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007 Racing is a 2000 racing video game developed by Eutechnyx and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation. This game marks the seventh appearance of Pierce Brosnan's James Bond; though like Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, the game includes his likeness but not his voice.

In 007 Racing, the player takes on the role of James Bond behind the wheel of some of his most famous vehicles from the then-current 19 official films. Cars include the Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit, and the BMW Z3 as well as 7 other automobiles. Each car is equipped with all the usual gadgetry and weapons issued by Q.

Plot[]

After returning from a mission to rescue a Cherise Litte from a fortress in Eastern Europe with his Aston Martin DB5, Bond returns to MI6 Headquarters to learn from M that a shipment of arms bound for Halifax Canada had been intercepted in the Labradour Sea. The arms aboard were provided by the United States and the United Kingdom to be used as a collective resource pool for their weaker NATO allies. Everyone on board had been killed with military precision, and missiles, missile casings, a next generation GPS, and a Q Branch modified BMW 750iL.

Bond is tasked with finding the cargo. He is sent to New York City to rendez-vous with his CIA operative friend Jack Wade. After leaving the plane Bond is issued a rental car, but when he reaches the city, Hammond Litte calls the car's cell phone, and he informs Bond that the car has a speed-sensitive bomb in it. Bond then collects disruptor chips to stall the explosion before jettisoning it into Hudson River and allowing it to explode.

Bond continues on with finding EMP device that was stolen and destroying ten computers in distribution center from which a car transporter carrying the smuggling cars. He intercepts the transporter with his Aston Martin. Bond then goes to Mexico with his BMW Z3, to where he was pointed by questioning the transporter driver, the henchman Whisper. He is trying to track Zukovsky and once he manages, he finds out that behind everything is Dr Hammond Litte, Cherise's father, and that her rescue was just a decoy mission aiming to distract him from the freighter. Bond then engages in race with Xenia Onatopp and her Ferrari F355 after which he gets captured by crashing into a buildozer with full speed, damaged his Z3 and taken to Louisiana. He manages to escape and finds the stolen BMW, after which he pursues and destroys the boat driven by Jaws.

Back in New York, Bond downloads the files from four limousines with his BMW Z8 and discovers that Litte's real plan is to release a deadly virus that will kill millions. Bond then goes to the Baltic Sea with his Lotus Esprit and after infiltrating opponent's underwater base he destroys the plane transporting the virus.

Cast[]

Gadgets and weapons[]

Most of the gadgets and weapons in 007 Racing are inspired by the James Bond films, specifically Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, and The Living Daylights.

Multiplayer[]

007 Racing Multiplayer (Playstation) 1

Screenshot of multiplayer gameplay, from 007 Racing (Playstation).

007 Racing has a splitscreen multiplayer with two game mode choices, Challenge and Pass the Bomb. Challenge is a head-to-head car fight, with each player trying to destroy the others with rockets, machine guns, and various other weapons. Pass the Bomb is a hot potato type game, where one player starts with a bomb that is slowing ticking towards detonation. This player must bump into another player to pass the bomb to them. Whoever holds the bomb when time runs out explodes, and loses.

Multiplayer allows each player to pick their own car to race with, and certain weapons can be turned on and off. There are also multiple arena, including the Secret Volcano, the Airport, the Arctic, and more.

Reception[]

007 Racing was met with mixed reviews. It received a score of 55.91% based on 16 reviews from GameRankings[1] and 51/100 from Metacritic.[2]

Game Informer's Paul Anderson scored the game a 7 out of 10. He called the graphics "ugly" and "nasty", but said there are some "well-designed" missions. He called the voice acting "excellent", particularly praising the performance given by John Cleese, but thought the game had an inconsistent mix of content.[3]

Doug Perry of IGN scored the game a 5/10 and stated: "EA's 007 Racing is a decent little game, as long as you don't expect too much from it. As you might have suspected, 007 Racing ain't the Sean Connery of Bond games, it's the Timothy Dalton version. It's not original, nor is it good looking. It's filled with awkward spots and questionable areas (like when I reached the broken bridge in Escape and the vocals chimed in after it was too late to launch my parachute), and it becomes a chore rather than fun. Occasionally, there are little flashes of goodness (Escape and Gimme a Break are examples), but the game never really reaches any new planes of play that we've did already experience in Spy Hunter, back in the early 1980s. I mean if you're simply dying to drive Bond cars, rent this game, but don't buy it full price. Now, if you don't mind, I've got an old-school arcade to find."[4]

Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot gave a mixed review, with a score of 5.3 out of 10. He stated: "The game's varied mission objectives occasionally give it a Driver-like feel, but the clunky control issues really manage to take you out of the game. The heavily modified Need for Speed engine is great for the fast action, fast driving missions, but the slower-paced, more combat-heavy levels suffer from the game's rough control. Overall, 007 Racing isn't polished enough to fill the needs of objective-based driving game fans. Fans of these types of games would be better served by Driver 2."[5]

Media[]

Screenshots[]

Promotional images[]

References[]

  1. 007 Racing for PlayStation. GameRankings. Retrieved on 20 August 2012.
  2. 007 Racing for PlayStation Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 20 August 2012.
  3. Anderson, Paul (January 2001). "007 Racing" (93). Retrieved on December 1, 2013.
  4. Perry, Doug (21 November 2000). 007 Racing. IGN. Retrieved on 1 December 2013.
  5. Gerstmann, Jeff (22 November 2000). 007 Racing Review. GameSpot. Retrieved on 1 December 2013.

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