"Instead of guiding everyone's favorite secret agent against the baddies from SPECTRE, you fill the shoes of a former MI6 agent who's been kicked out of the service for employing methods that could be termed "slightly extreme". After leaving the MI6, you join forces with that man with the Midas touch, Auric Goldfinger. As the game starts, there's a particularly nasty turf war going on between Goldfinger and Dr. No. You're working for Goldfinger at the time, and you catch a stray bullet in the eye. Thankfully, cybernetic eye implants are covered by Goldfinger's health insurance plan, so you're outfitted with a new eye that brings with it some special powers. It also brings with it your new nickname: GoldenEye.

We were told that there are basically three tiers of enemy AI, and as the game progresses, you'll see more of the upper echelon enemies. The guys on the top of the enemy food chain are constantly moving, and keep you in their sights nearly all the time. In a new twist, they'll even throw in a few shoulder fakes, making you think they're moving one way before abruptly heading in the other direction.

The last game featured a wide array of death animations (my favorite was the guy who's shot in the throat and tries to cover the hole with his hand), and fans of those brutal deaths won't be disappointed by the updated ones. All of the enemy damage is location specific, so if you shoot a baddy in the gut, he'll moan and stumble around a bit before falling to the ground, while a head shot will simply cause him to crumple quickly. There's also an ooooooh-inducing groin shot, in which the enemy will cover his crotch and fall to his knees before keeling over.

There are also the aforementioned eye powers, which can be used both offensively and defensively. There will be four eye powers in all, but we were only shown two yesterday. The first was called Electromagnetic Field, and it's a lot like the telekinesis power recently seen in Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. You can target an enemy, then lift him off the ground and toss him around like a ragdoll. Speaking of ragdolls, this power really shows off the modified Havok physics engine that's been implemented in the game. Bodies can be tossed out of windows or into walls, and they'll flip and crumple realistically.

The other power that we saw was the Electromagnetic Shield. When you turn the shield on, the screen will have a slightly golden hue to it. As enemies fire upon you, you'll see that your shield is protecting you from their bullets, although this only lasts for a short time. When using any of the powers, you only have a limited amount of energy, and it can only be recharged by waiting around and letting it build up, or by killing more enemies.

Most of the character and weapon models look very nice, as well, particularly the gold handgun that the character carries at all times. There are actually quite a few weapons that you can carry, from rocket launchers to submachine guns to handguns. With the smaller weapons, you can either dual wield them or simply carry one and toss grenades with your free hand. The producers wanted to make the game challenging, so you can only carry one weapon (or set of weapons if dual-wielding) at one time.

We also got a brief look at the game's multiplayer mode, but were only able to do battle split-screen style. The game will also support online play, as well as system link for all of the Xbox fans out there. The level that we played on, however, had some nifty surprises that you had to be aware of in addition to dodging your opponent's bullets. It was a three-tiered metal structure that looked suspiciously like the satellite from the original game, and there were a bunch of trapdoors that would open without any warning, causing you to fall to your death. Along with these sneaky booby traps, there was a helicopter constantly flying around, peppering the top of the structure with bullets. Although there was a rocket launcher precariously balancing on a support strut, I chose to use it on my enemy instead of the helicopter. The addition of these booby traps made the multiplayer more exciting, as you constantly had to be aware of where you were standing" (xbox.gamespy.com).