"The End All Party Game"

But the fun doesn't stop there. Rare is now introducing "simulants" - a Rare creation. Simulants are very similar to standard bots, except they play on your team. In addition to the small alien team-members fighting it out with enemies, they back gamers up through a series of player-controlled formations. What this means, exactly, is that players not only take part in the game, but command a team of their own. Using the D-Pad, gamers can tell their alien buddies to back them up, run ahead to survey the area, pull back or open fire; and it all works out very impressively. These simulants (each seen on the bottom of this page) range in 5 difficulty levels from basic to hell.

On a side note, Rare has opted to include a handful of the best multiplayer levels from GoldenEye in Perfect Dark. Versions of The Temple, The Facility (a classic) and The Complex are in the game with updated textures, newly added real-time lighting effects and the like. Remember those ledges you couldn't drop down on in the Temple level in Goldeneye? Rare, in this newly designed level for Perfect Dark, has taken out the "hidden barriers" making it easily acessible to drop down to another level no matter where you stand. Other levels as of now include G5 Building, Pipes (don't slip off them), Skedar and Ravine.

Gamer's Summit Update: During the horrible delay of Perfect Dark, gamers threw out every idea imaginable about how the extra time would be spent. Now it's officially confirmed, there are two new modes in the game: Co-Operative and Counter-Operative mode. The Co-Operative mode puts two players in the roles of Joanna Dark and her sister as they work together to complete levels and tasks. This one feature that gamers everywhere were dying for has finally arrived, and knowing Rare, it will be spectacular. That's not to say framerate will suffer a little.

While the co-op was the most anticipated and wanted feature of PD, the Counter-Operative mode wasn't even hinted or talked about. Similar to the blockbuster film, The Matrix and its agents transferring themselves to a new person when they were "killed", PD’s Counter-Operative mode takes this idea and puts one player in control of Joanna Dark with a certain goal to achieve and the other player in the role of an enemy character set on stopping her. If and when Joanna kills the other player, they quickly take the possession of the next available enemy available and continue their quest on stopping Miss Dark. It's, quite frankly, another kick-ass innovation from Rare even furthening the replay value for PD. With yet another multiplayer feature to PD, this is the party game to end all party games. And it's to no surprise at all that The Matrix was incorporated in a way to Perfect Dark; you and I knew it was coming.

Finally comes some bad news, which many are already informed of, about the Transfer Pak/Face-Mapping being cancelled for programming and safety reasons. First off, according to Nintendo, the programing for it wasn't going to well, and really hurt the overall game technically. But a little birdy tells us this isn't the main reason. The idea of kids and players having their mugs placed on a character and then shot wasn't a good idea from the beginning, if you think about it. For some people (young kids), the difference between shooting your friend in a videogame and shooting your friend in real life would seem no different. And with all the recent school shootings, that just added to the problem. Who knows what parents whould have said about this. Nintendo is just preventing any further tragedies.

Update: 2/28
Thanks to the latest issue of EGM and loyal reader 'Mangler', we have some info on the modes of multiplayer. The first mode called "Hold the Briefcase", plays like Goldeneye's flag tag. Players who find and carry the briefcase for 30 seconds get one point. Another mode, "Hacker Central", has two objectives: players must first find a data link, then carry it to a computer and stand for 20 seconds to activate the terminal. Next is "Pop a Cap", a game in which players take turns as the highlighted target whom everyone else must blow away. The "King of the Hill" mode has everyone scrambling to control a specific area of the map. "Touch that Box" is a similar game, except players hunt down and tag crates to turn them they're teams color. The customization in Perfect Dark allows you the complete freedom to place whatever weapons and gadgets you like into any arena, and to save it to a controller pak. The custom weapon panel consists of six slots with whatever weapon or gizmo you assign it to. For instance, slot number one's weapon will spawn in more locations in the level than anything else (very cool indeed). Items assigned to slot number six, on the other hand, will be the hardest to find. Once again all this is saved to a controller pak, so pick one up. There is, of course, an option for one shot kills, so all you "License to Kill" fans can stop worrying, the option is in PD and rightfully so; it made Goldeneye what it is. Other options that can be set for each multiplayer mode are radar or no radar, no doors, lighting up the level, and a couple more. Finally, a controller pak is necessary for the new multiplayer stat tracking PD has. Everyone loved it in Goldeneye, and Rare has expanded this, adding new stats (total hours spent playing multiplayer, for example).