "first-person shooter" entered the lexicon and people realized that this is a separate game genre, and not just a copy of DOOM . One may wonder if the release of GoldenEye was somehow related to this. There was deathmatch in DOOM , but GoldenEye brought it to the console.
Edmonds: Multiplayer mode makes a huge contribution to the overall success of the game, because you can play it endlessly. And the friends with whom you play it will buy and will play the game with other friends, helping to increase its success. After the release of the game it was amazing to see how long it was on the charts of leased games. We owe this multiplayer and how long you can continue to play it, having fun.
Kohler: Essentially, GoldenEye, although it was not the first FPS on consoles, it was the birth of a new genre: four people, each with their controller, are sitting in front of the console and TV, playing a first-person shooter in dematmatch, and not fighting in it through the Internet, alone or on LAN party It was a serious change in the way people interact with consoles.
Hilton:We were all very surprised at the success of the game, because we were a little unsure of the final version, mainly because we wanted to realize and change much more. We all felt that she could be better. It seems that initially Nintendo produced only 1-2 million cartridges, and we constantly heard stories about how people were looking for the game in stores, because it was sold out. We all thought we missed the chance for a big sale! Nintendo responded quickly and distributed even more cartridges to the stores. At that moment, sales rose again, which was very important for us as a team. We were delighted to see the enthusiasm with which Nintendo fans related to the game.
The development team celebrating AIAS awards for GoldenEye 007 . (Photo courtesy of David Douk)
Mitchell K .: At the time, the games were expensive, and we played them for months before buying a new one. We took cartridges for rent at Blockbuster and played games of friends, and only then bought the best ones. I guess I saw this game in Nintendo Power , but I really didn't know about it before release. For the first time, I played very little in multiplayer mode on the Complex map. The level structure was very confusing and I didn’t like the game. A couple of weeks later I saw Control in single player mode on a huge projector screen ... and I was shocked how beautiful the game was, it fascinated me. Of course, on holidaysGoldenEye was hard to find because it was sold out everywhere. I managed to get it only in January, and after that I played it and could not stop.
Derek Clark , speedranner GoldenEye 007 : At that time I was hunting for games in Blockbuster. There were not so many cartridges for the N64, and new games appeared. When some decent one came out, we usually got to her quickly with several friends. I used to play Turok and didn't become a big fan of her, but GoldenEyeI’ve definitely passed the Blockbuster check - I was ready to buy a cartridge after one lease. At that time it was a game with the most interesting multiplayer on the N64. Man vs. Man shooters were just starting to go online, and the majority of the Internet was still only dial-up, so GoldenEye was our first attempt at this popular type of game.
Precious heritage
While Nintendo was the leader, GoldenEye 007 was also on top. Other games became popular and disappeared, and GoldenEye 007 for a long time remained a constant part of children's parties and student dormitories. People spent endless hours shooting at the RCP-90 and killing the traitor Trevelyan on the Facility map. Over time, the Xbox came out, and with it the Halo , but even when gamers migrated to the console of a new generation, the love for the Rare game remained.
David Doke is working on GoldenEye 007 . (Photo courtesy of David Douk) Dook
: Her popularity and legacy were mainly due to luck. The game was an important event, because it was great entertainment for four people for the N64 - at that time there were no console FPSs that had such an attractive single-player mode, especially considering that 3D was something completely new.
Kohler: The location of GoldenEye in the pantheon of video games is incredibly important. She directly led to the creation of Haloand to the unification of a whole generation of people - both adults and young brought their controllers and gathered around the console. The party era of console first-person shooters (despite its short lifespan) originated thanks to GoldenEye . When I was in college, I had two groups of friends who lived in two twin dorm rooms. The four of them slept in the same room, and the second was turned into a “party room” - there were only bag-chairs, N64, four controllers and GoldenEye .
Mitchell K .: GoldenEyecontinues to live mainly because of nostalgia, at least for those of us who played it 21 years ago. The game without a doubt has become a classic and even today from the point of view of gameplay is interesting, but the new gamers do not like the low polygonality of the models. Canceled remake for XBLA could actually restore its popularity and make it so that people do not interfere with enjoying the game bad graphics. However, newcomers appear on the forums who did not play the game then, that is, the reason is not only in nostalgia. But for most of us, this is it.
Hilton: I have been accused many times over the years that the long night demithing battles in GoldenEyeprevented someone from getting a diploma or a good grade on the exam. It's great to know that we have influenced people's lives so much!
Carl Hilton works at his desk in the Rare office. (Photo courtesy of David Douk)
Clark: If we only talk about solo mode, the gameplay was superb. Rare's attention to detail turned out to be impeccable: the developers realized that 3D made it possible to avoid the sense of linearity inherent in many games. You could spend half an hour trying to get through Bunker without finding a key that was lying on the ground from about the third minute. It was the closest approximation of virtual reality that I experienced.
Douk: It was interesting to me that at different anniversaries of GoldenEye release , people constantly appeared about the game. " GoldenEye was so important to me, because I flirted to death with friends, or brothers, or sisters ... ". That is, in memories of childhood, it turned out to be connected with games with friends. That is why I love this good old" multiplayer on couch "- I never got so much pleasure from playing online as from fighting with people in the same room. The game started and everyone made their contribution to it. All these altercations and confusion contributed to a good social component that modern games lack .
Unexpected future
GoldenEye 007 has received a new life in a new generation thanks to Twitch and streaming games. It remains a constant discipline in the world of speedran (where players upload their videos, on which they try to run through all levels as soon as possible and break other people's records). But despite the information that a remake came out on the Xbox , and if you do not consider it very good, but still another game released for the Wii , the chances of seeing the updated Goldeneye 007 are extremely small.
Mitchell K .: Today people play with each other with the help of emulators, there spidrannery GoldenEye , has received great popularity thanks to streaming video game, which themselves meet annually. In addition, I heard that local tournaments on GoldenEye are still being held , in which users of our site participate.
Edmonds: I saw some high-speed videos, and I am glad that people continue to play the game and improve on it. It’s like a record score in classic games like Space Invaders or Pac Man .
Dok:The community of speedrunners has found absolutely all the glitches of the game! For example, with control, you can move forward or stretch, but the speed runners found that if you move at an angle of 45 degrees, you can increase the maximum speed 1.4 times . So speedrunners are now constantly moving diagonally! In addition, you can see that in most passages they look to the floor - when you look down, the world around you is not rendered, so the game runs a little faster.
Clark:In short, the principle of speedrunning - Finish the level (or game) as quickly as possible. If there are ways to cut, use them, if there are glitches / exploits - use them. Modern speed runners believe that the process of passing the game begins with pressing the “start” button and ends with the appearance of captions. However, the high-speed passage of GoldenEye on certain levels was popular since the very release of the game.
Douk: We unintentionally invented speedranning from the very beginning, because in the game it was possible to unlock functions by passing it for a certain time.
Clark:Having completed the level faster than in the specified time, it was possible to unlock the cheat. The more difficult it is to overtake this time, the more steep the cheat mode turned out to be: turbo mode, invisible Bond, invulnerability, unlimited ammunition - in fact, it is possible to turn on god mode, study the game in an unimaginable way. Personally, my addiction was precisely the difficulty: it was a very dynamic game for speedrunning, and time constraints were a clear incentive to show my skill. Passing the Facility on the level of complexity 00 Agent for 2:05 was the legendary measure of skill. The site The-elite.net , which became the home for speeding up GoldenEye , has been setting records since 1998. It is noteworthy that today the game has more active speed runners than at any other time in the past.
Dok:In this community, GoldenEye is still one of the main games. It is phenomenal how GoldenEye experienced its intended term of popularity.
Kohler: I don’t think it makes sense to do a remake of the game and level design - just taking it and repainting it would be strange. However, if Nintendo decided to release the Nintendo 64 Classic, as it did last year with SNES Classic, which cost $ 80, it would be logical to add the original version of GoldenEye to itto let the people who played it then play again. Otherwise, this game is a product of its time, a beautiful moment in the history of video games, which can hardly be repeated. To be frank, in today's world it would not stand the competition.
The problem is that Nintendo has never created anything as good as GoldenEye . Nintendo decided to sell its stake in Microsoft's Rare, and in fact it could have released Gamecube along with an FPS-shooter that could attract an audience of GoldenEye . But everyone who played GoldenEye switched to the Xbox for Halo . Looking back, we can say that if Perfect Dark[created by the same development team] was transferred to the GameCube, released on the same day as the console, Perfect Dark could compete with Halo , and then who knows? The gaming industry could look completely different if they made this move.
But they did not, and therefore GoldenEye remained the only one of its kind.