Everything that glitters is not gold

Readers of this blog already know my ( unbiased ) opinion about the new ' re-invention ' of the vintage Rare ' GoldenEye ' game - based on the Pierce Brosnan 1995 debut movie .

I just tested the new Activision game at the Paris 2010 Game Show ...

Activision had done things well : the GE stand was virtually the first stand the visitor will stumble upon when entering the huuuuge place .

A platform has been erected with multi-screens , allowing people to test various levels of the game .

An Aston-Martin DBS was parked besides it , and various glamourous hostesses were ' at hand ' if any male 007 afficionado looks a bit perplexed ...

The girls were all dressed in gold lamé dresses , and for a moment I thought I was transported back in time at the Premiere of ' Goldfinger ' ...

As for the game itself , well, I played a classic ' shoot your opponent ' dual screen level .

Nothing new there ( as usual , it took me some time to adapt to the split screen, allowing my adversary to blast me to smithereens in ten seconds the first time we played... ) .

That level was FPS-like , so the perspective of playing Daniel Craig playing Pierce Brosnan playing 007 wasn't too harsh to deal with ...

But it still remains nevertheless the main point of my angst : why, o why remaking a classic game ( and a classic film - to some extent ) and changing the lead with the current actor / incarnation of James Bond ?

A bright idea from the Activision Consumer dpt . , surely thinking potential buyers of the game won't remember an old movie from 1995 - and will associate only agent 007 with Daniel Craig ?

It feels somehow...awkward to see Craig performing ( re-acting ? ) Pierce's moves , and delivering his lines ( the actor dubbed himself for that game ) .

Perhaps to tone down that bizarre impression of deja vu , screen - and videogame - writer Bruce Fernstein changed some locations during the course of the story : for instance , the Tiger Helicopter theft in Monte-Carlo is replaced by a similar plot devise set in Dubaï...

As for the level I tested , nothing new under the sun I must say ...

I would have liked much more to be able to test Blood Stone , but this later title seems to be purposely ' toned down ' by Activision in favor of the GE one : only the opening credits sequence was screened on some monitors , and there was only one panel decorated with the title cum Daniel Craig pose...

My verdict is still dangerously low regarding the newest Activision efforts .

I will perhaps change my mind regarding Blood Stone when I'll get a complete preview version, but I'm pretty sure GE won't get my approval even if it turns out to be one of the very best game of all time ( which I greatly doubt ) ...