Bionic Commando is out today...share your thoughts!

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

By the time I got through Commando mode, I really felt like I could have taken any enemy, even if it was a real player. I'm sure there would have been some great players, but still, I would have liked to have tried. Unfortunately, every time I logged on, no one was available to play in the whole world. Maybe they banned all the assholes?

-Rob

I dont know how it is on the home system releases, but on the pc release, online once your logged in and join a room or whatever waiting for players, you really have to sit there sometimes and wait. It could take up to 5 mins sometimes for players to get paired with you. It never had anything to do with the number of actual players being low either, it was a server issue. This was confirmed on the official forum, along with all the other server issues. There would always be plenty of players, the system was just managing their placement poorly.

It seemed most were avoiding the team deathmatch stuff and just going for the normal deathmatch mode so they could jump up in the leader boards. Also, when you do get players paired with you to have a match, the players can keep swapping maps until they see one they like, which delays the process of starting a match. This would be the only time you would see the Russians speak English typically, because they would usually say "STOP" once they hit a map one of them liked.

Also, another annoying thing would be a match would be loaded and get ready to start up, then time out at the countdown and boot everyone out back to the half assed lobby thing, so you'd have to sit and wait again to get paired for a match. Once I had this happen seemed like 11 times in a row. Honestly, online mode was just a giant clusterfuck, but like I said, before all the Russians, cheating, and lag issues started up, the actual matches were great.

[rbudrick]

Man, that's really too bad. I have a feeling the online mode could have been so much fun, but I just don't have the patience for that.

-Rob

[Kitsune Sniper]

Kit, I bought my PS3 copy of BC for $10 shipped and new from Best Buy about 3 months ago. Maybe they still have some deals on it?

-Rob

... Wow, they have the PS3 and 360 versions for ten bucks online. But no PC version in sight. (I don't own a PS3 or 360.)

I'll call my semi-local Best Buy later though, maybe they have copies of the PC version in store or something. Thanks for the tip!

[Dire 51]

Having only recently bought a 360, I'm really late to the party here. But based on what I'd heard about BC, I traded my pack-in with a friend for a copy (along with Beautiful Katamari), and I'm enjoying it immensely so far. I'm disappointed it got panned too... here's hoping maybe someday Capcom will take another chance on the series and give us a sequel.

[rbudrick]

Something tells me those who bitched never played it. Perhaps they should have released Rearmed AFTER BC. I think that would have helped it. But still, anyone that's played it knows the real truth.

-Rob

[Kitsune Sniper]

Having only recently bought a 360, I'm really late to the party here. But based on what I'd heard about BC, I traded my pack-in with a friend for a copy (along with Beautiful Katamari), and I'm enjoying it immensely so far. I'm disappointed it got panned too... here's hoping maybe someday Capcom will take another chance on the series and give us a sequel.

They won't...

http://kotaku.com/5540859/bionic-com...aws-for-capcom

[kupomogli]

Kitsune. Don't you have a US address? Amazon has Bionic Commando for $15 PS360 and PC.

[skaar]

They won't...

http://kotaku.com/5540859/bionic-com...aws-for-capcom

Sad. The fact they are passing blame for the failures on utter bullshit excuses even sadder.

For the record, I enjoyed and finished BC. And I liked it.

[Dire 51]

They won't...

http://kotaku.com/5540859/bionic-com...aws-for-capcom

I've seen that, and it's pretty damn sad. I agree with skaar 100%.

[kupomogli]

Predicted to sell in the millions, neither did better than 750,000 copies. Now, Capcom wants out.

Capcom realized that original titles like Dark Void were too risky to keep investing in. From now on, the only reason the company will employ developers from outside of Japan is to build sequels or new versions of their existing games.

Does this mean we have a chance to see a Breath of Fire 6? It's an old IP.

Also. Because Capcom didn't reach sales in the millions they're more than likely going to avoid new IPs? Dark Void itself just looked stupid. With all the third person shooters and first person shooters, especially those set in sort of futuristic envorinments, Capcom should only have themselves to blame for even to allow this project to be started. I'm sure an idea is thrown towards them and they choose if they'd like to fund it or not. I guarantee that Capcom thought that since it's a third person shooter in a futuristic environment(Gears of War) people would have thrown $60 on it for that reason alone.

[Amnion-Chorion]

This was easily one of my favorite games of the year.

I'm saddened that it took such a critical beating in the press, and amongst gamers that seemed to have unrealistic expectations of what THEY THOUGHT the game SHOULD HAVE BEEN instead of appreciating the fact that the lineage of the Bionic Commando series has always contained the gameplay elements and limitations (heavy emphasis on swinging, linear non-sandbox gameplay with areas that cause rapid or instant kills, no ability to swim, etc.) that were at the center of most negative reviews.

It would be like faulting the latest Legend of Zelda game for not having a Gears of War type cover system.

This, exactly. I feel like most people were expecting an entirely different game. As an expansion of the NES concept in 3D, it works really well. It had some flaws (those sniper sections got fairly obnoxious at times) and the story was really stupid, but it was a lot of fun, and I honestly can't help but wonder where they would've gone with it.

Either way, I'm glad the game's failure didn't cause Capcom to completely give up on BC, and that we can all look forward to Rearmed 2.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I think this one is ultimately destined for cult status ... which is kind of ironic considering that's what most of the other Bionic Commando games have.

There were a lot of people who just didn't "get it", but those that did have the combination of massive enjoyment coupled with a resentment of what the gaming press did (in part) for shaping the public perception of the game, and I think that's a recepie for a future unsung cult title for PS3 & 360.

I hope Capcom is willing to give the IP another shot in the future, maybe on a portable or something (that would be par for the course historically).

[Sothy]

Cant Wait For The Movie

[Vlcice]

I'm a little surprised seeing the sales, and that it didn't flop quite as badly as I expected. A local liquidation store has a million copies on 360 at 2 for $10, so I figured it must have done some Uncle Henry's Playhouse level of sales.

[Battlesmurf]

It really makes me happy to read some opinions that don't utterly trash the game. I enjoyed the heck out of 90% of it (10% lost due to some insta "you went too high radiation, frustration, and the abrupt ending that is SCREAMING for a sequel).

I really wish more people would give it a chance. I can probably point a few fingers at some of the gaming press at large- I'm willing to bet a solid few of them phoned it in. That being said- there's always a legion of gamers out there that pay attention solely to reviews and can't really read between the lines. (not saying to ignore reviews- but sometimes good games get burned only to come out several years later and nobody can really figure out why they got trashed so badly :P)

Edit- let it be known that I was really fond of most of the other Bionic Commandos as well, so I do have some fanboyism flowing here unfortunately. I know I also can't be the only one that did the following, either. I took my original NES Bionic Commando and had it reflashed to Bionic Commando 99' (the unedited one with the Nazi Symbols and such). Then the Wonderful BC ReArmed came out and kinda made that pointless haha.

[rbudrick]

There were a few points where the story was kinda dumb (why does he survive falling out of a plane at one point, but a dude punching him two or three times kills him?), and the ending was quite a cliffhanger, sure, but it's friggin Bionic Commando...a game originally about reviving Hitler...the original was pretty off the wall too (though edgy for its era)! I can only hope BCR2 picks up where BC left off, and not pull a Highlander 2 on it like it never happened.

Screw the press. This game is beautiful and fun as hell, period.

-Rob

[b0ub0u]

Just came back from a brief trip south of the border and snatched a new copy of that game on PS3 for 9.99$

Reading the thread, it seems I may have my money worth of fun! Looks like a solid game, even though the reviews were not that great.