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"From Russia With Love: The Video Game" · The Spy-Fi Guys

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Enter the world of classic James Bond. We are the spy Fi guys. And this is from Russia with love.
• 0:07
  Speaker B: The video game.
• 0:17
  Speaker A: Welcome to Spy Fi Guys, where we cover spy facts, spy fiction and everything in between. I'm Christian.
• 0:22
  Speaker B: And I'm Zach.
• 0:23
  Speaker C: And happy Global James Bond day to thank you.
• 0:27
  Speaker A: Yes, it is.
• 0:28
  Speaker B: Global James Bond day.
• 0:29
  Speaker A: And so as a treat for our listeners, we are doing our very first video game coverage.
• 0:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, I had a joke ready about how I was going to say, today we're doing From Russia with Love, the classic James Bond. And then I was going to pretend it was a movie and you were going to say, actually, it's the game. Like a whole shtick. Then it didn't happen.
• 0:50
  Speaker D: No.
• 0:51
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 0:52
  Speaker A: So a little background on the game. It was released in 2005 from EA Games after Everything or Nothing, which featured Pierce Brosnan and Golden Eye rogue agent. And it was released for the Xbox GameCube PS Two and PSP And it features the likeness and voice of Sean Connery and the likeness of most characters from the film from US with Love. Connery is the only one to return to voice's character. Most of the other actors and actresses had passed away, or in the case.
• 1:20
  Speaker B: Of, I think, Tatiana Romanova, the actress.
• 1:23
  Speaker A: Was still alive, but the person who.
• 1:25
  Speaker B: Did her voice had passed over back.
• 1:29
  Speaker A: In the early Sean Connery days, I think all the way up through You Only Live Twice. Actually, no.
• 1:35
  Speaker B: Through to no.
• 1:36
  Speaker A: On her majesty. Everyone voiced their own except for what you call lazenby in a few parts, but yeah, but up to about You.
• 1:42
  Speaker B: Only Live Twice, most of the Bond.
• 1:44
  Speaker A: Girls are dubbed by the same voice.
• 1:48
  Speaker B: Actor, Nikki Vanderso, something to that effect.
• 1:52
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:53
  Speaker C: So they all kind of have the same voice.
• 1:55
  Speaker D: Is that what you're saying?
• 1:56
  Speaker A: And actually a lot of the Bond allies as well are also all dubbed by the same person. Who I don't remember who that one.
• 2:04
  Speaker B: Is, but yeah, so there's some very.
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Similar voices that come around.
• 2:09
  Speaker C: Yeah, I remember in the early Bond movies they would cast the Bond girls as from models, not from actresses so much.
• 2:18
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: I believe that the actress for Tatiana Romanova, Daniela Bianchi, who is Italian, was like a Miss Italy or something like that.
• 2:28
  Speaker B: And this is also the last James Bond video game from EA as they.
• 2:34
  Speaker A: Lost the rights to activision in about 2006 or so.
• 2:39
  Speaker C: I guess we'll talk about the future of James Bond games later.
• 2:42
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 2:42
  Speaker B: So you've just recently finished playing through this game, right?
• 2:47
  Speaker C: Yeah, like a couple of months ago I borrowed Christian's copy. I played it on the GameCube, which I think affected my experience quite a lot.
• 2:58
  Speaker A: Of the GameCube.
• 2:59
  Speaker C: Well, it's a shooter on the GameCube and that's not what the GameCube was built for. It's built for Mario, it's built for Smash.
• 3:09
  Speaker A: Or is that really the only things that you ever played it on.
• 3:12
  Speaker C: Okay, well, anyway, I watched a YouTube video of some parts of this from a PS Two Rip, and it seemed to run a lot smoother.
• 3:23
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 3:24
  Speaker C: You can maybe do a comparison. Maybe you can look into it later. So I don't know if we want to get into this now, but I attempted to play everything or nothing. I borrowed both the games from Christian, and I found it basically unplayable.
• 3:37
  Speaker B: And you were just bad at it.
• 3:39
  Speaker C: That is also possible. I don't play a lot of classic games. I like going to new stuff.
• 3:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So I played this when it was released in 2005. I played it on Xbox. At that time, I borrowed my friend's Xbox to play it. And then I have a Wii which can play GameCube games. So I got it for the GameCube.
• 4:02
  Speaker B: And I played it on there.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: I've beaten it, and last night I played it a couple more times.
• 4:07
  Speaker B: I played a first, like, five levels.
• 4:09
  Speaker A: Or so, just to re familiarize myself.
• 4:12
  Speaker B: I also watched a couple of playthroughs.
• 4:14
  Speaker A: I've watched Calvin Dyson, who's big on the YouTube. Bond community, did a video on it, and I watched a video that had all of the cut scenes. So I did a little bit of a dive into it.
• 4:27
  Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. Can you be this prepared for every movie we cover?
• 4:30
  Speaker A: Hey, I prepare by watching each movie and actually taking meticulous notes.
• 4:34
  Speaker C: I guess I can't ask for much more than that, but it sounds like you really like the game.
• 4:39
  Speaker A: Well, let's get to it.
• 4:40
  Speaker B: So one of the interesting things about.
• 4:42
  Speaker A: The game is from Rush with Love is not actually the most action packed Bond movie. So they had to add in a.
• 4:50
  Speaker B: Few things to sort of make it more video gamey.
• 4:55
  Speaker C: Well, yes, clearly, though. Here's a question for you, Christian. I assume you remembered from Russia with love. Absolutely, perfectly.
• 5:03
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 5:03
  Speaker C: The movie, that is.
• 5:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker C: Okay. I had seen it a long time ago. I had very little memory of it. Do you want to know what I remembered before playing the game? I remember he fights a guy on a train and throws him out the window. And when they said lecture, I was like, okay, I remember the Lector. And then I remember Ilsa Club with.
• 5:22
  Speaker D: The foot and the foot knife.
• 5:24
  Speaker C: Then when I played the game, I was like, okay, the gypsy camp. Yeah, I kind of remember that friend with the mustache. Okay. But that's about it.
• 5:35
  Speaker B: And I think you meant Rosa club.
• 5:37
  Speaker D: Yeah, that's right.
• 5:39
  Speaker C: The woman with the foot.
• 5:41
  Speaker A: The shoe knife.
• 5:42
  Speaker C: Yes, the shoe knife.
• 5:43
  Speaker A: Here's some of the differences between the film and game. So the game adds a prologue set in London where Bond rescues the prime minister's daughter that was great. Using the jetpack, which wouldn't be seen in the films until Thunderball.
• 5:55
  Speaker B: Two films after this is thunderball the.
• 5:58
  Speaker C: Only one that's in or is it another one?
• 6:01
  Speaker B: It makes an appearance in Die Another Day when they show a bunch of old gadgets.
• 6:07
  Speaker C: Okay, that's not really what I meant, but thank you.
• 6:09
  Speaker A: You asked if it's the only time it appeared and it's the only time it's used.
• 6:13
  Speaker C: Really? That's what I was going for. Right.
• 6:15
  Speaker A: I mean, it is activated as a joke in Die Another Day, but again, that's not really what you're asking for.
• 6:23
  Speaker B: No, that's the only time.
• 6:24
  Speaker A: All right, so in the video game, there's also no appearance from either Kronstein, who is the person in the mastermind.
• 6:30
  Speaker B: Behind this whole plot, or, you know.
• 6:35
  Speaker A: You only see Blofeld, like, behind a screen know from the back of his head until You Live Twice. But in the film, it is his first appearance.
• 6:46
  Speaker C: I bet there are some rights issues around Blofeld.
• 6:49
  Speaker A: There are, and we will get to that.
• 6:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, I suspected as So, but instead.
• 6:54
  Speaker A: All of their lines are still in here, but they're spoken by Rosa Kleb instead.
• 6:58
  Speaker D: Okay.
• 6:59
  Speaker A: And as you were saying. So Spectre in this film is replaced.
• 7:04
  Speaker B: By Octopus due to the rights to.
• 7:07
  Speaker A: Spectre being tied up in lawsuits with Kevin McClory, who was a producer on Never Say Never Again. That's a whole long story that I won't get into.
• 7:16
  Speaker B: Q appears in a training sequence in.
• 7:20
  Speaker A: Q lab rather than just coming to M's office to give him a gadget.
• 7:25
  Speaker B: And obviously, the game expands on a.
• 7:27
  Speaker A: Lot of different scenes from the films. Adds driving levels with the Aston Martin.
• 7:33
  Speaker B: DB Five, which, of course, doesn't appear until Goldfinger, and is also somehow a.
• 7:38
  Speaker A: Left hand drive in this, rather than the right hand drive that it usually.
• 7:42
  Speaker B: Is because it's a British car.
• 7:45
  Speaker A: So they put it as an American on the American side.
• 7:48
  Speaker C: American version. Having a Q level is just such a great way to have a tutorial level in a game.
• 7:56
  Speaker A: Well, if you'd actually finished Everything or Nothing, you'd see that they did that exact same thing.
• 8:01
  Speaker C: Okay. I watched everything or nothing on YouTube because I loved Willem Dafoe as a James Bond villain. So I had to watch it even if I couldn't play it. So I do remember that. And it was John Cleese.
• 8:14
  Speaker A: It was John Cleese? Yes. Who was in Dying the other day.
• 8:17
  Speaker B: Because Red Grant is not killed in.
• 8:21
  Speaker A: The train fight via his watchgiroat, but instead seemingly killed by being thrown onto the tracks and killed by a train. The game adds a final boss fight in an octopus base where it's revealed that Red Grant is still alive and he fights Bond in a giant octopus.
• 8:38
  Speaker D: Mech. Yeah.
• 8:39
  Speaker C: You kill him twice.
• 8:41
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 8:42
  Speaker A: So those are the big differences there's. Obviously, like I said, a lot of these levels expand on things, but it's mostly wait a second after the story.
• 8:50
  Speaker B: What?
• 8:51
  Speaker C: I don't remember him breaking into a volcano lair and stopping a nuclear missile from Russia with Love. Did that happen?
• 8:57
  Speaker A: That's why I said that was the final boss fight in Octopus Base.
• 9:00
  Speaker C: Oh, so that whole bit, obviously.
• 9:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's the whole bit.
• 9:04
  Speaker C: What about him running around bunkers and blasting everybody?
• 9:07
  Speaker B: I mean, which part?
• 9:09
  Speaker C: That's like the whole game.
• 9:10
  Speaker A: Well, that's why I said it expands on things.
• 9:12
  Speaker C: It just adds lots and lots of action.
• 9:14
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 9:15
  Speaker A: Now, as I've said before, the gameplay is similar to Everything or Nothing.
• 9:19
  Speaker B: It's third person shooter.
• 9:21
  Speaker A: You can lock onto targets with your left trigger. You have various gadgets you can use, including a cucopter drone, laser watch, stun cufflinks, and a briefcase turret. It's non regenerative health. You can pick up armor to protect yourself, but your health doesn't come back, unlike most modern games, which is probably why you died a lot.
• 9:38
  Speaker B: Zach that is not why.
• 9:40
  Speaker C: The reason why is because in this game, the first thing that I really liked about it is there's lots of pickups, there's lots of armor pickups and there's lots of ammo pickups and everything or nothing. Now that I'm not going to compare the whole time that was the reason why I found it so difficult was because you were constantly getting hurt and there was no way to get more health. There was, but you just had to know where it was. It was like hidden as opposed to here. When you kill a guy, he drops armor pretty frequently, which was nice. It wasn't too challenging. And if you're quick on the draw, you can usually get him before he gets you.
• 10:14
  Speaker B: Okay, so you can switch between guns.
• 10:16
  Speaker A: And gadgets using a load screen, which also pauses the game. My favorite part of this is also that you can get alternate outfits for Bond by searching through different cabinets on each level. The outfits include tuxedos, other suits. You start off in a dark gray charcoal suit and you could get his lighter gray suit.
• 10:36
  Speaker B: And you also have his stealth outfit as well.
• 10:39
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 10:39
  Speaker C: And then there's also a snow outfit. I believe you have his white tuxedo, like, on the COVID But I don't know if this was true in the versions that you played, the non GameCube ones, but if you died in a custom suit when you came back, it would be in the year old suit, like not the change suit.
• 10:58
  Speaker A: Well, you could always change it back pretty easily.
• 11:00
  Speaker C: Yeah, but that's like annoying.
• 11:02
  Speaker B: Never noticed, right? All right, so that's sort of the.
• 11:08
  Speaker A: Overview of the game itself.
• 11:10
  Speaker D: Let's review.
• 11:11
  Speaker A: I want to hear your thoughts.
• 11:12
  Speaker C: Zach well, there's a lot do you want to review about. Do you want to be more specific about? I guess we'll start with like okay, so there's guns, there's cars, and then there's the jetpack. Those are like the three types.
• 11:28
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 11:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, I like the jetpack the most. It was super fun and pretty easy once you realize you can just stray around while constantly shooting. It was pretty enjoyable and pretty cathartic just to blow up everybody and yet still pretty challenging because there's shot. Oh, there's also boats that's pretty similar to the jetpack. The cars I also enjoyed as well.
• 11:53
  Speaker D: The gun play.
• 11:57
  Speaker C: Was fun, but it was also the most frustrating because I felt like I was always running out of ammo.
• 12:04
  Speaker B: What were you doing?
• 12:05
  Speaker C: Did you experience this?
• 12:07
  Speaker D: No.
• 12:07
  Speaker B: Okay. What level did you put this on?
• 12:09
  Speaker C: Regular agent.
• 12:11
  Speaker B: Oh, see, I did operative.
• 12:13
  Speaker C: Is that like lower than agent?
• 12:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's the easiest level.
• 12:17
  Speaker C: I might have done operative, too. I don't know what to tell you.
• 12:20
  Speaker A: Well, at least when I replayed the first five levels wasn't running out of ammo.
• 12:25
  Speaker B: No, you would not pick up enough ammo everywhere.
• 12:28
  Speaker C: No, in the better gun, like the better guns, like the AK 47, the sniper rifle, the shotgun, by the way, that was my favorite gun. Was the shotgun.
• 12:38
  Speaker B: Okay?
• 12:38
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 12:39
  Speaker C: Just because it's so not Sean Connery James Bond to run into a room and just blow everybody away. Like you're the punisher.
• 12:46
  Speaker A: I like the SMG best, I think, was my favorite gun.
• 12:49
  Speaker C: Well, I feel like the best gun is the pistol, the PP Seven, because it's like stun locks guys and the clip is so long that you can just keep shooting them. What did you think of the seven moments?
• 13:02
  Speaker A: I mean, I love that those have been in the games, I think, at.
• 13:06
  Speaker B: Least since EA has had the license. Really?
• 13:10
  Speaker A: And I always think that's a fun thing because there are different ways you can do this. You can take a more stealthy approach. Approach.
• 13:17
  Speaker B: You can go guns blazing and to.
• 13:19
  Speaker A: The fact that they have these moments. So if you do something that's very seven, like, say, using your grappling hook.
• 13:26
  Speaker B: To crash through a window and knock.
• 13:29
  Speaker A: Out a guy and that gives you a seven moment, I thought, that's a nice touch.
• 13:33
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Speaker C: Some of them like you have to do, but most of them are bonus. So you got to figure them out on your own, which is good for replayability. There's one that I found where you knock out a radio guy before you can radio other people. That's apparently seven moment. Something else I wanted to mention about the car sections, which I also enjoyed was my other favorite weapon besides the shotgun is the tire slashers. The tires, because it's not a tire slasher. You hit a car with it and it explodes and goes flying away from you, like was just punched by a giant invisible fist. It was pretty amazing.
• 14:11
  Speaker B: Yeah, those are fun.
• 14:14
  Speaker C: So we also have a couple new bad guys that were not from the movie. Like the woman in the Catsuit, for.
• 14:20
  Speaker A: Example, played by Maria Menudos.
• 14:23
  Speaker C: Love her.
• 14:25
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 14:26
  Speaker C: What did you think about the puzzles? There was also some puzzles.
• 14:31
  Speaker A: I thought they were interesting. A lot of times when you're using.
• 14:36
  Speaker B: The cuecopter that you're trying to solve a puzzle to like, all right, how.
• 14:40
  Speaker A: Do I navigate this thing to blow up the door?
• 14:43
  Speaker B: To get into the door, the cuecopter.
• 14:46
  Speaker C: Really can't do anything except blow up.
• 14:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:49
  Speaker C: Other than that, it's mostly just backtracking. To find a lever, you have to right, right. I also liked the fight against the helicopter in the library. That was cool and challenging. And I like the first boss fight against Red Grant where you're in a train station and he has this big gun because he slowly destroys your cover. So you have to move quickly.
• 15:12
  Speaker D: I thought that was neat.
• 15:14
  Speaker A: So actually, here's something we haven't talked about.
• 15:16
  Speaker B: Well, we briefly mentioned it, but so.
• 15:18
  Speaker A: Sean Connery at how old was he in this point? Let me do the math quickly. So this game came out in 2005, presumably recorded around 2004.
• 15:27
  Speaker B: And he was born in 1930, so he was 675-7475 when he recorded this.
• 15:40
  Speaker A: What did you think of his vocal performance?
• 15:42
  Speaker B: Because that was the crazy thing to me about this game is that they.
• 15:46
  Speaker A: Got back Sean Connery Mr. Never Again except for it Never Say Never Again, but it's out of continuity, said he'd never perform his bond again. And they got him to do it. And it's still 75 year old Sean.
• 16:01
  Speaker B: Connery's voice coming out of young Sean Connery's body.
• 16:07
  Speaker C: In general, I liked it. It didn't sound like he was 75. It actually sounded like he cared.
• 16:14
  Speaker A: He wasn't phoning in he was actually trying to act out these lines.
• 16:17
  Speaker C: Yeah, the lines they gave him. It's not like there's deep emotion in them. Right. But yeah, it's weird. Like, a voice performance is quite different from a in front of the camera performance. And it's kind of amazing that they were able to pull it off. I actually thought when it started was that they were using recorded clips of Sean Connery from the movie.
• 16:39
  Speaker A: From the movie, yeah. No, these are brand new recordings.
• 16:42
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 16:42
  Speaker C: It didn't sound different to me. I just kind of wish they'd taken.
• 16:47
  Speaker B: A little bit more risks with mean.
• 16:51
  Speaker C: Don'T ask me what kind of risks.
• 16:52
  Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
• 16:53
  Speaker B: I was about to because I guess deep emotions.
• 16:57
  Speaker C: I mean, it is a video game where you just run video game.
• 16:59
  Speaker B: Also, Connery's bond, you know, in particular.
• 17:05
  Speaker A: Never had really deep moments.
• 17:07
  Speaker D: That's true.
• 17:08
  Speaker A: So it's not like they could really unless they were doing an adaptation of.
• 17:12
  Speaker B: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which, of.
• 17:15
  Speaker A: Course, didn't star him. It starred George Lazenby then it's really hard to not a good idea.
• 17:22
  Speaker C: You should work for.
• 17:25
  Speaker A: License anymore.
• 17:26
  Speaker C: I know, but it's like, what if Honor Majesty's Secret Service had Sean Connery in it?
• 17:31
  Speaker B: And also.
• 17:35
  Speaker A: There are deepfakes on the Internet of putting Connery in on her magic Secret Service, except they don't have the voice.
• 17:42
  Speaker D: There. There you.
• 17:46
  Speaker C: So okay. So speaking of Rosa Kleb?
• 17:49
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 17:49
  Speaker C: Did we fight her in the game, what happens? Does she just disappear?
• 17:55
  Speaker A: No. So they do how the film ends.
• 17:58
  Speaker B: Which know, she's disguised as the maid once they get to Venice and she.
• 18:03
  Speaker A: Does her little shoot thing.
• 18:05
  Speaker B: And then Tatiana has to choose between.
• 18:08
  Speaker A: Shooting Bond or Herb because she's still under Kleb's orders. And she shoots Cleb and that's how she's dispatched. And then after that, which is really the end of the movie, that's when.
• 18:17
  Speaker B: You have the big boss fight in the specter.
• 18:21
  Speaker A: I mean, the octopus layer.
• 18:23
  Speaker C: Right. Which ends the game. Yeah. You couldn't even make that a quick time event.
• 18:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, there's not really a lot of quick time events. QuickTime events weren't a big thing yet at this point.
• 18:36
  Speaker C: Thank goodness. I mean, I never thought I would have wanted a quick time event. But it's better than just watching a cutscene, right? Speaking of Tatiana, how did you feel about the escort mechanic?
• 18:47
  Speaker A: Oh, where she has a it's like.
• 18:49
  Speaker C: A danger meter or something.
• 18:51
  Speaker A: It's a threat level or something like that. Yeah, that's right.
• 18:55
  Speaker C: I thought it was fine.
• 18:58
  Speaker A: I don't really like escort missions in general.
• 19:01
  Speaker C: Nobody likes escort missions. But you could do it a lot.
• 19:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, true, true.
• 19:06
  Speaker D: What?
• 19:07
  Speaker A: I also just like so not only.
• 19:08
  Speaker B: Did I get Connery's voice, but they.
• 19:11
  Speaker A: Definitely, in terms of modeling him and everyone else, they did a really good job.
• 19:15
  Speaker B: But I also appreciated the movement of him as well.
• 19:19
  Speaker A: That looked pretty good for Connery. And Connery, as Bond was very much he didn't aim his gun. He was always firing from the hip. And they have that as well in how he fires a gun and how.
• 19:31
  Speaker C: He fires a pistol. I definitely can see that, now that you mention it. Yeah, that's true. Did you have a favorite gun? I like the shot.
• 19:40
  Speaker A: It's very useful.
• 19:41
  Speaker B: Versatile.
• 19:43
  Speaker A: The driving levels, I did play one of them through the five levels I.
• 19:48
  Speaker B: Played last night, just to refresh my memory.
• 19:51
  Speaker A: It's easier than I remember it being because I remember the first time I did it, I really struggled with the.
• 19:56
  Speaker B: Driving levels because they have the Aston.
• 20:00
  Speaker A: Handle as it actually would in that it's cars from the 60s don't handle the all great.
• 20:05
  Speaker C: Yeah, sure. That's the reason it wasn't just the limitations of the technology at the time.
• 20:09
  Speaker A: Well, if you go back to everything or nothing, the driving levels there are very smooth. The Aston Martin.
• 20:14
  Speaker B: I think they have the V twelve.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: Vantage or one of the newer Aston's handles very smoothly. So it seemed like it was designed that way because they've done it in the previous game.
• 20:25
  Speaker C: Yeah. So the only sort of thing about the driving levels besides the one that's timed, which always sucks, no gamer will ever like that is the first few levels are all in that same town. So they're kind of the same environment.
• 20:38
  Speaker A: Istanbul.
• 20:38
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 20:39
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 20:39
  Speaker C: And then later, when you're out on the coast that's a lot better. I like the part where you have to constantly jumping over things.
• 20:48
  Speaker A: For me, it's not necessarily about the gameplay or the intricacies of the oh. It's more about the feel of getting absorbed into that world. I thought they did a really good job of sort of, like I said.
• 20:58
  Speaker B: Modeling all of the various characters in.
• 21:02
  Speaker C: The movie, as well as the 60s vibe. Yeah.
• 21:05
  Speaker A: As well as also getting people sound alikes or voice actors to actually sound like the actors. I think the person who does M sounds really good. As well as Tatiana and Red Grant.
• 21:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, they all sound really good.
• 21:18
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 21:18
  Speaker C: It almost makes you wish for more conscience and less.
• 21:23
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 21:24
  Speaker C: So I know I brought this up before with a quote about how video games turn James Bond into a gun Tottenham Commando.
• 21:31
  Speaker A: Right.
• 21:33
  Speaker C: In this game, you totally are. You totally are. You're constantly shooting people, but it's not a complaint because it's better than like a forced stealth section or like forced conversation or anything like that. So that's how I prefer it. Okay. Yeah. I also liked the tear gas mechanic. That was kind of cool. And they don't always remind you that you have a gas mask, though, again, and this might be because it's an older game, there is some user experience issues. Like, for example, there's special ammunition.
• 22:06
  Speaker B: Oh, yes.
• 22:07
  Speaker C: And in order to equip special ammunition, you have to go into a different menu, go to the gun that you want to use it for, and then change the Ammo type, as opposed to just hitting a button when you're on that gun and then having it switch.
• 22:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 22:21
  Speaker C: So the result is I basically never use special Ammo because I always forgot. Did you do the extra levels?
• 22:29
  Speaker A: I have a long time ago, but.
• 22:31
  Speaker B: It'S been a while.
• 22:33
  Speaker C: Or go for like the achievos or the seven moments.
• 22:36
  Speaker A: Definitely for the seven moments, but I.
• 22:38
  Speaker B: Don'T think yeah, the other stuff it's.
• 22:40
  Speaker A: Been a long.
• 22:43
  Speaker C: You since, you know, James Bond trivia, the friend with the mustache.
• 22:46
  Speaker A: Oh, Karen Bay. Yes.
• 22:48
  Speaker C: I seem to remember the actor was like, dying of stomach cancer or something when he did it.
• 22:53
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 22:53
  Speaker C: Do you know the whole story about that? Or the listeners may want to well.
• 22:57
  Speaker A: We can talk more about it whenever we actually cover the film from Russia with Love. But he basically was struggling to get through the shoot. If I recall, he committed suicide not too long after the.
• 23:11
  Speaker D: I thought there'd.
• 23:12
  Speaker C: Be a bit more to the story than that.
• 23:13
  Speaker A: Not really much. Just that it was tragic that he.
• 23:18
  Speaker C: Went out that way.
• 23:18
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:20
  Speaker C: I'm surprised the game didn't let you unlock different cars as well as different outfits.
• 23:25
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, you're also like, this is 60s Connery Bond. There's really only one car.
• 23:31
  Speaker C: Yeah. Why would you want to play as anything else?
• 23:33
  Speaker A: I mean, unless you drive the light blue sunbeam from Dr. No, that's the only other car he drives I can think of.
• 23:40
  Speaker D: There you go.
• 23:41
  Speaker A: That convertible that he drives around in front of the very bad rear projection. You remember that?
• 23:45
  Speaker C: Yes, of course. I don't think it was bad. I thought it was also something else I wanted to bring up. So, in the beginning, the second level of the game, you have to cross a checkpoint and you fight your way around and then you're on a stationary gun and you have to kill a tank with it.
• 24:01
  Speaker A: Right.
• 24:01
  Speaker C: I got stuck on that for a while.
• 24:04
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 24:04
  Speaker C: Because I wasn't sure who to shoot. And the minion with the rocket launcher kept shooting me. And then he just knocks Bond over and then he slowly gets back up while everyone's shooting him. And then when I went back and watched it later on yeah, I don't know whether that was glitched or whether mine was glitched because the guy kept shooting Bond with the rocket launcher and it didn't even hurt him when I.
• 24:28
  Speaker B: Did it last night.
• 24:29
  Speaker C: Okay. And it knocked you over, too.
• 24:33
  Speaker A: If you got hit enough times, you do.
• 24:35
  Speaker B: But I basically always like, I was.
• 24:38
  Speaker A: Just shooting at the tank, and then if I saw him come up, I.
• 24:41
  Speaker B: Would just shoot towards him and then.
• 24:43
  Speaker A: Come back and basically not let my finger leave the trigger and just spray and go up. And then back in the center, take out the tank.
• 24:51
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 24:52
  Speaker C: As you do the stationary turret. We'll have to give you back the GameCube version and see if it holds up.
• 24:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well, shall we give a.
• 25:01
  Speaker A: Rating for this then? Zach, I'm very curious.
• 25:04
  Speaker C: Are you going to get mad at me if I give it a bad rating?
• 25:07
  Speaker A: No. We'll rate it on a scale of.
• 25:10
  Speaker B: One to ten martinis.
• 25:12
  Speaker A: One being seven legends for anyone who's played that game, and ten being better than GoldenEye. Classic golden eye.
• 25:19
  Speaker C: Doesn't hold up, by the way. Yeah, I don't think it was a bad game. I thought it was pretty enjoyable. It had some jank, considering how old it was and the system that it was on. But, yeah, I thought it was fine. I thought it was okay. I will give it a six out of ten. I thought it was enjoyable. I would not go back and play it again, though.
• 25:39
  Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
• 25:40
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 25:40
  Speaker A: So I would go back and play again, and I definitely did, because I.
• 25:44
  Speaker B: Went and have I've played through the whole game at least twice after playing.
• 25:52
  Speaker A: The first five levels last night, I'm like, maybe I will hop off after this recording and play a little bit more. There you go. I'm not a big gamer, so these nitpicks that you seem to have about the gameplay style or anything, I roll with and go. I'm like, okay, so that's how you play it, and I just deal with it. But, like, getting sucked into that world.
• 26:14
  Speaker B: And Fresher With Love is one of.
• 26:17
  Speaker A: My favorite James Bond movies. So the fact that they actually made it Bond Video Game with it, starring.
• 26:23
  Speaker C: Sean Connery with it, basically, yeah.
• 26:25
  Speaker A: So I'll give it a seven and.
• 26:29
  Speaker B: A half out of ten.
• 26:31
  Speaker C: Oh, so you think they could do better?
• 26:33
  Speaker A: I mean, I think that if they.
• 26:35
  Speaker B: Were going to do it's, the weird.
• 26:38
  Speaker A: Because I do love the movie, but it's not the most action packed. So if they were going to do one of his others, you Only Live Twice actually has a volcano base and invasion and all this sort of stuff. Maybe that's where the one they should.
• 26:53
  Speaker B: Have done if they were turning into a video game.
• 26:56
  Speaker C: Well, what about doing an original story? Like everything? Yeah, that seems like it almost would have been a better decision.
• 27:03
  Speaker D: Right?
• 27:04
  Speaker A: Maybe it'd be an interesting balance of you have to make it feel like.
• 27:08
  Speaker B: The 60s, but also creating a new.
• 27:13
  Speaker A: Story that hasn't been covered in some sort of way with Connery. Yeah, I think that would have been a fun way to do it, too. That is why I give it a seven. It is a very fun game for me, and I like it a lot.
• 27:25
  Speaker B: But there could have been better things.
• 27:28
  Speaker A: Other things to do.
• 27:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, there's room for improvement. It is older, too. Video games, unlike movies, don't necessarily age that well. But speaking of classic video games, I have a recommendation for you, but with the caveat that I haven't personally played it. It's a game called no one lives Forever.
• 27:47
  Speaker A: Spy in harm's way.
• 27:48
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:49
  Speaker C: Right. So you're familiar with it already.
• 27:51
  Speaker A: I've played through the first level of the I think it was the first.
• 27:54
  Speaker B: I have both the first and second games.
• 27:58
  Speaker A: Yeah, I have played the first level of I forget if it was the first or second. It's fun so far. Yeah.
• 28:06
  Speaker C: For the audience members who may not be familiar with it, it's a classic 60s style video game. First person shooter. And the protagonist is basically Emma Peele from The Avengers.
• 28:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. Her name is Kate Archer, if I recall.
• 28:22
  Speaker C: So it seemed like it would be up Christian's alley.
• 28:24
  Speaker A: But anyway, so speaking of other games so there have been a number of different Bond video games since this game come out. So in order, you had Quantum of Solace by Activision, which was actually an adaptation of both Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale, but came out around this time of the Quantum Solace movie. You had golden eye reloaded, which was a remake of GoldenEye for the Xbox, but starring Daniel Craig.
• 28:55
  Speaker C: Yeah, I remember seeing previews for that. And then they had people playing it at a con that I went to. It might have been awesome con here in DC. And I was, you know, interesting. I would give that a try. Have you played that?
• 29:08
  Speaker B: Have.
• 29:08
  Speaker A: I've played through. I. Think I'm on the last level. I never actually finished The Last Love Go Diary reloaded when you're actually taking.
• 29:17
  Speaker B: Out the satellite dish. I think I should get back to.
• 29:21
  Speaker A: It at some point.
• 29:22
  Speaker B: But yeah, I played it on the.
• 29:23
  Speaker A: It'S one of the few sort of good shooters for the Wii. And you actually get to use the Wii Nunchuck and the remote.
• 29:33
  Speaker B: What did they call that?
• 29:34
  Speaker A: Whatever the Wii gun system was.
• 29:38
  Speaker C: The Wii blaster or something like that.
• 29:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I use that for that.
• 29:41
  Speaker B: It's a lot of fun.
• 29:45
  Speaker A: So I played through all of Quantum of Solace, and then after that, still with Activision, we had Bloodstone, which was an original story starring Daniel Craig.
• 29:55
  Speaker C: I never even heard of that one.
• 29:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was for the.
• 29:59
  Speaker B: Xbox, PC, and probably PS.
• 30:02
  Speaker A: I don't remember. Maybe PS three at that point.
• 30:04
  Speaker C: Probably.
• 30:04
  Speaker B: I don't know. It's an original story. It actually came out the same day.
• 30:10
  Speaker A: As Golden Eye Reloaded did, which was like a Wii exclusive, I think.
• 30:15
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 30:16
  Speaker A: And then finally, from Activision, you had.
• 30:19
  Speaker B: Seven Legends, which was an interesting story. So it was starring Daniel Craig.
• 30:25
  Speaker A: And it's sort of set basically during.
• 30:30
  Speaker B: The beginning of, you know, after he.
• 30:33
  Speaker A: Gets shot by Money Penny, and he's, like, falls into the river. Basically he has fewer dreams as he thinks he's about to die. Revisiting past missions, except their missions are goldfinger.
• 30:50
  Speaker B: So you get to see Daniel Craig.
• 30:51
  Speaker A: In Goldfinger Moonraker on her magic secret.
• 30:56
  Speaker B: Service Licensed to Kill, and then finally there's a Skyfall level.
• 31:01
  Speaker C: So the fact that you rated it a one, though, seems to indicate that it doesn't live up to that premise.
• 31:06
  Speaker A: So basically the premise is really fun.
• 31:11
  Speaker B: But it's just a Call of Duty clone.
• 31:14
  Speaker C: You can't even really tell that you're a Moonraker.
• 31:17
  Speaker A: I mean, you can moonraker is probably the most oh, Die Another Day was the other one that I forgot one. They had real interest like Moonraker and Die Another day Those are their choices for those two. Like, basically had one from every Bond actor, also licensed to kill him. I don't know.
• 31:34
  Speaker C: Got to pick one of them.
• 31:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, one of those two.
• 31:37
  Speaker B: But yeah, the gameplay is very much.
• 31:41
  Speaker A: Just like you said, just he's a shoot him up commando kind of thing.
• 31:46
  Speaker C: Right.
• 31:46
  Speaker B: Whereas some of those movies lend themselves.
• 31:49
  Speaker A: To that, some others don't.
• 31:51
  Speaker B: It just felt like a bad Call.
• 31:55
  Speaker A: Of Duty clone in all places.
• 31:58
  Speaker B: Whereas at least from A Short Love.
• 32:01
  Speaker A: Did not feel like that. It doesn't feel like a clone of something else, really.
• 32:05
  Speaker D: That's fair.
• 32:06
  Speaker C: Seven Legend sounds like the perfect one to watch on YouTube, probably, actually, instead of playing it.
• 32:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then on the mobile gaming side, we had oh, God. Actually, I should have said this is.
• 32:19
  Speaker B: The one or zero James Bond World.
• 32:22
  Speaker A: Of Espionage mobile Game, which was basically it's again, Daniel Craig's Bond going through all of these past missions, including from.
• 32:32
  Speaker B: Other James Bonds, but using basically clip art.
• 32:38
  Speaker A: And.
• 32:41
  Speaker B: What'S the generic photo art of people.
• 32:46
  Speaker A: What do I think of it? What's it called?
• 32:48
  Speaker C: Like a still cutscene with text along the bottom. Like in a lot of Jr.
• 32:52
  Speaker A: It was that, but no, like where you getty photos or something like that. Old images from Getty Photos. It was really bad.
• 33:07
  Speaker B: And it was like there was no.
• 33:10
  Speaker A: Actual gameplay of you doing anything. It was just basically you're clicking a button as you're going through a story and not in an interesting way. Like the Batman games. It was with an interesting story.
• 33:21
  Speaker B: No, it was terrible.
• 33:23
  Speaker A: So that should have been the zero or one. Finally, we have a game that was.
• 33:28
  Speaker B: Released just last week, cipher Seven for Apple Arcade.
• 33:34
  Speaker A: If you're not familiar with Apple Arcade.
• 33:36
  Speaker B: It'S basically a subscription service on Apple.
• 33:39
  Speaker A: So you get exclusive games. And nice thing about these Apple Arcade is there's no inapp purchases. So it's not a pay to win.
• 33:47
  Speaker C: Scenario like every other mobile game.
• 33:49
  Speaker A: Right, yeah. So I appreciated that.
• 33:51
  Speaker B: So cipher seven similar premise to Seven legends.
• 33:56
  Speaker C: So yet another one where you go through the old movies, except there's a.
• 34:01
  Speaker A: Reason this time it's not just he's having fever dreams. So the prologue sets up that he's trying to infiltrate a spectral layer, he gets captured, and Blofeld is trying to brainwash him. And so the best way to counteract the brainwashing is for his mind to rebuild itself by remembering all these past missions. All right, so far, I'm on the second chapter.
• 34:26
  Speaker B: So the first chapter was really just.
• 34:28
  Speaker A: Sort of setting that up and letting you figure out how to play the game. It's kind of Skyfall inspired because you go through the London Underground and through Mi Six.
• 34:36
  Speaker B: The second level is you Only Live twice.
• 34:38
  Speaker A: And that's been pretty good so far.
• 34:40
  Speaker B: So I like it because it's on Apple Arcade. It's funny, they're very specific about death and shooting. So the bad guys don't die, they just fall asleep. You don't have a gun.
• 34:56
  Speaker A: It's a stun gun.
• 34:58
  Speaker C: Wow, this sounds like James Bond, Jr.
• 35:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, but the mechanics of it are the same. You still shoot the people and you will die. And you restart at various checkpoints.
• 35:14
  Speaker C: Is it like cartoony?
• 35:16
  Speaker B: A little bit.
• 35:17
  Speaker C: Okay, maybe I'll check it out.
• 35:20
  Speaker A: It's fun. Yeah. It's kind of stealth, puzzle based, more than it is a shooter, which I appreciate.
• 35:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's kind of what you want for a spy game. And do people ask him the numbers, James. What do they mean?
• 35:32
  Speaker B: What's that? Never mind.
• 35:34
  Speaker C: That was a reference to Call of Duty Black Ops.
• 35:37
  Speaker A: All right, forget so finally, we have upcoming projects. In terms of James Bond video games, it's called Project Seven by IO Interactive, who are the makers of Hitman. We know next to nothing about this game, not even when it would come out or what the storyline would be.
• 35:54
  Speaker B: The only thing we do kind of.
• 35:55
  Speaker A: Know is that it will be an original story and it'll be an original James Bond so it won't be based on any of know characters or actors that we have seen in the past.
• 36:06
  Speaker C: They've done that before.
• 36:07
  Speaker D: Right?
• 36:08
  Speaker C: I seem to remember there's been a game yeah.
• 36:10
  Speaker A: In agent under fire. It is not a real James Bond. Not a real actor. Rather it's a likeness based on a sort of generic James Bond. And in GoldenEye Rogue Agent, you don't play as Bond, you play as a disgrace agent who turns to work for the bad guys. It's a neat premise, but it really has nothing to do with the Golden Eye game. But you do work with Bond in the opening mission and you get him killed. Although it's revealed this was all just a training exercise so it wasn't really.
• 36:50
  Speaker B: Getting seven killed that's later.
• 36:53
  Speaker A: But because of that training exercise the main character gets fired. So when you see that James Bond it is also not based on any preexisting actor.
• 37:03
  Speaker B: Actually, the third time it is is.
• 37:06
  Speaker A: Cipher Seven, the Apple Arcade game.
• 37:08
  Speaker B: It is not based on a specific seven actor. Although it kind of looks like Roger Moore.
• 37:15
  Speaker A: Like all of the you have your M, your Q and your money pennies.
• 37:19
  Speaker B: And they all kind of look like certain actors but they're not specifically based on them.
• 37:28
  Speaker A: Anyway, that's what I've got about all.
• 37:31
  Speaker C: The since you talked about every other Bond game why don't you just talk about everything or nothing now?
• 37:39
  Speaker A: What do you want to know about it?
• 37:41
  Speaker C: Did you like it?
• 37:43
  Speaker A: I liked it a lot, I think.
• 37:45
  Speaker C: Was it as good as from.
• 37:49
  Speaker A: That'S? I'd put them right there side by mean because it is an original story. I do appreciate that they know actors and actresses like Heidi Klum, Willem Dafoe.
• 37:59
  Speaker B: They brought back Jaws, which was nice, right?
• 38:02
  Speaker A: And they did get Judy Gensh back.
• 38:06
  Speaker B: To voice her M and as well.
• 38:08
  Speaker A: As it being really Pierce Brosnan's swan song that's interesting. Actually, now I think about it, for both Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery the last time they ever played James Bond.
• 38:17
  Speaker B: Was in a video game that's totally believable.
• 38:22
  Speaker C: Kind of like how all these Doctor Who actors, their last Doctor Who performance is an audio drama or an audiobook.
• 38:28
  Speaker B: Or something like that.
• 38:31
  Speaker C: Though I must say, speaking of actors coming back, I recently played the Ghostbusters video game.
• 38:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, how's that?
• 38:38
  Speaker C: Because the actors believe him to be the unofficial third.
• 38:43
  Speaker A: Right?
• 38:44
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 38:45
  Speaker C: And it is cool that they're all back. How often have you played a video game with Bill Murray as a voice in it? Like never, right? The story is pretty generic to be honest. There's another god from another know. They ask him if he's a god, he says Yada, yada. They do some cool stuff with Ghost World like they go into the ghost world where everything's like things that would be way too expensive to do in a movie. You can do that in a game. That's what I mean by doing something really different, because you can they just could have pushed it a little bit further. Yeah. It's still kind of fun.
• 39:22
  Speaker D: Good time.
• 39:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. When you're talking about that from Rush for Love, if you push it too far away from the movie, then just call it something else entirely.
• 39:32
  Speaker C: Yeah. I don't even have really any brilliant.
• 39:35
  Speaker A: Ideas for they did add that whole other level in the end, which was.
• 39:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, plus you had boats, you had more car chases, all that. What's what more can James Bond fan ask for? I mean, really.
• 39:49
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 39:51
  Speaker C: Well, thank you all for joining us. Happy James Bond day to you all. You can find us on social media at The Spyfi Guys, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and also our merch store@redbubble.com. Until next time. I'm Zach.
• 40:04
  Speaker A: And I'm Christian.
• 40:05
  Speaker C: And we are the Spyfi Guys signing off.
• 40:11
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• 40:38
  Speaker F: This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic, group, club, organization, company or individual.
• 41:02
  Speaker E: You can find our podcast on social media at the Spyfi Guys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.