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[JdFoX187]

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Published by: Capcom
Developed by: GRIN, best known for Bionic Commando Rearmed, G.R.A.W. on PC and Wanted: Weapons of Fate
Release Dates:
Xbox 360/Playstation 3: Available May 19, $59.99
PC: Available July 2009, $39.99
Multiplayer: 2-10
Official Web site: www.bioniccommando.com
ESRB Rating: M for Mature for Blood/Gore, Violence and Language

THE STORY:

Ten years have passed since Nathan “RAD” Spencer, the Bionic Commando, managed to defeat the Imperials and destroy their secret weapon, the Albatross, in the events of Bionic Commando Rearmed. In the aftermath, Spencer and his comrade Joseph “Super Joe” Gibson were praised as heroes by the entire nation.

TASC, the military intelligence organization that provided Spencer with his Bionic Arm, soon found their bionics program in great demand. Now under the command of Joseph Gibson, the organization flourished, and many other operatives were enhanced with bionic parts.
As the original Bionic Commando, Nathan Spencer became responsible for training these new operatives. At the same time, Spencer began to undertake a series of high risk, covert operations. On one such mission, codenamed Operation Blackout (the events of which are detailed in the comic book Chain of Command), Spencer’s sense of justice came into conflict with the orders from his superior and friend Gibson.

In refusing to kill two rogue bionic prototypes, Spencer disobeyed a direct order which ultimately led to the deaths of several TASC agents. Spencer was court-martialed, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death.
Five years after the Bionic Purge and a series of minor terrorist attacks, BioReign came into possession of a weapon of monumental destructive power, known as the Witherer. They detonated this weapon in Ascension City, the pride of the FSA. The experimental WMD, unleashed a kinetic pulse deep into the earth's core, triggering a massive earthquake that reduced the city to ruins. In the aftermath, BioReign have moved in and occupied the city, taking control of the air defense grid. Their hold on the city is absolute, their motive remains unclear, and after failed ground and air assaults, the FSA is running out of options.

Super Joe realizes there is only one last chance - Spencer. A broken man on death row awaiting execution, stripped of the bionics that made him someone special. But if reunited with his arm, Spencer is the one man capable of navigating the terrain of the broken city. The one man who has experience fighting and defeating the forces that make up BioReign...the one man with nothing left to lose.

THE BIONIC ARM:

The Bionic Arm is an artificial limb composed of lightweight and durable graphite composite materials, and powered by a replaceable hydrogen micro-fuel cell. A dual-use artificial limb replacement / grappling hook with a 20m (65ft) cable is fitted as standard, designed to be capable of grappling onto almost any surface. The functions of the Bionic Arm allow soldiers to function at a level far surpassing the ability of regular troops, vastly increasing their strength and maneuverability.

CAMPAIGN:
You will fight your way through multiple environments and landscapes to bring down the bionic terrorist organization BioReign. The game features three acts and three difficulties. Play Commando at your own risk. THIS IS NOT A SANDBOX GAME. The levels are open, but are still quite linear and you will have to utilize the bionic arm to traverse the rugged terrain.

MULTIPLAYER:

Up to 10 players can battle on 16 different shipped maps using the strengths and weaknesses of the bionic arm. Standard gametypes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are available. The bionic arm adds a new layer of depth to the game with the new swinging mechanic and a new arsenal of attacks like death from above and the zip kick.

A demo is available for download now for the Xbox 360. Download here.

PREORDER BONUSES

These seem to be the rave these days. You will get a free set of patches if you preorder Bionic Commando from Gamestop. Gamecrazy is offering a retro lunchbox and if you preorder directly from Capcom, you will get a free "Chain of Command" comic book with the cover drawn by Watchmen's Dave Gibbons. The comic bridges the gap between Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Bionic Commando, showing how Spencer went from national hero to a death row inmate. For those who do not preorder from Capcom, the comic is available at the official Bionic Commando Web site or by visiting: http://www.bioniccommando.com/us/comics/view/2

Australian Pre-Order at EB Games

[/QUOTE]

SCREENSHOTS:

You may notice a different character model in the last screenshot. If you own Bionic Commando Rearmed, the game will give you a code upon completition to download a retro Nathan "RAD" Spencer character model for the 3D game, if you don't like the original character model. For those who don't have Bionic Commando Rearmed, buy it now you dirty ponces! It's on sale for $4.99 or 400 MSPTS. Xbox 360 Download.

GAMEPLAY VIDEOS/TRAILERS:

There are multiple gameplay videos and trailers at GameTrailers.

REVIEWS:

Edge: 6/10
Game Informer: 6.25/10 SO: 5/10
Eurogamer: 7/10
Giant Bomb: 4/5:

Bionic Commando goes back and forth between moments of great, navigation-based gameplay and a lot of little touches that don't work as well as you'd like. It makes the final product a little frustrating, because you can almost see a better game trying to bust its way out of its constraints. But more often than not, I was really taken by the game's rewarding swinging controls and terrific looks. If you consider yourself something of a swinger, I think you'll probably feel the same way.

IGN: 8.0:

It's been an incredibly long time since Nathan Spencer swung onto a console, and for the most part, his return is a solid one. Bionic Commando provides an updated adventure for the classic hero, sending him as a one man army against daunting odds to save the world once again. If you can look past the replayability issues that crop up due to the linear play, you'll find an enjoyable adventure that easily re-establishes the franchise for Capcom. You've been out of duty for way too long, Spencer – Hopefully you'll come back sooner than later.

IGN UK: 7.0



Complaints have been levied against the hard-to-grasp control scheme and the linear nature of the levels. Performance between the PS3 and X360 versions has not been determined yet. But, this is on GRIN's DIESEL engine and previous DIESEL games including Bionic Commando Rearmed and Wanted: Weapons of Fate have performed slightly better on the PS3.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

day 95 maybe

 

[Grecco]

Wow i reaaaaaaaaaaly wish we had a Game Crazy in Puerto Rico. That Preorder bonus is win.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Pending stronger reviews and more interesting game play vids, this may be a budget title for me. For me, this one kinda went to the wayside with the hype unfortunately.

 

[alr1ght]

As unpolished as "Wanted" was, it was super fun. I enjoyed BCR and will most likely pick this up.

 

[Shurs]

Good job with the thread, man. Thanks for not putting up a picture showing the controls. I can't stand it when people do that.

I think this is going to be a late summer, and price dropped, pick up for me. Maybe a PSN demo would change my mind.

 

[Rlan]

Australian Pre-Order at EB Games

 

[JdFoX187]

Thanks Rlan, I'll add that.

 

[sykoex]

Nice thread JdFoX187!

 

[wolfmat]

Sort of want


Nice thread.

 

[CrushDance]

Will pass for now, game and thread look great though!

 

[Captain N]

I would have been happy with another ReArmed BC game. I was really hyped up for this game when RA came out. Too much of a gap to keep me excited.

 

[Sinatar]

Is this the first time a developer has had to compete with itself on release week? GRIN has BC and Terminator, both 3rd person shooters coming out this week. :lol

 

[Guled]

I have the psn version of BC:R, do I have to beat it to get the skin?

 

[Rad Agast]

I have a copy in my shopping cart but won't be buying any new games till July so this one will have to wait a bit.

 

[fernoca]

I have the psn version of BC:R, do I have to beat it to get the skin?

I have the Xbox Live version; haven't finished the game..yet it seems to show some unlock code in the options..unless I'm missing something.

 

[JdFoX187]

I've heard people say they have to beat the game to get the code. I might be mistaken.

 

[Rlan]

Is this the first time a developer has had to compete with itself on release week? GRIN has BC and Terminator, both 3rd person shooters coming out this week. :lol

Oh man, the QA team must have had a god awful shit of a time with that one. There are only so many resources you can use.

 

[Tomcat]

From the first 2 hours i played the game the GI review is spot on. Mediocre game that gets frustrating a lot of times because of the controls and its mechanics (Water/radiation etc)

 

[Guled]

I have the Xbox Live version; haven't finished the game..yet it seems to show some unlock code in the options..unless I'm missing something.

is it one of those universal codes? Or is it specific to each copy?

 

[Apharmd Battler]

I'm still on the fence but leaning towards purchase. Can't wait to hear impressions...

 

[Keyser Soze]

I have almost finished my review...

Overall it is good, but is very limiting early on and only opens up in the last hour. There is a worm boss mid-game that is awesome, and probably my fave boss in a game in ages. 5ish hours length is a bit short. Commando difficulty level is not for mere mortals.

Ending contents:

Spoiler

No real boss at the end

 

[fernoca]

Just checked..
-Start
-Database
-BC Retro Outfit
-Unlock Code: [and it shows the code..starts with Up ends with Start]

Don't know if it's universal though...

 

[alr1ght]

is it one of those universal codes? Or is it specific to each copy?

I have the PSN version and it says the unlock code is embedded in the save file. (I did beat it).

 

[eshwaaz]

As a huge fan of the original NES game, I really wanted this game to be good but those review scores are very discouraging. I know that tastes differ, but that 6.25 and 5.0 from Game Informer are troubling regardless, especially when the very best rating so far is only a 7.

I will likely still buy the game on release and decide for myself, but this is not how I was hoping the game would come out of the gate. I can't imagine how painful these scores must be for Ben Judd - considering how hard he fought to make this game, his job may be riding on its success.

 

[brain_stew]

As a huge fan of the original NES game, I really wanted this game to be good but those review scores are very discouraging. I know that tastes differ, but that 6.25 and 5.0 from Game Informer are troubling regardless, especially when the very best rating so far is only a 7.

I will likely still buy the game on release and decide for myself, but this is not how I was hoping the game would come out of the gate. I can't imagine how painful these scores must be for Ben Judd - considering how hard he fought to make this game, his job may be riding on its success.

A Eurogamer 7 and an Edge 6 are not bad scores in any sense of the word. If its a genre and setting you're interested in then those scores are pretty much guarantees that it'll be an enjoyable experience.

 

[Teknoman]

Day one. Some of the comments in the reviews just seem off base. Controls arent hard to grasp, shooting works fine (though could use a little more feed back), and the graphics look nice.

Its meant to be like Lost Planet: A old school action game in 3d form. Not an open world exploration game...just because the levels might be a little widespread.

And multiplayer capture team matches will be as awesome as Lost Planet post grab battles.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

Might pick this up later on when it is cheaper, like I did with Lost Planet. It's getting harder and harder to justify Day 1's and the lack of a demo (PS3 here) really didn't help.

 

[Teknoman]

Whats giving people trouble control wise? Cant imagine the grappling. Maybe the aiming? Try messing with sensitivity levels.

Will be playing with classic Rad though.

 

[Llyranor]

The controls in the demo were pretty fun, so I'm keeping an eye on this. I'm hoping a singleplayer demo (with the harder diffs available) will come out.

Lost Planet is probably my favorite current-gen singleplayer console game, and it got pretty mixed reviews, so I'm staying quite positive.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Calling it right now. This is going to be another one of those GG and GV cases. People are gonna be picking this up later down the road and time will be kinder to it. Right now? People are gonna be hating on it. Me I'm all set for this week!

Best trailer ever: http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/...deos/bioniccommando_trl_leapaction_51309.html


Also wtf at people complaining about linearity. Me thinks people didn't actually want a new bionic commando game...

 

[Phthisis]

Interesting to see the scores for this.

 

[I AM JOHN!]

To hell with the hate. Day 1!

 

[Guled]

Just checked..
-Start
-Database
-BC Retro Outfit
-Unlock Code: [and it shows the code..starts with Up ends with Start]

Don't know if it's universal though...

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start?

Day one. Some of the comments in the reviews just seem off base. Controls arent hard to grasp, shooting works fine (though could use a little more feed back), and the graphics look nice.

Its meant to be like Lost Planet: A old school action game in 3d form. Not an open world exploration game...just because the levels might be a little widespread.

And multiplayer capture team matches will be as awesome as Lost Planet post grab battles.

it doesn't have Gears of Halo in the title, so it being reviewed with the full scale in mine, unlike the 8-10 scale. Game reviews are a joke, good thing there was a demo or I might have been swayed by them

 

[Teknoman]

Calling it right now. This is going to be another one of those GG and GV cases. People are gonna be picking this up later down the road and time will be kinder to it. Right now? People are gonna be hating on it. Me I'm all set for this week!

Best trailer ever: http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/...deos/bioniccommando_trl_leapaction_51309.html


Also wtf at people complaining about linearity. Me thinks people didn't actually want a new bionic commando game...

People saw the high verticality(?) of the levels and how widespread they were...and assumed they were getting an open world game.

 

[I AM JOHN!]

it doesn't have Gears of Halo in the title, so it being reviewed with the full scale in mine, unlike the 8-10 scale. Game reviews are a joke, good thing there was a demo or I might have been swayed by them

It couldn't just be that those games were good, right? Or that people have different opinions about things? Like for example: I think Lost Planet was rated too high by practically everyone. That game sucks.

Reviews are not meant to validate your opinion nor should they be taken as the end-all and be-all. You'd think the fact that we've lived in a world where this has summed up movie criticism to a T for decades would have prepared us for this but somehow Gaming Age is incapable of wrapping their heads around this.

But I digress. How about them Bionic Commandos? Mike Patton is in this, which officially makes it fuckawesome amirite?

 

[fernoca]

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start?

Nope..those are in the code, but the actual code is longer..

 

[Teknoman]

To those who have the game now, is it 60 fps, or were scenes just sped up abit in the trailer?

Also if no one makes any decent gameplay videos by tomorrow evening, i'll see what I can do.

 

[Guled]

It couldn't just be that those games were good, right? Or that people have different opinions about things? Like for example: I think Lost Planet was rated too high by practically everyone. That game sucks.

Reviews are not meant to validate your opinion nor should they be taken as the end-all and be-all. You'd think the fact that we've lived in a world where this has summed up movie criticism to a T for decades would have prepared us for this but somehow Gaming Age is incapable of wrapping their heads around this.

But I digress. How about them Bionic Commandos? Mike Patton is in this, which officially makes it fuckawesome amirite?

come on, you must see the difference in reviews between hyped games and games that are not hyped. Its not a matter of opinion, its just almost all reviewers let the hype of the game get to them when they are reviewing it. I like Gears and Halo, but the scores for those games were influenced by the hype (and 600$ swag bags ). How can we take game journalism seriously when things like the 1up Gears review take place.

 

[JdFoX187]

Teknoman, you buying this for the 360 or PS3?

As far as the open-endedness goes of this, no one ever claimed it was going to be an open world game. Judging by the gameplay videos, you have multiple ways to go about accomplishing your goal, but I would think that it's still linear. It appears to be likened to something like Halo, where it's linear, but you still have two or three ways to do things.

 

[I AM JOHN!]

come on, you must see the difference in reviews between hyped games and games that are not hyped. Its not a matter of opinion, its just almost all reviewers let the hype of the game get to them when they are reviewing it. I like Gears and Halo, but the scores for those games were influenced by the hype (and 600$ swag bags ). How can we take game journalism seriously when things like the 1up Gears review take place.

Because:

Reviews are not meant to validate your opinion nor should they be taken as the end-all and be-all. You'd think the fact that we've lived in a world where this has summed up movie criticism to a T for decades would have prepared us for this but somehow Gaming Age is incapable of wrapping their heads around this.

The only difference between game criticism and things like book and film criticism is that game criticism is still relatively stuck in "break things down into the graphics/sound/story/gameplay" discussion mold. If you don't think the problems you listed are problems that exist in any other enthusiast entertainment press, I'd suggest that you don't know anything.

But again, we're losing the plot. Bionic Commando looks rad and I think that GRIN is a relatively underrated developer. They kind of remind me of Level 5, actually - they have a lot of talent, but they really need someone to push them to live up to standards or they lose the plot a bit (like with Wanted and how it had absolutely no production values whatsoever despite being an awesome game).

 

[Zen]

"What the-?!? No...!"

My response to seeing the reviews, WTF?!?!

 

[EazyB]

This may be the first Capcom game I don't buy this generation because the reviews have been pretty mediocre. Still hoping user impressions are great because I was really interested in the game.

I'll defiantly rent it at the least.

 

[Teknoman]

Teknoman, you buying this for the 360 or PS3?

As far as the open-endedness goes of this, no one ever claimed it was going to be an open world game. Judging by the gameplay videos, you have multiple ways to go about accomplishing your goal, but I would think that it's still linear. It appears to be likened to something like Halo, where it's linear, but you still have two or three ways to do things.

360. Bought Rearmed for XBLA, so have to pair em up.

 

[JdFoX187]

360. Bought Rearmed for XBLA, so have to pair em up.

Cool, we'll have to have a GAF meet-up online some time. I hope we can get some GAF matches going in the coming weeks.

 

[alr1ght]

Up, Left, Right, X, B, A, Y, Up, X, B, A, Y, Start

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

Somewhat off topic, but I could have sworn the NES version was on the Wii's virtual console. I went looking for it today and it didn't seem to be there. Is the only way to play it that Capcom Collection game?

 

[I AM JOHN!]

Yeah. Only way to play 4rlzies Bionic Commando is in Capcom Classics Remix for GBA. But why would you want to when Rearmed is so much better?

Hey OP, could you start a list of what system people are going to be playing the game on so we can try setting up some multiplayer sessions? I'll be on 360.

 

[diss]

what hype has there been for this game? people have been crying for a new bionic commando for ages, they made rearmed which was awesome and an absolute steal at 800 points, and then the enthusiasm dropped off completely for the big 3d project

the reviews are worrying too

IMO the bionic commando podcast is the best podcast made by people who make video games and it would break my heart to have these guys tossed out into the street because their one big game was released to mediocre review scores and lukewarm public reception

 

[Tokubetsu]

Cool, we'll have to have a GAF meet-up online some time. I hope we can get some GAF matches going in the coming weeks.

I'll be down. You've been on my friends list forever and the only thing we've ever played together is Turok...and evne then failed miserably at trying to do the coop missions :lol