Yeah, for console gamers I recall it being the "Halo" or "GTA" of its time.
Like FF7 around the same time, everybody knew it and everybody loved messing around with it. Everybody I knew talked about it.
The multiplayer in GoldenEye was probably the best of any console FPS to date by far, until Perfect Dark. PD just out-cooled GE007 with much more customization. It had some of the same maps as GE, too.. but with bot support. It was ahead of it\'s time on consoles, and would have been even more ahead if they left in the Game Boy Camera compatibility.