james-bond posts

It sound like today was not a good day to be at Activision. We offer our sincere condolences for those who are now looking for new gigs today:

• Steam has new updates for Clones and Railworks 2.
• Blizzard has donated $75,000 to the Children's Hospital of Orange County Children's Foundation via a BlizzCon 2010 VIP dinner.
• There are more hints that Raven Software is making a James Bond game.
• Trion Worlds has announced that if you buy a retail copy of its fantasy MMO Rift from Wal Mart players will get the exclusive Shambler Hatchling pet.
• Activision execs said today the First Strike DLC map pack for Call of Duty Black Ops will be released for the PC sometime before the end of March.
• Just in case you were not sure, the new Bungie game from its new publisher Activision won't be released in 2011.

Sorry for the late post but we didn't want to wait until late in the day today to get all this info to you. We will be back to your normal Bits and Bytes posting schedule this evening:

• New bug Steam bug updates are available for Bullet Candy, Pound of Ground, and Team Fortress 2.
• A major content update has been released via Steam for Super Laser Racer, adding online multiplayer, 12 new tracks, new weapons and more.
• Steam also has a new update for The Settlers 7 adding a new map and six new "occult technologies"
• Steam has a new tower defense game, System Protocol One, with a week long sale of 10 percent off.
• There's some video evidence of that unannounced James Bond stealth action game.
• Saturday's Video Game Awards will feature the world premiere of a new Portal 2 video.

Developer Raven Software is rumored to be back to work on a stealth-based James Bond action game for its owner and publisher Activision. The rumors come from the James Bond fan site MI6.com which, via unnamed sources, claims the game is back in development following the approval of the bankruptcy plan of the owners of the James Bond movie franchise MGM.

Raven Software, once one of the biggest of Activision's internal development studios, has lately suffered from its games not selling as well as anticipated despite mostly solid reviews. It has suffered from two separate layoffs, one in 2009 and another earlier this year. In addition to the James Bond game Raven is also rumored to be working on map packs for Call of Duty Black Ops. So far Activision has not responded to these new James Bond rumors.

[Viia Shacknews]

James Bond 007: Blood Stone is now out in stores, and those that want to experience the latest Bond adventure can pick it up. Naturally, this means that there's a launch trailer from Activision and Bizarre Creations, and it's a fairly good summary of all the different mechanics that are at play. Shooting, driving, and hand-to-hand combat are all featured as one would expect, with a liberal dosage of cheesy action vignettes. This is truly a James Bond game, and it looks to be a successor to the movies. At least in visuals, anyhow.

Download HD James Bond 007: Blood Stone Launch Trailer
Check out all James Bond 007: Blood Stone downloads

After a boatload of new PC games were released last week, things slow down a lot for the first week of November. Indeed there's only one major PC game that's scheduled to be released in the next seven days to retail stores with another due for digital download release. The rest of the month is also looking pretty sparse for new game releases.

James Bond 007 Blood Stone - After releasing Blur back in May, developer Bizarre Creations releases its second game for publisher Activision with this latest game featuring the world's most famous fictional secret agent. This new and all original story features third person shooting and hands-to-hand combat, some driving sequences and Daniel Craig's voice and likeness as 007.

As mentioned in this trailer, Bizarre Creations is known for their racing games. Specifically, their most well known games include Blur, Project Gotham Racing, and Formula One. Naturally, they are applying this expertise to the realm of the James Bond franchise with Blood Stone, and the result is very stunning. Visually, anyway. While no real specifics were mentioned, the gist of the developer's comments here are that they want to reproduce the knuckle-biting car chases of the James Bond movies, with all the last-minute braking and action such an endeavor entails.

Download HD James Bond 007: Blood Stone 'Driving & Vehicles' Trailer
Check out all James Bond 007: Blood Stone downloads

With MGM's current financial situation still up in the air, it may be a while before we see a new James Bond movie in theaters. Developer Bizarre Creations (who released the racing game Blur earlier this year) and publisher Activision have a solution in James Bond 007 Blood Stone. Due for release in November the third person shooter is a completely original Bond story that happens to feature the current movie Bond Daniel Craig who provides both his voice and likeness to the game.

Big Download got two of the game's development team members (game director Jeff Lewis and audio designer Emma Jackson) to give us some more info on James Bond 007 Blood Stone, including info on the locations, the new driving sequences, multiplayer features and more.

We've seen plenty of combat out of the new Bond game trailers, but not nearly as much as the game will supposedly have. Blood Stone is all about takedowns and gunfire, and most of the trailers have emphasized areas and story. Not the case with this one, however. This trailer is all about kicking enemies around, elbowing them in the faces, and shooting them in the chest. The combat looks visceral and entertaining, with a definite focus on brutal melee moves. We enjoy fistfights as much as everyone else, so this trailer gets us a bit more pumped for Bond's next adventure.

Thanks to MGM's ongoing financial issues, we may have to wait a while before the next movie in the James Bond film series finally reaches theaters. However, the next James Bond game from Activision, James Bond 007 Blood Stone, is due out this November for the PC and other platforms. The title is being developed by Bizarre Creations.

The latest video for the game gives a quick summary of its storyline which features the the voice and likeness of current Bond movie actor Daniel Craig as he goes on yet another globe-hopping trip to stop the bad guys. There also a quick look at the game's features which include some driving challenges, hand-to-hand combat and multiplayer modes.

Remember when James Bond went to Istanbul to stop the sale of bio-weapons research to a third party? Apparently, there's more to that story than meets the eye, and more information equals an extended trailer. While the previous Blood Stone trailer was fairly standard fare, this one gets both a little more cinematic and a little more revealing. It shows off more of Bond's moves, some of the shooting mechanics, more driving sequences, and inserts bits of cinematic flashiness at good places in the backing track. Overall, a much better trailer than the previous one we saw a while ago, and bound to get the Bond part of your blood stirring.