We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

The N64 (3D PSX games notwithstanding) sparked a minor revolution in “intelligent cameras” by showing they were necessary to some degree, and once we learned those lessons we promptly decided maybe Sony was onto something with that right thumbstick, and that using it to manipulate a monkey-capturing gadget was not quite it.

what i don't get is the goldeneye fascination which was supposedly the predecessor to multiplayer shootins

that game is just utterly boring now

On the console sure, but not on the PC. id Software singlehandedly set back IT productivity standards for years.

Other things Goldeneye did, rarely first but very influentially:
- mission-based shootan
- organic-feeling mostly-linear-but-not-entirely levels (e.g. multiple routes and rooms that are only there to make the place feel more real)
- rudimentary stealth elements so NPCs act a little more believably and fairly
- realistic weapons by the standards of the time (the scoped sniper rifle was a clever way around view-distance fog)
- adapted an existing franchise while neither making pointless deviations nor sticking to the movie religiously
- treat multiplayer as “party mode” with some cheats usable, weapons of varying cheapness, and Oddjob being short (you’d have to negotiate with the other players, basically)
- aim assist because analog sticks are not that great and the N64’s was very not that great.

On a certain level, a lot of people just like being James Bond, something the game pulled off convincingly for its time. I think you cannot convince people they are James Bond so well when they are doing the same kind of wetwork as other FPS protagonists. So you release this in 1997, bam, instant classic because James Bond is not Doomguy. You release this in 2010, James Bond is everyone you’ve been in an FPS for years now.