Two summers ago, Activision announced the rerelease of one of the most popular first person shooters ever with Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo Wii. With updated graphics (for the Wii…) and control, there was still something missing from the experience: players.

While the Wii has been a focus of the casual gaming market, the hardcore fanbase who would care most about the Goldeneye name had grown up and moved away from the Nintendo systems and their waggle controls and instead found their way to the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3. Enter San Diego Comic Con 2011 and Activision lets us take a peek at actual gameplay of the revamped Goldeneye 007: Reloaded. Business is about to pick up.

Gameplay:

It’s hard to review a reimagining of a title without looking at the original inspiration at the same time. The most noticeable difference is gameplay. In the early days, people didn’t really know what a shooter should play like on a console and the gameplay compensated for the limited control scheme with the Nintendo 64’s single analog controller. Now, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded feels and plays like a standard twin stick shooter.

New to the series is the disappearance of health packs since the emergence of regenerating health which has become the industry standard in shooters since the initial release. What is nice though for the Goldeneye “purist” (if those even still exist) is that players can opt for the Classic difficulty setting which takes away regenerating health to give the game a more old school feel.

At Comic Con, we got our first look at the gameplay of the next-gen console upgrade of the Goldeneye franchise with Goldeneye 007: Reloaded. At PAX, Activision has released the first official trailer for the game’s Mi6 mode which we were only able to see in person in San Diego and were unfortunately unable to share with you until now.

From everything we have seen, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded does an awesome job of capturing the feel of the classic Goldeneye experience and updating it to the modern era. The question remains however if the game has evolved with the times to capture the interest of those who loved it so many years ago.

In addition to the game’s classic story (that is often forgotten because of the heavy nostalgia for the game’s multiplayer) will be the Mi6 mode. Almost in the way that Special Ops mode was added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Mi6 will be a series of missions for players to tackle outside of the standard story. It will add more play time to the single player experience as well as increase the value for people who had already experienced the classic story years ago, giving them something all new.

Take a look at the trailer and gallery below and make sure to let us know your thoughts on Goldeneye 007: Reloaded coming this fall for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 from Activision and Eurocom.

Last year when Activision and Eurocom announced a relaunch of the Nintendo 64 classic Goldeneye as a Wii exclusive, classic shooter fans who had moved on from the Nintendo consoles to the more powerful and better controlling XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 were up in arms. They were the people who cut their teeth on first person shooters for the first time on the N64. It wasn’t their fault Nintendo had moved on to gimmicky controls and sacrificed graphics in favor of “family gaming”.

This year, their prayers will be answered with an all new, built from the ground up version dubbed Goldeneye: 007 Reloaded coming to the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. What fans will get is a retelling of the classic Bond story with new graphics and new mechanics that control and look more like a Call of Duty title rather than the waggle and aiming layout of the Wii (although it will be PlayStation Move compatible).

During the Activision press event, we had the opportunity to see the walkthrough of one of the game’s early levels which not only looked gorgeous but had engaging gameplay and very entertaining stealth takedowns. We also got to hear about the various new MI 6 modes that have everything from Stealth to Defense missions resembling Horde mode from Gears of War.

Take a look below at our developer interview, the game’s announcement trailer and the first image gallery for Goldeneye: 007 Reloaded for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Stick to the Flickcast for more on this already much hyped and anticipated title as more develops.