James Bond 007: Blood Stone (PC)

Developer:

Bizarre Creations

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Release Date:

2010

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Systems:

Xbox 360, PS3, PC

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Today on Super Adventures, I'll be playing some Blood Stone 007, or perhaps James Bond 007: Blood Stone if you want to believe the manual.

This came out in 2010, so chronologically it slots right in the middle of the four year gap between the movies 'Quantum of Solace' and 'Skyfall' caused by MGM's bankruptcy issues. In fact Skyfall spent so long in production that this may have actually started out as a movie tie-in, so lucky escape there perhaps. Sure GoldenEye 007 is the exception that proves that movie licences don't have to be terrible, but it's also exceptional in that it stayed in development until two years after the film came out. It wasn't as rushed as they usually are.

It's been years since did my 'Every Old James Bond Game' marathon, but I remember that when I got past Goldeneye and moved onto the EA era, I started seeing the same few developer logos show up over and over: EA Redwood Shores (AKA Visceral), Black Ops Entertainment and Eurocom. But EA passed the licence to Activision in 2006, Black Ops vanished that same year, and Eurocom were busy making three other games (and got shut down two years later), so this has a whole new logo at the start. Blood Stone is the first Bond game created by Wiz 'n' Liz, Project Gotham Racing and Blur developer Bizarre Creations, and also the last as they went and closed down four months later as well! I guess that's why there hasn't been any Bond games since 2012, as every developer the franchise touches ends up dying.

Activision only put out one more Bond game before getting bored with the licence, which incidentally is probably why we haven't been able to find Blood Stone on Steam since 2013. Fortunately I was able to find it on eBay, so I won't have to draw sketches of the game from memory. Oh right, should probably mention that I played this before a few years back, so I'll be slightly less ignorant than usual and will be able to mention stuff from later in the game. Like how it plays the Bond theme about 700 times in a row on the end credits.

(Click images to view them in a slightly higher resolution.)

007 Games Part 13: Nightfire (PC)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Finale

This is the last Bond game post for a long while, I promise you. Just two more Nightfire games and then we're done. Normal service will resume shortly.

Game 25 - Nightfire (2002)
Formats: PC, Macintosh.

Finally another Bond game for computers, after 10 years of total console domination. This probably follows the same storyline as Eurocom's console version of Nightfire, but it's definitely not a straight port. This is a separate game created by Borderlands developer Gearbox Software, who should hopefully know a bit about making a first person shooter.

Click the pics to view them at a slightly more civilised resolution.

007 Games Part 12: Nightfire (PS2)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 12

Game 24 - Nightfire (2002)
Formats: Game Cube, PlayStation 2, Xbox.

Hey, Brosnan's back. Well, his likeness anyway. He'd been replaced the year earlier in Agent Under Fire by an overly smug Bond impersonator, but we're back with the real deal now.

Nightfire nightfire was released days before Die Another Day hit cinemas, but doesn't actually have anything to do with the movie. Instead it's a brand new story following on from Agent Under Fire. Poor Die Another Day never actually got a game, perhaps because the film was already basically a video game adaptation of a Bond movie.

Like the last game, this was released exclusively for the three sixth-gen consoles left standing at the time (poor Dreamcast never got a Bond game), and I'm playing the PS2 version.

007 Games Part 11: Agent Under Fire (PS2)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 11

Game 23 - Agent Under Fire (2001)
Formats: Game Cube, PlayStation 2, Xbox.

Today's Bond game is Agent Under Fire, (aka. James Bond 007 in... Agent Under Fire™, according to the side of my game box), the first game by future Dead Space developers Visceral Games. This was the first Bond game to hit the sixth generation consoles, (computers had to sit this one out again) and I'm going to be playing it on the PlayStation 2.

There was no Bond film to tie in with the year this was released, but instead of adapting one of many untapped classics like Dr No, You Only Live Twice, or Octopussy, they decided to just make up their own story instead. Probably one with lots of gun fights.

007 Games Part 10: The World is Not Enough (GBC)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 10 

Game 22 - The World is Not Enough (2001)

Formats: Game Boy Color.

Only one Bond game today, the Game Boy Color adaptation of The World is Not Enough, released a year after the PlayStation and N64 games. I can only hope that the rest of the game matches the... quality of its title screen.

007 Games Part 9: The World is Not Enough

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 9

Two more Bond games today, one for the PlayStation, one for the Nintendo 64, and both based on the film The World is Not Enough, which came out the year before. Again computers have been completely left out, as the PC version of the game was cancelled.

Game 20 - The World is Not Enough (2000)
Formats: PlayStation.

This one's by Black Ops Entertainment, the same folks who made the less than amazing Tomorrow Never Dies, but I'm hoping they've learned from that game's mistakes. Hey it's got a better title screen at least. Still no multiplayer though.

007 Games Part 8: Tomorrow Never Dies, 007 Racing

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 8

Two more Bond games today, each released only for the Sony PlayStation, which probably annoyed a lot of N64 owning GoldenEye 007 fans. Poor Nintendo was left out this time for whatever reason. Though they did end up getting GoldenEye's spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark, so I guess they had the last laugh.

Game 18 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1999)
Formats: PlayStation.

So much black.

Despite being made to tie-in with the 1997 film, this game actually came out two years later. Around time that the next movie, The World is Not Enough, hit cinemas in fact.

007 Games Part 7: GoldenEye 007, James Bond 007

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 7

It's another Super Adventures James Bond special event! I've already played through the first 10 years of 007 games (click the Game Series button then scroll down a bit to find them), and this week I'll be playing through the second decade after James Bond: The Duel brought the 16-bit era to an end, from GoldenEye to Nightfire. Well, to be honest it's more like 6 years actually (there was a bit of a gap).

Game 16 - GoldenEye 007 (1997)
Formats: Nintendo 64.

It was four long years after The Duel before James Bond finally made a return to video games with an adaptation of the seventeenth Bond film, GoldenEye. Though the game actually came out the same year as the next Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies.

I've actually already played this one, and I have no idea what else I can say about it. But I suppose I should give it another look anyway, to save leaving the most important Bond game off the Bond game list.

007 Games Part 6: James Bond - The Duel

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 6

In case you were wondering, the actual game cart looks nothing like this.

This is the last day of Bond week, finishing up the first decade of the series. Plus the 16-bit era as well, which is convenient.

Sega's first shot at the Bond licence was a port of James Bond 007 for the SG-1000 console back in 1984, but it took until a decade later in 1993 before they finally got their own exclusive game. Two of them in fact, one for Master System and one for the Mega Drive/Genesis, each sharing the same name.

007 Games Part 5: James Bond Jr. (Again)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 5

This is the ultra-rare alternative cover that I threw together myself just now.

James Bond week continues with a pair of games cursed with the same name, both only on Nintendo.

Generally the reason I play all these games is because I'm honestly curious about them and I want to know what they're like, but the SNES version of James Bond Jr and I are already acquainted. I played this game once already last year, and it'd be fair to say I didn't really enjoy it much. Also I hate it. But this is the only Bond game the Super Nintendo ever got and it'd be a shame to skip over the system entirely, so I'm playing it again. For you.

007 Games Part 4: The Stealth Affair

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 4

The actual box art looks a lot better.

James Bond week continues with just a single game today. Well, mostly.

The Stealth Affair was the last Bond game released on home computers for over ten years, as the consoles finally captured the franchise for themselves. Then presumably the franchise was offered dinner and then locked into some kind of easily escapable death trap while the consoles explained all their sinister plans to it.

007 Games Part 3: Licence to Kill, The Spy Who Loved Me

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 3

Aka. "To Kill Who Licenced the Spy Love"

James Bond week, day three. I'm seven years into the first decade of Bond games, and it's starting to become clear that the series was one of the true pioneers of the 'terrible movie tie-in' genre. Maybe GoldenEye actually was the first good Bond game. I kind of hope not as I've still got four days worth of these things to go, starting with...

007 Games Part 2: The Living Daylights, Live and Let Die

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 2

Sadly not a real thing that actually exists.

James Bond week continues! In part one I took a brief look at the first four years of Bond games, from James Bond 007 on the Atari 2600 to Goldfinger on PC. I can't say any of them really impressed me, but hopefully that just means I've gotten past the worst of them now.

007 Games Part 1: James Bond, A View to a Kill, Goldfinger

Super AiG's Guide to Every (Old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 1

This is what happens when I have Photoshop open when I'm bored.

It's another Super Adventures special event! Every day for the next week I'll be going through the first 10 years of the Bond game series, from James Bond 007 to The Duel, and hopefully everything in between. So if for whatever reason you don't like reading about James Bond, or looking at crap screenshots from ancient Atari and Commodore systems, I'll apologise now. Sorry about that.

GoldenEye 007 (N64)

GOOD RETRO GAME WEEK, day 5.

I can't play Duke Nukem 3D and Quake without playing GoldenEye too. It just wouldn't be right.