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This week sees the release of GoldenEye 007 Reloaded, Eurocom's HD update to last year's well received Wii shooter and spiritual successor to the venerable N64 version.

So with the game set to debut this Friday, Nov 4th, we tracked down GoldenEye 007 Reloaded writer Rob Matthews, to get the story behind the single-player component of the game.

You released GoldenEye 007 on Wii last year, were you pleased with its reception?

Absolutely, feedback from the press and fans was overwhelmingly positive and our aggregated review scores rate us as one of the best FPS's on the Wii platform.

The original GoldenEye was such an iconic game, it must have cast quite a long shadow - how was it dealing with not only high expectations but those probably slightly rose-tinted memories?

We took a slightly different approach when developing GoldenEye 007, rather than trying to solely recreate the original game, we approached the project as if we were re-imagining the GoldenEye story for the modern day; that meant a new cast and locations alongside some mild updates to the story to make it feel more current to today's world. That said, the original game has generated such a fantastic legacy and we've paid subtle homage to it in a number of places throughout the game.

What has the move to a HD version bought to the GoldenEye game? What did you learn from the Wii version that's fed into the HD game?

The online and split-screen multiplayer features of GoldenEye 007 were really well received when the Wii title launched last year so we've tried give players more of what they love for GoldenEye 007: Reloaded - we have more maps, new weapons, gadgets, game modes and of course a number of new classic characters that Bond fans love to play as. That said, we also added in some new features and content for players who enjoy the single player experience - the MI6 Ops game mode.

How was working with Daniel Craig and Dame Judy Dench?

In a nutshell, fantastic, they are both very talented and professional actors who are always willing to go the extra mile to get a perfect performance, I've been a big fan of both actors for quite a while so for me personally it was a wonderful opportunity to write for and work with them. I'd also like to mention that we had a great supporting cast too, with Rory Kinnear, Elliot Cowan, Alec Newman and Kirsty Mitchell to name but a few.

You also worked with Bruce Feirstein, the writer of the GoldenEye movie - what did he bring to the party and how different is Reloaded's plot from the classic movie?

Bruce was a great ally and friend to have on the team, he's been through the Bond film process several times now and was instrumental in helping to successfully update and steer the project through EON productions, the producers of the Bond films. And of course he has some great anecdotes from when he was involved with the production of several Bond films himself.

It wouldn't be a Bond game without a healthy portion of guns n gadgets - can you tell us a bit about Reloaded's load out?

In regards to guns and gadgets we have some great new additions for GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, including a diverse range of signature pistols for some of the classic characters, new weapon attachments and also a revised progression system that rewards players with attachments for their weapons the more they use them.

Would you say Reloaded places more emphasis on stealth or all-out combat? Can you play it both ways?

Many areas throughout the game support both stealth and combat gameplay, we've really tried to give the player a broad choice throughout the game in how they approach a given situation. They can take advantage of multiple routes, use silenced weapons and silent takedowns, or go in guns blazing.

How have you improved the enemy AI to provide Bond with more of a challenge?

We had a great AI foundation from GoldenEye 007 but we did go back and iterate in certain areas to improve it, and some of that work has fed into our new single player game mode - MI6 Ops. Alongside enhancements to the AI system, we also created a brand new engine for GoldenEye 007: Reloaded that runs the game at a smooth 60 frames per second with fantastic high definition visuals.

New "Mi6 Ops Missions' have been mentioned - they sound intriguing - what do they entail?

MI6 Ops is a game mode that allows players to choose a particular style of gameplay - stealth, combat or objective-based missions, and then tweak a variety of settings exposed to them such as the number of enemies that appear, how aggressive the enemies are, how much damage it takes to kill them, or even enable modes such as Paintball and Golden Gun. The player is awarded a score upon successfully completing an MI6 Ops game and their score is uploaded to the game's leaderboards that are integrated into Playstation Network and Xbox Live.

One of our aims was to really drive the competitive element of this mode - so you can create your own custom challenge, set a score and then compare how you rank against players from all over the world. But the really neat trick is that you can easily view and replay the exact same settings that other players have created and used to generate their high scores in an effort to better them.

What kind of achievements and trophies can budding Bonds look forward to?

We have 50 achievements and trophies spread throughout the single player, MI6 Ops and Multiplayer game modes of GoldenEye 007: Reloaded. They are spread across a broad range of categories, from using certain weapons, finding hidden items, playing through a level to a set time limit, remaining in stealth or not taking any damage. And we also have a few hidden achievements and trophies that should bring a smile to players' faces once they find them.

What does PlayStation Move and Sharpshooter functionality add to the game? Were you tempted to add Kinect support?

The PlayStation Move and Sharp Shooter support offers players a tightly integrated gesture based control method with a wealth of control mappings to suit all players tastes. Eurocom already have considerable experience with the gesture controlled games on the Wii and Move so we wanted to make sure that Move support for GoldenEye 007: Reloaded was the best that it could be.

What's next for Eurocom after Reloaded?

A well deserved break! The team at Eurocom have been hard at work all through the summer months and have done a fantastic job in bringing GoldenEye to the PS3 and Xbox 360 with a wealth of brand new features and content.