Shaken…not shtirred
Please scuse my not writing. No, I haven’t been in mourning over the cat, I’ve been playing this GameCube game that the girlfriend got me for Christmas. Called From Russia With Love, based more or less on the movie of the same name from the 60s.
Now I have other GameCube James Bond games, but SCREW THEM. This is the coolest game ever. And I don’t say that lightly. Now, granted, it helps to be a James Bond fan. But if you happen to be a James Bond fan, and you like video games, well then what are you doing reading this? Aren’t the stores still open?
SHEESH it is so awesome! It’s not just typical Doom-like walking around and shooting anything you see (not that there’s anything wrong with that). There’s a little thinking and strategy along with all the Doom-like walking around and shooting anything you see. Like for instance, you find out that it’s not a good idea to use the 55-gallon drum of petroleum products as cover when being fired upon.
But man, it’s so REAL! That really IS Sean Connery right there on the screen. (As you know, or should know, Sean Connery is by far hands down no question the best Bond.) Man, they even got his NOSE right. 
And his MANNERISMS. And his VOICE, although they could hardly have screwed that up since they actually got the real Sean Connery to record all the Bond dialogue. (I have to say, he sounds a bit feeble in places, but then the man is, what, like 80?) There’s a spot where he walks away from Moneypenny to go to M’s office and man, he shrugs his shoulders, and the way he does it it’s like “OH RIGHT, I actually REMEMBER that, that’s STRAIGHT OUTTA the movie!” Talk about attention to detail. And dang if Kerim Bey himself isn’t palling around with Bond through the whole game, even though the actor that played him must’ve died forty years ago. And it’s not just shooting people, it’s sneaking up on people and judo-chopping them in the neck, it’s flying around in a jet pack, it’s taking careful aim and shooting a grenade off a guard’s belt and blowing him and his pals up all at once, it’s DRIVING THE ASTON MARTIN…(although I really suck at controlling this car, so by the time I’m done with the level my Aston Martin has become my ‘86 Toyota Corolla). You can walk up to a wall and then press a button to press up against it, then peer around a corner into a doorway, and even take aim and fire from around a corner, without having to just dodder stupidly into the doorway. And in between levels there’s some really cool cinematics featuring 3D animations of Mr. Connery himself, talking and interacting with all the characters from the movie….VERY cool.
Okay, enough typing, I think I’ll go play it. If this game doesn’t sell 500,000,000,000 units there’s no justice in the world. Thanks very much to the girlfriend, I’d never even HEARD of this game. What a great present-giver she is.