James Bond 007: Blood Stone

Overview

James Bond 007: Blood Stone (sometimes stylized as 007: Blood Stone) is a third-person shooter developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision ( Square Enix in Japan) for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS (ported by n-Space), and PC (ported by High Moon Studios) on November 2, 2010.

Released alongside GoldenEye 007, Blood Stone features an original story in the James Bond franchise and features the voice & likeness of Daniel Craig as James Bond, Judi Dench as M, and British singer Joss Stone (who also performs the game's main theme) as love interest (and fellow MI6 agent) Nicole Hunter. After foiling a suicide attack on the G-20 Summit in Athens, Bond is tasked to find the whereabouts of the plans of a top-secret biological weapon.

In addition to standard cover-based combat, the game also features vehicular chase sequences (which play similar to the studio's earlier Project Gotham Racing series). The game also features 16-player online team-based multiplayer with an experience system, weapon and attire unlocks, and a unique "commander" system to display and reward the top players of each team.

It is notable as the studio's last game before they closed their doors.

Story

The game's story is set in the same universe as the recent Daniel Craig films. As Her Majesty's best agent, James Bond is tasked to find the whereabouts of a missing project. He is assisted by M and along the way meets Nicole Hunter, a wealthy British socialite. The story will take Bond across the globe, including stops in Athens, Istanbul, Monaco, Siberia and Bangkok, to try to unravel the conspiracy surround the disappearance of the weapon.

The story opens in Athens, Greece during the G-20 Summit. M is on the phone with Bond, telling him that she fears that an attack is imminent. The general in charge with the security refuses to listen to M (telling her not to trust her female intuitions) and that the photo op will go as planned despite the threat of an arms dealer named Greco who plans to orchestrate a suicide mission to wipe out all the world leaders in one shot. Of course, this won't happen if Bond does anything about it. Bond gets parachuted onto Greco's boat and starts saving the day.

After killing some guards, Bond confronts Greco who manages to escape on boat. Bond follows and thus starts an epic chase scene involving a helicopter, a couple of enemy boats and a collapsing tower. Greco manages to make it on land and James crashes his speed boat into his guards. After more shooting, James finally stops Greco who tells him that it is already to late which results in him being thrown out the window and Bond decides to give chase to the SUV carrying the Bond. Bond stops the bomb, orders a martini and sleeps with waitress. Cue late title card and intro music performed by Joss Stone.

Bond, supposed to be on vacation, he's contacted by M about the disappearance of plans for the creation of a biological weapon. A company called Midhurst Labs had been working with the British army to create a top secret biological weapon. One of their scientists, Malcom Tedworth, was recently believed to be dead after his boat capsized near the coast of Spain. However, a phone call from an Istanbul construction was recently tracked and the conversation was about a scientist and a biological weapon. M sends Bond to Istanbul to investigate, to see if the scientist is still alive and if he's decided to start working with the bad guys.

Bond goes to the Istanbul dig site but things quickly go sour when the so called construction workers are actually mercenaries. Nevertheless, Bond shoots his way through the site and eventually stumbles on a dying prisoner (Remy) who tells him that Tedworth is being tortured somewhere else by a man named Bernin, a low level middle man. What Bernin wants is the code to the usb drive on which is stored the plans for the weapons. Despite Malcom's best efforts to resist, he gives the code to Bernin and is executed right when Bond makes it to the cell. Bernin runs off and thus ensues yet another car chase where Bond tries to catch Bernin before he makes it to the hand off. Bernin succeeds at handing off the plans but Bond manages to interrogate him about who he's working for. Bernin is working for a man named Stefan Pomerov. After giving the info Bernin pleads "I've told you all I know, let me go I'm of no use to you !" to which Bond answers "You've got that right" before pushing him off a cliff.

M informs 007 that Pomarov is a rich Russian oil magnate who's just bought a new casino in Monaco. Bond goes there and meets with contact Nicole Hunter, a diamond buyer who used to date Pomarov (despite the fact that she considers him as an "uncle") who is meant to meet Pomarov at his new casino, enough time for Bond to loot the billionaires safe and learn more on the whereabouts of the weapon. All goes according to plan and Bond discovers that the weapon is being produced in Pomarov's secret lab facility in Siberia. Nicole and Bond go there where Bond blows up the entire facility and chases down Pomarov's train that is transporting the weapon. Pomarov attempts to escape on board his giant hovercraft but Bond manages to kill Pomarov by throwing him off the ship.

Everything seems to be in order but Bond suspects a bigger scheme behind all of this. He follows a lead that leads him to Bangkok where he rendezvous with Captain Ping who tells him that the weapon has been given to a terrorist named Rak. Before Ping can say anything else, Ping is assassinated. This triggers a chase through an aquarium, on the roof tops and a chase scene where the assassin plows through Bangkok with a garbage truck. Bond eventually catches the assassin and has a massive crash where he blacks out for 6 hours. When he wakes up, he decides to go to Rak's boathouse. Several corpses later, Bond chases down Rak but Rak manages to knock out 007 by sedating him.

Bond wakes up tied to a chair, being tortured by Rak and his men in Burma. Rak tells him how his nice platinum and diamond encrusted knife makes anyone talk and tells Bond what's going to happen next: "I'm going to put you in front of all the other prisoners and cut out your tongue so it might loosen theirs". Rak was behind the capture of the scientists and is off to where the weapon is being produced. Of course, Bond escapes and chases Rak via helicopter and in the jungle. This leads to a final showdown between Rak and Bond on the top of the facility. Rak is defeated and before falling to his death, he asks Bond why he doesn't want to know who he's working for. Bond replies that he already knows at which point the game shows Bond holding the diamond incrusted Dagger.

Nicole is scene having a conversation about selling weapons to North Korea when she receives a package with the knife in it. She instantly understand that her cover has been blown and she flees by car but Bond catches her. She reveals that she was motivated by greed, by her desire to not grow old alone. Before she can reveal who she's working for she is assassinated via UAV drone and the screen fades to black.

PC Requirements

• OS: Windows® Vista / XP / 7
• Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo E4300 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 x2 4000 2.0 GHz or better
• Memory: 1GB RAM for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win7
• Graphics: 3D hardware accelerator card required - 100% DirectX 9.0c-compliant 256MB video card and drivers; NVIDIA® GeForce® 7600 GT and better chipsets, ATI Radeon™ X1650 and better chipsets
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 12GB of uncompressed hard drisk space (plus 400MB for the Windows® swap file and 2MB free for saved games)
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible
• No permanent internet required