James Bond games will forever be judged against Goldeneye. And why not? Goldeneye was (and still is) one of the greatest console FPS's of all time. Yet over the past couple years, not a single Bond inspired game has come close to the greatness of it. Last year it was 007: Agent Under Fire. That was a fun game, but again lacked the fun that the classic N64 title had.

So its another year, another James Bond game. This time it is 007: Nightfire. The only reason I even decided to play his game was that it had been a while since I had played an FPS; oh, and the video store was out of Timesplitters 2. Luckily, Nightfire is actually a very entertaining game, and well worth the price of a rental.

Although this title was released along with the film Die Another Day, the game itself has nothing to do with it. Then again, it does the follow the proper Bond storyline: an evil man is attempting to take over the world using a super satellite. As James Bond, it is your job to hunt down this man, spy on his plans, drive some fast cars, get the girl(s), and eventually take the guy out.

If you played Agent Under Fire last year, then you will pick up Nightfire quickly. It keeps the same pace and style. Most of the time you're on foot, but there are a select few stages in which you get to drive a vehicle.

No matter which you are playing, you still get a decent variety of weapons and gadgets. While thwarting evil forces on the ground, you get the usual PP7 or P2K (weapons based on real the real guns Bond uses: Walther PPK and P99), and pick up some others as you take down the endless minions. This was one area in which I was actually rather disappointed. The guns really aren't that great and you don't get very many of them. Far too many of the submachine guns only fire in "bursts" and not real automatic fire. This gets really annoying when you are surrounded by countless enemies and you can only fire 4-5 shots at a time.

In the vehicles you get machine guns (real ones thank God) and rockets. I found myself using the guns rarely since the game usually gives you enough rockets to finish the mission. You also get other tools such as smoke screens and a turbo boost when you need to get out of a sticky situation.

While many of the missions are fun, they are painfully easy. Half the time I didn't even need to shoot at guys, I just ran past them until a cut scene started. The enemy AI isn't too bad (they actually hit you when they shoot), but they often just stand there and don't respond when you are shooting at them. The objectives that come with these missions can be confusing at times, but don't take much skill once you figure out what you need to do.

The control on Nightfire is really up to the player. There is a wide selection of control schemes that should make everyone happy. I chose the Moonraker scheme because it was so much like Solitaire from Goldeneye. Once you find the one you like, everything is responsive and quick. The only problem I ever had was that occasionally it seemed as if the gun didn't fire when I hit the trigger. Once I figured out how to compensate for this by strafing and jumping, it wasn't too bad.

The sound in the game is my only big problem with Nightfire. The sound effects like car engines and gun blasts are fine, but the music is terrible. In every single level the music is nothing more than a rehash of the James Bond theme. Apparently the designers figured adding a little "ding" here and there changed the song. I ended up playing my own music instead.

Last is the multiplayer. It is almost in every way the same as AUF, but I think just a bit more fun. The levels are fun and varied, and the options you can choose are pretty cool. As you play the single player game, you open up various multiplayer options such as characters and modes. Though at the end of it all, nothing is more fun to me than a basic Free for All. You can pick from a small selection of weapons presets and from a good amount of characters. I just wish that they had kept in some of the really fun options from AUF such as speed, gravity, and jet packs. That would have made the multiplayer amazing.

To sum up, Nightfire is a fun James Bond game that will give you several hours of fun. I wouldn't suggest it to buy though, unless you have many sibling or close by friends. It is a fun game,but I guess no Bond game can live up to Goldeneye.