New Perfect Dark 0 details

By Ellie Gibson Published 3 June, 2005

And a coupla screenshots.

Those who remember N64 shooter Perfect Dark with fondness may be interested to know that some new screenshots for the forthcoming Xbox 360 sequel, Perfect Dark Zero, have emerged on developer fansite Rare-Extreme.

Posted by a forum user, they are said to be grabs from the single-player game mode and feature some interesting-looking Metroid-style spiders. Hmm.

Rare has been careful to keep the game under wraps so far, but now the first few details are starting to emerge - including news that all the weapons will feature primary and secondary functions, and you’ll be able to hold up to four at a time.

We’re also told you can sneak up on enemies and nick their weapons right out of their hands. And then turn said weapons on their previous owners, neatly.

Along with the handgun, pulse rifle and sniper rifle, we’re promised a healthy new arsenal to play around with including something called a Laptop gun. Stick it to a wall and it’ll set up an invisible boundary - and should an unsuspecting enemy that boundary, they’ll be showered with a hail of death nuggets. Watch out though, since enemies can also rewire Laptop guns to turn on you...

As far as vehicles go, you get a hovercraft, motorbike and jetpack, which lets you fly around with full 360 degree freedom. But again, your enemies can use them too, so they’re not necessarily a foolproof way of getting out of trouble.

There are two main multiplayer modes to choose from - Deathmatch, which around 50 players can join in at a time, and Dark Ops - play through a series of rounds, earning money for kills, essentially.

All in all, Perfect Dark Zero seems to be shaping up very nicely - but there’s still no word on when it’ll hit the shops. Rumours that PD0 will be an Xbox 360 launch title persist, but Rare is saying nothing for now. We’ll keep you posted.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (49) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Roamer #1 7 years ago

    The laptop is't new....

  • Johnson #2 7 years ago

    Yup, it was there in the original and jolly good fun it was too.

  • Darkedge #3 7 years ago

    50 players in deathmatch cool!

    but wasn't the laptop gun in the original? Think EG need to do more research - either that or it was so long ago she forgot - or was too young to have played it ;)
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 12:58

  • mcmonkeyplc #4 7 years ago

    Looks very blade runner! Cool :)

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #5 7 years ago

    Cool though it was, I never really made much use of the lappy gun in the original. Anyhoo, shots look nice!

  • silke #6 7 years ago

    Still looks awful though. Not that i'm about graphics. But considering the fact that IGN and others have stated that will game will look much better than what we've seen so far....well, if these are anything like the "new graphics" i'm quite dissapointed. This looks just like something out of the first xbox.

    Rare almost feels like a total joke these days. And the thing is that they still only ride upon past glories - in some strange way everyone believes that they can still create games like Goldeneye. But really, the games they have released past N64 are among the most uninteresting things i've seen. And Conker looks just as boring as everything else. It might be a good laugh in the possible frantic multiplayer. But the singleplayer certainly doesn't look or sound particulary "hot".

    And, Kameo - like what, 5 years in development? and still it looks just as uninteresting and generic as it did on the GC. For their sake and MS' I hope that they will be able with PDZ to create a game of Goldeneye's quality. But pesonally I don't think they have it in them any more. Most of the truly creative people they once had already left Rare years ago.

    Nintendo selling Rare is still one of the best financial things they've ever done ;)

    It's like Nintendo suck all creative energy out of Rare during the N64 years and decided to sell, the still impressive, shell for an enormous sum to MS ;)
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 13:37

  • gizmo #7 7 years ago

    The laptop gun was ace - I couldn't have done that level on airforce 1 without it taking care of the staircase for me :)

  • Blerk #8 7 years ago

    Rumours that PD0 will be an Xbox 360 launch title persist, but Rare is saying nothing for now.

    Rare? Meeting a deadline? Bwah-ha-ha!

  • Dizzy #9 7 years ago

    > Still looks awful though

    No it doesn't

    >Nintendo selling Rare is still one of the best
    financial things they've ever done ;)

    Yeah right..

  • skybluesam86 #10 7 years ago

    Aye, the laptop gun ruled.

    The only problem was you couldn't litter a level with them in deathmatches.
    It'd be cheap, but sooo fun :)

  • Ryu #11 7 years ago

    Rare's creativity and quality did not just emerge during the N64 years. People forget/didn't know that Rare made some outstanding games on SNES and when they were Ultimate Play The Game. I still rank Killer Instinct on the SNES as one of the best 2D fighters I have ever played, and the Donkey Kong series on the SNES as one of the most immersive 2D platformers on a Nintendo console. and that's no mean feat.

    But yes, unfortunately many of people behind Rare's rise during the SNES/N64 years have since moved on and only the illustrious name remains.

  • RedboX #12 7 years ago

    It's like Nintendo suck all creative energy out of Rare during the N64 years and decided to sell, the still impressive, shell for an enormous sum to MS ;)

    I think it was more a case that Rare are a technicaly compident development house, but lacking in the gameplay design side of things, Nintendo allways worked very closely with them, and now they are "on thier own" its easy to see where thier gameplay elements really came from.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 13:51

  • OldWormsFan #13 7 years ago

    Aye, it does look poop! Just makes you wonder how much input Nintendo had when they were going Nintendo stuff. Ever since they have Nintendo they have been awful.....

    ...althrough im sure developer fanboys will say otherwise...
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 13:54

  • silke #14 7 years ago

    Dizzy: So what exactlyy has Rare done these past years that warrant the extraordinary price which MS aquired them? - except cost MS' even more for the high devlopment costs of Kameo, Conker and the god awful Ghoulies game. Which REALLY sold in huge quantities , eh? ;) The truth is that they, so far, haven't created one single game that is worthy of the old Rare brand. I'm not saying that it couldn't still be on its way. But i'm not overly optimistic of that.

    Nintendo has done nothing but make alot of money out of this deal while MS is still waiting to reep their reward. And right now they're doing all taht they can to hype up PDZ, which really sounds just like PD. But with 50 players in multiplayer. Wow. Like that was something original and dynamic.....

  • JHuxley #15 7 years ago

    It's true Rare haven't done anything of note since they joined MS. That said, PD0 might not look fantastic graphically but I'm sure it'll play great if they stick to the tried & tested template. Looking forward to this one more than most 360 games.

  • mcmonkeyplc #16 7 years ago

    Excuse me are you looking at some old screenshots or something?

    Those (the ones linked to in this article) screens look great! You people seem to have some perverse fanboy grudge on Rare for leaving the precious nintendo. Wait till the game is out to judge it's gameplay. I didn't know you wise sage's could tell how a game played through static images. Amazing power you have.

  • Dizzy #17 7 years ago

    > Dizzy: So what exactlyy has Rare done these past years that
    warrant the extraordinary price which MS aquired them?

    Nothing true.. but that is not the point. Nintendo does not have Rare anymore... and for a company that has almost no 3rd party support anymore I would assume that some quick $$$ will cost them dearly in the long run. Did you get a lot of new games from this for your Cube? Did the quality improve? No.. a couple of top dogs at Nintendo just spend a bit more on sushi and Geisha's. There is nothing good about losing a dev house like Rare.

    Anyway... if Rare makes 2 launch games for 360 I am sure MS is going to be very happy. PD0 could be the Halo of the 360.

    Like some people have said. Rare was great before Nintendo... I am sure they will have some amazing stuff in the future.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 14:17

  • OldWormsFan #18 7 years ago

    "Excuse me are you looking at some old screenshots or
    something?

    Those (the ones linked to in this article)
    screens look great!"

    You do know this isnt a Xbox game McMonkey...?

  • Sid-Nice #19 7 years ago

    Perfect Dark was great until about level 12, when the game levels become boring, due to a lack of inovation. I was in love with Joanna 5 years ago, but since she's become a GB, I'm no longer interested.

  • Ryu #20 7 years ago

    Rare was a 2nd party developer not 3rd. Nintendo obviously felt that the cash boost would help them to invest in other areas of interest. I would also say that their 3rd party support now is better than it was a few years ago when they had Rare. They now have companies like Namco, Capcom, Intelligent Systems, Square Enix, Factor 5 and Ubisoft and more creating games for it's systems.

    Are Rare missed? I wouldn't say so.

  • Zero Beat #21 7 years ago

    Yes, it looks like an Xbox1 game from those fuzzy, low res, OLD build with an old HUD screenshots and the gameplay looks totally lacking!

    Idiots.

  • silke #22 7 years ago

    Ryu: I totally concur, but I just have to add that Intelligent Systems is a part of Nintendo. They're the apprentices of the late Gumpei Yokoi. They just have a more prominent name for their division ;)

  • freedumb #23 7 years ago

    'and the gameplay looks totally lacking!'

    I'm sorry but that just cracks me up. You can determine the gameplay from 2 screenshots? Have you got some sort of VR chip that enables you to look at a screenshot, and jump into the game from that spot or something?

  • Zero Beat #24 7 years ago

    Could I make my sarcasm any more obvious?

  • ali-uk #25 7 years ago

    Yep it sounded like EG didn't play the original. Oh, and Rare did say something:

    "As a flagship next-generation title for Microsoft, this little beauty is being primed and polished to blow the roof off this year's holiday season on behalf of the debutante Xbox 360."

    From http://www.rareware.org/games/upcoming/pdzero/pdz ero_intro.html
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 14:37

  • The-Bodybuilder #26 7 years ago

    Silke, do you enjoy licking chocolate off your gamecube? Because it is quite PAINFULLY obvious you're just a nintendo nut.

    IMO, if the graphics can improve drastically from those aweful first pics, I can imagine how much it is going to improve from now until november (they still haven't got the final dev kit, this may be early shots off the beta kits).

  • freedumb #27 7 years ago

    'Could I make my sarcasm any more obvious?'

    Oh. I'm sorry, lol. I haven't read the thread, I quickly scrolled down to your comment which was at the time the last one. I offer my sincerest apologies

    /grabs his coat
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 14:43

  • Zero Beat #28 7 years ago

    No problem.

    Only one 'recent' single player shot has been released and was in EGM magazine.

    http://www.tsurugi.co.uk/misc/x360/perfectdark/egm/0.jpg

    More multiplayer scans can be seen here:

    http://forum.off icialxboxmagazine.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=25239&postdays=0&pos torder=asc&start=150

  • JHuxley #29 7 years ago

    Zero - in all honesty those screens don't look much better. I'm sure it will play great considering the franchise's pedigree but the graphics are nothing compared to the Unreal 3 engine. Which is also on 360, before the Xbox fanboys go nuts...

  • oceanmotion #30 7 years ago

    Rare said all game content is done. All they have to do is up the graphics and tweak stuff. 4 - 5 months just for that. This game will look great.

  • Zero Beat #31 7 years ago

    I think we should wait to see more single player shots because for example, Conker's multiplayer levels look quite bare compared to the very richly detailed single player. The advantage of bareness in MP I find is it makes it easier to pick players out from their surroundings so you can get down to the dirty work. Who knows if the MP detail will be increased once Rare have beta devkits.

    As long as it's as fun as it looks jetpacking around in levels of that huge size, MP looks good enough already. In the shots first seen on 1UP some characters are missing shadows, lights aren't casting light as you'd expect so there's obviously work to be done.

  • freedumb #32 7 years ago

    I'm sure it'll look amazing on the finished hardware of the 360, rather than what these beta shots look like, let's wait and see.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/05 @ 15:38

  • Xerx3s #33 7 years ago

    ARGH! WTF???! YELLOW BOXES FOR THE XB2?!!!!!!!! ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR FR*CKING MINDS?!!!!!!!! *faint*

    Labtop Gun ownz in MP! 2v2 in 'Facility' with Labtop guns & Farsights is uber kewl! Aw anda, proximity mines of course... lots of them.... arghhhhh frameeelaagggggg *drool* :p
    Edited by 2 at 03/06/05 @ 15:46

  • Zero Beat #34 7 years ago

    You mean 'Felicity' ;)

  • evak #35 7 years ago

    Doesn't look like anything you can't do on a regular Xbox graphicaly. But like people are saying, it's not a good indication of gameplay. And with all that CPU there's a ton of stuff you can do with next gen you can't on Xbox. SO I'm hoping the graphics only touch the surface of what the game has in store for the gamers.

    Never understood why Rare was bought for so much money, If MS have half a billioin to spare they'd be better off grabbing Ubisoft before EA does. They are constantly producing the best games right now and looking for a way to stay independent.

    Don't see the value in Rare to be honest.

  • gylo #36 7 years ago

    Hmmmmmmmm is all I can say to those images. I reckon you could have printed them two years ago and called them XBOX1 shots and no one would bat an eyelid. It's so true guys the creative and magic genius that was Rare looks a bit lacking these days. Ofcoarse there's the potential "game play" but a game is only as good as the sum of its parts.

  • Zero Beat #37 7 years ago

    You'll have to say which images you're talking about because the desert MP shots are hardly something manageable on Xbox and the shots referred to in the article are small, highly compressed and from an old build of the game it would seem from the HUD.

    Everyone saying Rare have lost their gameplay touch are judging from what exactly? GbtG? One game that doesn't suit most people's tastes from team Banjo. Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo are from different development teams, both games are looking like promising exclusive-quality games. I'm not expecting all SEGA's future titles to be crap now just because Sonic Team have released, in my opinion, a load of crap recently.

  • The_Real_Olla #38 7 years ago

    Come on guys ... When have Rare done bad graphics? I for one have faith in them.

  • #39 7 years ago

    The levels still look insanely crap. What is with the non-modelling going on there? We got some 90 degree angles, some 45 degree angles. Wow, I am a level designer!

  • Zero Beat #40 7 years ago

    Yeah, I'd love to see them round off the edges but something like that which I still expect to see for years to come doesn't automatically make everything look insanely crap.

  • #41 7 years ago

    Not automatically, but it looks insanely crap here.

  • ekko #42 7 years ago

    They look like they could be any other FPS.

  • Xerx3s #43 7 years ago

    Zero Beat >> right, sorry, bit of amnesia there, its been a while since i took me N64 out of the "Alltimebestconsolehalloffame" cabinet.

  • Nikanoru #44 7 years ago

    Imagine if, near the launch of the PS2, people were argueing whether or not some games could have been done on the PS1, because they looked about the same? Ridicilous right?

    *cough*

  • The-Bodybuilder #45 7 years ago

    Weren't people saying the same thing about halo before it was released? How the alpha and beta builds were graphically and technicaly crap? Wasn't the same thing in the final build, was it (excluding flood related levels).

    ANd the same was said about forza too.

  • Johnson #46 7 years ago

    And that's why it got 8 out of 10.

    In any case, I don't think any game is now going to amaze us graphically. We're going to keep inching closer to photo-realism, there will be no more jumps like there was 8bit to 16bit, SNES to Playstation, PS1 to PS2. I'm just hoping the old GoldenEye playability is still there. Ooooh, how about they do a complete retro remake of GoldenEye (obviously debranded)? I'd play that online for weeks.

  • Kiigan #47 7 years ago

    Looks better than the screenshots we saw a few weeks ago. Will reserve judgement until I see it all moving though. Remaining quietly hopeful that Rare can actually do something good.

  • OldWormsFan #48 7 years ago

    " I'm just
    hoping the old GoldenEye playability is still there. Ooooh,
    how about they do a complete retro remake of GoldenEye
    (obviously debranded)? I'd play that online for weeks.
    ignore poster "

    But the goldeneye team left to make TimeSplitters........

  • freedumb #49 7 years ago

    Not true. About 6 members left who worked on Goldeneye, 3 to set up Free Radical, some onto other spheres. They actually left early in the development of Perfect Dark, which was made without them , and still turned out to be brilliant. In many areas its even better than Goldeneye, but I rate the two side by side.

    The three that set up FR in 1998 are Steve Ellis, Programmer, (once worked for Toys'R'Us); Karl Hilton, Artist; David Doak, Designer/Programmer.

    Since then it seems more people have left Rare, a few especially after the takeover of Microsoft. but Rare is made up of about 300-400 employees, they're a HUGE company! who have been around for over 20 years, since the late 1970s and have a HUGE portfolio of games (over 120, no wonder they cost 375m )(obviously not all of them design the games), so they still have a lot of talent within them.
    Edited by 9 at 05/06/05 @ 17:56

  • Tabasco #50 7 years ago

    Ellie - You may want to stop using sarcasm (Regarding the Laptop gun) in your writing in the future as it's clearly lost on some muppets....:o)

  • Lockjaw #51 7 years ago

    Those still screens are easily outbeat by still screens of the current Xbox's shooters-case in point, Unreal championship 2, I am sure seeing PD0 in motion will yield a very different outcome.

  • #52 7 years ago

    Ellie, you might wanna play a game before you comment on it's sequels 'new' features.

    Bloody women...